we'd like to start with senator markey. he served massachusetts in the senate since 2013. before that, he served massachusetts seventh district in the house of representatives since 1976. we also welcome congressman joe kennedy. he's served since 2014. before that, he served as assistant district attorney. we are following social distancing guidelines, as you can see. everyone, including the candidates, are spread out more than six feet apart, and our panelists are not in the studio with us. they are in different locations. there's a news anchor for boston, a newsmaker for nesn, and a local reporter for nbc 10 boston. here are the rules. both candidates get one minute of questions, rebuttals at my discretion. 45 seconds for individual questions, with a 30 second rebuttal with a rapidfire around. they will both have one minute for closing statements. you can join right now. use the #masenddebate, senator markey will get the first question. the past two weeks, the campaign has turned ugly. they called off a fundraiser when they were scheduled to appear canceled after called

senate. sen. markey: again, i just went to say, i bring the kitchen table where i learned the lessons from my mother and father. i bring those values to the united states senate every single day. that is why i can see the families across the commonwealth struggling to pay their bills right now. it is the same kind of struggle i saw my mother and father were going through when they were trying to pay the bills for their three sons. that is what i channel everything will day on the floor of the united states senate, fighting for every family. latoyia: senator, thank you. congressman, i saw the eye roll. rep. kennedy: no, look. senator markey's story is well known. the issue is not whether or not he went to boston college or lived in malden at one point. the issue is whether he is giving adequate representation to people across our commonwealth. when i got into this race, i had no desire to take on an entrenched incumbent inquiry suicide. but when i called around when you go to chelsea or springfield

here i want to salute a group of bipartisan senators who back in 2016 -- senator wicker, senator schatz and others -- saw the importance of telehealth and have introduced a number of provisions for expanding telehealth services. and then step three would be to pass the bill i'm introducing today, which will go further than either of those first two steps and would make permanent inhome visits and the rural telehealth access and also make permanent the authority for the secretary to make the changes that the secretary has made over the last several months. my speech specifies what those provisions are. they came following a hearing in our help committee on which experts testified. this recommends what all of the experts said we ought to do. there were 31 temporary changes in the telehealth policy of the government. this makes many of them permanent. the best result for the american people would be for congress to approve all three of these steps that i've described. the changes in the heals act that was introduced monday, the connect act for health that many senators have worked on since

we put the president on with senator urban and senator baker. they said he should honor the subpoena. they did not even talk about the subpoena at that time. that he should turn over the tapes voluntarily. and of course he said no. that is when the committee voted they would have to subpoena the president. since there was no procedure for delivering a subpoena because it the had never been done before on president. as the chief operating officer, i chose myself. if you want to know the truth, i chose myself to deliver the subpoena. i thought, well, you have got to have a couple of exciting rings things to do. so i got in the back of a police car and went down pennsylvania avenue. there must have been 200 news people following. there was another crowd of reporters there. we had already called to make arrangements for leonard garment, mr. nixon's current counsel, because he had the habit of having different counsels when they would not do what he wanted, he would fire them. so he delivered it. i did this little sneaky thing. i had one of those bab

control of the senate. and i'm asking this question because we have a question from pennsylvania, from kathryn, and she asks point blank, what are you doing to help flip the senate? senator harris: yeah. so kathryn, you're absolutely right. that should be one of our main areas of focus because right now we as democrats are not in the majority. and it is really basic about what happens around capitol hill in the senate. if you're in the majority, you get to write the rules. you get to decide what bills are going to come up for votes. you get to decide who will end up serving lifetime appointments on the federal courts, including the united states supreme court. there's a tremendous amount of power in who has the majority in the senate. so you are right. we are now in the minority, which means that we don't have control over these things. and we need to flip the senate so we can get in the majority so we can have legislation on the floor for a vote that is about meaningful police reform, so that we can have l

senator blunt: thank you, senator murray. senator shelby. senator shelby: thank you. i'll address this to all three of you. where are we today? american people are watching this hearing. that we have sent you enough money. not. haven't, tell us why but tell us where we exactly exact, on can be coming up with a vaccine? i know the vaccine, i know every approach in the world. you know, logical approach. you got a lot of people working on it. american people are sick and getting they're looking for results and magicw you can't wave the band. dr. collins, i'll start with you. american u say to the people today where we are and when the timeline and what do where?nk we will be dr. collins: mr. chairman, this is the right question and all of us think working on covid-19 are obsessed about night and day because this one of those crises where science is not only important, and ever mistake we make would set us back and every wasted opportunity would for a consequence somebody's life. so i want to tell you, we are all in. everybody working on this warp team. where we are with

