Transcripts For CSPAN2 U.S. 20240704

For every house and Senate Member of the 118th congress. Important information on congressional committees, the fl agencies and state governors. The congressional directory costs 32. 95 plus shipping and handling and of your purchase helps support our nonprofit operation. Scan the code to go to cspanshop. Org to preorder your copy today for delivery this spring. Live now to the u. S. Senate where today senators are considering the nomination of a u. S. District court judge for the western part of virginia. It confirms she would be the first Asian American judge to serve a lim any Federal District court in the state. About to advance her nomination is that for 5 30 p. M. Eastern today. Live live coverage of the u. S. Cspan2. E presiding he senate will come to order. The chaplain will lead the senate in prayer. The chaplain let us pray. God of love, whosey those with hearts and who makes cheerfulness a companion of strength, lift our hearts to a joyous confidence in you care. Lord, give us opportunities to tell of all the marvelous things you our nations history, as we seek to glorify your name. Lord, guide and protect our lawmakers. Teach them to find andru you, as they grow in grace and in a knowledge of your providentialng. Remind them that when they feel overwhelmed, you stand behind the unknown to deliver them from doubt. May they claim your promise to provide■q tith mercy and grace, to help them in their time of need. Sovereign name. Amen. The presiding officer please join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance to our flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of america, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, and justice for all. The presiding officer the clerk will read a communication to the senate. The clerk washington, d. C, march 11, 2024. To the senate under the provisions of rule 1, paragraph 3, of the standing rules of the senate, i hereby duckworth, a senator from the state of illinois, to perform the duties of the chair. Signed patty murray, president pro tempore. The presiding officer under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved. Morning business is closed. ■ senate will proceed to executive session to resume consideration of the following nomination, which the clerk will report. The clerk nomination, the judiciary. Jas jasmine yoon of virginia to be United States district judge for the Western District of to the military as he looks to rebuild. In many ways this is the prompted by the fact that russia has paid an enormous ukraine, ny suffering more losses than anytime since 20 world war st has also precipitated finland and swedens membership in nato which putin believes russias gd forces. Putin continues to judge that time is on his side and almost certainly assume ises that a larger, better equipped military will also serve the purpose of driving that point home to western audiences. Such messaging is important because putins strategic goalsh remain■ unchanged. He continues to see nato enlargement as reinforcing his longheld belief that the United States and europe seek to restrict russian power and undermine him. And, of course, in the meantime, russia continues to modernize and fortify its Nuclear Weapons Capabilities Even though it maintains the largest and most diverse Nuclear Weapons stockpile. We remain concerned that a riskg global norms against the use of asimilar metric or strategically destabilizing weapons including yber domains. Another critical intersection we are monoor to having is the are monitoring is the relationship between the f russia, china, north korea and iran which is evolving as these four countries expand collaboration through a web of bilateral and in some cases trilateral arrangements. This growing cooperation and willingness to exchange aid and military, economic, political and Intelligence Matters enhances their individual capabilities, enables them to cooperate on competitive actions, assists them to further undermine the rulesbased order and gives them each some insulation from external international pressure. Nevertheless, we these relationships will remain far short of formal alliances or multilateral axis. Avoid entanglements and wariness of harm and instability if from each other s actions will likely insure it advances incrementally absent direct conflict between one of these countries in the United States. And nevertheless, the Power Dynamics are shifting among them, and this is cin challenges. In particular, russias need for support in the context of ukraine has forced it to grant some longsought concessions toh the potential to underline longheld nonproliferation norms. And as i noted in the intensifying transnational challenges are intersecting with these more traditional threats. For example, with the advent of general rahtive a. I. , state and and nonateonducting foreign malign influence observations no longer need to create content, the threat of actor it ising ploiting these technologies to undercut u. S. Interests and democracy is particularly potent as voters go to the poll in more than 60 elections around the globe this year, as the chairman noted. We have also seen a massive increase in the number of Ransomware Attacks globally whic can went up roughly 74 in 2023 from what it was in 2022. And u. S. Entities were the most haley targeted. Many of these targeted. Many of these contacted mr. Mcconnell are we in a quorum call . Presiding officer no, we are not. Mr. Mcconnell the senate finished its work on annual ppropriations for six m areas of government august and ruler development, commerce, justice, and science, energy and water■v delopment, interior and environment, military construction, veterans affairs, andg and urban develop. The senates vote was a major milestone in a the appropriatios committee began the better part of a year ago. Collins and senator murrays commitment to operating in good faith and adhering as much as possible to portion of the federal governments discretionary budget is complete. As week, the agreement before the senate includes a number of conservative accomplishments that advice chair collins fought for up front. Im especially pleased that it will advance priorities near and dear to the hearts of my fellow kentuckians, from rural transportation to military readiness to stopping the flow of illegalrugs. Im proud to represent three military installlations in kentucky that are vital to Americas National defense strategy, and the bill the Senate Passed last week will fund critical Construction Projects at each of them. It greenlights the construction of topoftheline training and operational capabilities at fort knox and fort campbell, both home to a number of our nations most storied army units. It resurrects resources m a National Guard Training Range in greenbelt that h has fallen the wait wayside by the wayside. Hundreds of millions of dlashz kentuckians and the rest of Middle America. Urgent funding to overhaul aging roads, bridges, and river ports that hold back main street, investments for clean, reliable water continue environmental cleanup efforts in paducah, and resources to expand Broadband Access of the commonwealth. It also empowers Law Enforcement with new resources to combat the opioidsi devastated my home state and remains a top killer of young kentuckis. So finished the job on a major portion of our government funding responsibilities, and i was especially proud to deliver on some of my fellow kentuckys top priorities. On another matter, last week i was proud to the welcome the Prime Minister of sweden to the capital on an historic day in his nations history and a great day for america and■e fellow members of the transAtlantic Alliance. Earlier today the flag of sweden was rse headquarters for the first time. Sweden is our newest nato ally, and the Prime Ministers visit began more than two years ago. As forces amass on ukraines border in the winter of 2022, putins aggressive ambitions clarified the thinking of some strongest security partners. From outside nato, sweden and finlanad already built advanced economies, exacerbate militaries, and capable militaries and impressive defense industries. T of an axis of revisionist powers, our nor dick powers decided it was time to cast their lot with the most nce in hiory. Their path to accession is a clarifying reminder that nato has always been a defensive alliance. Its members first undertook the responsibility of collective security to defend against growing soviet aggression. Central and Eastern European members pursued membershiper ir protect their newly reclaimed sovereignty and democracy. Natos expansion has always been outside forces, and today is no different. Ive been proud■8 to have worke with our allies at every stop of the process. Ill never forget standing with them two years ago in stockholm the swedish and finnish parliaments voted overwhelmingly to launch their nato access bids. Russias escalation in ukraine has unified swedish and finnish lea leaders. In both countries, strong support for nato and the willingness to share the burden of collective defense literally transcends party lines. Today americas newest treaty allies are poised to make significant, transAtlantic Alliance, with highly trained forces equipped with cuttingedge capabilities, their contribution to a vote of confidence in the enduring importance of collective defense. With sweden and finland in our ranks, the west is more united against autocrats with imperial designs. Withntline allies, americas interests are more secure. On another matter, this week the senate wil get yet another chance to put the emergency brakes on a particularly harmful piece of Biden Administration federal state, the federal Highway Administration final iced finalized a rule last year that would1o■ force s planning agencies to set declining Greenhouse Gasnd requ them to meet those targets. The idea is to make the entire infrastructure the way the bluest coastal cities, like san francisco, do subway stops, electrical vehicle chargers, and bike lanes in rural places, like north dakota . Its a one size fits all mandate. In other words, it forces Middle America to say goodbye to urgent projects on the sort■y of transportation infrastructure that actually makes sense for them. Whats more, authority to implement this rule. Congress explicitly debated and rejected language toarget durin leadup to the passage of the Infrastructure Investment and jobs act. O5 very grateful to my colleague, senator cramer, for taking the lead on this cra and i urge all of to support him on the floor this week. I suggest the absence of a quorum. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call the clerk ms. Baldwin. ■ . This issue appropriately and responsibly within the intelligence committee. So we had an external panel look at this question how and under what circumstances should we use commerciallyavailable information. And in particular, to reflect on the existing framework for privacy and civil liberties. We published that report and, or in fact, senator wyden asked us too and, as a consequence, put that out. And as an in our exk comm agreed that we thought those recommendat issued i. C. Guidance basically for9 cataloging commerciallyavailable information to insure that our handling of such information is consistent with relevant legal policy, security consideration to facilitate consideration and weve developed a framework thas attorney general guidelines and related policies with general principles and Additional Guidance on how i. C. E collect,s commerciallyavailable information including more precise guidance for identifying and dealing with categories of inform■ion that pose a greater risk of implicating privacy and civil liberties. And finally, as the Panel Recommends also, the framework sets out standards and procedures that govern and require periodic reevaluation and i the challenge that is posed by some of the legislative proposals that ive senior require, for example xa probable cause requirement before you can obtain that information. Similarly, we are not going to have in the she their quo of, for example, getting scenario of getting cyber threat information commercially a probable cause reason for getting that. What were trying to do is unta vulnerabilities are. And then what we recognize is that whatever the commercial information is that were obtain thing, we need to treat it in a way that actuallyig that have bn described. Thank you of. Senator rubio. Director ray, we know over the last three years millions of people crossed the u. S. Border illegally, and many have been released into the country. Have members or people with ties to dangerous gangs■s like, fork example, the prison gang if venezuela, were they among the people that came into this i don speak to the specific gang but, or certainly, we have had dangerous individuals enter the United States we now seeing crimeses from people that entered the country over the last three years, some of them with ties to gangs orri . Well, i guess what i would say is this, from an fbi perspective, we are seeing a wide array of very dangerous threat■. S that emanate from thef border, and that includes everything from the drug trafficking9 and the fbi alone seized enough fentanyl in the last two years to kill 270 million people. Thats just on the fentanyl side. An awful a lot of Violent Crime hands of gangs who areis at themselves involved in the distribution of that fentanyl if. But youre also