>> it is election day. house republicans pick a new leader. eric cantor is stepping down at the end of july. the current republican kevin mccarthy is running against raul labrador. republican study committee chairman steve scilly, peter rossman and marlin stutzman of indiana. we will have results this afternoon. we have cameras on capitol hill. the speaker pro tempore: the house will be in order. the chair lays before the house a communication from the speaker. the clerk: the speaker's room,

washington, d.c., june 19, 2014. i hereby appoint the honorable charles j. fleischmann to act as speaker pro tempore on this day. signed, john a. boehner, speaker of the house of representatives. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the order of the house of january 7, 2014, the chair will now recognize members from lists submitted by the majority and minority leaders for morning hour ebate. the chair will alternate recognition between the parties with each party limited to one hour and each member other than the majority and minority leaders and the minority whip each, to five minutes in no event shall debate continue beyond 11:50 a.m. the chair recognizes the gentleman from illinois, mr. gutierrez, for five minutes. the chair will receive a message. the messenger: mr. speaker, a message from the senate.

the secretary: mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: madam secretary. the secretary: i have been directed by the senate to inform the house that the senate has agreed that the senate has agreed to the house amendment to h.r. 3230, cited as the pay our guard and reserve act and agrees to the conference with the house. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from illinois is ecognized. mr. gutierrez: i usually come here to talk about the ongoing crisis in america's cities and towns related to our unrelenting deportation of moms and dads and the longtime residents with no criminal history. there is no doubt that we will see substantial action to dial back the record deportations this country has suffered over the past five years and a retargeting of deportations over criminals. the question is whether the republican majority gets its act together to participate in that process as legislators and

leaders in the next six legislative days before the july fourth recess. now, in addition to the deportation crisis, we face a new crisis quickly becoming a human tragedy of catastrophic proportions. thousands and thousands of young children are fleeing central america because they think it is their only option for survival. faced with death threats, sexual assault, poverty and no legal immigration options, little boys and girls are simply leaving the central american countries behind by the tens of thousands. some are coming to the united states to reunite with relatives while many others are seeking asylum in any country they can get to, including this one. girls, as young as 11 and 12, threatened with rape in their own country, are risk rape and smugglers and deportations for the slim chance for life in the united states. 80% are just coming from three countries, honor dore us, el--

honduras, el salvador, got maula. gangs, -- got molla. gangs, drugs are sending kids to belize, costa rica, mexico to the united states. this is a crisis that doesn't have easy solutions. he obama administration, homeland security and fema are trying to address each case one by one, following the laws of this country we have for unaccompanied minors, families and asylum seekers. the first goal must be to get the children in a safe place. eventually some may pass the rigorous test for asylum. others may be considered for legal status as victims of traffickers but many have no legal of a knew and had none to begin with. in many cases, children will face an immigration judge alone without a lawyer and without a clue what's going on. the majority get orders of removal and face deportation immediately. i have urged parents in the

home countries that the risks are too great, the danger is too real and the survival rate too low to attempt such a perilous journey. but let's be clear. adults on all sides of the border are failing when they have no way to survive than to risk crossing thousands of miles. i do not see the countries of central america stepping up to take responsibility for the danger, dysfunction, death and despair in their own countries, cities and towns. the congressional hispanic caucus told their embassies that in a meeting yesterday. nor, do i see the united states taking responsibilities for the appetite for drugs on our streets. that in most cases fuel the drug trafficking, gangs and desperation in central america. in congress, we are quick to point fingers of blame, especially in an election year, but surely we must expect -- accept some of the responsibility ourselves. for decades, no realistic legal

immigration options have existed for most people, and this breaths a clandestine network of smugglers that -- and propping up states on the other side of the world like iraq has meant we have paid little attention to failing states in our own back yard in this hemisphere. opponents of immigration and immigration reform mock their children on their radio shows and have cooked up a new conspiracy theory that claimed that president obama has been calling these children to our country so he can put more of them on welfare so these children who can never become citizens will somehow be allowed to vote for him. it's outrageous. but we must not make light of this tragedy. these are children, desperate boys and girls who are being demonized after being brutally victimized by drug traffickers. opponents of immigration are exploiting their desperation

for political sport, but the stakes could not be higher for the republican party. with only six legislative days before the july fourth recess, the republican leaders have little or no time to demonstrate compassion and understanding of the migration issue and act real -- enact real border security, get people who have lived there for decades on the books. six days, mr. speaker, before this issue clobbers the republican presidential nominee in the 2016 elections. you may have waited too long to act, but that is as always has been up to you. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the chair recognizes the gentleman from illinois, mr. shimkus, for five minutes. shimon peres -- mr. shimkus: i ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. shimkus: thank you, mr. speaker.

mr. speaker, headline today in one of the papers was "oil prices to rise as high as $120 per barrel due to the iraqi crisis." headline a couple days ago, "oil at a three-month high on iraq anxiety." this brings me back to an issue that i have spoken of many times throughout the years as a member of congress that this nation needs to have a national energy policy. and just like you would on a good investment portfolio, a diversified energy portfolio. now, in the energy arena we really -- i really break it into two areas. electricity generation and transportation fuels. in electrician generation, we need to have the full range of competitive fuel and technologies to have enough electricity at low prices to

fuel and run our economy. it's hot in washington, d.c., today. a lot of air-conditioners are on, and we want to be able to cool our homes at low prices. that means having a diversified energy portfolio. nuclear power, coal, natural gas, hydro, wind and solar. a debate on a diversified energy portfolio doesn't put your eggs in one basket. it allows you to have the flexibility when there is a crunch or crisis in one or the other portfolio items. likewise, in the transportation fuel arena, especially with the crisis in iraq, who would have thought after all these years we could still be held hostage to high crude oil prices in an instable region far away off our shores? shame on us for not taking advantage of what we have locally and in the north american continent. that's why we need to continue

our focus on a diversified portfolio for liquid transportation fuels. based upon the premise of energy security, we should not be held hostage to countries that don't like us, who want to do us harm, who use our money to fund extremists. but here we are again in that same position. so what would a diversified liquid transportation fuel portfolio would look like? well, we know what it looks like. receipt us make sure we use this fracking and take this natural gas out of the ground and use that to rely on ourselves. let's finish the keystone x.l. pipeline from our north american neighbors, for our canadians who are our friends and allies, who will not be an unstable regime but would be a loyal ally as they have for years and years and years. let's continue to move on a

renewable fuel portfolio. use our agricultural resources in ethanol and soy diesel and beef to make sure there is, again, there is this diversified portfolio to make sure if one sector is distressed, we have other sectors in the transportation arena can pick up the slack and make sure we are never held hostage by these foreign regimes. it's very frustrating to go through this energy cycle where we think everything's fine, the world's at peace and we start having these debeats about shutting down this diversified portfolio only to be reminded, like we are right now, of unstable regimes that don't like us, that when they go into crisis we all pay. mr. speaker, it's time we remember energy security means energy security in a diversified portfolio on electricity generation and liquid transportation fuels. i hope we continue to make that

message as we move through the legislative calendar this year and with that, mr. speaker, i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the chair recognizes the gentleman from oregon, mr. lumenauer, for five minutes. mr. blumenauer: members of congress come to the floor to take the opportunity to urge we deal with the great issues of the day -- the failure of the house of representatives to deal with the climate challenge, global warming, to reduce senseless gun violence and the crying need to rebuild and renew america and pay for the rebuilding. but there are also a range of other issues that don't on the surface appear to be that important but play a critical part in the bigger picture. today, i'd like to address just one small part of the bigger picture, because this is national poll nater week where

we recognize -- pollinator week where we recognize the importance of honey bees and over 250,000 other species that poll nate our food and -- pollinate our food and creates $20 billion to $30 billion of agricultural production in the united states every year. honey bees alone are responsible for pollinating in one in every three bites of food we eat, nearly hundreds of varieties of fruits depend on honey pollination. now, most legislation -- there evidence of wild pollinator declines. these are important to a number of iconic northwest agricultural products, such as cherries, apples, berries as well as seed crops like alfalfa, canola and vegetable seed. i'm proud in my community that 're home to the zirksy society, pollinator protection and habitat conservation which

harnesses the knowledge of scientists and the enthusiasm of citizens to implement conservation programs worldwide. we saw in our community that businesses were stepping up to educate citizens and give pollinators the homes. two local season groceries became home to several honey bee colonies, over 50,000 small pollinators as part of the stories bee part of the solution campaign. last summer, the neighborhood in my district started a project to become portland's first pesticide-free neighborhood. hundreds of households have committed to landscaping without the use of toxic chemicals to protect the health, water and habitat for not just bees but wildlife as well. this -- these efforts are very important because the pollinator species and the livelihoods they support are suffering catastrophic loss,

