WEBVTT - Inside the Senate Vote on the New Majority Leader 0:00:01.160 --> 0:00:01.599 Welcome. 0:00:01.680 --> 0:00:05.320 It is Verdict with Center Ted Cruz Ben Ferguson with you, Senator, 0:00:05.400 --> 0:00:08.640 You're back in Washington, d C. My, oh my, how 0:00:08.720 --> 0:00:10.799 things have changed since the last time you were in 0:00:10.880 --> 0:00:12.760 DC before election Day. 0:00:13.280 --> 0:00:16.120 Well, I've been back in d C the entire week. 0:00:16.160 --> 0:00:18.079 I'm actually back in Texas right now, you and I 0:00:18.120 --> 0:00:20.439 are talking. It's eleven o'clock Thursday night. I just got 0:00:20.440 --> 0:00:23.200 back to Texas this evening. But this was the first 0:00:23.200 --> 0:00:26.119 week back in d C since the election, and I 0:00:26.160 --> 0:00:29.400 got to say, it's a remarkable time that there is 0:00:29.440 --> 0:00:34.640 an enormous energy, There's an enormous enthusiasm, and the people 0:00:34.680 --> 0:00:37.880 are really excited. People are excited about President Trump coming 0:00:37.920 --> 0:00:39.720 back in the White House. People are excited about the 0:00:39.760 --> 0:00:43.440 new administration. People are excited about a Republican Senate and 0:00:43.479 --> 0:00:47.440 a Republican House. And it's interesting you look at the Democrats. 0:00:48.000 --> 0:00:52.760 The Democrats are shell shocked. They're just that they have 0:00:52.840 --> 0:00:56.240 a difficult time believing what has happened, and they're just 0:00:56.360 --> 0:00:59.960 kind of looking around like, you know, Okay, wow, We're 0:01:00.040 --> 0:01:02.760 in a whole new world. And so it was a 0:01:02.800 --> 0:01:07.880 really good week. It was a consequential week. We got back, 0:01:08.800 --> 0:01:12.560 we had. The very first thing we did is dove 0:01:12.640 --> 0:01:15.680 into leadership elections for the new majority leader, and the 0:01:16.120 --> 0:01:20.760 very first majority leader was elected in eighteen years and 0:01:21.160 --> 0:01:24.080 so on the podcast today, I'm going to bring inside 0:01:24.120 --> 0:01:26.319 of that that I'm going to tell you about what's 0:01:26.400 --> 0:01:28.480 going on in the Senate. We're going to break all 0:01:28.520 --> 0:01:30.200 of that down. We're also going to break down a 0:01:31.319 --> 0:01:35.800 major terrorist arrest that happened. And you're in my hometown, Houston, Texas, 0:01:35.800 --> 0:01:36.840 so we're going to talk about all that. 0:01:37.280 --> 0:01:39.800 Yeah, big show for sure. Let me tell you about 0:01:39.800 --> 0:01:42.080 AMO Squared real quick. 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Amosquared 0:03:13.960 --> 0:03:17.480 dot com slash Ben So Senator, let's talk about you 0:03:17.560 --> 0:03:21.400 mentioned it in the opening there, the mood you've gone 0:03:21.440 --> 0:03:25.519 back to Washington and been from the majority to the minority. 0:03:25.680 --> 0:03:29.359 It's not fun. Yeah, But when you lose the White House. 0:03:29.240 --> 0:03:33.520 You lose this, you lose the the Senate, and you 0:03:33.600 --> 0:03:35.360 thought you might be able to pick up the House 0:03:35.480 --> 0:03:38.520 Democrats and you don't get that either. And the Republicans 0:03:38.560 --> 0:03:43.440 have a very secure apparatus around you. That's a really 0:03:43.560 --> 0:03:46.080 bad day for Democrats when they go back to Washington. 0:03:46.440 --> 0:03:46.640 Yeah. 0:03:46.720 --> 0:03:48.280 And I can tell you in the Senate at least 0:03:48.320 --> 0:03:51.040 the Senate Democrats were walking around just shell shocked that 0:03:51.320 --> 0:03:54.160 they were not expecting what happened on election Day. 0:03:54.240 --> 0:03:56.480 And and and it's it's tough. 