seeing and arresting and, for example, the assault on if Police Officers in new york. All the reporting said they had ties to this gang in ut objection. The chair lays before the senate a communication from the secretary of the senate regarding a message from the preceived during the adjournment of the senate. The clerk dear madam president , sent by messenger the attached, sealed envelope addressed to the president of the senate, dated march 9, 2024, said to contain a message regarding the designation of funding as an emergency requirement in h. R. Appropriations act, 2024. The senate, not being in session on the day, which the president delivered ts message, i accepted the message at 12 05 p. M. And i now present to you disposition by the senate, h the respectfully, sunciria a. Berry, secretary of the senate. Mr. Schumer thank you, madam president. Now, madam president , today, sed his budget for fiscal year 2025. President bidens budget can be summarized in three words op. President bidens budget highlights the sharp contrast between the democrats the republicans negative, regressive vision for our country. Democrats are focused on growing the economy in a responsible way, while making Smart Investments in the American People and our future. Thats why a centerpiece of President Bidens budget foc cr working americans by ending the reckless trumpera tax scam, which overwhelmingly cut taxes for the wealthiest few and large corporations and added trillions to the national debt. It was recently confirmed that the republicaid not pay for itself, as we heard over and over again from our republican colleagues. Democrats know we can, and stbe. As the president pointed out during his state of the Union Address last week, a fair tax code is how we can better invest in things like■ health care, education, and Economic Opportunity for more americans. President trumps tax scam proved everything but fair. It rewarded the wealthy, the well connected, while leaving working families with the tab. Time has shown this tax scam was a dud for political loser for the republican party, because the American People saw it for what it was. Republicans also talk a big game abou President Bidens budget actually proposes measures to do it. It proposes measures to reduce the deficit by nearly 3 trillion over the next decade. That budget will help improve the solvency of vital programs like medicare and social ses ofs of americans rely on every single day. It will reinstate the Child Tax Credit we passed in the American Rescue plan, which greatly reduced sheffield poverty Child Poverty before expiring. President bidens budget builds made to help grow america from the middle out and the bottom up. From the infrastructure law to e c and science act to the Inflation Reduction Act to the pact act and more. Democrats made a lot of Good Investments that are already am. Inflation is cooling down. Manufacturing is surging. Consumer sentiment i growing. The cost of insulin and other drugs is falling. Weve created a record 15 million new jobs since President Biden took office. President bidens budget will help ensure we continue to make good on the investments from our agenda and build an economy that work for heres the bottom line President Bidens budget shows there are two clear choices for americas future and highlights democrats vision for a better america. Democrats want to keep taxes low for middleclass families amendment make the ultwe pay their fair share. While republicans fight to make it easier for tax creates to pay less than middleclass families. Democrats will protect and Social Security while republicans look to cut these hardearned benefits. Democrats want to make investments so every American Family can do who have already done very welltodo even better. So, i thank President Biden for releasing a bold,optimistic, responsible budget for the nation. Now, on the health care cyberattack, after last months cyberattack on tens of thousands of hospitals, pharmacies, and doctors offices in new york and across america, im proud that last week hhs and cms heeded my call to provide Health Care Providers immediate relef to relief to get their systems back up to speed. This week, cms expanded the response to include m■÷edare pr. This new action will directly help doctors on the front line of this crisis continue to stay open and patients. Because of the cyberattack, people werent getting the dollars to do their jobs. I commend for continuing to heed my call for an all hands on deck approach to this crisis. For over three weeks now, providers, including hospitals, dopharmacies, big and small, have all been unable to submit medical claims as a result of this cyberattack, leaving many facing imminent insolvency. I met with rome health, in rome, new york, Cayuga Health in ithaca who told me theyvk■ losing hundreds of thousands of dollars a day with stacks of claims theyre unable to file. The American People feel the pain of this cyberattack too. Many are struggling to refill prescriptions. Some have their care delayed or denied. Others are unable to use patience assistants programsa assistance programs. Had cms not stepped up to the plate, hospitals and pharmacies, especially smaller ones, had the risk of laying people off or shutting down entirely because they were not being new actiond response and include Medicare Part b in relief efforts is encouraging, but this is far from er the administration, my colleagues in congress, cms, i talked to the administrator just a few hours ago and others in the health care strayer to get industry to get providers the relief they need and protect the Health Care System from future attacks. On the American Rescue plan anniversary, madam president , today is the threeyear anniversary of President Biden signing the American Rescue plan into law, whi proud to lead in the senate. After Congress Passed the arp plan, i said help is on the way. That was the plan, to put shots in arms, to put money in peoples pockets and propel our country out of the covid crisis. Three years later say the American Rescue plan on a path to the historic recovery were witnessing today. Before millions were at risk of losing their jobs. Three years later weve seen the strongest three year job growth in ameriz■canl5 history. 15 million new jobs since President Biden took office. Before the American Rescue plan, the u. S. Was losing manufacturing jobs by theday. Three years later manufacturing investment, something that plagued america even before the pandemic, is near an altime high, more than double its highest point during the previous administration. Critics argue that the American Rescue plan would cause excessive inflation. Well, three years later inflation has cooled down to the lowest level since the start of the pandemic, from 9 to just below 3 , meaning the prices of things bliek groceries, appliances and a have all come down. In the American Rescue plan, we secured significant pension reform through thes passage of the Butch Lewis Act which helped millions of American Workers receive the Financial Security they earn through their labors. Hartman from buffalo, new york, as my guest to President Bidens state of the union last week. She called this critical plan the best thing thats happenedi people. We also included a dramatic expansion of the Child Tax Credit which helped millions cost of child care and other needs. We provided millions in rental relief to help people keep a roof overheads. Billions in Fiscal Relief for states, cities and localities to help them stay afloat. Billions for education and Broadband Access to and much more. The bottom line is this, three years after President Biden signed the American Rescue plan, its proving to be an historic win for american families, workers, and the economy. And its thanks to the American Rescue plan and other landmark legislation we passed like the infrastructure law, chips and science and the Inflation Reduction Act, that today the u. S. Economy is the envy of the world. Of course our work is far from over, but we can look back and be very proud of what we accomplished in the arp. I note the absence of a quorum. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call the clerk ms. Baldwin. ■r■d 2n thank you, senator. So inhreat from isis, which youre absolutely right remains a significant counterterrorism concern for us, most of the attacks that youre talking about globally taken on by isis hav occurred by parts of isis that are outside of afghanistan. In afghanistan there stillsis i. It is one where, ironically, the the taliban has actually also concerned about it because the n afghanistan is, in fact, going after the taliban. And so this is a pce where, actually, the taliban has taken action against that group in ways that are consistent with our also concerns and interests. So that is one piece. In terms of the terrori■st grous that are backed by iran, absolutely. That is a major issue for us. And there are a number of them, obviously. We often a talk about iranianaligned militia groups that have been attacking u. S. Forces and assets in iraq and syria in particular but the regn attempting to, and there have been just dozens and dozens of attacks that weve been looking to manage and that it continues to be fueled by iran. They provide weapons, they provide trainaving, they provide is money to those the groups, and we still obviously see them as a destabilizing force in the regi. We also see irans support of hezbollah, as you noted, and of hamas over the years. And so considerably not to■ men the houthis, another example of this, but certainly the thats been a large issue, and my colleagues may wish the add to this. Thank you. Director wray, we have we foe that china is the primary provider of the preed if successor chemicals and the pill presses for fentanyl, and youve pointed out inr testimony the extraordinary scope of the amount of fentanyl that has been produced. And, indeed, 80 of the overdoses in maine last year involved fentanyl. But what were also seeing a net was reported by some enterprising journalists, and that isionals are establishing illegal marijuana growing operations all over the state. One public report estimates there are more than 200 of them primarily in rural theyre unregulated, theyre illicit, theyre destroying homes because theyre growing the marijuana■q■ marijuana is very potent. What is the fbi doing to suppo local county and state officials, and why do you think the chinese have, have sent their citizens to Rural America to establish these illegal growing operations . Well, certainly, were observing the same phenomenon that youre describing. I know weve had a number of cases that have resulted in indictments of chinese nationals involved with illegal marijuana grow operations here and otherwise involved in different kinds of organized criminal activity. We are tackling that through working with our state and local Law Enforcement partners through a variety of task forces, were trying to share intelligenc to help get ahead of the threat. Im not sure that i could give you a reason as to why its happening, but that is somethin. You mentioned the precursors to fentanyl, the pill are presses. This issue pill presses. This issue, i would just addetan awful lot of the meth precursors to the labs in mexico also come from china. Meth. s fental, and so there is, certainly, a big degree to which problems that we are experiencing herefji an acute way source back to them. Senator heinrich. Tnk you, thank you, mr. Chairman. According to the annual threat assessment, russian president putin probably believes, quote, at his a winning the war in ukraine is paying off and the western and u. S. Support to for any of you, what lessons is putin taking from the u. S. Failure to further support ukraine in itsight for national survival, and what lessons might china as xi Jinping Chinas xi jinping learn from this glad to address your question. I just returned from my tenth visit to ukraine during the course of the war, and, y that were at an important crossroads for ukraine, for European Security and for longterm american interests aroundhe world. I think down one road with supplemental assistance approved by the Congress Lies the possiba strategic success for ukraine with and a strategic loss for Vladimir Putins russia. Its our assessment with supplemental assistance ukraine can hold its own on the front lines through 2024 and into early 2025. Finish that ukraine could continue to exact costs against russia not only with the penetration strikes crimea, but also against russias black sea fleet, continuing the success can has resulted in 15 russian ships sunk over the course o last 6 months. In other words, with supplemental assistance, ukraine can put itself in a a position by the end of 2024, the beginning of 2025 where it could regain to offensive initiative and also put itself in a position the negotiate position to negotiate from a position of greater strength and achieve an outcome in which putins e goal which was to subjugate ukraine and toes w, where ukraine could sustain itself as a strong is, sovereign, independent country, anchor itself in western■ havee and the security to recover. From this terrible aggression. And leave russia to■ deal with the longterm consequences of putins brutal and foolish invasion. Down another road, however, without sup almosl assistance supplemental assistance, it seems to me, lies a much grimmer future. Ukraine is likely to lose ground, probably significant ground, in 