Markup of Aviation, Connected Vehicles, Telecom and NOAA Bills, Nominations

Good morning. The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation will come to order. This morning's mark-up is a reminder that the legislative process, as mess- messy as it can be, is alive and well at the Commerce Committee. Most of the bills before us bring technical expertise to bear on difficult problems. They are the product of members working through disagreements to find consensus. That's essential on a committee that oversees technical agencies like the FAA, NOAA, and NTIA. We need expertise to address particular public challenges, but Congress can't outsource its legislative responsibilities to the executive branch.

Hmm. It's mandatory middle clause.

Oddly enough, our colleagues did not believe that proposition in the previous four years.

Aw. Aw.

Why folks are rowdy this morning. Did we did did we start with tequila or coffee? We have multiple bills on the mark up today. We have the connected vehicle security act. introduced by Senator Moreno and Senator Slotkin, uh, which is, uh, designed to protect the American automobile market from vehicle software and hardware from foreign entities of concern. The national security risks presented by that are real, but so are the dangers of of writing a provision that has significant harms. My hope is that with some tweaks today or before hitting the floor, this bill can put forth a durable framework to address national security risks without being abused. The aviation bills on today's mark-up agenda also reflect the balance between legislating and administrative experience. Senator Budd's Supersonic Aviation Modernization Act, cosponsored by Senators Tillis, Lee and Sheehy, would modernize the FAA's prohibition on civil supersonic flight over land. It would allow aircraft to exceed Mach one when no sonic boom reaches the ground. Senator Duckworth's Aviation Medication Transparency Act introduced with Senator Hoeven would require the FAA to publish and regularly update a user-friendly list of medications approved for pilots and air traffic controllers. And Senator Welch's Aviation Innovation and Global Competitiveness Act, introduced with Senator Budd and a bipartisan group of colleagues, would bring predictability to the FAA's aircraft certification process. Turning to communications. Senator Thune's accelerating Broadband Permits Act, introduced with Senators Lujan and Barrasso, would bring transparency to the bead program and help agencies meet existing deadlines for processing applications. Aviation and communication overlap in the disaster preparedness space. Senator Sheehy's disaster communication coordination and preparedness act, introduced with Senator Klobuchar, would require the FCC to review how it provides notices when disaster information recording system is activated. The Hurricane Hunter Aircraft Recapitalization Act, which ranking member Cantwell and I introduced, along with Senators Blunt, Rochester, Wicker, Padilla and Budd, would codify NOAA's Hurricane Hunter fleet. Uh, I'll add that I have been pleased, uh, to have Dean Legidakis a Hurricane Hunter pilot, serving on detail with my staff for the past year and a half. He has quite literally flo- flown into the eye of the storm. His service is a reminder of why expertise matters. Last summer's devastating flash floods in central Texas, including the tragic loss uh of young women at Camp Mystic, reminded us that the quality of our weather forecast and emergency management systems really matters. The same principle applies to our bipartisan slate of nominees. These positions require competence and judgment. Today we will consider Thomas Chapman to be a member of the National Transportation Safety Board, Edward Epler to be Chief Financial Officer of the Department of Transportation, Karen Hedlund to be a member of the Surface Transportation Board, Brian Lorenz to be a Commissioner of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, Karen Sessions to be a Commissioner of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, and David Cummins to be the Administrator of the Transportation Security Administration. These executive officials remain accountable within our constitutional system. That makes the Senate's advice and consent responsibility all the more important. I have every confidence in the nominees before us and intend to support their confirmations. I recognize ranking member Cantwell.

