▶ 0:20:51Chair Grassley: If it's ok with senator durbin, we are going to move on as we get a quorum to vote. On today's agenda, we have three nominations and seven bills listed. Four of those bills are listed for the first time, so naturally they will be held over for future consideration. Today we will vote on three U.S. attorney nominees.
▶ 0:21:17Chair Grassley: Thomas govan, zachary keller, and ryan raybould. The bills are s. 2544, guard act , s. 1809, drone espionage act, and s. 3023, safe cloud storage act.
▶ 0:21:49Chair Grassley: Thomas govan has served as assistant U.S. attorney general to alabama as well as assistant U.S. attorney mill district, alabama. Nearly two decades of high stakes and civil experience at the state and federal levels. His elite practice included several cases before the U.S. supreme court.
▶ 0:22:18Chair Grassley: Zachary keller has extensive trial and litigation experience in public service. Mr. keller worked for the ftc litigating consumer fraud. He has held various civil, criminal, and appellate roles in the southern district of florida and western district of louisiana.
▶ 0:22:49Chair Grassley: Ryan raybould also has impressive qualifications. In addition to his time in private practice, he served as an assistant U.S. attorney in the middle district of tennessee and the deputy for white-collar and public corruption in the northern district of texas. Mr. raybould also supported this committee as senator cornyn's chief of staff for four years.
▶ 0:23:21Chair Grassley: I'm confident that all three nominees will do a great job and I encourage my colleagues to join me in supporting them. On the rest of the agenda, three bills we are voting on today as a part of a bipartisan effort to tackle crime and protect vulnerable populations. The guard act it, a bipartisan bill led by senator britt and senator gillibrand.
▶ 0:23:52Chair Grassley: It equips law enforcement with critical tools needed to protect people, including the elderly, from sophisticated scams and financial frauds. The drone espionage act is a bipartisan bill led by senator moody and senator slotkin, cosponsored by senators lee, tillis, cruz, blackburn, and britt, protecting critical
▶ 0:24:23Chair Grassley: Military installations from unauthorized surveillance. The safe cloud storage act is also a bipartisan bill led by senators blackburn, klobuchar, corning, and bluish are -- blumenthal.
▶ 0:24:49Chair Grassley: It helps those who work alongside law enforcement in the fight against child sexual exploitation. I really want to thank senator durbin, the ranking member, and his staff as well, for working with me to put together this agenda. I would also like to thank members of this committee for their work on these important bipartisan bills. Senator durbin?
▶ 0:25:17Sen. Durbin: Thanks, Mr. chairman. Looking forward to the hearing on the legislative items as well. I would just like to say a word. Over the span of more than a year, I have, and others have joined me, in asking questions of judicial nominees that if they become judges, do they believe that court orders need to be complied with, followed, by the parties to a lawsuit.
▶ 0:25:50Sen. Durbin: There was some equivocation at the beginning. Senator kennedy was arrived -- arrived and was outspoken on following court orders. Most of us who practice law understand they have to be taken seriously. But then there came the standard answer after that, and some people were incredulous that we would even raise the issue. Judge issues an order, you follow the order. Turns out that's not the case.
▶ 0:26:19Sen. Durbin: I commend to my colleagues an article on the front page, if there is still a front page, of "the new york times" this morning. It's entitled "surge in immigration cases in minnesota pushes prosecutors and judges to the brink." a situation where a young lady who volunteered to try to help the immigration case docket, julie lee, has testified in court as to what she literally
▶ 0:26:51Sen. Durbin: Is facing when it comes to court orders that are not compliant with, and it reached the point where in her frustration, she said I guess too much for the administration and they fired her this week. I think you ought to read the story. Let me tell you what we are dealing with.
▶ 0:27:10Sen. Durbin: The remarks that she made in court, according to the article, koster her job, where she had been working on a temporary basis to help with habeas petitions, court filings that compel the government to justify holding someone in custody.
▶ 0:27:26Sen. Durbin: Her comments also opened the window up on to a broader problem, how the courts in minnesota are buckling beneath the weight of a deluge of cases arising from the statewide campaign that the mitt administration called operation metro surge. All americans know what happened with the two innocent people that were killed in the course of the operation, but this is another aspect.
