>> my name is gary from virginia. i really don't think you're going to get much done. you have three different parties in congress. you have democrats, republicans and you have tea party. and these tea party people are the worst i've ever seen in my life. they don't want to talk about things, they just want their way, you know? ever since they've been in office then't been able to get things done. i'm an independent, i know a lot of republicans are seeing now what they're doing with our congress. and they don't even like it. mopefully they'll vote them out of there. take care. >> i think for the remainder of this year, i don't think we're going to see congress get

anything done, but i do see a forecast of the new elections and i will be -- i think what's going to happen is there's going to be a change. and i think people are tired of the partisan politics. i think in the future we're going to see democrats and republicans start to work together. i think we're going to see a lot of incumbents lose their seats. it will be a telltale sign for everybody to listen to the american people and this is to work together and solve herb shoes. thank you. >> paul from kansas city. i think it's ludicrous to ask if if they're going to accomplish anything this year. they haven't accomplished anything in the last four years. they're not to be trust trusted.

they have corporate citizens more important than private citizens. thank you. >> will congress accomplish anything this year? your participation is simple. give us a call. keep your meants brief. we'll use more of your comments tomorrow and friday here on c-span radio and c-span 3 television. 202-626-7962. this is "washington today" heard coast to coast on xm channel 119. >> and other news, there were votes in the senate on budget resolutions. and the democrats who control the senate resdwrekting for the second consecutive year a budget plan that was passed by house republicans. there were five plans in all. the other ones required 60 votes

to take the next step in the process and none got more than a majority. on wall street today, the dow fell 33, closing at 12,598. nasdaq was down 19. s&p was down five. claims that the sketchers fitness shoes can help shed pounds and tone muscles the government says that's sketchy at best. and it's going to cost the company millions of dollars. they have to settle a claim for $40 million for the unfounded claims that it would help their rear end, leg and stomach muscles. is it really more expebsive to eat healthy? fruit, vegetables and other healthy foods cost less than foods in high fat, sugar and salt, countering the claims that healthy meals are cheaper.

if you pair the price per calorie, then higher calorie pastries might seem like a bargain compared with fruits and vegetables. but comparing it by weight or portion size shows that grains, vegetables, fruit and dairy foods arele lesless expensive. and former secretary of state henry kissinger recently received a pat down from the transportation security administration. but unlike many recipients whose pat downs became news, he said the agents who patted him down at laguardia airport did a good job. he said in a statement that he wants to make it clear it's not unusual for him to be at that timed down during security skreeps at the airport. it's routine because he wears a brace on his foot and therefore cannot remove his shoes. this happened on may 1 1. back in a minute with more.

>> congressional hearings, white house screenings and speeches. supreme court oral arguments, book tv, american history tv and the sunday talk shows on the weekends. and pod casts of q&a and news makers. >> welcome back. you're listening to "washington today." the house of representatives late today approving a bill that reauthorizes the violence against women act, setting up a conference with the senate in which the democrats in the house are going to push hard for the senate passed bill. they say that plan offers better protection for women, as expected members approving the bill, mostly along party lines. here's the breakdown of the vote. 216 republicans and six democrats voting in favor of the bill, reaching a total of 222. 23 republicans joined by 182 democrats voting against the

legislation. two republicans and two democrats did not vote. here's more on the debate earlier today. we'll begin with the republican point of view. >> can we stop the election year gimmicks? can we stop these manufactured wars that pit one group of americans against another group of americans? i spent 16 years prosecuting men who raped, stabbed, strangled, shot and killed women. i have a mother, a, a daughter. three sisters. and the images of countless women indelibly imprinted on my mind because they were killed by men who claimed to care about

them. this is not about politics to me and i will not yield. i will not yield. if you want to make women safer, change the way we draw juries, change the way we draw discovery rules. change the shield statute, but stop focusing on november's election for just one afternoon. and wonder with me what good we can accomplish if we will stop the political games. and if we could pick up some humanity and embrace the fact that even in a political environment as dysfunctional as this one, we can find common ground when it comes to fighting for those who have no voice, who have nobody to stand up for them. madam chairwoman, the political

