Transcripts For CSPAN Newsmakers 20240622

With him. Our two reporters will be asking questions. Rachael of politico. And daniel. Daniel your first. Daniel as we mentioned, the process seemed stalled. It has been widely reported that an amendment was brought up i democrats, three amendments in fact. Can you just take us inside what happened on tuesday night through the end of that week, when the interior appropriations bill was pulled from the floor . Rep. Rogers the amendments that the democrats offered caused a number of our members to declare that they did not support the bill on fast passage. The bill was removed from the floor. It is too bad because it is a great bill. The interior appropriations bill did so many great things. It held back the epa us wild rampage towards regulating everything, among other things. Its a good bill. Its too bad we had to remove it from the floor, but i hope we can force it back. The provisions that bill will be able to be incorporated sometime this fall. Daniel im sorry. It sounds to me like the process, then, is installed. There are no more a preparations belt. Appropriations bills. Rep. Rogers leadership is trying to resolve that issue, i hope they do so we can bring the bill back to the floor. But we will have to prepare a contingency. Rachael just a little bit more about that. How many members came did they come to appropriations of staff and say we need about on this or we cant support this bill . How many members were there, can you say where they were from . Rep. Rogers i cant give you an exact number. It was substantial. Rachael more than a couple . Rep. Rogers i dont want to get into numbers, but it was quite a bit. It convinced me that we cannot pass the bill without with their absence. Rachael you mentioned a contented contingency plan. Talk about it next step forward. Obviously you have talked for a sort of 2. 0, a budget that would raise the tax on defense expenditure spending, but leadership has not publicly endorsed that idea. You have been probably the highest ranking public into leader of this idea. Have a signal to you as they would be open to that later in the year . What do you think will happen and what would you like to happen . Rep. Rogers number one, i do not want a longterm cr. That would mean, if we did that, that all of the work could be a preparations committees and subcommittees have done so far in perfecting the swell bills 12 bills, all of that work would go out the window. All of the writers, riders all of the changes in spending to these new bills to modernize current spending, all that would be thrown out in acr in cr. I dont want to see a longterm cr. However it looks like the probabilities are, we are going to have to do at least a shortterm cr. A couple of months or so, in order to allow to perfect an omnibus bill like we have done the past two years. However, the differences time is we have the sequestration caps in place. Its probably going to be impossible to get an agreement on an omnibus spending bill with the white house and both bodies on the hill. Is going to have to take probably some relief from cigna station sequestration. That means were going to have offsets. Those could come from either ways and means committee, or maybe even energy and commerce on entitlements. Hopefully we would seem see some offsets come from those two places in order to offset the spending increases to get away from the severe caps of sequestration. Susan can i follow up on that . You suggested that the last two years we have ended up with an omnibus bill. This was mostly to congress where we got back to a socalled regular order. Is that even possible anymore . Rep. Rogers thats a good question. You know, one of the things making it difficult is around 60 of the house has only been there since 06. So we have had a 60 changeover, and a lot of the new members have never seen what i call regular order, and that is passing 12 individual bills conferencing them separately with the senate, and getting the bills to the white house. Most of our members have never seen that and they take regular order is doing crs. So weve got an education process going on. However i think members more and more, this year especially, are seeing that this is a really good way for them to be able to legislate, offering amendments on these bills on the floor. And getting their voice into the process, and then voting for the final bill. That is getting better. I still have hope that we will get to regular order one of these days. Daniel do you sometimes wish that you had earmarks back . Rep. Rogers yes. Daniel do you consider that a big factor in prior to getting rid of your marks, the process seemed a lot easier. Every sense, it has been a lot harder to pass Appropriations Bills. Rep. Rogers more importantly, i think the congress, by the constitution, controls the Purse Strings of the government. Supposedly. But that presumes even pass Appropriations Bills in order to exercise that power of the purse. We have not been able to do that. So the bureaucracies in the executive branch have had free will to spend congress has punted the ball down to the executive branch, and the bureaucracy is saying what they spent and still spent. That is not the way it was supposed to be. Congress is supposed be the watchdog over the executive branch, to fare it out abuse or whatever. Sarah ferret out abuse. Part