Thank you, Mister Chairman, and thank you for today in considering uh six nominations and seven bills I so appreciate what you just said about the Hurricane Hunter Aircraft Recapitalization Act that you and I and Senators Blunt, Rochester, Wicker, Padilla and Budd worked on. As you mentioned, weather reconnaissance and missions flown by hurricane hunters ensure National Weather Service can provide this accurate storm prediction forecast that are essential to protecting lives and property from hurricanes, tropical storms, atmospheric rivers. And the bill codifies that the Hurricane Hunter mission, in law, it directs NOAA to replace and expand this aging fleet, which is a maxim minimum of six and up to nine aircraft that are needed to meet the importance of facing future storms. We considered three aviation bills today, including the Aviation Medication Transparency Act from Senators Duckworth and Hickenlooper, appreciate their work on this. I'm glad Senator Duckworth and Chairman Cruz were able to finally come to an agreement on this bill and improve the transparency of FAA approved medication for pilots air traffic controllers and other workers. This bill requires the FAA publication of a user-friendly list of approved medications that individuals are better informed about this. And Senator Duckworth, thank you so much for your leadership on this issue. The Supersonic Aviation Modernization Act that my colleague mentioned of a Senator Bud Sheely, Shihai uh would require the fa to issue a final rule mandating acceptable noise standards for certification of civil supersonic flight over the united states and i encourage future commercialization to maximize the use of sustainable aviation fuels to power those operations i will have a longer statement for the record mister chairman on the aviation innovation and global competitiveness act from our colleagues uh, Senator Budd and and Senator Welch. Um, the Connected Vehicle Security Act from Senator Morales-Lotkin and eleven co-sponsors would limit the import and sale of connected vehicle technology from passenger vehicles from China, North Korea, Iran and Russia, preventing these foreign adversaries from turning our cars into spyware. Never, I don't know where this fridge spy bill is, Mister Chairman, but we need to get it. We need our colleagues in the house. to make sure that all appliances are not being used in this way. The Accelerating Broadband Permits Act of twenty twenty six from Senators Thune and Lujan would improve transparency and accountability in the bead program by creating a public dashboard to track state progress and develop tools to help navigate federal permitting. These tools are very helpful in bringing reliability to broadband communities more quickly. I wanna thank Senator Lujan for his leadership on this important issue generally on broadband, but on Um, finally, the disaster communications coordination preparedness act for our senators sheehy and klobuchar would strengthen coordination before and during disasters by improving fcc communications with emergency officials and communications providers with clear guidance on how federal resources are available in an emergency. And as a state that sees quite a lot of natural disasters, this emergency communication is critical and I appreciate Senator Klobuchar's leadership. Turning to the nominees, I am pleased to see for the first time this Congress, we are considering democratic nominees. It is long overdue, and I have broader concerns after the Supreme Court's conservative majority gutted protections Congress put in place for independent agencies and the membership there because I think that is the way to get partisan interests out of the way and get majorities working together. Our first democratic nominee is Thomas. chapman who is re-nominated to be a member of the national transportation safety board uh mr. chapman has a commitment to fact-based investigation and a and a reputation of trying to continue to serve the ntsb and all that it represents and so i'm happy to support him karen hegelen our second democratic nominee has served with distinction since two thousand and twenty-two on the surface transportation act and i'm confident with the largest proposed rail merger in our nation's history currently being evaluated the service transportation board, Karen will put the public's interest first and foremost, so I'm glad to support her again today. Um, I will not be supporting the remaining nominees, um, that are on the agenda today. That is David Cummings to be, uh, Administrator of the Transportation Safety Administration. Um, Edward Epler to be the Department of Transportation Financial Officer. Or I want to point out that the CS PC nominations, I bel- I believe uh these commissioners, if these two nominees are confirmed, they will continue to have no Democrats on the Consumer Product Safety Commission. And I disagree with the President's removal of the three uh duly appointed Senate confirmed Democratic commissioners. Thank you, Mister Chairman.