reaching an alarming 42% loss in recent studies. american beekeepers have been consistently reporting severe colony losses of this bag any tude for the last several years. the -- magnitude for the last several years. it can have a devastating impact on our food. a certain class of insecticides have damaging honey bees and other pollinators such as combaring their foraging and disorientation, failure to find their way back to the bee hives, weakened immunity and interrupting the reproductive process. over a year ago, over 50,000 bumblebees died in oregon as a direct result of exposure of an insecticide largely applied to trees for cosmetic purposes. citing the amounting threats from these pesticides, the honey bees and other pollinators now face and the

important of the value in the pollination process, last year congressman conyers and i introduced h.r. 2692, saving america's pollinators act. the bill would direct the environmental protection agency to immediately suspend the use f the most bee toxic neonicinoids and review the affect on pollinators and on the entire food chain and make a new determination about their proper application and safe use. i hope my colleagues will consider joining the 65 bipartisan co-sponsors in this effort. while lots of major issues tie congress into partisan knots, being able to protect the pollenation process and impact on the environment is a small step to protect the environment and is one that can actually bring us together in a low cost, high impact way. i urge my colleagues to consider joining me in this effort.

thank you. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the chair recognizes the gentleman from nevada, mr. amodei, for five minutes. mr. amodei: thank you, mr. speaker. tomorrow in carson city, nevada, there will be a memorial service teixeira. mayor marv city home.he he was the i.b.m. typewriter salesman in the state capital of nevada. during those decades mark set a blistering case as a member of the community. husband, coach, businessman, public servant, lobbyist, and kind of self-appointed carson city gadfly. before he became what we refer to him friendly as the mayor for life, he was the unofficial use sports czar for carson city. he coached recreational league

basketball. coached little league baseball. founded the pop warner football league in carson city. in his later role as the founder of the pop warner football league, he had the distinction of molding a then young dean heller, now united states senator from nevada, into the football athlete that senator heller didn't become. once he was elected mayor of carson city, his portuguese charm was on full display. if he called you pal curing a board of supervisors meeting, you -- during a board of supervisors meeting, you weren't a pal. he called for motions to adjourn when the agenda was completed by announcing we are out of slits. he fancied himself a top tiered lobbyist at carson city both at the state level and here in the nation's capital. because lawmakers tnt do what he thought should be done, he simply questioned your intelligence and in a fatherly way advised you to do what he wanted to do and please be quick

about it. finally, he understood he was both good looking and a sharp dresser. in this role he taught me an invaluable lesson as a public servant, when you are at functions that the proper thing to wear was not a tie, that you should wear a turtleneck because invariably if food was being served at these functions and you happened to drip something down the front, you could as marv demonstrated to me on one occasion, simply go to the men's room, turn the turtleneck around, put your sports coat back on and come back as if nothing ever happened. carson will mace or mayor for life. when you go by the bypass, the hey barn as we like to call it, or governor's field, think of our mayor for life, marv teixeira, rest in peace, your honor and thank you, coach. mr. speaker, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the chair recognizes the gentleman from illinois, mr. quigley, for five minutes. mr. quigley:thank you, mr.

speaker. mr. speaker, for generations this country's infrastructure served as the backbone for our economic success. we dream big. we build bigger, and our economy flourished. today our infrastructure's crumbling and the growth of our economy is slow. without serious long-term investments in our transportation infrastructure, we simply will not be able to committee in today's global economy. over the past 50 years as a share of our economy, our investment in transportation has shrunk by half. europe now invests twice as much as we do in transportation. china invests four times as much. over time, america has fallen to the 19th place when it comes to the quality of our infrastructure. nowhere is this more apparent than in my hometown of chicago where 1,000 miles of road in the city of chicago are if need of total reconstruction. 675 bridges in cook county are

structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. north lakeshore drive is one of the highest accident locations in the state as a result of its aging infrastructure. the c.t.a. is a century old transit system that desperately needs updates to keep up with increased capacity. by the way the c.t.a. in chicago in one month carries more passengers than amtrak does in an entire year. all these things will cost money. but the long-term economic benefits they will provide will outweigh h the -- far the up front costs. business needs strong infrastructure to grow. they need good high ways and railways to move their products. they need reliable public transit to get their employees to work. but infrastructure investment requires forward thinking. it requires long-term planning. the fact that congress faces its

lowest public approval ratings over -- ever while this country's infrastructure is crumbling is no coincidence. if my second year on the appropriations committee, i know all too well how little this congress is investing in our future. i became an appropriator to help bring much needed funding back to my city and my state. politics has replaced progress when it comes to my committee's once immense power of the purse. the important work of the appropriations committee to help cities and states fund critical infrastructure improvements has been stymied by the inability of this congress to setaside our differences and look beyond the next election. we are trying to rebuild america's crumbling infrastructure one year at a time, and we are coming up short. when did we decide that planning one year ahead was good enough? name one successful business that operates this way. we shouldn't be forcing cities

like chicago and states like illinois to make plans based on stopgap funding measures. we owe it to our constituents to provide a far-reaching plan that gives cities and states the certainty they need to plan ahead and invest in tomorrow. we should be empowering cities and states to make their own choices for their long-term success by providing them with the funding to do so. it's time for this congress to go big and plan for the long-term projects that will modernize our infrastructure, spur economic growth, create jobs, and remember, every billion dollars invested in infrastructure creates 30,000 jobs. congress will face an important test over the next few months. over the summer the highway trust fund will run out. and soon map 21 will expire. allowing federal funding for transportation projects to run out with four states stop

ongoing projects, risking over 700,000 jobs over the next year. the consequences for inaction are too great. it's time for congress to step up to the plate and finally enact a long-term highway bill that reforms the trust fund and make it solvent for years to come. because as president reagan said, rebuilding our infrastructure is an investment in tomorrow, you must make today. thank you, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the chair recognizes the gentleman from massachusetts, mr. mcgovern, for five minutes. mr. mcgovern: i ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. speaker, each week i come to this floor to talk about ways that we can end hunger now. i have a simple premise -- that hunger is a political condition. we can end hunger now if we simply muster the political will to do so. over the past year i have defended the snap program,

formerly known as food stamps. i discussed the importance of nutritious school meals and sung the praises of the w.i.c. program. the federal anti-hunger programs are amazing. they are effective and they are efficient and are preventing hunger from being being worse than it already -- from becoming worse than it already is. but they can't do it alone. at least not the way they are currently structured. despite what many critics claim, the federal anti-hucker -- anti-hunger programs are too meager. they call under multiple agencies and departments and are not always -- and are not always connected. and they don't target the root cause of hunger, which is poverty. as a result, we have seen the prize of many nonprofit anti-hunger organizations. the majority of these nonprofit organizations are food pantries that distribute food to needy people. but there are other innovative organizations that are doing amazing work. one such organization is share

our strength. founded by friends. share our strength is an amazing organization that is fighting hunger both through federal and state policy and programs that directly touch the hungry living in our country. their flagship program is the no child hungry campaign. they are working in states across this country to develop statewide plans to end childhood hunger in those participating states. they taylor -- tailor these programs for each state and are focusing on the program that is the scourge of child hunger. two more programs are shopping matters and cooking matters. the shoming matters program teaches low-income families how to spend their food dollars, whether cash or from an anti-hunger program, they are taught how to spend it wisely and purchase nutritious food with the limited money that they have. the cooking matters program teaches these families how to ook food in a healthy way. these three programs show how important it is to creatively

attack the problem in america and highlight the ways the federal government is failing these low-income families by not doing more. just look at the no child left behind -- no child hungry campaign. share our strength is targeting states because the federal government hasn't created a national anti-hunger strategy. share our strength turned to governors because they are willing to do what the congress and white house aren't, develop a plan. that's why i continue to call on this white house to do a white house conference on food and nutrition. to bring everyone together to develop a plan to end hunger now. governors are doing this for kids. it's time that we do this for everyone. look at the shopping matters program and the cookie matters program. these programs exist because congress has cut the snap nutrition education program. necessitating a private nonprofit sector program to teach people how to shop for and cook nutritious food. share our strength is also conducting outreach in education in different ways. they promote and host events at the national, state, and local

