{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.hagerty.senate.gov/press-releases/2026/04/24/icymi-hagerty-joins-mornings-with-maria-on-fox-business-to-discuss-budget-reconciliation-kevin-warsh-ai-competition-with-china/", "ICYMI\u2014Hagerty Joins Mornings with Maria on Fox Business to Discuss Budget Reconciliation, Kevin Warsh, AI Competition with China", "2026-04-24", "2026", "2026-04", "Republican", "Senate", "TN", "Bill Hagerty", "H000601", "www.hagerty.senate.gov", "hagerty", "https://www.hagerty.senate.gov/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON\u2014Today, United States Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN), a member of the Senate Banking and Foreign Relations Committees and former U.S. Ambassador to Japan, joined Mornings with Maria on Fox Business to discuss budget reconciliation, Kevin Warsh, AI competition with China.\n\nPartial Transcript\n\nHagerty on reconciliation and DHS funding: \u201cThe third reconciliation process that Speaker [Mike] Johnson talked about, we\u2019ve also been discussing in the Senate as well. That is probably the most prime opportunity. And I think [Senator] Lindsey Graham, our budget chairman, is working at pace for that right now. We also have the National Defense Authorization bill coming up. Both of those will be opportunities to address this. We\u2019re going through this process right now to fund the Department of Homeland Security, that the Democrats have shut down now. They\u2019ve shut down this department. The department charged with protecting us, the Counter-Terrorism department at a time when we are dealing with the world\u2019s largest state sponsor of terror. It\u2019s incredibly irresponsible that the Democrats have put us in this position. They basically are against law enforcement. Chuck Schumer says he doesn\u2019t respect them, I\u2019m sure, but our law enforcement is absolutely critical at a time when the Biden administration encountered 1500 Iranians, that\u2019s the polite word. They use 1500 Iranians from 2021 to 2024; they released half of them into the country. We need to be very responsible at this point in time and the recklessness of the Democrats has brought us to this point. It\u2019s their shut down, their willingness to expose us to terrorism that is really hard to believe. We\u2019re going to address it very quickly.\u201d\n\nHagerty on President Trump\u2019s leadership on Iran: \u201cPresident Trump has done an outstanding job using executive orders to bring our country back to the most competitive place it possibly could be. The reconciliation package that we passed last year, the Working Families Tax Cut Act, some call it The Big Beautiful Bill, that put in place more incentives for capital investment than we have seen in our careers. So, we\u2019ve got great economic momentum right now. President Trump is dealing with the world\u2019s largest sponsor of terror. I think that\u2019s going to happen post-haste. Time, as he said, is on our side here. The Iranians are running out of options immediately. They\u2019re running out of storage capacity for their oil. If they have to cap their wells, if they have to stop production it is going to create massive damage. Again, time is running out. They need to take the off ramp.\u201d\n\nHagerty on the 2026 midterms: \u201cIf we do wind up in a situation [losing the Republican congressional majority], and it\u2019s going to be close, and I think the races for the House and the Senate are going to be very intense. The Democrats have decided that resistance, that favoring crime over law enforcement seems to be their play. I don\u2019t think the American public are going to buy that. I think the economy is going to be moving in the right direction. I\u2019m optimistic that we won\u2019t have a problem in the midterms but we\u2019re going to fight hard. The Democrats have indicated that they\u2019re going to resist at every turn. They\u2019re going to try to bring the government to a grinding halt. They\u2019ve already demonstrated that with the shutdown last fall and with what they\u2019re doing with Homeland Security. I do not think we\u2019ll lose the Senate. We\u2019ll be able to maintain the fight, but they\u2019ll make it certainly a lot more difficult for the American public.\u201d\n\nHagerty on the Virginia redistricting amendment: \u201cDemocrats have demonstrated that they can\u2019t win the hearts and minds of the American public so instead they\u2019re going to try to change the rules. And this is exactly the playbook that they\u2019ve deployed in the past. If you think about some of the states where Democrats can win, there\u2019s states where there\u2019s no voter ID where they\u2019ve got very loose rules. That\u2019s what the Democrats seem to want everywhere. They\u2019re trying to change the rules now for the allocation of Congressional seats and districts. Every single Democrat voted to continue counting illegals in the process of allocating congressional districts and electoral votes. [Illegal Aliens] flooded the border, [Democrats] brought all these millions of illegals into the country. They go to these sanctuary cities, and now they want to count them. They\u2019ve all voted to do just that, to count them in the allocation of seats and districts. The Democrat\u2019s playbook is, is to change the rules, to break the rules, to certainly go well against the intent of the founding fathers.