0:03:56.520 --> 0:03:56.680 Now. 0:03:56.680 --> 0:03:58.360 I've been there. I've been there when we had the 0:03:58.400 --> 0:04:02.200 majority and lost it, and that's sucks. But but this 0:04:02.200 --> 0:04:05.200 this was just a thumping across the board. We also 0:04:05.280 --> 0:04:08.120 had this week, uh, this week is the orientation for 0:04:08.160 --> 0:04:11.880 newly elected senators. So we had Jim Justice for West Virginia. 0:04:11.920 --> 0:04:12.520 He was there. 0:04:12.640 --> 0:04:16.120 We we had Tim Sheehey from Montana, he was there. 0:04:16.160 --> 0:04:18.680 We had Bernie Moreno from Ohio, he was there. And 0:04:18.720 --> 0:04:21.320 we had Dave McCormick from Pennsylvania. 0:04:21.360 --> 0:04:21.720 He was there. 0:04:21.800 --> 0:04:25.479 So we've got four new Republican senators, all of whom 0:04:25.520 --> 0:04:28.000 were there, and and that that that that's what flipped 0:04:28.040 --> 0:04:30.120 the Senate. So it was good to see them. They 0:04:30.120 --> 0:04:32.200 were excited to be there. And then they're starting the 0:04:32.200 --> 0:04:35.440 whole process of orientation. I will tell you, the Senate's 0:04:35.480 --> 0:04:38.640 an interesting place. So you get elected, and you show 0:04:38.760 --> 0:04:40.520 up and you and you have a week of orientation 0:04:40.600 --> 0:04:42.840 and you do all these different little sessions where they 0:04:42.839 --> 0:04:46.000 talk about the ethics rules, they talk about all all 0:04:46.040 --> 0:04:48.720 the ways it operates, they talk about staffing up your office, 0:04:49.279 --> 0:04:52.920 and and you're put in a little basement office as 0:04:52.960 --> 0:04:57.160 a newly elected senator elect and and you know, it's 0:04:57.200 --> 0:05:00.240 it's kind of an interesting place because the Senate, there 0:05:00.279 --> 0:05:02.000 are one hundred senator offices. 0:05:02.480 --> 0:05:03.560 There are one hundred senators. 0:05:04.160 --> 0:05:07.400 You would think it would be fairly quick and efficient 0:05:07.440 --> 0:05:11.839 to assign each one of the senators the senator offices. Well, 0:05:11.839 --> 0:05:13.880 this is an aspect where I mean, there are a 0:05:13.880 --> 0:05:16.200 lot of ways in which the US Senate is not 0:05:16.240 --> 0:05:18.279 even like a high school. It's like a junior high. 0:05:18.440 --> 0:05:22.000 It's basically mean girls. And one of the ways is 0:05:22.640 --> 0:05:26.640 the new senators basically get hazed, where you get stuck 0:05:26.720 --> 0:05:30.640 down in a tiny basement office for several months. And 0:05:30.720 --> 0:05:34.479 mind you, there are fully empty Senate offices. Once we 0:05:34.520 --> 0:05:36.920 get to January and the old guys have left, they're 0:05:36.960 --> 0:05:40.719 fully empty Senate offices, but it takes several months to 0:05:40.839 --> 0:05:44.200 assign them. And so the new guys are there, they're 0:05:44.279 --> 0:05:47.200 kind of looking around, they're sort of blinking, starry eyed, 0:05:47.240 --> 0:05:50.240 and I remember it, well, you're like, holy crap, what 0:05:50.240 --> 0:05:53.760 am I doing here? And you go to the initial 0:05:53.839 --> 0:05:56.080 lunches and one of the first things you have to 0:05:56.120 --> 0:05:59.800 do as a senator is you have to decide, okay, 0:05:59.800 --> 0:06:02.479 what committees do I want to be on? And so 0:06:02.680 --> 0:06:06.560 you send a formal letter to the to the leader 0:06:06.560 --> 0:06:08.280 of your party saying, here are the committees I want 0:06:08.279 --> 0:06:12.400 to be on, and each senator actually senators, it's a 0:06:13.240 --> 0:06:15.680 it's a lot better the committee asignment process, and