Uh, thanks, the ranking member. Uh, we will proceed to the nominations once we get a couple more uh republicans physically present but we have a sufficient quorum uh to move to the legislation right now so we'll move to the legislation first and then turn to the noms when when the bodies are here and so i recognize uh senator cantwell for a motion

ok we're trying to get the right motion in front of us keep going not how it did on there i move that s four four two nine the connected vehicle security act of twenty twenty six as amended by the moreno substitute as modified by Cantwell one as modified be favorably reported

is there a second

second

is there any discussion

mr. chairman

senator moreno

uh first i'd like to uh thank your staff i know sometimes uh people don't find uh incredible amounts of persistence as charming as i would want them to but uh both you and the ranking member have been great to work with your staff been great to work with i'd like to enter into the record uh many letters of support for this bill including uh as groups as desperate as the uaw the united steel workers the teamsters but also the alliance for automotive innovation if you're not familiar with that group that's a group that represents all auto manufacturers that do business here in america i'd specifically like to call out uh toyota and general motors for their great work in this bill And specifically also thank uh Chairman of uh Armed Services, Roger Wickard, his staff for the hard work that they've put into this bill, truly, truly appreciated. Uh in summary, this is a very simple thing that we're doing today, and quite frankly I wish our allies had done this before. What we're doing is we're preventing a massive national security threat. Now I don't want anybody listening to this to worry about their automobile, but your automobiles today are roving electronic devices they can be remote accessed by you through an app where you can unlock your car start your vehicle turn your vehicle off but when you have companies that are domiciled or controlled by foreign entities of concern that means that those governments including of course the c c p if we were to allow these cars to come in here could take over the steering the braking and the acceleration of your vehicles that obviously is an intolerable national security risk so much so that the c c p recognizes this and they actually ban teslas in china from being near their sensitive military installations knowing that these cars are taking videos and sending those videos back to the manufacturer in the case of china of course those manufacturers by chinese law must share that data and information with the central government the other piece of it is an economic threat as i know uh my colleague from michigan will attest any uh car company in america whether it's ford or general motors toyota honda can keep compete with any car company on earth but they can't compete with an entire country dead set on destroying the western auto industry in europe they just reported this morning that thirty four percent of all new vehicles sold in europe not in china in europe were chinese automobiles that is a staggering number and that's happened over a very short period of time and the final case i'll make is an is a consumer protection threat these there is ninety two chinese brands ninety two i don't think most people could name five there's ninety two eventually those companies will if we didn't pass this bill would come to the us would go out of business and we leave millions to consumers with no warranties no spare parts i dealt with that as an automobile dealer and i say this not as a brag but as a cry for sympathy i was one of the largest Saab dealers in america when Saab went out of business i was stuck with about a hundred and fifty Saabs in inventory no warranty so i thought about all my friends who had bought those cars who now had no ability to get their car repaired when they were given a deal that said that they were supposed to be able to come in and have their car repaired i covered that expense for three long years it was painful imagine that but times millions so this is an incredibly important bill it's incredibly bipartisan i see my colleague from michigan elissa slotkin here also who's been working really hard on this bill i wanna also thank all the members of the republican dais i think we got almost all of you on the bill uh truly appreciate it again chairman thank you for the opportunity to do this mark up thank you for the incredible hard work from your staff i know again we've put them through the wringer uh with just back and forth but i think we landed in a really good spot it's very difficult to create a bill that takes into account the totality and the complexity of not only the auto industry but digging deep into the supply chain which we're doing uh so thank you very much and i urge all of my colleagues to vote i think it would be an important message to have this be a unanimous vote i see our my colleague from wisconsin tammy baldwin is here also worked very very hard on this bill uh i think a unanimous vote would send a message mostly to our allies that they need to stop this predatory behavior uh from the chinese auto industry which represents an existential threat to our industrial base we will not commit industrial suicide and we will not allow automotive fentanyl to enter the united states of america thank you mr. chairman