▶ 0:27:49Sen. Durbin: The turmoil into the cortez demoralized prosecutors, outraged judges, exhausted defense lawyers, leaving many immigrants languishing in detention, violating court orders.
▶ 0:28:05Sen. Durbin: It goes on to say "when agencies like this ignore judicial orders to release immigrants into their control, the federal judge in minnesota, who said it is an affront to not only criminal -- personal liberty but the entire criminal justice system. Of the judges clear, but I would like to read a statement as a part of the official record.
▶ 0:28:31Chair Grassley: Once you ask for that?
▶ 0:28:33Sen. Durbin: I asked consent.
▶ 0:28:35Chair Grassley: Without objection, it will be included. >> Mr. chair --
▶ 0:28:43Sen. Durbin: I'm not finished. "if the government undertakes an operation of this scale resulting in the detention of large numbers of people, including those who are lawfully present in the united states, the government assumes a corresponding obligation to make sure that each detention corresponds with the constitution and court orders governing release. Volume of cases and matters is not a justification for diluting constitutional rights and never can be.
▶ 0:29:13Sen. Durbin: It heightens the need for care. I bring this to your attention because I can remember that each one of the nominees dutifully said they would follow court orders. We now have a situation whereby design, the system is overwhelmed and court orders are being ignored. If we have reached the point in this country, for god's sake are we anything less than an authoritarian state? If we cannot follow the constitution and the rule of law in the courts, shame on us.
▶ 0:29:46Sen. Durbin: If you happen to believe that what is happening in minnesota is a good thing, perhaps you shrug your shoulders. If you believe it has been an embarrassment and insult to the constitution, it's unacceptable. I yelled.
▶ 0:30:00Chair Grassley: Um -- >> Mr. -- Mr. -- Mr. chairman? I wanted to briefly add to what senator durbin mentioned. There have now been 14 resignations, half of the office has stepped down in the U.S. attorney's office.
▶ 0:30:26Chair Grassley: They have included the guy who had been joe thompson, the acting U.S. attorney, that I recommended to todd blanche and others to be the acting U.S. attorney, he was the lead prosecutor on the worthy and important fraud cases being brought in which taxpayer money has been fleeced and people are going to jail.
▶ 0:30:52Chair Grassley: The problem now is because the justice department asked those lawyers to be involved in investigating renée good's wife and they said no, this is by news reports, they have hollowed out the experienced people, including hilary jacobs, chief of the criminal division, has left the office, giving support to you, senator durbin, as you look at the y the assistant U.S.
▶ 0:31:22Chair Grassley: Attorney said she was so burnt out. They have also lost melinda williams, who led the prosecution of sex offender lazzaro, in which her team won the attorney general of the united states award of the best prosecution effort in the country just a few years ago. And just recently, another resigned.
▶ 0:31:51Chair Grassley: We are losing every single leader fraud prosecutions. There are still some fraud prosecutors left to hopefully will be able to take up the slack, but they simply don't have the people in the reason these people resigned was they loved their jobs and they were so key to going after the cases. They were the ones who stood with the priests after the shootings at the annunciation school and that mass just this summer.
▶ 0:32:16Chair Grassley: The ones that took on the manhunt involving the assassination of my friend, speaker melissa hortman. They were excellent jewels of prosecutors and they have all stepped down because of what this administration asked of them to do that they could not ethically do involving ice. That, sadly, has hollowed out the most important thing that they were doing, and my mind, prosecuting these fraud cases.
▶ 0:32:46Chair Grassley: I know that there were some on the subcommittee that had a set -- a hearing yesterday, I knew there was a lot of interest in this, but people should know that the very people doing the work that I got extra money for them to do in the biden administration, with one of the guys who got 80 admin -- who had gotten 80 through, they hollowed out that work.
▶ 0:33:08Chair Grassley: Not only horrible because the lawyers cannot do their jobs now with all of these immigration cases, many of which have people who have not been abducted, but they were people with ids, passports. Elders taken out of their house in their underwear. Five-year-olds, stripped away. That's the work these guys have to do right now. It also takes away from the righteous work that needs to be done taking on these fraud cases.
▶ 0:33:37Chair Grassley: We will take up the third bill on the list because we have one of the sponsors that has a conflict. The bill is led by senator blackburn. I won't name the cosponsors and other main sponsors. It allows for law enforcement providers to use secure cloud-based storage of child sexual abuse material. I will now call up senator blackburn's amendment ell 2 Mr.