the 0:06:15.720 --> 0:06:18.920 Senate is much much better than the House. The way 0:06:18.960 --> 0:06:24.280 it operates is that every newly elected senator is guaranteed 0:06:24.440 --> 0:06:30.080 to what are called A committees and one B committee, 0:06:30.120 --> 0:06:34.400 and you can with some regularity beyond even a fourth 0:06:34.520 --> 0:06:37.279 or a fifth committee as well. So The A committees 0:06:37.320 --> 0:06:43.160 are the major committees that have the broadest jurisdiction. The 0:06:43.200 --> 0:06:47.960 B committees are less consequential committees. They have less authority. 0:06:48.720 --> 0:06:53.080 And the way it works is you can accrue seniority 0:06:54.320 --> 0:06:58.280 on two A committees and one B committee. So for me, 0:06:58.520 --> 0:07:02.799 my two A committees are the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, 0:07:02.839 --> 0:07:06.600 and Transportation and the Senate Judiciary Committee. And so when 0:07:06.640 --> 0:07:09.080 I first got elected in twenty twelve, as I have 0:07:09.160 --> 0:07:11.640 brand new baby senator, I sent in a letter and said, okay, 0:07:11.680 --> 0:07:14.280 here are the two A committees. I want Commerce and 0:07:14.360 --> 0:07:15.960 I want Judiciary. 0:07:16.080 --> 0:07:17.040 And my B. 0:07:17.160 --> 0:07:20.800 Committee is the Rules Committee, and so I have seniority 0:07:20.800 --> 0:07:24.040 on the Rules Committee as well. Now you can also 0:07:24.200 --> 0:07:28.520 with some frequency get a third A committee and the 0:07:28.560 --> 0:07:32.760 third A committee you're on, but you don't accruse seniority, 0:07:32.800 --> 0:07:35.480 so you're not climbing up the ranks. You're not in 0:07:35.560 --> 0:07:38.480 the line to be a chairman. So my third A 0:07:38.600 --> 0:07:40.760 committee for the first six years in the Senate was 0:07:40.760 --> 0:07:43.440 the Senate Armed Services Committee. So I was on Senate 0:07:43.520 --> 0:07:45.920 Armed Services, a great committee. I enjoyed it very much. 0:07:46.400 --> 0:07:49.600 And then I shifted over to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. 0:07:50.240 --> 0:07:52.680 Foreign Relations is my third A committee, so I don't 0:07:52.720 --> 0:07:55.040 recruse seniority. So I will never be Chairman of Foreign 0:07:55.080 --> 0:07:57.600 Relations because I have no seniority on the committee and 0:07:57.640 --> 0:08:01.160 you're only allowed to accrue on two a's and one b. 0:08:02.400 --> 0:08:07.600 But because I chose Judiciary and Commerce, that's why in 0:08:07.640 --> 0:08:09.720 this new Senate I will be the chairman of the 0:08:09.720 --> 0:08:13.680 Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, because I crude 0:08:13.760 --> 0:08:17.360 enough seniority that I am now the most senior Republican 0:08:17.400 --> 0:08:18.480 on the Commerce Committee. 0:08:18.560 --> 0:08:19.120 And by the. 0:08:19.040 --> 0:08:22.560 Way, that is a huge damn deal. The Commerce Committee 0:08:23.080 --> 0:08:23.880 has jurisdiction. 0:08:24.120 --> 0:08:25.280 And that's what was going to ask you, is is 0:08:25.600 --> 0:08:28.240 people ask they say, Okay, they see chairmanship, and they're like, 0:08:28.320 --> 0:08:31.480 does that mean more TV time? Does that mean that 0:08:31.520 --> 0:08:34.319 you're a spokesman in the sense for the committee or 0:08:34.400 --> 0:08:36.120 does that mean you actually have power? 