thank you uh any senators have amendments

mr. chairman

senator duckworth

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um, I'd like to call up and offer my bipartisan amendment, Duckworth one, uh, modified again, that you and Senator Blackburn are cosponsoring. I understand and support the importance of the Connected Vehicle Security Act, and appreciate the committee's focus on addressing risks to our national security posed by connected vehicles. Uh, the Duckworth-Cruz-Blackburn amendment would align the definition of connected vehicle hardware with the existing connected vehicle security rule that was developed by the Bureau of Industry and Security, and in january of twenty twenty five due to the intricacies of the national security issue the connected vehicle rule took years to develop and was based on diligent evaluations by the department of commerce's bureau of industry and security we should codify this extensive work uh the bis will intentionally focus only on vehicle connectivity systems that is these are systems capable of communicating long distances potentially to foreign adversaries This amendment would ensure that the battery remains secure by focusing scope on the actual critical components, the electronic systems that govern battery management system, wireless communication. This technical amendment provides regulatory certainty in the market and, importantly, ensures that the bill does not pick favorites across the industry. Um, and I would like to request a roll call vote on uh Duckworth one modified again, that is um again uh cosponsored by uh yourself and Senator Blackburn. Thank you.

Thank you, Senator Duckworth. I I support this amendment, uh, and encourage my colleagues to vote yes. Uh, the current language in the bill is overly broad. It goes beyond the national security risk that this legislation is intended to address. When the Bureau of Industry and Security finished the connected vehicles rule last year, it didn't ban foreign EV batteries. That rule followed an extensive notice and comment process. to identify and address genuine national security risks. This language is being pushed by General Motors, and it would effectively force domestic and allied automakers to use GM's batteries, which GM itself has stated are approximately five thousand dollars more expensive per vehicle. Everybody on both sides of this aisle has talked about making cars more affordable. And If this amendment is not adopted, it would have the effect of driving up the cost of every one of these vehicles by five thousand dollars each. That should be unacceptable. This amendment ensures that automakers are not forced to use general motors as batteries and that consumers are not forced to pay an additional five thousand dollars per vehicle while still targeting the wireless external battery communications that may well present a legitimate national security risk. And so I would encourage my colleagues

Mr. Chairman, Mr. Chairman, uh, I, uh, am in opposition, uh, I, uh, am in opposition, uh, to this amendment. uh, to this amendment. And I I certainly appreciate that when Congress acts on national security related industry prohibitions uh that we must insure that those prohibitions are structured in a way that are both justified and justifiable. and achievable. And I believe the Connected Vehicle Security Act, as written, achieves just that standard. This amendment would limit the prohibitions in the bill to just battery management software that has external wireless communication capability. While that certainly eliminates one type of security concern, it leaves the door open to other threats that are covered by the original definition that is in the bill before us. Battery management software represents a sensitive part of the vehicle technology suite that experts point out could be manipulated to gain access, or to sabotage a battery, and thus the entire vehicle. I'm certainly open to continuing to discuss this issue with my colleagues going forward, but I believe it is irresponsible at this time to narrow the prohibition in the bill without addressing these alternative national security threat vectors. Additionally, the text of the underlying bill would help break the Chinese choke point when it comes to electric vehicle supply chain. In twenty twenty, we saw how harmful it was to our national and economic security for China to control critical supply chains. The battery management system prohibition in the underlying bill would contribute to less reliance on China for this key technology. For these reasons, I support uh the language in the underlying bill, And I would urge my colleagues uh to vote uh against this amendment.

Mr. Chairman.

Senator Morana.

