on wednesday, the house will vote on a bill to fund the government through february 28th. the majority leader mitch mcconnell has said he will not bring up a government funding bill unless president trump approves it. ... er. the chaplain: let us pray. the chaplain: let us pray. internal god, you are holy, the only god and your deed sustain us because of you, we live and move and breathe and have our being turk or lowered remind our lawmakers of the wisdom of a

proverbs 22: three. a prudent person foresees the danger ahead and takes precautions. the simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences. lowered, may our lawmakers to be prudent people, seeing the danger from afar and preparing to meet it. grant our senators wisdom and courage for the living of these challenging times. we pray in your sacred name, amen.

>> please join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance to the flag. >> i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all. >> the clerk will read a communication to the senate. >> washington dc generate 19, 2019. to the senate under the provision of rule paragraph i hereby appoint the honorable susan collins, senator from the state of maine to perform the duties of the chairha signed chk grassley. >> under the previous orders the leadership time is reserved. morning business is closed. under the previous orders the senate will resume consideration of the motion to proceed to

senate bill one, which the clerk will report. >> motion to proceed to consideration to make improvements to certain defense and security assistance provisions. >> under previous orders the senator from virginia or designee will control two hours of debate. >> madam president. >> senator from virginia is recognized. >> madam president,t in the last two days i is stored on this and asked of the american government reopen. on thursday, i asked unanimous consent to proceed to the bipartisan house bill funding that most shuttered government agencies through the end of this fiscal year. the majority leader objected to my request. yesterday, i asked unanimous consent to proceed to the

bipartisan house bill funding homeland security agencies through february 8, the junior senator from oklahoma on behalf of the majority leader objected to my request. today marks the 29th day of the government shutdown. 29 days of fiscal pain and mental anxiety and national humiliation. 29 days of families worried about mortgage payments, canceling medical appointmentsn, losing their place at a favorite daycare that they can no longer afford to pay for 29 days of being required to travel to work without being paid and without even receiving money to put gas in your car to get to work. 29 days of being unable to edge or newborn child to your federal health insurance policy. 29 days of being turned away from services like food stamps or national parks or affordable

housing programs or domestic violence services are 29 days of pedicle spills not being investigated or food products not being infected here 29 days of our veterans who serviced federal employees are federal contractors suffering political pawns in an unnecessary stunt. 29 days of seeing a country you love ceased to be an example to others. if a foreign adversary-- if a foreign adversary through an active attack or cyber attack disabled major portions of the american government pushing 800,000 federal employees t to e brink of financial disaster and a blocking millions of americans from accessing government services critical to their lives , if a foreign adversary

did that, make no mistake we would consider it an act of war. is a foreign adversary figured out a way to block border s,ards, us marshals, coast guard members, dea agents, atf agents, fbi agents, tsa agents and air traffic controllers from being paid to intentionally hurt to those that we charged with protecting our safety and security, we would consider it an attack on our country. if a foreign adversary took these steps to embarrass and humiliate us, to bring much of the nation to a halt, to divide us against one another, we would consider it an attack on our country. but, these acts are not being .onducted by foreign adversary they are being intentionally waited against american workers and american citizens by the

president of the united states.e he had resized in december that he would shut the government down and gladly owned of the responsibility for it. he has claimed pride pride in what he has done and suggested he might keep government shutdown for weeks or months i. it is this president's who is waging this attack against broad swaths of the american public. madam president, i think you are aware that i have long criticized the congress to allow presidents of either party to wage war without requiring congressional approval. i criticize president obama for unilateral military action in libya, iraq and syria and i have criticized president trump for unilateral military action in libya, iraq and syria and yemen, but i reserve my compass criticism in this matter for

congress. how can we be silent when a presidents chooses to initiate war sending our troops into harm's way without a congressional vote? how can we be silent when the president takes such an action without a congressional vote? today, i am critical of the senate, a body i'd love with 99 other colleagues i love i am critical of the senate hi for allowing this president to wage this attack against american workers and citizens without being willing to obey vote about it. just a few weeks ago this a body was very willingy to vote for funding the very agencies that are shuttered today. democratic and republican members decidedep that such a ve was in the interest of their country and their own state in their own constituents, but following the vote at the present expressed his disappointment in the votes and so the vast majority of the

colleagues in the majority with notable exceptions, obviously have changed their position from decembernw and are now unwilling to vote. the house bills pending at the desk would reopen government and i find it truly outrageous that the majority is not yet willing towi just hold the vote on those bills. just as congress advocates clear responsibility constitutionally by refusing to hold a vote on the initiation of war, i believe the senate is now advocating it's clear responsibility to appropriate funds for governments by refusing to even entertain a vote on the bipartisan spending bills that are before us. let's be clear about this. if we were to proceed to those bills, every member in this chamber would be required to vote to either for or against government funding in the previously agreed amounts. we all would be held accountable

for either voting for funding or against funding.ns it's this accountability or rather the fear of being held accountable for a votee that is blocking consideration of these bills.lu the majority, again, with notable exception including the presidenten and another senator who will be here today are afraid to vote. if a vote for funding as they did a month ago they are worried they will make the president angry. if they vote against funding, they are worried their own constituents will be angry. the fear of voting and being held accountable a even extendso the four session, the unusual for session we are holding right now. at the end of the day, thursday, i made good on my promise to object to it adjourning the senate g while the government ws closed. of course, my objection that i have lodged earlier in the weekend that i acted on thursday

can be overcome. my objection to the resets we were supposed to have can be overcome by a simple majority of eek, the majority was afraid to challenge my objection because it would have meant that they it would have meant that they the authority was afraid to challenge my objection because it would have meant they would have had to vote on whether or not to adjourn. this shutdown, this attack on american workers and citizens can end if the senate is just willing to vote on the pending bills, but the fear of being held accountable, the fear of political consequences so great that the majority strategy currentlys is to avoid any votes whatsoever. but, what is the fear of the voting compared to the fear of losing your home? what is the fear of the voting compared to the fear of not having health insurance? what is the fear of voting

compared to the pain of letting your trusted babysitter go for the humiliation of your children coming to you with their piggy banks to help you overcome your families financial distress? can it be that one works so hard to come to this respected place taking on zero two protect and defend the constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic , but then let fear of accountability and political consequence become the overwriting factor in one's decision, that politics would motivate us all is no surprise, but that it would so dominate the action or rather in action of this body when the government of our nation is closed is shocking to me. i am not young and i am not

naïve, but i never would have imagined in coming to this body that the senate in the article one branch of this democracy would take the position we can't to vote on any matter unless we know the president agrees. so, i hope my colleagues will raise their voices and demand a vote on the pending bipartisan house bills. if we vote and the bills fail we will have to go back to the drawing board. madam president, i think we all know what will happen if we vote on those bills. if we vote on the house bills, the house bills will pass. the majority currently i is withholding the vote aware that if the vote happens the bills will pass. so come on day 29, as the senate seeks to avoid a vote and avoid accountability, my constituents and all of our constituents

continue to suffer. heidi from vienna wrote me, my husband and i are both veterans and current federal employees without pay. both veterans and both federal employees without pay. we are at a breaking point. we have not paid our mortgage and our pediatrician donates medication to our children. after a life of dedicated public service in support of country i never expected to find myself in this position as a breach of trust. sarah from ashburn, my husband and i are both federal law enforcement and have been working without pay during the shutdown. we had three young children. continue to not only have bills to pay, but childcare expenses to pay so we can continue to work without pay. we haven't had to borrow money yet, but soon we will have to take a look at what c our optios are. we have cut back on all expenses, no eating out, no

purchasing anything other than food and gas, no registering for spring sports or afterschool program,ut no buying girl scout cookies or anything extra, we don't want to get our margin of cash so low that we have to use credit that we have been trying to get out of debt and credit. it's a last resort for us. we will dip into our emergency fund as soonrn as i worked for e federal government for 21 years and i'm very frustrated. john from fairfax station, my son is one of hundreds of thousands of federal contract employeesoy who have been furloughed from their consulting jobs and forced to use 2019 annual leave which was exhausted last week and pay for lapsed health insurance because of federal agencies he worked for has been closed by the shutdown. if the shutdown is not ended soon my son's firm will have to lay off staff to offset millions of dollarss of losses due to the federal work stoppage. this is the unpublicized nightmare the shutdown, hundreds of thousands of federal

contractors may lose their jobs because trump is holding federal workers and their contractors hostage for the ineffective wall. teresa from middletown, i did a public servant for 30 plus years and you are using the end my family has pawns in a game no one can win. i dedicated my life to serving the american public and this is how you treat me? i've had to go from getting food to the local pantries to wondering when i will be the one busy in the pantry. myers-- my child is stressed because he doesn't know when we may be homeless, but when we will have to start selling things off. he literally s has unopened christmas gifts he won't open because he's afraid we will have to return them to buy food, all for a wall, a wall that will not close, house or feed my hat-- family. elizabeth from appalachia,

virginia, i write you as a wife of a federal correction officer of a federal correction facility in the county and i urge you to find a solution for the numerous people that are getting ready to have our world combo. on the saturday my family will not receive the paycheck that my cousin has earned. distress this is causing myself and my husband is compounding. we do not know how we will pay our bills much less feed our childrente and we cannot attempt to get a temporary job because he still has to go do his job. my family's lives are being used as pawns the political workor we are typical working family who live paycheck to paycheck. we pay our bills and taxes and have good credit and this is jeopardized through no fault of our own.oi i can't imagine going to my daughter's dance teacher saying please continue to provide yve d we will pay you eventually or the power company and say please keep our lights on we will pay you eventually. we do not know when that will be