senator chuck grassley. >> -- senator duckworth. are we able to be joined remotely by senator duckworth? >> hello. can you hear me of? >> was yes. glad to hear your voice. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i apologize. administrator dickson, i apologize i can't be an video right but it is good to see you again. i have several questions for you, so in the interest of time please limit your answers to yes and no. given that the faa was responsible for aviation safety and the united states come your agency can take measures including legal enforcement action for violations of federal aviation regulation, is this correct? >> that's correct. >> it is faa policy to investigate complaints of low-flying aircraft that endanger persons or property, is that correct? >> yes. any kind of reckless operation of the aircraft is the responsible of the pilot in command, and that is something we would want to investigate and look into. >> hanky. with some flexibility for helicopters, and my manual is from 2018, so maybe some things have changed but i doubt

senate. some of you will remember that when i first ran for office, i was the first female senator. rob can attest to this. for example, the bill that would cause wasteful -- which would include a lot of the swag and government mascots that are out there. you would think that this is an easy lift, but i've gotten so much pushback on that particular bill. immediately, democrats started hammering me. -- you should stop with smoky the bear. so we cut back on smoky the bear. there are a lot of mascots that exist out there. we spent a quarter of 1 million dollars on a mascot and nobody knows who they are. that is the perspective from the democrats. but we also get pushback from our republican members as well. so many of them will come to me and look at the efforts that i have, the bills that i have. they're like joni, that's just a drop in the bucket. why even bothering? folks, that drop in the bucket adds up. if we cannot come together and eliminate those small areas of waste, how can we be expec

that's why senator merkley and i are calling for the senate to act. i thank my friend and colleague for his leadership. he's made it clear that 100% of oregon's united states senators are going to keep pushing and fighting until this chaplains. madam president, i yield the floor. -- until this changes. madam president, i yield the floor. mr. merkley: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. merkley: the support is felt throughout oregon to stop secret policing in america. but it is a coast-to-coast feeling, and i yield to my colleague from connecticut to speak from the other side of the country. mr. blumenthal: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from connecticut. mr. blumenthal: i want to thank from my heart our two colleagues from oregon, who are standing up and championing not just their hometowns, not just the constituents of their state. they are speaking for every hometown, every citizen of our country from every party from every corner of our great nation. and met me just say -- and let me just say ve

senator, you go first, senator markey. our country is on fire. our country.ce in we need medicare for all so there is healthcare justice for everyone. green new deal so we have environmental justice for everyone. overhaul our criminal justice system so that black and across our es all country know that there will be justice for them. pathway to citizenship for every immigrant in our country so there is justice for them. we have to overhaul our sac care system. we have to overhaul our system, so there is family.for every martin luther king said that the rc of the universe is long but bends toward justice. all of our hands have to be on to bend it towards justice. we need to do that now. we can do it. senator? thank you so much. >> i ask for your vote. >> thank you very much. >> congressman kennedy? you larks toy yeah. la toy yeah, i've spent the last the al weeks crisscrossing state listening to the concerns of people across our commonwealth. restaurant owner in springfield who literally cut a hole in her wall so she could a new takeout business.

schumer, senator shaheen, senator coons, senator rosen, and senator collins. i also want to acknowledge that this is bipartisan. i have talked to senator rubio. he has informed me that this has cleared the hotline. so we are hopeful that we'll get this u.c. done today. but as we're waiting for the paperwork to get to us, let me just explain what the u.c. does before i make the u.c. request. the authority of the small business administration to approve any more paycheck protection program loans expires at midnight tonight. that was the deadline we established when we passed the cares act in march. that was a reasonable assumption in march. we thought by the end of june that our economy would be back on track and we would not need to have additional applications after that date. well, a lot has changed since march of this year, and we recognized that when we passed the partisan flexibility act. it changed the time period for use of p.p.p. funds from eight weeks to up to 24 weeks and changed the allocation that treasury had established of using 75% of the funds f

senator reed, i have to say something about senator reed. sure, we differ on some things, but we've reached agreement on virtually every issue. i was glad we've been in agreement on amendments of --. we were pushing hard to have more and. we wanted to consider as many as possible and we wanted every member to have a say in this bill, and that's exactly what happened. i'm glad we were able to reach a bment path forward to complete consideration of this bill right after the recess, and that's exactly what we're going to do. going over a lot of reasons this bill is so important over the past week, so i'll keep it simple. here's why we need to pass this bill. first of all, it gives our troops the needed and deserved raise. it authorizes more than 30 kinds of special pay for our troops at various levels of hazard, things that haven't been done before. it makes sure our military family -- this is a big thing. i hear people, and i have a very close friend in here that was talking about the fact on the floor that while our main problem we are facing

