effective action. the management of west coast fisheries is a federal responsibility and this government must make it a top priority. will the minister of fisheries convene immediately an emergency summit on the seventh with groups including local governments, an environmental organizations and put in place an action plan now? the. [applause] >> thank you mr. speaker. we are concerned about the return of sockeye salmon in british colombia and conservation is the number one priority. i want to inform the honorable member that i have been out to british colombia just left again had a meeting with the number of industry stakeholders and we will plan the best way forward from there. i have a roundtable with them and they have presented plenty of ideas for discussion so we will be planning a way forward from the discussions with the industry. [applause]

elected helm members of congress use technology and social media to inform their constituents about congressional issues. this week we talk with democratic representative steve israel of new york. >> host: what is your favorite way of communicating with constituents? >> guest: in this environment to can't have one favorite way. it has got to be integrated, has

to be comprehensive because not everybody follows one so in a district as diversified as new york, some people communicate through twitter and there are others that communicate through newsletters. bryd. using all of those tools and an integrated way. >> host: with the members of congress dca-maxene to be a pretty active twitterer. >> guest: i use several approaches. their my correspondence to use twitter as a hand grenade and they will toss it to me. i enjoy engaging them. there are some that it doesn't make sense to engage with because anything i say why not

have any residents with them but then there are others, the critics. i've got one correspondent name sack and second i have fears and intellectual debates and i will respond to him. i think that is very important because although i may disagree with him he has a sense of where i'm coming from. i also like to do behind the scenes think so for example i'm on the house appropriations committee and we have won a marathon mark up one day. i have pictures of the markup and i tweeted them, saying this is what it looks like to be on the appropriations committee. that is another way to draw people and make them feel they are part of the process. >> host: you get in trouble for taking pictures in the markup with your fellow congressman? >> guest: these are my fellow members of congress and they have no problems having their to pictures taken. >> host: how common is that four members of congress now to tweet? or argue one of the first? >> guest: i think i probably one of the early users of

twitter. i believe i am probably one of the most frequent and sustained users of twitter but the problem is the technology has changed so quickly. for 200 years most members of congress communicated with their constituents through newspapers, male and town hall meetings and then in the past 89 years that was changed dramatically at an incredible pace. i was told a few want to communicate effectively you've got to have a plan. you've got to get media and newspapers in your local television stations and you have to hold town meetings. steers later was told no, no, the male is not working anymore. two years after that they said you have got to have a facebook presence and now a twitter presence. bid it changes so quickly that i the time i think i figured it out it is passé and so the

challenge here for my colleagues is keeping up and also diversifying, making sure you are not using one medium or another that you are using them all. >> host: are the rules of the house keeping up with different technologies? >> guest: there is always a challenge. the rules of the house sometimes can be antiquated and can make certain assumptions based on technologies that have already kind of gone out of business of one of the challenges is to make sure that you are keeping up not only with the technologies but the rules of the house are keeping up with those technologies. >> host: congressman steve israel you have 1500 followers on twitter. for hundred, 500,000 people in your district. how many people in your eniz letter? >> guest: i don't know off the top of my head how many are subscribers but we have worked very hard to make sure that opportunities available to them so every communication that i have with my constituents whether it is responding to a

piece of mail with another piece of mail, or doing something on my internet site, we always ask people to subscribe to my newsletter and the responses coming pretty well. what we do with that is we leverage it towards other technologies, so two weeks ago i decided to have a telephone town hall meeting and we used our the newsletter subscriber list to identify people who might be participating. we did robocalls and the end result of all of that, that multifaceted strategy was we had over 5,000 people calling into this teletown hall meeting on health care. i represent a district that is very busy, very fast pace. people don always want to hear from a congressman, to get five dozen constituents on one-call at one time was a very big deal and in multifaceted response. >> host: let's walk through some of the technology. begin with your iphone.