, but eventually something has to happen. please do something to fix this. jaclyn, i'm an faa 35 years of service federal accepted and exceptional employee. interesting, december 23, i would have been reporting to a new facility closer to my elderly mother to assist in her home care. i have broken my lease at my current resident and i have paid an apartment at the new station you're my mom c, which i cannot move into because of the shutdown. the shutdown has placed my career.my and my life in limbo. my 81-year old mother is anticipating my aid in her help in medical care and the financial burden of my mother not receiving the biweekly allotment i give her every two weeks has caused undue stress on both her and myself. about urgency of my moving closer to her is time critical

for her health and my finances. caravan, we are stationed in australia. her husband is a federal employee. far from family and friends with limited employment options for me o as a spouse in a foreign country and now, we find ourselves without a paycheck and still liable for paying our mortgage and liable for paying all medical expenses out of pocket sons surgery two weeks before christmas this is not a game.ee gracie from woodbridge, i'm writing you asking for help. i've been a federal government employee forgo 16 years and receive a third to a quarter what i can make in the private sector with little or no thanks from anyone for doing the job i do. my husband, a veteran, was diagnosed with stage four: cancer june, 2015 at the age of 35 and has been receiving treatment sense which adds to our debt. we have two young children who require the basics and are

involved in sports, something we want to encourage. we have a mortgage payment, car payment, other debt, student loan debt which we will likely still pay when our children go to college and have not been able to say for their college because we are still paying my college debt off. all of this adds salt to the wound of being a furloughed employee. i know i am not alone. we are being held hostage for political purposes, so i'm not receiving pay right now and the department of education has somehow calculated that i should be able to pay $600 a month for my loans. i don't like asking for help. i was raised to be independent and pull myself up by my own bootstraps. sera from fredericksburg, i'm a mother of two and a wife to an fbi employee. we are now approaching the end of week number four of the shutdown and no end in sight and by the end of this month our accounts will be almost empty.

you had to have the hard conversation with our children about the lack of funds and making cuts to pay our bills and cost of medication. my son has asthma and blood pressure disorder which can be life-threateningre. he's on medication, but if the government doesn't open and our soul provider doesn't receive his pay,, how are we supposed to fulfill our responsibilities as appearance in keeping our kids safe and healthy? madam president, finally, christopher from leesburg share this on my facebook page. on the federal employee who were used at the last of his discretionary funds today to attend my grandfather's funeral. my second funeral in a month and to repair our vehicle so we could make it home to our kids. now i'm preparing to file for unemployment. my wife will have to try to get a job despite her severe and

crippling anxiety and we have had to return some of the christmas presents we bought for ourselves, our for your oldest son and a six-year-old daughter. we have had to return some of the christmas presents that we bought for ourselves, our 4-year old son and are six-year-old daughter. we have to figure out what to do next because our car still in need of repair. we need to buy food for our daughter's lunchbox for kindergarten every day and afford family meals and gas. we have always lived paycheck to paycheck because the high cost of living in virginia, but we don't have the option to take out loans because we have incurred is so much debt moving to the area and to dealing with my wife's medical bills. i served our country in the military and left military service to join the civil service and i have been so disheartened to see the lack of respect for federal employees.

madam president, this is just a sample and i know every senator in this bodyre is receiving the. i may receive more because i represent virginia, but only 20% of our federal employees are in the dc, maryland, virginia area and 80% are all over the country and of these stories, and we are getting them in the dozens in the scores everyday. so, i just returned to a request and i'm speaking to the choir as i address this preside or because i know we largely share the views that i have expressed. we stand our office. we work hard to get here. we are elected and it's a privilege to be here and the thing we are supposed to do is to be willing to vote yes b or o and be held accountable for our votes. the fact that these bills that would end of the pain i read to you are sitting on the deskti ad

could be voted on immediately if the majority agreed, but maneuvers are being used to block the vote is in some ways the most discouraging aspect of this. with confidence on the where that if bills were called and devoted we would vote for them in government could reopen immediately. i would encourage my colleagues to abate and end the pain i just described and hold that voteat d with that, madam chair, i yield the floor.

>> madam presidentsi. >> the senator from alaska is a recognized. >> thank you, madam president. kind of unusual to be here on a saturday morning here in washington dc. the, recognizing that we have been in the midst of a partial government shutdown for now 29 days it seems to met this is absolutely appropriate place where we should be we should be here working trying to figure out how we get back to business of governing and i think it's fair to say that there has been a great deal of frustration. i think of the floor of senators assembled in this chamber todayd

are part of a group that has shared that frustration on a daily if not hourly basis. i think there have been very good faith efforts to try to advance discussion on by person basis, bicameral basis, trying oto allow for a process that would allow us to consider the work, legitimate request of the president who has clear priorities when it comes to border security and that we need to do and how we might need to do it. it's a very difficult to do it when we are not fully governing, when you have a partial government shutdown, when you have many women who we are asking to do the work within their agencies, but then they are not being paid. they are being told that they will be paid when this is all over, but the uncertainty of when that all over is is very heavy on them, very heavy on

them and their families and so today i wanted to share with colleagues the view from one community in alaska. alaska is a state that relies heavily on our coast guard. we house just about 3000 active coast guard in the state, 2972 exactly and 285 civilians. we are proud to host the largest coast guard air station in the country on kodiak. so, kodiak-- i thought it was the largest island in the country. it's not. wiley and-- why big island beats as, but kodiak is a large large island off of the southeastern,

southwest, south-central part of the state of alaska. there's about 6000 people in kodiak, 6013 based on the last census and within that coast guard community of kodiak you have 1141 active duty, 102 civilian employees and when coast guard reservist c, so this is a community. when they say we are a coast guard town, kodiak c is truly truly a coast guard town, about one third of the economy that is based off of the coast guard they are. this is an island that i don't know i probably should have checked air prices before i came to the floor here, but seems to be the last time i flew down there going out of anchorage to kodiak you are probably spending for to $500 for an airplane ticket, so you are

geographically removedyo, you ae removed a certainly from my financial perspective in terms of your ability to move a back-and-forth jobs are challenging. in a community like this, december, january is usually the highest months of unemployment, but in december of just last month we were 8.8% in kodiak. compare that to last january of a lot of unemployment there to do there is of jobs and job opportunity in a community like this. so, you have got your coast guard and the other economic base for the community really is our fisheries and our local and small businesses, so within the fisheries you have-- you got

your federal agencies that are there to provide for the opportunitiesni. right now, we are going into the season for pollock, i believe. coming up in a few days, but this requires your agencies to be up and functioning. its fish and wildlife, you need to have these folks in their offices answering the phone, responding to text. we also on kodiak island have significant refuge land, parks land and again fish and wildlife managers on the refuge they are. so, you have got an island community cut off from the rest of the state, 43, 4400 miles probably from where we are sitting today and of the

reliance on the federal interest is probably pretty disproportionate to other communities. much of the population, the indigenous population there relies on the kodiak area, native association healthcare, so the challenges that the indian health services is having because of the department of interior shutdown, so the impact in so many different ways m on this community of 6000 people is extraordinarily substantial. so, i made contact with the spouses of the coast guard men and women there and asked if i could i do a skype, do a face te with them while they were having coffee because i wanted to understand for myself what does it mean when you are the coast

guard spouse and your husband or your wife is out either flying as a c-130 pilot down in the aleutians, whether it is a hilo pilot that is looking to do a medevac at a king:, whether it s the wife of one of the spouses who is out, whether it is the spouse that is i at drydock, the aviation instructor-- these are all men and women that are going out and doing really important things for us in alaska. this is a time of year when the fishing industry is going strong

it's a crab season, but it's also not to cruise whether for those who are out on the waters and we rely on the extraordinary efforts of our coast guard men and women to provide for that search and rescue if it need to be, fishery in forstmann is the the coast guard plays in not only supporting the local economy, but making sure that that second leg of our economy, the fisheries, are safe, are safe, regulated and protectede. let me show you just the base their in kodiak. it's a nothing grandiose and beautiful and extraordinary. it is actually an extraordinarily beautiful location to be stationed there in kodiak, but this is a

community. this is where they live and work and raise their families. there are others that are sitting up on the hillside in housing, but it's a pretty tightknit community, so to be able to visit with this group of spouses yesterday was really quite compelling. as i wanted to take a few minutes and share some of the comments from these primarily women and men about what's happening right now. one individual, sarah, mentioned that her husband is out on a cutter. they are in drydock in another coast guard facility, but because they are not being a paid sitting a community where they really have no resources to do anything. they have to stay on the ship.

it's not like they can go off and go out and about. you are really kind of stuck there and she happens to work for the chamber of commerce in kodiak and is so was able to share some of the stories about the impact on the local businesses and she was saying that you go on facebook and there will be postings of empty restaurants, empty establishments saying please come, we are looking for customers. there's a discount for coming in and having a cup of coffee. kings diner, business is down 50% and they are offering a 10% discount to those without paychecks. we got a call from a gentleman who has a welding business they're in kodiak and he said he is out0 $300,000 in payments frm coast guard projects that have already been completed.

he said these contracts in equal 10 to 50% of his gross annual income. what is he doing? he's not a federal employeemp, t it's impacting his business in a significant significant way and he is saying i'm going to have to go get loans, so the impact on the community at large is clearly clearly significant. some of the other comments that we heard was that effort to provide for food. so, the effort to provide for local food distribution through food pantry in the effort to collected donations from around the states to be able to send it down to kodiak. these are things where you think look at the generosity of alaskans to come together, but in talking to these spouses they reminded me, we are the guardians of our homeland here.

we are proud people. we are proud families and to think that in order to be able to serve and to keep the family fed i got to go to a feed pantry really very very hard. kodiak, as you saw from the map of their isolated. isolation delivers a lot of different things and one thing it clearly delivers is it expensive to live their. it's expensive to live there. we were told that right now price of gas is about $4 a gallon. there was a reports that came out of nbc this week that mentioned that one individual said his weekly budget for food was three times more than his friend who happens to live in

ohio, so it is keeping your house warm, filling up your vehicle, buying groceries at the store, child care is something we talked about extensively because the hours at the childcare center has been cut back. there is no alternative really out in the community for child care for these coast guard men and women. there is, i think she said there were not even to facilities where they were taking children under the age of six months, so infants that we see on base and apparently there has been a good slug of new babies born to new coast guard recruits, but when you don't have the ability to provide for child care you need to be working, where you go, what he do. price of childcare d talking to one of the childcare-- talking

to when a child-- spouses $1600 a month for one child. hundred dollars for gas. some poor to 5000 miles away from any family support, so it's not like you can just say to grandma or to grant can you come and help me with the kids. you don't have that kind of support like we do in other areas. so, when we talk about the impact of a shutdown partial shutdown and not getting paid at least for this period for an indefinite period, it's more than just the financial impact. we talked a lot about that, but even more than the financial impact was the stress that comes to the family because of the financial impact. the reality you face as a coast guard family is you move a loto,

so you had that stress. you are away from your family support system, like i mentioned you have a lot of families with new kids. now, you don't know whether or not-- when you are going to see that pay. you are in a place where your costs are really high. you don't have many options for short time work. i said well, what you doing? are any of you getting additional work to help bridge this gap? they all just kind of laughed. it wasn't a happy laugh, it was a cynical laugh like where you expect us to go to work when the establishments we might go to whether it's a restaurant or some small business is posting things on facebook saying we need customers. do you think they are going to hire peopleth? that's not happening in a community and further, they

don't know how long they may be there. it requires some level of training and you cannot commit and you say when the government gets back to business may be maybe just maybe i don't need to be here. well, you're not going to be investing in that individual, so you have that stressor. the stress that i think our families see and i have such respect for the men and women who are staying at home while our active are serving whether they are helping plucked fishermen out of the sea in the north or whether they are interdicting drugs in the southern waters, spouses have learned how to hold things together and be the tough, just figured out. there's not a lot of complaining going on, but when you have a mom tell me as she did yesterday that the spending money that the

kids got for christmas is said we are not going to spend it, mom, because we think we might need it for food. when the 13-year old girl says i am not- going to cash the birthday check that i got from grandma because we might need it and i was reminded by several of these spouses that this is an adult problem. this is not a kids problem. our children should not have to worry about this, but they can't help but pick it up. they know what is going on and they are worried. to have them on tell me, one of the moms essay we are just doing everything to pull it together, so i'm having to say things like i'm sorry, we are not going to be ordering the yearbook. this is not paying for fancy sports programs even.