>> yes, senator, agreed. >> yes, senator. >> yes, senator. >> well, good. thank you all very much. >> thank you, senator sanders. senator paul. >> thank you. fatal deceit is the concept that can never fully grasp the millions of complex individual interactions occurring simultaneously in the marketplace. it is a fate tall conceit to believe any one person or small group of people has the knowledge necessary to direct an economy or dictate public health behavior. i think government experts need to show caution in their prognostications. it's important to realize that if society meekly submits to an expert and that expert is wrong, a great deal of harm may occur when we allow one man's policy or one group of small men and women to be foisted on an entire nation. take for example government experts who continue to call for schools and day care to stay closed or that recommend restrictions that make it impossible for a school to function. for a time there may not have been enough information about coronavirus in children, but now there is. there are examples fr

again, i want to thank my colleagues, senator marco rubio, senator ben cardin, senator jeanne shaheen, for their dedication and good faith efforts to reach an agreement, and i yield the floor. thank you, madam president. mr. leahy: independent? the presiding officer: officer the senator from vermont. mr. leahy: madam president, yesterday i came before the chamber. again i made the case for why congress needs to begin negotiations on another covid-19 emergency supplemental bill. and do it now. the needs are real. they're immediate. in fact, when the house passed the heroes act, we should have begun those negotiations the first week after they passed it. we didn't. we should have begun the second week after they passed it. we didn't. we should have the third week after they passed it. we didn't. and the forum and the fifth and the sixth. -- and the fourth and the fifth and the sixth. now every day i talk with vermonters, sometimes hundreds at a time in statewide conference calls, and i hear their urgent needs, from small businesses to families to schools to hospitals to federal employee

senate republicans are not. so next, it's clear senate republicans don't have a unified position on anything. the main thing we hear is that he would appeal all relief americans are counting on unless there is a giant corporate t.immunityac provision attachedd he says they won't even negotiate on it. who is building things up and standing in the way? leader mcconnell and his republican caucus certainly at the top of the list. and president of trump is all over the lot. he himself called the republican senate proposal semi-irrelevant. when your own president says that it's semi-irrelevant is trump has said that senate republicans, you know that they are tied in the not and can't get anything done. the president seems to endorse a different policy everything he finds a microphone. the one thingor we are sure he supports is spending taxpayer dollars to boost the value of his hotel and yesterday we learned the president asked for nearly 400 million in renovations to the white house in the republican proposal. seriou

on - - has senator mcconnell forgotten? senator stab and output the list together. 400 pieces of legislation passed by the house deemed ignored by senator mcconnell he wants the house to produce more legislation 400 and what is included in this package? . . . about the urgency of the current health care crisis and the urgency of the current economic crisis. the kentucky hospital association, hospitals in kentucky have lost $1.6 billion since march. only 53 out of 118 hospitals in kentucky have received enough federal aid to cover the losses. 18 hospitals are financially vulnerable and at risk of closing. you know what would help them, the heroes act that passed the house of representatives on monday go would provide 100 billion in relief for hospitals. that would help my hospitals in illinois. it would also help in kentucky. how about the aid to state and local governments. as that's needed in kentucky? they expect to lose between ten to 17% of the revenue because of this crisis. without help from the government, the govern

the presiding officer: the senator from alabama. a senator: mr. president, today i introduce legislation that provides $306 billion in additional resources to fight the coronavirus and to mitigate its impact on american families, schools, and businesses. mr. shelby: i want to briefly highlight some of the main provisions and they've been talked about probably this afternoon already. first, $16 billion goes for states to ramp up testing with a particular emphasis on schools, employers, child care facilities and nursing homes. secondly, $26 billion goes for the development and distribution of vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics. we've made meaningful progress on each of these fronts but we haven't gotten there yet, as we all know. third, there's $105 billion for the education stabilization fund to help schools adapt to the circumstances they face which is extraordinary. the c.d.c. emphasizes the importance of getting kids back in school and has issued guidelines on how to do so safely. that is why this legislation provides additional funding for

