Ranking Member Murkowski and Chief Christensen and our other colleagues and constituents joining us in person and remotely, welcome to this appropriations hearing on budgeting for the future of Forest Management. While we eagerly await the release of the details of President Bidens first Budget Request we have plenty to discuss today about the impact that funding for the Forest Service makes in forests and communities in oregon and alaska and in every state across the United States. Chief christensen thank you for joining us today. As a Washington State native and with your 26 years in the State Department of natural resources you are well versed in the issues and ecosystems a washinge with your 26 years in the State Department of natural resources, you are well versed in the things of and the dangers of climate chaos for future generations. For are in my identity of my Home State of oregon. The genesis of our salmon run, the backbone of our recreation and rural economies. Forest servi
This hearing of the senate foreign Relations Committee will come to order. Administrator power, thank you for coming before the committee to testify the administrations proposed budget for usaid. We look forward to your testimony, getting a better understanding for your vision of operationizing your Budget Request. Let me start by saying for the first time in a few years im pleased to see the budget restores the principles of defense, diplomacy and development, the three ds as equal elements critically important to the success of u. S. Foreign policy. As we know Foreign Assistance, Development Aid and humanitarian relief are not charity programs. Usaid programs around the world are concrete manifestations of american values and the partnership of the american people. Aid personnel in the Field Work in tandem with local partners and communities bidding sustainable programs to promote health programs, private Sector Development, governors reforms and desperately needed relief. This work
Washed, specific washed, specific washington, d. C. , specifically tod. Ask for federal help, to a For New T Federal Protection Th could set a floor on Voting Rights that no state can fall below. That, of course s the idea behind the for the people act. The for the people act is busy not passing the united States Senate right now. Basically because of one conservative democratic senator named Joe Manchin. The texas democrats have met with him directly. Er they have met with other senators as well. Theyve met with White House officials up to and include the Vice President kamala harris. These texas democrats are away from their families, away from their jobs and businesses, away from their beloved texas. Theyre likely to be staying away for weeks to continue to press this case and to make sure there is no quorum at home. Like i said, they are literally facing arrest when they do go back to texas. And now six of these texas democrats have tested positive for covid in recent days. It was
Capitol, by leaving the state, so theyre beyond the reach of texas Law Enforcement, these democrats are preventing a quorum in the State Legislature back home, which means that in very practical terms theyre preventing texas republicans from passing draconian new Voting Restrictions. At least for now. They could have gone anywhere outside of texas. They chose to come to washington, d. C. Specifically to ask for federal help, to ask for new federal protections that could set a floor on Voting Rights that no state can fall below. That of course is the idea behind the for the people act. The for the people act is busy not passing the united States Senate right now. Basically because of one conservative democratic senator named Joe Manchin. The texas democrats have met with him directly. They have met with other senators as well. Theyve met with White House officials up to and include the Vice President kamala harris. These texas democrats are away from their families, away from their jobs
Fighting, petitioning the u. S. Senate to eliminate the Filibuster Threat that continues to block any federal voting Rights Legislation. And because of the senates inaction, they have to face the threat of arrest issued by their own governor. As leaders of the congressional black Caucus And Voting rights activists have already been arrested for protest in solidarity. In a larger national sense, it dramatizes the point we who have lived under threat have always made, which is that without the teeth of federal legislative action, minority voters are at the mercy of conservative State Lawmakers. So it fits that Deep Red Texas is now at the center of this upheaval in which the states black and brown democrats literally had to leave in order to protect the definitive right of our democracy. That was on my mind during president Bidens Speech this week as he condemned this flood of Voter Restrictions as unamerican. But to the frustration of myself and others in the fight, he said nothing abou