i don't know that we are going to be able to order the yearbook and it's canceling tutors, that. i just-- i think again about the weight that our spouses are bearing and how they are handling it. one woman said, hey, we are lucky. my husband is an added hunter and fisherman we have a freezer full of meat. i have made a complete inventory of everything i had in pantry and just so i know and can plan ahead, but this is hard on everyone. that impact to enlistment is something we need to be thinking about and that was raised repeatedly. one woman said, my husband and i

both joined the coast guard because we like the stability that this offered as. insofar as moving around from location to location. but stability in the fact that you're a federal employee. you're going to have that support from your government. support from your government. stability and the fact that you are federal employee and you will have that support from your government and she said, you know, now i don't think of this as a very stable opportunity. another thing i learned yesterday is thatrn it was just apparently, a week or so ago maybe a couple weeks agot that the coast guard, the boot camp where the new recruits coming, a six-week program-- maybe-- i shouldn't say how long the program is because i don't know, but the just completed it could be completed it during the shutdown. where did those young coast kids go, there was a have the new shaved good-looking tops ? they went back home. they sent them back home because

they don't have any place for them to go. would you think that does to recruits? what do you think that does to recruitsre? another thing that came up that was fascinating to me that we don't think about this in this land of unintended consequences when you have a partial government shutdown that goes on for 29 days, these coast guard men and women federal employees when they do official travel goes on your official card appeared that card is issued in your name, so if you are the coast guard men that needs to go out and inspect the boat in dutch harbor and you are based out of anchorage, a flight to dutch harbor round-trip i don't know last i checked is close to a thousand dollarst, so that gos on the card in the way the process works is the cardei is u are reimbursed on your government card, but during the shutdown nine of these expenses are reimbursed. that card is tied to your name, tied to your credit rating and

that was where the conversation really got lively when spouses were talking about, do you know what happens when a credit rating goes south, do you know what that means in terms of our ability to have a security clearance, do you know what that means in terms of our ability to transfer and it would be one thing if you could say wellel, i will just pay for it out of my savings. that was what another spouse said was, you know i take offense because i feel that there are a lot of people out there that have placed judgment on us because they say you should've saved for something like this t and the responses im in the coast guard. i move around. many of these families have invested in a home and then they are transferred. they keep at home they try to make some money off of it, many of them rented to another coast familyil. now that family is not getting paid either. a best-dressed compiled upon stress is just awful.

we were reminded that this isn't a natural disaster, it's a man-made disaster. another woman the said military are proud and we should be honored and respected, but one that said it really well summed it up from the coast guard k viw in my opinion she said you know, we are not going to sink. we are not going to sink. we will still float t, but that doesn't mean we are not upset and we're not angry and they said this and share this with a great deal of respect, but truly truly begging for us to resolve these issues. they understand there is an effort out there to pay the active in military coast guard, but there are coast guard family in this space and you have got

active coast guard working , those that are helping them keep those boats and tiptop shape, keeping the heroes in the air, keeping the c-130s in the air, they are zero working together, so how is it right that side-by-side often times sharing the same job that one would get that pay and the others woulded not, so they have asked, don't forget the civilian side as well i'm going to end my comments because i know that the senator from virginia would like to speak as well. i have a soft spot in my heart for kodiak. i think it's become-- because i may coast guard kid myself, but when i go to kodiak, the gathering space and kodiak is a great little brewery called kodiak brewery and it's a gathering place for not only the

politicians that come to town, but all of the coast ease, the community comes together and this is where first day take place. this is where you come and have a beer after work. s this is a coast from yesterday that says this is a sad empty brewery. we are lonely and you are thirstynd and we want to support our community and need work we are doing a shutdown sale, a dollar off servings until sanity prevails. it's just a reminder to me again , the extraordinary ripple effect when you say well, it's just the federal employees. first of all, i think that is offensive because our federal employees do extraordinary service for our country, but it is all of us and it is up to all of us to get this resolved. i have been so disappointed this week that we have not been able

to advance a more positive solution to work on an immediate outcome to help with this, but my frustration is nothing compared to these familiesth, these men and women who are serving, those who are staying at home, the worry and angst and stress that we see. we 082 the people of kodiak. we are to the people of this country to get this place working again and with that, madam president, i yield the floor. >> if the senator from virginia will withhold for just a moment. >> madam president, i would ask

unanimous consent the senate proceed to consideration to asked what he five which was cemented earlier today. >> senate resolution 25 the week of january 20 through january 26, 2019, as national school choice week. >> is there objection to proceeding to the measure? without objection-- g i asked the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to in the motion to be laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate. >> so ordered. >> i understand there is a bill on the desk and i understand it's the first reading. >> the clerk will read the title of the bill for the first time. >> hr 268,, act making supplemental appropriations for the fiscal year ending september 30, 2019, and for the purposes.

>> i asked fornd second reading and in order to place the bill on the calendar under the provision of rule 14, i object to my own request. having been heard the bill will receive its next reading on the next legislative day. >> madam president, i ask unanimous consent that following the remarks of senate warned the senate adjourned under the previous order. >> without objection. virginia is recognized. >> first of all, madam president, let me thank the senator from alaska for her comments. my dear friend, the senator from virginia for his comments and i know you have heard these stories. i will somewhat at the what has been said, but what i don't understand and those who are listening and viewing, many of

us on both sides of the aisle in working good faith to say how do we get out of this. the question i have is, i wonder if all of our colleagues have actually gone out and sat with federal workers or folks affected, how anyone, anyone affected by this self-imposed personal financial and economic rdisaster and not say, let's not talk about-- let's get the government reopened and we can figure it out, but let's get the government reopened r. i'm going to recount some similar stories, but and i appreciate the alaska story of the coast guard and kodiak. in virginia we have a major coast guard facility, but as you have mentioned it's not just federal employeesfe.

its contractors, private businesses and a host of other folks and i hope presiding officer is also part of the group that's been trying to say how do we get to yes, something to reopen. may be we can renew our efforts and urge o all of our other colleagues, many of them who have gone home, but i hope they will sit down and have these kind of sessions took i don't know how anyone can look people who are out of work without pay who do nothing that they have been individually and say, no matter who is winning the inside beltway battle of the day, that we need to get the government ireopened. madam president, i rise today out of deep frustration that the administration's government shutdown, the one thing and i

come back to this again, but i wish i wish there were some indication that whether the president, vice president or any of his top advisers would actually go out and do a listening session of the federal workers. that doesn't seem to be too much to ask. i want them to look those coast guard spouses or those tsa employees or those air traffic controllers in the high and say why are they being held hostage on an issue that frankly has nothing to do with their work as public servants. four-- we are now and a 29 of the president shutdown, the longest shutdown in us history. in many ways we are creating the legacy of the semester nation. a legacy that the president claimed in mid-december, that he was proud to have initiated the

shutdown that's plunging so many of our americans lives into chaos. more than 800,000 federal workers have missed a paycheck and that number, i think, the senator from alaska alluded too is actually a fraction of the folks who are actually been affected. that doesn't count, that's just the 800,000 federal workers, not counting the contractors. i will come back to that in a moment. host of businesses, the brewery and kodiak. they are not federal workers. and they are being affected and let's recognize even when we are reopened, does coast guard workers are paid back, not brewery will never make back its lost revenue. the president has found time for oval office address. he's found time for a trip to the border. found time for a tip for tat we speak of closing, but what he

has not found time for and for that matter anyone else in the white house to sit down with the federal workers who are being affected and i believe that is a national disgrace. again, i appreciate madam president you and your colleague. i know you have listened and we are continuing to work with other colleagues on both sides of the aisle. trying to hopefully find some sense in this disaster, but truth is people's time is running out. over the last couple weeks senator cain and i have heard from so many virginia families who are suffering the burden from this shutdown and i wanted to share some of the stories that are from alaska.

a story of the 13-year old who couldn't cash a christmas check. at least for me i cannot speak for senator cain, but the most compelling story, heartbreaking story and i will tell a number, but the one i kept coming back to is senator cain and i had with the press a series of federal workers tell their stories. one of the federal workers didn't want to come and do it on camera, but he talked to senator cain and i afterwards. he was a relatively young guy about 35. he was a veteran. he was an air traffic controller and had now gone four plus weeks without a paycheck. his wife had served in the air force in the intel capacity and

was suffering from pre-significant ptsd. because he had not had a paycheck, he couldn't pay the 90-dollarr copayment for his wie to continue to see her psychiatrist and continue to pay for her drug treatments. .. somebody who is working overtime without pay to keep our air

safe. there, this shouldn't be. this shouldn't be. same time, a few days earlier we met with other workers, a young father who we met who works for the he department of justice, was unable to get his daughter -- brought his daughter to is session because when his daughter was born, he wanted to make sure he could get his daughter on this federal insurance plan. that's his right. but the person who was supposed to submit the form to the insurance company had been furloughed. went to the doctor, and is infant daughter had an illness and had to get prescription. he didn't have the money to pay for the prescription, and his daughter wasn't registered on his insurance company, not because of anything he fault he

had made. he one able to pay for the insurance. in this case, thank god, the insurance company actually worked with him, they brought extra proof and went through other hoops and he was able to get the medicine. how many other young families going through that same stress right now? eric, a federal law enforcement agent and father of three, wrote me an e-mail and said, missing a paycheck caused, quote, tremendous amount of strain on his family. this is a law enforcement officer. eric said he had some money saved up in a rainy day fund but win on to continued to tell me, quote, it's raining extremely hard right now. in terms of the rainy day fun. at some point i have to make some tough decisions to ensure our family has roof over its head and a food on the table.