and the senate for a democratic takeover. what are the maps in the house for a republican takeover? >> guest: at the end of the day it's not at play in the current national environment. republicans would need 18 i believe seeds to flip the chamber give or take a few vacancies and in the current environment it just does not appear that there are enough competitive republican candidates and enough competitive districts held by democrats to make that a reality. now there are certainly plenty of folks on the republican side who believe they will be able to get to that point later in the cycle however where the presidential race currently stands and where it fund-raising situation currently stands for so many are public and candidates and where the underlying questions remain makes it very very difficult to see out any way back from a republican majority and in fact if the election for the house were held today we would just as likely see democrats expand their majority and pick up another handful of seeds if they lose any of thei

senate. >> thank you, senator. >> senator, of course they endorse you. most of them endorsed you before i got into this race and that's fine, that's the way this goes. this race is not won because of endorsements, because there's a candidate challenging in our country and do something about it. >> so don't say, don't say. >> we have to do something about it and-- >> don't say i'm not doing the job and those endorsed me in this race. what you said is not accurate. those do have my back in the race and know i have done the job and saying to you, they're not with you, they're with me because i have been and continue to do the job for the people. >> endorsements don't win, endorsements do not win senate races. >> they're with me and had a choice to go with you, if what you say is true and i'm not doing the job. what-- >> 15 seconds. >> 10. >> 10, i'm take it, look it, this is why we need change because it is a washington thing to think that endorsements of elected officials means credibility and means success. that is the politics of the past and it does not

i'll be a senator for arizona. i'm mark kelly, and i approve this message. >> jacob, the focus there on health care in those two ads. >> exactly, john. it is pretty fascinating to see, despite the events of the last a couple months, between the coronavirus pandemic and the resulting economic fallout and the nationwide reckoning on issues of race in america, m th despite allel of that, the throh line from the election of 2018 is still so present in so many of those races. and that is health care. that health care is really the reason why democrats were able e to seize back control of the united states house of representatives innso m 2018.iee and so many in the party still believe that health care is the way that they will be able to regain control of the united t in 2020.natehe this is the defining issue for in many ways for this cycle as it was in last cycle. so what we saw there was martha mcsally, the incumbent senator,o he wasns appointed to that seatc not elected, defending her ld aa record onin pre-existing c

senator. i think i have it on. thank you senator. i want to highlight why the thrill was for senator grassley to make those opening comments. i was a little bit worried but i'm sure my sister helped them out. my uncle floyd moved and at arlene -- i know who are smiling down who are huge supporters of senator grassley. when i was 14 years old i went to an event at their farm. it meant that i did not hear his remarks. that was on the fast line 40 might be begun but it was awfully special. senator warner with the highest regards, i am now a citizen of commonwealth but when people ask me where i am from i proudly say that i am from iowa and words can't describe how honored i am in all the work that senator grassley has done for the state of iowa and by his leadership. acting chairman rubio, vice chairman warner and distinguished members of the committee, thank you for taking the time of day to consider my nomination to be the director of the national counter terrorism center. i appreciate the oppo

in capitol hill and the senate. in the majority you get to write thee rules and decide what will come up for vote. you decide who will end up serving on the federal courts in this debate co. including there is a tremendous amount of power in who has the majority in the senate. they are in the minority which means we don't have control over these thingsin and we need to twist the senate to get the majority is we can have the legislation on the floor for the vote for a meaningful police reform to have legislation for a vote addressing thee climate crisis, so we can have legislation on the floor for a vote of the passage of creating a pathway to citizenship for our immigrants. these are the things we need to do.im how do we do that? one of the things we need to give his support to senate andidates that are going to turn the -- as a way to introduce back because the challenge that is a new, they are campaigning in the midst of the pandemics they cannot travel so it is important to seek them out but let's recognize we ta

states senate. he had a red line? there'll be nothing denver covid unless you respect the redline. the immunity of businesses across america when it comes to liability for covid-19. how many times did he give that speech? day, after day, after day, he talked about the redline when it came to immunity for any kind of liability. well, i've paid close attention to because i was anxious to see mcconnell proposal when it came to immunity. i waited, and waited, and waited, and the best we could come up with so far was that report from the special interest lobbyist on k street that mcconnell and the republicans have been trying out a couple of ideas on immunity first. we are still waiting to see the language of the so-called immunity provision from senator mcconnell. this much we know. the statements he has made on the floor about the flood, this tsunami of lawsuits that were going to be filed because of covid-19. the vulnerability from some of the most innocent business owners and individual across americ

