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tv   Washington Journal Open Phones  CSPAN  April 11, 2024 10:09am-10:47am EDT

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poverty and it's accepted throughout the community. >> over the next 20 years, it is predicted that the cost of housing will double. however, an income of zero will remain the same. if we do not work to build and sustain affordable housing, we will not only see the cost of housing double, but the number of homeless people too. >> to watch this and all winning entries, visit our website at studentcam.org. >> c-span is your unfiltered view of government. we're funded by these television companies and more, including charter communications. >> charter is proud to be recognized as one of the best internet providers and we are just getting started. building 100,000 miles of new infrastructure to reach those who need it most. >> charter communications supports c-span as a public
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service. along with these other television providers. giving you a front row seat to democracy. we will get your thoua minute. let's begin with "the wall street journal" reporting the surveillance vote failed in its setback speaker johnson. that is their headline this morning. lindsay wise reports how speaker johnson's tenuous ramp on the gavel was dealt a blow wednesday after holdup republicans, a done by former president trump, denied passage on controversial spying law. here's what the former president wrote on his to social website. "it was illegally used against me and many others. a spy on my campaign." speaker johnson spoke to reporters after meeting behind closed doors with rank-and-file
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republicans. he had this to say in reaction to the former president's comments. [video clip] >> here's the thing fisa, he is not wrong. they abused it. it was built on a false premises. we know the fake russian dossier and all the other things, but these would actually kill the abuses that allowed president trump's campaign to be spied on, and their criminal and civil penalties for using opposition research or for making fisa applications are illegal spying, if someone is involved in that, they could get 10 years of jail time if they commit those abuses again. and there are a number of other reforms and measures. president trump used the intel from this program to kill terrorists, and we have to kill the abuses so that we can do
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both of those things to continue and that is what the bill does. [end video clip] host: mike johnson, speaker of the house, republican, for renewing section 702 of the foreign intelligence surveillance act. we would like to get your thoughts. do you think it should be renewed or do you oppose it, as 19 republicans and all democrats voted against the rule that would have allowed a vote? democrats, many of them, support renewing the fisa bill, as republicans do, but there are some democrats and republicans who are opposed to renewing it. "washington times" -- lawmakers derailed vote during new fisa. democrats and republicans who do not trust federal law enforcement demand the law include a new warrant requirement for when the fbi searches for american data in the pfizer database. the law allows the government to
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only target foreigners abroad, but sometimes american data is inadvertently captured when they communicate with a foreign target. the bill, written by intelligence lawmakers, does not include the warrant requirement. here is congressman thomas matthew, kentucky republican, on the house floor, talking about wanting to include the amendment in this legislation. [video clip] >> today, we are building on the resolution that would bring forward reauthorization of a program abused for decades, the fisa surveillance program. before we vote on that program, this resolution that we are voting on now prescribes we will bring forward an amendment to require warrants. if you would like to spy on americans and use this database as a backdoor to look at the privacy, the private information of americans, you would need a
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warrant if this amendment passes. some people say, getting a warrant is too hard and it will slow us down. you will put america in danger. i have been in the classified area where they are supposed to tell us the problems with requiring a warrant, they never have. a single example over getting a warrant would be a problem to national security. in fact, we have a provision that says in exigent circumstances. you can skip that step. you will hear today that, everything is fine, we don't need the amendment. we have got 53 reforms in this package. here's the problem with them. we rely on the same people that abused the system to enforce those reforms, and they still don't go to the constitutional level that is required in this country. who doesn't trust us 53 reforms?
