We are talking about nominations i want to thank senator klobuchar and senator menendez for being here. I had a productive discussion with the secretary of state, tony blinken, and the director of National Intelligence delegate. We had a discussion that covered the priorities for the u. S. , foreignpolicy National Security. In particular i urged the Incoming Administration to be tough on china, but in a smarter, more multilateral way than the trumpet administration was. Ist was immediately clear that president elect bidens Foreign Policy and National Security team are exceptionally qualified. Accomplished individuals with the to protect our nation and advance american interests abroad. In addition to tony blinken and , president elect biden continues to rollout and oppressive slate of nominees to his cabinet, another key administered position. After all we went through over the past four years i would expect almost all the president elect bidens nominees would be widely acceptable to the senate. After all, republican senators looked the other way and confirm several of Donald Trumps unqualified, ethically compromised, and schedules appointees. One would argue the president deserves broad deference when it comes to appointments. Republicans ought to give biden the same deference. Overblowneady seeing complaints from republican senators who conveniently ignored scandal after scandal in the trump administration. Honestly, the hypocrisy is astounding. After spending four years pretending they did not see the latest insane tweet from President Trump, republican senators have found the passwords to their twitter account and are suddenly concerned about what is being said about them on twitter. But after the caliber of nominees this republican majority confirmed over the past four years it would be impossible, impossible to take them seriously. The Senate Committee should prepare to hold hearings on president elect bidens nominees in january, immediately after the georgia elections. That is what the senate did for President Trump and for president obama. That is what the senate must do for president elect biden as well. Our nation is facing unprecedented crises. We need the next Day Administration to hit the ground running to tackle these challenges. On januaryensuring 2021 have much of the team in place. I hope my republican colleagues look at joe bidens nominees based on their merits and impressive credentials and not let petty political animus get in the way. Senator menendez. Menendez thank you, mr. Leader. I want to echo on the National Security front the leaders comments. Its about our nations security and prosperity, not about politics. There is no question the slate of nominees particularly in the state department, you and ambassador, and elsewhere put forward our capable and qualified. Does this edit have to do its Due Diligence and that them . Of course. Vet them . Do we have to understand their thinking . Of course. But there is a difference between that and some who are already suggesting that they seek to weaponize confirmation process, seek to turn it into a political wrecking ball. Those who alternately, for their own purposes, as they may aspire for future election to the presidency of the united states, wants to use the vetting process in a way that undermines the very essence of what we need our nation to be able to do on day one. The American People deserve to have a government that not only looks like america, but that is up and running from day one, to deal with the pandemic and the economic wreckage that has come from the pandemic, and to pursue our interests and extend our values around the globe. Today, i was on a panel with european parliamentarians. Cry these are all people from the European Union elected, different countries, different political beliefs but the one thing they want to see is america be back and engaged in the world. That takes a secretary of state. Tony blinken is an incredibly qualified individual to help us once again be back on the global stage, engage, creating more allies, less enemies, creating more prosperity, less challenges, and that also takes a human ambassador. Ambassador greenfield is extraordinary. I helped her become the assistant secretary of state of africa when i was chair of the committee. Of an an example exceptional career diplomat. That is who we need on day one, which means we need early hearings in january and a vote in order to guarantee it. Klobuchar thank you very much and thank you for your leadership, senator schumer at this critical time. Thank you, senator menendez. I think president elect biden set the tone here when he said this should not be a partisan moment but an american moment. We do not have time to mess around. Out, we haveinted security threats across the country, across the world, we have incredibly qualified nominees which are in keeping with the tone the president elect set. From the minute the president would not concede the election, president elect biden took the stage and said, give me a chance, people that voted for donald trump, and i will give you a chance. In thesehat tone nominees in people like tony blinken, people that will not come before us for confirmation, but i must mention because he is from minnesota, jake sullivan. You see people that are well respected, including treasury secretary to be yellen. He has really lived his words in who he nominated, and its our job to get it done. The last thing i would add is we are in the middle of a pandemic right now. I dont have to tell you that. One of the things that we need right now is stability for the rest of the world and for our own country. I am pleased that my colleagues are moving ahead with some bipartisan negotiations. Obviously, that is not done. We have not heard good words from leader mcconnell on this but that doesnt mean that we cannot move ahead. We cannot have no leadership for america in place, when we want to lead the world when it comes to this vaccine. That means funding to get this vaccine out. Just