the senate has led every step of this crisis. we need to rise to this task one more time. >> madam president, our country faces the greatest health threat in a hundred years. the greatest economic crisis in 70 years. but here in the republican led senate would hardly know it. over the past several months even as covid-19 surged through the country once again, even as our state hit new records of infection and hospitalizations the republican majority in the senate delayed on the next phase of major emergency relief. in may -- i'm sorry

senate. we are living through one of the greatest failures of presidential leadership in our countries history. did you hear that donald trump? you have created one of the greatest failures of presidential leadership. >> we are going to this last portion of the conversation because the senate is about to gamble back in after their weekly caucus meetings. senators continue work on the 2021 defense authorization bill with votes scheduled later this afternoon for five senate coverage on c-span2 a senator: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from wyoming. mr. enzi: madam president, i rise today to discuss our federal finances and the need to address our unsustainable fiscal debt and deficit. the federal budget has already been on an unsustainable path before covid-19 reached our shores and before the pandemic and our government's response to it, which has accelerated what i believed is a coming day of reckoning. i recognize the unprecedented crisis presented by the covid-19. i sup

this is a potential catastrophe and why senate democrats including senator warren and van hollen and senator brown couldn't be with us today that is leading efforts on the senate floor on the issue tomorrow and other leaders and elsewhere have introduced bills that would provide an extension of the protections in the rental assistance necessary to keep people from their homes. you throw someone out of their home, their whole life gets disrupted, their healthcare other job opportunities, their kids educational abilities. housing is fundamental and it's been ripped by this crisis. leader mcconnell and the senate republicans have a blocked introduction of the bill refusing to act on the house passed he rose bill passed within two months ago and they assisted me on a three-month pause while they assess the conditions in the country and that is their words. the delay has protested this moment we are about to see these critical protections expire. if they've sat down with us, speaker pelosi and i sent a letter three weeks ago that said let's sit down and start talking, we wouldn't be here.

in 2019, the senate republican conference, just the senate republicans and not the whole senate, agreed to waive permanent ban on air marks. that was the first time any group of members of congress voted to agree to a permanent ban on earmarks. to answer the other question about one of the worst ever, near the top of the list or at the top, 50 million dollars for an indoor rain forest in carlsbad, iowa added by senator chuck grassley. because they were matching funds for that project in iowa, the city did not want it and eventually they did not build it. that was half $1 million for a teapot using them in north carolina, but that was at the top of the worst ever. host: that was one of the questions i had. do you go back and track the things that are actually -- the money is earmarked for like the indoor rain forest, are ever actually built? the bridge to nowhere, was it ever completed? does anyone track whether the projects for which these earmarks are put in congress for are actually even built in the final phase? guest: some are, some we hear about the teapot museum was never built be

senator. since an editorial staffer resigned from the paper because even senator's left opinions were not liberal enough and led to her constant harassment. that was a recent editorial staffer resigning from "the new york times" because her center left opinions were not liberal enough and led to her constant harassment at the "times." you see, the safe spaces only go in one direction. on elite campuses such as princeton, we see faculty turning on their tenured colleagues and even administrators weighing in to chastise people with unpopular views at princeton. we see online platforms such as facebook threatening to ban political advertising altogether, chilling our democracy because far-left employees and outside pressure groups berate them for letting diverse speakers use their platform. even at a time when there is significant appetite in congress to take a second look at the legal protections afforded to those supposedly neutral platforms, they still contemplate giving an angry minority of a

next, a democratic senate primary debate from massachusetts, where incumbent senator ed markey is being challenged by representative joe kennedy. this is the first of three scheduled televised debates ahead of this of timber first primary. ♪ >> live from the boston media center, the race for the senate. debate, senator ed markey. >> my advice today. >> congressman joe kennedy. >> our country deserves the best. >> face to face and on the record from issues that matter to you, from covid to classrooms , to police reform and immigration. it's their chance to speak directly to you. now your moderator, boston anchor latoya edwards. latoya: welcome to this primary debate, we are at the boston media center, home of nesn and nbc sports boston. we'd like to thank our guests for taking part. we'd like to start with senator markey. he has served since 2013. before that, he served massachusetts seventh district in the house of representatives since 1976. we also bracket -- all come congressman joe kennedy. he's served since 2014. before that, he served as assistant dirt -- assistant district atto