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congress. the authors of this bill. you know how i know? because they have put in two exemptions for themselves in this bill. if the fbi is going to use 702 fisa to spy on congressman, they have to tell congress. they even have to get permission from congress that they are spying on if they say it is for the congressman's own good. why do we have a provision in their that exempts congressman but not all america. americans deserve protections that are enshrined in the constitution. at the last should pass this house. [end video clip] host: that was the republican of kentucky arguing that the renewal of the foreign intelligence surveillance act needs an amendment to it. "from the new york -- from "the new york times," democrats and libertarian minded republicans would like to add to requirement that a warrant must be required before declaring content for
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american communications, under the rule to be voted on wednesday, critics led by jim jordan and the chair of the judiciary committee, that they would have a that tends to add it to the bill. national security officials argued doing so would cripple the program. senior lawmakers on the house committee, including congressman mike turner, a republican of ohio, and jim pons of connecticut, a top democrat, have also resisted such changes and are back in the more modest adjustments in this bill. on this idea of adding an amendment requiring a warrant. fbi director christopher wray d this to say, requiring warrant for u.s. quies would be a deliberate and ortsighted choice blindness to the thrt of a foreign trorist and u.s. planning and even executing an
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attack. the consequences of tying our hands, he wrote, are not, he goes on to say, merely hypothetical. autumn line, a warrant requiremen would be the equivalent of rebuilding the pre-9/11 intelligence law i saw the consequences of that policy choice 22 years ago. i have spoken with families of victims, he writes, about horrific attacks. and now, i can assure human of our adversaries are holding back . whether to attack us, steal from us, or to print our security or american lives at risk. the argument for and against the reauthorization of the foreign intelligence surveillance act. republicans, dial in, (202)-748-8001. democrats, (202)-748-8000. independents, (202)-748-8002.
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remember, you can text as with your first name, city and state, (202)-748-8003. you can post on facebook.com/c-span and on x at --@cspanwj. we have a democratic caller. good morning. what do you think about the debate? caller: yes, i disconnected a while ago. host: you are on the air now, -- caller: good. i don't know if i'm calling on the independent. i did not mean to call on the democrat, but i'm calling in regard to the way they are getting these warrants. my father was in the vietnam war and the cuban missile crisis, and i have lived here all my life, and i have internet or i could have internet. i'm calling you on a landline
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phone now. i found nine millimeter reels and i would love to share them with people, but i don't even want to turn on a personal computer because i'm very unsatisfied with the state of our government at this time. i graduated from college in texarkana, arkansas, and i have my bachelors degree. i also have a child with mental disability that spent two years in the county detention center, waiting for mental health and hospital facility, in which there are only 30 beds in arkansas. host: dana in arkansas, independent, not trusting the government with this power. henrietta in florida, republican. do you agree with the 19
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republicans yesterday? caller: i agree voting against it. i was there. i lived in west newark, new jersey, and i voted for this twice. i was on board with giving the alphabet agencies all the power they needed in order to protect us, and with the daily with it -- and what did they do with it? despite honest. despite on political opponents, they spied on whoever the hell they wanted. some of these alphabet agencies actually looked at their backgrounds, their family background, this is the reason, and god forbid anything happens and congress takes us away from them. it is their fault, not anyone else's, not congress', they
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abused the power we gave them. we are taking it back, and unless they behave themselves, which they haven't for the past 22 years, they have lied, obfuscated, they have done everything to enhance their own power and leave us pretty much on the backend of this. host: can i ask, you heard from the speaker, mike johnson, republican, saying that there are 53 reforms in this legislation. do you trust him? caller: quite frankly, no. host: why not? caller: first of all, he does not know how to negotiate a darn thing. he has come out of meetings, and he is a short stick. he is disgraceful. he goes in meetings with cia and
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the alphabet agency, and they say, oh my god, the world is going to blow up, we have terrorists, all my god, my god. too bad. you had power for 22 years, we gave it to you, and what did you do? you abused it. you don't get a second chance at abusing. it is just not acceptable. host: and lawmakers did get classified briefing yesterday afternoon from the intelligence community, advocating for renewing this fisa section 02 and it was enacted in 2007, "the washington times" says, and at that time, congress said it had to be reauthorized every five years, so this debate comes up every time. yesterday, 19 republicans said,
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no, you are not going to move forward on a vote on this legislation. that blocked the role that would have allowed the reauthorizing bill to come to the floor, and here are those 19 republicans. all democrats voted, also, against, which they typically do when you are in the minority. now, republicans are regrouping after the reauthorization of section 702 as divided the party. michael in pittsburgh, republican. good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. it is a great topic. i think it is very important. i think that fisa -- the wings need to be clipped. just like henrietta said. and i think it has been shown that the cia and the fbi have
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abused their authority, in so many cases. and they need to have warrants and judges, and they need to have kind of better safeguards against this abuse. host: listen to this from the intelligence.gov website, fisa targeting under section 702, all targeting must be conducted pursuant to targeting procedures that are adopted by the attorney general, in consultation with the director, and that must be improved by the foreign intelligence surveillance court. the court must find that the procedures meet the requirements in the statute and that they are consistent with the fourth amendment. targeting procedures provide specific criteria for ensuring all three of the targeted requirements are met.