unfortunately a lot of the employee's have been talking to, don't have that rainy day fund. one thing i think we all knew, maybe intellectually, and statistics, that half of americans couldn't afford an unexpected 400 decide bill without going into financial ruin. we're seeing that play out right now. not because somebody had been mismanaging their funds but because they expected if they work for the united states of america, and if they were willing to continue to do that work, that'd get paid. we're into the crisis now 29 days, and if we think we have seen the stuff hit the fan so far, wait until this coming thursday when families go through that second pay period where adding insult to injury, they get a paycheck that says

sear row. one case of an air traffic controller a peppy and at the end of the month, if you get into the new month when all the bills come due. yesterday, i volunteered at a food bank in arlington where federal contractors and furloughed workers were coming because their families were running out of money. these were folks, some of them said to me, listen, i'm kind of viewed myself always as middle class. i've been working for the federal government for double digit years. they felt enormous opt of almost shame to come to the food bank. shouldn't feel shame to come to the food bank, but their appeal was, get the government re-opened. now, the president, i who has never worked for paycheck in his life, says he can relate. he says he is sure the, quote,

federal workers will make adjustments. very same president who has not had the common decency to sit down with any federal workers and listen to their stories. hoarse what some of those adjustments look like. lisa wrote me an eme-mail says i'm forced to look for multiple part-time jobs to make ends meet and my says will soon run out. creditors and landlord have only so much patience with us. another worker we met on thursday, broke down and crying when she said how hard it was for her to send her infant child away, up a week to ten days, because or mom oh had been taking care of the child had to deal with her own personal business and she couldn't afford daycare. how disspiritting and

disheartening and shares al appropriate pointed in the recruit and retention to say to those who are actually trying to serve others, that now suddenly see their live live hoods in jeopardy through no fault of their own. the truth is the shutdown is having a devastating effect, not only on their short-term morale but the long-term more recall of all the federal work force. the fact is, since we have already agreed to pay them when we re-open, why shouldn't we go ahead and even if we are shut down, pay these federal workers come thursday so they don't have to incur additional pain and suffering the truth is, and i commend so many of us in particular my friend the senator from virginia who led the effort that we're giving federal workers back pai when we re-open but bass pay alone doesn't make

up for the hurt if you have had to draw down from your ira and have a tax penalty. it doesn't make you whole if you have taken an advance against your credit card and you've got to pay the fees, paying those dollars back. done make you whole, as again the presiding officer indicate if you get dinged on your credit rating or if you're in the process of trying to get a security clearance, and that security clearance is withhealed because it appears you have bad credit. not because you did anything wrong. but because the congress and the president can't agree on how to pay you when you're still asked to do your job. now, a number of federal employees, current federal employees, who are eligible for retirement, supposed to be about 30% over the next few years. how many of those federal employees who we have trained

and worked with, who bring enormous expertise, are not going wait until they have to retire but actually say i'm going to get out of this job now. and the last thing we need to do is further undermine the competitiveness of our federal work force. now, i heard the other day -- this is again you have made this point, snore kaine has made this won'tpoint it's knot just the federal employees. federal contractors. heard from one federal contractor whose she set shutdown has rocked the financial stability of my family. i see in the galley, probably a few more tourists than we might normally have on a saturday because the smithsonian shut down. i heard from someone who is in he leadership of the smithsonian, who was begging me,

saying, those folks who work at the smithsonian, they may get reimbursed but all of the folks who pick up the trash, clean the bathrooms, serve the cafeteria food, are all contractors. they're not direct employees of the federal work force. so even when we re-open, even when the federal work force gets reimbursed, they are out. one of the thing is would hope -- senator kaine and i have been working on this and hope that the chair will look at this and i hope some of the other colleagues who want to work towards a solution will work this in all the previous shutdowns we have never -- it's complicate, but we have never found a way to reimburse contractors. we have a piece of legislation, may not be perfect but it says, for those workers who make less than 50 grand, ought to find a way to make sure they get

reimbursed. and then for those of us, some small percentage, if not these folks will never be made whole. thing bet the tourists. normally there's a wholelet of food trucks surrounding the smithsonian and elsewhere around downtown. you have hear from a number of those folks as well, can't continue because if the smithsonian is not open, the tourists aren't coming, and if you have taken out a loan to buy a food truck to try to employ a few folkes, once that business is shut down, once your loan is pulled, once you lose that truck, even when we come to a solution, they can't re-open. so i do hope that we will take a look -- again, i know it's unprecedented. not looked at federal contractors in the past but at here for the folks in lower and moderate income, who cannot make

back the 29 days of pay and lord knows we listened the president who says he doesn't means if it's weeks, months or even years, that we find a way to somehow make them whole. we have also seen small businesses. we have disproportionately in virginia a lot of small contractor businesses. small business owner contractor in arlington wrote me and said, again, quote, my disabled veteran owned small business will have to shut its door after serving the federal government for the last two decades. i'm going to have to put 72 families, 72 families, out of work because our reserves aren't big enough to support the payroll expenses of 35,000 to 40,000 per day during this political impasse. doesn't take a lot of math to figure out that if you're at roughly 30 days, you're talking about over a million dollars in

payroll that this small business, veteran-owned small business-can't meet. they re-open, no guarantee this business comes back. and if not just the small businesses who actually serve the government. it is the brewery in kodiak, it's the restaurant around the battlefield around richmond, around center kaine's home, some of the crowneds that surround the send anyone dough would national park and our commonwealth. i think there may be a number of our colleagues who maybe don't have the same concentration that alaska or virginia or maine has but if they think this problem hasn't gotten -- isn't pretty like the plague, it will come to their states as well. why do we have to put all these families in and our economy through this kind of turmoil?

senator kaine and i have worked really hard recently and those who live in the national capitol area, metro, an important way we commute, metro has had its share of problems the last couple of years actually in a good news story, virginia, d.c., and maryland, came together, put together some resources so metro to make improvements, safety improvements and operate improvements to try to improve quality of service for the federal work force and tourists in thename nation's capital. every day, every weekday, the federal government is shut down, metro loses $400,000 in lost fares per day. metro can't get a break. and where is thatman going to come from? we're not going to appropriate

millions of additional dollars. now, at one point, -- once this debate, we have had debates before but ever been one that the american public has a right to be frustrated with, in terms of a shutdown, the historically longest shutdown ever, president says, he wants money for a bored he wall. a border wall he prom memphised the american people would be paid for by mexico. border wall that says, before he'll re-open government, give him 5 billion -- i think it's up to almost 5.9 billion -- some arguments now it's up to 7 or 8 billion -- truth is, let me be clear, the president or his white house allies are listening, this senator's willing to look at any reasonable investment in

additional border security. ought to be done in a way where we're not holding hundreds of thousands of family and literally indirectly millions of americans, hostage, rule number 101 of hostage taking, don't not negotiate with the hostage taker. don't reward a bully. and also i think some of my colleagues on the other side acknowledge privately, i we allow this tactic to work today ill it we be back and reused in april, when we have the debt ceiling, reused at the end of the fiscal year, when the next year's appropriations are due. one of the thing is hope people of good will will also try to see if we can commit to, is that we put enough of a poison pill in place that this tactic can never ever be used again bill any congress or any president. without inflicting some damage frankly on the legislative

branch and the office of the white house. that's part of the remarkable thing. our offices and i say to the good folks who work for us in congress, they're not feeling any of the pain. the white house staff, they're not feeling any of the pain. i do wonder as the president starts to select based upon who can lobby, who is going to come back and which gets re-opened and i'm more than a little disappointed that while it's important that mortgages get processed, that he decided to bring back certain folks to process mortgages, certain folks in the agriculture department to process farmer loans, they suddenly mysteriously found some money in the state department to re-open part of the state department, lawsuit me see that same priority for the folks who process food stamps. i wonder what kind of federal buildings will good into where the toilets right-hand side cleaned and trash is not taken out, and the food services aren't provided.

i say to the white house, we will negotiate, we will work through this process, we even said those of us -- ill know the chair has been part of the effort -- we'll put it through regular order. we'll consider his proposal inside a reasonable way but with the government open and people getting paid. now, in conclusion, i want to thank my friend, senator kaine from virginia, because i know -- it's acknowledged also that somebody that actually lives only 20 minutes away in virginia, a little easier for me than being a senator from alaska. o a senator from a host of other places around the country. but i think it is proper and right that we are here today. i think it isor and right and i will be back this coming week to

try to continue to raise this process when we heard -- when we heard from some federal workerses that congress was taking a break, another ten days, when they're supposed to be receiving another pay period and they may get goose eggs, and they've got the beginning of february looming with their month, their rents and mortgages and tuition bills are due, i think it is appropriate and i thank him for forcing us to be back here and continue to raise these issues. last point i want to make is that i think we owe a huge debt to our federal workers. federal workers, tsa, air traffic controllers, the coast guard, for that matter the folks who process food stamps or lady we saw who is supposed to

investigate chemical spills, who is desperate to get to houston where there's been a spill ten days ago that they haven't been able to investigate, because without pay, whether you're furloughed or in many okays being asked to work overtime without pay, they're still showing up. whether they're being asked to commute to work, some from a distance and as been mentioned by the presiding officer, put a bill on a credit card that has get your name on it and your credit rating at risk. whether you're a prison guard and you have to commute an hour and a half in your car and you may not have money for gas, but you're still finding a way to show up for work. i wonder, if something worked longer in the private sector than the public sector. how many folks who work in the private sector, you work for facebook or google, worked forked or -- would continue to

show up, week after week after week, without pay, how many folks in he private sector would show up and work overtime without pay, and still perform. in a moment, in a -- kind of straight at the press pool that was with me yesterday at the arlington food bank, i asked all the press folks, and the cameras were off, how many of them would show up tomorrow if they had been for four or five weeks with in end in sight, without any payment. the press was supposed to cover this. there wasn't a single reporter or camera person that didn't at least acknowledge to me, i wish we had up all on tape, that they wouldn't be showing up in their

jobs. so i hope, whether it's those of us who are policymakers or, candidly, visitors the galley, seems easy to -- gallery, there's been politics who made a career out of trashing federal employees. and i think it's wrong, and i think it's disgraceful, and i think now more than ever we owe them a debt of gratitude, and i know there are reports of people at airports and others saying, thank you, or trying to slip somebody a -- food or something else, and the remarkable thing is, because of our rules that conventional times are appropriate, we can't even in many cases give additional compensation to these federal workers.

