Jim Risch

as you know, late last year, Congress passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. As chairman of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, I supported this legislation because of its potential to spur investment, stimulate…

Who makes the determination as to who's a good actor and a bad actor? That's what I really, really struggle with.

But yet, if you took one of those pieces, any one of them individually, and looked at it and said, we just discovered who's doing this, it's John Doe in East Overshoe, New Jersey, there's nothing illegal about it.

I think the takeaway from this, after listening to all of this, is something that's troubled me from the beginning and that is how difficult this is.

The President made a wise decision appointing you as Secretary of State, and you are acquitting yourself very well here today.

The President is to be commended for underscoring this, as only he can do in his unique way.

NATO is the most successful military alliance in the history of the world.

It is unfortunate that our friends and allies' feathers were ruffled a little bit just because we said they were not paying their bills.

I can also assure you that in Idaho we have an umbrella organization called the Idaho Conservation League.

Mining is an extremely important industry for Idaho.

Valley County is probably one of the prettiest places in America, and those people that live there really value that tremendously.

Anybody who thinks this is not important just needs to look back some years ago when the Chinese and the Japanese had a spat and the Chinese just flat cut off Japan's access to this material.

There is nobody more committed to the environment than the people in Valley County who are promoting this.

I ask that the Senate now proceed to Executive Calendar No. 601, as under the previous order. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the nomination. The bill clerk read the nomination of James Blew, of California, to be Assistant…

as you may know, I enthusiastically supported the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that passed the Senate and was signed into law 6 months ago. Over the past 6 months, the law's positive impact on our country's economy has not gone unnoticed…

this company's very existence depends upon having a rule of law in countries where we are doing business.

this is just the tip of the iceberg, as far as what is coming.

Thank you so much for coming. We're here, taking the time on this Friday afternoon, to discuss small business.

We want to find out what's working and what isn't working.

I don't think there's anybody up here that disagrees with you on that. Let me tell you, we're working on that.

Since I've taken over as chairman, we have done our best to stand up even better the Office of Advocacy.

We have joined together as a Federal Government, and on some things the Federal Government is premier and on some things the State is premier.

Glad you remembered that. It could be a disaster.

I share your view that Alaska certainly has unique issues for a lot of different reasons.

Small business plays a crucial role in the success of our economy, that is, America's economy.