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before selection begins, there must be layers of review and approval within every section 702 targeting decisions. nobody has the authority or ability to initiate section 702 except through this multistep process. michael, your reaction to that. caller: i trust congressman massey. i believe that he is right, if they find ways around the power that has been given to them by congress, but i think that this patriot act was abused, and every time it came up for approval, it came out stronger. they strengthened, and a judge wrote a book about that when they first came up, and he said this is unconstitutional what they're doing here, and it is ripe for abuse. sure enough, that is what happened, and now the fbi and
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cia is running our government. instead of elected officials running the fbi, and all of these agencies should be under the purview of the congress and as elected officials that represent us. instead, they are doing their own thing. host: michael in pittsburgh, republican. pat, the aquatic, -- texas, democratic caller. caller: good morning, greta. you are looking wonderful. host: morning. caller: first, i would like to remind you that a man with 91 felonies has said, if you have done nothing wrong, you don't have anything to worry about. the last thing we need is congress overseeing any authority of these investigations by the fbi and so forth three of this is exactly what russia would like. they would like politicians to oversee our government law enforcement so they can do whatever they want.
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listen to these people. they are brainwashed. they are absolutely rain washed. host: pat, do you see this as a decision of whether or not you trust congress or our law enforcement? caller: i trust law enforcement. look at the corruption in congress. look at it. they do not want to have any oversight by any law enforcement. that is what they do not want any of these fisa policies. host: all right, packed's thoughts on renewing section 702 of the foreign intelligence surveillance act. in cincinnati, ohio, independent, chester. caller: hey, how are you customer host: -- how are you? host: morning. caller: a few things. one, they need to have those warrants because obviously you cannot trust any of them.
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as far as that one document you read, saying that he saw 9/11 happened because his hands were tied because of warrants and things for you that is not true. they had plenty of intel that 9/11 was going to happen before it happened and refused to act. host: ok, so you are referring to christopher wray and what he had to say about the idea of adding an amendment that some republicans are supporting that would require a warrant to get american information. christopher wray will be on capitol hill today, and he will more than likely be asked and talk about reauthorization of section 702. he is testifying about the president's budget request for his agency, but this is likely brought up along with other issues faced by the agency. christopher wray testifying at
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2:00 p.m. eastern time today. watch coverage live on c-span3, on or video mobile app, c-span now, or online at c-span.org. tim, fairview, pennsylvania, republican. caller: yeah, i would not vote for the fisa build. over the past several years, i see american intelligence being targeted more and more domestically than abroad. i just think recently, you just saw in the news where the fbi shows up at some lady's door with guns drawn because she posted things on facebook regarding joe biden, so i just do not trust our intelligence apparatus anymore. and it seems kind of silly to be doing a fisa bill and worried about wiretapping and munication like that when we have a wide
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open border with thousands a day. many of them are chinese nationalists coming over the border, and they are worried about tapping somebody's phone call. i mean, there are divisions now of young men coming over the borders, and they are worried about electronic surveillance. i would not buy it. i would not vote for it. host: tim in pennsylvania, weighing in on the debate in washington over whether or not to reauthorize section 702 of the foreign intelligence surveillance act. fisa is what it is called. we would like to get your thoughts. henry and michigan, democratic caller. caller: good morning. this is classic cognitive dissonance you are hearing. this man who just got off the phone said there are thousands and thousands of foreign nationals pouring over the border who would like to do
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something to us, but then they don't trust our intelligence community to protect us. i would like to clarify something. this is not the congress. the democrats in want this, it is the republicans. they have gone off the deep end, paranoid schizophrenic. we have a 91 count indicted former president, who is going to trial. and that is why they are against this. they fear that because of the insurrection, and i would like everybody to look at the list of those 19 republicans who voted against this, they are all suspected of being a part of the insurrection, higgins, you just go down the list, and you will see all of them are suspected of being part of the trumpet
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insurrection, so we have to support our intelligence community to keep us safe, especially if you are worried about who is coming across the border. it makes no sense. you are saying we have chinese nationalists in this country were going to do us harm, but we do not want the fisa warrants or the intelligence community to be empowered to have surveillance. this is crazy. republicans have gone stark raving mad. something is wrong with these people, and they need to seek help immediately. host: in 19 republicans tweeted out by our c-span's craig kaplan, covering capitol hill, 19 republicans who joined all the democrats in voting to block this reauthorization bill from coming to the floor. the fact that speaker johnson wanted republicans to vote on this and approve it is now
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another reason why congresswoman marjorie taylor greene of georgia is upset with the speaker. you all know, she has a motion to try to vacate the chair. she has not offered it yet. here she is yesterday talking to reporters. [video clip] >> it is pretty clear and obvious and whispered that johnson does not have the support of the conference. the letter i sent has been well received, and it was a sickly speaking about it out loud. how he handled the fisa process and funding ukraine is going to tell our entire conference how to handle a motion to vacate. [end video clip] host: marjorie taylor greene yesterday morning. later in the day, the rule to bring the reauthorization bill of the fisa section 702 to the floor failed. alan in tennessee, independent. your thoughts on the debate.
