>> we will explore the history and literary life of the city known for its famous mineral springs saturday at noon eastern on the tv. this is the place where ulysses grant had his memoirs in the et and 85. he was dying of throat cancer and his family was facing serious financial problems. at this point he was trying to take care of his family and we get to a story that most people don't know about. >> former federal prosecutor shares his book sheer madness. growing up, i thought the person pushing a shopping cart around or something like that these are elite professionals.

we will take a trip to the saratoga race course and visit the saratoga national historic park. >> the battles of saratoga are the most important battles are fought in the entire world in the last 1,000 years because they resulted in the surrender. if the first time ever in world history that the british army surrendered a. senator blumenthal and chris murphy spoke on the anniversary

of the sandy hook elementary shooting. a man shot and killed 20 20 children and six school staff members on december 14, 2012 in newtown connecticut. >> i want to talk on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the sandy hook massacre in my state of connecticut about some of the saddest days of my life, one of the worst days of my public career when i went to the elementary school in newtown, connecticut along with a number of myll colleagues who will be speaking today as well, senator murphy. in the judiciary committee,

moments ago senator feinstein circulated a copy of the front-page daily news of wednesday december 15-years ago almost to the day. that front-page has photographs of the 20 beautiful children who were lost in that unspeakable act t of terror and horror. they are 20 wonderful human beings who would be 11-years-old today. great teachers were killed as well. having value and having known their parents and is and fellow

advocates in the effort to achieve commonsens common senses against gun violence, i know how deeply that pain is still felt. the ceiling is far from over. to those that lost children and educators, prayers and thoughts. after any of the massacres there never will be after any of the killings or the one by one deaths in the community and i mean every day in this country. the violencviolence killed 90 py day. 150,000 perished.

so as we commemorate this day five years ago, let us dedicate ourselves to action and honor and of w those victims with actn it is never too soon to honor the victims with action. on that front page of the daily news, there is a line that says new york's hometown newspaper. new york wasn't the hometown to those victims, but america felt sandy hook was every town in america and it is indeed quintessentially and american town.

that day, that night and in the days following the when there were callings and funerals one after anotherd it seemed like they would never end. and in some ways, they have never ended because for those families those losses are still real and urgent interest, the task of honoring those 20 beautiful children from a sixth-grade educators ought to be real and urgent even more so today then it was then. that day we prayed in st. helena church and i sent it to the congregation the whole world is

watching. the whole world was watching. the world is watching america to see whether we will act. we are not the only country with mental health problems. our rate of mental illness is no greater than any other developed industrial country, but the rate of gun violence is off the charts compared with other countries there is no need for the rational explanation. congress turned its back. bigger talking to our colleagues across the aisle on this site

asking for common b sense measus to. to gain enough votes to from the gallery on that day, someone shouted shame. december 14, 2013, 2012, this will be forever stayin stain one nation's history. thatf day will be a mark on the united states of america. but so will the date of this common sense measures were

rejected in the chamber of. congress saw those innocent babies and children and assault their grieving parents and install the lines of terrified and traumatized children on that day being led to safety out of their elementary school. if so the war zone that the war became -- school became when the mass killing turned it into something that no teacher, no educator ever could have foreseen. this educators helpe help to sae lives, and congress saw and heard the story of how they

educators tried to shield their children from the bullets coming from that assault weapon on that day. but unfortunately, the grip of the gun lobby and the nra, let's be very blunt about who is beating the lobby. despite the 150,000 people who have perished from gun violence since then congress has chosen in action. it has disregarded the public safetpublic safetyand the will n people. it has failed to act and it has been complicit in the continuing scourge of gun violence.

it has been complicit to the 90 killings each day as a result of gun violence and shame on congress if it fails to act. today i am not just heartbroken, i'm furious and angry beyond words about the complicity of the inaction that we have seen about the abject failure to today's common sense steps to protect the american people and the failure to meet the public health crisis with the kind of action that the american people deserve and need. if many peopleag every day had a

flu there would be a cry and outrage and we would be clamoring to do something. here are the solutions areno sef evident and none of them a panacea or magic solution. none will deal with the mass killing that just happened. the ban on the dump stock and closing of the loophole permits a gun if the buy background check isn't done completed within 72 hours it might not have prevented las vegas but it would have prevented charleston.

he purchased a gun only because he was able to circumvent the background checks as a result of the 72 hour loophole. the ban on certain kinds of magazines might not have prevented san bernardino or orlando, but it would have helped prevent sandy hook. we will never know if these measures would prevent every one of the killings. if we save one life, we will have saved the world. shame on congress for allowing this to be followed by so many more. sutherland springs, las vegas,

orlando, charleston and in each and every one of the communities nine are immune from the stritch. it is truly a public health crisis. there may be a crack in the ice. for the bipartisan alliance involving our colleagues, senator scott and senator cornyn across the aisle as well as senator murphy and other senators on this side of the aisle. i'm hoping we can make modest but crucial improvements to the national criminal background check system. it should be fixed and it will provideix incentives and encoure

states to do better reporting right now in the states and federal government which is why sutherland springs occurred because of the failure to report by the air force a domestic violence conviction by court-martial that would have barred the shooter had it been reported accurately. it would ensure federal and the law and accurately report relevant criminal history records to the background check systems if that is the least we can do, not the most, but the bare minimum. there is broad support for this significant measure the republican leader in th the houe is already attempting to

sabotage it by pairing it with a reciprocity act. that would sabotage the law for the states like connecticut but to protect. it would eviscerate the rights of state. there's no threat whatsoever to gun ownership stak ownership the that are a danger to themselves or others and convicted criminals and others.