▶ 0:34:07Raybould: 0 Sen. durbin:0 -- 260 80. I now recognize senator blackburn.
▶ 0:34:18Senator Blackburn: As you said in your earlier remarks, this is bipartisan. The safe cloud storage act. Something supported by law enforcement. I had the fop in my office yesterday. A couple of years ago, senator ossoff and I did the report act. Completely bipartisan.
▶ 0:34:41Senator Blackburn: In the report act, we provided contracted vendors with the ability to securely store and transfer reports of child abuse to law enforcement. This would provide the same protections to law enforcement approved vendors, giving law enforcement the capability and flexibility to securely store and transfer child sexual abuse material in the cloud as they
▶ 0:35:11Senator Blackburn: Work to investigate these crimes , to hold these child predators accountable. The law enforcement approved vendors who will be storing the evidence in the cloud will be required to follow strict cybersecurity requirements. These vendors must comply with the cybersecurity framework and would be subject to an independent annual cybersecurity audit.
▶ 0:35:37Senator Blackburn: The bill will give law enforcement and additional tool to investigate and prosecute the crimes. The cloud storage act would modernize how law enforcement conducts the investigations, giving them a greater ability to move quickly through these cases. We have assembled a large coalition of supporters for the bill, from nick mick to international justice mission to law enforcement groups.
▶ 0:36:08Senator Blackburn: I would request entering those support statements for the bill into the record.
▶ 0:36:15Chair Grassley: Without objection.
▶ 0:36:17Sen. Blackburn: I'm especially painful to raven for their group on the built work on the bill and I want to thank our bipartisan group of's sponsors for their support. Looking forward to getting this passed out of committee and onto the floor. Thank you, Mr. chairman.
▶ 0:36:42Senator: As lead democrat, I want to thank senator blackburn for her work on this and we have seen more and more kids being targeted online with law enforcement fighting sexual exploitation, they must be able to store and transmit this evidence securely and efficiently and that is what this bill does. Thank you, senator blackburn.
▶ 0:37:02Chair Grassley: I think we are ready to vote, all in >> aye. Favor? >> aye.
▶ 0:37:09Chair Grassley: The ayes have it, the majority having voted in the affirmative, the bill will be reported to the floor. Now we will go to the guard act. This bill is sponsored by senators britton and gillibrand, allowing state and local law enforcement to you state funds to combat elder and financial fraud.
▶ 0:37:40Chair Grassley: Permitting federal law enforcement to assist in tracing tools for block chain technology. Before I open the floor, I would like to request unanimous consent to be added as a cosponsor. No objection? If anyone would like to speak on the bill, please go ahead. Senator britt, did you ask for the floor?
▶ 0:38:04Senator Britt: Yes, Mr. chairman, if you don't mind. Thank you for the opportunity to speak in favor of the guard act. Americans are facing crisis levels of financial fraud, with our seniors being particularly vulnerable. In 2024, seniors lost 4.8 billion to scammers according to the fbi. The average victim lost over 83,000 dollars.
▶ 0:38:33Senator Britt: These scammers are often sophisticated and will leverage new technologies like the block chain to bypass traditional safeguards. This kind of fraud can be devastating, particularly to older americans and families on fixed incomes. While our state and local law enforcement are working diligently to combat fraud, unfortunately they often lack the specialization they need, the training and the tools that would be helpful to investigate the complex financial crimes.
▶ 0:39:03Senator Britt: These scammers have learned how to exploit these gaps to avoid accountability. The guard act would allow state, local, and tribal law enforcement to utilize existing grant programs to higher agents, trained staff, and increase resources to utilize the block chain in investigating financial fraud. The guard act also permits federal law enforcement agency to use their expertise to assist state and local law enforcement with block chain investigations.
▶ 0:39:33Senator Britt: This legislation will unlock new tools for state and local law enforcement agency to continue to protect americans, especially seniors, from financial fraud and scammers, bringing those scammers to justice.
▶ 0:39:47Senator Britt: I want to thank senator gillibrand for her leadership and partnership on this critical piece of legislation, as well as the bipartisan group of cosponsors that we have on the bill, several of which include committee members like senator moody, senator grassley, senator klobuchar, senator coons, senator scott, senator lankford, and senator warnock. I urge all of my colleagues to support this legislation.
