forwarded to the witnesses for their responses. i ask our witnesses to please respond as promptly as you are able. thank you for your expertise, testimony and time. this meeting is now adjourned. c-span is your unfiltered view of government. we are funded by these television companies and comcast. you think this is just a community center? no, it's way more than that. so students from low income families can get the tools they need to be ready for anything. >> along with these other television providers, giving you a front row seat to democracy. live coverage of today's white house press briefing will be joined by climate envoy, john

kerry, and live coverage for when it starts later today. this verdict is a step, chauvin case stirs strong emotions for cleaver and bush, and this is how that story in "the star" began, and it says black lawmakers huddled together around a television as they awaited the jury's verdict when the verdict of derek chauvin was announced guilty on all accounts. the story goes on to say, cleaver, a methodist minister led the caucus in prayer thanking god justice had been done.

as we show one of the clips from the scene, do you remember what you said in that prayer? >> i could probably come close to uttering it again, and you know, in my world you are praying to god and other people just have a chance to listen in. i did thank god for the way in which the decision was reached, and i also thanked him for the fact -- i also wanted to let god hear us, you know, thank him for the atmospheric condition that allowed the jury to make that decision, that atmosphere has not always been here, and even

now i am not sure it's something that we can expect, you know, on some kind of a regular encore, and make no mistake what happened earlier this week is the jury in minneapolis was significant and hopefully will make things -- force things begin to change. >> explain those atmospheric conditions a bit more? is there something that you as a lawmaker can do to keep that around? >> yes, that's something that i can do, and i would like to believe that even my republican colleagues would admit that i do and that's realize that this nation is on the verge of being torn in two, and 98% of your [ inaudible ] which is always what happens when civilizations

and empires collapse. nobody thinks to recognize it. but we're torn apart and i think that the young lady, darnell -- i can't think of her last year, but she was in the photograph or took the phone video did something unintentionally, and it touched the hearts and minds of all americans, saying i am not some liberal, and i don't embrace all of these civil rights things going on, but something is happening with people. pat robertson, who has no history or record of being some social gospel preacher, it was very clear, he said something is wrong and something has got to be done, and he said it on his show. i think that the atmosphere was changed from where it has been

for most of the trials with the police in the past. and the atmosphere that allowed minneapolis to bring charges, you know. it's not common that charges are brought, but for the video i think most americans know the police already put out a report of what happened and it was not true, it was completely untrue and they said -- their report talked about george floyd suffering some kind of injury or had some kind of physical problem that was part of his life before he came -- it was like the police rescued him and took him to the hospital. but the atmosphere changed, and minneapolis has a place where --

history shows that things like that happen all the time and when the world saw john lewis beaten on the bridge downtown selma, i think people said this has gone too far. i am not talking about people who have, you know, liberal views of race, and i mean, i think people all over the country thought why are these beating these people because they are marching to vote? i think this is one of those monumental moments, one of those pivotal points that i think has changed things, and whether or not, you know, we're going to go through the next 25 years without having a controversy

with police and people of color, you know, that's going -- you know, that's too far. >> with the atmosphere of change that you talked about that was at least present here, how far have we really come on come on legislative police reform since august of 2014, the killing of michael brown in ferguson? >> we've come a long way, because the house has passed the george floyd justice in policing act, that's monumental. it would be right up just below the civil rights bill in '64, voting rights act, great society. it was something significant. but let's not, i mean, take it to the point where we give out the impression that everything has been resolved and that

things are going to be great, because we still have a struggle to get this approved in the senate. the good news is a friend of mine, you know, who was handling the legislation in the senate, tim scott, tim scott of south carolina, and cori bush -- cory, i'm sorry -- >> cory booker? >> we have two corys now, cory booker of new jersey. and karen bass, who was the speaker of the california assembly before she came to congress. so she has incredible skills as it relates to negotiation. and both are saying they believe we can come up with a compromise, which i think the nation desperately needs.

i'm on the helsinki commission, we travel the world to try to prevent war. i don't know if americans realize, but we have developed a horrible reputation internationally were people are already questioning our commitment to democracy. and of course they believe that the united states, on issues of race, is [ inaudible ] and may be behind even some of the backward nations or nations that are not as industrialized and financially solvent as are we in the united states. and so we have a lot to say to sources, trying to get this legislation through, and i think we will inadvertently make a statement to the international community. and i think that's desperately needed. >> congressman emanuel cleaver with us 'til the top of the hour, when the house gavels in.