games have to stop, at least for a day, they have to stop. if this bill fails, it will be because those on the other side were so bent on making a point that they stopped caring about making a difference. madam chairwoman, the senate bill is fundamentally and constitutionally flaweded. further, it continues to pit one group of americans against another group of americans solely for political reasons. lady justice doesn't do that and politicians shouldn't do it either. >> trey gowdy on the house bill that strengthens some of the sentences against people found guilty of domestic abuses. but democrats claim the bill

does not go far enough, especially for transgender, gay and bisexual individuals. the senate bill explicitly states there can be no dis-ch s discrimination against any people in the violence against women act. here comes sheila jackson lee. >> why do we found a ourselves today having this kind of debate that calls upon the higher angels of all members, recognizing that as i stand on the floor today, some woman is losing her life. she may be a 2345i9ive american community. she may be from the lgbt community or the immigrant community. why are we here today divided when all we needed to do was work in a bipartisan matter? the senate bill who tracked the

process and the strategy and the approach that we've used in all of the reauthorizations, we have always expanded it to reach the needs of new victims. what do you say to a native american woman when you limit the ability of that woman to be protected. in fact, you make it that much harder, for what you do is that it authorizes tribal government to seek protection orders on behalf of victims with or without their permission. violating the core principles that such victims must have autonomy. why that language? with respect to the lgbt community when my friends on the other side will say they're already protected. but we realize the clarity of the law gives the protection that is necessary when someone is desperate, because as the federal government passes law, it permeates to counties and

cities and hamlets who need to have the interpretation to ensure that the law is equally applied. and so this is why we call for the passage of the senate bill and the bipartisan bill. and my own flends on the other side of the aisle, seven republicans wrote chairman smith and said we want the bipartisan bill. that's what we're asking for, not anything extraordinary. and when you talk about providing for rape kits and someone says on the other side, we've increased it to 735% to address the back lock, in actuality, they have not, because they've taken money from other programs. and so madam speaker, all i can say is why are we here? let us stand united to help women. let us not default on our allowance that we' been given to serve the american people and the women who are desperate. someone is dying as i speak. vote for the senate bill. let us do this in a bipartisan way. >> the comments of congresswoman

sheila jackson lee. the violence against women act did pass the house of representatives, primarily along father lines. 222-205. four members did not vote. now this goes to conference and you heard sheila jackson lee talking about the senate version which the democrats favor. the republicans favoring the hou version. at the pentagon, the chairman during a briefing discussing other matters also brought up the issue of ranger school for women. women make up about 16% of the u.s. army the army has begun to study the prospect of sending female soldiers to the prestigious ranger school which is another step in the effort to broaden opportunities for the women in the million tear. his announcement came today at the pentagon. a recommendation and a plan sometime this summer and while he has stressed no decisions have been made, the general has suggested that ranger school may

be the next logical step for women in the military. >> as many of you know earlier this week, more thachb 200 women began reporting to nine of our brigade combat teams. selected to participate in the exception to the direct ground combat assignment rule, additionally co-location as an assignment restriction is rescinded. this will result in the opening of six military occupational specialties and 80 units. more than 13,000 positions to women, opening up new opportunities to our female soldiers which make up about 16% of our force and allows to leverage the tremendous talent resonant in our ranks. as i have testified over the last several months, it's important for the army to execute the fiscal budget as planned. it reflects our highest priorities of the army in support of the new defense strategic guidance and allows the army to meet continuous

requirements, take care of soldiers and families and achieve balance between strength, readiness and modernization. our approach to the current future budget will remain strategy based and fiscally prudent. so thank you for allowing me to give this opening statement. i welcome your questions. >> general, one quick question and then a broader one. you mentioned the women who are just starting that this is not a pilot program, but i understand there has been some discussion or some initial discussion about rangers. can you talk a little bit about what that -- >> well, yeah. this is a progressive way forward. so first, what we're doing is we're doing a nonbrigade combat teams. we're opening up occupational specialties that currently women serve in down to infantry and army battalions. we'll run this for several months. my guess is based on experience