it is the law of the land and at no firearm should be taken away from law-abiding citizens. the idea that there's nothing congress can do to make a difference it is unacceptable impulse. it is a political copout with the vast majority of americans. 90% o95% of background checks ad to all purchases. they overwhelmingly favor the fixes tock the present backgroud check system that makes the oversight of purchases more accurate and they favor commonsense measures that will

protect the antlike the educators lost d that day at say hook. i think of those families and the parents of olivia engels and the parents of all of those beautiful children and wonder as i am sure they often do what lives they would be leaving today and what olivia would be giving on this day filled with sun s and beauty. in connecticut this morning, it

snowed.. at six or 11, it would still be a wonderful thing never to be taken for granted by any child. and this holiday all of the wonder and beauty never to be taken for granted by a six-year-old or 11-year-old. the possibilities and opportunities, the dreams and hopes shattered on the today lost forever. i was at the calling hours for one of the children killed at sandy hook. a gutwrenching moment every one of them and i spoke to the mother of one of the children and i told her that when she was

ready we showed do something aboute, gun violence and she sad without hesitation with a cracked voice i'm ready now. america should be ready. this body should follow america's lead. honor with action. if nothing else is remembered of that day five years ago, let us honor the those strong and courageous families that suffered this unspeakable harm.

to honor with action the victims and survivors and loved ones of sandy hook and all violent horrors in this country. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. >> to mark five years since the unthinkable, since 26 and 27-year-olds -- 20 six and seven-year-olds a. i want to offer a few today as

we once again memorialize those beautiful children whosee lives were cut far too short. it's easy to spend today those who are connected to the tragedy and those families to drown in sadness and there is no way to conceive of what it's like as a parent was a child that' that yg and in that manner from the bullets of a tactical assault weapon, 20 kids who just walked in their classroom were gone. it's easy to hang your head thinking of all the things that haven't happened. i've been down to this for over 50 times often at my wits end raising my voice of my is my

colleagues in frustration f at r unintentional endorsement of the slaughter that happened in this country because we haven't passed a single piece of the decision to make sensstation ton laws. it's compounded the problem, not remedied it. the sadness is there but not focusing on what we haven't done i want to focus on so many miracles, big ones and small ones that have occurred in and around the lives of those connected in and around newtown connecticut. first is individual miracles that happened within the stanley's. again, very few people

understand the kind of pain that comes with this loss and while they will never be the scene they found ways to rebound and still capture the joy in their lives. they've rediscovered passion. made sure that the surviving children, the siblings have been able to live lives of optimism rather than lives up perpetual fear. i've gotten to know so many of these families that the parents and kids are personal friends of mine and watching the rebirth of these families just instills a sense of faith in the human spirit.

the miracles also come in the ways that lives have been changed and saved through the efforts that have sprung forth out of this tragedy. so many of the families joined together with their friends and start up small charitable organizations in the wake of the shooting. to try to find a way to take the beauty of the kids and transfer it to others the there they areo a memorable to mention that the annaec grace project gives out a scholarship every year for incoming freshmen interested in studying music because anna grace, her whole life was surrounded by music. the dickey memorial fund than donates five books every year to every classroom in her home town of stratford. she was one offo the teachers, e

of the heroes that day and kids have the opportunitys to read ad learn to love reading which is what she taught to kindergartenn kids, because of her foundation. the charlotte aiken foundation pays for therapy dogs for kids and families in need reflecting her love of dogs. the katharine hubbard foundation opened in animals an animal cen, 32 acres in newtown to help animals that have been rescued from abusive or neglected environments because of catherine's love of animals and the list goes on and on. these are small beautiful miracles happening all across connecticut and across the country to honor the memory of the kidss and their educators ad

then there are miracles that happened in the context of the public policy.hi i sat at the white house a year ago this week while they were in the back of an auditorium and the president is president obama signed into law the act that wouldn't have become withoutsm e input of many other survivors of gunnc violence. the gun violence problem isn't a mental health problem per se. it has been the case in so many of o these authors that have dep mental health problems that went untreated. there have been public policy victories and so today on the five-year anniversary, my hope

is my friends here will celebrate these small and meaningful miracles that happened over the last five years and i hope you can be reminded we cannot take one day or one moment for granted. none of us should think that we would have another chance to say what we want to say we can't put off saying i love you for another moment. those small things desperately matter. they will think of one story that i will leave you with from that morning.

daniel is one of the young boys killed in that elementary school and his older brother went to school at a different time than he did so they normally wouldn't see each other in the morning and for some reason, the morning of the shooting at sandy hook, daniel got up earlier than he normally did and he saw his brother was at the end of driveway waiting for the bus and ran out of the house down the driveway to say goodbye to his brother, goodbye for today. it was a small act of kindness that daniel foss would be forgotten by the end of the day, but it has meant the world to the family. the idea that he got the chance to walk down the driveway and say goodbye and never came back.

don't think that you will never have the chance to say what you want to say. she flung her arms around me and whispered into my ear keep going and she unclasped her arms and lookedt at me and said that's al i wanted to come and kill you and after a few pleasantries she walked out of the door.

it's what they found the courage to do to believe that the laws of the country must change in order to protect kids that lost their lives in sandy hook that's what we do and so as we mark five years since the violence of elementary school, we keep going. i yield the floor. >> president trump spoke about cutting regulations today. his remarks are next on c-span2. at his annual news conference, president putin praised president trump.

to a move expected to in power cable and wireless providers and transform consumer's online experience. you can watch our coverage of today's fcc hearing on

c-span.org and on c-span. at the end o