the senate commerce committee holds a hearing on the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on transportation and critical infrastructure. watch live today at 2:30 p.m. eastern on c-span3, online at cspan.org or listen live on the free c-span radio app. tonight at 8:00 eastern on american history tv, a look at the great depression. founded in 1933, during the depression, the tennessee valley authority's mission was to address environmental, energy and economic development issues in a region suffering from soil erosion, floods, poverty and unemployment. a national program in the tennessee valley is a 1936 film created by the tva to promote their efforts and to show the construction of two projects. norris dam in tennessee and wheeler dam in alabama. both are still operational and on the national register of historic places. watch american history tv tonight and over the weekend on c-span3.

welcome congressman al green of texas who represents part of the houston area. joining us to talk about the protests in the wake of the george floyd death and what's ahead for policing across the country. congressman al green, thanks for being with us this morning. >> it is my honor to be with you this morning. i believe that we will break some ground this morning. i think that we have some legislation that we are proposing that will be for reaching. and i'm honored to bring this to c-span first. >> tell us about that. >> well, thank you. as you know, on may 27th, i called for a war on poverty -- excuse me, a war on racism. i mentioned poverty because quite frankly we declared a war on poverty, on drugs. we have declared wars on various things. we have never declared a war on racism. the question became, how do you do this?

when president johnson declared his war on poverty, it was congress that passed the legislation that helped him to get social security through, medicare, medicaid, head start. when i says is, it was actually expanded. congress does the heavy lifting. the proposal came from the president. well, i don't believe we have a president who would declare war on racism right now. but the legislation can still be produced, promoted. that's what we're about to do. i have a resolution that i will be filing tomorrow that will indicate that we are declaring a war on racism in all of its forms, of course, but more specifically it says, racism and discrimination. we are going to establish a department, a cabinet level department, cabinet level department with a secretary of reconciliation. it will be called the department of reconciliation.

we have not reconciled our differences in this country. we have tried to do it. we have not been successful. when we're not successful, we kind of for too long have ignored the fact that this needs to be done. and the only way we can get to it as i see it is to lift it to the highest level of government, to have it become a department just as we have a department of labor, a department of defense. have a department of reconciliation that is to take immediate and long-term action, develop a strategy and implement it to eliminate racism and discrimination in our country. >> let me ask you about the protests, particularly in houston. focusing on an editorial from the -- your local paper. houston has a better way, a show of force isn't the only answer for violent protests. with a photo of your town's police chief who spoke with

protesters. a video has gone viral joining the protesters. what can other police departments learn from the way houston has handled the demonstrations there? >> well, a lot of things can be learned from houston. most of the protesting this houston has been peaceful. that doesn't mean that there hasn't been civil disobedience. as you know, gandhi gave us this concept and dr. king picked it up. protesting peacefully doesn't mean that you won't go to jail. you might recall dr. king wrote his letter from the birmingham jail because he had been arrested for violating the law at that time. if you violate a curfew and you go to jail, that's a part of peaceful protesting. it happened. peaceful protest and be afwekive, yafwek i effective, you have to be a little disruptive. in houston, we have had a fair amount of disruption without the kind of behavior that we have seen in many other places.

dr. king never went to jail for throwing a brick or for destroying property of other folk, committing some kind of harm to an individual, a person. he went to jail because there were laws that caught him trying to be peaceful but that were designed to prevent the protests from being successful. in houston, i think we have done a pretty good job. but houston is also going to be known for what we are doing with this resolution. i don't want to just abandon that right now, brian, because -- bill, excuse me, because this is something that we need in this country. the reconciliation that we need is not going to come if we just silo individual pieces of legislation. they can all be good legislation. but there has to be some place where we will have a person who is charged with developing a long-term strategy, a strategy

that will cause that person to come before congress and to report on the progress that's being made semi-annually. that's what this calls for. it also is going to be funded. the funding will be not less than 10% of the defense budget. i attached it to the defense budget because we know the department of defense will be funded. if we run into a circumstance where we have some people who are not as enthralled with the legislation as others are, it will still be funded to the tune of at least 10% of the defense department's budget. this legislation is going to have persons who are being harmed now being given the opportunity to present their proposals. people who have had experiences that have been unpleasant. experiences that have caused

them to have to be a part of movements like black lives matter, which is one of the preeminent movements of our time. these persons will have input into the legislation produced in the future. this is the way forward that will take in all of the things that we need to do if we have a cabinet level department with a secretary of reconciliation. >> our guest, al green, congressman from texas. your comments and calls welcome. let's go to bobby in georgia. >> caller: can you hear me? >> we can. go ahead. >> caller: i made a mistake. i'm not a democrat. i didn't see your numbers. can i finish my conversation? >> you are on the air. go ahead.