in iraq and afghan stark we'll move forward with a more permanent solution probably sometime this fall. the next step is we have to continue to attempt to look at, do we open up infantry and army mlss to females. that's the next step. so what we've done is, we're really now in collecting information and we're setting a course guard on how we might take a look at this. that's what i asked the general training commander, to start taking a look at this and provide us recommendations how we might move forward. there's been no decisions made. what we want to do is bring information up to the secretary and i can so we decide the way forward on how we want to progress and potentially opening up these positions. >> does that depend on how you see things go over the next several months with what's happening now? or is that independent?

>> it's not based -- not going to wait. we're still looking at it now, and then we'll go chart a course of action as a way forward. i suspect something like that will probably come out sometime this summer. >> does it include a plan to accepted women through the marine corps equivalent of their infantry officer school? >> no. we have our own schools. yeah. we'll take a look at it. that's the recommendation that comes forward, are we going to do something like that? that's part of what the recommendations are. and we'll make some announcement later as we've had a chance to look at it. >> from today's briefing a the pentagon, some background, by the way, women currentry are not allowed to serve as special operations infantry or armored forces. nay ear considered too dangerous for these type of combat jobs. they are allowed to serve as

medics, military police and intelligence officers that are often attached to these combat brigade units. but again, the headline from today's briefing, women may be allowed to join the prestigious army ranger school. a final decision on that will come later this summer. this is "washington today" on c-span radio. it was 42 years ago this month that leslie sabo, who was an army specialist was on a remote area of cambodia when his patrol was ambushed. it was known as the mother's day ambush. the mother's day attack. seven of the soldiers from his division were killed during that attack. today, 42 years later, he was honored for his act of heroism during this vietnam war. the highest honor, the medal of honor at the white house with these words by president barack obama. >> when american forces were sent into cambodia, bravo company helped lead the way. they were moving up a jungle

trail. they entered the clearing and that's when it happened. an ambush. some 50 american soldiers were surrounded by some 100 north veet ma middle east fighters. said les' comrades, the enemies were everywhere. in the bunkers, behind trees. up in the trees, shooting down. and les was in the rear. he could have stayed there. those fighters were unloading on his brother ps .so les charged and took several of those fighters out. the enemy moved to outflank them and les attacked and drove them back. ammo was running low. les ran across a clearing to grab more. an enemy grenade landed near a wounded american. les picked it up and he threw it back. as that grenade exploded, he

shielded that soldier with his own body. throughout history, those who have known the horror of war and the love behind all great sacrifice have tried to put those emotions into words. after the first world war, one soldier wrote this. they are more to me than life, these voices. they are more than motherliness and more than fear. they are the strongest, most comfortable thing than anywhere, they are the voices of my comrades. and those were the voices that leslie sabo heard that day. his comrades pinneded down, at risk of being overrun. so despite his wounds, despite the danger, leslie did something extraordina extraordinary. he go aheaden to crawl straight towards an enemy bunker, the machine guns blazing. those who were there said the enemy zeroed in everything they had. but les kept crawling, kept

pulling himself along, closer to that bunker. even as the bullets hit the ground all around him. and then he grabbed a grenade and he pulled the pin. it's said he held he said he held that grenade until the very last moment, knowing it would take own his life. and he did it. he saved his comrades who meant more to him than life. leslie sable left behind a wife who adored h ed him, a brother loved him, family who cherished him. but they never knew. for decades they never knew their les had died a hero. but fog of water and paper work that seemed to get lost in the shuffle means that this story was almost lost to history. and so today, we thank that vietnam vet who found les's files in the archives and who was determineded to right this