of it is with your marks. Nobody knows better than me being from my part of the country, because i spend my time there, i live there. My staff is there. We work on case for all the time. I know what needs to be done there that are than any bureaucracy downtown, 600 miles from it. I think your marks are very good your marks earmarks are very good thing in moderation. Daniel we are heading into an election year. Any cr, i would assume would get us through september that year. Just a month before people go to the balance. Can you talk about some before people go to the ballots. Can you talk about some of the challenges with a highprofile election going on . Rep. Rogers it certainly makes it more difficult, no doubt about it. The issues we are dealing with in these bills are issues that are being dealt with in the political campaigns out there, one way or the other. So it does make it difficult to regain a majority of support for a particular position. You mentioned that a cr would last until next september. Rachael not if he had anything to say about it. Rep. Rogers its anonymous. An omnibus. A continuing resolution just says, we are going to keep things going as they are. No changes, no moderations, no increases, decreases just doing what you are doing now. That is a continuing resolution. No changes in the law. On the other hand, an omnibus spending bill aggregates all 12 bills into a single big block blob. But in that instrument you are probably hoping to incorporate all of the riders as the changes in spending you have passed in these individual bills up to that point. You package that and from the entire government for the entire year with the changes that are necessary. For example, on the pod budget a cr would continue spending for programs that are no longer in being. They would be required to spend money for that. On the other hand, they need money for this new gizmo or whatever it may be no money for that. Its dangerous in that respect. But an omnibus appropriations bill is what i hope and trust that we will finally come up with. As opposed to a continuing resolution. Rachael has leadership given you any sort of assurances that all these work you put in be swelled Appropriations Bills i think the senate today is finishing their final appropriations bill in committee have there been any private assurances that this is not going to go out the window . Rep. Rogers the leadership is determined to beat past these bills to pass these bills individually or past an omnibus that has most of these bills and it. They have been very good about that. Daniel have you been in any meetings, or been in any meetings or been aware of any meetings about the Confederate Flag issue . Because that is the issue that is holding this up. Rep. Rogers i have not myself. I think leadership has. Daniel you are from a state that was not really in the confederacy, where do you personally stand on that have you personally feel about the Confederate Flag, and whether or not people should be able to display it in cemeteries and so on . Rep. Rogers i dont want to see anything that raises hatred or bias. I will leave that decision to leadership. Rachael you mentioned policy writers earlier in this conversation. These have been red meat issues for the conservative states. A lot of times when democrats and republicans that down to negotiate, thoserid riders fall off. But im wondering now the you control both chambers, are there certain riders you think youll be able to keep on . Sanctuary cities, the irs, gun issues, planned parenthood is a big one that is popping right now money for planned parenthood . Anything you think youll really fight to keep on . Rep. Rogers i will fight to keep all of the riders that the house has passed. Thats my job. I will be seeking to include all of those riders in the final package. The senate will obviously have their pets. Thats how this plays works. Rachael realistically though, president obama is going to veto certain policy riders, a lot of them actually. Are there any that you guys are actually willing to lay down the law on and say, we are not moving . Rep. Rogers all of them. You mentioned the Senate Passing their 12th bill through committee, today i think. That is the first time since, i think its been eight years thereabouts, says that has happened. When both bodies full committees has passed all 12 bills. That is coming along way from where we were sometime ago. And two, we are talking about an omnibus spending bill that the president has not signed. We are going to have to listen to the white houses position on some of these matters. So it will have to be an agreement, finally, the two bodies on the hill and the white house. As it has been now for some i think the last 2, 3 years when omnibus bill. Weve got to get all of those parties together at some point in time. Daniel you said the committee has got all the bills passed for the first time in several years and yet you must be somewhat frustrated with your leadership that they cannot get that final step done . Rep. Rogers im frustrated that we cant get these bills always through. However, leadership has been very very helpful in arranging time on the floor to bring these bills up. Giving us generous amount of time. Lobbying the members to vote for the bills. Pushing the process as rapidly as we could. And we finished six of the bills on the floor, on