2024. I saw, you know, in the Battle Forces just a couple of daysd a before i was in kyiv on this last visit the consequences of that. Wknow, one senior Ukrainian Partner described what happened to me. He said, you know, our men if fought as long ands hard as they could. We ran out of ammunition, and the russians just kept coming. And i think without supplemental assistance in 2024 youre going to see more seems to meing would be a massive and historic mistake for the United States. What lesson do you think the cct . I think the consequence of that will not just be for ukraine or European Security [inaudible] dont support these [inaudible] stop the starvation of children [inaudible] i think we can connue. Sure. No, i think the consequences of that are going to be felt not only by ukrainians and European Security, but across the indopic away from support to ukraine, not only is that a going to feed doubts amongst our allies and partners in the indopacific, its going to stoke the ambitions of the chinese leadership. Contingencies ranging from taiwan to the South China Sea. So thats what i saw on this last visit. Whats thats what i think is at stake for all of us. I think the truth that the ukrainians are nh runng and tee running out of ammunition, and and were running out of time to help them. Director, lets jump to the elephant in the room then. I want to thank you for your efforts to secure hostage releases and a ceasefire in the middle east. Ramadan has now begun. Give us, to the best of your ability, a little bitgs stand we negotiations and what flashpoints you might be concerned could push us into a course of the next month. Sure. For the last few months, since the ■wlast hostage return and ad ceasefire in the latter part of november, the president s been working very hard to try the renew that process. And ive t to meet with my israeli, egyptian and georgia tarry partners qatari partners and returned most recently saturday night from the last such trip. Whats on the table right now is a potential agreement that has three main if elements. The first would be the return of about 40 host hostages. These are the remaining women hostages, older men and hostages who are wounded ill. As the first step, as the first phase toward the return of all of the hostages which i know the president has deeply committed. And that would be in return for a defined number of palestinian prisoners held by the israelis. The second element is a ceasefire of at least six weeks. Again, as the first step toward what might be more enduring arrangements over time. And then the third element would be a major surge in humanitaria, could actually be distributeded effectively to people who so eply need them. So were going to continue to work hard at this. I dont think anybody can guarantee success. What i think you can guarantee is that the alternativesre worse for innocent civilians in gaza who are suffering under desperate conditions, for the hostages and their families sufr very desperate conditions and for all of us. So were going to keep at this. Enter senator risch senator risch are. Mr. Chairman p i have a number of questions, but weve got a lot of ground, and mine really need to be in closed session. So im going to ref serve until we get to res get to closed session. Senator heinrich was going to address the real elephant in the room. Some of our audience members a conduct so, director burns, i want to give you a chance to respond to whats been said. Is israel exterminating the8pa . Senator, all i can say is, you know, what i said before. I think there are a lot of innocent civilians in gaza who are inow. I think there are hostages and their families who are also in desperate circumstances as well, and i think ive learneded a long time ago in crises like in that you have to find a practical goal and pursue it relentlessly. And the goal theresident has israeli, dhaka tarry and egyptian partners, is the most practical one i can see right now, to producef at least the six weeks, produce the return of the hostage as, ultimately all of the hostages, and get desperatelyneeded human tear relief to people who need it in gaza. So is that a, no, you do not believe israel is exterminating the palestinian pple . No, i think, i think israell s need, and the president has emphasized the brutish attack the israelis suffered on the 7th of october against hamas, against a terrorist group. But i think we all also have to be mindful of, you know, the enormous toll that this has taken on innocent civilians in gaza. And as the president has a said, its very important for israel to be extremely mindful of that and to avoid, you know, further loss of civilian life. Believe israels exterminating the Palestinian People . I really dont have is anything to add to what director burns has said is. Oer what hes okay. Israel, and you also stand accused of starving the palestinian children. Is israel starvinghi palestine . Or gaza . I think the sad reality is that there are children who are but is israel doing that . Theyre9. Theyre malnourished as a result of the fact the humanitarian assistance cant get to them. Its very difficult to distribute hue i effectively unf you have a ceasefire, which is exactly why, you know, i think theres great value in whats on the table now, a return of hostages and a significant ceasefire enabling people to get that humanitarian assisfor the e that israel nor any of you in the United States government is exterminating the palestinian in palestinian children. Director haines, there have been several news reports, you might say leaks, to the effect that iran does not have full control of its proxy groups. Thats a headline from politico last month, a quote. While iran is supporting theciad with military equipment, intelligence officials do not believe it is commanding the attacks. Its lack of control over the houthis and the militias in irae deliberations in washington about how to respond to repeat attacks on u. S. Interests in the region including the attack in jordan on january 28th that killed three american troops. But on page 18 of assessment, the Intelligence Community writes tehran was able to flex the networks military capabilities in the aftermath of hamas attack on october 7th, orchestrating antiisrael and antiu. S. Attacks from lebanon to the strait while shielding iranian leaders from significant consequences. Orchestrating is stronger than anything ive heard. Its not p support or training or funding. So its your assessment, the Intelligence Communitys assessment that tehran has orchesat thed on israel and against u. S. Personnel in positions in the middle east since october 7th . Yes. And i donthi that means that the proxy groups or that others are always listening to everything that they have to say or under the direct control, but hink orchestrating is an appropriate characterization of what theyve looked to do. So use the dictionary definition, arranged the elements to produce a desired effect. Thats correctokay. Director burns, on page 3406 thd the department of energy have concluded that the most likely origins for the coronavirus is pandemic was a laboratory in cie with that conclusively. Why cant the cia reach the same conclusion of the fbi and the department of analysts continuek at this very carefully. They have not yet concluded that theres definitive evidence on either side of this whether natural transmission or lab accident. We continue to pursue, you know, more intelligence, more information that might if help thefinitive conclusion, but right now theyre, you know, they havent been able to reach that. Director wray, why are your analysts so much more analysts y rigorous work involving a whole slew of experts of different sorts. We reached the assessment with assessment. Thank you. Senator cain. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thanks to all of you. And as others he the people who operate under very difficult circumstances around the world to supply us with this important information. Director burns, i just want t9 heinrich about the impact and longterm consequences of our abandoning ukraine is important, and i think it should be required reading around here. The implications are its a 50year mistake that would haunt this country both■ in europe bt also, as you suggest, in the indopacific if including kim jong un. Would assess that we dnt h pow. Hes already making noises about the peninsula. Director wray, senator rubio about tiktok. Just to reiterate, dangeus alloe communist party to have access to an enormous trove of data about americans. Thats number one, is that that correct . It. Thats one of t p theres several. And the second piece is that the power the misinformation and sort of policy direction that it enables the communist party to exercise, correct . Well, i think the second piece is the algorithm, right. In other words, the first is the day, the second second is the algorithm, the third is the software. But the problem is not tiktok, its the control by china. If tiktokg were■9 divested and owned by an American Company or a Belgian Company or british company, we wouldnt have this lem of problem, is that level of problem, is that correct . Yo. The who controls mexico e . Are the, is the government of mexico in control, or are the cartels in control . And how do we, how do we get at the problem of the drugs, themj fentanyl . By the way, i did a little calculation a minute ago. About 15 people have died in this country of overdoses, mostly fentanyl, since this hearing started an hour and 20 minutes ago. Thats how serious this problem one a day in my state of maine. How do we get control of this problem . Ill start because there are a lot of us, obviously, that are working help support those who are on the front lines of this which includes the fbi, obviously, and dea and dhs and others who are really focused on this question. But on the first point, senator king, with respect to mexico, i mean, i think theres no question that it is allenge for the government of mexico to deal with the cartels. And there are parts of the trr the control of the cartels in certain respects. And yet at the same time, i would say that our cooperation time. And i think director burns and director wray may have more to say on this, but this is an area where weve really been able to work with them to try to help obviously, we have been able to work and its improving, but this is a drastic problem that should be treated search in terms of the impact on americans. Yeah. How would maybe this is a dhs question, we know how fentas actually getting in . Where is it coming . You mean coming well yeah. Its coming through a variety of means including at ports of entry, but theres a variety of ways it gets in. Part of the challenge course, hw smalls it is and how easy it is to conceal and be innovative in ways to get it across the border. The vast majorityf the fentanyl thats killing americans is, of course, coming from mexico, and the vast majority of the precursors for that fentanyl is coming from china. Hat in the supplemental thats pending in the house, which always focuses on ukraine, theres also a major blocking provision that would be very important to this country to get, to haveeb as possible. Director haines, youre nodding, but the record doesnt show nodding. Can you [laughter] yes, absolutely. Its not but there are funding, obviously, for the capacity to do greater detection and things like that that dhs would beep others. And absolutely agree that this is a fundamental issue, and and we are yeah. We can also talk more in closed organizational things that were looking to do but we have a major bill to address fentanyl in that supplemental if we can get that out of, out of its limbo in the house. General, one question. Im concerned about a gap. Can talk about foreign intelligence gathering not in the u. S. Heres my worry. A st. Petersburg, russia, pro farm sends or hacks information in the United States through a server in new jersey or pennsylvania or california. If does that create a gap . Talk to me about the relationship between yourself and and nsa and the, and the fbi. I just worry that theres a, theres a place there where we may lose contact. Senator, or thank you for t so if we think about this right now today in the context of threats to our elections, we spend an enormousmount oforatine elements of the u. S. Government to make sure that were aligned and that were appropriately using our authorities to be able to garner whatever information is required to be able to identify a foreign threat. First and foremost, we are going to collect that threat of a tart outside the United States. And so one of those tools that really assists in this type of scenario is section 702 and our ability because with by its very nature if theres an origin of that threat, then theres a foreign entity within, within the United States with a communications provider, under section 702 to target that foreign intelligence threat outside the United States. And so with the reauthorization of section 702, that wld hich we are able to see the foreign part of that communication. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Enter senator cornyn. Senator cornyn. Direct director wray, i wanted to ask you a little bit about some of your testimony about the border. Last year 169 individuals on on theist watch list were watch lit were detained at the southern border. So far this year its been 58. We know there were, since 2021, approximately 1. 