\u201d\n\nHagerty on Kevin Warsh\u2019s committee hearing: \u201cI\u2019d say Kevin Warsh delivered a textbook performance. He\u2019s absolutely the man for the job at this moment. I think everybody saw that in full display when he appeared before the banking committee. Every person sitting on that banking committee, whether they be Republican or Democrat, can vote to move Kevin Warsh forward. Every Democrat there, many of them already voted for Kevin Warsh when he was up for Fed Governor. They [Democrats] have the opportunity to support this. I\u2019ve spoken with Senator Tillis, and I\u2019ve spoken with Senator Scott just as recently as yesterday about moving this forward. I think there are a number of options to get this moving, but we need to see Kevin [as Fed Chair] by mid-May. I certainly hope that we\u2019ll be in that position very soon to put Kevin into that role. He\u2019ll do a great job, and we\u2019re ready for him.\u201d\n\nHagerty on Warsh\u2019s confirmation process: \u201c[Kevin Warsh\u2019s Nomination to be Fed Chair] It could be imminent. Conversations are underway. I don\u2019t want to get ahead of those conversations because they\u2019re fragile, delicate. But again, on our side, I think every Republican realizes Kevin Warsh is the most competent person, a terrific candidate that President Trump has selected, and he\u2019s ready for the position and well prepared, ready to go at a time when we need the sort of certainty that he can help deliver to get the Fed back into its lane. So, there\u2019s no question about his competence, his qualifications, and I\u2019m very optimistic that we\u2019re going to have a vote soon.\u201d\n\nHagerty on the CLAIRTY Act: \u201cI feel like we\u2019re at the one-yard line on this one. It\u2019s up to Chairman Tim Scott to decide the timing of when we do the markup [to the CLARITY Act]. But I think we\u2019re very close to being ready to do that. In my view, it could happen in a matter of weeks. I\u2019ve been optimistic that we were ready in the past and other things come up. For example, the situation in Iran, the Democrat\u2019s decision to shut down the government, to shut down Homeland Security. But we\u2019re moving at pace, and I think we\u2019re very close to being ready to move on the CLARITY Act.\u201d\n\nHagerty on The AI Race with China: \u201cIt is quite alarming [that China is attempting to steal innovation and intellectual property from the United States] but it\u2019s not surprising. Michael Kratsios [Science Advisor to the President of the United States] is extremely competent and a good friend and he is putting his finger on the button here. This is the most important, most incredible advancing technology that we\u2019ve seen in decades. Right now, the Chinese, again, are trying to steal intellectual property, and this is a playbook they have been executing for decades. I\u2019ve had my intellectual property stolen when I was in the private sector by the Chinese. So, this is something we\u2019ve got to be on guard for. We have to be prepared for it. Most importantly, we must stay ahead of it, meaning the United States needs to continue to lead in AI. And I understand the concerns and I\u2019ve watched very carefully what the Florida Attorney General is doing right now to deal with some of these concerns that are quite alarming. But at the same time, I think what we need are the appropriate guardrails to maintain American liberty but also maintain American dominance, the development of AI that happens right here in this country. We need to lead here.\u201d\n\nHagerty on Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent\u2019s leadership: \u201cI applaud Secretary Bessent for bringing the banks together. These AI tools can be utilized to find any type of vulnerability. They can do it much more rapidly, much more effectively than humans can do it. And the fact that we\u2019re getting ahead of it, staying ahead of it, and acting on any of these vulnerabilities I think means the tools can be used for very productive and constructive means. Particularly, when we have adversaries like China that would try to exploit those vulnerabilities.\u201d\n\n###", 1, "2026-04-25T05:38:36Z", "2026-04-25T05:40:21Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.hagerty.senate.gov/press-releases/2026/04/24/icymi-hagerty-joins-mornings-with-maria-on-fox-business-to-discuss-budget-reconciliation-kevin-warsh-ai-competition-with-china/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.3355431146919727, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}