levels to combat hunger. these range from bake sales to dining out events to barbecues. these aren't just feel good events, mr. speaker. these are events that come with teaching programs. programs that allows folks to promote ways to fight hunger in ways that don't seem so daunting. mr. speaker, there are many fantastic anti-hunger organizations both in washington, d.c., and around this country. share our strength is one of these organizations that does fantastic work. i'm proud of all of these groups that have stepped up to do what the federal government should be doing. i'm proud of everyone who has bantied together to fight hunger. however my goal, ultimate goal, is to put share our strength and these other groups out of business, not because they aren't a great organization, but because they are no longer needed. but the only way to put these groups out of business is by ending hunger and the best way to do so is to increase wages as well as expand snap and other nutrition programs. until then we need to ensure that no person in this country

goes hungry. and until the federal anti-hunger programs reach everyone they need to in the best possible way, we are going to need organizations like share our strength to help vulnerable populations. finally, mr. speaker, the failure of our government to make ending hunger more of a priority is appalling. to be indifferent, to blame poor people for being poor as some in this house has done is something that should make all of us ashamed. republican leaders have attacked our anti-hunger programs and the white house sadly has been too timid. what we need is a war on poverty in this country, mr. speaker. not another war in iraq. we can all do better, we can end hunger now, i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the chair recognizes the gentlewoman from hawaii, ms. anabusa, for five minutes. ms. hanabusa: thank you, mr. chair. mr. chair i rise to commemorate the 42nd anniversary of the signing of title 9 amendment to

the higher education act. as you know, hawaii's own congresswoman, patsy mink, authored this groundbreaking law and it was later renamed the patsy mink equal opportunity in education act. congresswoman mink was a true premiere, advancing legal status of girls in higher education. this law was the spark that ignited the fire of a larger cultural revolution, yes a revolution, regarding the status of women. while title 9 is most famous for opening up opportunities for women in college athletics, it has had really a greater implication for women in higher education. . it prevented female from enrolling into courses that was male oriented, such as auto mechanics, criminal justice, just to name a view. title 9 also banned male

dominated professional schools like medical and law schools from limiting the number of women allowed to be admitted. patsy mink, a former attorney herself, was committed to ensuring that women following in her path, like myself, would not have to face the same battles she did, and for that we are all grateful to her. mrs. mink once said that we have to build things we want to see accomplished in life and in our country based on our own personal experiences to make sure that others do not have to suffer the same discrimination. similar to the legislation she authored, patsy mink, the person, was a true groundbreaker in her own right. she served hawaii and our nation as the first woman of color and the first asian american woman elected into congress. impressively, she was the first asian american to seek the

presidential nomination for the democratic party. while title 9 is responsible for many advancements for women in higher education, we know that it is still -- there is still more work to be done at every level, including in our high schools. while serving in the hawaii state senate, i was proud to vote for hawaii's gender equity in athletics law which applies title 9 in public high schools and also to serve on the commission it created. my commitment has not wained, and i recently co-sponsored the high school data transparency act, which is meant to help ensure equality for high school athletics. this fundamental bill would require schools to report critical data on funding and participation in boys and girls athletic programs, allowing school districts to better identify, erectify discriminatory disparities. mr. speaker, i urge you to bring this crucial bill to the

floor, the high school data transparency act, it's an obvious partner to title 9. extending the spirit of the same law. we have an obligation to ensure that young women receive the same opportunities as their male counterparts at every level. i am committed to continuing the example set by my predecessor, congresswoman mink, and find inspiration in her words. and listen to these words. it is easy enough to vote right, but it is more often and more important to be ahead of the majority and this means ing willing to cut the first furough in the ground and stand alone for a while, if necessary. in closing, i would like to share a meeting i just had yesterday with kylie higuchi, an eighth grader from my alma mater. accompanied by her proud grandmother, she's here for the national history day. her entry is a website on title

9. kylie said a question asked was, is title 9 still necessary? her answer is a resounding yes. i believe patsy would be proud of kylie and that 42 years later a young girl is continuing to educate and share title 9 with others. mr. chairman, i encourage you join me in continuing the work of this committed visionary and powerful voice for equality. please bring the bill to the floor. thank you and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman yields back. the chair recognizes the gentlewoman from illinois, ms. schakowsky, for five minutes. thank you, mr. speaker. in the united states, we have

always had a bipartisan tradition of assisting fellow hardworking americans who have fallen on hard times. until now. as they are looking for their next job, we used to make sure that they have assistance through unemployment insurance to cover their basic needs and that's why yesterday i stood with congresswoman dina titus, donna edwards, gwen moore and nearly a dozen other group advocates for what we're calling witness wenses. we all read stories about real people submitted by them who are struggling since their unemployment insurance has expired. during that event, the national woman's law center released a study with very sobering statistics. women, particularly older women, women of color and women heads of households are deeply affected by unemployment, as are their children by the lack of emergency unemployment insurance benefits. more than 140,000 children lived in households headed by a

long-term unemployed parent. also in my state, by the end of the year nearly a quarter million people will be left without benefits they need to meet their family's basic needs if we don't renew emergency unemployment insurance. these are real people and real families behind these numbers. these are people looking for jobs, and i'm going to read four stories from illinois who have suffered setbacks as they look for the work they need for us to renew unemployment insurance without any further delay. chris from glen view, illinois, says, my husband and i will never recover financially and are praying that we will not lose our home. i don't think i will ever be able to retire, which is concerning, as i have health problems. my 28-year-old son is still living at home because he was unemployed for over a year and is now serving coffee for minimum wage. he has a bachelor's degree from loyola university, and between his student loans and our parent loans, we will all be in debt for the rest of our lives.

we are not alone. i know of so many who are struggling as we are. sue from chicago, says, due to new management at the hiv-aids agency where i worked for over 10 years, i was fired in may in order for them to save money. i'm 58 years old, have an autoimmune liver disease that limits me physically and requires help from my specialist. i have no savings or retirement -- and retirement is a laughable matter. because i had no warning that this was going to happen, i'm now looking at having no income, no health and having to move from chicago to downstate springfield where the cost of living is lower, though job prospects is dismal. dinah from chicago says, i'm losing my apartment and car and my hair. i borrowed money from my family and hoping to pay them back soon. soon i will be living in a shelter, car repossession and

bald. i've been on several interviews but so far no luck. and sealia from chicago said, i had a job interview in december, 2013, about the time my unemployment ran out. i really wanted this job. it was not just the fact that i'd be able to pay bills. the work would be rewarding. unfortunately the tension i felt -- the tension i felt when it was clear that i had to get this position, that there would be no extension of benefits caused me to freeze up at the interview when asked to display my skills. this had never happened to me. i'm usually the type to have no problems once i land an interview. my confidence is way down. i'm 62. i have no income and can't seem to find a decent job to even apply. i've had to regularly take money out of my retirement savings. i guess this is -- yeah. the worst thing about this, after a good career is to feel dropped, disappear and no longer a value.

it's a dry feeling, dusty of everything being cheap and no way to get back. i'm ashamed of being out of the work world. chris, sue, dinah and celia are four of nearly five million americans who will continue to suffer and struggle if we don't renew emergency unemployment by the end of this year. we should vote and pass the bill to renew unemployment insurance without any further delay. and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman yields back. the chair recognizes the gentlewoman from texas, ms. jackson lee, for five minutes. i thapping the speaker for

yielding. today is june 19. ordinary day in the lives of many, many americans. and that's why it is important to come to the floor and wish so many in our nation happy juneteenth. . for some it may be a foreign terminology but we are now in 1865 th year of the emancipation proclamation for several states in the deep south. those who know my history would see the emancipation proclamation was in 1863. they're absolutely right. but it took two years for states like texas and louisiana and many others to unfortunately receive notice that the slaves were free. two more years, my fellow texans, african-american slaves, had to languish in the

abomination of slavery because someone failed to think it wasn't important enough to reach those boundaries and say we were free. and so it speaks very loudly to and eason i am an advocate a fighter, that justice must be maintained no matter who you are in this country. i wish those in texas that as i speak are commemorating and celebrating juneteenth, freedom day, proudly acknowledging, not their fault that they did not know, not a joke, not humorous but a sad statement of which we in texas and southern states have turned into a joyful jubilee. we celebrate freedom wherever and however we can. this congress needs to be a promoter of freedom and