wrong and that's tony madd who joins us here today. where's tony. >> the president paying tribute to les by sabo, his sacrifice, 42 years later being remembered at the white house. some background on leslie sabo, he met rise wife rosemary brown at a high school football game. they dated for two years and they were married in 1969 and leslie sabo was killed in 1970. leslie brown was visibly shaken as the president gave her the

medal of honor. she says i know it won't bring back my husband, by my heart beats with pride for leslie. this is washington today on cspan radio. the fbi director telling a congressional committee today that authorities were investigating how information about an alleged plot by al qaeda to detonate a bomb on an airliner to the u.s. leaked to the news media. fbi director robert muller saying that the disclosure of the information about the plot that was first reported by the associated press on may 7 did compromise the u.s. operations against al qaeda. questions on all of this from senator john kyle, republican of arizona. >> let me also refer to your testimony about investigating the source of the leaks of this most recent, i these you referred eto it as an ied, but e can refer to it as another potential underwear bomber case, would that be accurate? >> explosive device. >> explosive device and you do

have investigation ongoing underway, is that correct? >> yes. let me just ask you about -- is it -- how would you characterize how important it is to find the source of the leak? >> as i indicated before, leaks such as this have a -- i don't want to overuse the word devastating, but have a huge impact on our ability to do our business. not just on a particular source, and the threat to the particular source, but your ability to recruit sources is severely hampered and in cases p such as this the relationship with our counter parts overseas are damaged and which means that inhibition and the willingness of others to share information with us when they don't think that information will remain secure. so it also has some long-term effects, which is why it is so

important to make certain that the persons responsible for the leak are brought to justice. >> sometimes there's no other lead that leads you to the result except talking to the reporters involved. in the past, you and others in the law enforcement community have taken a very strong position indicating your concerns about legislation that would undermine your ability to protect intelligence sources and methods and that could seriously impede national security investigations. do you think, is it still your view that it would not be a good policy for reporters to have a special privilege or special right not to talk to fbi or other law enforcement officials if they may have the information that would lead you to the leaker? >> that's somewhat general. in terms of -- sort of framing a legislation, i would have to leave the ultimate decision on the legislation to the department of justice. but i do believe that the

protocols established within the department of justice to protect and assure the media are adequate to accomplish that task. >> i appreciate that. and the reason i asked the question generally is because i realize that policy is set by the attorney general or the administration generally. which is why i asked you about, as a general proposition, whether it's helpful or harmful to your efforts and you have said in the past that your fbi guidelines are sufficient, others have agreed with that, i happen to agree with that and think that that is good policy. let me just conclude by reiterating the comments of both senators coal a s cole and fine about the operation of passes fifsa by the end of the year. there's a -- after the election. even though this does expire

until next year, i think it would be good to do this as soon as possible. just from the standpoint of knowing what you have to do in the future, your training and law enforcement efforts and so, as soon as we can accomplish this reauthorization of fifsa.

the republican from south dakota was elected back in 1980. he was the 1972 presidential nominee, he served two terms. he served only one term. in fact when he was running for re-election, he was the challenge in the republican primary, and he issued an ad saying so i'm not a great speaker, heck, i'm not even a great dancer, but i am a great fighter for south dakota. jim abner was 89 years old. he was at hospice since early this month and the announcement of his death coming from his staff, from his family earlier today. back in 1986, cspan's bruce colli

collins. >> of course when you look at michigan, you talk automobile or steel, or when you're in pittsburgh, and talk cole and things. everybody's different and everybody's going to look out for their own state and their own district. that's what you expect them to do. when we're cutting off that pie. and we all agree pretty well on graham rudman, republicans democrats, house and senate, i

think we went too far to this that agricultural had doubled expenditures over the last five years since the president's come into office, almost. i they's a fair statement to make. so, you know, in some ways, we're kind of generous with the dollars we have, but it isn't do enough of a job, and there are some new things in this farm bill, i hope it will help, i hope you can talk about those in a few minutes. but everybody knows we have got to make cuts. everyone realizes that we're all going to have to give and take a look. but of