▶ 0:40:15Chair Grassley: We will now vote. Those in favor -- go ahead.
▶ 0:40:22Sen. Durbin: Senator britt, I would like to ask, during the course of considering the crypto bill in the agriculture committee I was alerted to the fact that crypto atm machines are being used two scam and flees particularly seniors out of their life savings. Over 20 states now have warnings on these machines.
▶ 0:40:48Sen. Durbin: A lot of commercial establishments have removed them because of the scams that are taking place and the exploitation of seniors. Does your bill protect against that sort of thing?
▶ 0:40:59Sen. Britt: Senator gillibrand and I, with the bill does come up in a comprehensive nature what we have found is that state and local law enforcement don't really have the tools when it comes to this new technology and how to get to the bottom of it to help seniors hold those people accountable and receive their money back. So, while that will be part of what this bill does, it doesn't specifically target that, but it does give these officers the tools they need to be able to drill down when it does occur.
▶ 0:41:30Sen. Durbin: You don't use the word crypto in your bill, I believe, I didn't -- I look through it very quickly.
▶ 0:41:37Sen. Britt: Can you speak of?
▶ 0:41:39Sen. Durbin: I can't find the word crypto in there.
▶ 0:41:43Sen. Britt: Digital assets in general.
▶ 0:41:47Sen. Durbin: When you say block chain technology, I take it you are referring to crypto operations?
▶ 0:41:55Sen. Britt: Yes, sir.
▶ 0:41:57Sen. Durbin: So, you are including this fraudulent operation?
▶ 0:42:03Sen. Britt: Yes, sir, any fraudulent operating that occurs as a result of block chain technology.
▶ 0:42:10Sen. Durbin: Thank you.
▶ 0:42:12Chair Grassley: Now we are ready to vote. All of those in favor, say I. -- aye. >> aye.
▶ 0:42:22Chair Grassley: The ayes have it, the bill can be reported to the floor. >> Mr. chairman?
▶ 0:42:30Chair Grassley: Who is asking? >> I would ask unanimous consent that I be added as a cosponsor of the bill.
▶ 0:42:38Sen. Britt: Thank you.
▶ 0:42:40Chair Grassley: Now we go to the drone espionage act. Senators moody, slotkin, with the help of cruise, tillis, blackburn, brit, and others as cosponsors. It updates current law to help protect sensitive national defense sites. If any of the bill cosponsors or sponsors would like to say a few words about the bill, please do that at this point.
▶ 0:43:10Chair Grassley: Senator moody?
▶ 0:43:10Senator Moody: Thank you, Mr. chairman, and to everyone who has done what I think the congress gets a bad rap for, not going back and reevaluating very old legislation that might need to be tweaked to fit current circumstances, or the evolution of technology.
▶ 0:43:29Senator Moody: So, thank you to your staff and colleagues for this opportunity to vote on this good bill and those on the other side of the aisle who see the need for a very, very simple fix to the espionage act. This updates the espionage act of 1917 to include videography of sensitive national defense sites as a crime. My home state of florida is home to 21 military installations and three combat commands.
▶ 0:43:57Senator Moody: At the state level, we have led bold policy to thwart foreign actors and those who threaten our security. Filling this gap in federal law makes it imperative that we protect these sensitive military sites. I just want to reiterate how this is showing up in real-world cases. Last year, we had a foreign national charged with using an unmanned aircraft to photograph critical command at cape canaveral.
▶ 0:44:28Senator Moody: 2024, a chinese citizen in los angeles was charge for flying a drone over the brandenburg space for space in taking images. June of 2020, three chinese nationals were sentenced in key west florida. Note that two of those examples come straight from my state. All this does is simply -- right now the espionage simply says photographs, you cannot fly over and take photographs of sensitive military sites.
▶ 0:44:58Senator Moody: This just updates it to say videos. There was a recent case where I spoke to the federal prosecutor, who said thank goodness we have photographs, because if it was just videos we couldn't have been able to do anything about it. Thank you to my colleagues on the committee and the people in florida who have so many military installations, thank you. I believe that we will be much safer when we can get this across the finish line.
▶ 0:45:22Chair Grassley: Senator durbin?