justice. i join my colleagues in being appalled at the fact that we have not yet extended unemployment insurance for hardworking americans. let me say that again. unemployment insurance, it means it is not a handout. it means that these are individuals who work for weeks, months, years, decades. they have given back to america. now they have fallen on difficult times, and because of this leadership in this house of representatives, we have not been able to put the extension of the unemployment insurance on the floor of the house. passed in the other body. that means in my district that individuals who are rehabilitating themselves and who are working and fell upon hard times because of the economy, have no jobs, cannot get unemployment insurance. when i met with some of them, a trained welder who said i want to work, i'm between jobs, was literally driven to homelessness and walking the streets because we could not give him unemployment insurance

based upon the fact that he has worked. or those who are now losing homes or not able to pay their rent. where is the mercy and justice? are we following in the pathway of juneteenth when we did not tell thousands upon thousands of slaves you are free? i thought america would not return to the devastation and dastardliness of injustice to anyone. let us put unemployment insurance on the floor of the house and address the questions of americans who have worked and contributed to society. then, mr. speaker, i would argue that there is an injustice going on in iraq. i traveled to iraq many times during the raging war. i saw the valiant soldiers, many of whom maybe after i left were part of those who were casualties. i had in my office the list of casualties in the 18th congressional district. i would be very mindful of going into that quagmire. what i say is that america does

stand for justice and democracy. we should have the position to treat sunnis and shiites and kurds freely and justly and that they have to come together and treat each other with respect. we should call upon saudi arabia and kuwait, jordan and yemen. we should give them support. the arab league to stand iraq up and tell this leader who is a selfish leader, who is not in any way reflective on bringing people together, that he must bring people together. and we must say to the isis that the world must not stand for its violence and horribleness. and, yes, we must say to those who are in the yesteryear, who were part of last time's term, those who are former vice presidents and their extended relatives that this is no time to cast dirt on president obama who has done an excellent job. americans come together when there is difficulty and tragedy. i am very disappointed in the wall street article that wants to cast blame when people are dying in iraq,.

let's stand up and be united. just a few days ago i came back from nigeria where the horrific boko haram is kidnapping and killing girls. i ask my colleagues to please stand with us, to not let the kidnapping of the nigerian girls to not be a side story, mr. speaker. as i close, i intend to introduce human trafficking legislation as a senior men meb on homeland security to address the issue of human trafficking of these girls and girls and women of color, the highest population of those who are trafficked. we can do things together. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman's time has expired. ms. jackson lee: i ask us to stand together. i yield back. pursuant to clause 12-a

>> also this afternoon the house will gavel out that's because it's election day for house republicans as they pick a new majority leader and also a new majority whip. the current republican whip, kevin mccarthy, running for majority leader against idaho's paul labrador for that post. several members vying for the whip's job. republican study committee chairman steve scalise, chief deputy whip peter roskam, and marlin stutzman of indiana vying for that post. we'll have complete coverage this afternoon as we follow reporters and have camera crews on capitol hill. we expect that meeting of the republican conference at about 2:00 p.m. eastern. some reporting ahead of that from politico, john bresnahan saying, representative roskam eight -- ate good stuffburgers with his team. k e scalise dined with a

street haunt and attended his baseball practice this morning. jeff sherman tweets the whip race has mored of -- morphed into a tense audition for the next phase of house republican leadership. a couple of comments and tweets from robert kosta of the "washington post," he said marlin stutzman is spending the morning working his 2010 class and letting jordan and mulvaney do his bidding with hardliners. a tweet from bob cusack of the hill. for the first time scalise has more public backers than roskam. that vote this afternoon. here on c-span in a couple minutes we hope to take you live back to the capitol hill to hear from democratic leader nancy pelosi. her briefing was set for 10:30. obviously starting a bit late. we'll have it live once it starts. we also expect to hear from speaker boehner at about 11:30 eastern. one more tweet here, this is from alberta, covering the leadership in the house, tweeted that the magic number to win today's whip race is 116 not

117. two members, he tweets, nunnelee and mull vainy, will not be here to vote. 231 tote a we talked to tim alberta this morning on "washington journal." here's what had he to say. now at our news desk joinis is the house leadership reporter with the national journal. here to talk to us about this election coming up on capitol hill. who is runningh for what position. the first will be forst a the majority leader's position, which is being vacated by eric cantor. that race is between two members, kevin mccarthy is the current majority whip, seeking to jump up to the number two

spot. he has a professional vote counting operation. roll labrador is from idaho. he is attempting to tap into the that is running rampant in the gop these days. he is making the case that he will transform the policymaking process from a top-down approach to a bottom-up approach. convince apting to lot of the new lawmakers that he will be their voice and get them more involved in the process. it's a good message. he stands very little chance of defeating mr. mccarthy. if kevin mccarthy wins the first sense to thea majority leader's post, then there will be a second election to replace mccarthy as majority whip. that is a three horse race. alise, peter roskam

and marlin stutzman. mr. scully's wins the outright majority of votes on the ballot, it will be a head to head matchup on the second ballot. i think his supporters are confident that they can and will win out right on this first ballot. i spent time with him last night in his office and he was planning to be up until 2:00 a.m. making calls. he had the look in his eye of a guy who thought they were right on the cusp of getting to that magic number of either 116 or 117.

it remains to be seen. has his way,ise it will be a clean victory and he will be the new house majority whip. if it goes to a second ballot, anything can happen. the significance of having a red state republican leadership? guest: the lack of a red state presence has been a source of tension within the house republican conference. a bit of a sore spot for the conservative members were arrived in this massive wave in 2010. many more who arrived in 2012. they feel they are ideologically underrepresented in the uppermost echelons, but also geographically underrepresented. that has been the case that steve scully's has been making. not only am i a proven conservative, someone who chairs this 170 member organization

which has been the conservative part b of the gop -- conservative heartbeat. with the goal state guys regularly. he says, look, not only do i bring these conservative ideas to the table, but i also understand these geographical concerns that many of our members of the house gop have. he wants to be there boys as well. that is an effective argument he has been able to make. i think that is why he finds himself heading into this contest as the front-runner. when describe for viewers and where these elections take place. guest: there is a fabled meeting room in the basement of the house capital. onee are usually at least big meeting a week.

there can be multiple meetings per day during times like these. members will gather behind closed doors, sometimes with a staff member or two. when they get behind closed doors am a that is where the balloting will take place. chairwoman will take a roll call in alphabetical order. labrador's >> that interview at c-span.org. we'll take you delive to the capitol. president obama expected to deliver a statement on iraq today. we'll keep you posted on coverage plans. >> congratulations to sportsmanship. yesterday we appointed conferees to vote on the veterans bill, the various veterans bills, the

senate bill and the two house bills. chairman jeff miller's bill. as we go to conference, it would probably have been cleaner if we could have just taken up the senate bill, sent it to the president and gone down that path. the conference does afford us the opportunity, though, to make clear as we would on the debate in any event, that while we need some emergency assistance for health care, for our veterans, access to health care, we have to be very careful when we go down this path that is not one that leads to outsourcing in the long term of health care for our ominously even more to privatization. those are concerns that the veteran service organization vs. repeatedly over time expressed to us. by and large the complaint about the veterans administration is not about the health care, it's about the access to it. and the quantity of -- the number of people that have

access. that's a very big problem. so temporarily we should be able to meet some of the needs, but not all because many of the diagnoses that are battle related need to be treated where that expertise s. and that's within the veterans administration health, the health care that they administer. we have a cold, appendectomy, perhaps a federally qualified health center can meet their needs, but we have to be careful about some diagnoses that would -- many decisions, primary care decisions would not be able to make that relate to battle related -- we were told that some of our meetings with the vets they have told us that there's some afflictions, for lack of a better word, that spring from the vietnam war. that you really have to have a

trained eye to see symptoms that occur many years later and require periodic treatment that would only be available in a very specialized way in a veterans facility. sunday marks the 70th anniversary of president roosevelt signing the g.i. bill. as i mentioned to you last week i had just come back from the 70th anniversary of d-day. the invasion of normandy. we were at omaha beach. we hers the president speak so beautifully. it was just wonderful. i think the president and others will agree, including the president of france who spoke on a number of occasions, that the most thrilling part of it was to hear the voices of our veterans 70 years later with all the spirit that they told us about of the days that it actually took a while, but also what they

are trying to do to help veterans to this day. we should be very proud, as they say, on the battlefield we leave no veteran -- soldier behind. when they come home we leave no veteran behind. so we have to do this right and recognize what we are doing is temporary for some certain -- i'm all for that. i have said to you before, under certain circumstances and temporarily, to transition us federally qualified health centers may be able to meet the needs of some of our veterans for some of their maladies. but not all. it's important to note as we talk about veterans, and we also talk about unemployment insurance not extending the benefits, where over three million people who have been cut off from benefits. this is since december 31. it's now three million people. hundreds of thousands of those people are veterans and/or their