make sure you mute your volume or you will confuse yourself and us. >> caller: i wanted to say that for the first time in my life i'm going to make a donation to my local police department. i want to thank joe biden for telling me -- i don't have to be involved with this stuff. i'm no longer walking around in dark skin trying to do the right thing. i will vote for trump. have a good day. >> mike in ft. myers, florida. go ahead. >> caller: congressman green, thanks for taking the callers. i do want to kind of echo off of what that gentleman said. i hope you disavow joe biden's comments as a person who voted republican and democrat, you can't allow any white politicians certainly to tell us what's black and what's not black.

secondly, i ask that you guys do pass legislation to deal with police brutality, going back to joe biden as vice-president and senator for over 30 years, he failed to do. this is not a biden bash. but what i ask is one major question when you talk about passing legislation on this very important issue related to police brutality and george floyd and i hope you put his name on that bill, that you do not allow your colleagues or republicans to put any port in that bill. let that bill stand on police brutality as it is. i look forward to your response. thank you for standing up for people of color regardless if they're republican or democrat or if they vote for trump or biden. god bless you. take care. >> thank you. thank you very much. i think this is a good time for me to define myself. i'm a liberated democrat. i speak truth to power and truth about power.

i do this in the spirit of shirley chisolm. i'm not going to allow the democratic or republican party to dictate when we should do the things that are necessary to continue the liberation movement. i think that we are at a point in our history now, regardless how we got here, we are at a point in our history where racism has become an organizing tool for one party and a get out the vote tool for the other party. literally. that's what is happening right now. you see it happening. we can't be taken for granted and we can't be ignored. that's why we need a department of reconciliation, to deal with these issues in a long-term and very broad fashion. with reference to candidates, i have not endorsed anyone for president that's in the race currently. i did earlier endorse senator harris.

i have not endorsed anyone since that time. i'm very serious about what i do. when i called for the impeachment of the president, i had resolutions to support it. by the way, we should have impeached him for his racism and we could have impeached him for his racism. but there were leaders in the congress of the united states of america who did not support it and found ways and means to shift our direction. i think it was a good thing to impeach the president. but it was not the best thing to avoid impeaching him for his racism. this bill is going to help us to deal with racism and discrimination in this country. i appreciate your comments. >> let me get your reaction to specific things president trump is saying this morning. he says this. in 3 1/2 years, i have done more for our black population than joe biden has in 43 years. actually, he set them back with his crime bill which he doesn't

even remember. i have done more for black americans, in fact, than any president in u.s. history with the possible exception of another republican president, the late great abraham lincoln. it's not even close. the democrats know this and so good the fake news but they refuse to write or say it because they are inherently corrupt. >> the president deals in a level of inanity that does not require refuting. the president has done things to black people. the president, when he indicated there were s-hole countries in africa, that was -- and tried to put it into policy. he was talking about immigration policy. that did not help black people. it sent a bad signal. when i president told police officers, when you are arresting someone, you don't have to be

nice, this is the president sending a signal to the police forces in this country that he will condone what they will do and in a sense he's got their backs. when the president says that he is for law and order, he really means he is for order and law. here is what that means. you, members of the police force, you go out there and you establish the order that i want and i will then provide the law necessary to protect what you have done. we saw that when those officers -- i should say members of the military went over and as bullies, if you look at them, they looked like bullies, pushing and shoving, making sure that they were intimidating persons as they moved forward, the president has unleashed that kind of behavior on american society and has caused black

people to become the focal point of his ire. when he says things like this, things that are just absolutely inane, you don't have to refute them. but i do. finally, let me say this. we made a mistake when we did not impeach this president for his discrimination, his racism. he is the most racist president in my opinion since andrew johnson. he is the andrew johnson of his time. the unfortunate thing is, without c-span, a lot of what i'm saying would never be heard. c-span does not filter. c-span does not have an agaenda. c-span allows the truth to be heard. whether people accept it or not, c-span provides the means by which it can be heard. i thank god for c-span. a lot of what we are trying to do will not be heard but for c-span. so thank you ever so much for

