Appreciate your comments, Opening Statements related to Nordstrom Team 2. I want to ask about that. We know it security, nordstrom 2 threatens European Energy security, increases russian monopoly over the region. This pipeline is a russian trap, strongly support the recent announcement aimed at stopping this dangerous pipeline. Congress is working to provide the administration with additional tools to prevent it from being completed. The last few weeks both the senate and house passed their own versions of the National Defense authorization act with sanctions. Could you talk about the administrations commitment to opposing the pipeline and applying sanctions against those companies aiding in the completion of this russian trap . Donald trump took it on that it was a threat, created enormous leverage for russia, and ukraine as well. We had good support from capitol hill and legislation that was appropriate to delay the project, we are prepared to use those tools. There were diplomatic capabilities at the other end. We want europe to have a secure, stable, diverse set of energy opportunities, the department of energy worked alongside us to do this in our department, making sure europe has secure, stable, safe Energy Sources that cannot the Nordstrom Team to is dangerous and we will make sure that pipeline doesnt threaten europe. The National Arms embargo is set to expire october of this year. To my astonishment we are persuading the International Community of the importance of preventing iran, the worlds leading state sponsor of terror from purchasing advanced weapons, for armed terrorist proxy groups across the region. Weve seen more weapons likely flow to hamas, hezbollah in lebanon, despite the terrible consequences, that it would be vetoed by russia and china, what do they want why would they want it to expire and the Chinese Communist party really willing to betray Global Security to be irans arms dealer . I hope not but i expect so. We are working to prevent the arms embargo to be extended for months and months. We are working with their counterparts. We will submit Security Council resolution near future where we are to extend it. It was only a 5 year ban. To purchase weapon systems, build out air Defense System and the capacity to protect a Nuclear Program should they continue down that path but to sell weapons around the world, we will do what we can. We have the capacity to do this, we hope the un Security Council will conclude the arms embargo, with fingertips to make sure the arms embargo is not lifted on october 18th. It decreases stability and it would threaten israel and reduce American Security as well. On to religious freedom, sam brown, ambassador at large for International Religious freedom recently wrote humanity is why religious freedom will always win out against government and nonstate actors seeking to repress and control it. Weve seen authoritarian regimes restricting religious freedoms and the rights of individuals. Can you discuss efforts by the administration to promote International Religious freedoms . We phrased the priority of International Religious freedom in the state department. That happened under donald trump and mike pence and all across the administration. We use our genetic tools to encourage it, build resilience, work with religious communities to provide security to the work we are doing in Northern Iraq as a good example. There are lots of challenges. What is happening in nigeria with christians today, your point about the threat for religious conscience and people of all faiths is under attack in too many places. The state department has an Important Role to increase capacity for people to exercise their rights and religious freedom. We were not able to do it this year because of the virus but we brought people across the world, the largest human rights gatherings in all history, around the central idea people need to exercise this important right for their own faith. Earlier today, you called Chinese Communist party the central threat of our times, we had your deputy here, had a chance to talk about issues to expand military capabilities. To dominate globally in the last few months, increased military aggression near taiwan, south china sea, japan, hong kong, what they have been doing at home. Talk about recent confrontations, what that taught us about chinas military ambitions in capabilities. When we go to secure briefings we ask about their capabilities, not just what they might do but what they can do. These actions in the last 36 months, consistent with what they have been signaling for decades. You might argue since 1989, since secretary xi came to power, they desire to expand their reach. Bringing socialism with chinese characteristics to the world, to identify some but claim what they made for real estate the incursion that took place in india, indicative of chinese attentions and they are testing and probing the world to see if we stand up to their threaten their bullying. Im more confident than i was a year ago that the world is prepared to do that. Thank you, good morning. I am grateful for your proposal to double the budget of the Global Engagement center, to counteract propaganda outside the United States established through legislation, i am glad you recognize the importance and good work of that Center Though we spend a lot of times talking about many of our concerns regarding our adversaries desire to use propaganda not outside the United States but in fact inside the United States including the 2020 election. Russia in