caregivers. it has a remarkable impact on their families. i have heard their stories --we'll y when i honor hear from the caregivers and the stories they told me about how they were the primary caregiver to their veteran family member and how now they have lost their benefits. it's just astounding that in our country we would not honor the commitment that we have that when people lose their jobs through no fault of their own, including the downturn in the economy, that we would not be there for unemployment insurance. by the way, it's a job creator. the money is spent. it injects demand into the economy and it creates jobs. we should be extending unemployment insurance benefits. we should be raising the minimum

wage. we should be building infrastructure of america. we should be taking up the highway bill that enables us to do just that. instead we are doing our usual nothing. some have complained the elections are takened in middle of the day here. we usually have elections here in the morning. doesn't matter. morning or afternoon, we are not doing that much any way. . others find it an opportunity cost of time that we could be doing so many other things, including passing immigration -- comprehensive immigration reform bill. that is the clock is running out on that. next week will be the one-year anniversary of the senate passing a bipartisan bill. i would hope that our republican leadership will give us an opportunity to vote on some legislation that will take us forward, but, again there isn't that much time. i don't think we have 30 legislative days left from now

until october. this next week, should be taking up the voting rights act. it's now been months since the court made its -- decision, none the less we have an opportunity, we have a bipartisan bill, sponsorship is very balanced, democrats and republicans, in support of it, and we can't get a day on the floor to take up the voting rights act. quite ironic, if that's the word, that we'll be observing in the rotunda the 50-year passage of the civil rights bill. don't you think an appropriate observance of that outstanding legislation, which transformed america, what appropriate observance would be to pass the voting rights act? yesterday, as you know, we had a meeting with the president,

house and senate leadership, bipartisan leadership met with the president on the subject of our national security, including iraq. three points that came out of it, it's clear that the government of iraq has to work for a political solution, including discussions with -- not ignoring any sectarian differences within their country. and i believe -- i believe i said this to the president and the group, that the president doesn't need any congressional authority to act upon measures to protect our national security. i didn't want thats to mb interpreted as more boots on the ground. and third, well, on that subject the president said his lawyers are looking at the authority and the rest with my hope they would conclude that

no congressional action was necessary. they need a political solution. i don't think the president needs any further congressional authority for the conversation we were having. we'll see what his lawyers say and what he tells us and, third, no boots on the ground. any questions? yes, sir. >> on that last point on congressional authorization, last year the president said he would come to congress to seek authorization with strikes in syria and it was clear there was no congressional support for that. is there sense in congress among the leadership if the president were to come to congress to seek support for strikes in iraq that he wouldn't get it? >> well, let me just -- you remind me of a point i didn't make. thank you. the president did say, while his lawyers were looking at what their view of any need for

further congressional authorization was he said that he would hope that whatever actions our country took would have strong congressional support. and that was part of the consultation that we had yesterday. i believe we'll continue pretty much every step of the way. i'll be interested to see what the president has to say today after meeting with his national security team in the situation room this morning. is it 12:00 or 12:30? so i was among those who had thought he had the authority to do more as far as syria was concerned. there was some disagreement there. a little bit of a different situation. however, i still think we could have done more on syria. with this, the president's consulting with congress, hoping to build support. i don't know that any of the

leaders there -- i didn't hear any of them demanding congressional action. that was certainly not the case. >> your colleague, barbara lee, she said she'd offer amendments to try to block this. do you hear that message from your caucus? >> to block what? >> air strikes, anything in iraq? >> i don't know if the amendment -- i salute her action and bringing it to the floor. i don't know if it will win or prevail, become law of the land, but it's certainly worth eave discussion. >> madam leader. >> yes, sir. >> you are going to have a new leadership team opposite you by close of business today, and i'm wondering, you've been in closed door meetings with mr. mccarthy, the current frontrunner, as well as other people in there. is there going to be any difference working with kevin

mccarthy as majority leader versus eric cantor as majority leader? >> i don't know if i've been in a closed door meeting with any of them, as a matter of fact. i've been in a closed door with mr. cantor. not with mr. mccarthy. he's a californian. i congratulated him last night and he said not so soon. not so soon. at the ballgame. at the softball game. and he -- i don't know who will be the next person down, but hopefully it will be people that we can -- we can all work together because that's what the american people expect and deserve of us here. so i look forward to working with whomever they choose to be their leaders. i don't have an assessment of you're saying closed door meetings. i don't have an assessment of some of the other people. i respect them and the rest. you give me an opportunity to say something that i probably should have said last week when

you asked me, there was not shred of, whatever, sympathy, for mr. cantor -- was that your question? >> no. >> i was thinking about it on sunday when i was praying for the republicans in church as i do at least every sunday -- [laughter] >> i pray for the democrats and the republicans, for our country. and when i was praying, i thought that was kind of not complete in terms of my answer because i have said over and over again, maybe you've heard me, that the biggest privilege that any of us has is to represent our district. whatever other honors our colleagues bestow on us, that's wonderful. whether you're the whip or the leader or speaker of the house, that's a wonderful honor. it's a funny thing but the biggest honor of all is that your constituents have one person to choose to speak for them in the congress of the united states.

it's such an honor. every day you step on that floor you are representing this nearly 800,000 people by their choice. that doesn't mean they all voted for you or even if they all voted but nonetheless, you're the one. there are 435 here. there's only one in your district. so if i had any sympathy for what happened last week, it toppling a ch about leader, falling, it was really more how sad it must lose in your own district. so for that i have sympathy for mr. cantor. that's hard. power comes and goes here, but the connection that you have to your district is such a deeply rooted thing. more than a thing. it's a deeply rooted strength to you that i feel sad for him in that regard. >> madam leader, there are reports that the president will

extend to 100 special forces to iraq. what is your reaction to that? >> you know, you don't expect me to react, there are sources. when the president makes his statement today, as usual, i'll have my statement. >> are you comfortable with that or just troops on the ground in that respect? >> let me just say generally speaking -- i'll be interested to hear what the president has to say. i think you have to be careful sending special forces because it's a number that has a tendency to grow. and so i like to see the context, purpose, timeline and all the rest for anything like that. but i do -- in any situation nder any president i would say let's proceed cautiously in that regard without thinking 100 is 100. yes, sir. >> in yesterday's meetings, were there other topics discussed?

short of short-term policy things like highway trust fund or -- >> well, the white house has put out their readout of the meeting. it focused largely on iraq. as you probably know going in, the president -- the white house said it was about national security, including iraq. so the president did give us a briefing of his view on ukraine and also as a follow-up of his trip to europe and the meetings that he had when he was there previous to d-day and then leading up to d-day and interactions with foreign leaders and the rest. i'm sure if you ask the white house, they'll tell you more about that. but that is another topic that we did talk about, the ukraine and what the possibilities are to, ng with our allies again, resolve conflict in peaceful way.

yes, ma'am. >> are you at all concerned with a push from the right and the republican leadership election it may be far to get certain fiscal bills accomplished this year like the ighway trust fund or the ex-im bank? >> all three of those are urgently needed for the economy of our country. they have not been particularly partisan in the past. certainly, infrastructure and highway has been one of the least partisan areas of legislative success in the congress. important. terrorism risk insurance act. following 9/11 -- now it's time for a re-authorization. and for some reason, the chairman of the financial services committee has very

much opposed to the proposal that has support, public-private support as the way to go forward. the main difference is we have $100 million backstop. after $100 million then we come in. he wants to make it $500 million. well, that's huge. what the consequence of that is, it's very hard for anyone who wants to build a building, a hotel, whatever, to get credit because the exposure is so great. and what's hard for us, especially if it's a hotel, they can go some other place. the hospitality industry is booming all over the world. they don't have to fight for something in the u.s. if the exposure is so great that they can't get credit and therefore can't build. so this is something that has o partisan -- one of the first

pieces of legislation that i ago, was -- 12 years terrorism risk insurance. we worked with the public-private, all the elements of this. and what the private sector was proposing was very reasonable, and we worked to get that done, but it took a very long time because there was opposition on the other side. we were in the minority at the time. $500 million, a total, not a nonstarter, it's a total deterrent. so i would hope in the leadership other minds would prevail and that they would -- their friends in the financial community -- this is the financial services. this is development. this is construction. it's so much in terms of jobs in our country that other minds would prevail and they would support up until now bipartisan