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caller: yes, i have got two points. first, this is not accidental. this is a systematic abuse of the system. the fbi has done hundreds of thousands of warrantless searches. even if you took it to a fisa court, they lied with impunity, and the fisa is a rubberstamp. we know that. christopher wray goes in front of congress and doesn't answer truthfully about any of it. the other thing i would like to make a note of so viewers will understand about shaping the narrative, you read an article about how fisa is benign and has all these protections. he could have just as easily read a story about the hundreds of thousands of abuses, how the fbi systematically targets people, how they use technology to do things that are
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specifically prohibited by the constitution, so that is the way c-span shapes the debate with selective reading of articles, typically out of " the new york times" and "washington post." i'm aware of it and i think the rest of your viewers are, too. host: did you see the arguments made by thomas massie on the floor? the clip we showed were he was talking about what you were saying, the abuses that are taking place? caller: i saw you selectively take an article out of "the new york times"" washington post" as is the standard now -- host: it was intelligence.gov, their website, i prefaced it as that. it is their argument for renewing it. we showed the arguments against renewing it, the abuses you are talking about, thomas massie me that argument, and that is why he and others are calling for an
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amendment. kyle in new mexico, republican. caller: hey, greta and america. thank you. so that fisa is the foreign intelligence -- host: surveillance act. caller: surveillance act, so if it is foreign, why is it involved with american citizens? host: this is from axios' reporting, fisa surveillance section 702 allows intelligence agencies to conduct warrantless surveillance of noncitizens based outside the u.s., some u.s. communications can sneak into collections of americans are talking with non-us citizens overseas, so this is where the concern comes in, data collection stored for years that intelligence agencies can tap as part of their investigations. we are now going to move to open
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forum in our first hour of "the washington journal." you can continue to talk about the debate over reauthorizing fisa, but there is other news we would like to bring in as part of the conversation. there are the lines on your screen. republicans, any politics or policy issue, dial in at (202)-748-8001. democrats, (202)-748-8000. independents, (202)-748-8002. open forum for the next 30 minutes this morning. to kick us off, speaker johnson with reporters yesterday at the capitol was asked about representative marjorie taylor greene's threats to asked him ukraine funding and how the recent spending battle played out. here is his response. [video clip] >> on the supplemental, house members are actively discussing their options. there are a lot of ideas.
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a complicated matter at a complicated time. and the clock is ticking, and everybody here feels the urgency on that. what is required is that you reach consensus, and that is what we are working on. marjorie taylor greene is a colleague, always considered her a friend. i don't think we disagree on any matter of philosophy. we are both conservatives. we do disagree sometimes on strategy and with regards to what we put on the floor and when. marjorie is frustrated by the lack of the appropriations package and spending bills and you know what? so am i. we have to remind everybody that we have the smallest majority in u.s. history, a one-vote margin. this is an historic moment. there has never been anything like this. at the same time, we republicans only have that in one house, not
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the senate were chuck schumer and the democrats are in charge, and we also don't have the white house involved. so we are not going to get -- because of that reality, we will not be able to do transformational changes that we would like and that we know are necessary. for example, the budget and spending, we will not get all of our priorities. we will never get 100% of what we want and believe is necessary for the country because it is a matter of math in the congress. i members" that are available. it does not serve our interest to not fund the government and shut it down at this critical time because imagine a scenario where border patrol agents are not paid, tsh agents are not paid, flights are canceled, we are not paying the troops, everything we do that comes to a grinding halt would put pressure on the american people, economy, and a desperate time. we cannot have large sections of the border and patrolled. we cannot not pay border patrol agents. that wasn't an option, and i
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don't think that would helpful from a political standpoint of the republican party to govern to maintain, keep, and grow our majority in november. that would not be helpful, nor does the motion to vacate helpless in that regard either. it would be chaos in the house. marjorie and i are going to visit later today. i look forward to the conversation. i will not discuss it anymore. i will discuss it with her. [end video clip] host: do you agree with speaker johnson? you can react to what he has to say on spending battles and the threats to oust him because we are open forum. republicans, (202)-748-8001. democrats, (202)-748-8000. independents, (202)-748-8002. you can text us, include your first name, city and state to (202)-748-8003. join us on facebook.com/c-span or on x at --@cspanwj.