particular has sought to weave together stories about us persons and ukrainian persons over the course of the past year in order to so chaos and dissent in the United States and to screw with ukrainian politics as well, a double whammy for the russians and you can see those efforts ramping up into the 2020 election, the most active for an individual pushing narratives about the United States and ukraine, ukrainian legislator who was the individual that magically came into possession of secret audio recordings, maintained, retained Government Relations council here and i would expect he will be a pretty active presence in us politics from here to the election. A simple question on behalf of my constituents should we view andre as a credible source of information . I will answer your question real quick, i want to make sure the doubling of the money, to make sure we can deploy it. Weve been successful but growing 100 year on you have a team driving, make sure we dont waste those resources. I dont want to comment on anything in particular but we are taking seriously the threat that russia will try to engage in disinformation campaigns, we were pretty successful at this in the 2018 election. Im confident we will be in this one as well. Why are you willing to opine on a specific individual if you had information to suggest its source was not credible . That is the core function of the us government. If it has information that would suggest malign influence to let congress and the American People know . When appropriate i will. There is still work ongoing and still unsettled intelligence around these things i will try to resist a little more carefully. Let me turn to china. China is seeking to use the United Statess failure to control covid19 to leapfrog us in a leadership position when it comes to Global Health. Senator romney referred to this since the beginning of this outbreak, the first two with the president s remarkable fawning over chinas early response to the virus 47 times commending china for their response and transparency but also pretty happy with our withdrawal from the who and you believe as i understand it that our withdrawal from the who as a lever to seek internal change. I would disagree but it also seems to allow china to occupy that vacuum. As you step back and articulate this strategy to counteract chinas growing influence in the world how does withdrawal from the who counteract china . Good question. These are close calls. We left the human rights council, better to fight from within than reform from outside. There are reasonable arguments to be made on either side. The decision the president made, i concur with the decision, through multiple rounds of reforms in geneva, there was no capacity. Year on year it goes to benefit. The Global HealthSecurity Issues the United States cares about if they dont participate in the world health organization, im not convinced the world will benefit. Weve seen it other places, we will absolutely lead. Good things can happen. It is an international body, there is no way there wont be a level of politics, the decisions made of historic adversaries we will go through but is a sciencebased organization that is indispensable. If we are not back in the who. With the capabilities we should be developing with our allies to counteract, to go around the world, shaming our friends went to doing business with china. Weve got to have an answer for things china is offering. On the Technology Front we dont have a great answer for 5g or whatever china will put out on a i or advanced battery technology. Isnt this essential to our Counter China strategy not just to shame others into taking Chinese Technology but to work with our allies to develop our own alternatives . Absolutely. Thank you. Senator portman. Appreciate the opportunity to let us talk to the secretary of state. This has been very informative. With regard to china and developing technologies with our allies we have a lot to do to get our house in order. We are pointing fingers at china, usually appropriate but we also are not doing much here to protect ourselves. You have provided great help from your career professionals with china keeping our technology. In particular china has these programs doing it for two decades where they come over here and find promising researchers and take it over china and it is military, economic, healthcare, everything. Over the last couple years we worked on legislation securing American Innovation but with regard to this issue career people testified before us saying they need more tools to stop folks they know are coming here to deal with export control to actually take steal our stuff and take it to china but are unable to stop those people coming in despite affiliations with the Peoples Liberation army and the Chinese Communist party and in many cases history of taking research. We worked with one of your pearson fellows. I took advantage of it. Theyve done a terrific job and put together legislation and the American Research enterprise to benefit from international cooperation. We dont want to have this Taxpayer Research from being stolen. Do you agree these new visa authorities are helpful to protect taxpayerfunded research and intellectual property from our adversaries including china . They are into need an expanded toolset to get those right. We are making progress. To identify these risks, working hard on this set of issues. Going back to universities in our state, alive and well, we need to be candidate canned across america. With this