drop you cannot a bunch of vaccines in the middle of minnesota and think that it will work. It takes infrastructure on storage and the like. To do that, we knew joe biden to be able to put a Leadership Team both internationally and domestically. Im excited to work on this. We have had great nominees come forward. It is on our Republican Leaders and us to Work Together to get them confirmed immediately. Sen. Schumer thank you, senator klobuchar. You sent a proposal to leader mcconnell on covid relief last night. What was in it, are you letting go of the 2 trillion demand that you previously had . Also, id like you to respond to attorney general bill barr saying there was no widespread fraud. In response to attorney general bill barr, i guess he is next to be fired because he now, too, says there is no fraud. Trump team to fire anyone who says that in that regard. Speaker pelosi and i yesterday sent a proposal to leader mcconnell in an effort to get things moving. Im not going to get into the details, it was a private proposal to help us move the ball forward. Lets make no mistake about it. I just heard leader oconnell say that he will put another partisan proposal on the floor. He will talk to mccarthy and trump and put something on the floor. The obvious fact of the matter is, the biggest impediment to getting an agreement is the republican leader refusing to negotiate in a bipartisan way. The house is well democratic majority. He knows darn well he needs democratic votes in the senate to get anything done since the number of his people will not vote for any proposal. Yet, he continues to negotiate in a partisan way. Speaker pelosi and i sent him the proposal in a good faith effort. To negotiate in a bipartisan way. I always welcome and encourage my democratic members to talk to republican members. There is another proposal that way. All are in efforts to get leader mcconnell to stop being so partisan, because the needs of people are desperate, desperate, desperate during this Christmas Season and later. Are you worried about getting lost yourd you have negotiating power and you will have to deal with whatever he comes up with . Sen. Schumer i will just say that i hope mcconnell does things in a bipartisan way. Every time he has tried to do it in a partisan way, he has failed. There seems to be a debate in the caucus about Holding Committee leadership positions. How do you see that issue . Years,humer every two we have a robust discussion in our caucus about the rules, what should be changed, what should be changed. We will have another good discussion in the next few weeks. There was a 900 billion bipartisan proposal proposed. What do you think of that specifically . Is your letter more than that . Sen. Schumer our letter was done in a private way to get mcconnell and maybe the white house to move. I will not get into the details. The bottom line is, it is an effort to get things moving forward. That thee proposal Bipartisan Group of senators announced, i have always encouraged our Democratic Senators to sit down with republican senators and negotiate. This is a good effort. I have not seen all the details, they have not come up with all of the details, but when democrats and republicans can get together, that is a good thing. I hope leader mcconnell will heed that call. Assuming that leader mcconnell has not responded sen. Schumer not yet. We hope they will give us a real response we can get something done. Next question. Engaged on this . Sen. Schumer lets hope he will negotiate in a bar partisan way. Thus far, every time he has done it in a partisan way, it has not worked. There is a democratic house. They need democratic votes in the senate. You said you would encourage your members to meet with republicans. This proposal is a full trillion dollars less than what you are proposing. Is this something that you think sen. Schumer bipartisan proposal. Again, what is needed to get things done. One thing i noted about the earlier question about mcconnell and whether he will jam us and those things, remember there were republicans in that group. While it is not what we had asked for, there were republicans that stood up and said they wanted this amount of money. I would not assume that everyone will go down the path of Mitch Mcconnell this time, when you have states like maine that have had so many Small Businesses close. That was a yelp study showed 800 Small Businesses are closing a day. We have restaurants that have tried to hang in and cannot do it anymore. We have a vaccine around the corner, light at the end of the tunnel, but if we dont put the funding into it to get the distribution and the storage going, we will not recover like we want to. We have the head of the Federal Reserve under donald trump, jerome powell, saying it would be a tragedy if we didnt get something done. I think this bipartisan negotiation, while of course just a start, is significant to show that some people are willing to cross over to get something done, which senator schumer has been calling for from the beginning. Hisoe biden said that on first day of office, he will give transgender students access to sports, bathrooms, locker rooms in accordance with their gender identity in federally funded schools. Does he have the ability to do this, do you agree with the decision . Sen. Schumer i agree with the decision and i know that he will check things out legally. Thank you, everybody. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] a we take you live to discussion on fiscal policy in the Incoming Biden Administration and congress, hosted by the brookings institution. Size i think is ambiguous and policy occur through a political process. I would rather see something that is a little bit smaller but that could pass this week or next week, rather than wait for something that is a little bit until, but will not pass february. If you look at the output gap, i think a trillion dollars is a reasonable figure for the next round of stimulus. I think democrats should be willing to take