Thanking our witnesses, secretary esper and chairman of the joint chiefs of staff milley for appearing before us to testify. The purpose of this hearing is to discussour policy in syria , particularly in light of the tevents that happened just a couple months ago in turkey when they invaded and drove the kurds out of portions of that but its our first hearing since congressman brendici has joined the committee. We have a lot of new faces but theyre not new faces anymore but its good to have another freshman added to the committee. I appreciate him serving, welcome. As i said the purpose of this hearing is to look into the events around syria and as a bunch of questions and the other big issue for us is just the ability of members of this committee toask questions directly of the key policymakers in an area that is of enormous importance and give them an opportunity to learn more about policy and also express their views and that is a huge part of our oversight role in congress and i th
Test. Test. Test. Captioning performed by vitac in broad terms, our military strategy in the middle east is part of an interagency, International Effort to sustain a conditionsbased approach designed to defeat violent extremism, two, to prevent regional dominance by iran, and, three, to ensure our allies and partners. Thank you for your support to our men and women in uniform. I appreciate the opportunity to appear here today and look forward to your questions. Thank you, gentlemen. We now move into the questions. Our two witnesses have a hard stop at noon, which means im going to be more aggressive about enforcing the fiveminute clock. Make sure we can get to as many members as possible. Im not going to ask questions. I will yield to mrs. Davis for the first set of questions, five minutes. Thanks. Thank you, mr. Chairman. And thank you to both of you, dr. Esper, and dr. Milley for joining us. I appreciate your statement and i wonder if you will just perhaps in a more refined fashion,
I want to thank our witnesses, secretary esper, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff milley for appearing before us to testify. The purpose of this hearing is to discuss our policy in syria particularly in light of the events that happened when turkey invaded and drove the kurds out of portions. Our first hearing since the congressman from new york joined the committee. I want to thank him. We have a lot of new faces in this committee that are a year into it. They are not new faces anymore but good to have another freshman added to the committee. I appreciate him serving. The purpose of this hearing is to look at events around syria. A whole bunch of questions and the other big issue is the ability of memories of this committee to ask questions of the key policymake is in an area of importance to the committee and to give them an opportunity to learn more about the policy and express their views and that is a huge part of our oversight role in congress and it is enormously important.
Today. Get out israel overnight, telling hundreds of palestinians living in rafah to evacuate as the Israeli Military prepares to take out hamas in its last stronghold. The Evacuation Order coming in the midst of a growing humanitarian crisis as the Biden Administration reports, israel may have violated International Law using weapons supplied by the u. S. Commencements and clashes. Colleges and universities nationwide. Bracing this weekend for more protests over gaza as graduation season gets into full swing. Star witness Michael Cohen, Donald Trumps former fixer turned foe, now set to take the witness stand on monday, their face off expected to be the most critical moment yet in former president trumps hush money coverup trial. Well have a preview. Oprahs about face. I have been a steadfast participant in this diet culture. The talk show host now saying she regrets how much focus shes put on diets and weight loss over the last few decades, and why she says she still regrets this memo
Amended. Yeas and nays are ordered. The clerk h. R. 4547 a bill to amend titles 2, 8 and 16 to improve and strengthen the representative payment program. The speaker pro tempore the question is, will the house suspend the rules and pass the bill as amended. Members will record their votes by electronic device. This is a 15minute vote. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc. , in cooperation with the United States house of representatives. Any use of the closedcaptioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u. S. House of representatives. ] the speaker pro tempore on this vote, the yeas are 396, the nays are zero, zero recorded as present. 2 3 being in the affirmative, the rules are suspended, the bill is passed, without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. The speaker pro tempore the ouse will come to order. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20 the Unfinished Business is agreein