>> guest: my iphone, this little thing in my hand is become my most effective tool. communicating with my constituents. just this morning, i did, i tweeted and i do it routinely during the day, and so this morning, i shared one of the concerns that i have had with some of my colleagues, who are engaging in rhetorical excess on the health reform bill, so one of them said that the health care bill will put seniors in the position of being put to death by their government. i tweeted that. i want people to understand what is being said and i'm not making a judgment on it, i don't defend it. i just want people to hear what is being said and i have already received some responses. this is instant feedback for me, instant feedback. i don't have to wait to check the phone logs of the mail log. i can just see how many people

have responded to my tweets, and it is taking the long to load here. >> host: you can be anywhere in the consent a tweet? >> guest: absolutely, absolutely and other members of congress are tweeting so it is reinforcing. congressman tim ryan from ohio, myths versus facts on health care. < they speech to the fighting 69th and i won a people not to read my speech but i wanted them to join me in kind of honoring the members of the fighting 69th, and so let's see. i posted a photograph of the troops from the stage so people could see, they can access what i am doing and i can hear from them ed frequent points during the day.

>> host: congressman is this your personal iphone or is this a house issued iphone? >> guest: this is my personal iphone. you mentioned the rules of the house. one of my frustrations i have is the rules have not kept up with the technology so we have not figured out how to make sure the encrypted data for house e-mails ars shakir on iphone and they are trying to work that out right now. >> host: all of your tweets go from your personal iphone? >> guest: they go from an unofficial iphone. and just looking this morning, i saw my friend issac tweeted meet. in please give us time to debate the issue. talking about health care. last night he said the government prevents competition in the health insurance market, reducing quality. the free market is not a monopoly. you get a wide view of opinions but you give them instantaneously. >> have you ever chatted with

zack in person nargis pheaa tweeps? >> guest: just villa tweet speak i'm not sure where zack was. and other frustration with this is that you are not always sure you are talking with constituents and that is a big deal with many of my colleagues is that when your tweeting there is no way of knowing unless you do some digging, and their ways on the iphone to see what kind of background they have. but it is not immediately understood or apparent that some of your fellow tweeters live in the district. and, but i still enjoy the engagement. >> host: congressman israel you also have on your official web site, israel doug house.gov a video blood. how do you you do that and where do you do that? >> guest: do you want to see it? okay. i don't want my internet site to be static. the whole point of the internet is to be up to date, to be

timely and so one of the things that i like to do is speak directly to my constituents. >> host: this is the official halse web site? >> guest: this is the official halse web site. >> i want you-- that we are in washington this week. it is important to me that i understand your concerns and i hear your questions and i am aware of your opinions. i would like you to call and let me know what you think what the president should do with respect to health care. one of the things i am focusing on is the cost of health care. since 2000, premiums for most americans have doubled. >> guest: this gives you a sense of trying to use those integrated strategies. i am using the telephone which is a more conventional

instrument of communication with the web site. when people will call it will give us a database of those concerned about health care. i will be able to send them my e-newsletter and engage in back in for communiqués-- communication. >> host: what kind of technology do you use to take that? >> guest: i use this, another handy instrument that that's in the palm of one's hand. and this is actually a high definition flipped him. one of the great experiments that i had with this is, it helped generate tremendous support for legislation that i introduced. it is called why tuesday and that legislation would move the elections from tuesday to weekends. one out of four people who don't vote say that they don't vote because tuesday is just too inconvenient for them. they have jobs and they have kids so i'm trying to move this to weaken voting. when i talk about that run the

country people understand it that what i did was i took this down to the capitol building one day when there were lots of tourists and did my own documentary and i would call the camera up and say do you know why we vote on tuesdays and hardly anybody knew. >> hi folks. i am congressman steve israel from new york. i am going to do a little interview with you. monte, that is your name? why do you think we have election day on tuesdays and america? >> why do we have election days on tuesday? i guess because once upon a time of the taverns were closed on tuesdays. >> why do we vote on tuesday? >> maybe a feaster false late on monday. >> normally the holidays are observed on monday so we vote on tuesday. >> guest: as a result of that we had over 12,000 hits on the internet and that has generated a lot of curiosity in generated