8 million gotaways. In other words, not people that turn themselves in claiming a paroled into the interior, but 1. 8 million may grants who were evading migrants who were evading Law Enforcement at the border. Us, can you tell the American People with any certainty that there are zero people on the terrorist watch list that were among thatmillio . Well, what i would say is you i think rightly highlighted what senator [inaudible] referred to as the known known, the unknown known and the unknown unknown. And i think ways the National Security ramifications of the issues at the border are better reflected in some ways by what we dont know about the people whoded far in some other way got in when there up wasnt sufficient Information Available at the time they came in to connect the dots. Its almost more significant, in our view, than the actual number of socalled kfts, because those people for the most par are stopped, detained and and processed pointly. And i appropriately. And i guess you would answer the same way that a people with criminal records, members of criminal street gangs and others being among that 1. 8 millionrant away. We dont know what that 1. 8 million is composed of, do we . Thats correct. What we do know is that more than 37,000 chinese nationals were detained at the u. S. 2023. That numbers up 10 times over the earlier tally. And these individuals who were, of course, detained sometimes they claim asylum, sometimes they, sometimes theyre interio. But, again, we dont know how many chinese nationals that may be among that 1. 8illion their way into the interior of the United States. If you would answer the same way finish. Right, we dont. We dont know what were dealing with. In our National Security that we do not have answers for. I remember there■ coconspirators attacked against the United States killing 3000 peop. Killed 3000 americans on 9 11. I worry that among the people coming across the border evading Law Enforcement that there are some among those that mean to do us. In fact according to 30, 2023, you alluded to this earlier about dozens of migrants from its was being facilitated by suspected isis agent in turkey that was assisting those migrants to make their way the southern border and into the United States. Correct . We are very concerned aboute. The Plate Network overseas. There is probably more that i could share with that as well if youd like. R border situation, it has changed over the years. Coming from a border state yeare coming across who wanted to work , provide for their family and now of course we understand people fleeing violence and poverty and things like that. Also, we see the pull factors and if you make it around the border, you can likely stay for the rest of your natural life. Also, and not just people who have nineons towards United States that want a better life, but also people that want to do us harm. S is just a fantastic theory, no basis in reality, do you consider that to be a frivolous consideration . I do not. I have been very vocal about this we are not responsible for the physical security of the border. We work hard to be good with dhs there are a whole that emanate e border and some of them are criminal threats. We talked about fictional crisis we have concerns that it could be a vulnerability that terrorist organizations could seek to exploit. I would add that wethe moment tc terrorist plot coming across the border in that regard. As you will recall that we had indictments of an individual trying to smuggle foreign nationals across the border to assassinate former president bush. So it goes to your point that numbers are important, but numbers do not tell the whole story. It only takes a few people that can be responsible for a whole lot of harm. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Servic. Director burns, fbi director just mentioned president bush. I think you were our ambassador to russia when he was president. Is that right . One of the longest distinguished careers in american diplomacy and now you are in the middle of a negotiation in the middle east successful about in that context supplemental bills that have the ukraine funding. Is a bill thatt of the senate with 70 votes. The broad bipartisan rognition of the importance of that bill. I agree with your assessment and the Intelligence Communitys assessment that ukraine has a possibility to prevail in this conflict with russia. Nobody two years ago would have. The way they fought, the way they been able to be supported by our intelligence obviously hasade a difference. They have succeeded in ways nobody could have imagined. Ere e people in the house that do not believe that. They believe that their assessment is different. Their judgment is different. That is. I would ask you, since you are here, a little bit aut the negotiating posture that ukraine , the west, nato wants to put ourselves in with vladimir putin. Considering question, whether or not our negotiating omebody that believes in the end that somehow ukraine cannot prevail, although i believe they can, only that they can be in a position to negotiate an end to this. Why would it be bette supplemental from that Vantage Point vento failed to pass a supplemental . Thank you very much, senatorn and russia. The theater of negotiations. They are not really interested in negotiating. As director, i think president putin believes time is on his side and he can grind down ukrainians. Look at the prospect of a more serious negotiation in the future, it is essential for ukraine to have our support to disabuse the russian leadership. In other words, to puncture the times on the life. Demonstrating for russia also longterm consequences. They have already suffered enormously in terms of the wounded four times. The casualties that the soviet union suffered in a decade of war in afghanistan the destruction of something two thirds of their prewar inventory and longterm economic fast making russia china. Now, not to mention a much stronger y have to face today. The challenge in 2024 is helping ukrainians not just hold their own, but to continue to oppose cost so that they be in a position of greater strength, greater leverage in the negotiation. The question. Ould be my answer if you want to get to a serious negotiation yet to help them demonstrate. Putin is wrong and the notion that te his side. Lodging seems fairly compelling to me. Since you serve republican and democratic residents over many building say that the United States of america has to give up on our support for ukraine. An actual conflict with vladimir putin. An actual conflict with russia because of the fear that we will not be able to afford. Some plausible, but never theoretical conflict in china in the future. You cannot handle our commitments withe and nato. And to be able to deter beijing as well. No, i do not believe that. I think we are entirely capabled privacy in the world. You still have a stronger hand to playhat we are entirely capable of supporting ukraine. In the conflict that has consequences well beyond ukraine and security. I think sustaining that support to ukraine not only comes at the expense of deterring it actually helps to deter china whether its in taiwan or the South China Sea or other places. It is our assessment by what happened especially in the first year of the war. He did not expect ukraine would exist with the tenacity. He did not expect that the United States and he believes it is a declining power. Solidarity with ukraine. T i belr beyond ukraine and European Security. I would say we look back at that 60 billion and say it was a bargain compared to what we would otherwise spend. ■ just say in the last 15 seconds that i have i tnk corrected. I will take it for theord. In the document. Reference to the serious iss spe right now. Had i more time to ask you about that. Chairman warner, thank you i was in mexico about a year ago and met with president lopez over dorf and my request among others intervening with chinese leadership. Asking for the precursors not be deported into mexico by utilizing ultimately end up as fentanyl in United States. My understanding from his government as well as public sources is he■ did and there seems to be some level for negotiating us or having conversations with United States about that topic. I do not know much has come from that. What explains the chinese unwillingness to be more proactive in comba0nng precursor chemicals coming to the u. S. Ms. This they intentionally inflicted harm among americans in america. Is there quick for that they are looking for . There have been some signs of greater seriousness aut dealing with this problem effectively enforcing their own law. ■ this was issue very directly with my counterparts as well. I think that there are some signs that the chinese are beginning to address the problem not just precursor chemicals, certainly they can do more and i think thats why its so important for all of us to continue to push as hard as we can. Making clear that this is a problem not only for the unitees around the world. Cracking down on those. I hope that what you are seeing now is readiness to do more. I think that that is something from the president on down we need to continue to reinforce as hard as we can. They do bear society. How do you assess the current balance of military power in the pacific today . United states and and others. I think i would describe the ba is on the rise. Planning for multiple fiveyear periods. It has executed that development in a way that has put them in a poyo some point in the nottoodistant future in accordance with the goals, they will be world power. States is the world leading power today. The imperative piece for us is to be on the same trajectory and make sure we stay ahead of the growth that we see in china. There is no doubt the growth that you see and it has been discussed today and military power associated with china and the rise, cyberspace as well as. Director haynes, has iran sought to use our borders to conduct terrorist activity in the United States . Yeah, we have a very good example of iran supporting in fact efforts to come across the border to go after former ambassador from saudi arabia, for example. There is a case in that scenario so they have historically attempted this, but it is been very challenging for them. Something that we consistently monitor on a regular basis. Prefer to go through the extent that they are able, other groupa way of trying to achieve their goals. Director ray, there w tere reports of our military technologies being utilized in north Korean Military equipment found in ukraine coming from russia. How do we explain that . Well, i a definitely tracking similar incidents in terms of iranian drones where technology has. As part of it has to do with dual use technologies and companies here not being, perhaps as vigilant as they need to be about the potential uses of their technologies. Trying to be very h sure that te thoughtful about who they are selling to and where the tempe land. Very generous members. Thank you very much. I want to thank the panel for your testimony today and also for your service. I will follow up on the i know that our colleagues have mentioned and ask questions about fentanyl. I will start with ray to direct your attention to this question. The threat assessment this year on page 36 says China Remains a primary source for illicit fentanyl precursor chemicals and equipment. Kj and then it goes on to talk about what the cartels do. It is noteworthy, i think that the Sentencing Commission told e trafficking were u. S. Citizens. 88 . 