another package would need to be bipartisan to pass the senate. tso the question before the country is quite simple. if we aree going to see the versions of the house and senate democrat that helped us pass the act back in march, or instead are we going to see the same democrats who decided to block police reform in june and lashed out at senator tim scott's proposal instead of working with him to make law. in other words, madame preside president, the speake speaker oe house and the democratic leader believe that the americans deserve an outcome or the want to stay on the sidelines and recite talking points. yesterday before the democrats had seen the legislation, they began attacking it. releasing a proposal that wants to give schools even more reopening money than house democrats which would continue additional benefits at eight times the dollar amount democrats establish in the last crisis. we were informed on the floor those republican hard right money people don't want the federal government to help anybody. republicans put forth a trillion

i yield the floor. : : : a senator: the senator from wisconsin. mr. johnson: madam president, back in february 2020, before the covid recession, there were 158.8 million americans employed. we've gone through a lot. covid has -- is probably the most significant event in my lifetime affecting people's lives, the tragedies that we've seen affecting our economy, affecting the federal budget. today, at the end of june, there are 142 million americans employed. that's a reduction of 16.6 million americans or 10.5%. i want people to remember that 10.5%. over the last month or so there have been a number of respected economists who have made forecasts of how much our economy is going to shrink. these are folks from the i.m.f. and c.m.o., federal board of governors, economists at morgan stanley and goldman sachs. the range of what they are predicting our economy will shrink is 4.6% and 8%. this is causing economic devastation, a real human toll on real people. and as a result of that, congress acted. we acted fast. we factd swiftly -- we acted swiftly. we act

senator mcconnell: good afternoon, everyone. we just had a fulsome discussion of the proposals that were developed over the last two weeks by various republican colleagues in conjunction with the administration, including the presence of secretary mnuchin and the president's chief of staff, and we are now in the process of absorbing all of this, and we know that the process of reaching out to the democrats has begun. obviously, that will be led by mark meadows and steven mnuchin. i want to underscore again today that no bill will be put on the senate floor that does not have liability protections. and i want to make sure everybody understands here we are not talking about for businesses. please do not write that, because that is not the entire story. in the lead on this issue is our colleague, senator cornyn, and i will ask him to come forward now and explain exactly what the liability protection is about. senator cornyn: well, it strikes me as a cruel joke to send essential workers in to treat patients at our hospitals and then

the senate considered bipartisan legislation by republican senator mike rounds and independent senator angus king. the bill including a path to championship for dreamers was supported by a bipartisan majority of senators. it failed to reach 60 votes that it needed to pass the senate because president trump opposed it. remember when he said that the democrats were at fault here, there were no bipartisan measures to solve the problem? here was a bipartisan measure that he openly opposed. on the same day, the senate said i will send my proposal. the trump plan failed by a bipartisan majority of 39 to 60. over the years i have come to the floor of the senate many times to tell the stories of dreamers. these stories tell the whole story as far as i'm concerned as far as what's at stake with the future of daca and the dream act. let me tell you the story today about this young man, juan alvarez. 125th dreamer that i have come to the floor to introduce to the senate and the people who are watching. came to the united states from mexico at three -- at 3 years of age. grew up in compton, califo

>> and your own political prognosis. >> senate republicans responded to the crisis. beginning to write the cares act in my office which and to prop up the economy, and as you have heard suggested back in march we take another look, probably in july, take a snapshot of where we are on the health front and economic recovery front and decide at that point exactly what needs to be done further. what i can tell you without fear of contradiction, the focus will be kids, jobs, and healthcare. what i can tell you without fear of contradiction that any bill passes the senate will have liability protection, and without kicking any of you out you are mischaracterizing what this is about. this is like that old one - - liability protection for everyone doctors and nurses and businesses k-12 education. everybody who interacted. and less you are grossly negligent or engaged in misconduct to make sure you don't get sued on top of everything else you are dealing with so it is a prediction i can make with the final decision in july and it's exactly the right time to address this issue

senator gardner, senator daines, senator portman, senator warner, senator heinrich, senator manchin, senator cantwell, a whole parade of senators on both side of the aisle -- sides of the aisle have worked very hard to help this happen. and it would not have happened without president trump's leadership either. we would not have been able to spend the money the way that it's spent -- energy exploration money for conservation purposes -- unless the president's office of management and budget had approved that. so it's usually never true that an important piece of legislation is passed by a single senator. it's usually a parade of senators. but senator gardner has been leading the parade, and i congratulate him for that and salute him on behalf of all of us who want to see our national parks, the 419 different places we have from the great smokies to the rocky mountains to the yellowstone to pearl harbor, to the national mall, see them protected as well as our national forests, our national wildlife refuges as well as the funding for the land and water conservation fund. so i wanted to