the house side. And the interior bill was practically done when it was interrupted. So almost seven of the 12 bills we were able to carry through the house. The senate of course has not been able to carry any of those to the floor over there, because the democrats have said they will not support any bill that is at sequester levels. Which these bills are of course. It begs the question about what we do about dealing with the sequestration caps. That would is going to have to come after consideration is given to the ways and means committee, the Highway Committee , not to mention the regular house and senate leadership. Rachael who will take the lead on this . Last time it was ryan murray. You have obviously moved on from their budget position. It will be the first to strike a deal . Rep. Rogers that will come from leadership. It requires a coverage of more than just the appropriations process. We can do the spending part. We cannot do the funding that is required, the increases that are required to reduce the sequestration caps. That has to come from another committee or from leadership. Leadership, and good course of time, they will be the judge of that. We will take appropriate action. Susan we had eight minutes left. Daniel next year is your term limit. It will be your last year as chairman. Will you seek a waiver to stay longer . Rep. Rogers leadership will decide those types of things very daniel . Daniel you have to ask first for them to decide. Are you considering it . Rep. Rogers not really. Daniel what would you do if you are not chairman anymore . Would you still run for reelection . Rep. Rogers im not sure. Susan rachel . Rachael i would like to hear more about what you think of going to happen. Is the shortterm cr going to be one month, is a going to be two months . If they do a stopgap transportation bill for the highways, for just a couple of months how do you see all of this wrapping together . Or would you like to be totally separate . Rep. Rogers of course, my focus is on appropriations and doing an omnibus bill. What leadership does with his other issues, its obviously up to leadership. I will gladly let that be their decision. Rachael if it was up to you how long would a shortterm cr these . Be . Rep. Rogers theres no magic number. In a path i think we have done about two months. We wound up doing an omnibus bill this past year in december and i guess the one before it the same way. The ballpark. Rachael are you pretty confident that leadership will do some sort of budget the deal . Rep. Rogers that remains to be seen. I cant tell you that. Daniel we talked about the president ial election a little bit. 16 candidates now. Have you ever seen a field like this before . Rep. Rogers no. Its like a flock of geese. [laughter] and were not there yet. Rachael are you worried about what it will do to the appropriation process . Rep. Rogers not really. I dont think there is a direct connection between what goes on out there and our committee. Rachael it could push people further to the right who dont want to raise spending levels . Rep. Rogers it could. We could get some impact like that. Daniel do you think the appropriations process could take have an impact on what the candidates talk about . For example, if people bring up social issue riders that could bubble up to the campaign. Have you had any conversation with leadership, or have you had any conversations about how did stop throwing candidates off message next year . Rep. Rogers no. That is something that would not work number one. Daniel why not . Rep. Rogers well, we cant convince people to not do something that they are determined to do in the house. Its a free will place. Susan since we have segued into president ial politics, i wanted to get your thoughts on how the president ial candidates are doing on the trail. Senator paul . Rep. Rogers i can only speak for him in kentucky. He is very popular in kentucky. As you know he is running for reelection next year as well, in the senate rate that he is doing well. I dont know about his national campaign. Im not part of that. Susan whats do you think it will take for any of these candidates to rise above this what you call a flock of these . A flock of geese . Rep. Rogers thats the 64,000 question. They are on their own and doing things to gain attention. I dont profess to be able to predict what might come next in that freeforall. Susan at this point, is mr. Trump good for the party . Rep. Rogers no hes not. Susan in what way . Rep. Rogers he is just too bombastic. I dont argue with him on the merits of what he is talking about, but he needs to tone it down. He needs to be a little bit more regular. Daniel do you have a golden goose, if you will among the flock . Rachael someone from your home state . Rep. Rogers he is my home state senator. Susan three minutes last left. Final questions from you both . Rachael you had a very good personal relationships with senator mcconnell. You guys have relationships going back over a decade. Rep. Rogers 71. Rachael are you using a personal relationship with him to try to lobby for a budget deal . To try to increase spending . As we said, right now we have not seen them publicly come out and endorse that idea. Rep. Rogers of course i have had conversations with him. But they are the leader and they will make their decisions based on a great number of factors. I am