nature of the proposal that is there. creator another job -- eximbank, another job creator for us. it's about how we support exports for our country. other countries do it fairly well. our republican colleagues call it corporate welfare. well, it's about small business, medium-sized business, big business. yes, boeing does benefit but that's important to us. there's lots of subcontractors involved. this may be more of an answer than you were expecting but the ex machine im bank shouldn't be the ex-im bank shouldn't be an issue. we have other things that we should be talking about other that the the ex-im bank which is absolutely essential in the world competition as we engage

in global -- in global trade. highway, i think we talked about that a little bit. yes, sir. >> with our options as limited as they are in iraq, with what you know, do you think the united states can do effective counterterrorism in iraq today, and is it advisable that we try to cooperate with iran to do so? >> first the question, we must do effective counterterrorism because the isis or l, whatever you want to call them, the islamic state of iraq and syria, for one title, really is a counterterrorism challenge for -- a terrorist challenge for us. we have to do what is necessary. that is different from being engaged in a sectarian war in iraq. what is in our national interests in terms of counterterrorism, i'm not one who's interested in working with iran on this. i think you have to be open to

here you can get support for things, but i don't have the confidence level -- right now we're trying to stop iran from having a nuclear weapon. that can't happen. the funny thing -- funny is not the word. funny in terms of peculiar, odd, strange, things that here we are talking about, cooperating with iran in terms of iraq, possibly cooperating. i'm not advocating it. when -- for so many years it was the iran-iraq war. the iran-iraq war. they were a check on each other. on the basis of false information willfully presented to the american people, we go nto iraq, free iran to be iran . no more border problems with iraq.

acting in a way to support terrorists in syria, problem all over, including our own development of a weapon of mass destruction and they're free and clear because we took out their main -- the main check on them which was iraq. 'm not one who would be in a hurry to be having a conversation about this. i'm concerned they think we're going to go in and they're going to go in after us, but we're not going to go in. >> on the -- on these missing i.r.s. emails -- >> yeah. >> your colleague, chairman becerra, expressed concern about being able to get to the bottom of this yesterday. are you likewise concerned and do you think in any way that a few years of missing emails in any way lends credence to the arguments that some republicans are making that some sort of shell game is going on? >> i'm not familiar with mr. becerra's -- with all the respect and confidence i have

in him, i don't know what his statement was so i can't say i'm comfortable with it. usually i would be. but i will say this. what that missing email -- i understand there are six other emails that were like -- similarly missing. what convinces me is they need a new technology system at the i.r.s., a. b, we also have to view it in light of the fact that the i.r.s. has turned over 750,000 pages of documents, something like 67,000 emails so it's not as they're devoid of information. i think that the reports will show that the -- those responsible did not know about their -- the years of the crash of their systems until a couple of years later. so i think they need a new -- they need to upgrade their technology, get it right so

that there's no suspicion about agenda anyone might have on this. thank you very much. see you next week. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national able satellite corp. 2014] >> and we will be back here in about 15 minutes or so to hear from speaker boehner. live coverage here on c-span. the house itself coming back in for legislative work at noon eastern and then sometime afternoon after they finish some initial work they'll gavel out for recess so that the house republican conference can have their leadership election, electing a new majority leader and a new majority whip. politico" says with just hours ago, peter roskam of illinois and steve scalise in louisiana are in a furious scramble to lock up votes for the intensely competitive race. they also -- they also are

joined by marlin stutzman of indiana. tweet here from david drucker of "the examiner" saying on that whip race, steve scalise is preparing for a second ballot but confident. he claims over 50 whips on his team, plans to meet over and walk over as a grufmente that's per a source. we'll have the results of that race and following reporters who are obviously covering that. speaker boehner here on c-span. just to let you know, you may have heard leader pelosi. he's been meeting with his national security team. mark knoller of cbs tweeting that the president expected to announce first steps for the u.s. taking to counter isi s's attacks and aggression in iraq. look for coverage on that on c-span3 and also online at c-span.org and also c-span radio. yesterday on capitol hill, general motors c.e.o. testified in front of a house committee on the internal g.m. report

regarding the ignition switch recall. we talked it this morning on "washington journal." -- about it this morning on "washington journal." returns to the hill for a grilling on the ignition switch report. what was the hearing like? guest: it was marked by skepticism. it was not as intense as the first round of hearings she was subjected to back in april. out foren, gm has come an internal report, looking at the how and why of this ignition switch problem. she is may be expecting a less skeptical reception, but lawmakers were highly skeptical. as to why gmious would not consider a running stall to be a safety problem, which is problem -- part of what they said about the ignition

switch problem. she faced a lot of skepticism and tough questions. host: who did this report and what did it say? guest: the report was done by anton valukas. he is a formal attorney. he did reports like this for the lehman brothers. he interviewed a couple hundred , what they came up with was that the ignition switch problem really grew out ofthe dysfunctional kind culture of gm. it was not an orchestrated cover-up, but instead, it was a case of negligence and incompetence in many ways. the engineers who were looking at the problem did not realize it wouldt switched off disable the airbags. that was a crucial link missed for a long time.

furthermore, one of the engineers in charge of the project back in 2000 six, he changed the design of the ignition switch and that was not documented. there was no new part number. that was his doing, according to the report. it was not something that was ordered from above. whoecame these individuals basically blocked gm from solving this problem and there was no sense of urgency because they did not see this as a safety problem, which lawmakers found to be incredible. host: it sounds like they were skeptical, but why? guest: it feels like common sense if you have a car that you could be running at highway speed and the ignition switch gets jostled because it hits a bump or your knee hits the steering column and turns the ignition off in the car, the power brakes and power steering do not work. you have to have the presence of

mind to shift the car into neutral and restart it, they say how can that not be a safety issue? think there was some skepticism about whether mary barra is going to get at the problem. she is taking dramatic steps. she has fired 15 people and made clear that safety has to be number one. same time, gm ordered another recall of some cars for very similar problems. thats revealed yesterday he first complained about that problem came up in 2000 five. host: we cover the hearing yesterday. i want to show the viewers what mary barra had to say about the results of this audit. [video clip] restructured our decision-making process, addressing a key point in the

reports that critical information was kept from senior management. under the new system, this should never happen again. we are conducting what i believe is the most exhaustive comprehensive safety review in the history of our company. we are leaving no stone unturned and devoting whatever resources it takes to identify potential safety issues in all of our current vehicles and on vehicles no longer in production. our responsibility is to set a new norm and industry-standard on safety and quality. i have told employees it is not enough to simply fix the problem. we need to create a new standard and we will create a new norm. barra on capitol hill, testifying about the internal audit. with theletcher is washington post, talking to us on the phone. she said they have fired 15 people and they are getting fresh blood into the con the

knee -- into the company. they have more than 200,000 employees worldwide. there was this kind of skepticism about whether getting rid of 15 people gets to the root of the problem. this is a long-standing problem. talk aboutlot of gm's dysfunctional culture five years ago during the auto bailout. bureaucracy and that gm has inside the company that was responsible for the company's downfall. that is what you hear from the auto task force. there is a sense of here we are again, talking about gm's internal problems. they were really pushing mary been a gmay you have 4 -- been at gm for over 30 years, are you the one to fix the problem.

