00:04As you all know, we are spending a good amount of our time and energy here in the Senate on nominations these days.
00:12And we've seen an unprecedented level of obstruction and delay and blocking from Democrats.
00:19And as a consequence of that, we've had to kind of grind through, and that's what we're going to keep doing.
00:23If you look at just the historical precedent with regard to noms, we have never seen in history anything like what the Democrats are now doing.
00:34As of this date, back in 2021, Joe Biden had gotten 46 nominees confirmed either by voice vote or unanimous consent.
00:43Donald Trump has zero. Zero. Not a single one confirmed by voice or unanimous consent.
00:49And further, the Democrats are making it hard, even on bipartisan nominees, that sometimes we'll get 60 votes plus on the floor, one even up to 83 votes on the floor.
01:00So even the bipartisan noms are being blocked and delayed, so much so that the Democrats have been forcing me, when I file cloture just to get a nominee considered on the floor, to go in and out of executive and legislative session.
01:14So these are just dilatory tactics designed to block and obstruct the president and his agenda.
01:22And the sad reality is that there are a lot of these people who fill important positions in our government who need to be able to be confirmed to get there so they can do their jobs.
01:32And that's the way the American people, that's what they voted for.
01:34They voted for this president, and he has not had an opportunity to get the people that he wants to have man his administration get there to do their jobs.
01:42So this has got to stop, and clearly the Democrats are starting something and creating a precedent that is going to come back to haunt them.
01:50This is really bad.
01:51This is a bad practice on their part because, as you all know, what goes around comes around around here.
01:58And I think, regrettably, for the Democrats, they're going to rue the day if they keep this practice up.
02:03So I am hoping that they will work with us, come to their senses in the next few days here, to try and put together a package of nominees.
02:11There are a whole bunch of bipartisan nominees that are out there that are available for consideration right now.
02:16But this simply is, again, I've said it before, but it is.
02:19It's Trump derangement syndrome on steroids with the Senate Democrats.
02:24There are Senate Democrats who actually do want to work on getting some noms through the process, but their leadership is blocking that.
02:31And, unfortunately, here in the Senate, at least on the Democrat side of the aisle, it is the tail wagging the dog.
02:38It is the far left of their caucus that is preventing even good government people, people who are bipartisan, from getting confirmed.
02:47So that's got to change, and if it doesn't, we're going to be here a while.
02:50So with that, we'll try and answer questions.
02:51We know what Russ Kloet had said about a less bipartisan appropriations process.
02:59Will you ultimately be looking to the president himself about what he wants in government funding,
03:04and do you think he would be willing to give the Democrats some breaks to give them some opportunity to get on to whatever form of a spending bill takes shape in September?
03:14I think it's in everybody's interest to avoid a government shutdown at the end of September,
03:19which, as you all know, is when our fiscal year ends.
03:22And, obviously, in order for that to happen, it's going to take some cooperation from Democrats.
03:26So I think the president is prepared to deal, to negotiate.
03:30He's proven that in the past.
03:32And, obviously, we have bills on the floor right now, or a bill on the floor,
03:36which are trying to convert into bills to make it a package of bills to consider to keep the appropriations process moving forward.
03:42And, obviously, we are all very concerned on our side of the aisle in finding ways to make our country more fiscally sustainable
03:50and to find savings within the appropriations process and the other areas of government funding that fall under the mandatory side of the budget.
03:58But we very much want to see restraint in spending so that we can start dealing with the debt and the deficits.
04:06And I think the best way, at least right now, to do that is to have a normal appropriations process.
04:11And a number of my colleagues are on that committee and have been working aggressively to try and get bills ready for consideration on the floor.
04:19And I just hope now that we can get a path forward to do that.
04:21If, at the end of the fiscal year, the Democrats use any other suggestion made by anybody in the administration as a cover for not doing appropriations bills,
04:30or, worse yet, as a cover for trying to shut the government down, that is an argument that's not going to be sustainable.
04:36And so, you know, if we end up with a Schumer shutdown at the end of the year, the Democrats are going to own that.
04:42In the meantime, we're going to do everything we can to try and move the appropriations process forward,
04:46which is why we called up and put on the floor the Mil-Con VA appropriations bill last week.