influence and operation being conducted. There are 5 provisions, one relating to our universities and Research Institutions and a number worked with them, with this legislation, with bipartisan supporters, their organizations pushing back hard and i think they are naive and not willing to face up to the threat out there. A National Security threat. Over the last couple weeks weve had the opportunity to confirm good nominees for the department of state and im concerned the backlog build up to the point where you had a tough time running the department. We have more nominees next week. The ambassador of japan. I want to ask in particular about ukraine. Senator cardin not here today but in 2014 we went to ukraine and those six years a lot of good happened in ukraine and a lot of bad too, the ceasefire is not holding, there are 100 violations. The russian aggression continues. Ukraine made a decision to turn to us and we still have the situation where we are not getting the support they need, two questions, how important is it to get Lieutenant General dayton confirmed as the ambassador in ukraine . He is highly qualified. And number 2, do you agree with the National Defense authorization bill, to have a record amount to ukraine . Going from 50 million to 125 million in that legislation . To defend itself . They are doing good work. There is a loss when ambassador volcker departed the work he was doing was important to the overall effort in the region. We are hoping to get that position with the right person filled as well to have a full on effort to help the ukrainian people to maintain their democracy. A chance to talk to Lieutenant General dayton remotely but hes done a good job modernizing their military and ukrainian issues, the right person at the right time and i am pleased hes stepping up to do it, a good choice. With regard to germany, my point of view, moving troops out of germany is a good idea if they stay in europe and poland has been asking for years now to allow us troops to come to poland and offered a base several years ago where they agreed to pay for the base but the baltics in Eastern Europe in particular seems to me an appropriate place, i agree germany is not the place for the number of troops they have, should be closer to where the action is in the country that most risk right now. I would hope they stay in europe. One thing i will add, the positions and numbers, what with respect to poland we dont have defense Cooperation Agreement quite done so the state department with our dod colleagues in the event the department of defense makes that conclusion that it is the right thing to do, we put those forces in a way that protects them as well. Thanks for raising those issues, same questions i would have asked, trying to reorder and take the dod money, to use it more effectively. We agree that it needs to be well spent. There is a timely example in this was the United States has provided 2. 3 billion to help other countries combat covid19. Weve gotten very little credit and hope we can do more in terms of talking about what we are doing. China and russia are spreading disinformation that weve heard about, the virus was created in a lab by bill gates are brought to china by american soldiers under false narratives. Global engagement is a perfect push back on that and i dont know if you have comment on that. I think with respect to covid19 the world gets it. I am convinced efforts of the United States and other countries to push back against disinformation have been powerful and effective. Thank you, mister chair, mister secretary, welcome. The context in which we have this hearing is very complicated and almost too much to talk about. We passed 150,000 deaths in this country to coronavirus and in my view and the view of many a sizable percentage of those were preventable had the United States handled the pandemic better. The terms of commerce indicated the economy shrunk at the greatest rate in recorded history in the second quarter, the president is suggesting the president ial election should be delayed. This is not something you or i were prepared to talk about. The president sent out a tweet, delay the election until people can securely and safely vote, not saying it will happen but raising a question. Kenny president delay the november president ial election . Im not going to enter a legal judgment about that onthefly. You are an honors graduate of west point, graduate of harvard law school, you were on the harvard law review, at a red sox game. You are one of the most highly trained and accomplished lawyers who are part of this administration. Can a president delay a president ial election . The department of justice and others will make that legal determination. We all should want, i know you do too, want to make sure there is an election everyone is confident in. Are you in different to the date of the election . It should happen lawfully. You may not want to comment on it. A president cannot delay in election. The date of the election is established by congress. Was established in 1845. There is no ability for a president to delay and election. I dont think it is that hard a question or one that could lead to equivocation by someone with a line of succession let me ask another question. Was Marie Yovanovitch a talent Public Servant . Im not going to comment on that personal matter. Was she a valuable part of the state Department Family . The president made a clear decision that he preferred she not be in ambassador. That is completely every one of us to take t