Watch booktv this weekend on cspan2. President biden has picked Denis Mcdonough to head the Veterans Affairs department. He previously served as white house chief of staff during the last four years of the obama presidency. His confirmation hearing he was asked about veterans access to healthcare, modernization efforts in the das responds to covid19. This is just over two hours. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] i i want to call this evening to order. I want to welcome everybody. I appreciate all that are here, all those that are online. The purpose of this hearing is due from the i president s nominate to serve as secretary of Veterans Affairs, Denis Mcdonough. Before i talk about him i just want to say i appreciate this committee all the reasons we sat on this committee thats been bipartisan and its been nonpolitical, and we tried to do the best by our veterans whether you are the republican side for the democratic side of the aisle. I particularly appreciate the re
[cameras shuttering] [indistinct chatter] [gavel banging] good morning, everyone. Welcome back. Judge, thank you. A good day yesterday. Your family did great. You look good. Today is to door our first round of 30 minute questioning. Each senator will have 30 minutes to interact with judge merrick and then we will follow up with a second round of 20 minutes. Today, not get it done but we should get through the first 30 minutes and then come back wednesday and finish up and then we will go about our business. I will make sure i stay within 30 minutes and if i can shorten it, i will. Let us get to it. You can start the clock. You can relax a bit, judge, and take your mask off. Yesterday, we had a lot of discussion about Affordable Health care. What i am going to try to do briefly this morning is demonstrate the difference between politics and judging. All of my colleagues on the other side had very emotional obamacare, charts of people with preexisting conditions. I went to give you my si
Already attracted criticism. And Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim pushes his case for becoming the new Prime Minister of malaysia. And im santa hummus and i have all the sport. Major League Baseball welcomes back fans as the Atlanta Braves win the opening match of the National League championship series. The government says cyprus is suspending a controversial citizenship for Investment Program after an undercover investigation by aljazeera the countrys attorney general has also announced an investigation into possible criminal offenses fall. The revelations that expose high ranking officials expressing a willingness to see aides convicted criminals to obtain citizenship in august all to serious investigative units released the cyprus papers which revealed serious flaws in the citizen buy Investment Program well lets say across live now to our Investigative Reporter David Harrison he joins us now from nicosia david its the cypriot government has always tonights there was any any wrongdo
To the stories that you have told, including the story of veronicas family. Very moving. If i were a justice, the commitment i would make to you and to all people affected by follows is that i would the law as you enacted it, and i have no agenda. I would not be coming in with any agenda. I would do equal justice under the law for all, and not try to force or disrupt in any way the quality choices that you and your colleagues have adopted. Sen. Hirono so are you saying that the impact of the Affordable Care act on the millions of people who rely upon it, that you would deem to be policy considerations that we should address . Sen. Hirono senator, i think that you choose the law and you have structured the Affordable Care act. You set the policies. And i think when a court has to interpret those statutes or decide how it applies in a Certain Circumstance, the court looks to traditional legal materials, looks to the briefs, listens to the real world impacts on the litigants before the co
Of their choice, including abortion, Voting Rights, the Affordable Care act, and religious liberty. [gavel banging] good morning, everyone. Welcome back. Judge, thank you. A good day yesterday. Your family did great. Cleanup well. You look good. The game plan for today is to do our first round of 30 minute questioning. Each senator will have 30 minutes to interact with judge barrett and then we will follow up with a second round of 20 minutes. We will not get it done today, but we should get through the first 30 minutes and then come back wednesday and finish up and then we will go about our business. I will make sure i stay within 30 minutes and if i can shorten it, i will. Let us get to it. You can start the clock. You can relax a bit, judge, and take your mask off. Yesterday, we had a lot of discussion about Affordable Health care. What i am going to try to do briefly this morning is demonstrate the difference between politics and judging. All of my colleagues on the other side had