0:08:36.200 --> 0:08:37.760 So explain what that looks like. 0:08:38.000 --> 0:08:42.520 It is massive and transformation, and I'll confess I didn't 0:08:42.559 --> 0:08:46.079 fully understand that until all right, So for the last 0:08:46.080 --> 0:08:49.199 two years, I've been the ranking member on the Senate 0:08:49.240 --> 0:08:51.719 Commerce Committee. Now, now what does it mean to be 0:08:51.760 --> 0:08:53.880 the ranking member? You're the senior Republican, but you're in 0:08:53.920 --> 0:08:57.920 the minority. That is a massive shift. So the last 0:08:57.920 --> 0:09:00.960 two years have been enormously consequential. And I'm about to 0:09:01.000 --> 0:09:03.319 be the chairman of the Commerce Committee cause we're in 0:09:03.320 --> 0:09:05.680 the majority now. Now what does it mean when you're 0:09:05.960 --> 0:09:08.360 and the Commerce Committee is an a committee? It is 0:09:08.440 --> 0:09:13.040 a major committee. So when you become the ranking member, 0:09:13.080 --> 0:09:15.079 which I did two years ago, of the Commerce Committee, 0:09:15.120 --> 0:09:18.960 one of the consequences is your budget goes up dramatically. 0:09:19.280 --> 0:09:22.079 So to give a sense, as a Senator from a 0:09:22.160 --> 0:09:24.920 large state, a state like Texas, I had for the 0:09:24.960 --> 0:09:28.760 first ten years in the Senate about sixty five staff members. 0:09:29.000 --> 0:09:31.880 So I have roughly thirty to thirty five in DC 0:09:32.880 --> 0:09:37.520 and thirty to thirty five in Texas. So that's the divide. 0:09:37.559 --> 0:09:40.520 You have about half in d C. They're your policy staff, 0:09:40.520 --> 0:09:43.160 your communications staff, your administrative staff. 0:09:43.960 --> 0:09:45.600 That's in DC. And then in Texas. 0:09:45.640 --> 0:09:48.080 I've got regional offices all over the state in the 0:09:48.120 --> 0:09:51.840 major cities, and I've got constituent Service teams in Texas 0:09:51.840 --> 0:09:53.840 that help thirty million Texans. 0:09:53.880 --> 0:09:55.520 So if you're a. 0:09:55.520 --> 0:09:57.600 Veteran and you're dealing with the VA and you've got issues, 0:09:57.640 --> 0:09:59.720 you call into my Constituent Service team and we help 0:10:00.080 --> 0:10:02.760 help veterans, We help seniors with Social Security, We help 0:10:02.800 --> 0:10:04.920 people whose passports have expired. 0:10:04.960 --> 0:10:06.520 We get people who are, like you. 0:10:06.480 --> 0:10:09.360 Know, getting ready to take a family vacation in tomorrow 0:10:09.600 --> 0:10:11.960 and they realize, oh crap, my passport's expired, and we 0:10:12.000 --> 0:10:17.160 helped them get a passport. So we you as a senator, 0:10:17.160 --> 0:10:18.960 and you get a little bit larger budget, a little 0:10:19.000 --> 0:10:21.720 bit larger staff if you're a large state. In Texas 0:10:21.720 --> 0:10:24.720 obviously is a large state. So for ten years, I had, 0:10:25.880 --> 0:10:28.200 like I said, between sixty and sixty five staff members. 0:10:29.040 --> 0:10:32.200 When I became the ranking member of the Commerce Committee, 0:10:32.240 --> 0:10:36.080 my staff expanded by about a third, so I have 0:10:36.200 --> 0:10:38.160 roughly one hundred staff members now. So I have I 0:10:38.160 --> 0:10:41.400 think thirty eight staff members on the Commerce Committee. So 0:10:41.480 --> 0:10:46.520 it dramatically changes your effectiveness because I mean literally, my 0:10:46.640 --> 0:10:50.280 DC staff more than doubled. And what it means is 0:10:50.320 --> 0:10:54.600 that I've got staff members now for every subcommittee on 0:10:54.720 --> 0:10:58.240 the Commerce Committee. So for example, I've got on my 0:10:58.400 --> 0:11:03.720 team a railroad lawyer who is an expert in the 0:11:03.840 --> 0:11:08.400 law concerning railroads. I've got an expert on aviation because look, 0:11:08.679 --> 0:11:11.880 the Commerce Committee has jurisdiction over aviation. It has curisdiction 0:11:12.000 --> 0:11:16.360 over communications, it has jurisdiction over railroads, it has jurisdiction 0:11:16.480 --> 0:11:20.680 over space, it has jurisdiction over just a vast array. 