co-sponsors for my bill and so we use that as another communications tool with legislative strategic intent. >> host: congressman you also were recently in afghanistan and brought the flip camera with you. >> guest: i bring this flip camera with me almost everywhere i go. and the old days he would visit troops in afghanistan or wherever they happen to be deployed in doer report for your district that we are now in a clickers society so i need ways of communicating with my constituents that are resnet, that have impact and these are new new yorkers. so i have done that with the visual so when i visit troops in afghanistan and iraq, i don't simply writing a report. i do oe documentary. i was in new orleans in mississippi after katrina. >> there were no animals, there were no sounds. >> they lost 35,000 homes.

most of them had water over them. >> we have got pockets of recovery. and then you have something like this. this is the lower ninth. failed. water came over this levy, swept down on this area and completely washed homes off their foundations, so there is all this green space here. this was blocks and blocks of homes, now open space. >> guest: i did my own documentary and took my camera around and interviewed people. it got a tremendous response. people can't really understand the devastation of katrina without saying it. >> host: is this house issued orzugan is this personal?

>> guest: this is house issued. >> host: you have gut twitter, youtube and facebook. if you could click on the youtube, i want to show here where it says, it says you are now leading the house of representatives. we hope your visit was informative and enjoyable. wide is the message? >> guest: youtube is not an official side so there are a whole series of bair wohlstetter built then to where messaging, and one of them is, this is my house site is an official side of the united states congress sanctioned and approved by the congress but if you want to go to something that is not official, whether it is twitter, youtube or facebook you literally have to leave the house official site. >> host: when you do then you go to the youtube site. >> guest: you can click on youtube and this is my

official youtube channel. and so there is a whole series of floor speeches and other youtube video is that i've been able to do. >> host: including some c-span video. >> guest: that is my favorite kind, but here is another example of what i try to do. i wanted to understand where my district was on middle-class economic issue so instead of taking a poll what i did was take my flip camera out in went to a shopping center in new york and ask people what their priorities are. >> part of my new with the-- talking to people about gas prices, food prices, taxes, health care. [inaudible]

>> you have any idea how much it's costing you extra, a gas prices? >> about $20 a week. >> if there's one thing you could ask congress to focus on more than any others, what would it be? >> gas prizes. >> what grade are you in? what you do after high school? do you know? college. >> host: congressman israel how often do you do this? >> guest: it really depends on the impact of an issue. i intend to do this when i'm back in my district this office-- august. i did it last august when the economy was really on everybody's minds. it still is that the gas prices reached a crescendo last august

so i to it depending on the impact of an issue and i have to tell you that if i just did a town hall and pontificated about gas prices, most new new yorkers, their eyes would glaze over but getting that instant the back in sharing it with my district has a much greater impact. >> host: can you put anything you want on your youtube channel? >> guest: on my youtube channel, yes. on my official house web site, no. it has to be official. >> host: you can put a link on your fisher web site. >> guest: yes. most of my colleagues or many of my colleagues have their own separate and distinct facebook and youtube campaign pages as to why. but i am not allowed to show you that on this computer. >> host: if you would take this to your facebook page, the official facebook page. >> guest: once again we have

to leave the house of representatives. >> host: did that take quite a while to get that, to be able to link up to that? is that a rule change? >> guest: it took about five seconds, which is about four seconds to long. this is mike facebook page, and. >> host: is this a personal facebook page or a governor facebook page? >> guest: this is the official facebook page, so again you get some good feedback will. i wanted public option so i urge you to vote yes. >> host: congressman in looking at your facebook page your comments i did know there were some criticisms on here and it is kind of a conversation. >> guest: my district is the quintessential modern districts whenever i communicate with my district i am going to get a