congressman, we'll begin in the show-me state, east of kansas city is oak grove. independent mike is on the line for you. go ahead. >> good morning, representative cleaver. >> good morning. >> i want to know, you know, why the black people have such a problem obeying a police command. i think that's where the problem is. they seem to have disrespect for the police. >> i'll let you respond, congressman. >> that's in my district, oak grove. i'm sure the gentleman means well. but he just painted a picture of

african-americans that is probably not healthy for any of us. first of all, i can't speak for all black people. but he's saying, you know, why are black people not obeying orders from the police. i would like for him to not hate me, but understand that what he said was one of the problems we have, and that is, we're making judgments about a race based on something that should be asked an individual. most african-americans that i know tell their children, i went through it as a child myself, and i have three boys. i don't know an african-american who has not said to their children, you know, especially male african-americans, kids, if police stop you, put your hands on the dashboard, you say yes, sir, you say no, sir.

if they ask for your wallet, say sir, please, understand that i'm going to reach in my back pocket, or would you like me to get out and you get it. that is almost like, in my tradition, teaching kids the lord's prayer. and most african-americans like the majority of americans, are not telling their kids to disobey the police and that kind of thing. if you look at what happened in the george floyd situation, there were people standing on the sidewalk, obeying police, he told them to stay on the sidewalk, and they did, even though they were in agony, watching a man die. we can't continue to spread things that are not true and then spread it across the whole spectrum of a race, "why are black people this way."

i'm not sure how many african-americans the gentleman knows. the chances are, not many. everybody i know has told their kids that. are there going to be some kids, black, white, brown, blue, suburban, oak grove, kansas city, new york city, who are not going to do that? absolutely. we're human beings, and human beings do dumb things. and people in uniform sometimes do dumb things. i try to be careful about making declarations, and i appreciate the question because it gave me a chance to say something that i think is critically important. >> ft. worth, texas. j.c., democrat. good morning. >> good morning. how are you doing, brother cleaver. >> good morning. >> hey. my main complaint is this right here. the police know when they stop

us, they know we're going to be fearful of them. did you hear? >> yes, yes, sir. >> they know we're going to be fearful of them. they're so disrespectful. look here, when they stop you, they don't even tell what you they're stopping you for. they should tell you directly what they're stopping you for. all they want is your driver's license and registration. and another thing, here's my main complaint. why aren't the blacks patrolling their own neighborhoods? why is 100 policemen, white, going to our neighborhoods and being fearful of us? with their guns drawn. >> congressman? >> i think that we have a problem in recruiting people of color to police departments. i was the mayor of kansas city for eight years. i had police security -- actually longer than that, probably for about ten years.

and there were white police officers who actually requested an opportunity to serve on my security detail. i think there are some police officers who, you know, grew up and never had any exposure to people of color until they got on the police department. and some of them are awkwardly doing their jobs and creating problems. they are a minority. i think the overwhelming of police officers are trying to do the right thing. and there are police who will stop you, in the past have stopped people, we just had an incident where a lieutenant in the united states army was stopped and not told why they stopped him. and actually, you know, treated him pretty roughly. now that police department is being sued.

and i think that, you know, in kansas city we had some demonstrations last summer, the summer before last, after the george floyd murder. and i had young white kids coming up to me, talking about how they've got to make things change. we had a rally on one of our more famous areas in kansas city, and we had many 5, 6,000 kids. i spoke to the crowd. and it almost brought tears to my eyes because the largest number of participants in that demonstration were white. and after, i walked over to police officers who i know and they said to me, look, i hope people understand that the majority of us want bad cops out of here. we think they are dangerous to all of us, and they damage our image. and so, you know, nobody has,

you know, some kind of commitment to trouble the black folk except some bad cops. and there are some, and the ones you're talking about are the ones that i think many departments would like to expunge from their employment list. >> about ten minutes before the house gavels in for the day. i did want to get to your work on the financial services committee. you serve on the panel on housing and community development. i know you recently met with president biden. what did you two discuss specifically on the housing issue in this country and where it fits into his infrastructure package? >> i was blessed to finally to get to the one position i wanted when i was elected to congress, that's the chair of the housing

committee, the hud oversight committee. i was invited to the white house, the last gentleman who called, kay granger was the mayor of ft. worth at the same time i was the mayor of kansas city, we both were there. and the former governor. we talked about issues of importance to us. but my issue of course was housing. we have an extremely low number of affordable housing units in the united states of america. and since the 2008 economic collapse, high end housing has actually come back, it's there. it is the low, moderate income housing that we have not been able to redevelop. and in the package that we are now considering, it's a $213 billion category to build,