I wanna echo my colleague from Michigan's comments. Um, I'm not sure where General Motors honestly fits into the conversation. We we gave uh we in this bill we give uh the industry six years to adopt their supply chains. This this uh provision of the bill does not kick in until twenty thirty two. I can promise you two things. In twenty thirty two there's a lot of things we don't know will be uh the case in the future what we're doing is allowing a burgeoning industry burgeoning industry to happen in a critical piece of the future vehicles which are gonna have some form of electrification what we don't wanna do is cede this entire industry to the chinese they will dominate this technology they will use it to drive competitors and start-ups out of business and most importantly i'd ask any of you to think about this for a second you've seen the videos you've seen the stories of these batteries that are heated up and exploded and if you don't think for a minute that is a national security threat to allow the chinese to dominate industry in which they no longer can sell cars here in united states because of the of what we're doing here today but they could remote incinerate a battery that seems like something that we'd be talking about in twenty thirty two it says i wish we had not done that i urge urge with the deepest amount of conviction for my colleagues to reject that amendment and i realize where it's coming from there's one company it's called rivian that has decided that it's cheaper for them to go to china to assemble their batteries than it is to find a supply chain here i will tell you the one company that does not do that is tesla tesla makes more of its vehicles here in america including entirely vertical integration of their battery battery technology which is led to massive investments in gigafactories so that Tesla can have a competitive alternative to China. This would be a giveaway to Rivian. We don't need to do that. They have six years to modify their supply chain, and again urge my colleagues to vote no.

Mr. Chairman.

Ranking member Cantwell.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, I support Senator Duckworth's amendment that aligns with the treatment of battery management systems in the bill, which is consistent with the existing Department of Commerce rulemaking. I mean, basically the Biden era rulemaking. So, I don't know, maybe that helps or hurts on your side. I don't know.

Mr. Chairman?

But the the rule acknowledged that international communications of battery

Yeah.

management systems were not security risks and therefore not prohibited from foreign suppliers of these systems. This amendment gives the regulatory certainty to companies producing cars in the US who have already aligned by these existing rules. So I'd encourage my colleagues to support the Duckworth amendment.

Uh, our

Mr. Mr. Chairman?

Uh, yes, but let's move quickly, cuz we're gonna start losing people.

Yes, I'll be very quick, thank you. I just wanted to respond. I agree that there are valid concerns here, which is why uh the Biden administration worked on this rule. And the Biden administration also pushed to provide carrots, not just sticks, to industry to establish the necessary supply chains in the US. The amendment is technical and one hundred percent in support of aligning with the connected vehicle rule. it affords industry regulatory certainty and recognizes the ongoing efforts to onshore production. And the rule states, BIS also recognize, and I quote, BIS also recognizes that the traditional battery management system does not have its own external wireless data link, which is why it rejects commenter's recommendations to include BMS. And if an infotainment module or a battery management system included in a modular module for its own wireless communications, those modules should be considered vehicle connectivity systems. Basically, the current administration has torpedoed incentives from the Biden era to bring production to the US and cause such confusion that without this minor modification, could mean further damage to those who are realistically trying to reshore. My colleagues know I am no dove. I am no dove, but I am looking for pragmatic solutions to give American companies the runway they need to innovate survive and take the lead in battery management issues. And this bipartisan amendment would allow us to do that. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Senator Duckworth. The clerk will call the roll.

mister thun

no

mister wicker

no

mrs. fisher

no

mister moran

no

mister sullivan

no

mrs. blackburn

aye

mister young

no no

mister bud

no by proxy

mister schmidt mister curtis mister moreno

no

mister sheehy

no

mrs. capito

no

miss lemes

i

miss cantwell

aye

miss klobuchar

no by proxy

mister schatz

no by proxy

mister markey

aye by proxy

mister peters

no

miss baldwin

no

miss duckworth

aye

miss rosen

no

mister lujan

no

mister hickenlooper

aye by proxy

mister federman

aye by proxy

mister kim

no by proxy

miss blunt rockchester

aye by proxy

mister cruz

aye

the no's are nineteen the yes's are nine

uh the the amendment is not adopted we're going to now pause the legislation cause we have sufficient bodies to move the nominations so we'll move the nominations and then return to the legislative process. And so, I move that PN eight zero six dash seven, the nomination of Karen Sessions to be a Commissioner of the US Product Safety Commission be favorably reported. Is there a second?