prepared to wait them out and give them the time that they need to make the decision. Daniel we are about a week away from the august recess. When we come back you will have a mother said of figure something out. When did discussions need to start happening . Rep. Rogers its being discussed now. When we come back after the august break, i think there is only like six legislative for days left before the end of the fiscal year. We dont have a lot of time. We will have to move fairly rapidly in september. Daniel that being said, are you planning to spend a lot of time here in august . Rep. Rogers we will be looking under every rock in these bills to see what we can find in terms of savings. We will try to clear the underbrush so that when we do have a conference in front of us with the senate, we will have a lot of stuff already done. So yes, it is going to take a busy august. Rachael as for looking forward. Say you guys do get a budget deal this year. You guys have a list of priorities . The nih, i know you talk about nasa a lot . Not so much the epa, given call country where you are from. What sort of priorities do you think republicans will want to press up . Susan you have 30 seconds mr. Turner mr. Rogers. Rep. Rogers i cant speculate on what that would be. Everyone has a different idea. Of course we will get together and pick out the ones we think cant we can be successful with. Susan well, looking under rocks and clearing brush is at least provide a metaphor for you in august. They keep raymond for being at here with us this week. Representative rogers of kentucky. We are back after our conversation with our two reporters. It sounds like what we heard was the frustration of divided government. We have a republican controlled house and senate that has put past 12 appropriations bill this year, but a white house that does not agree with priorities and democrats who are flexing their muscles. Where does this all go do you think . Rachael i think this opens up more questions than answers. Obviously rogers is quick to say we have done our work. They dont want to do a cr. They dont just want to continue Government Spending way has been going. But how they bridge this divide between gridlock on capitol hill, where Senate Democrats are not allowing any over creations built on the floor, and House Democrats want to talk about the Confederate Flag. Republicans want to stay away from that is much as possible. How do they break bridge this big divide where they cannot even bring up Appropriations Bills on the floor and getting to some sort of deal where they can pass bills and scrutinize spending . It is unclear how they are going to get there. Susan of course an additional important player is the white house. The president has indicated his interest into the station spending. Daniel the only way out of this would have to be some kind of deal like the chairman signaled. We have sort of started to hear rumblings about people starting to take it seriously. You mentioned there is some discussion going on, although i think they are in the nascent stage. We will see what happens. They also have the debt ceiling. The highway bill. This is all been pushed off. What we might be left with is some kind of big furball of legislation against all dealt with at the same time in one broad stroke. Its exactly what they said they wouldnt do and what they have been trying to avoid, but at this point lets be realistic. It seems like the only way to get out of all these ben sasse themselves. Rachael it seems like he is also waiting at this point. He is waiting to find out what leadership is going to do in terms of a budget deal. Republicans have been saying since the beginning of the year, a lot of centrist republicans have been saying that they also support a deal. They would raise the spending cap to relieve sequestration that is hurting a lot of the agencies. That leadership has not publicly come out to endorse it. He did not say that they have privately told him if they are going to do something. I privately wonder if maybe they did not come out to support this to sort of increase their Bargaining Power with the white house as pressure builds and they get closer to a deadline. But he said that privately, he is still trying to figure out where they are going to go. Susan who does the pressure builds for . Is it the public that would seem see the rep topic and the republicans as holding out . Rachael the republicans, with their more conservative base right now, they cant come out and say we want to do a budget deal. We are just going to say absolutely no way if you can kick the can a little bit further down the road, we really cannot be response with her shot down for a shutdown. It actually works in leaderships favor. Daniel they want to do anything they can to avoid shutdown especially heading into the election. Susan sorry to interrupt, both sides wants to avoid a . Daniel republicans. They have been promising that they are going to govern to avoid exactly that kind of thing. The polls have shown that that they get blamed for this more than democrats do. Certainly, they control both houses of congress, they would have no way of explaining why it isnt their fault. The other thing is, i think they have in the house particularly, 30 of members that are probably never going to vote for Something Like a debt ceiling increase, or a spending increase, or