once the rotation is complete -- they are still fine tuning it -- we are going to get in there and begin looking at these parts we have not seen. the alt met goal is to get it and associated artifacts back in 1864. >> the history of the civil .ights movement with a twour martin luther king's letter from birmingham jail. the bombing of the 16th street baptist church. next write a 8:00 eastern on c-span. month, debates on what makes america great. evolution, genetically modified foods. on irs oversight, and

campus sexual assault. new perspectives on global warming, voting rights, fighting infectious disease. and our history tour. schedule -- find rtd schedule one week in advance of lettuce know what about the projects you were watching. c-span.org. like us on facebook. follow was on twitter. retired colonel frederick leighton talks about military strikes in iraq. a previous of the midterm elections.- midterm we look at recent events in ferguson missouri.

and lookake your calls for your comments on facebook and twitter. >> jay nixon held a news conference today to discuss protests in ferguson, missouri. he was joined by the captain of the state highway patrol. he was put in charge of providing security in the community. he and governor nixon took questions during a 35 minute news conference. >> good afternoon. i can tell you this. here. stand , ithe crowd can't hear me

will move out there. >> take the mic with you. coming closer. i will step behind the mic. i want you to come in and hear. >> he is bringing the people in. >> the people need to hear what i am saving -- saying. this isn't about ron johnson. the city. about it is about the people. when this day is over, a lot of people are going to be gone. the people behind you will be here and i will be here. last night was a great night.

calls forno service. we do not have any roadblocks. we did not make any arrests. it was a good night. people were talking. people were inspiring each other. people were getting their voices out. they were communicating better with us. we have many leaders and activists out there yesterday helping keep the road open. areant down to the yesterday and promised that we are going to communicate better and give answers to their needs. we are going to continue to do that each and every night. you will see them walking down

there. the first thing i did, i had a briefing from the command post. so i could come back and have a proper conversation here. >> does the release of the officer's name change the dynamic? >> the release of the name is what was requested by the community. . have not seen the video i was watching the news this morning when i heard it came out. it will be hard to comment on that. question] today i will meet with the chief of ferguson and talk about how that was related to get copies or be able to analyze the packet they had. this afternoon i walked down to the quick trip and talk to the

thele there and explain questions that may have been unclear. i will try to make those clear. our task here is to ensure the safety of the citizens of businesseso help the , but also to ensure people of ferguson have their voice, their right to speak, their rights maintain. that is what we will continue to do. [inaudible question] >> i have not talked to chief tom jackson. to chief tomlked jackson. i am unaware of anything he has in place. >> on the video they released,

that young man looks like him. , he hadpictures closely no white socks on. brownis a picture of mike with tall striped socks on. they are saying that is mike brown. i think that is unfair. [applause] that.ave not seen guarantee you i will look at that packet. that is why i am down here. mishandle locals this? >> i'm going to talk about yesterday. yesterday we handled it just right. we shook hands and hugged. we are going to talk about last night and move forward today.

what happened last night is what is going to happen going forward. i talked to the chief last night. you see the officers hand-in-hand. >> the timing of these releases. theseave been asking for names to be released. it comes on the same day of this video reported to be michael brown. what is behind the timing of this? >> i cannot say what the timing is. i can't answer that. that may have been a question for chief jackson this morning. will they be releasing more information? [inaudible question] >> we are not involved in an

investigation. let me answer. we are not involved in the investigation. the governor will provide security. he wants to make sure people of have an or safe and they right to protest and speak their mind. that is why we are here. >> there are going to be questions about the validity of the investigation. can you talk about how law-enforcement approaches that? what you try to do to make sure --[inaudible] you saw me out there communicating and talking. when you have the missions statements, we talk about

serving. i can't speak about the incident there. i was not there. it will be unfair to speak about something i don't know about. if things i do know about is what i will speak to. i will give the questions to you. i will continue to do that. >>[inaudible question] >> i would have liked to have been consulted. of criticism has been at the local police, a militarized unit. what are we going to see? >> were you here last night? a bunch of smiles and hugs. a bunch of conversation. that is what you're going to see from me. >> i was one of the ones that

