Susan Collins

What President Biden was, as a candidate, make this pledge. And that helped politicize the entire nomination process.

The way that the President has handled this nomination has been clumsy at best. It adds to the further perception that the court is a political institution like Congress when it is not supposed to be.

I do not think the president should have made -- President Trump should have made that pledge to do pardons.

January 6th was a dark day in America's history.

There is no need for any rash. We can take our time, have hearings, go through the process, which is very important one. It is a lifetime appointment after all.

The fact remains that if we had the Southern border under control, we would be using the $850 million designated for testing to buy more rapid tests.

That makes no sense to me and seems very shortsighted.

Well, I will tell you, having visited the Southern border in late March, testing was being done, but people had been there for weeks at a time with no testing, and there were people, adults who were released into the community with no…

I will tell you that our staff's investigation found that $850 million out of the testing budget and another $850 million out of the allocation for the stockpile were instead used to deal with the crisis at the Southern border.

I just think it is important that we see it and we have to try to rise above this kind of behavior.

I don't believe that we are in the position that we are in now due to a lack of funding, but rather a lack of planning.

Has any of that money been used for non-testing related purposes at the border?

Over the past 2 years, Congress has appropriated $82.6 billion specifically for testing.

About a decade ago, when former Senator Joe Lieberman and I headed the Homeland Security Committee, I remember vividly testimony that we received from the Treasury Department in which the officials said that Saudi Arabia was the epicenter…

I want to talk a bit about the fact that we are pivoting away from terrorism and terrorism financing in the focus on Russia and China.

I think without a doubt we are greatly concerned about the cyber threats posed by China and Russia to the U.S. financial system

What can be done to ensure that any humanitarian assistance that is sent to Afghanistan, whose people are in dire need, is not diverted to strengthen terrorist groups?

Thank you, Chairman.

The collapse of Afghanistan amid the chaotic withdrawal by the administration has allowed the Taliban obviously to seize control of the country.

Well, just quickly, a final question. Would Iran be on your list?

Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. (Applause, Senators rising.) The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Republican whip.

In 2019, when Congress enacted the SECURE Act, which many of us cosponsored, it included a provision that I authored...

In April, I introduced the SIMPLE Plan Modernization Act with Senator Warner.

Thank you very much, Senator Scott. That is typically gracious of you.

The guidance from our health experts over the past year has been conflicting and inconsistent, and that heightens the distrust in these institutions.