a tax increase. They immediately have to go negotiate with democrats before they do any kind of deal. That hurts their negotiating position. Susan who, or which group, has the greatest leverage right now . Daniel probably the president. Rachael yeah. Daniel hes got his lines in the sand. He seems to be completely unburdened by never having to run for reelection again. He would have the upper hand in that. But he does not have to deal with the minutia of all this. Rachael the republicans control both houses. The government is going to run out of money eventually. October 1, they do a shortterm cr, it will be a late november. The government will run out of money. That would be on the republicans watch. They would likely get the blame. I think the white house does have the upper hand. Susan so it is not going to be a dramatic week ahead, but we are just going to let the clock run out . Daniel we still have the highway bill to deal with. The house is doing their thing the white house said they would pass a shortterm bill. I guess we could do a shortterm bill and go home. Rachael they will also talk about planned parenthood before they go home, thats very big right now. That is a light redmeat issue for a public is. They will continue to dig in on that, maybe the iran deal. But a probation for now susan thanks for both of you for your questions this week. We appreciate it. The u. S. Senate will be in session this afternoon to continue work on the highway bill. The federal portion of highway bridge and Mass Transportation for the next six years. Funding runs out at the end of this month. Both are scheduled on two amendments, went to bring back the export import bank, and the other two the other to repeal the health care law. Watch that at 2 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan two. Today, cspans red to the white house interview with former rhode island governor and senator lincoln chafee. He will talk about the 2016 race, his life, and his decision to leave the republican party. At 6 35 p. M. Eastern, on cspan. Filmmakers talk about their documentary, best of enemies. On the 1968 debate between William F Buckley and corbett all gore the doll vidal. Is very unlike today. Today i believe there is someone saying, the numbers are dwindling. Talk about hot topic, hot salacious topic number two. Wheres then, i dont think that was the norm in tv at the time, and i dont think these guys needed it. Interesting was news man was the monitor, who i think was really kind of embarrassed by this. He was moderating, but he disappears for sometimes five or more minutes at a time. Today you would not have a monitor not jumping in every 30 seconds. I think really, everybody at abc just stood back and let firebird fire burn. Tonight on it at 8 00 eastern and pacific. Members of the president s cabinet team were on capitol hill on thursday, testifying about the iran nuclear agreement. Secondary estate john kerry Energy Secretary ernest money, and secretary treasury jack lew. This portion of the hearing is three hours. [applause] [indiscernible] i want to thank the witnesses for being here today. I want to thank all of those also who are in attendance. I know there was a little bit of an outbreak. We thank you for being here. We do hope you will respect, now that the meeting is in order. Outbursts of any kind are unwarranted. Respect the democratic process that is taking place here. We thank you for being here. We also thank you for your courtesy. I know the witnesses have agreed to be here as long as we wish. We will start with seven minute questions. I do know, based on last nights presentation, there is sometimes a tendency for witnesses to wants to interject. But i would say, is obviously we conduct our meetings with a lot of respect and courtesy. I would just ask the witnesses if they would, to respond directly to the question from senators on both sides of the aisle. When you ask it directly to a witness, get them to respond. If someone else wants to interject, they can indicate they would like to do that. Senators should feel free to say no, i just want that witness and move on to the next. To make sure we dont end up in a somewhat filibustered situation. I want to start today by thanking our committee. We would not be here today we would not have the information that we have today if we had not passed the iran nuclear agreement. This would not be taking place. I think the American People now understand what this debate was all about. When congress put in place sanctions to bring i ron successfully to the table as we did, we granted the executive Branch Something called a National Security waiver. What that meant was, the executive branch had the ability to waive our congressionally mandated sanctions to suspend them as to such a time we permanently waved them. As you know, unfortunately over the objections of senator cardin and myself, unfortunately the executive branch went directly to the United Nations this monday morning. Something that certainly was not in the spirit of this. This was always what was intended. I do want to say, that while secretary kerry has often said that congress will have a chance to weigh in at some point in time, we now read the agreement and realize it was eight years from now that we would have the opportunity to weigh in. That is what was stated in the agreement. I want to thank