0:11:21.800 --> 0:11:24.439 And I will say it is a force multiplier. When 0:11:24.480 --> 0:11:27.760 you have that team, you're able to. 0:11:27.880 --> 0:11:29.000 Engage on. 0:11:30.880 --> 0:11:34.080 I would say five x or ten x as many 0:11:34.120 --> 0:11:37.080 issues because every other member of the Commerce Committee. When 0:11:37.120 --> 0:11:39.760 I was on the Commerce Committee for ten years, I 0:11:39.840 --> 0:11:42.040 had like one or two staffers that were on Commerce. 0:11:43.160 --> 0:11:45.360 If you have one or two staffers versus thirty eight, 0:11:46.480 --> 0:11:49.240 it just limits how deep you can dive into issues, 0:11:49.280 --> 0:11:51.720 how many things you can engage in. When you've got 0:11:51.760 --> 0:11:54.480 an expanded team, you can engage in oversight, you can 0:11:54.520 --> 0:11:58.120 put out reports. You just have the ability to drive 0:11:58.240 --> 0:12:00.400 much more of an agenda. There's a second aspect of it, 0:12:01.760 --> 0:12:07.800 which is when bills are being attached to other moving vehicles. So, 0:12:07.920 --> 0:12:11.160 for example, you have something like the National Defense Authorization Act. 0:12:11.200 --> 0:12:13.320 The NDAA passes every year. 0:12:13.360 --> 0:12:19.640 It authorizes our entire military. It's a hugely consequential bill 0:12:19.840 --> 0:12:24.560 because it passes every year. It is often basically a 0:12:24.640 --> 0:12:27.640 Christmas tree where you will get dozens or even hundreds 0:12:27.640 --> 0:12:31.200 of other bills attached to it that have nothing to 0:12:31.240 --> 0:12:34.320 do with defense, and it's just a moving vehicle that 0:12:34.360 --> 0:12:35.520 people attach their bills. 0:12:36.120 --> 0:12:37.360 Now, the way the center out. 0:12:37.280 --> 0:12:39.400 With the pork is that where the pork gets pulled 0:12:39.400 --> 0:12:44.480 in it, it's. 0:12:42.880 --> 0:12:46.679 Actually not really about pork. That pork happens more in 0:12:46.679 --> 0:12:51.280 an appropriation's bill and an omnibus bill, which is doing spending. 0:12:51.880 --> 0:12:55.240 But this is just a vehicle for different bills that 0:12:55.240 --> 0:13:00.839 that are often good and reasonable ideas, and different people 0:13:00.880 --> 0:13:06.720 will attach them to a moving vehicle. But the way 0:13:06.800 --> 0:13:11.200 the Senate operates is any bill that is within the 0:13:11.240 --> 0:13:16.839 Commerce Committee jurisdiction cannot be attached to the NDAA or 0:13:16.880 --> 0:13:20.880 to anything else without the sign off of the chairman, 0:13:21.360 --> 0:13:24.560 who's been Maria Cantwell, a Democrat from Washington, for the last. 0:13:24.440 --> 0:13:27.480 Two years, and the sign off of the ranking member. 0:13:27.559 --> 0:13:30.720 So I have an absolute veto if any other Senator 0:13:30.760 --> 0:13:34.040 has any bill within our jurisdiction that they want to 0:13:34.120 --> 0:13:38.240 attach to a moving vehicle, they cannot do so without 0:13:38.240 --> 0:13:43.319 my sign off. That gives an enormous amount of leverage. 