Second.

The clerk will call the roll.

Mister Thune.

Aye.

Mister Wicker. Mrs. Fisher.

Aye.

Mister Moran.

Aye.

Mister Sullivan. Mrs. Blackburn. mister young

you just said the

mister bud

i i'm not saying uh i buy proxy i think that's enough

mister schmidt

uh then you just call for this

mister curtis

since it's actually

mister moreno

it's

mister sheehy

oh

mrs. capito miss lemus

i

miss cantwell

no

miss klobuchar

no by proxy

mister schatz

no by proxy

mister markey

no by proxy

mister peters

no

Miss Baldwin.

No.

Miss Duckworth.

No.

Miss Rosen.

No.

Mister Lujan.

No.

Mister Hickenlooper.

No, by proxy.

Mister Fetterman.

No, by proxy.

Mister Kim.

No, by proxy.

Miss Blount-Rockchester.

No, by proxy.

Mister Cruz.

Aye.

The yeses are fifteen, the noes are thirteen.

The motion is agreed to and the nomination is ordered to be reported favorably. I recognize Senator Wicker for a motion. Mister Chairman, I move that PN

ten twenty two dash twenty two nomination of brian lorenz to be commissioner of the us consumer product safety commission be favorably reported

is there a second

second

the clerk will call the roll

mister thun

aye

mister wicker

aye

mrs. fisher mister moran

aye

mister sullivan

aye

mrs. blackburn

aye

mister young

aye

mister bud

aye by proxy

mister schmidt mister curtis mister moreno mister sheehy mrs. capito miss lemus miss cantwell

no

miss klobuchar

no by proxy

mister schatz

no by proxy

mister markey

no by proxy

mister peters

no

miss baldwin

no

miss duckworth

no

miss rosen

no

mister luhan mister hickenlooper

no by proxy

mister federman

no by proxy

Mister Kim

No by proxy.

Miss Blunt-Rochester

No by proxy.

Mister Cruz

Aye.

The yes's are fifteen, the no's are thirteen.

The motion is agreed to and the nomination is ordered to be reported favorably. I recognize Senator Moran for a motion.

Mister Chairman, thank you. I move P N nine six two dash one nomination of David Cummings to be the Administrator of the Transportation Security Administration, be favorably reported.

Is there a second?

Second.

The clerk will call the roll.

Mister Thune.

Aye.

Mister Wicker.

aye

mrs. fisher

aye

mister moran mister sullivan mrs. blackburn

aye

mr. young

aye

mr. budd

aye by proxy

mister schmidt

aye

mister curtis

aye

mister moreno

aye

mister sheehy

aye

mrs. capito miss lemus

aye

miss cantwell

no

miss klobuchar

no by proxy

mister schatz

no by proxy

mister markey

no by proxy

mister peters

no

miss baldwin

no

miss duckworth

no

miss rosen

no

mister luhan mister hickenlooper

no by proxy

mister federman

no by proxy

mister kim

no by proxy

miss bunt rochester

no by proxy

mister cruz

aye

yes's are fifteen the no's are thirteen

the motion is agreed to and the nomination is ordered to be reported favorably i recognize senator fisher for a motion

thank you mr. chairman i move that p n seven thirty dash twenty three the nomination of edward epler to be chief financial officer of the us department of transportation be favorably reported

is there a second

second

clerk will call the roll

mister thun

aye

mister wicker

aye

mrs. fisher mister moran

aye

mister sullivan

aye

mrs. blackburn

aye

mister young

aye

mister bud

aye by proxy

mister schmidt

aye

mr. curtis

aye

mr. moreno

aye

mr. sheehy

aye

mrs. capito miss lemus

aye

miss cantwell

no

miss klobuchar

no by proxy

mr. shots

no by proxy

mr. markey

no by proxy

mr. peters

no

miss baldwin

no

miss duckworth

no

miss rosen

no

mr. luhan

no

mr. hickenlooper

no by proxy

Mister Fetterman.