senator mcconnell: good afternoon. acted withnate last regard to covid-19 back in march and april, we had at that point added about $3 trillion to the national debt. we then of course ended up with a debt the size of our economy for the first time since world war ii, which is concerning. i said i thought we needed to push the pause button. i began to see the impact of the cares act and related acts that passed during that time. see how we did when the economy began to reopen and take another look at what the country needed in july. senate republicans and the administration have been consulting over the last few weeks to come up with a realistic proposal with what we think is an appropriate amount of additional debt to be added to the economy at this time. we think it is about a trillion dollars. we have allocated that in a way that we think makes the most sense for the country at this particular time. it will include liability --urance, which senator liability protections, which senator cornyn is going to describe. the

i want to submit a letter by myself, senator alexander, senator wyden, senator barrasso, senator risch and senator sanders from vermont. we object. we're members of the committee we are senior members of the committee. we understand the d.o.e. budget and the d.o.e. responsibilities and we don't think it's right for somebody to mark up in a closed-door session in the middle of the national defense act a taking of money basically neutering the secretary of energy, basically saying, you only have half of your budget because we're going to dictate over at the department of defense exactly how you're going to spend those dollars. so that is a big power grab by a very few people and certainly deserves a vote by the united states senate. it certainly deserves a bright light by the american people. because not only are we talking about this from the perspective of the taking away d.o.e. resource and focus from the secretary of energy, we're also talking about putting into the hands of the department of defense what has been civilian oversight, civilian oversight of the production of our nuclea

secretary. >> thank you, senator graham. senator cruz. >> thank you, mr. chairman. secretary, welcome. thank you for your testimony and thank you for your service as well. let's cover a number of topics. let's start with nord stream two. we worked with stopping the completion of that pipeline. as you know, over a year ago i joined with senator shaheen in passing bipartisan legislation, went through both houses of congress with overwhelming bicameral, bipartisan support imposing significant sanctions on companies that participated in laying the pipeline of nord stream two. the president signed that legislation around 7:00 p.m. if i remember correctly on a thursday, and 15 minutes before his signature was on the page the swiss company that was laying the pipeline announced they were immediately ceasing all pipeline construction activity. so those sanctions worked. russia has not stopped. they have a pipeline that is 90 to 95% complete. the good thing about a pipeline is a pipeline that's 95% complete is a pipeline that is zero percent complete because it ain't transmi

cassidy, senator collins, senator hyde-smith, senator mcsally. all of these people have been supportive of the prescription drug reduction act. i want to thank them for helping bring attention to this very important issue of unjustified increases in drug prices. after these folks i just mentioned speak, i understand that a my colleague from iowa, who is in support of the legislation, is going to come at a later time today. so thank you to my colleagues. according to a recent gallup poll, nine out of ten americans are concerned about prescription drug prices. specifically, they are concerned that the pharmaceutical industry will take advantage of the current pandemic to increase drug prices. that poll was published a month ago. unfortunately, those concerns have become a reality now. so i say two weeks ago "politico" reported that pharmaceutical companies have raised prices on hundreds of prescription drugs just during the pandemic. the report says that there have been more than 800 -- 800 -- price increases just this year. i've been working on a

senate. jackie rosen would be only in our second part of our first term so she probably wouldn't have that much influence but if kathleen cortez masto was up in the ranks that would help jackie rosen in nevada as well. for many years the small state like nevada really couldn't do much until harry reid became one of the most powerful people in the history of the state becoming minority majority leader of the u.s. senate and i'm sure he's talked to kathleen cortez masto about that as he anointed our to replace him. >> host: it is nevada a swing state? >> it's a great question steve and i wrote a column after the last election saying that the data is a blue state state and wasn't the republicans who are upset with me was actually the democrats because if you were declared a blue state than you aren't going to get as much investment from the national party and the democrats want to keep saying that data is in play. now listen its still 100 days or so for early voting starting in nevada and you ca