said let's wait to hear what the official word is. i felt pressure for saying hold on. morning, i out this was concerned that the official word comes out as it did with the release of the man's name, and it possibly being michael -- i find it disgusting . i don't know how i go back to my community and say i asked you to hold on for official word. what am i supposed to do? [inaudible] >> i can tell you that is not

the case. you and i are meeting for the first time. there's going to be a serious conversation when i leave. when you see me tonight down there you're going to get the tone of my conversation. anger, we had the to make sure we don't burn down our own house. that we don't vandalize our own buildings. we can stand on the sidewalk and talk about our issues and what we want. the conversation that needs to happen. we can make that happen. what i don't want is to go down there and burn our own neighborhood. that does not solve issues. that hurts this community. >> [inaudible question]

>> you bring up a fine point. we need to talk to the school districts. if i need to go to schools and talk to those kids and give them confidence and let them know i'm just like their parents, i went to the same schools. if i need to go we will reach als.to those princip we will do that. [inaudible] the two sides have not coordinated that effort.

be in thenk you'll loop of the release of information? >> it is going to be a conversation. it is not a conversation i'm going to have over the phone. >> some say this is not a black-and-white issue. this is about justice. [inaudible] there is a lack of confidence. not agree this is black-and-white issue. we all have sons and daughters. we need to communicate better. you saw what communication did yesterday. about thisr talked

is an old wound. it is time to stop saying it is an old wound and close it for good. >> [inaudible] >> this release comes from the ferguson the police department. >> how do you want to make your community feel safer around here? this was the biggest outrage. tot are your exact actions make the young black people feel safe? >> we saw what it should be. we saw what it could be. we saw what it will be. bodyw do you feel about cameras on police officers?

it is that something that you would be interested in? >> i believe in cameras. >> we still don't know what clearly happened. people don'teling know what is happening. they are getting angry. you have to break through the personal violence. there must be steps taken by the police department department to make those people feel safe. i agree. we are moving toward cameras. i think cameras are important. cameras are part of law

enforcement. our job is our job. i went to do my job the same way if i'm on camera or not. having the camera doesn't change me from doing my job right. you have to step down. [inaudible] >> they are scared to death. they don't know if can trust the police. a young man lost his life. this is all over the world. i am scared to death for my children and his friends.

[inaudible] that bothers me as a parent. i have a question for you. what are you going to do to make sure the people feel like they are being respected? there were photographs of the young man laying dead in the streets. respect.r a sense of to our that we can come police officers and they will protect and serve us. -- [inaudible]

there is someone there to protect them. i see a lot of these young men. they are wary. that this is going to blow over. oppressed for so long and this situation has been on the back burner for so long. >> i can tell you we have outstanding law-enforcement officers in our state. black am a white, male, female. are we perfect? no. i have a son and daughter. i want them to walk the streets with safety. our intent is to make this dave safe, to stand strong and protect our citizens.

if intent means nothing those are your feelings. we need to do a better job. today, when we walk away from this, and these cameras are gone, this is our opportunity to show you you can trust us. wrong, i do something that another police officer will say you are wrong. we need something different. i told you earlier, the information could have been given in a different way. i could have said i would have done it the same way. i'm not telling you that. we're going to have conversations. the highway patrolman that are here are outstanding police officers. an louis county is outstanding place officer. i trust them. we know this isn't a perfect world. you say you have a barbershop. there are bad barbers.

but that is the way of the world. you go home and see your kids tonight, my daughter said this, were you scared? i said a little bit. rememberi want you to when jesus asked peter to walk with them on the walk. when peter got scared, jesus picked him up and said have faith. i'm telling you today we need to be like peter. i know we are scared. he's going to pick us up and take this community a. -- take this community up. [applause] what is the plan security wise tonight? you are telling me what social media is telling you? i want to see what people tell me. >> have you noticed a change in

the mood since these pages were released? >> i have. it is unclear. we need the facts. it is a change in my attitude. >> first of all, it is important to note the specific responsibility the highway patrol have and they are doing. i also say, nothing should nothing should terror figuring out why michael brown was killed. which thet the task colonel was given.