there is a lot of question about what the company needs. host: let's listen to an exchange between the subcommittee chairman questioning mary barra about the culture. [video clip] >> you have been with the company for 30 years. how has someone who has spent an -- re you mentioned 15 employees were fired. that is 99.999% if my math is right. if you have not changed the people, how do you change the culture? >> the people not with the company are the people that did not take action they should or did not work urgently enough to rectify this matter. they are no longer part of this company. that was a strong signal to send within the company. it is important that we create the right environment where

every engineer and everyone is able to come to work everyday and do their best work, be supported, and that is the culture we are working to create. those are the programs we have put into place. barra ont was mary capitol hill talking about the by tim of gm, questioned murphy. we covered it. if you missed it, go to c-span.org. that mary barra was on capitol hill before the subcommittee, she referred to the old gm and the new gm. why? did she repeat that this time around? guest: she did not talk as much in those terms. the old gm was the pre-bankruptcy, pre-restructuring gm. in her last appearance on the

hill, she talked about the old gm being more cost conscious and less focused on the customer and she tried to contrast that with the new gm. at that time, she had to deflect many questions. that frustrated lawmakers. she kept referring to the valuk as reports because they were not -- the facts were not in from those reports. frame andless of that more focus on things that were in the report and more importantly, the steps she is cultureo shed the old from the new gm. host: is congress doing its own investigation? guest: they are. they're looking at that. it has more of a focus on nhtsa as well. they are doing their own

investigation. the valukas investigation is done. what they found tracks what mr. valukas found so far. >> c-span covered that g.m. hearing yesterday. you'll find it at c-span.org. back live to capitol hill. we're waiting to hear from house speaker john boehner. about an half an hour before the house gavels in for legislative work. and he's sure to get questions about the president, making comments on iraq. that's scheduled for 12:30 eastern. those comments will be over on c-span3. also on c-span.org and on c-span radio. certainly the speaker will be asked about the leadership elections coming up this afternoon on the house side. on the republican side, rather. so the house will come back in for their legislative work. they'll gavel back out about 2:00 p.m. those elections should get under way. in the paper writing that the

new leaders will likely hold their positions for over 12 legislative days. between when mr. cantor steps down from his post on july 31 and november's mid-term elections due to lengthy congressional breaks in august and october. a tweet from jonathan strong of bright bart news saying representative jeff country can is backing stutzman, that's marlin stutzman, a conservative. so the contestants for the minority -- excuse me -- majority whip, steve scalise, arlin stutzman of indiana, and mccarthy, the chief deputy whip. we will have speaker boehner's comments once they get under way. one of the items the house has been dealing with yesterday and today is the 2015 spending bill for the pentagon, defense spending. we talked to a capitol hill reporter on what to expect. >> as the house takes up the 2015 defense spending bill, we're joined by megan scully

who is defense and national security reporter for "c.q." how much do house appropriators want to spend and what are some of the key program areas does it covers? >> the bill totals $750 billion, that includes $80 billion as a placeholder for the war in afghanistan and for other costs for operationsover seas. >> and the white house is likely to submit the headline war funding requests this month. why wasn't there war funding included in the original bill in terms of afghanistan? >> sure, when the white house sent up its entire federal budget request in march, they did not know the path forward in afghanistan. since then president obama wanted to keep something shy of 10,000 troops in afghanistan after the end of this year. that prompted them to go back and detail the request. those details have not come to

the hill, so the bill itself has essentially a blank check for the wars. they'll have to essentially hammer out during congress negotiations with the senate later this year. >> is that something the house republicans are likely to ask for more funding for afghanistan? >> well, they do tend to use the so-called o.c.o. fund, the overseas contingency operations fund to fund nonwar related priorities, especially now there is a cap on the defense budget. so there is -- >> we'll break away from this short interview and take you back live to the capitol to hear from speaker boehner. >> every day here in the house we're focused on the people's priorities. jobs and accountability. but can we say the same for the white house? let's start with the economy. the american people are still asking the question, where are the jobs, while the administration's working on their national energy tax that's going to destroy american jobs. next week the house will focus on solutions that will deliver

a real all-of-the-above energy strategy to lower costs and to grow our economy. then, there's the i.r.s., which after illegally targeting americans for their political beliefs, violating their first amendment rights, has pparently now lost two years worth of lois lerner's emails. the white house promised to cooperate but did nothing. the white house -- the president called this a phony scandal, yet, who could possibly believe that they have lost two critical years worth of emails for the central figure in this investigation? then, there's the v.a., which needs bold reform but the president has offered nothing. we're moving forward with some important short-term solutions, but there are no substitute -- they are no substitute for the long-term strategy that this department needs. now, let's move on to our

borders. we're seeing a humanitarian disaster, one of the administration's own making. there's been a dramatic increase in the number of naccompanied minors that are coming from guatemala and honor dore us and el salvador -- honduras and el salvador. and it's another area where it has caught the administration flatfooted. at least one of the five taliban commanders that was released played a key role in al qaeda's plans leading up to the attacks of 9/11. the white house thought the american people were going to cheer when the president released these terrorists. i think his misreading of the american people are fairly shocking. we have terrorists marching toward baghdad, we asked the president for a strategy to reverse the momentum and spread of terrorism. i heard a little bit about iraq yesterday, but the white house

has known for months about the situation in iraq, and when you look, it's not just iraq. it's libya, it's egypt, it's syria. the spread of terrorism has increased exponentially under this president's leadership. and, as you may recall after the last election i said that i hope that the president would seize this moment and take the lead. and here we are a year and a half later, you look at this presidency and you can't help but get the sense that the wheels are coming off. >> mr. speaker, david petraeus, credited have been for calming down things in iraq. he said yesterday that he doesn't think that the united states should be the air force for the shiia militia or arab-sunni in the fight. do you agree with that? >> we don't know what could be effective in reducing this

violence. there's not one -- there's not one piece to this. and so i'm hopeful that the president today will outline a strategy for dealing not only with iraq but the spread of violence in the middle east. >> you hear david petraeus giving caution on air strikes, does that give you pause? >> until i understand what the oversaw strategy is, it's hard to say whether it's good or not. in and of itself, it's not the answer, in and of itself. >> mr. speaker, vice president cheney said yesterday that rarely has the u.s. president been so wrong about so much at the expense of so many. is it helpful to have vice president cheney weighing in on this debate? >> he's an american citizen. he's entitled to his opinion. >> mr. speaker, will the house be bringing up its highway trust fund package next week to replenish the fund? >> i don't think so.

i know the ways and means committee is -- they're having discussions about a package of pay-fors that would fill the gap for some number of months. >> just as a quick follow-up. mr. wyden over in the senate plan to ally had a use postal offsets. do you think they'll find something to pass both houses? >> and it's to find a package that will plug this hole for nine to 12 months to make sure the highway projects will continue under way. >> speaker boehner, there's a lot of optimism, the provisions of the voting rights act will be included in congressional bills, how do you see the future of the voting rights act? >> i think there's conversations going on about what -- what a renewal would look like given the court decision that came down last year. i think those conversations are going to continue. >> are you optimistic it will

-- >> i have no idea. you have to talk to those working on it. >> do you expect a final v.a. bill to be offsets will be deficit neutral? >> i don't -- i got my doubts about that, but until the conference gets together and makes a determination about what needs to be done to hold the v.a. accountable and to ensure that there's care for those in these waiting lines, we'll have to see. >> mr. speaker, given what appears to be unanimous opposition to boots on the ground in iraq, is there a way for the united states to not to do effective counterterrorism in iraq? >> i think there is. there was discussion yesterday at the white house about some of those steps that could be taken and some steps that are being taken, but, again, let's go back. there needs to be part of an overall strategy not only for iraq but for the region in terms of how do we reduce the

number of terrorists that are ut there hurting americans abroad, hurting our assets abroad and frankly building safe havens to organize and attack americans here. this is a very serious problem. very serious. >> on the missing i.r.s. emails, leader pelosi just said , they need a new technology system at the i.r.s. what do you make of that? >> they need somebody that will tell the truth. >> is there criminal wrongdoing, do you think, at the i.r.s.? >> i asked this a long time ago. i don't know who was going to be investigated. i want to know who is going to jail. this is outrageous, and the white house has not lifted a finger to help us get to the bottom of this. he owes the american people the truth about what happened at the i.r.s. thanks.

>> the u.s. house comes in for legislative work at noon eastern. they will begin on re-authorizing the commodity futures trading commission. then finish up work on amendments to the 2015 defense spending bill. live house coverage here on c-span at noon eastern. also want to let you know the president will be speaking about iraq this afternoon at 12:30. he's been meeting with his national security team. we'll have coverage of that on c-span3. also on c-span radio and c-span.org. taking your comments, too, as well at #cspanchat on twitter. that's the hashtag and facebook.com/c-span. so the house coming back at noon eastern. until then, comments and conversation on the u.s. economy and the testimony -- not testimony but the news conference yesterday by fed chair janet yellen. neil host: our nes irwin. --is the author of the book

the author of a book. thank you for joining us. reserve wrapped up its meeting yesterday. what did they decide to do? guest: they continue keeping low interest rate policies in place to keep pumping money into the u.s. economy and to slow down the rate at which they pumped money into the economy. they reduced from $45 billion a month to $35 billion a month. down so is to wind maybe by the end of the year they will no longer be in the business of printing money to buy bonds. host: can you tell us about the stimulus program? inst: it was launched back 2012. the economy has been subpar. inflation is too low. we are going to do something to

try and combat that. they started a program of creating new money to buy treasury bonds and other securities to pump money into the financial system. what they're doing now is saying we think the economy is roughly on track so we are going to try to withdraw that and get out of that progress him -- that program. host: we have a clip of janet yellen discussing her outlook for the economy. we will listen to it and get your reaction. [video clip] >> economic activity is rebounding. it will continue to expand at a moderate pace thereafter. overall, the committee continues to see sufficient underlying strength in the economy to support ongoing improvement in the labor market. is running below the