04:53How are you going to handle a CR at the end of September?
04:56Will you do what you did in March, basically take a House pass package, bring it to the floor,
05:01or would you enter a four-corners negotiation ahead of time?
05:04Well, to be determined, I think a lot of that depends on how cooperative the Democrats are
05:09in trying to get the appropriations process moving forward.
05:12You know, obviously, I would say all options are on the table when it comes to funding the government.
05:20But what I can tell you is we are going to look for ways to keep the government funded and open and operating.
05:25And what we hear, at least rhetorically, coming out of the Democrats right now is they have a very different view of the world.
05:31And they're already talking openly about a shutdown.
05:33And I think the politics on their side of the aisle right now is such that, as I said, the far left,
05:38the wing of their party in the Senate, is calling the shots.
05:41And I don't think that's in anybody's best interest.
05:44So I'm not taking any options off the table.
05:46But what I will tell you today is that as we look at the next this week
05:51and then the subsequent weeks coming in September,
05:54I intend to use those weeks to try and get appropriation bills done
05:58so that when we get to that year-end conversation,
06:02we're prepared to have a, hopefully, a substantive conversation about what the best way is to fund the government.
06:08Thank you so much, sir.
06:11You have a situation now where the president says the images coming out of Gaza are bad.
06:16He's thinking about opening food centers there.
06:18You have a Republican, Marjorie Taylor Greene, calling it a genocide.
06:22You have American support for Benjamin Netanyahu slipping.
06:25What do you say?
06:26Well, I think that I share the president's view.
06:28I think that the humanitarian thing, obviously, when you see people hurting in a need like that,
06:34is to want to help meet that need and alleviate that pain.
06:40And so I think our government and I think other governments around the world,
06:43other nations are very interested in doing what they can to make sure that people who,
06:48through no fault of their own, are being harmed by what's happening there.
06:52But you've got to understand, too, that when you've got a terrorist group like Hamas operating in that region,
06:56they're going to intercept and divert a lot of that food aid that's going in there.
06:59And I think that's the challenge that the Israelis have.
07:02That's the challenge that we have and other nations around the world who are trying to step in and help.
07:06But I think all of us want to see, obviously, a peaceful solution there that gets the hostages freed
07:14and ends the reign and rule of Hamas in the region.
07:18But in the meantime, do everything we can to ease the pain and the hunger that's afflicting so many of the people in that region of the world.
07:27There's another issue you spoke about this morning with agriculture and the safety and inclusion in the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
07:37We still don't have the economy of farm bill.
07:40Given everything else going on here, the calendar this fall, what do you see as the prospects of finishing the job?
07:50I'm talking about food security.
07:52I'm here to be talking against, and then you've been saying, national security.
07:56Yeah, well, and it is every bit of that.
08:00Food security is a national security issue.
08:03Certainly other countries around the world view it that way.
08:05And, yes, I would love to get the elements of the farm bill that didn't get done in the one big beautiful bill
08:11dealt with in a normal way through the regular bipartisan 60-vote threshold way of doing things around here.
08:19But that said, we did do a ton of farm bill policy in the one big beautiful bill.
08:26Everything from the safety net programs, the agriculture risk coverage program, price loss coverage program, those were addressed.
08:36Reference prices were raised.
08:37Risk management was addressed through crop insurance.
08:40A lot of conservation policy in there, a lot of disaster policy with regard to livestock in particular.
08:45So there were a number of things done in the one big beautiful bill that address what has been a problem,
08:52and that is that we haven't been able to get a bipartisan farm bill across the finish line the last couple of years.
08:57Are there other things that need to be done?
08:59Yes, but I think we made good headway there, and we'll look for opportunities to finish the job.
09:04But remember, it's hard to find time to do things on the floor when you're spending all your time on nominations,
09:10which is where we are right now.
09:12And the Democrats, they can change that if they want to,
09:15but it's very hard to do substantive legislation at a time when we're dealing with personnel 24-7,
09:21which is the situation we find ourselves in right now.
09:23And as I said, that's going to change, and if it doesn't change, we're going to, you know,
09:28we are going to grind it out here, and Democrats are going to be here whether they like it or not.
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