giving me this country to respond. >> let's hear from more callers. jeff is in port ritchie, florida. >> caller: hello, america. hello, c-span. i don't call very often. i do get nervous. bear with me on this. i believe simple, direct solutions all my life. i have heard people say about black people, they look the same to me. i never understood that. i have had black friends my whole entire life. i look at it as straight, direct internal law. inside the police department change. from now on, when there's a shooting, they are on leave or desk duty. from now on, when it's questionable, there's no hesitation on wait, the police chief arrests that officer, take his gun, make him keep his

badge, arrest him in that police department, in the station, leave him there, not in jail, but in jail in the police department so he is protected. then wait until after the results from trial. then right on television in the police chief's office, he is discharged out of the police department and sent to prison. everyone gets to see it. and the arrest. people that are marching, god bless you. >> may i respond? i greatly appreciate your commends, sir. i would add this. what you said i think most people would agree with. but we have to elevate this and make it -- take it to a more lofty level. it's about more than the police killings. i do not take it lightly what has happened to many black people has just been criminal and many times it has not been

properly prosecuted. i'm totally for all of the legislation that will deal with correcting the injustices associated with policing. but this is bigger than policing. there is sis. >> tommy: systemic discrimination in this country, racism. it is in banking. people who look like me, who are more qualified than writes, who go in to get a loan, we have evidence to show that they can be much more qualified but they will end up with a loan if they get one at all that will be less than a less qualified white person. that's a fact. it exists in housing. it exists in housing to the extent we have had testing done to acquire the empirical evidence to show that when african-americans seek housing,

they can be charged more than other persons who are seeking the same house. they can be -- i'm talking about rental property. they can be charged -- placed in property that is less habitable than other persons. it exists in health care. we are not inherently persons who have poor health. it is because of a health care system that does not address our health care issues to the same extent as it addresses white persons who have health care issues. for those who are offended by my saying white, we have to compare. it's unfortunate, but we do. when you say black and compare, i'm not offended. so i beg you would not be offended. it also exists in the environment. black people, people of color, poor people that live near the sanitation -- the landfills in this country, they live near the environmental places where the land has been contaminated.

so we have problems that far exceed the problems associated with the police department. that is a thing that's causing us to examine these questions. but we have to make it bigger. that's why this legislation is important. because it's going to deal with racism and discrimination in all of the various places that they exist in a systemic and institutionalized fashion. this is important legislation. >> let me get to edward -- excuse me, bernard. >> caller: good morning. how are you, congressman? want to ask a question. my congressman is hoyer. we get one hour telephone town hall about maybe once a month. i would like to ask you a question that i can't seem to get any answers. why did you vote for a $25 million grant to the kennedy

center? how does it help black, white, hispanic or anybody? can you give us an honest answer? i don't see where that helps anyone. you spent $50 million on trying to impeach the president. what good does that do? that money could have been spent on fixing the water problem in michig michigan. why don't we fix problems instead of flushing our money down the toilet. give us an honest answer. >> we will hear from congressman green. >> honest answer. i sought to impeach the president and had 95 members of congress to agree that he should be impeached in one way or another, although some have recanted. i sought to do it because i didn't think that there was fine

people among the bigots and racists screaming in charlottesville. i sought to do it because i didn't think we should bar persons who happen to be of a certain religion, the islamic faith, from the country because he chose to do it. i think that this country recognizes laws that associate with freedom of religion. the president is a bad man. i just have the courage to do something about it. many people will talk about things. i choose to do something about things. i put the congress in a position where it had to do something, that was take a vote. we laid the foundation for his ultimate impeachment. with reference to the vote that you say i took. you are not going to find very many members of congress who haven't voted for things that they didn't necessarily approve of. whether i approve of it or not.