that we can owe them a personal thanks, and my hope would be a commitment from folks on both sides of the aisle that will thick twice before we come down to the floor of this senate and berate and degrade federal workers going forward. i hope on a going forward basis, when we get the government re-opened, we can find a bipartisan way to actually make sure what this senate passed, in terms of a relatively meager 1.9% federal pay raise increase for this year, that we would override this administration's spiteful, executive order, trying to take away that pay raise, because if not, if not, maybe not next week, but the next time this happens, i don't know if those tsa worker will show up or those air traffic

controllers will keep working issue don't know if those coast guard employees will still sign up for service and n places remote as kodiak, alaska. but we have it within our power to end this. if the president of the united states will not end this, we have a bill that is at the desk that 96 of us agreed upon in mid-december, when there wasn't this crisis. now, when we hear these stories, when we hear this pain, if the president won't ask, then the senate must act. put that legislation on the president's desk and let him choose to not simply post late but then make a decision where he would sign or veto it. i thank the presiding officer. know that she and others will be back. part of the burden of the majority is showing up in that presiding space and we as the virginia senators disproposer

natalie have that opportunity during these kind of circumstances , but i hope your stories from the senator from virginia's stories, know the senator from maine's stories at well, that our other colleagues at the white house are listen and that we can fine that common agreement to get this government re-opened and demonstrat to workers, the contractors and folks who depend on the federal government that we value their service and never, ever again will they have to be put through this kind of tragedy. with that, madam president. knost the absence of core um do i don't note the absence of a quorum. i simply yield the floor. >> i thank the senator from virginia under the previous order the senate stands adjourned until 1:00 p.m. tuesday, january 22nd. >> the senate finishing up the session on day 29 of the government shutdown. they return tuesday after the martin luther king holiday.

the house will vote on a bill wednesday to fund the government through february 28th. but senate majority lighter mitchell mitchell has said he will not bring up the bill in the senate to open the government unless it contains border wall funding and the trump administration is calling 46,000 furloughed irs employees back to work without pay for tax filing season. funding for nine federal departments expired on december 21st, including homeland security, thisry, the state department, coast guard, and secret service. you can follow the story of the c-span networks. >> president trump will make what he calls a major announcement concerning the humanitarian cries on our southern boredder and the shutdown. we'll have that live from the white house 4:00 p.m. eastern on c-span, c-span.org, or listen on our free radio app. >> book of the continues now on

c-span 2. television for serious readers. >> through the year, book of the attends author events, conferences and book fairs to speak with nonfiction authors. at the national press club's null book anywhere washington, dc, we spoke with ira should peer rove about the future of the senate. >> give us a sense of your career. >> guest: my career is for want of a bettered word, long. it goes back actually my love of the senate goes back 50 years to when i was come out of college, during the last crisis in our country, vietnam. the senate was a beacon of hope for a lot of us and it drew me into public service. so i worked in the senate for 12 years after law school. i got an internship first and then came back. and then went into government in the clinton administration, and

i've been in private seconder since then, but always interested in the senate and saddened by its long decline. which prompt. my first book six years ago, "the last great senate" and now this one, "the least great senate: broken." >> host: what broken about the senate in your view. >> guest: sunny think generally everyone pretty much agrees that the senate is just terribly divided and bitter partisanship. the problem is that the partisanship that is dividing the senate, the senate was the place where people came together, where the parties came together to work things out. it was hamilton's lin-manuel moran's hamilton's room when it happened. when it doesn't happen in the senate the whole system seizes up. and that is what has happened. hyperpartisanship and now abuse

of the process and abuse of the institution. i don't usually good more than a minute without saying the name of mitch mcconnell, who i record as the most damaging senate leader of all-time. and the most powerful. >> host: whoa do you a call hem the most damage snag because traditionally, senate leaders felt it incumbent on them to work together across party lines. senators on both sides so they made it work. senators -- senate leaders felt the need work with presidents, whichever the party was. mcconnell doesn't operate that way. so he's the leader of the republicans and not the leader of the senate. so he can be an obstructionist when obama is president and then steamroller when trump is president. he's been very successful about that's contrary to the way the senate ever worked. >> host: how do you think harry

reid did. >> guest: always the question that gets asked whenever i say anything about mcconnell, somebody says, what about harry reid? i don't think he was a discuss elf leader and i think he was too much of a partisan also and the or two of. the together war terrible team but member come has been the dominant force, both during the obama years when all he had to do is obstruct, and now during the trump years. >> host: ira shapiro, given you were sense of history of the senate, what about the so-called nuclear option and a potential end of the filibuster. >> guest: i think that the nuclear option, which so far has been applied only to the courts, has been quite disastrous already, and the loss of the filibuster would change the senate fundamentally in legislative matters but if you think about it, pete, one of the concerns i have is that they've

already changed the senate quite a bit so that they were able to try to destroy the healthcare system, repealing the affordable care act, with only 50 votes bus must the vice president. so there are various ways to abuse the institution. what we need is leaders on both sides who are committed to having the senate play the special role it's supposed to play in our country. mondale called it, when he was vice president and senator, called it the nation's mediator. if the problems don't get worked out in the senate, they don't get worked out. >> host: let's go back, i know tom daschle is a friend of yours. tom daschle and trent lott, did they work together? sunny. they did. tom daschle and trent lott in my view were the last pair of senate leaders who worked the way they were supposed to. very different philosophies, one a democrat, one a republican,

far apart. but they recognized the need to work together to make the senate work, for the senate and for the country. so i have a section in my book about the clinton impeachment trial, which shows lott and daschle working together to steer the trial in a way that works for the country. >> host: let's go back a little bit nor history. two more. bob dole and lyndon johnson. >> guest: i think bob dole was a terrific senate leader in the '8s so. i think he was excessively partisan in the '70s. and he slipped back a little bit in the '90s when he was starting to run for president and he was facing the rebellion in the republican circles that we usually identify with newt gingrich. so, i have a high regard for dole. he was great patriot and a great leader in the '8s8s so.

i lyndon johnson was a -- will always be remembered as the master of the senate. i think he has much less lasting effect on the senate than mike mansfield who came after him. johnson passed through the senate, mansfield was there 16 years as leader. he created -- he set the tone for the senate that was bipartisan and based on trust and respect. and the reason i know mansfield mansfield was the greatest leader is because mitch mcconnell says. so he says man'sfielding the leader he most admired, except he is basically the antiman'sfield. >> host: the book is called "broken. can the senate save itself and the country." the author is ira shapiro. >> keep an eye out for morer into view from the national press club's become fire air in

the near future. you can watch them and any of our other programs in their entirety at booktv.org. type the authors where of's name in the search bar at the top of the page. >> good to be back i'm who what i call the center of the world, independence, missouri, you'll find everybody in independence feels the same by a because it's the center of things for most of us, the center of things for me and i'm more than happy to be here and to stay here for the rest of my life. i hope i won't cause too much trouble while i'm here. >> welcome to independence, missouri. located ten miles east of kansas city, it has population of about 117,000. during the 1800s, independence was the starting point for some of the major trails heading west wedder.

-- westward would become the holm of president harry truman and where he would build his presidential library. for the next hour we'll learn about the city's history and feature its local authors. we begin our southwesterly feature with a covered wagon tour of independence. >> while in naps we took a wagon tour of the city with historian ralph goldssmith. >> thank you for agreeing to show us around independence today. we're doing something a little different. instead of a driving tour, we're doing covered wagon tour. what is the significance of the covered wagon to independence? >> this is the original motorhome right here. this is what the pioneers traveled across the nation in. >> this where is the trail system began, right. >> right. this is where the trails began and the buck stopped,

independence. >> now, who do we have showing us around today? >> this frank and anne today. >> ralph, frank and ann. what are we going to see. >> the actual oregon trail, go on civil war battle, explain exactly how frank james end up in that jail and how the border war began between kansas and missouri. >> all right. let's learn about it. shall we get going. >> let's go. here we good. come on, mule! here we go. right across the street over there, that is the 1859 marshall home. going to rereferring to this building along the tour. right over there is where they held the outlaw, frank james. frank and jesse were the most notorious outlaws because they got away with for almost 16 years. that's where they they would he frank james and held a man named william quan tell. the man that -- quan tell.

the man that burnt lawrence kansas to the ground to the war and also the location of a dramatic jail break that took place during the first civil war battle of independence. on august 11, 1862, william quan teleand his raider made a horse charge up the hill at daybreak, streak in jail and freed 39 men. those 39 were being jailed in there because they would not sign a loyalty oath to the union. marshall law was declared in the state of missouri then. you had to sign a loyalty oath to the union or they could jail you. then later on the 1880,1882 exactly, is when the held frank in that jail. but the jail door was never locked on frank. >> why is that? sound like andy griffith business. >> with the end of the tour you'll understand why they didn't lock the door on the most notorious outlaw of the nation. here we go the folks you do

realize we cannot a tour in independence without talking about a man by the name of harry s. truman. he had a famous line on his desk, did it say. >> the buck stop here's. >> i'll show you where the bucks began. it's called clinton soda fountain today. back it because clinton's drug store. this where is harry truman had his very first job. opened the store on the corner at 6:30 in the morning and mopped the floors, dusted the shelves, made a whopping three dollars a week. he worked before school and he worked after school, all day long on saturday, they paid him with three silver dollars. hills father eventual he made him quit working there because he was only 14. he was afraid he'd get behind on his schoolwork. here comps his handsome statue up hereafter. did you no some of othe local folks think the statue is inappropriate. >> why? >> look at it. he don't have his hat on.