0:13:43.440 --> 0:13:46.040 And so the last two years, like I passed a 0:13:46.160 --> 0:13:50.520 ton of legislation because frankly, I use that leverage to say, hey, 0:13:50.960 --> 0:13:53.280 that's great. You want your bill to move. I want 0:13:53.320 --> 0:13:54.800 you to agree to my bill on this. I want 0:13:54.800 --> 0:13:56.920 you to agree to doing this. And so it gives 0:13:56.960 --> 0:14:01.480 you the ability because you can show anything down within 0:14:01.520 --> 0:14:04.640 the jurisdiction of your committee. It gives you the ability 0:14:04.679 --> 0:14:10.080 to negotiate some major victories for Texas, some major free 0:14:10.080 --> 0:14:14.200 market victories, some major victories for job creation. And so 0:14:14.320 --> 0:14:17.440 that was a huge shift. And I will say when 0:14:17.440 --> 0:14:23.000 you become the chairman, I okay. I've only been the 0:14:23.000 --> 0:14:25.360 incoming chairman for a couple of days, so I don't 0:14:25.440 --> 0:14:28.280 really know. I will have much more of an assessment 0:14:28.360 --> 0:14:31.760 of that six months from now, but I think it 0:14:31.840 --> 0:14:35.400 is five x, if not ten x more consequential. 0:14:36.880 --> 0:14:39.920 So the question is for everybody listening, is okay, what 0:14:40.040 --> 0:14:41.520 will get done because of this? 0:14:41.680 --> 0:14:41.880 Right? 0:14:42.000 --> 0:14:44.640 This is part of the payoff of the election getting 0:14:45.000 --> 0:14:47.080 the Senate to be in the majority of the Republicans. 0:14:47.360 --> 0:14:51.080 So paint the picture for people to understand not only 0:14:51.160 --> 0:14:53.680 is this yes, powerful, but what does this now mean 0:14:53.800 --> 0:14:56.600 that we can get done that Maybe in the last 0:14:56.680 --> 0:14:59.200 Congress there was no chance in how of certain things 0:14:59.200 --> 0:15:00.120 getting done. 0:15:00.400 --> 0:15:03.440 So look, my number one priority in the Senate is jobs. 0:15:03.480 --> 0:15:06.600 I'm focused on jobs, jobs, jobs, economic growth. I want 0:15:06.640 --> 0:15:08.920 more jobs. I want more jobs in Texas. I want 0:15:08.920 --> 0:15:11.520 more opportunity in Texas. I want higher wages in Texas. 0:15:12.200 --> 0:15:15.240 If you want jobs, the two most effective levers to 0:15:15.280 --> 0:15:20.440 produce jobs are tax reform and regulatory reform. That every 0:15:20.520 --> 0:15:23.480 time you reduce taxes, you simplify the tax code, You 0:15:23.600 --> 0:15:27.720 reduce and repeal job killing regulations, small businesses expand, and 0:15:27.760 --> 0:15:31.440 you get more jobs. The Commerce Committee, as I said, 0:15:31.480 --> 0:15:36.080 has jurisdiction over forty percent of the US economy. So 0:15:36.160 --> 0:15:38.920 if you care about jobs, there are very few positions 0:15:38.920 --> 0:15:43.520 in Washington that have greater leverage, greater ability to impact 0:15:43.840 --> 0:15:47.240 jobs in the state of Texas than chairmen of the 0:15:47.240 --> 0:15:51.600 Senate Commerce Committee. And so what will get done? So, 0:15:51.680 --> 0:15:53.720 for example, one of my big priorities is going to 0:15:53.720 --> 0:15:57.000 be spectrum. So right now, there's an enormous amount of 0:15:57.040 --> 0:16:01.320 spectrum that the government owns and controls kifa off the market. 0:16:01.920 --> 0:16:04.160 I want to move it to the private sector. Why 0:16:04.760 --> 0:16:08.400 because when you move spectrum to the private sector, it 0:16:08.520 --> 0:16:12.760 creates tens or even hundreds of thousands of jobs, and 0:16:12.840 --> 0:16:17.880 it unleashes tens or hundreds of billions of dollars of investment. 