this is the point i will make. we get sometimes legislation presented to us and we can vote it up or down. you weigh it. you look for the good and you look for the bad. sometimes you cannot allow the good to become the enemy of the -- i have taken many votes where there were things in legislation that i did not care for. but there were other things that i knew would be a benefit to my constituents. that's the truth, dear brother. >> robert calling next from brooklyn. >> caller: good morning. i have three quick questions. explain the red line. also we allow this congress to change the lawyer that israeli cannot train in terrorist wear fa -- in the terrorist warfare. we have israeli government

soldiers in police station around the country training the police to the terrorist and american civilian. explain that. >> i will be candid with you. i could not quite understand the question. >> his second point was about -- he said government troops in police stations. maybe referring to the efforts by the president bringing additional federal forces in protection of the nation's capital. >> i think the president was wrong. i think the president not only brought in the military, but he encouraged them to be bullies. i'm sure you have seen it. to see the behavior of members of the military as they were moving toward peaceful protesters, peaceful protesters, with the shields and the way they were pushing people out of the way, they wanted to

intimidate. they knew that they were on camera. they wanted to send a message and they did send a message. the unfortunate thing for them is, the people in this country do not want to see the military behave that way against peaceful protesters. these protesters, as far as i know, had broken no laws at that time. if they did, it was some -- maybe some sort of law related to not being in a curfew, maybe it was they were in the streets as opposed to being on the sidewalk. you don't bring out the military to do that and then take a photo op thereafter. the president was entirely wrong. his behavior ought to be denounced. i denounce it here and now and forever. >> to mir ae miranda in new yor. >> caller: i just want to say, i am glad people are protesting

peacefully. i support them. i respect them because of the fact that there's no reason for the police to do what they did. i am just as upset, angry and offended as everyone else over the death of george floyd. and every other person that has been mistreated by the police. >> i thank you. i said yesterday that i'm angry. if you see a person, mr. floyd, pleading for his life, pleading, calling for his mother who has pre-deceased him, if you see an officer with his neon tknee on neck of the person knowing this person is suffering, if that doesn't make you angry, i will accept your lack of anger, but i hope you will accept that i am very angry about that. i'm angry because only one person has been arrested. i was a magistrate for many

years. i know probable cause when i see it. the probable cause exists. i want to see a trial, and i want to see a conviction. yes, innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. if wrong and committed a crime, you have got to wanted him arrested. and if you believe a crime was committed, you have got to want a trial and a conviction. logic dictates this. so i am absolutely with you. i'm very upset about it. but the question is this, what do i do with my anger? i don't take my i think aer to the streets and throw bricks. i don't try to destroy property. i don't try to hurt people. i'm going pass legislation, hopefully, that will make a difference. now, i'll introduce it and i will give the congress the opportunity to do the right thing. but i can't tell what you democrats or republicans will do because i know that this kind of legislation is far reaching.

it's what's needed. but i also know that there are reasons why this kind of legislation may not get the attention it merits. and a lot of that will be covered in the book that i'm writing. i need not go into it in great detail. the point is this -- let me make this point. i am not going to let that anger cause me to become a person who is going distract from the movement that's taking place. we should do this when we are angry. as i am, i am a legislator. i'm going to legislate. we should also all register, and we should also vote. and we should vote like we have never voted before. i think that voting can make a difference this november. >> one more call here from anthony, south river, new jersey. good morning. >> >> caller: thanks for taking my call. congressman -- >> yes, sir. >> caller: -- i have a comment, a request, and another comment. my comment is, i think the topic is policing in george floyd --

and hello --? >> yeah, yeah. go ahead, anthony, you are on the air. >> caller: okay. i'm sorry. the comment is, why are we not arresting the other three police officers? and let me finish. because when they took the pulse and they had two minutes left with the guy on his neck, okay, and he had no pulse, they are all trained in cpr, okay? and you have no pulse, that means you start chest compressions because that's cardiac arrest. okay? so that is my comment. and i think if we arrested these other three officers, okay, that would calm things down immensely. so we wououldn't need the presi to take care of business. >> anthony, i will get a response from the congressman. >> well -- >> i think our signal froze up there from houston. we apologize about that just at the end of the conversation there. congressman al green joining us

from his office this morning in houston, texas. again, congressman green, sorry we lost you on the line, but that's technology these days. the senate commerce committee holds a hearing on the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on transportation and critical infrastructure. watch live today at 2:30 p.m. eastern on c-span3, on line at c-span.org, or listen live on the free c-span radio app. tonight, beginning at 8:00 eastern on american history tv, a look at the great depression, founded in 1933, during the depression, the tennessee valley authority's mission was to address environmental, energy, and economic development issues in a region suffering from soil erosion, floods, poverty, and unemployment. a national program in the tennessee valley is a 1936 film is created by the tva to promote their efforts and to show the construction of two projects, norris dam in tennessee and