harry had only been vice president 82 days when president roosevelt passed away. he was summon heed to the white house for the ocean of office. wouldn't go there directly. went back in congressional hall, into his office and picked is hat up first. you got to have first things first. gentlemen don't go without their hats. harry truman had a hand the love low chrysler. got the bond issue passed to get it rebuilt in 1933. traveled all over the country in his own car, at his own expense, looking at buildings before deciding on this design. this one is designed after independence hall in philadelphia. where the declaration of independence was signed. right here is the oldest courthouse standing west of mississippi, i believe. built in the year 1827, that's 191 years ago. i we do have the papers, the records and the documents. the man who built this log cabin

courthouse named sham shepherd, they actually cut those trees down right around the square area here and the reason those logs are in such great condition, those logs are black wall walnut trees, bugs don't like that wood because it tastes wood. the squared the logs up, stacked them and built it and the county paid. >> how much? >> his master $150. that's right. sam shepherd was a slave. his master got the money. right up there on the wis of the courthouse where we just left, ma'am, that is also the same location that they bought and they sold people. matter of fact, a lot of the original trappers and traders in this area wanted to call this blue county, after two little rivers called the little blue and the big blue but the later settler's mostly kentuckians, tennesseans and they moved up here and brought their slaves, and the plantation mentality

with them. outvoted them and named jackson county. more civil war battles were fought in the state of missouri than any other state, except for virginia and tennessee. two battles fought right here on the streets of independence. the first one i've already told you about. breaking the men out of the jail. this second battle was inning on of 1864 -- in october of 1864. general sterling price from arkansas, hit lexington, independence, then got whipped in went west port. general price was a two-term governor-he state of missouri before the civil war. that means a governor attacking his own state. what put him in this position was very union army matched out of st. louis, missouri, into jefferson city, our state capitol, and they ran the elected legislature out of our state house, before they could

secede from the union, when that happened they declared martial law. mr. price took control hoff the missouri militia and fountain for the confederacy. our elect legislature went into arkansas, succeeded from secedes from the union but was never recognized from another state. hang on tight. we are haven'ted to the city limits of independence. give me a yeehaw. >> yeehaw! >> yeehaw. >> this is the city limits of independence in 1845 e streetes called ruby avenue, some folks think it was named of a lady named ruby but it was named after a man named colonel ruby who owned the farm on the southside of the street. colonel ruby cut the road on his property line at ground level so he could sell some lots on the south side of the road to at the foremen that worked for the get as wagner flour mill. one lot is a lot that yellow

house is on which is also bess truman's birthplace. her father, mr. wallace, worked for that flour mill as well. one of the largest industries in town. and itself is a privately owned home. the big mansion in from of is is the bingham wagner. george bingham is an artist. after the civil war they sold this to wagner family. the cities on the property and give tours daily. it is a sight to see. 90% of the lodger furnish, from the wagner estate still the home. i told you in 1845, a thousand waggans lefts the town in one month. wasn't nearly the busiest year. two years, 1848, 1849, the gold wish years, and -- the gold rush years and they claimed they would lift literally three square miles around the entire city, nothing but people camped, getting ready to go west. they also claim there was 80,000 of these people headed west during that gold rush alone.

one of the largest voluntary migration the history of man. this is the reason the city has left it narrow, to keep it as historic as possible. >> this is what it would have looked like -- width wise. >> yes, notice the ground on the left side of the road gets higher and higher, same on the right seed. the val up there in the middle, that was not put there by a road crew. that was worn by the wagon traffic coming through. >> what traveler do. >> the santa fe, california, oregon trail, all three trails went south out of up to. traveling down the road here i want you to notice the road is going to start getting lower and lower, and the banks on each side are already starting to get higher and higher. >> sure are. >> the valleys we're headed into here has a name, it is called a wagon swale, and others the ground used to go straight

across. in the middle this wassalowed out by the wagons coming down through here. come on, get 'em up. the brick building was the wagnergates flour mill. today is the national frontier trails museum. you can go through this museum, read everything that the pioneers prayed over and curse evidence about, all along the way. my mother will tell you'll anyones who prayed made expect the one whose cursed didn't. i have a feeling they probably all did a little of both. i think -- look through the trees here. you'll see a beige building with green trim on it. that will be the 1879 chicago railroad depot. the train station that frank james, the outlaw, stepped off on when the governor of missouri escorted escorted film them jefferson, to stand trial. when frank james turned him in to the governor jefferson city

of jesse had been shot the back by one of his own men for the reward there was a mob that wanted to hang frank james. the governor was -- governor was true to frank. he says, frank, you will receive the same trial as the president others son would receive. she governor himself escorted frank james from jefferson city to that train station right there, and from there up that 1859 jail, where you got in the wagon. now do you know what the locals did when he arrived here? >> what's that. >> they threw dinner in his honor here, and he was acquitted of all charges. remember four counties of southerners, their homes, barns, businesses, burned to the ground. young lady if your daddy fought for the regular confederate army, after the war he could get a pardon, come back and reclaim his land in one of this four counties except he has to pay the taxes on this burned out property to keep it. usually three years worth of

taxes. so, the only way your dad or any other southerner in four counties could keep any property they had to go to union bankers and borrow money at high rates of interest to pay the tacks and ten try to put a crop in the ground. then you had what we call carpet baggers, land speculators, or just damned yanks with money in their pockets. go to the bankers, started bribing bankers to foreclose to kind the southernes off the land. so when frank and jesse were robbing the banks these peopling were going, ya, but all but you can't proffer they paid other a dime of anybody's taxes. you can't approve they didn't. but whether they did help people pay taxes or didn't help people pay tacks, it made no difference whatsoever. they were taking advantage of the people that they felt were taking advantage of them. they considered them robin hoods. they brought him steak dinners,

had card playing games in the jail. the jail door was never locked on frank. >> we have seen all of this historic spots near independence, missouri. why do you think it's important to know about the history of this town? >> it illustrates what can happen. good and evil. people poured through here and made it the nation, but in the same sense, it can illustrate some of the most horrible things that happened. when you start -- taking revenge against someone you feel done something wrong to you, it can get into in crazy stuff. >> well, thank you so much for takeing the time those around independence. >> back home now for good. i'm unemployed now. very small army and i'm here to tell you that a little later on when i get the job down that bess truman has for in the, she says i have to do that, unpack

our goods and take seven or eight months three months to get down so i don't know how long it will take for one man got undone. after that i'll be open for dinner engagements but i may be hungry. >> harry truman returned almost to independence, missouri, following his terms as president. up next we visit his home to learn how the trumans spent their retirement. >> the trumans came home in 1953, and upon the death of bess' mother they purchased this home, one of the things i love hearing and i hear this almost after people frock somebody in independence you can always tell in the last years where mr. and mrs. truman were by where the lights were on, and through the windows, they could see the silhouettes of mr. and

mrs. truman sitting and reading. both mr. truman and mrs. truman were fond of books, fond of reading. president truman said that every leader must be a reader, and from a very young age he was an avid reader and was until his passing. we're presently in the reading room, the study of 219 north delware street, the truman home, and this spot is very special to all of us because behind this table harry truman loved to spend a lot of his time here in the reading room. one of the last known photographs of harry truman was taken behind this table, and on this table is one of his favorite books about one of his favorite heroes, andrew jackson. and andrew jackson, wanted his political influences and somebody who he would look to in the history books for guidance as to how to be a president of all of the people. this room was very special to

both mr. and mrs. truman. this is another one of reames they updated when they came home in 1953, and books and learning and reading were important to all of the trumans. when truman was a young man, just about six years old or so bit the time his family moved to independence, he was diagnosed as having a condition known as flat eyeballs and so he received a pair of glasses with a special prescription. he was legally blind, so at considerable expense to the family, he received those eye glasses. now, having those eye glasses and the expense of the eye glasses, he said later, change the way hoff his boyhood and the can't my speak authorities, baseball, football and other roughhousing and restricted him to playing the piano and reading, and he later claimed

that the love of books came to him largely because of that increasingly ability to read, and he claimed that he read by the time he left independence, every book in the independence public library, and he and his best friend, charlie roth asian claimed that. in this room they were surround by the books they loved. it's a very eclectic collection of books. everything from a couple editions of the holy bible, so many biographs of everything app everybody from alexander agree great to jack rein kennedy, wonderful collection of charles dickens. bess truman, introduced him to the characters that charles rick -- charles dickens inch the henge evening hours they would retreat to this room and sit side-by-side. the preferred history and

biography. he believed that history was best taught by biography, and his phrase was, all leaders must be readers, and so when he would talk to a young person or to truman library, speak to a group of young people visiting the library, he would tell them that. that you are the future of the country. you must read and learn our history. mrs. truman liked history and biography as well but she was a big fan of mysteries and "who dun its." and after margaret moved to new york, mrs. truman and her daughter, margaret, they would ship back and forth boxes of mysteries and they would talk on the phone every night, and i would love to have heard some of the conversations as they talked about the books that they were reading, and i think that perhaps inspired margaret truman to become an author of the capital crime series, and on bess' table at the bottom of the pile is actually a first edition

copy of margaret truman's first mystery novel, murder at the white house. and i was woo love to know how mrs. truman reacted to that book. think she would be pleased and proud of her daughter as i'm sure mr. president truman would have been as well. >> harry truman once said, all leaders must be readers. coming up we visit his office in the truman library, as they feature his collection of books. >> this side of the bookshelf has a lot of of the books truman read as a young man. the oldest books we know are these called great men and famous women, and it was a set of four books given to truman when he was ten years old, by his parents in 1895.

actually 1894. but truman also liked to read the classics. we have a couple of sets of -- the decline and fall of the roman empire, and then a number of books given to him that are very old books, some of which he read but others he -- just received as gifts. he does have a complete works william shakespeare here. he of course read shakespeare mostly as a young man but he did read also shakespeare later in life. we're standing in the office that harry truman used at his presidential library in independence. the truman library was built in 1957, and harry truman spent more than a dozen years here before his health started getting declining. and he spent five to six days a week here in this office, which is part of the library building.