▶ 0:45:25Sen. Durbin: I wanted to make a comment, I spoke to senator moody this morning and I support this bill. I recommend a voice vote. A couple of questions have been raised and I hope we can work on finding the answers and solutions to those questions before the bill is considered on the floor.
▶ 0:45:41Sen. Moody: Absolutely.
▶ 0:45:43Chair Grassley: We will vote, now, all of those in favor of s 818-09, say aye. >> aye.
▶ 0:45:56Chair Grassley: All of those opposed, say no. Let me make it easy here,ayes have it, majority of members are present, the bill will be reported. >> [whispering] does any -- we have to wait for senator kennedy. He's on his way.
▶ 0:46:19Chair Grassley: Does anyone want to speak as we wait for senator kennedy?
▶ 0:46:24Senator Schiff: I want to take this opportunity to raise a concern over multiple things taking place in connection with the upcoming midterm election. The first, the presidential comments about nationalizing the elections and giving the federal government responsibilities that the constitution gives to the states, the conduct of the elections.
▶ 0:46:50Senator Schiff: In concert with that we see the director of national intelligence with no election remit dispatched by the presidents to oversee the execution of a search warrant in georgia to obtain ballot boxes. There are other public reports about the director of national intelligence overseeing operations to seize voting machines in puerto rico, as well as voter data.
▶ 0:47:13Senator Schiff: Then you have other close advisers of the president, like steve bannon, threatening and promising to deploy ice agents at a polling stations in november. All of this signals a mounting effort to discredit the elections or take over the elections or threaten the elections or threaten to remove responsibility for states over the elections. This is a deeply dangerous trend.
▶ 0:47:44Senator Schiff: I really shutter for our democracy, if the administration continues down this path. We have to insist, I think, on observing article one, section four of the constitution, giving states the responsibility for the conduct of elections. We don't want voter intimidation at polling places and the last thing we want to see is the federal government seizing ballot boxes or voting machines.
▶ 0:48:11Senator Schiff: All of this has been brought to the fore within the last couple of weeks.
▶ 0:48:15Chair Grassley: Can I interrupt you? We are going to lose the forum here. I will keep it open for you to finish.
▶ 0:48:23Sen. Schiff: Thank you, Mr. chairman.
▶ 0:48:26Chair Grassley: Thank you senator schiff. We will now turn to the nomination of thomas govan junior to serve as U.S. attorney for the middle district of alabama. On paper -- [indiscernible] call the roll? >> they are saying they are having trouble hearing you.
▶ 0:48:50Chair Grassley: Ok. Clerk will call the roll. >> Mr. graham? >> aye. >> Mr. cornyn? >> aye. >> Mr. lee? Mr. lee? >> aye by proxy. >> Mr. cruz? >> aye. >> Mr. hawley? >> Mr. tillis? >> aye. >> Mr. kennedy? >> aye. >> Mr. blackburn? >> aye. >> Mr. schmitt? >> aye. >> Ms. britt? >> aye.
▶ 0:49:21Chair Grassley: >> Ms. moody? >> aye. >> Mr. durbin? >> no. >> Mr. whitehouse? >> no. >> Ms. klobuchar? >> no. >> Mr. coons? >> no by proxy. >> Mr. blumenthal? >> no. >> Ms. hirono? >> no by proxy. >> Mr. booker? >> no by proxy. >> Mr. padilla? >> no. >> Mr. welch? >> no by proxy. >> Mr. schiff? >> no.
▶ 0:49:51Chair Grassley: >> Mr. grassley? >> aye. >> on this vote, ayes 12, nays 10.
▶ 0:50:00Chair Grassley: The nomination will be favorably reported to the floor based on that boat. Now we go to zachary keller. Favorably reporting the nomination, the clerk will call the roll. >> Mr. graham? >> aye. >> Mr. cornyn? >> aye. >> Mr. lee? >> aye by proxy. >> Mr. cruz? >> aye. >> Mr. hawley? >> aye. >> Mr. tillis? >> aye. >> Mr. kennedy? >> Mr. blackburn? >> aye.