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on capitol hill yesterday, senate republicans are pressuring vulnerable senate democrats who are up for reelection this cycle on the impeachment trial. defectors are needed to prevent the killing, they say in "the washington times" of the charges against the homeland security secretary. this week, they delayed heading over articles of impeachment to the senate, which would have triggered action the chamber. instead, they asked the speaker to delay that until monday this week coming up. now, republicans in the chamber are pressuring as "washington times" says, vulnerable democrats to have a trail against the homeland security secretary. here is a chuck schumer of new york on the senate floor
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yesterday on his approach to the impeachment proceedings against the secretary. [video clip] >> mr. president, as we enter the height of the spring season, there is a lot on the senate agenda. we continued to confirm more judges and nominees, we must assure fisa authorities are renewed during this work period. off the floor, we continue to work on a host of issues like lowering the cost of prescription drugs and increasing travel safety and ai and more. as busy as we are, one issue the senate will soon have to address is the house vote to impeach homeland security secretary alejandro mayorkas. yesterday, speaker johnson announced he is delaying transmitting the articles to the senate until sometime next week. our plan over here hasn't changed. the senate is ready to go whenever the houses. we would like to address this issue as expeditiously as
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possible. as i said yesterday, impeachment should never be used to settle policy disagreements. that sets an awful precedent. when the time comes for the senate to receive the articles of impeachment from the house, we will be ready. in the meantime, we'll keep working on legislation that matters to the american people and doing it in a bipartisan way whenever we can. the american people demand, expect and deserve nothing less. [end video clip] host: the debate on whether or not to move forward on impeaching the homeland security secretary over the border situation is also on the table in open forum. in alabama, republican read what is on your mind? caller: yes. first of all, i will give you examples as to why the border and the people coming over here, and they are receiving all of this free stuff. i will give you an example, and i would like to hear some
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comments on this. ok, medicaid was paying my medicare premium. they stopped. but, they were going to have me take two to three months back on medicaid, medicaid stop paying it, so i was going to have to pay two months to three months in advance, taken out of my check, three months of medicare, which is $174.70. ok, why can they not do this more rapid instead of letting it stack up? my rent is $550 a month, so if they took out that much, two months to three months worth, i would not even have enough left to pay my rent. i don't understand this. instead of them squabbling over small things, why don't they look out for the seniors?
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there is no help for the seniors. if you are a few dollars out of their limit, they are knocked out all of this. they don't consider the high-power bills, the high food costs that affect everyone. not just the people that are below their standard. and i don't have family left, so i have to watch out for myself, and i had to call medicare and medicaid. i had to call social security. i was on the phone with them off and on since february 16. finally, i got it straightened out work i'm paying one plus half of another in order to live, so i would like to hear some comments about this. that is why i'm so upset about all the illegals getting all this free stuff when i worked like a man all of my life, not like a woman, i have worked like
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a man, and now we are getting this thrown in her face. thank you for taking my call and have a blessed day. host: bill in alabama, independent. good morning. caller: good morning, greta. i would appreciate it if you would allow me to make several comments. first, about alejandra mayorkas, he is a -- i don't even have words to describe what he has done to the country. he needs to be impeached, prosecuted, in my opinion. two, the illegals, all the illegals coming into the country, i live in alabama. we are a border state because my community has been flooded with illegal aliens. they are everywhere.
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everywhere. now, one more thing. i have been in contact with social security. the lady i spoke to, i did not even understand her. i had to get her to spell things so i could write it down. i don't know if she was eating or just doesn't know how to speak english. this is ridiculous. host: bill in alabama. on immigration, the homeland security secretary was on capitol hill, testifying twice yesterday on the president's budget request for thatdepartme. first, he appeared on both the house and senate side yesterday. we covered both of those hearings. you can findon

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