there will be tension at various times. >> is there any way to expedite the process? >> you have parallel processes going on. local department and justice. those have to be accurate and clear, they need to be thorough, and before conclusions are reached, they need to be complete. i know -- i have said certain things have come out sooner than they did, but that is not the point. the point is where we are standing right now. those are some facts that came out. i'm not saying that they are not important or relevant and we cannot forget, they are pieces of information. >> [inaudible] do you think the case has been mismanaged? >> the focal point remains, figuring out how and why michael brown was killed, and to get

justice as appropriate in that situation. because of the appropriate outpouring of angst about both the substance and process, what captain jackson and his team are attempting to do -- excuse me, captain johnson -- is to make sure that folks have a chance to give their voice as well as keep the peace at the same time. >> [inaudible] >> i think everybody saw a clear change of tone and operational activities yesterday. >> [inaudible] >> i think there are a lot of steps along the way that will

cause angst and pressure. that is natural and appropriate, frankly. a young man killed, an officer involved. a great deal of energy, appropriate, accurate, real energy. i think we will look at those guideposts engage them accordingly, but we are hoping to make sure that during this process, this difficult, challenging process, that there is focused energy and peace to the businesses and people in the community. >> will the protesters be allowed to protest anywhere they want? or for their safety and everyone safety -- >> i do not know. i will let the captain run his security. >> [inaudible]

>> we are focused on our responsibilities here. >> looking at the way that ferguson has blown up, how do you look at the other institutions around the community that are failing or losing their accreditation. michael brown graduated from high school. he was going on to further his education at a trade school. [inaudible] >> some of the schools have already started. normandy -- riverview has. normandy opened on monday. we have to make sure that they have opportunity. how do we get to the long-range issues?

we have to do a lot. that is not a simple question. but i will tell you, making sure we improve the quality and access to education and provide an opportunity for all of our kids. public school is the backbone of our state. i do think it is especially challenging with some of the issues that have arisen. >> [inaudible] our city schools are closing, governor. you are the head. why are our schools closing? why are they being sold off? >> we can continue our discussion because these are major issues. let me just say that we have seen challenges in st. louis city schools. i do not need to get micro-about this, but as you see the gains made this year, investment in preschool over the past few

years, the leadership of dr. adams, i think they are making progress. >> [inaudible] the greatest change has occurred after the removal of military style police. has that made you consider the use of this across missouri? >> after things are done you always do a hot wash later on and analyze. i know the patrols and the academy watches all the stuff and tries to do better each time. i think we are learning a lot but i do not want to be critical of anybody as to what they've done. i made the decision i made to give the order to the colonel to shift the operation and that has made a positive difference. my expectation is it will continue to pay big benefits for safety and security and the

opportunity to get justice as quickly as possible. >> [inaudible] let's take two more questions. >> [inaudible] st. louis county is doing it separately. >> [inaudible] >> that is a local operational choice. >> [inaudible] >> i think there are going to be some bumps along the road to justice. i think there will be some moments of angst between now and the finish line of this process. it is important that during the process we not see appropriate energy of a mass outbursts, but instead to make sure that justice is served, so i think

there will be a number of points long the way. [inaudible] >> details that will come out, oing a thorough investigation. >> the information was released. [inaudible] >> information that i had not seen, that the captain has not seen, came out and like i said, the captain's already answered that question. inaudible]

>> i don't know. i don't know. i don't know. >> one last question. >> how deep are the problems in the ferguson police department? >> we are focused on the operational situation we are in. i'm not aware of longer term problems. as i have said a numbers here, i have no idea. [inaudible] >> on monday, i asked for a department of justice investigation on monday. tuesday i appeared in the community, wednesday and thursday and friday, i'm here. whatever folks are saying out there. airly quickly. inaudible] >> every day having to deal with he police.