2% objective. the committee remains mindful that inflation running below its objective could pose a risk to economic performance. host: what was she trying to say? keeps growingnomy and maybe we would like it to grow a little faster. the labor market is improving and the job market is getting better. there is progress. down thelling to slow kind of interventions that we do. way is the central bankers of saying everything is not fixed, but we are on the right path. meeting, theys release a forecast of what they expect the economy to do. in that forecast, they revised down their estimate of how much gdp is going to grow. we had a rough winter.

a lot of bad weather that disrupted output in the first quarter. it looks like the first quarter of the u.s. economy shrank. most forecasters think that has rebounded nicely. because of the weak force -- , it looks more like 2.1% or 2.3%. host: what is the picture for the longer-term? into: where five years this recovery. it started back in a summer of 2009. to a lot of americans, does not feel that way. they say the economy is not fixed, this is not a recovery. things are miserable. even though growth returns in the summer of 2009, it has been a very slow pace of growth.

not the kind of improvement you feel in the form of higher wages or lower unemployment. until that changes and you have an economy where people are getting raises and people feel like they can get their job easily, things will not feel slowly healed. us on thecan call republican line. republicans, (202) 585-3881. democrats, (202) 585-3880. independents, (202) 585-3882. we will go to our first caller, diane. i was wondering how you can say that jobs are being created in this country when t here is a job created it is minimum wage or less and these people are on public assistance in some fashion and that the

participation rate of the people in this country are like 60%. people have dropped out. the jobless rate is bogus, created by the white house to make us think they are doing something for us other than wall street. that is all that is going on. as bad as theare republicans with going after big money. they care nothing about the country. guest: there is some truth in that. here is where there is some truth. growth.s been job there are more jobs than there were a year ago or two years ago. may, we hit the pre-crisis peaked. all the jobs that were lost in 2008 and 2009 have been filled. wages have been coming under pressure. a lot of the areas with the highgest job growth are

retail. it is not creating a strong wages the people want to see. as the labor market gets tighter, employees have -- employers have no choice but to give employees reasons to keep them. if you look at the average hourly pay for american workers from may to may, it is up about 2%. it is the case that even as jobs return, wageto growth is not what you want to see because of the types of jobs that have been created. host: have is the federal reserve take this into account? tools are about

interest rates and the money markets. they cannot find tune things in the economy and the job market. they can look at the aggregate and the overall numbers and try to set the right policies. wages are one of the important things for the federal reserve to pay attention to in trying to assess the health of the job market. it does not matter if the unemployment rate falls. wages are stagnant or falling, that is not a healthy labor market, even if the unemployment labor market falls. this is something janet yellen takes seriously. host: mary, kentucky, republican line. i wanted to ask about the united states savings bonds.

the other was, they have this war chest they have built up to real like himself. why do they not buy back america with part of that war chest? put out to each american, send the dollar, by your country back. , you start out low, you discipline yourself to live on the means you have and person deceived, potato, a bag of dirt, and to teach them how to grow, how to can, they will never go hungry. also, work ethic. be proud of the job you have done. just because you went to college does not mean you know how to do something if you're going to go smart for i am too that and i am not going to get my hands dirty.

i can bush hog, i can cut trees down, you name it, i can do it. host: thank you for your comments. she wrought up an interesting point about saving. we are trying to save money in a tough economy. important point about how we got into this mess. we had a long period in which was spending more than it saved. money was coming in from overseas, borrowing it, using it to build houses. that collapsed. learned is that we cannot be a debt driven economy. we need to have consumption in line with our output. if you are a farm wife, you cannot indefinitely live better than whatever you are growing. the same applies broadly throughout the economy. line up in theo

long run, even if you can borrow money temporarily. it is about finding a sustainable balance of spending, investment, and consumption. host: is this change in behavior towards consumers about less spending and more saving? guest: the last few years is trying to reduce household debt. household debt relative to the size of the economy grew continuously from the 1980's to the 2000. a reversed in 2008. to say i want to pay down my debt and increase my saving, but if we all do it at cansame time, the economy grind to a halt. my spending is your income.

if you start saving more and do not consume, the people who make those things, they do not have a job or income. anwere trying to do adjustment where everyone was trying to save more and once. when that happens, the economy can live -- end up in a bad shape. we want to do it in a gradual way where we do not have a deep downturn in the economy. elizabeth, fort lauderdale florida. first of all, whenever i hear everyone talking about the jobs, whether there is job loss or job creation, they never get into specifics. i live in florida. there are a lot of small businesses down here. republicans classifies small businesses 500 people or above. most of the jobs down here are

, service sector, i am an editor. i went to college. i disagree with the last caller. i did try getting my hands dirty all of that back to back. this is the worst economy i have ever seen or dreamed of. when i was a kid, i never thought i would have this kind of dilemma and nothing is being done about it. these immigrants that come here, they are not picking tomatoes anymore. they are taking jobs. host: are you employed? caller: i am a part-time worker. guest: that is an interesting trend. it is such a big issue for people. the economy may be creating

jobs, it is not creating the good jobs people want to see. as long as that is the case, a lot of people will feel like elizabeth does. the economy is not right and it is not working for them. --need good economic product policy at of the federal reserve. people can not only find a job, but something that pays more than seven dollars an hour at your local store. aboutjanet yellen spoke this issue yesterday. here is her outlook. [video clip] >> a portion of the decline we reflects arobably kind of shadow unemployment, a cyclical product of labor force participation. if that is correct, we may see that as the economy picks up steam and we see further recovery in the labor market, there is discouraged workers.

they will return to unemployment or to employment and as labor force anticipation begins to stabilize, the on point and rate will come down less quickly. host: who were these discouraged workers? on a first friday of every month, the labor department puts on -- put out its numbers. the first thing i look at is not just what happened to the unemployment rate or how many jobs were on american payrolls, but what was the composition in the change of unemployment. did it fall because more people peoples or because more counted themselves as part of the labor force and said they are looking for jobs? it is an important question. at just the unemployment

rate does not give you the whole picture. janet yellen's point is that millions of americans have dropped out of the labor force and have said they are not looking for a job. i am sitting on the sidelines of the labor market, maybe they retire a little early or they live at home with their parents. they run the demographic gamut. what happens is the economy gets better and how many people are out of the job market entirely and how many will come back in? how many people, if they are in their 40's or 50's, they are staying at home -- how many people are saying there are opportunities? they will look again. that will drive the unemployment rate up. it is an important point. all of us who care about the economy need to pay close attention to this. ist: one of the big debates

how much power it has over some of these labor markets. what do you think the correct balance is between the fed's focus on unemployment and responsibility? we have gotten used to the federal reserve and other central banks having this vast power over society. in 2000 eight,is ben bernanke was coming up with a new program to try and fix the banking system and try and stop the credit crisis that was happening. it has maybe created a distorted view on what their powers are and what they can really do. they control the supply of money the -- the economy. ultimately, their power is not to figure out the fix everything

that is wrong in the labor market. they are trying to maintain full employment. they try to do that by tweaking these small dials. they are trying hard. we will hear from gregory in dayton, ohio. caller: hello. i had two points. thatve to understand whatever the federal reserve , it does not or will not have an effect on the economy for we do not protect the middle class. if you eliminate the middle class, you have only the rich and the poor. this is definitely not good for america.

, livingis getting jobs wage jobs, not worrying about this issue concerning minimum wage. that is an entry-level job. we need sustainable paying jobs familyle can feed their on. it does not matter what kind of formula or strategy the federal reserve comes up with. the monetary policy that the federal reserve uses, a can be disrupted at any time. the country is living on ious anyway. if there is an issue that develops in the middle east, one issue can disrupt the entire >> you can catch all of this conversation online at c-span.org. "washington journal" live every day at 7:00 a.m. eastern. the u.s. house gaveling in next. they'll start with short speeches. then start work on the rule for the bill re-authorizing the

commodity futures trading commission. we expect them to gavel out in recess after that because g.o.p. leadership elections are set for 2:00 p.m. eastern. we'll have coverage from capitol hill. later, after those elections, we expect the house to come back in and finish up work on the 2015 defense spending bill. they started that yesterday. now live to the house floor here on c-span.