mostly when truman was here at the library electric was writing letters, doing corporations, immediate -- correspondence and meeting with people. he did most of his reading at home he might take books from here and take them home and read them. a lot of these books date from way before he was president so a lot of these books are things he read as a young man, and as a senator before he became president. these books here are clearly books that truman wanted to have around him, and so it says a lot of these books say more about him as a person, what he really enjoyed, than as president. truman primarily liked biographs, of military and political leaders. one of the most interesting books -- parteds of the bookshelf is the center section which contains books written by

winston churchill. the history of the english speaking peoples, his world war ii history. most of these are autographed to truman. harry truman first met winston churchill at the pots damn conference in july of 1945 and they pretty much hit it off right away. and then their relation -- even though churchill was vote out of office while they were at the potsdam conference, truman maintained his friendship with churchill and in fact, when asked in 1946i he would invite winston churchill to give a speech at westminster college in missouri, truman obliged and invited churchill. church kill game and gave his famous iron curtain speech in 1946 at fulton and they continued their friendship into the later in life as well. on the other side of the room, is where truman kept most of his

presidential biographies, and they start -- well, obviously with george washington and move on to thomas jefferson, james mon row. one of truman's favorite presidents was andrew jackson so he has several volumes on andrew jackson here. james polk. these are pretty much ranged roughly chronologically. a lot of lincoln biographies as well. he has actually two sets of ulis sis s. grant's memorial moyers sheer it's a very full collectionoff ol' presidential biographies. truman as adown many went off to world war i and served in world war i, and during that period he was very much influenced by woodrow wilson. he as a matter of fact many of the policies he implemented right after world war ii were those we think inspired by a number of the policies that woodrow wilson had tried but hat

failed to get through. for example, the united nations was sort of a reflected the league of nations from the first world war. so, we know that he read some people in an admiring way, he also, being from western missouri, the frontier, when he was growing up, he also had an affinity for andrew jackson, one of his favorite early presidents because he was a president truman thought for all the people, for the common people, and truman also of course sort of filled that role in the 20th century, although truman's policies and jackson's policies were certainly much different from each other. truman worked in the office five to six days a week from when the library opened in 1957 until about the middle of 1966. his health started declining then and he didn't continue to

come up to the library on a daily basis after that. harry truman died the day after christmas in 1972. at that time this room was left just the way it had been, and it remained that way. everything was left in the room just as it was except for the papers that were removed from the top of the desk and incorporated into the archival collections but everything on the walls, all the books, n here, all the furniture in here, all the trinkets on the desk, everything else is just the way it was the last time truman used the office in 1966. i think what people coming to the library should get out of the visit is the fact that harry truman, former president, returned hem to his actual previous home, lived out his life in independence, he said i'm going to make my papers and things accessible to the public and i want people to be able to

come here, see the papers and materials of the presidency, learn about the american presidency, and go home and have a better appreciation for the american system of government. >> ... ... >> when you do get it done this place will be the center of the study of the presidency of the united states. >> harry s. truman library opened in independence missouri in 1957. up next we'll visit the library's archives to learn about hyskon next with the city. >> the truman library originated

in 1957. harry truman himself donated papers and other materials to the library for their safekeeping, preservation, and use by the public. some of the highlights are harry truman's own writings. we are lucky he wrote so much. we have diaries, drafts of speeches he wrote. letters he wrote to friends and family and associates. this was before, during, and after his presidency. some of the most landmark documents relating to the end of the war against japan or recognition of israel are some of the documents that impact us today. today we pulled some items to share with you relating to harry truman and relations with his family and these are documents that show his personality.

over here we have truman in 1925 writing to his sweetheart. that would be his wife and young daughter margaret. he wrote this letter from ft. riley, kansas. this is where he did his army training in the 1920s. he severed in world war i. afterwards he remained in the army reserve. in this letter here he gets into a fashion matter with his wife. she would like to cut her hair. if you want your hair bob so badly go ahead and get it done. i would like you to be happy regardless of what i think about it. i'm sure you will be just as

beautiful with it off. this letter shows the open communication that the two had. harry and bess truman had a long courtship. they met in second grade in the late 18 hundreds. he promosted t proposed to her e time which she turned down. they came from different social backgrounds harry truman had a farming background. he lived in grandview, missouri. he was born south of cas kansas city. bess was from a higher socioeconomic background.

it took a lot of persistence for him to get bess to marry him. i have a handwritten note or diary from 1934. this is when he was presiding judge of jackson county. here he writes today it's 4:00 a.m. i'm to make the most monumentous announcement in my life. i'm at the place all men strive to be. i thought retirement on a virtual pension was all that was in store more me. he was referring to the announcement he was going to make was running for the united states senate. he would be elected later that fall and re-elected in 1940 for the u.s. senate. it really was that senate

background that got the attention of roosevelt and powers. they named truman as the vice presidential candidate in 1944. these so-called papers or papers written on hotel stationery. truman wrote these even though he lived near independence near kansas city. he would find a quiet setting where he could write and reflect on his career and the kind of dealings he had with pendergrass. he was doing nothing illegal but he knew they weren't quiet

right. he would take to pen and paper and hush these things out. kind of a therapeutic thing more him. we have some photographs of harry in independence. this one shows him walking during the presidency. he's acom a -- a comanied by set service agencies. the truman home is right here behind this metal gate. this is the truman memorial building where he invaded in 1948. he's walking outside. this was a way for him to stay fit and healthy and maintain social connections with the neighborhood. we still hear stories about people who saw or met truman in

passing. even in this day of 2018 those kinds of interactions if brief they have profound impacts on people and that dealt with harry truman. he was friendly and accessible and accompanied by an off-duty police officer. when harry truman returned from washington his neighbors and people that tended to know him for a long time because he lived there before he was president. he was greated as harry and bess truman. he moved back into the house. they were married in 1919. he was received well by the neighborhood and really fit back

in as well as he could. he maintained a gate around his property. i don't believe that was his preference. he said you need to do this because people will peel the siding off your house because they would like a presidential momento. one time his car broke down near the house and the fellow didn't know truman lived in the house. he knocked on the door and truman answered. the fellow asked to use his phone. they sat and chatted for a few minutes until the repair guy showed up. the guy was leaving and turned around and said you look like that s.o.b. harry s. truman.

and truman said i am that guy. we heard another story about a young woman from germany. she was knew to the area and she was walking in the neighborhood. she was in her 20s and had a baby. she had a stroller. she found herself walking regularly with a very friendly person. aside from the man walking a few feet behind. she didn't know that was harry truman. he didn't have security until 1963. that was when kennedy was assays assassinated. they didn't want it but they

persuaded them to take it. he walked alone until late 1963, 1964. independence, missouri was truman's hometown from the time he moved to independence as an 6-year-old boy until his death in 1972. he always regarded independence as his home. he wanted that library to be in his hometown. the papers document all of those things and so do the photos and other collections of things too. the collection gives people a sense of who truman was as a person. >> the national frontier trails museum will tell the history of the most iconic trails.

we'll learn about their connection to independence, missouri. >> the frontier trails museum is here in independence missouri and question focus on several trails from the lewis and clark trail, california trail, and mormon trail. most people know us from the oregon trail game because we were an outfitting location. people would travel from all over the country and they would come here to independence and they would get all of the supplies they needed and this was a convenient location from them to move westward from. here at the research library within the frontier trails museum we have an interesting collection that has any subject you can think about. starting with lewis and clark

discovering the american west also with the railroad and the end to the trail's era. anything you wanton that we will have a book on it. how did independence become the jumping off point. we get this question a lot but i think it's circumstance. independence was more well known than st. joseph. independence was the first word out of their mount. image the city of independence looks different. the downtown was the place to be if you were outfitting for the trails. we had several blacksmith shops, several places to get houses. if you needed flour, bacon, you would get it here. image a big buzzing community downtown. you would hear all sorts of

languages. people were from the santa fe trail. so you would hear spanish speaking and french being spoken there. you turn around and speak to your friend in your common language as well. it was a big hub of activity. here we have the blacksmith bill. the family came to independence and they chose to set up a blacksmith shop here. they were very successful because everyone needed to stop by the blacksmith before they headed out on the trail. this is a great way to see how they functioned. horseshoes are mentions or oxen shoes. tires for the wagons.

some started at a dollars and went up to $10 per peace. they add up quickly this came to a total of $117 on this particular day in 1854. fun math. you can multiply by 20 and get a better estimate of what we are looking at today. you would have to bring everything you owned if you went west. you would sell your farm, home, and almost all of your belongings. sometimes you would pass them along to relatives and friends. when you came to independence you wouldn't have to spend most of the money you just gained. it was getting your wagon, food, and supplies. the smallest of the people going

were farmers. of course you don't get your first income as soon as you arrive at your new home. you must purchase seeds and if it was a good harvest you would gain your money back. it was a huge commitment. people would make a huge risk and go out west and not know what they would find. people are traveling thousands of miles on the trails. you will see people mention in their letters and diaries they were traveling 30 miles per day. people did that as families. you have little ones you would have to carry as you go. you might have your grand parents with you and if they were sick they would have to travel in the wagon. so, yeah, about 30 miles per day was pretty average. this diary belonged to elizabeth. she traveled on the oregon trail

in 1866. we don't think about children on the trail when they are traveling. when you travel with kids they get board. a lot of times they would ride on the wagon wheels. not the best opportunity. they would do a spin on them and that's how they would entertain themselves. they would pick up buffalo chips and use them as frisbees. just image you can hear a lot of are we there yet and i'm board. this is a passage she wrote on june 24, 1866. we camped on the big butte. we would have to go 8 miles farther before we found water. we found some we haven't had any

water since morning. it's cool and pleasant? no mosquitoes to bother us. you see the heartship you face not realizing how difficult it would be. you might have left with a great image you had. you might reach california and find gold. i'll reach the promise land and it's beautiful and easy. your weatherproof wagon might leak. you thought you brought enough bacon but you are running low. there were so many cases where they had so little to eat. you have to think about it if you have little mouths to feet but you try to gather the firewood and do hard work you have to sustain yourself. you have to deal with all of those difficulties with hunger but also illness.

people didn't realize hygiene. people got very sick on the trail and very little medicines. very rarely did you have a doctor in your group. a lot of people were pregnant while they traveled the trail. you can image the hardship they faced. giving birth on the trail is a difficult thing to image. there were circumstances that were dangerous to animals. of course a lot of people think running into native-american tribes and having violence was rare but people had a fear of that. the fear of the unknown was part of that. the trails were popular for several years. we stopped our focus in the 1880s because the railroads were so popular at that point. people used the railroad rather then a wagon. some people traveled by wagon.