86 of trafficking offenders were u. S. Citizens. We know how it gets here. A■ pretty good sense of how it gets here. They had announced that it had made proper progress for a nation with the Chinese Government encountering fentanyl i am increasingly concerned as well about zion was seen in other nonfentanyl synthetic opioids. A powerful veterinary sedativ that is mixed with illicit fentanyl and unfortunately the city of philadelphia has become alst gro zer proliferation of this spirit according to dea, it was detected in nearly half, half of all related overdoses in philly. Director ray, i wanted to ask you, is the Chinese Government holding up its end of the bargain and cracking down on illicit fentanyl traffickers . Lde problem we are continuing to see suggest theres a whole lot of room for improvement for the chinese certainly it is of concern to us you are right the philadelphia■y area is a place we are seeing a certain amount of that. A lot of investigations in these areas. Of course, one of the problems as i am sure you know is it is not responsive to narcan. That just adds to the challengeh i think maybe 48 of the 50 states or something, you know, it is very easy to buy, unfortunately, online from china based suppliers. I think it just adds to the problem. We are trying to eng your area and nearby areas with hospitals and state divergent groups and things like that to it. It is not a controlled substance currently under the substance controls act. That is an aggravating circumstance. To what extent is regulation by china and otherfentanyl opioids part of u. S. Law enforcements discussions with their chinese counterparts . Ith e chinese on their controlled substances is a key part of it. A part of the problem is there is an almost infinite number of variations that people could come up with. When they schedule things you■. I think that that just adds to the challenge. You ask how serious areld just r volume that we are contending with. I think that tells you all that you need to know about how serious the chinese are so far, so far, and helping us address the problem. I want to help you ask about iranian invasions sanctions. We know since the imposition against iranian oil in 2018 and successful in evading sanctions and revenues are increasingly rising. I know that the administration is focused on grokking the iran exports. How is the Intelligence Community supporting the efforts to impose costs on iran including by focusing on identifying and sanctioning socalled ghost■3 iranian oil ae refineries purchasing iranian oil we are very involved. The longer answer,■ we actually do periodic reports to congress to tell you about some of the work that we do in this area where we are identifying where we see sanction invasio■■n. Where opportunities for additional targets for sanctions that may be acted on in third parties or others involved in te Treasury Department and others can in fact go after them in that respect. It is a constant and critical issue. Mr. Chairman. Thank you. Thank you to all of you. Plea p our thanks and gratitude. They worked very hard. Most folks will never know who they are. Thank you. Please pass out on a list well. I want to continue some of the conversations about the border. Dealing with worldwide threats coming towards us as has been mentioned, talking about it in the past, in this fiscal year, 58 people in the terror watch list have been identified. A category called special interest aliens. The special interest aliensih■ , many people may not know this. I will just read it. The special interest aliens a nonus person based on analysis of travel patterns potentially posing a National Security risk to the United States or its interest. Often individuals are employing travel problems knownr evaluated having a nexus to terrorism. Do we have a listing of how many people have crossed our southern in this fiscal year that are special interest aliens . Do you know that number i do not know that number but we could followup to see if it is something we could provide. While on the terrorist watch list we can get that number know that it is 58 exactly. Special interest aliens we are told often that it is Law Enforcement sensitive we know the numbers in the 1000 s, but have not been able to get a specific number norelp. The next question is the obvious one. I will just give you a number if it is in spirit fbi contacting one of these individuals coming across our border released into the country because the vast majority, we dont have a criminal background on them. We have a theory so they are released into the country internally. Who those individuals■ are or what the kind of tracking our monitoring is on those individuals. I kno w work closely with dhs on the issue with special interest aliens including a whole lot of work on the other side of thev to prevent them from coming in the first place. I know there are instances where we are contacted. Contacted in every instance. That is helpful. You have not gotten a lot of questions today. Obviously the state department is very engaged in trying to figure out from the intelligence side the information sharing. Individuals crossing the border right now. We do not have any criminal information on thesej do you know just offhand how many countries are coming into the United States when they are crossing our southern borr information. Venezuela, talking about venezuelan gangs earlier in those individuals crossing into the country. Many of them beingar into the country. Do we know what these individuals have a criminal record . Thank you, senator. Fn■c■ i do not know exactly if they are sharing specific information with us. What i can share is that we have emigrate from the country since 2017. A significant portion of whom have immigrated to the United States legally. When we do get relevant information, our analysts use that to help inform their judgments. Current not taking people back on that. We are all depended on the state department to impose some sort of consequences on nicaragua. You are not taking people back on that. Do you happen to know the conversation right now on trying to deal with this . We do have a tracking of some that have criminal recor thatdse consider that a threat. I do not have specifics on the details. I would be happy to followup withunffline. Thank you very much for that. This is an acronym most people do not know. Antiterrorism standards. We have had this since 2007. It expired in july of last yea d yet. One of the aspects of that is for chemical facility refinery whatever it may be ability to ce terror watch list using this authority on that. There is about 9000 people a month that used to be checkedn that just in the hiring and process all over the country. 63,000 people estimated to have not been checked. My question is do we have any idea how many people show up from the hiring in the past. That when we do the check on whg because we have not reauthorized this how many folks are on the military watchlist. Im not sure i can here righ. I will tell you, i share your concern about the lapse in authorities. One of the lapses it does not take many for it to be a real problem. We rely on that authority or we historicallyave protect. Could you say that that number is not zero as far as how the people off come to the terror watch list in the past. Correct. Senator jill bent if you want to defer we would be happy to. But we are by seniority mr. Chairman, in your Capital Region the complex■ for our nations most advanced Electronic Research development and manufacturing particular fields manufacturing and tools, the threat asses went out that china currently lags behind the u. S. In this. Giving them cause to sal■hur logy which we have seen them do over and over. I included legislation last year requiring dod to establish a piloting program to enable collaboration between the cybersecurity cyber center and the usa by conductor to improve cybersecurity and Semi Conductor rocess how is nsa working with the fbi to create safeguards against espionage and Cyber Attacks at facilities and at Semi Conductor manufacturers. Thank you for the question. It is clear that they will be relentless to steal this ective part of what they are focused on doing is illuminating that threat. Done a series of fun class evaluate advisories with a number of partners. Elements, six other nat that rent in a way that allows us to get unity of action against that threat. Unclassified reports to allow increase unity of action. From the fbis perspective everything that we do talks about the cyber threat within the United States. From a specific look at Semi Conductors, critical tech elegyo catch up on and from our perspective an area that we will continue to identify those threats and communicate those both through the fbi and there are classified advisories wherever we can there are timhare information with the private sector entity that helps us protect the sources and methods because it does not get identified as this is sometng nsa told us. Research from the center for countering digital hate. They create election disi of 41 of cases. Including images that could support false claims about candidates or election fraud. Told and have been put in place. This is for the entire panel. Ve aaries with ai, images videos audio to see American Voters . What are we relying on to advise the public . Director ray, you can start. I want to think about what i can say here. Ai is som that all of our most significant adversaries are taking a close look at to enhance their efforts. We have seen ai used in a variety of settings whether its been used specifically to target voters, i am not sure if i could say that. Are actively concerned abot that as the latest wrinkle in a longstanding effort to engage in information warfare■■ the ga conflict as well. Director. I think another example is russia deploying ai tools in context with their efforts in ukraine. There we have example, march 22 a deep face of the ukrainian president asking ukrainians to lay down their to be actually countered by president zelinski. Did we give them the information or capability to do that quickly . The ukrainians . Yes. We worked with them on that. In termsu0 of how we are thinking about ai security, nsa has establish an Ai Security Center . Generating and communicating to anyone that is building a model in the United States, what are those threats and what are the security mechanisms to ensure to avoid misuse of those models. We are also using the Security Center for how we apply all of the ethical and Safety Standards how the department will leverage ai but really the last component would be how do we communicate to those companies e of their technology and how its employed. Go ahead. You are right to raise this as a threat. I think our view of it is tools will essentially lower the barrier for actors state nonstate viewer resources to engage in potential election interference■. I do not think i would add anything to what is been covered here other than the counterintelligence portion of that that has touch pointed across everything. The security conference some participated to work 20 Tech Companies that came togetr. Most on a voluntary basis to indicate both water, watermarking and willingness to take down ai generated video d voice that were affecting elections. But it was voluntary and the proof will be in the pudding. For the record, no one said they had a plan to tell the American People are advise the American People. This committee will be having public hearings on the subject very shortly. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you to all of you for your service and your teams as well. Director ray, with regard to the prc and some recent public supports of significant egeland6 purchases, if the land purchases are accurate well pose a threat to not only some military installations but certainly involved in Food Production that takes away from our ability to produce our own country as well. Just curious about whether or not you are aware or could confirm land purchases by chinese nationalists within the following them at this time . This is an issue we are focused on a lot we are investigating a number of instances proactively where we are seeing either commercial real estate or land being purchased by those with ties to the prc near critical infrastructure. I want to be clear, of course, foreign purchase of land including chinese purchase of land is not itself inherently illegal, but the pro been discud much here already, the different context, the hold that the businesses in particular. We are particularly concerned about situations where a purchase of land near ation or l infrastructure could be leveraged to enable anything from espionage, Data Collection or worse. The tools that we have in place are Strong Enough or capable of stopping these purchases from moving forward. Well, certainly, a lot of types of transactions go through this process. I am not clear on whether or not that extends to the land purchase situations that we are concerned about citrus process. When that applies working with the usda to work towards some sort of mandatory reporting regime that may apply. I think that there is room for plugging gaps that may exist. Thank you. With regard to ai in particular, bottom line is it is not going away. It is something we will have to. Right now it appears we need the world in regards to ai capabilities. Our adversaries recognize that. Doing whatever they can as a shortcut to our capabilities. S. In regards to the advances with ai right now■], i am concerned right now as much about china and russia in their capability to use to develop weapon systems that we have nevereally thought about as being in the forefront of a major and direct threat to the United States. I want to talk about biologics in particular. We know that china and russia have significant capabilities with regards to ai you can make rapid expanses as you have noted. With ai you cancs. I am concerned about the fact it may very well be used as a weapon system. I am not sure who to direct this to. I will start with director ray and if youd like to pass this on, that is fine. If we are not ahead in time to identify and stop them, this is probably as much of a threat to the United States as i will start and others may want to chime in. What i would say is from an fbi perspective, one of our priorities is protecting american Ai Innovation from theft, especially from the america leads the world in Ai Innovation. Ai is often, for example, detecting deep thanks, one of the best weapons is better ai. We need to protect that innovation. We are keenly concerned as ive testified repeatedly a bigger Hacking Program than any other nation combined. T our ai to power it it makes under supplier sound like an understatement. Page 32fmake it clear that ty maintain the capability to produce and use pathogens and toxins and china and russia have proven adept at manipulating this space trust and confidence and u. S. Biotechnology and research. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you, thank you to our panel. Do you share my view that the threat of Terrorism Associated with unlawful■ entry through the southern border poses a serious threat to the Border Security. Ive testified repeatedly8 that we are concerned about the terrorism implications from potential targeting of vulnerabilities at the border. How would you assess the present level of threat and risk of a terrorist attack in the United States com well, even before october 7 i would have told thisomee that we were at a heightened threat level from a terrorism perspective in the sense that it is the first time that ive seen in a long,■■b threats from homegrown violent extremists, domestic violent extremists, foreign terrorist and statesponsored terrorist organizations all being elevated at one time. Since october 7, that threat is gone to a whole another level. This is a time i think for much greater vigilance and has maybe been called upon of us before is the fbi posture to understand the extent with the southern border russia mark you know enough to ensures that the fbi is as well across it as it can be. Do you feel like you are flying blind and not able to define the scope and extent of the threat . I think we are working very partners. Suspended. The presiding officer without objection. Year at this time of the year sunshine week is held around the birthday of james madison, not only a former president , but one of our and the acclaimed father of the constitution. Sunshine week critical reminder of the need for transparency and open government, and our government is not as open as it should be. Presiden famously said that a great difficulty in forming a government imperfect people was that you must oblige it meaning the government a to control itse. Well, amen to what madison said. As a conservative, ive worked especially hard on madisons challenge makingm sure that c. One way to do that is to limit the size and scope of the government. Its hard to■t c,f■ontrol a government that does everything but make your bread and tuck you insleep. Another check on outofcontrol government is separation of se powers when you study the essentials of american government. Congress doesnt execute laws. The president s and the executive agencies shouldnt try to make laws. And neith should our courts. To control a government as big as ours, it takesbe a lot o bright light shining on every agency and office. And instead of one week called sunshine week, we ought to have 365 days a year in which we have sunshine on our governments operation. Ive long supported the freedom of information act, and that act urges agencies to be more responsive to record requests. A at to open government because it gives citizens access to information. And as the old saying goes, knowledge is Congress Also has a solemn constitutional duty to conduct strong o the executive branch executes the laws as congress has intended. Now, you learn that in eighth g class called checks and balances in government. I call it oversight but it is a constitutional responsibility. We cant legislate effectively unless whats going on behind the scenes. And most of that behind the scenes is in the executive branch of government. Thats why whistleblowers are so very important and why i rely on whistleblowers give me a lot of information i would not have other access to. So i consider them a very important part of my role of, of doing my role of constitutional responsibility of oversight to see that a president does what the constitution says, and his oath says to ully execute the laws. These whistleblowers are patriots and our most tool in rooting out waste, fraud, abuse and misconduct. Despite their vital contribution to good government, they are often targeted for retaliatio and harassment. That should stop. So many speeches, ivel÷■s come the floor of the United States senate to point out specific examples of where these patriotic people we call whistleblowers are retaliated against, a in a way that the law says that retaliation is not Law Enforcement there is a growing trend among federaltest. The agencies do soing this by violating whistleblower disclosure laws, including withholding notice of what we call antigag provns other word of an agency and youve got a whistleblower, you cant tell them that they cant talk to congress becau requires all federal agencies to include an antigag provision in their nondisclosure policies and forms. This provision notifies employees of their rights to report congress to inspectors general and to the office of special counsel. Without knowing of the antigag provision protections, employees who see government wrongdoing often stay in the shadows. So if people are notified that they tal to congress and the law protects them, were not apt to get information of wrongdoing, the missxend tur of money misexpenditure of money or laws■■ not and the reason they dont speak is they fear the retaliation if they do speak o out, and this is what i have spoken about so many times on the floor of the United States senate, and that fact that theyre retaliated against is something i say over and over again is unacceptle. Thats why this week i wrote to all of our inspectors general of the executive government requesting they ensure this provision is included, as required by law, whichl make it harder for federal agencies to conceal their ear whistleblowers have helped to let the sunshine in theyre helping me track down bi d health and Human Services have failed to protect against trafficking, Law Enforcement is working with information i provided to bring their own kind of sunshine to the criminals taking advantage of these young kids. Ive also sought information contractors who receive billions of taxpayer dollars to care for unaccompanied children■b whose parents the practices and failures of this agency are largely shiel from hubbell from Public Knowledge and scrutiny. We need a full accounting■ o how contractors spend taxpayers hard earned money. Thats why last y launched an investigation into one of the Environmental Protection agencys Grant Programs significant waste. It turns out that the epa doesnt even require the programs grantees to submit financial documents during the grant that shows how taxpayers moneys by those various organizations. Youd think agencies would be very graful when these failures are are exposed, instead, you know what . Met wi obstruction by this administrations epa. Accountability can be uncomfortable, and bureaucrats dont like it. After i reported that obstruction to office of Inspector General, it agreed to audit the program and look into how epas influence grantees to obstruct my oversight. Then we get to the Justice Department, the fbi. Recently, the justice departmen human source that served as the basis for what is comnl known as the document 1023. Thats the fbis generatedss■ document that chairman comber in the house and i made public alleging criminal bry the bideny and a foreign national. Embarrassingly for thr years the 1023 collected dust until congress and the Justice Department forced the fbi and the u. S. Wyse to interview that source. The federal indictment doesnt explain the full set of facts and leaves many questions unanswered. Those questions include how the Justice Department and fbi could use this confidential human source forl approximately 13 years, pay him hundreds of thousands of dollars, use his information investigations and prosecutions and then ultimately determine after 13 or 14 years, that this guy is a liar lie y according to public documents,■3■1 the repore fbi as late as december 2023. This is matter that requires extensive sunlight. If not for my securing the document 1023 and releasing that you know what . The fbi would still be believing the lies the lies of their confidential human s and theyd still be paying taxpayer dollars to this confidential source for the lies he was giving to theave arrested him because of my oversight work, so whats the government doing to the money back that they paid him . In addition to my investigation efforts, ive worked with bipartisan set of colleagues to strengthen attorney misconduct oversight for example, ive cosponsored Bipartisan Legislation to close a loophole thathat various department that that that Department Justice from investigating alleged Justice Department attorney misconduct. Now, understand in the department of justice the Inspector General thats supposed to sort out wrongdoing cannot even investigate lawyers of that department when they do misconduct. Now my consistent efforts in sunshine continue across our government whether its asking the fbi to explain a targeting catholics based on biassed sources, ensuring our immigration officials follow the law, and collect dna from Illegal Migrants they encounter at the border even exposing flaws at the Veterans Administration that endangered the privacy o veterans. So we all ought to be thankful for sunshine week, which is an opportunity for us doing our constitutional duty of oversight to highlight these■ remind us t consistent light is essentialo we, the people. I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call we are joined by bloomberg fitz. The assignment bill on saturday and voided partial government shutdown. It only affected about half a dozen agencies. There is another government shut down guideline on 22. The latest on the negotiations and will that be harder to pass than the ones passed last week . Those pass a lot more slowly. They have not done the biggest ones are the toughest ones. The outstanding issues are the department of defense, the biggest nondefense bill which is labo■xhs a especially this year the toughest one to resolve his homeland security. Plenty of arguments over immigration policy Border Security that is played into the floor. Aid debate makes itery difficult to fund the department of homeland security. And the bigger, tougher issues left or next friday. Host meeting the toughest relax and the clock is ticking. What sort of pressure, jonathan, under here, in hip negotiations, looking likeht be one of those bills that might get more democratic than republican support on the house floor . It could. Democratic supportn republican support for the first six bills and those were supposed to be the easier ones. One of the pressure points for speaker is can you follow the hastert rule . Can you get a majority of the majority and make sure the more for it than republicans voting against it . Because this has to be bipartisan it has to be the president s support the democraticcontrolled senate. You wont get 218 votes just from rtisan. It is tough for the speaker to envision any circumstance if not relying on democratic votes. At least a majority of his protects him but that matters for that. Host last. R week it was 15 billion bill, that you wind through looking for earmarks and starting to see more recording for the major package. How many earmarks . Guest it is 6228. We did manage to get six different pdf documents that we could work for real, its 12. 7 billion. There are other bills coming so there will be more earmarks in those. What we saw in their is weighted toward House Republican priorities because House Republicans banned thes a big oc priorities that only the senate includes earmarks in greater pu democratic earmarks in the second trench of the bill, at least Senate Democratic earmarks so this has the usual money for police grants, local police hat. Local infrastructure, work on roads and water projects, sewage projects, a lot of local needs that members identify in their district. Host before we get to the egregious ones that have been pointed out by members of congress, how does one get an earmark into a bill thats not negotiated in committee negotiated behind closed doors, how to individual members get their individual earmarks, 459 billion deal . a ■ guest it is supposed to go through the second. They submit formal requests for local projects, not something i behind closed doors, it goes through a committee markup. Theres a controversy in House Republicans seeking get to pool during markups where they tried to pool at the house level three projects for Lgbt Community centers and other lgbt issues, this one at the end largely was the earmarks that were put through the Committee Process in official capacity but two were pooled in the behind closed doors negotiations, one was lgbt center in philadelphia, another was an organization in nevada work with victims of sex trafficking and sex worker advocacy. Those were evintly t ial for so conservatives so we are seeing back room negotiations but upfront, members postn website here are my request and disclosure saying im not and my family is not financially invested in the organization. It can go to local governments or nonprofits but not for profit companies. F 2,011. Host what are the controversial ones that stick out in your mind from the list of 6000 . Guest the most controversial other than the two that would be pooled among republicans, republicans in the house also band museum earmarks. Senators did not. There was some frustration over things that conservatives seem unserious, if you will see a bih includes education grants and a number of those 2 museums, and whether lawmakers should be able to do, the fights, there were a couple of issues on lgbt issues and sex worker advocacy. What w grants some have pointed out as not serious . Guest the conservatives among House Republicans said they want things with a federal nexus and 2, they have put a number of things and House Republican Appropriations Bills that are against diversity, equity, and inclusion policies. Theres the house and senate approach regarding museums for black history initially when i including the house and senate Appropriations Bills. Ey say africanamerican or black history, minority cultural issues, thats a big difference that they d apar in the senate Appropriations Bills controlled by democrats and not the house Appropriations Bills where conservatives pushed for things like bridges, roads, military construction, that kind of thing. Host washington journal taking your phone calls about the week ahead in washington. The senate is in 3 00 pm, eastern time. If you want to join in the conversation, earmarks, nows the time to call, the number to join in, 202seven forty eighteight thousand. Republicans 2027488001. 