No by proxy.

Mister Kim.

No by proxy.

Miss Blount-Rockchester.

No by proxy.

Mister Cruz.

Aye.

Yeses are fifteen, the noes are thirteen.

The motion is agreed to and the nomination is ordered to be reported favorably. I recognize ranking member Cantwell for a motion.

I move that PN nine O one three, the nomination of Thomas V. Chapman to be a member of the National Transportation Safety Board be uh favorably reported.

Is there a second?

that is

clerk will call the roll

mister thun

aye

mister wicker

aye

mrs. fisher

aye

mister moran

aye

mister sullivan

aye

mrs. blackburn mister young

aye

mister bud

i'm a proxy

mister schmidt

aye

mister curtis

aye

mister moreno

aye

mister sheehy

aye

mrs. capito

aye

miss solanas

aye

miss cantwell

aye

miss klobuchar

aye by proxy

mister schatz

aye by proxy

mister markey

aye by proxy

mister peters

aye

miss baldwin

aye

miss duckworth

aye

mr. rosen

aye

mr. lujan

aye

mister hickenlooper

aye by proxy

Mister Fetterman.

I by proxy.

Mister Kim.

I by proxy.

Miss Blount-Rockchester.

I by proxy.

Mister Cruz.

Aye.

The yeses are twenty eight.

Uh, the motion is agreed to and the nomination is ordered to be reported favorably. I'll now recognize ranking member Cantwell for an additional motion.

Mister Chairman, I move that

Uh,

Thank you, Mister Chairman. I move that PN nine six one four nomination of Karen Jean Hegeland to be

is there a second clerk will call the roll

mister thun

aye

mister wicker

aye

mrs. fisher

aye

mister moran

aye

aye excuse my candidly

mister sullivan

aye

mrs. blackburn

aye

mr. young

aye

mister bud

i'm a proxy

mister schmidt

aye

mr. curtis

aye

mr. moreno

aye

mr. sheehy

aye

mrs. capito

aye

miss lemus

aye

miss cantwell

aye

miss klobuchar

aye

i by proxy

mr. schatz

i by proxy

mr. markey

i by proxy

mr. peters

aye

miss baldwin

aye

miss duckworth

aye

miss rosen

aye

mr. luhan

aye

mr. hickenlooper

aye

i by proxy

Mister Fetterman.

Aye by proxy.

Mister Kim.

Aye by proxy.

Miss Blount-Rockchester.

Aye by proxy.

Mister Cruz.

Aye.

Yeses are twenty eight.