▶ 0:50:32Chair Grassley: >> Mr. schmitt? >> aye. >> Ms. britt? >> aye. >> Ms. moody? >> aye. >> Mr. durbin? >> aye. >> Mr. whitehouse? >> Ms. klobuchar? >> no. >> Mr. coons? >> no by proxy. >> Mr. blumenthal? >> no. >> Ms. hirono? >> no by proxy. >> Mr. booker? >> no by proxy. >> Mr. padilla? >> no. >> Mr. welch? >> no by proxy. >> Mr. schiff? >> no. >> Mr. grassley? >> aye. >> on this vote, ayes are 13, nays are 9.
▶ 0:51:04Chair Grassley: Majority vote, it will be favorably reported. We now go to ryan raybould -- >> may I please offer a brief unanimous request, my statement in support of ryan raybould be made part of the record?
▶ 0:51:21Chair Grassley: Yes. The clerk will call the roll. >> Mr. graham? >> aye. >> Mr. cornyn? >> aye. >> Mr. lee? >> aye. >> Mr. cruz? >> aye. >> Mr. hawley? >> aye. >> Mr. tillis? >> aye. >> Mr. kennedy? >> aye. >> Ms. blackburn? >> aye. >> Mr. schmitt? >> aye. >> Ms. britt? >> aye. >> Ms. moody? >> aye. >> Mr. durbin? >> no. >> Mr. whitehouse? >> no. >> Ms. klobuchar? >> no by proxy. >> Mr. coons? >> aye by proxy.
▶ 0:51:53Chair Grassley: >> Mr. blumenthal? >> no. >> Ms. hirono? >> no by proxy. >> Mr. booker? >> no by proxy. >> Mr. padilla? >> no. >> Mr. welch? >> no by proxy. >> Mr. schiff? >> no. >> Mr. grassley?
▶ 0:52:11Chair Grassley: Aye. >> on this vote, ayes 13, nays 9.
▶ 0:52:19Chair Grassley: Favorably reported.
▶ 0:52:22Sen. Durbin: Thank you, I would like to change my vote from no to aye on ryan raybould.
▶ 0:52:32Chair Grassley: Did you get that? >> ayes 14.
▶ 0:52:37Chair Grassley: S. 2544, guard act --ryan raybould will be reported to the floor. Now I call on senator schiff to make his statement and senator cornyn, did you want to make a statement?
▶ 0:52:52Senator: Can I make a statement?
▶ 0:52:52Chair Grassley: After him. Yeah. Go ahead.
▶ 0:52:56Sen. Schiff: Thank you, I will just briefly conclude that there are a lot of alarm bells ringing about the administrative attentions to the next election with the involvement of national intelligence and a domestic law enforcement operation in georgia and puerto rico, with the threat of calling out ice on election day to intimidate voters at the polls.
▶ 0:53:26Sen. Schiff: And with the action of seizing ballot boxes, voting machines, voter data, as well as efforts to pressure states to turn over voted -- voter data in over to get ice out of their state. This involves the jurisdiction of multiple committees. The rules committee, the intelligence committee, and this committee. I would ask that we conduct an oversight hearing.
▶ 0:53:53Sen. Schiff: I think that probably the most focused part of this concern relative to this committee is the participation of an american intelligence agency and law enforcement action concerning our domestic collections. So, I would make that request and appreciate the chairman's consideration.
▶ 0:54:12Chair Grassley: Ok, thank you. Senator britt?
▶ 0:54:17Senator Britt: I wanted to briefly talk about my support for the nomination of thomas govan to be the U.S. attorney for the middle district of alabama. I have known thomas for 25 years . He is fair and kind. He is honorable in the way that he conducts himself and he treats everyone that he encounters with dignity and respect.
▶ 0:54:44Senator Britt: As a graduate of the university of alabama and alabama school of law, he has dedicated his life to public service, having spent the last 18 years representing both the great state of alabama and the united states in court. During this time, he worked both as deputy attorney general and assistant attorney general in the alabama attorney general's office, as well as assistant U.S. attorney in the middle district of alabama.
▶ 0:55:12Senator Britt: He also continues to serve his country as a member of the U.S. air force reserve, where he holds the rank of major. I am certain that he will serve our state, the middle district, and our great nation well. I have complete confidence in him, his character, and his integrity.
▶ 0:55:32Senator Britt: I urge all of my colleagues to support his nomination on the floor and was pleased to see the favorable reporting of his nomination out of this committee today. Thank you, senator.
▶ 0:55:43Chair Grassley: Thank you, senator britt. Meeting adjourned. Thank you for your cooperation.