0:16:17.920 --> 0:16:22.600 That spectrum enables five G enables expanding wireless, enables new 0:16:22.840 --> 0:16:24.000 technology apps. 0:16:24.160 --> 0:16:25.600 That is, if you. 0:16:25.640 --> 0:16:29.360 Care about jobs, opening up spectrum for the private sector, 0:16:29.360 --> 0:16:31.520 and the way the government does it, it has an 0:16:31.600 --> 0:16:34.240 auction for the spectrum, so you free up at an 0:16:34.280 --> 0:16:37.200 area of spectrum, and then you have a public auction 0:16:37.320 --> 0:16:41.240 and companies pay billions of dollars to the federal government 0:16:41.600 --> 0:16:44.320 to acquire a portion of spectrum and then to market 0:16:44.360 --> 0:16:47.120 something to consumers, and so it ends up being a 0:16:47.440 --> 0:16:52.280 massive area of investment and expansion of jobs. That's going 0:16:52.360 --> 0:16:54.960 to be a huge priority. Another huge priority for me 0:16:55.720 --> 0:16:58.920 is artificial intelligence. The Democrats want to regulate the hell 0:16:58.960 --> 0:17:02.320 out of artificial intellig leigence. They want to create essentially 0:17:02.320 --> 0:17:08.359 a European style prior approval system where any innovation in 0:17:08.440 --> 0:17:10.520 AI you got to go to the federal government first. 0:17:10.640 --> 0:17:11.959 That's a terrible idea. 0:17:12.280 --> 0:17:15.760 It's an idea that is almost perfectly designed to ensure 0:17:16.040 --> 0:17:19.600 that America loses the battle for AI and and we 0:17:19.680 --> 0:17:21.760 fall behind the rest of the world. Well, as chairman 0:17:21.760 --> 0:17:23.600 of the Commerce Committee, I'm not going to let that happen. 0:17:24.080 --> 0:17:27.560 I want to maintain a very light touch regulatory environment 0:17:27.840 --> 0:17:30.840 where innovation is driven from the private sector. Because I 0:17:30.840 --> 0:17:33.960 think AI, and we'll talk about this more. We'll we'll 0:17:33.960 --> 0:17:36.879 have additional podcasts that go deeper into AI. But I 0:17:36.920 --> 0:17:39.600 think AI has a potential and in fact, I think 0:17:39.600 --> 0:17:45.040 it will be the same sort of transformational technology that 0:17:45.119 --> 0:17:47.640 the development of the Internet was twenty five years ago. 0:17:48.040 --> 0:17:50.640 And in fact, several months ago, I wrote an op 0:17:50.800 --> 0:17:53.840 ed with with Phil Graham, former Senator from Texas, and 0:17:54.119 --> 0:17:56.680 I did something that would surprise some people, but Phil 0:17:56.720 --> 0:18:00.320 and I together we praised a Democrat president and we 0:18:00.400 --> 0:18:05.119 praised Bill Clinton. So Bill Clinton was president during the 0:18:05.160 --> 0:18:08.880 really formation of the Internet, and Bill Clinton signed an 0:18:08.880 --> 0:18:14.000 executive order that was a very light touch regulatory footprint 0:18:14.640 --> 0:18:17.240 on the Internet and the growth of it, and it 0:18:17.320 --> 0:18:24.160 allowed private companies to develop and innovate and the consequence 0:18:24.200 --> 0:18:28.520 of that, so it's actually striking. In nineteen ninety three, 0:18:28.600 --> 0:18:31.560 the economy of the United States of America was almost 0:18:31.640 --> 0:18:35.840 exactly the same size as the economy of the European Union. 0:18:38.119 --> 0:18:41.879 The EU took a dramatically different approach. They took a 0:18:42.000 --> 0:18:45.760 prior approval approach where they said, Okay, our government has 0:18:45.800 --> 0:18:49.080 to approve whatever you're doing on the Internet. Now fast 0:18:49.160 --> 0:18:54.040 forward thirty years, what are the consequences. Today, the American 0:18:54.119 --> 0:19:00.280 economy is fifty percent larger than the EU, So we 0:19:00.320 --> 0:19:03.399 went from essentially one hundred percent to one hundred and 0:19:03.440 --> 0:19:08.200 fifty percent. The biggest driver of that is the rise 0:19:08.240 --> 0:19:11.040 of technology. You look at the Internet. Virtually every major 0:19:11.080 --> 0:19:13.480 big tech company in the world is headquartered in the 0:19:13.560 --> 0:19:17.240 United States and is driving massive job creation. Now, big 0:19:17.280 --> 0:19:19.560 tech also has abuses, and I focused on that a lot, 0:19:19.600 --> 0:19:20.680 and that's going to be a big focus of the 0:19:20.680 --> 0:19:24.439 Commerce Committee as well. But that job creation, that wealth creation, 0:19:24.600 --> 0:19:30.280 that innovation is hugely consequential. What Biden did he entered 0:19:30.600 --> 0:19:35.360 an EO an executive order on AI that basically modeled 0:19:35.400 --> 0:19:36.640 what the European Union did. 0:19:36.840 --> 0:19:38.680 It was a heavy. 