senate here on c-span2. to or. the chaplain, dr. black, will lead the senate in prayer. the chaplain: let us pray. eternal god, thank you for the gift of this day. open the minds of our lawmakers and give them a vision of the unlimited possibilities available to those who trust you as their guide. may our senators embrace a hugh millty -- embrace a humility that seeks first to understand rather than to be understood. inspire them to seek your wisdom as you sustain them with your grace, mercy, and peace. lord, remind them that you will judge their fruits, productivey and faithfulness. we pray in your strong name. amen. the president pro tempore: please join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. mr. grassley: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. mr. grassley: one minute for morning business. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. grassley: the u.s.-mexico-canadian ag

senator johnson? senator gardner? senator romney? senator graham? senator portman it? senator paul? senator young? senator cruz? senator purdue? >> i'm here, mr. chairman. thank you for your work on this. your work has been very instrumental in moving the entire issue forward. it is greatly appreciated. all moveis can forward. thank you, senator cardin. senator cardin: i would agree with your assessment. this is been an excellent panel and i thank them for their contribution. observations that you've said, country, you a won't be safe unless all countries are safe. u.s. leadership is indispensable. the united states pulling out of who during the middle of this pandemic made no sense whatsoever, recognizing it needed to be reformed. we need to recognize the united states must lead by example. when we live in a country where we have the continuation of the cases,ave and escalating we are not an example the world is going to look to. those are facts we have to deal with. the foreign relations committee has a strong record of the independence of the congress leading our nation. you've m

that is why senator merkley and i are calling for the senate to act. colleague friend and for his leadership. he has made it clear that 100% of oregon united states senators are going to keep fighting until this changes. i yield the floor. >> madam president. throughout is felt oregon to stop secret policing in america, but it is a coast to coast feeling. i yield to my colleague from connecticut to speak to the other side of the country. >> senator from connecticut. >> i want to thank from my heart our two colleagues from oregon who are standing up and championing not just the constituents of their state, they are speaking for every hometown, every citizen of our country, from every party from every corner of our great nation. let me say simply, these pictures of heavily armed, unidentified individuals in camouflaged fatigues, driving unmarked vehicles, throwing individuals into their car, would be something we would associate with the worst nightmare of a two bit dictatorship. and here we see it in the united states of america. i spent almost my whole

mcconnell, because they can't agree in the senate, as senator graham said. they are deeply divided. indeed, mr. speaker, they are deeply divided and dysfunctional -- a deeply divided and dysfunctional party because they cannot come up with an alternative. meanwhile, other than the defense authorization bill, that's the only bill they passed, did not pass a single piece of major legislation during that same period. 80 days. we have passed major legislation over and over and over again, nd we did it in 20 days. so, mr. speaker, we're not announcing the august work eriod. we will be ready to act as soon as we can on covid-19 relief act. we believe the heroes act does that. only thing that they proposed to come back with is extend unemployment and cutting it 66%. so that an american family relying on that money is going to go cold turkey under their plan. now, i've said we can discuss the level. but we cannot discuss it so that we say 24 hours from now, you're on your own, mr. and mrs. america. so i put everybody on notice. on both sides of the aisle. that i will call this house back in

he gets a significant chunk of senate republicans. 19 senators who were signing on to this statement. remember, we have 11 senators. 10 of whom are democrats. on paper, we have almost 30 senators who seem to be skeptical about a possible johnson nomination. the johnson white house staff does not detect this. just at the time as the griffin round robin is coming out. johnson's liaison team in the white house that basically counts votes in congress prepared these documents for lbj. they say this is a shoe in. we have roughly 70% of the support in the senate. we have a handful of opponents but you don't need to worry. fortas is going to get confirmed. on paper, from the president's standpoint, this nomination seems to have gone very well. in reality there are big problems emerging that they do not seem to be detecting. johnson privately in late june and early july of 1968, is telling his aides that griffin is bluffing. yes, there are 19 republicans who have signed this letter, but in reality all of them will not vote against fortas and thornberry. they will back down when the nominees ge

that's never going to pass the senate. what we are going to do until we come back here is continue to assess the return of the economy and looking for the best way to help america resumed their normal life safely, smartly, wise he and with an additional amount of money that is going to need to be spent to allow that to continue. >> i think on that topic we will be putting together a bill so a month from now we should be in the final stages of getting the bill together. we will have more information than we have right now. i've already asked my subcommittee to put a package together to ensure we have more testing and we continue to work on therapeutics and have the money that we need to move forward on the vaccine. i know doctor barrasso said a couple of times in the meetings he and i were in and as well as the others here behind me that the most important thing we do to resume normalcy is to get people back to school. we've got to do that in a residential setting without millions of tests people can take conclusion to see