The motion is agreed to and the nomination is ordered to be reported favorably. Uh, that concludes our nominations, so we will return to the legislation. Uh, and at this point, uh, I wanna call up Cruz for, uh, my amendment. Uh, and I wanna start by saying I wanna thank Senator Moreno and Senator Slotkin. They worked very hard on this bill. and this is an important bill, this is a bill I support, uh, it is a real national security risk and it is a real risk to the safety of Americans, to have Chinese automobiles on American streets that are operated and potentially under the control of the Chinese Communist Party. That is an unacceptable threat to the safety of Americans. And so I appreciate Senator Moreno and Senator Slotkin leading on this. I hope and want this bill to be signed into law. There is, however, one very serious problem with this bill. There's a provision in the bill that specifies that any auto company that has over fifteen percent ownership by any Chinese entity is barred from selling automobiles in the United States. That provision unfortunately reflects two very ugly things. Number one, it if reflects corporate welfare. And in particular, this is an effort by General Motors, Cadillac right now, sells about one hundred and seventy-five thousand cars each year. The next best-selling luxury bre- brand is Mercedes, which sells about three hundred thousand cars to Americans each year. This provision is designed to make it illegal for Mercedes-Benz to send sell any to any Americans. Now, I understand why Cadillac would want that. Taking out your competitor is a long tradition and getting government to participate in rent seeking and cronyism is sadly also a long tradition. The fifteen percent number was not chosen randomly. The number used to be twenty. Why did the number change from twenty to fifteen? Well, because Mercedes currently has nineteen percent of owned by two Chinese entities. Now these two Chinese entities are passive investors. They have no board seats. They have no control. But with nineteen percent ownership, this is very deliberately designed to impact Mercedes. Now. The law went to into effect and nothing changed. It would become illegal for Mercedes to sell a single vehicle in the United States. And illegal for an American to buy a Mercedes, to choose to buy a Mercedes. Now, the response that is given is, well, Mercedes can simply change its ownership, but it could go to the Chinese entities and see if they would relinquish some of their shares. It can't force them to do that. The second thing it could do is dilute its own share price, issue more shares to dilute that ownership below fifteen percent. That would hurt every Mercedes shareholder, that would hurt every four O one K and every pension fund that is invested But, General Motors could inflict pain on a rival if Congress goes along with it. There's a second piece of this that is equally ugly. Which is Mercedes-Benz has factories in Alabama and in South Carolina. The United Auto Workers very much wants to unionize those workers. United Auto workers tried to unionize them in Alabama. And much to the frustration of the UAW, the workers in Alabama voted no. They said, we don't want to be in the union. Alabama, like Texas, like most red states, is a right to work state. And the workers in the Mercedes factory chose affirmatively not to be in the union. The UAW is pissed at that. They don't like that outcome. And this provision is a very direct shot to inflict pain on Mercedes because their employees had the temerity to say, we wanna keep our paychecks and not send part of our paychecks to union dues. Now, look, I understand why for many Democrats doing something that makes the UAW happy is good politics. For the life of me, I can't figure out why any Republicans would be willing to stick it to a red state, two red states, Alabama and South Carolina, gratuitously. Not only are those two ugly things going on, the provision of fifteen percent is actually not effective at doing what this bill is designed to do. Why is that? Because it's not tied to control at all. It could be abused easily. By the way, this could really come back and and one consequence if this bill were to pass into law, as written, China could go out and buy fifteen percent of GM. And suddenly, it would be illegal for GM to sell cars in America. That is a really foolish outcome. Cruise four is a very simple solution. Instead of having a fifteen percent arbitrary shareholding threshold, it instead adopts the language from CFIUS. CFIUS is the existing mechanism we have to prevent foreign control that endangers national security, and CFIUS critically focuses not on an arbitrary number, but on control. The current bill? If Chinese entities have fourteen percent ownership but effective control, the current bill says, great, China can control the company all day long, but you're below the threshold. The CFIUS language would trigger at one percent, at at at any percentage, the trigger on CFIUS is control. So this amendment would make the bill stronger. actually stopping China from controlling an automaker or a supplier. I will point out also this amendment language was suggested by the Trump administration. The Department of Commerce submitted this amendment. The Department of Commerce are the experts, and they came forward and said the CFIUS approach is the right way to do it. I'm gonna make a final point on this. I want this bill to pass. we're going to move this bill out of committee today. If the provision that is in the bill right now, the punitive provision attacking Mercedes, if that stays in the bill, this bill will not become law. And so my emphatic advice to the authors of this bill who also want this bill to pass, the way to get this bill to pass on the floor of the Senate to pass on the house and be signed by the president is to adopt the CFIUS language, to be even more vigorous, even more rigorous in preventing Chinese control, which advances the not national security objectives, but abandon the efforts of corporate welfare and union retaliation, both of which are not pretty and both of which I believe, uh, i- if they remain in the bill, will prevent this bill from passing into law. With that being said, I'm going to offer and then withdraw the amendment. I'm gonna allow this bill to move through the committee and to go to the floor, but my strong counsel is if - if the authors want this bill to pass, we should adopt the language that accomplishes the purposes behind the legislation. with that is there any further debate