diversity of opinion that. there people in my district who are in the far left and their people on the far right. most of my district is somewhere in between and when you represent a district like that you have to be prepared for that kind of diverse opinion and i have the responsibility to flush it out. that is why i feel so passionate about making sure we have all these conduits, whether it is a telephone town hall meeting or tweeting or a facebook page for you to. the best way i can hear that the verse range of opinion is creating a diverse range of options for my constituents making an easy for them to let me know how they feel. >> host: you have been in congress since 2000. what were you doing before? >> guest: i was a-- i grew up in a house where my dad had a ham radio in the attic. it was always the first out to buy the next gadgets and gizmos and that is part of my dna. >> host: you have over here

congressman above your tv in your office and other gizmo. what is that gizmo? >> guest: that is another effective way of communicating with my district. it is teleconferencing technologies of when we have groups of constituents in my office and i want to communicate with them, and to additionally, they can come to your office. we have another unit beckett the deo so i can talk to them in real time visually rather than just on a conference call. we also do it just for our own staff. we have got two separate staffs but they are part of one team and sometimes it makes more sense in terms of cohesion to have the staffs communicating with one another through this kind of technology. >> host: your use of technology, has that alter the way you look at legislation that might be coming up? net neutrality or other legislative initiatives? >> guest: in a major way and not simply with respect to

issues like net neutrality but we are now at a point where we can truly make government transparent. we can open government up to the american people. we have got the technology and now is just a matter of summoning the political will so one of the bills i am working on right now would require every freedom of information act request filed with the federal government be posted on the internet so that the american people can see exactly the kind of information is there, who has requested it and open up government to a more transparent process. that is the my focus as the direct result of these new technology go break fees we have. >> host: congressman steve israel, democrat of new york. we have been talking about technology and communications. >> daubert you can do this and other programs on line at c-span.org. you can also go to the site to find how to get this program as a podcast.

the next month the unique look of their nation's highest court

of. its role, traditions and history. >> i don't think it is an understatement to say this building would not be here if it hadn't been for the persistence of chief justice taft. steve taft had in mind that the cord the tip of the building of the sun. heat believe that when he was president and when he became chief justice that almost became of session. >> go on line now for a virtual tour of the court. historic quotas and more at c-span.org/supreme court. >> health care legislation is on track to go before the senate finance committee next week. according to chairman max baucus. he spoke with reporters after meeting with six lawmakers who have been negotiating for weeks on the bill. first we are from finance committee member kent conrad.

>> i will just very briefly say we are going to meet again this afternoon. we have had a lengthy discussion about medical malpractice, the various options for consideration there. medicaid, what is the appropriate sharing of the burden between the states and the federal government? it is very clear the vast majority of the responsibility for the newly eligibles would be the federal government responsibility that we are, we will be having a discussion with governors. i think tomorrow come a late afternoon. we also talked about again further refinements on how we make certain that no one who is here illegally would benefit from these initiatives. we also talked about other agenda items that remain yet to

be resolved, including the handling of an assurance that the federal government does not finance abortion through this program. that will also be on the agenda for later this afternoon, so we covered a lot of subject this morning, and still have more to do. i have another meeting scheduled for this afternoon and then an import meeting with governors tomorrow. >> senator-- [inaudible] >> substantial additional progress made on medicaid by getting detailed numbers back that look not only at the overall federal defects, but individual effects in the state's, and i think we are very

close to a conclusion on how we prevent people who are here illegally from benefiting. i think we have also made very substantial progress on medical malpractice, actually have legal language to permit the states to experiment with federal assistance, so very substantial progress has been made. >> can you give us a little more details on the illegals proposal? >> i don't think going into all the detail at this point is probably a productive thing to do. i just described it as i did. [inaudible] absolutely. yeah, absolutely. >> what about the numbers? what do they say? >> we also got overall scoring back which was very encouraging that shows that we have fully paid for the package. in fact we are a little bit to

the good and we are also confident that we are bending the cost curve in the right way, so that has also been good news. >> what is the overall score? >> look, i have described as clearly as i can the state. below 880 billion, below. [inaudible] >> that states would be given resources to help them experiment on what works best, including a certificate of merit program, but a whole series of options open to them, and how to best make a determination what