everybody, all 19 members, for coming together unanimously and making that happen, and giving us a role. A heavy lift, as we know, but a role that did not exist prior to that passing. I have to say, we had a briefing last night, and i left there i was fairly depressed after last nights presentation. With every detail of the deal that was laid out our witnesses successfully batted them away with the hyperbole that is either the steel or war. Therefore, we were never able to appropriately question, or get into any of the details, because every time we did it was either this deal or war. I believe that to be hyperbole. I know the secretary last night pulled out a ladder that was built in 2008, by the private former administrative. As i thought about it last night laying in bed, is what he was really pointing out with that letter, is unless we give iran what they want, x. Thats what that letter was used for. Let me just walk through that. We have been on an incredible journey. We began 20 months or so ago with a country that was a rogue nation. That had a boot on its neck. Our goal was to dismantle their program. We have ended up in a situation where the deal that is on the table basically codifies the industrialization of their Nuclear Program. Its an amazing transition that has occurred. And yet everyone here, including our witnesses, everyone here knows there is not one practical need for the program. Not one. Not one. We have not had a single scientist, not a single witness ken lay out any reasoning can lay out any reasoning for iran to be developing this program. From a standpoint of what it means to them from a civil standpoint. Not one. Nine months after this agreement goes into effect, we realized that after mondays u. N. Adoption, unless Congress Intervenes in 90 days this will be and lamented implemented. Six months after that all of the sanctions that exist against iran will be lifted. Incredible. Now, there will be a few remaining sanctions, but the big ones that matter will be lifted. They will have access to billions and billions of dollars. Their economy will be reborn they will be shipping all around the world. Its an amazing thing. So what happened, i think all of us figured this out. Right now we have some leverage. But nine months from now, the leverage shifts to them, because we have a sanction snapped back. What they have, if we ever try to apply that, is what is called a nuclear snapped back. The way the deal is structured they can immediately begin again. They can say, well if you add sanctions, we are out of this deal. The leverage belongs to them. The possible military dimensions, i think most of us call it the previous military dimensions, because that know they were involved in that. Basically, that has no bearing no bearing on the agreement. I know our witnesses will say, if they dont do it properly, it wont implement. But according to the agreement, it has no bearing whatsoever on whether the sanctions are removed or not. Any time, anywhere. Last night we had witnesses saying, i never said that. That has been a part of their mantra since day one. Of our mantra, and a part of their mantra. Anywhere, anytime in sections. Now we have a process they are declaring his 24 days, but we all know that is not right. The iaea has found violations that they are concerned about. Then you get a run iran time to respond to that. By the time it kicks in, it could be months. As we know, in laboratories when you are developing a Nuclear Warhead that is about this big it is very easy to cover things up like that. All the focus has been on finding uranium. Another aspect of this that is very difficult to find. I know they said this is the most comprehensive inspection regime we have ever had. This is not true. I have talked with secretaries of state. We had a far more comprehensive and rapid Inspection Program in iraq. Far more. That certainly did not service particularly well. I have written a letter asking for additional material that we do not now have. One of the items we dont have is regarding the agreement between iran and the iaea. My sense is, we are never going to get that letter. The inspection entity that we are relying upon to find out whether iran is cheating, we are not even going to have access to that agreement. Let me say this. We do know one of the characteristics is very interesting. We have a professional athlete that spent about a month there. He is incredibly a role model. He is a role model for the world. He talked about the program professional athletes go through for drug testing. That is anytime anywhere. Unfortunately, im told i cannot get into it, but there are qualities to this program that would not be unlike causing athletes to just mail in their own urine specimens in the mail. Us believing that it came from them. So look, ive got some questions. I want to talk a little bit about who we are dealing with here. Most of us have been to iraq many times. I will never forget visiting general odierno in baghdad. Every time we would visit general odierno in baghdad, he would have on his coffee table the isffds that were used to maim and kill americans. The iuds. A were laying there on the coffee table. Everything a lot of them made by iran. Was we develop technology to counter that, but they did next was develop something called the isp. Explosively formed penetrator. They have an, it heats up