0:19:38.440 --> 0:19:41.840 Handed government prior approval mechanism that I think if that 0:19:42.000 --> 0:19:46.840 stayed the law, it would seed leadership to the rest 0:19:46.880 --> 0:19:49.520 of the world and we would fall behind China and 0:19:49.560 --> 0:19:51.520 the rest of the world in the development of AI. 0:19:51.880 --> 0:19:54.240 I think that'd be catastrophic because AI is going to 0:19:54.280 --> 0:19:58.159 be every bit as transformative at technology as the Internet was. 0:19:58.200 --> 0:20:01.639 And I want America to leave at battle. And so 0:20:01.800 --> 0:20:06.360 that is a big, big consequence for the Commerce Committee. 0:20:06.359 --> 0:20:08.639 To other areas, I'll mention they're going to be huge priorities. 0:20:09.119 --> 0:20:09.479 Energy. 0:20:10.359 --> 0:20:14.639 Energy is massively important. You want to reduce inflation. Energy 0:20:14.680 --> 0:20:16.920 as an input to just about every aspect of inflation. 0:20:17.000 --> 0:20:21.320 You want jobs. America is the energy superpower of the world. 0:20:21.400 --> 0:20:25.640 We need to be energy dominant. And Donald Trump that's 0:20:25.680 --> 0:20:27.480 a huge priority for him, and that's going to be 0:20:27.520 --> 0:20:30.640 a huge priority for me as chairman of the Commerce Committee. 0:20:30.600 --> 0:20:33.960 And I'll say one other topic, and we'll talk about 0:20:34.000 --> 0:20:38.240 this also in a subsequent podcast, but sports and college athletics. 0:20:38.640 --> 0:20:42.119 You and I both love college sports. Right now, the 0:20:42.160 --> 0:20:47.640 current world of college sports is the wild West, name 0:20:47.680 --> 0:20:51.960 image and likeness, open transfer portals. It is I think 0:20:52.119 --> 0:20:57.360 endangering the future and viability of college athletics. I think 0:20:57.359 --> 0:21:00.520 Congress needs to step in and legislate. When the Democrats 0:21:00.520 --> 0:21:02.760 were in the majority, it just wasn't a priority for them. 0:21:03.160 --> 0:21:05.520 It will be a priority. We are going to address it. 0:21:05.520 --> 0:21:09.520 As chairman. I can convene hearings. I'm in charge of 0:21:09.560 --> 0:21:13.159 every hearing the Commerce Committee has. I invite the witnesses 0:21:13.920 --> 0:21:16.640 for the hearings. I can call up markups. I can 0:21:16.680 --> 0:21:19.200 decide what bills get marked up. And what bills don't 0:21:19.680 --> 0:21:22.720 and it gives you the ability to drive an agenda 0:21:22.800 --> 0:21:24.679 that is just qualitatively different. 0:21:25.359 --> 0:21:28.359 That's going to be a very interesting topic, especially my 0:21:28.440 --> 0:21:32.159 ears per cup as a former college athlete, because there 0:21:32.200 --> 0:21:35.000 does have to be a happy medium. But you're right, 0:21:35.119 --> 0:21:37.119 it has become the wild West. So how do we 0:21:37.200 --> 0:21:40.400 make it where you also are protecting the athletes and 0:21:40.520 --> 0:21:43.159 sports the integrity of the game. And that's going to 0:21:43.200 --> 0:21:45.679 be something very fun to watch as we continue this 0:21:45.720 --> 0:21:48.879 next year. I also want to ask you about the 0:21:48.960 --> 0:21:52.959 Senate election, because my, oh my, did that blow up 0:21:53.000 --> 0:21:55.399