027482002. We talked in our previous segment about special counsel robert hur will testify before the House Judiciary Committee on hers his report of President Bidens handling of classified documents. Other hearings you wi focusing on with the media core . Guest it will be sent to congress for the next fiscal year, but host we got a peek at 2,025. Guest the president s which list in his broad vision for the next year, the Budget Committee to hear from Shalonda Young that would be a big fight over the direction because it always is. But also it is a long series of requests for what kind of funding they need. And why isnt there more or less to this. The senate Budget Committee, with the white house, will be interesting one to watch 24 hours after todays the budget proposal. We had the state of the Union Address. Guest we dont know how they will put up the bills they are trying to negotiate. We heard a number of issues are wrapped up. Aside from congressional hearings, the what issues are take a lot of oxygen on capitol hill. Guest host jack fitzpatrick, follow him on twitter, jack. Dc in new york. Independent, dave, good morning. Caller the hastert rule is a terrible rule, not even an official rule and it allows a minority of the house, if the speaker invokes that. ■ speaker john weiner says it does not have significant republic and you would get the same thing now. And is there anything more you could see, i would like to hear it. Guest it might be less relevant, it is a member of house members. The majority of the majority, and of find a minority, if youve been paying close attention. You have a lot of and to threaten the status of the speaker of the house and kick him out. One of the numbers that matters in the house that could affect legislation is one. It only takes one member to require a vote on the moon vacate. Republicans in the house could only afford to lose two votes before they lose a functioning majority. You can abide by the hastert rule and have support for an issue, if you have a vocal minority, even much smaller than the hastert rule threshold of a little more than 100. Things can be affected or blocked very significantly. Rige were a vote right now just on standalone ukraine aid. Thats up in the air. But really, theres a significant amount of pressure, the House Freedom caucus, from what like a few dozen members, thatle, what can be brought up in the house a number of years but seen this congress, even smaller number of more vocal people and the threat of going after the speaker that is a significant impact. Host the Freedom Caucus that mccarthy found out the hard way, about the motion to vacate, what they said about what it would take for them to move a motion to vacate. Guest there have been some redlines drawn. Marjorie Taylor Greene brought some issues up regarding ukraine funding. As we come toward the next funding deadline, there hasnt been a massive push toward it lately. Ing officer yes, we are. Mr. Cassidy i ask thattcer wi objection. Occasion comes madam president , im here to talk about Flood Insurance, an issue facing louisiana, and im sorry to say an issue now■ facing the senat president s state. Floods can occur anywhere, for example, on top of a mountaintop. People dont realize that but you have thisthe bottom. If it gets a big rain, boom. Going down from the top of that mountain, you will have a flood. And that has unfortunately, in california. I spent several years in Southern California and i can relate to that but it happens regularly in my why in my stat . Think of hurricanes as wind, rain and lightning but one of the greatest threats is the risk of flooding. These floods can destroy homes, businesses, and leave them if they dont destroy them right away, can leave them moist. When its moist, it begins to rot if the inside. Homes that families have lived in for over 50 years that have never flooded before can become unliverable. So if you come down to californ pennsylvania, our west virginia, or other things and you ask folks in the bottom of a riverbed, for example, if a flood cannot end their life,hat. So we know the answer is an emphatic yes. Wh can the congress do about it, if anything . We have a a mechanism to address it. The National Flood Insurance Program, which currently ensure it is a federal program, and were the ones who can change it to make it more reliable, more affordable, more sustainable. But the challenge is that its a tough topic. A lot of folks in Congress Just dont understand the issue. And so we need to have the understanding, but then we also need the political will. Now, this has just kind of, boom, up, up, up in urgency. The federal Emergency Management agency recently implemented a new Risk Assessment called risk rating 2. 0. Now, risk rating 2. 0 affects louisiana, the coast gulf, frankly all coasts and anyplace where there is a river or stream that can overflow. It particularly affects folks who are lower is a program for rich people. Not true. Many are in parishes where the Median Household Income is below the income of 50,000t truth be told, as we just saw in california, what you think of as a desert state, flooding can occur in any state. So if we look here, here are ■r. 44 out of 50 states have had over 50 million of National Flood Insurance Program claims from 2021. And theres only six states that have had less than 50 million in claims. 13 states have had over 1 billion in damage and theyre all over the map. Its in virginia not just coastal states ■h its missour, states along the gulf. Its california, its going up the northeast. This is geographically distributed. And, by the way, these are the states hitst but they are a not the only states. Every state has had at least an nfip claim somewhere, sometime because every state is affected by flooding. Now, the way the program is currently being conducted, however, is putting into what is called an actual ware dredge ow you have people at. High risk and the Way Insurance works is it spreads it over plans over homes that have lower risk. Bu everybodys premiums dramatically, the people who are at lowest risk will droo you have the same amo of risk but now its concentrated upon a smaller pool oncentration raises the rates even more, and those who are the lowest risk in that pool drop their insurance, which con. That is called an actuarial death spiral. I hate to put it this way, but its visual. Think of what when you think of when you flush the toilet. The pinning ieath spiral and the water in the pool gets smaller and smaller and smaller until its gone and theres no one left who can afford the cost for the■, insurance and it ceas to exist. It is true of every Insurance Program. I am describing the National Flood insurance is known to be just an insurance that is just how insurance works. If your pool gets too small, risk too concentrated, the whole thing goes awaut the problem is what is happening to the National Flood Insurance Program ignores the fact that the program is actually a bargain. And this is the real problem. When i have telephone town halls and meetings with constituents, they tell me that their their property insurance, their casualty insurance, if you add that to their Flood Insurance is now more than their mortgage. So theyre making the tough decision, do i either leave my home or do i drop my coverage . So lets just talk a little bit more about this rating 2. 0 2. 06789 this risk rating 2. 0. First recognize were currently under could have been stopped with a stroke of a president s pen. Either President Biden or President Trump could have told team ma to delay or cancel the implementation. My office wor akednistration to delay the implementation because of concerns of about how fema was calculating Biden Administration has decided to go forward, ignoring the concerns of people in louisiana and elsewhere. The results are that about 900,000 people have dropped their insurance because they cannot it. 900,000. That is the beginning of this death spiral we spoke of. Now, theres some promising news. The Banking Committee recentlye had a hearing on the National Flood Insurance Program that i put forward, and we got excellent input. There is a consensus that no family in america should be forceded to move because of unaffordable Flood Insurance premiums. That Flood Insurance premiums should remain affordable, accessible and accountableoaxpa the future. So my challenge to my colleagues, designate somebody on your staff. This is a complicated whether a virginian, a missourian, you name a state thats in yellow of some tint, ask somebody on your staff to become familiar with the Flood Insurance program. Then lets come together and move the legislation that will fo it. The first issue is to gain understanding. Then the second issue is to have the political will. If we maintain a program that has been so much to americans in every state but certainly in 43 out of 50 states to enable them to protect them their home should their home flood, that they would be able to build back. With that, i yield the floor. Thank you. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call the clerk ms. Baldwin. ■r the presiding officer the senator from illinois. Without objection. Without objection. The clerk will report the motion to invoke cloture. The clerk 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 o executive calendar number 543, jasmine yoon of virginia to be United States district judge for the western 17 senators. The presiding officer by unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum call has been waived. The question is, is it the sense of the senate that debate on the nomination of jasmine yoon of virginia to be United States district judge for the Western District of virginia shall be brought tolo the yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule. The clerk will call the roll. ■ the clerk ms. Baldwin. Mr. Barrasso. Mr. Bennet. Mrs. Blackburn. Mr. Blumenthal. Mr. Booker. Mr. Boozman. Mr. N. Mr. Brown. Mr. Budd. Ms. Butler. The clerk ms. Cantwell mrs. Capit mr. Carper. Mr. Casey. Mr. Cassidy. ■ ms. Collins. Mr. Cornyn. Ms. Cortez masto. ■ mr. Cramer. Mr. Crapo. Mr. Cruz. Mr. Daines. ■, ms. Duckworth. Mr. Durbin. Ms. Ernst. Mr. Fetterman. Mrs. Fischer. Mr. Graham. Mr. Grassley. Mr. Hagerty. Ms. Hassan. Mr. Hawley. Mr. Heinrich. Mr. Hickenlooper. Ms. Hirono. Mr. Hoeven. Mrs. Hydesmith. Mr. Johnson. Mr. Kaine. Mr. Kelly. The clerk mr. Kennedy. Mr. King. Ms. Klobuchar. Mr. Lankford. Mr. Lujan. Ms. Lummis. Mr. Manchin. Mr. Markey. Mr. Mcconnell. Mr. Menendez. Mr. Merkley. The clerk mr. Moran. Mr. Mullin. The clerk ms. Murkowski. Mr. Murphy. Mr mr. Ossoff. Mr. Padilla. Mr. Paul. Mr. Peters. Mr. Reed. Mr. Ricketts. Mr. Risch. Mr. Romney. Ms. Rosen. Mr. Rounds. Mr. Rubio. Mr. Sanders. Mr. Schatz. Mr. Schmitt. Mr. Schumer. Mr. Scott of florida. Mr. Scott of south carolina. Mrs. Shaheen. Ms. Sinema. Ms. Smith. Ms. Stabenow. Mr. Sullivan. Mr. Tester. Mr. Thune. P÷ mr. Tuberville. Mr. Van hollen. Mr. Vance. Mr. Warner. Ms. Warren. Mr. Welch. Mr. Whitehouse. Mr. Wicker. The clerk mr. Wyden. Mr. Young. Senators voting in the affirmative butler, duckworth, merkley, reed, rosen, rounds, te te tester. Nato grassley, paul, vance, wicker, young. Mr. Romney, no. Ms. Ernst, no. Mrs. Capito no. Mrs. Fischer, no. Mr. Barrasso, no. 1i the clerk r. Daines, no. Mr. Mrs. Britt, no. The clerk ms. Cantwell, aye. Mr. Hickenlooper, aye. The clerk mr. Lujan, aye. The clerk mr. Tillis, aye. ■3 9 the clerk mr. Peters, aye. The clerk ms. Hirono, aye. Mr. Johnson, no. The clerk mr. Hawley, no. The clerk mr. Wyden, aye. ■u7■< the clerk mr. Carper, aye. ■k the clerk mr. Budd, no. Mr. Markey, aye. ■0■ the clerk mr. Cardin, aye. ■ the clerk mr. Van hollen, aye. K the clerk mr. Graham, aye. Mr. Kaine, aye. Mr. Mcconnell, aye. The clerk mr. Marshall, no. The clerk ms. Collins, aye. Mr. Tuberville, no. Mr. Heinrich. Mr. Ricketts, no. ■3 the clerk mrs. Murray, aye. Cor. Mr. Schatz, aye. Mr. Coons, aye. Ms. Baldwin, aye. ■d the clerk mr. Booker, aye. ■ m . The clerk mr. Mullin, no. Mr. Casey, aye. Erk mr. Sanders. Mr. Schmitts, no o durbin, aye. ■ the clerk ms. Lummis, no. Ms. Warren, aye. Ms. Aye. Mr. Brown, aye. 2z the clerk mr. Sullivan, no. Vote the clerk mr. Risch, no. Mr. Lee, no. Mrs. Blackburn, no. ■v the h, aye. Mr. Scott of south carolina, no. ■r the clerk mr. King, aye. Schumd the er mrs. Gillibrand, aye. ■g■. The clerk mr. Padilla, aye. Y4■ the clerk mr. Blumenthal, aye. Mr. Scott of no. The clerk hagerty, no. The clerk mr. Mr. The clerk mr. Waoc a vote the clerk mr. Manchin, aye. The clerk mr. Kelly, aye. Thossoff, aye. Rubio, no. The clerk mr. Fetterman, aye. ■ the clerk mr. Moran, no. A the clerk mr. Warner, aye. The clerk mr. Hoeven, no. ■■qwx the clerk ms. Murkowski, aye. Vote ■h ■w the clerk mr. Bennet, aye. ■] the clerk ■9 the presiding officer on this vote, the yeas are 52, the nays are 38, the motion is agreed toj mr. Whitehouse mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from rhode island. Mr. Wh■o■pehouse mr. Es am back again with the old battered time to wakup graphic here wakup here. The smithsonian cant have it quite yet. This time to wakeup climate report starts with the unfortunate proposition that we are in terrible danger on climate. A critical part and an essential explanation of the danger is that the republican y turned by fossil fuel industry dark money into little more than the political wing of the fossil fuel jmn the fossil fuel polluters to fill up its super pacs and parroting th objnoxious lies, but all that happens in the political worl n the physical world. And a recent Study Suggests that we have perhaps already blown through the 1. 