copper. It goes through a piece of machinery to maim and dismember americans. This is all iran. Everything a bit of it. We have all been out to walter reed, and we have visited these incredible heroes that have lost, in some cases, to arms and a leg. And some cases, two legs and to arms. We see them all over the country. They are living with this today. This is the country that we are dealing with. A country that created some of the most disturbing types and methods of maiming americans that ive ever seen. They tried to kill an ambassador here in washington dc that long ago. We know that. Then i went over, with others the other day to see something of the Holocaust Museum had put together. The young man named a young man named caesar was taking photographs of the syrian presence, which by the way, i ran supports. They would not even be in office today if it was not for iran. Many of you has have seen this on the internet. Its an amazing thing. Its happening right now. Some people said may say this is a rack. But this is happening this very second. Peoples genitals, right now, are being amputated. People are being electrocuted. This is happening this very second. In a prison in iran i mean in syria that iran is supporting. Some have said we have not done as much as we could do to stop it because of these investigations. When i was in college, i was not a particularly good student. First part of college i was interested in sports, the latter part i was interested in working. I learned one thing. I learned about the Critical Path method and i ended up holding that is all around the country. I learned if you start with Something Like this, and you lay out a vision and you build it out. You begin with the end in mind and you but first things first, it is called a Critical Path. But i have seen our secretary do i know he developed a tremendous warmth with irans foreign minister. He talks about it often. But when i think you have actually done in these negotiations is codifiy a perfectly aligned pathway for iran to get a Nuclear Weapon just by providing us with this agreement. I look at the things that they need to do, the way it is laid out, and i dont think you could more perfectly laid out. From my perspective, mr. Secretary, im sorry. Not unlike a hotel guest that leaves only with a Hotel Bathrobe on his back, i believe you have been pleased. You has been fleeced. In the process of being fleeced what you have really done here is you have turned iran from being a pariah, to now congress. Congress being a pariah. If you weeks ago you were saying that nobody is better than a bad deal. I know there is no way that you could have possibly been thinking about war a few weeks ago. No way. And yet what you say to us now is that you said it over and over yesterday, and i have seen you say it over and over on television. If congress were to turn this down, the only option is war. Theres a few weeks ago, for you to turn it down, the only option is war. I dont think you can have it both ways. Let me just say this. If congress were to say these sanctions cannot be lifted, it would not be any different than the snaps back that we now have, where in essence the United States, on its own, can implement snap backs. My guess is, the other countries that have come along, you have to decide which way it is. I know you speak with a degree of disdain about our regional partners when you describe their reaction to this deal. But one of the things we have to remember is if we had actually dealt with dismantling their Nuclear Program they would not be responding in the way that they have. But not only is this not has is not occurred, in addition we are lifting of Ballistic Missile embargo in eight years. I have no idea how that even entered into the equation, but it did. We are lifting conventional weapons embargoes in five years. In a very cute way unbelievably, we are immediately lifting the Ballistic Missile testing program. We are lifting the ban. I have to say, based on my reading, i believe that you have crossed a new threshold in u. S. Foreignpolicy. Where now it is the policy of the United States to enable a state sponsor of terror to obtain sophisticated Industrial Nuclear Development Programs that have, as we know, only one real practical need. I look forward to your testimony and the appropriate questions. First mr. Chairman, thank you very much for convening hearing. I want to thank secretary kerry, secretary many is and secretary lou. Moniz and lew. We thank you very much for your dedicated service, your hard work, and your service to america. The Iranian Nuclear agreement review act that senator corker referred to, that passed earlier this year, was an effort by the members of congress to set up appropriate review for a potential deal with iran. We are extremely print pleased that after difficult negotiations we were able to get the unanimous vote of this committee and the support of this white house. We believe we accomplished two major objectives in staffing that said statute. First of course, we set up the appropriate review for congress. It allows us to take action, or we dont have to take action. It recognizes the fact that the sanction regime was passed by congress, and that we have a role to play in regards to implanting any agreement, as we now see. Conga federals play. It has set up an orderly process. This hearing is part of