ICYMI—Hagerty Joins Sunday Morning Futures on Fox Business to Discuss U.S.-Japan Cooperation, SAVE Act, Federal Reserve

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March 17, 2026
WASHINGTON—On Sunday, United States Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and former U.S. Ambassador to Japan, joinedSunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromoon Fox Business to discuss U.S.-Japan cooperation, election integrity legislation, and the nomination of Kevin Warsh to lead the Federal Reserve.
Partial Transcript
Hagerty on Japan’s role and U.S. Alliances in the region:“Japan can play an incredible role. We [the United States] have the most extensive military operations in the world. The United States has more military based in Japan than any place else. We’re sending a Marine expeditionary force from Japan into the region right now, 2,500 Marines coming from that region ourselves. We’re very accustomed to working with the Japanese, and I think we can work very clearly and effectively with them in the Strait [of Hormuz] if the Japanese decide to step up and move forward. I know they’re considering this carefully. The fact is, Prime Minister Taiichi is coming to visit the United States this week. She’ll be meeting with President Trump. I’m looking forward to seeing her as well. There are going to be great economic announcements made. I heard you with Secretary Burgum– what a terrific job. Fifty-seven billion dollars worth of transactions in terms of energy dominance and partnership in that region. This is a vision that President Trump and I have shared since I was ambassador back in 2017. It’s materializing now in a beautiful way. If you think about the partnership as well, from a national defense standpoint, the Prime Minister has been very clear. She’s stepping up their defense expenditures. We are close allies, and I think we have even greater opportunities to collaborate and cooperate, whether it’s in Iran or whether it’s in the region as we extend our joint work together.”Hagerty on strengthening alliances in the Indo-Pacific:“You see the South Koreans also stepping up and engaging with us more. The trilateral cooperation between South Korea, Japan, and the United States has never been stronger. I love seeing this. I’m sure the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] does not like this at all, but this makes a very strong statement in terms of the collaboration that we have. The technical cooperation from a national security and defense standpoint, as well as the economic cooperation—all of this is strengthening ties throughout the region. It’s good for America and good for our allies. And I think the CCP is quite disturbed.”Hagerty on the SAVE Act and voter ID:“Why should there be an issue when you have over 80 percent of the American population wants to see this? More than 90 percent of Republicans, over 80 percent of independents, and over 70 percent of Democrats want to see this. Yet you’ve got Democrats in the Senate—none of them want to step up and deal with this right now. These are issues that the American public wants addressed. Leader Thune is going to put the SAVE Act on the floor Tuesday. Let’s hear the Democrats try to defend why it is we shouldn’t have voter ID. What we’re trying to do is clean up a situation that’s been a grave concern to Americans. We have to show ID for almost everything that we do here in America. I do not understand why exercising one of the most precious rights as an American is not one of those issues that the Democrats couldn’t support. So we’ll see. I plan to be on the floor every moment of this coming week, battling this out. And I hope the American people will convey the message that we’ve heard to their Democrat legislators as well so we can get this over the finish line.”Hagerty on a possible talking filibuster:“I’m certainly willing to do that. I’m certainly willing to move into that zone. Let’s get on the floor. Let’s start this debate and see how embarrassed the Democrats are as they try to articulate an indefensible position. Let’s see how their voters press them, because again over seventy percent of Democrats want to see this done as well. You’ve got leader Thune, who’s willing to put this to the test immediately. Let’s see how it progresses. I think we should do everything possible. I’m happy to do the talking filibuster to continue moving on this, to get this across the finish line for the American public.”Hagerty on Kevin Warsh and the Federal Reserve:“We’re ready to have confirmation hearings for Kevin. He’s actually started the process last week moving through meeting with senators. I met with Kevin last week. I’ve known Kevin for over 30 years. Kevin is the man for the moment here. If the concern is Fed independence, which I’ve heard this articulated, there’s no one better than Kevin. Kevin is going to get the Fed back to its core mission. If you think about the dual mandate, he’s going to be focused on inflation and unemployment, getting us out of the business of worrying about climate change. The Fed has gotten far out of its lane—regulating according to climate risk, mitigating climate risk, and pushing DEI initiatives coming out of the twelve Federal Reserve banks. That will be over under Kevin’s watch. Kevin is the right person to get us back into the lane of independence, and I hope that’s where we go. It’s certainly up to Jay Powell whether he stays. He’s a governor elected for a longer term, but it is not typical for a retiring chair to do that. I would expect Kevin to come in and have a clean runway. My goal is to get him in on time. Jay’s retirement comes on May 15. I hope we can get through this. I’ll remind you that Kevin Warsh has been confirmed by the United States Senate on a bipartisan basis overwhelmingly in the past. Many of my colleagues on the Democrat side have already voted for Kevin. I hope they’ll do that again.”
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