it was cheaper and much quicker. it was usually a better option by the 1 1800s. it did change the economy. there wasn't a need for 15 blacksmith shops when you don't outfit thousands of wagons. it changed the culture here especially in our merchandise and shops. we became a typical town in missouri. not so much focus on the people and community here. when you visit the museum there are so many things to look at and see. i hope you get to know the people on the trails better. we think about going west. we think about the wagons themselves and finding gold. we don't think about the people that went and realizing they are just like us. they don't like walking that

far. our museum helps bring it to life and make them understand this was a huge decision that was made. this will help bring people to life as well as the wagon stories. >> i'm in downtown independence, missouri. up next we'll speak to paul edwards about his book on the korean war. >> forces attacked the republic of korea. this made it clear the international communist movement is willing to use armed invasion to concur independent nations. an act of aggression like this creates a real danger. >> harry truman said in his

memoirs said this was the hardest decision he had to make. i suspect that's because he knew at the time and later learned this was a watershed that changed the nature of the world. among other things it changed nature of warfare. this was fought like world war ii. armies fighting each other across the hills. that stopped and turned into an insurgent war. groups of people attacking here and there. since then of course we never fought an old fashion war. we always fought in insurgent wars. we introduced the idea that who's important is to fight a war and not important to win it. so when the soldiers came back

they come back fighting a war but no one knew we fought knowing they lost the washington. someone comes and tells you the whole situation. i remember being told was they were pouring thousands of dollars and hundreds of men into korea to drive america out. we were suppose to stop them. i didn't see evidence we were doing it or that's what anybody else cared about. instead of coming back and honor

heros and just no effort to recognize them. because we were ashamed. the nation was ashamed of what happened in korea. i was drafted in 1953 towards the end of the war. i got to korea before it ended. i was in the artillery. i don't have a lot of the experiences that so many good men had. when truman came to power unexexpectedly he came with a very good sense of history and a good sense of the military. he had been in the military.

he understood that communism. they would take a small area and build the party's straight and then take more and more. it started with the north and they crossed the line and invaded south korea in 1950 in an attempt to unifie kore -- uny the communist control. the south was weak and unprepared. they had been controlled by the japanese for 50 years. they saw this as part of the communist effort to turn the cold war from a war of worlds to a war of guns. the need was to show them that we couldn't do that. truman managed to get the united

states nations to agree to this and he sent troops to protect the south. once the south was protected then truman and a few others decided to finish the job. they moved north into north korea. this upset the chinese and eventually the chinese moved in and joined the north korea. the warrant warrant -- war ende same spot it begins. the debarkation line is the line between the two countries. no one wanted resources. all they did was decide to stop fighting. they never had a peace treaty and they are still at war.

in one of many of truman's speeches he said he learned politics from a mule. he was referring to his farmer days. i think he learned to use cliches. you can't lead a horse to water but you can't make them drink. you can take the american people to the concept but they won't put-up with it because it was essential for him to initiate what he calls guns and butter. that meant the fact that we are buying guns doesn't mean you have less luxury. how will we pay for the war? we'll put it on the credit card and we are still paying for it. we charged the war to the

american people. so, what he learned was how to try and and keep america a strong and luxurious america and prepare for a dirty war in europe. people hated him. he had the lowest rating of a president when he left. i think they think better of him now. 34,000 over an million people died in the war. south korea lost about the same people. america was 34,000. we had 105,000 wounded. that would fill up a football

stadium twice. you think about the size and dimension of it. anyway, as you can tell i get angry. next time you are at a ball game and they say all of the veterans stand-up. korean veterans don't stand-up. it makes me mad when they do that. where were they when i needed them. where were they when i came out and didn't have a job. where were they when they did we sided to send me over there without knowing what they were doing? it makes me furious. very few korean veterans deal with it in the same boysous ban nor the vietnam veterans deal with it. they are versailles lent.

you have world war ii having a lot of reunions and the troops got together. they don't do that in korea. they don't wear patches on their civilian cloths. you can't tell a korean vet from anybody else. if you ask them if they were within a reasonable degreworld . most of them would say world war ii but not korea. why? because you guys lost. we are brainwashed by the communist and lost the war. why couldn't this generation be as strong as the wonderful generation, there was a word for it. the great generation of world war ii. you can't fight this war and win. very strong feelings that way.

i get pretty excited about that because the g.i. bill for the korean war that was half of what world war ii was and the best thing to do is deal with it. they hide it. they forget it. so, here we are 60 years later and the problem is what we went to war to do and unify korea still didn't happen. >> i'm in downtown independence, missouri were c-span is learning about their literary scene. >> there were a lot of misconceptions about near death experiences.

one is they are realtively rare. the studies in our book and done in europe show as many as one in five people that are recess at a resuscitated if asked while you were doing did anything unusual happen you would like to talk about? if you phrase it in a sympathetic matter they would say they had a near death experience. if you don't ask the incident is 2%. they are much more well known to nondoctors and general public and hollywood then we as physicians know. near death experiences were recorded in egypt 5,000 years ago. paints depict a near death experience in the middle ages. hollywood knows about them when they show them in the cinema

they don't have to go out and explain it to us. it seems everybody knows about near death experiences except doctors and nurses. they are not taught about in medical school despite that it's a well known clinical syndrome. it's not part of the curriculum here in the united states. by and large i would say 90% of physicians consider a near death experience due to lack of oxygen to the brain. when patients have them they should be told not to talk about them. that's the worse thing you can do and it's contrary to our mission as physicians of doing the best for our patients. medicine started to looks at near death experiences in 1975. the term was coined by raymond moody. he's an m.d. and ph.d. he's in the forefront of this.

in 1975 he described 150 people that had near death experiences. his book life after life sold over 15 million copies. it outlined the various stages of a near death experience. dr. moody outlined nine facets. in the contact of a patient in pain and suffering, almost dead, or clinically dead they suddenly feel no pain. they feel at ease. sometimes they will hear soothing music and what they describe as their spirit or soul leaves their corporal body and hoovers above the resuscitation scene or dead body. at that point the person describes entering a super natural realm where their see a tunnel of light of darkness. they travel rapidly to the

heavenly place. when they enter the heavenly place they are met by people of the light. this is were decease friends and parents are. in this place they meet with adeity. this is part of the patients culture. in the presence deity. they understand the meaning of everything they have done in their life. then they return by one or two mechanisms. they offered a chose to stay in the heavenly place or go back. in that context they chose to go back because of loved ones. parents, child -- children, spouses. the others are not given a

choice. they are told it's not your time and you have to go back. they are returned to earth and in that context they are changed. we are dealing with a different person, so is the family, spouse, and children. this is a life changing event. we address how physicians and family should deal with this person. like going through a traumatic event they are no longer the same person. when they come back the problem is many of them say nothing. that's absolutely the worse thing that can happen. when adults don't talk about this or they do talk about it and their physicians negate it and tell them it didn't happen or wasn't real it creates emotional trama so that the person can have depression, anxiety and failing to educate the family, you know, it's for

people who have near death experiences where the patient and family are not educated on this phaenomenon. there is a high incident of divorce. studies have shown that children experience the same frequency as adults. if they are told by their parents physicians, and elders this didn't happen. it was a fairy tai tale they fal behind their peers significantly. if people accept it and flourish they develop two standard delve deviation to the right. the reaction can determine how this person will adjust the rest of their life.

when we put together our medical articles in missouri medicine and later when we published the book we should not take an advocate role and be neutral. we made an effort to invite physicians that believe the near death experience is entirely fabricated by a brain that's not getting enough oxygen. the chapter in our book that says exactly that is by dr. kevin nelson. dr. nelson is a well known professioneprofession -- profesd neurologist. dr. nelson outlined how he believes each of the nine phrases of auto classic near death experience can be explained by a brain. the last chapter in the book is by noted neurosurgeon alexander.

he himself had a near death experience. in that chapter, he refutes dr. nelson's argument. there is a disconnect. i don't pretend to know all. i'm trying to get the massage out to the public and doctors about this clinical syndrome. you can be a good physician and say i don't know. i don't believe as a physician and scientist that we have a valid explanation based on brain hypoxia about how these things occur. right now, we just don't know. throughout the yearbook tv attends events to speak to nonfiction authors. we attended a book fair in washington dc. we spoke with bryan and bruce.

>> bruce, your book is called "the committee." what committee are we talking about? >> the committee of commerce. i knew it would be a historic time because obama's agenda was going to come through the committee on energy and commerce. i was henry's first legislature assistant in 1975. i came back from australia to join his staff. i became part of the senior staff. i thought i would like to keep a journal from day one on the work of the committee because i thought it would be ove of endug legacy. it's about how we passed obamacare, tobacco, oversight like the b.p. oil spill and budget stuff. also cap and trade and energy and climate.

this book tells the story of how congress can work with good leadership and policy. it's relevant for what could happen in the days ahead. brayan marshall, you are the coauthor? >> i'm the professor and chair. i also worked on the hill. >> henry waxman has a history on the emc committee prior to president obama. >> he was known for what he did in health legislation and also tobacco. also on oversite. over -- over site. he's the most effective in our time. he has dozens of laws passed. he got the tobacco executives passed. in i iraq war he got many things

passed. he's the grand marshall. >> how did the energy and commerce committee become the energy and commerce committee. >> this was always the big part of the house committee. this gives members and a chair like henry waxman to opportunity to really see a large playing field in terms of policy. so, back then it was extremely important. it will be extremely important going forward if the democrats win the house it will be an extremely important committee as well. >> it covers all energy, health, environment, consumer protection. it touches the lives of americans everyday. that's why it's important. from covering the hill members would like to join that committee to have a say in

what's happening in the country. >> how did it become the dnc committee? >> it's one of the first committees in the house. john who proceeded henry was also part of it. john moss was one of the great over site chairmans. those are the hard charges engines. >> absolutely. it's one of the main policies. >>reporter: someone that reads the book what will they learn? >> they will learn about politics and the everyday street level. what is going on the politics. how things happen on the hill. how members and the house staff put together external coalitions. people think it's about the counting votes. it's about putting together the

national fabric of the legislation. it's a much broader topic. so, that's what they will get when they start reading the committee. >> i wrote everyday. it was 250,000 words. day by day how the hearings were. how you dealt with the special interest. the relationship between the chairman, speaker, and president. the issues that undid it like abortion. will obamacare cover abortion. it's about management but purpose and that's the difference between what we have seen in congress and the congress in obama's time. there was a difference of what they wanted to achieve. that's why we believe our book is a template in the years ahead about whether congress can work. >> bruce, mayan, power politics

in obama's historic agenda on capitol hill. you are watching book tv on c-span two. >> keep an eye out for other book fares to air in the new future. you are watch them at booktv.org. type the authors name in the search bar at the top of the page. in 1979 c-span was created as public service. we bring you unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, and court. c-span is brought to you by your cable and satellite provider. you are watching