that process. It took you two years to negotiate this agreement. Its took you two months indiana to get to the final details. In the anna in vienna. I would hope that most members of the congress would wants to get all the information. Allow those who are likely involved to make their case. We have hearings and set up next week, the following week. We will have outside experts. I would hope that we would all use this opportunity for drawing the conclusion. This is a very important agreement. I wrong and the region is critically important to the United States security. Iran. But there is a second perspective, and that is to concentrate all of our efforts and speak with unity as much as we could in the United States. So that our negotiators could concentrate on vienna and not on washington, in dealing with getting the very best possible agreement. I must tell you, mr. Chairman, i have looked at the framework that was agreed to in april. Looking at the final agreement that weve got today our negotiator has done an awful lot. Particularly on the Nuclear Front which is not my expertise. We have got things that there were many rumors during this last couple months, of what was going to be in this agreement. And how is going to be weekend from the april framework. They have in fact been strengthened from the april framework. I just want to applaud our negotiators for taking the strength of our unity and turning it into results indiana in vienna. The objective is clearly to prevent iran from ever becoming a Nuclear Weapon power. That is our simple objective. We know who we are dealing with. This is a state sponsor of terrorism. This is a country that abuses human rights, that violates the Ballistic Missile area we know all that. We are trying to prevent iran from becoming a degree or power because we know it is a game changer in the re in the region. And the standard that we have to use, because there is no trust in iran. The Supreme Leader said we will trample upon america. We dont stress iran. But we have got to leave emotion out of this. Youve got to look at the agreement. We have got to determine what their the compliance for this agreement, compliance with this agreement by the United States will put it put us on a power path where it is more or less likely that iran will be a Nuclear Power. I have many questions that i hope we will get answers for today. I hope those answers will provoke faith in congress and the American People, and help us make the right decisions. Since there is no trust, the inspection reports enforcement regime is particularly important. We need to understand why it works. We have time to discover if iran is violating the terms of this agreement, in order to take action to prevent them from becoming a Nuclear Power. This a question we need to understand. We need to know what happens after the time. Period. Do we have sufficient opportunity to prevent iran from becoming a Nuclear Power . Are these sections of robust enough to deter iran from cheating . And if they do, will we discover and be able to take action . Chairman, you raised the 24 hour window. I think all of us recognize there was going to be a protocol or instruction. Thats doesnt raise surprise. But we need to know, with the 24hour delay does that compromise our ability to have objective inspections. I hope our witnesses will deal with that today, because that is a matter of major concern. We need to know the answer that. Have we cut off all pathways for iran to obtain a Nuclear Weapon, particularly in covert Nuclear Operations . We know that is a major concern. That is why the pmd is particularly important. And the words that the iaea, our International Inspectors they have great credibility and his airy it. We want to know they have great credibility and his area. But we do need to know about their prior military prevention in order to be able to go forward to make sure we can contain any opportunity they may use for covert activity. These are questions that we are going to ask. We have read the agreement. We hope we will get back answers as to whether we have effectively prevented iran from getting a Nuclear Weapon. Will this agreement provide us and iaea with sufficient access to the people, places, and documents so that we know their prior military dimensions . Are the snap back provisions for reimposing sanctions adequate if iran eyelets this agreement . This is an issue that i hope we will have a chance to talk about. At the end of the time limit in the agreement, iran will have the capacity to expand as the chairman rightly pointed out, to a professional capacity. They could get to nuclear enrichment, uranium enrichment. Do we have sufficient capacity, knowing their commitments for nonproliferation, knowing the requirements protocols, is that going to be adequate to prevent iran . We have a sufficient enough reg out time that if iran tries to become a Nuclear Weapons state after the time period that we have sufficient tools to prevent them . We need answer to these before we can make judgments. And there are other areas. I want to be reassured that United States still has the flexibility to impose on Nuclear Sanctions on iran for its support of terrorism. No one expects irans bad behavior to change when implementation begins. We know who we are dealing with will we be able to use the powers we have used in the past and build upon