5 degrees of world heating safety limit. That 1. 5 degree limit was always just an estimated upper bound. And like many estimates, it could have been too high. It could be that b safety barrier was always below 1. 5 degrees. T i event, assume that it actually is 1. 5 degrees, which is sort of the mid midpoint of estimates. Well, its starting to look like we may be losing even against that a chart that summarizes over 1,000 different projections that have been done from different sources as to where ou co2 emissions are going to take us. Its actually more than 1200 different scenarios. Some of them take global temperature increase over five degrees of increase, which will lead to disruption on an astonishing scale that leaves many of the parts of the planet u in experienced. So there are an awful lot of them. Some of them weve already made decisions that make them imposs achieve. Some of them are essentially dead letters. If you look at the ones that are still viable and at the ones that this■0 i 1. 5 degree safety barrier. If you look at those 1200 scenarios and you look at the ones that are still viable and get us at some point back under 1. 5 degrees, you know how many of them there are . 11. Out of 1200 predicted scenarios, 11 are us at some point below 1. 5 degrees. Almost all o the blow significantly over 1. 5 degrees and then come back down, which makes investment in Carbon Capture extremely important. But thats not a whole lot of shots at a■c 1200 scenarios that we started with. And each of them is ranked by where we are on the different components that get us there. Carbon removal technology, Carbon Removal with land interventations, planting trees and so forth, Carbon Intensity production, energ adjustment and less methane. In every single one of those categories, these are ranked as challenging. None of this is easy. All of it is going to require real effort, real diligence and serious attention to the■ problem. So we are not in good shape, and thats the sad and bitter news. We could have been in good shap was bipartisan work happening on Climate Change in this chamber all the time, and then came■,■ supreme courts wretched decision in Citizens United and the response by the fossil fuel industry to flood them with money and then republicans to o change work and pitch us into a action. Thats where a lot of these that could have gotten us out ofok these. Of all that fossil fuel dark money blocking americas ability to respond to this m. So to stay below the 1. 5 degree safety threshold requires two measures. Again, these are estimates. It could well be that we need to do more than this, but these are the ones were working with. One is reducing emissions by roughly half and the other isv by 2050. Here is how were doing with respect to the 2030, 50 reduction goal. Thats what this line is. Thats 50 reduction in Carbon Emissions by 2030. And we are and here are a bunch of different scenarios and how they end. The only one the only scenario that gets us to this 2 you cant see it from the television, the only thing that gets us there is carbon fee. Putting a price on Carbon Emissions so that its no longer free to lets say we go ahead with the carbon fee but part of gets pulled away, thats this purple line, we miss by a little. Lets say we go thefe■cts Clean Electricity standard instead of a carbon fee. We miss by more. Lets say that we expand the ira,o that positive investment through the ira but without a carbon price, we miss by even more. Heres are under current law, this red line. Heres we are under current law if the epas proposed emission rules go into effect. Thats our current likely outcome. As you can see, that is a long way fro 50 by 2030. That blows through it sometime after 2035. If there are no new■missions u all the way out here to 2040 before we cross that safety threshold. And if we ,ends at the behest of the fossil fuel industry are threatening to do, which is to repeal the ira and block the n here, and who knows when you get to 50 . So to hit that first ta weve got to wrap our minds around carbonua pricing, pricin polluter emissions. Polluters should pay for the pollution they cause. Its not complicated, but theyve bee to get away with it. Of course, if youre living in a polluter money la la land, none of this to you, and the numbers that matter to you are how much money gets poured into your super pacs by polluters, not what the carefully analyzing and saying and modeling. But if youre out of climate denial polluter la la land and you ar trying to grapple with this as a real problem in the real world, Carbon Pricing is essential. So where are we on that . Well, i have two bits of good news. One is that just like do, the B Administration has put an internal price on carbon. At a very respectable 190 per ton. And the offices of management and budget, omb has given guidance to executive agencies to build that internal price on carbon into all their■ocisionm what is an internal price on carbon . It means that the governments decisions have to bake into their decisionmaking, the 190 per ton price on carbon. If you look at fleet of cars, that goes into the cost equation, if y setting the price on land use of various times, you back in the 190 per ton in reg of course, you would do that. So its a big deal and it is part of the■ good news. Of course the question is how will the executive agencies comply . The omb issued its guidance. Boom, done. It was issued in september of last year. The 190 per ton went active in december. Boom. Done. But its time now for all the executive agencies to react, co and thats what we havent seen yet. So we are looking into that as an oversight matter to try to make sure the executive agencies are doing their best to comply with the omb guidance as to the internal price on carb. So thats good news item one, assuming implementation is not ineffective. The second good news that the european union, our friends across the pond in our Atlantic Alliance are locked in to a carbon border adjustment mechanism, a tariff mechanism called cbam, carbon border adjustment mechanism. The further good news is that thenite ■h■ kingdom has announcedit has made the decision to join the e. U. In the same cbam program. So why is that good for us . Its good for us because this will create significant pressure here at home for a price on■ carbon in the u. S. Because without one, if we dont have a proper price on carbon here in the u. S. , it will be very difficult for Americans Companies exporting to the u. S. And to the u. K. T avoid those carbon tariffs. We will be paying tariffs to the u. K. And to whenever our production of goods is more carbon intensive than theirs. One of the ways you solve that is by adopting a carbon price. Get into the club and you dont have to pay the tariffs any longer. So the tariff pressure on american businesses ought to disrupt significantly the general political indifference of the american corporate sector the fossil fuel industrys political head gem any over republicans. Could open a poten pathway when the steel industry, the aluminum industry, the cement industry, the pharma elected representatives and saying why am i paying this tariff. Whats up with that . Why do you have to do that . R fr friends is oh, thats so the fossil fuel industry can keep polluting for free. I dont think that will sell well i tboardrooms. So that creates a little bit of industryonindustry counterpressure. And withluck, that will be good enough to help us pass a proper carbon fee. And by the happen to have a bill for that that would do all of those things. Its called the clean competition act, and commend that to the administrations attention. The to be shedding anticbam. I hope very much the administration will begin posit to the cbam and theres my bill as a model for them to take a look at. If we do this right, it spares american exporters paying these tariffs. Thats a good thing. And it also supports a against pollution that puts us on a potential path to climate safety that we are not on pieces wont match a full proper price on carbon as proposed in my separate pollution fee bill which i also commend when we get to a full proper price on carbon. But it will get us a good ways there. While at it, we could add Carbon Pricing on Luxury Aircraft travel emissions to reduce those no reason that somebody sporting around in a private jet shouldnt be picking up the tab for the pollution theyre leaving behind. And we cou add Carbon Pricing on shipping which many of the leading shipping lines actually support, so we have a constituency to get this done i. And those two things would help make more progress and, yes, i have on each. But ultimately we need to stop the fossil fuel industrys dangerous and fraudulent pollute for free Business Model by making them pay to ut which is what they should be doing as a basic economic market theory principle. But instead ofnomic market feary theory, theyre floating on a subsidy that the estimated at over 600 billion s every year. Makes it tough for renewables to compete against a 6 by the way, makes it easier to throw a few billion dollars into Controlling Congress if youre protecting a subsidy of 600plus every single year. So there is this conflict between free market principles and subsidies which unfortunately our republican friends inevitably resolve that conflict in favor of fossil fue taking billions of dollars in fossil fuel political money. Let me close by turning to methane. This graphic talks about economy wide co2 emissions in various Climate Policy scenarios but methane is over 80 times as dangerous in short term as a Greenhouse Gas than co2 is. And folks, w have been disastrously bad at handling those methane emissions. Indeed for yearsepa collected and reported artificially low methane numbers that were not real, were not even close to real. The methane effort was half baked, illinformed, and hapless. But something has changed. Now we can spot methane emission sources from satellites. The intensity of the methane leakage. And theres a new methane leaks bill which got into the ira, and theres a new reg from e epa. And the administration has announced a Enforcement Task force to use that new technology and find and fix■■m■ finish major methane leaks. In we can do that in this country, then we can go to the all international methane leaks found, fixed, and finished. And if we do that globally, thats a very big step towards a pathway to clite like the social cost of carbon plan, this plan, the methane Enforcement Task force, is set but the implementation is still unknown. A rapid, robust, and efficient Enforcement Group could really make a difference in getting dangerous a sloppy and indolent group that follows the moving at the speed the slowest bureaucracy would be a real disappoimee again, we ar oversight. Put these things together, a proper and well implementedl co made effective across all relevant federal agencies for all relevantge decisionmaking, plus a positive response, not a weak sister response, to the carbon border a tough multiagency crackdown on instry methane leaks and this trajectory towards climate safetyo get more possible. Unfortunately, we just had bad news from epa on their plant pollution rule. If you can believe it, their rule, which has been months and months and months in the making, will regulate coalfired power plants which are dying out on their own under their own shear dead economic weight, and they will regulate new gaspowered power plants which arent built and therefore dont have any emissions, but they wont be regulating in this rule the of the Power Plant Market that this year and in all future years will produce the majority of the its the biggest piece of the power plant emissions sector and theyre simply not going to the existing fleet of gaspowered power plants. It the logic of giving that free pass to the major polluting power pl. And it sends a terrible signal about the seriousness of the ag agency. So let us hope that that rule is a unique embarrassment and not broader signal of weak, even pews lamb news epa administrative effort on climate. The diligence with which the methane task force and social cost of carbon are implemented and the positivity of■ response to the cbam need to send a much more serious signal as should all future epa rule makings on power plants, vehicles, and other large sourcesc carbon pollution. We are at a Tipping Point right now, and when you get down to 1200 different scenarios where only 11 remaining ones still get you near a climate you have cu mighty thin. And making sure that we get this ri tn to one of those pathways is going to require a carbon fee, it the wa conservative economics tells you should be done. You can go to milton friedman, the high priest of free market economics, and he will say that if you are involved in making product that involves polluting or some other what they call negative extra naturalty