preserve, and retrofit about 2 million affordable housing units. also we're trying to rehabilitate more than 500,000 homes for low and middle income homebuyers. if you are living in certain parts of the city and your housing cost, the rehabilitation cost of the house is more than the house can be sold for in that community, you've got a problem. you put $100,000 into rehabbing a home, but if you put it on the market, you can get $85,000 for it. so if we're going to have affordable housing in the urban core, we have to come up with ways to subsidize this housing. in this bill we will have money that homebuilders can use and these cities can use the money, the homebuilders can't get direct grants from the

government, it has to go through the cities, to do rehab and in some cases build new housing. it is a crisis that we can fix if we -- if our ambition is large enough and wide enough. and so i'm excited that the president had me there. i also tried to push -- i'll do this quickly -- the new definition of infrastructure. at first we were calling this an infrastructure bill. it's now a jobs bill. when we talk about infrastructure, it's not just curbs, sidewalks, and bridges. look, i lived outside of the county where the last caller was calling from, a place called waxahachie. i didn't live in a place with running water until i moved into public housing. >> we have a picture of what you were just referencing, where you grew up, to show to viewers so

they can have this image as you talk through this. >> that house is still standing. people in waxahachie wan drive by and see it today on kaufman street. i lived in that house for seven years. my dad worked three jobs to get us out of public housing. i ended up going to college for free for most of that period until i got injured. but look, [ inaudible ]. my dad cleaned up his yard and his house, he's 97 years old. if somebody walked by and threw a cigarette butt down, my biggest concern is that my 97-year-old father will try to get in a fight. that's what we've got to create, more home ownership. >> a few minutes left here, this is rodney in albuquerque, independent. good morning. >> hi, good morning. i have a complaint, i'm a

minority hispanic person, and i guess what gets me angry with this whole thing is with the police officer. i know he's guilty for what he did and he has to pay for what he did. but i find that everybody's saying this was a racist thing. i really don't believe the police officer woke up one morning and said i'm going to kill a black man, i really don't believe that. i believe he got caught up in this whole thing and, um, did what he did. and i still say he's guilty for what he did. but why is everything always racist and why is biden say we're a racist country? i don't think we are. there will always be racism but i always believe strongly that we are not a racist country, we live in the greatest country in the world. >> congressman? >> i believe we live in the greatest country in the world. the officer who was convicted had 27 other complaints, most of

them based on the people he dealt with in minneapolis were people of color. the judge would not allow that to be brought up in the trial. keep in mind, that was one of the reasons the defense lawyers would not allow him to testify, because if he had taken the stand, then the prosecutors would going to right to the fact that he had a long history of misconduct, alleged misconduct, and it probably should have been taken up at the department much sooner. and i think the minneapolis police department has already had to pay for the fact that he was still allowed to stay there. in terms of race, look, i think it would be foolish for us to deny that because to do so means we're not going to correct it. i'm an african-american, i'm proud of being african-american, i'm proud to be an american.

we are a lot better than we ufbd used to be and we're getting better. this next generation is not going to tolerate some of the things their parents and grandparents are trying to push on them. i'm as excited as i've ever been that this country is going to, with the next generation, going to push these stupid issues of race into the background. but to deny that we have race problems is actually a statement that we are going to allow it to continue. once we recognize it, we can push it out of the way, then our nation will become what god intended. we've been blessed more than any other nation in the history of the planet. we ought to act like it. >> news from the labor department, their weekly jobless claims report, the 547,000 americans filed new unemployment claims last week, marking a fresh pandemic era low, as yahoo! finance describes it. your reaction, congressman.

>> well, look, we can continue to drop the number of unemployed individuals or people who go to state agencies as for unemployment benefit and to get jobs. and by the way, we need to say, we know what the number is because those are the people who go into [ inaudible ]. people might say, they don't want to work. they're going in to get jobs, that's how we know the numbers, unemployment bureaus around the country. i'm excited about the fact that our economy is on the way back. and the economists are saying it could go to greater heights. we're in a good spot now. if we can continue to grow this economy and stop fighting each other, there's no telling how close we can come to the nation

god intended. >> how long do you think that a number that's still above half a million in a week stops being a good number during the pandemic? >> you know, we're doing some things right now. i think once this rescue plan is approved, the sky is the limit in terms of unemployment dropping. we may even get down to some record lows, because i think a lot of people in the country support the american rescue plan. republicans, democrats, las vegas raiders, [ inaudible ]. but everybody supports it. and so we have a chance to make this nation into country where if you want a job, it's there. we're not there. we're moving there. and i'm looking forward to, you know,