if he throws out the name of the police officer and probable cause for michael brown shot and killed and not being questioned. inaudible] >> if we cannot trust our police officers, who can we trust? we want to be

reated equally and fairly. inaudible] >> two things real quickly. i think you saw -- you will continue to see patrol under the order that i gave to the colonel .n this community captain jackson is going to be in your community and he is communicating back and forth to make sure -- i think he is a little better trained than me. he has more skills to deal with

the challenges than i do and he and the patrol will do a good job. i would ask everyone, we are trying to make sure that there is an open way that folks can express their energy, express their concerns while protecting the property and getting this process to its necessary conclusion in a timely and complete fashion and i would ask everyone to follow the lead of the captain and do the best you can to respect the people. >> to your concern, sunday night, the governor was involved sunday night, monday. there were a lot of things going on behind the scenes and been here and one thing he has been here. one thing i will say about the governor, this isn't about him but each of you. he came yesterday and he came today. and we have had other incidents in our state and i can't remember a time we have had a

governor for five days be involved and show up and be here and been here every day. when my phone rings and i'm talking to the colonel or the governor, that doesn't happen every night. nd so -- inaudible] >> i have been talking that after this is over there are bigger things that have to happen after this is over to make us all better and they need to continue to happen. and training, diversity, having more minority officers in our communities. more women on our police department. all of that needs to happen and only way is going to happen if you demand it and we listen and make it happen.

last question. i'll be down there later tonight. last question. [inaudible] >> the area where the protestors were, there are barriers down potties.d port-- >> what time you want me to come back? [laughter] inaudible]

> where was that at? inaudible] >> those were still police officers. someone gave them orders and direction. it may be a new day, but i still have hear bomb-like sounds while they pull the media and

helicopters and then i hear about someone being shot. how can i feel comfortable and safe. it's a new day now but what's .oing to happen how is it going to be a new day for me? re they still looting? s to do with the looting and rioting. civil rights are being violated. >> after this is over, but i want the media to listen what she said, my phone is ringing and show the city for what it is, show what you saw last night. [inaudible] >> she's talking to you. let's do it.

i've got to go. 'll see you tonight. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] >> coming up next, texas governor rick perry at the iowa state fair. after that, house majority whip steve scalise talking about the state of congress and a town hall meeting with representative becerra of california.

>> this week texas governor rick perry went to the iowa state fair where local and national politicians get an opportunity to answer questions. in his 1-minute speech, he talked about limited government, the economy and innovation in the public and private sectors.

>> gr morning, i'm carol hunter and welcome to the political

soap box. our next speaker is governor rick perry of texas. [cheers and applause] >> now, governor perry is a republican. he was a state representative in texas. he was the agricultural commissioner and lieutenant governor and then became the governor in 2000. that makes him the longest-serving governor in texas history. [cheers and applause] now let's remember a little bit about our soap box etiquette and exercise our iowa civility and let our speaker have his say. "theme back to iowa and to "des moines register" soap box. >> it is an honor to be back here. and it's a relief to be out of the texas heat. [laughter] >> if you look on your little

device, it's probably approaching 90-something degrees in most of the places in texas. it was nice to get up this morning in the beautiful iowa weather and been here since saturday and going up and down the byways and highways, good-looking corn drop crop. but it's not bringing in enough money in. those of us who grew up on the farm know that's the way that business grows, when the bumper crop is down, we can understand that in texas as we got a drought going on and cow prices are through the roof. i have spent the last three-plus days traveling across the state talking about why i think it's important for the people of iowa -- you have a very unique opportunity in time

from a -- from the standpoint of where america is and how iowa can play a very important role in the trajectory that this country goes in. and i think we all agree that our economy could be better, that washington does a lot of things that they're not very good at and aren't even enumerated in the constitution. many of you know i'm a big fan of not only the constitution but over in the bill of rights, that 10th amendment that says the federal government, by that constitution is limited in the things that it should be engaged in. those powers are enumerated and everything else is reserved for the states and/or the individuals. and i'm a big believer in that. the competition that gets

created between those now 50 laboratories of innovation make america really powerful, really strong. that attest to the fact etting kerry bransted as the governor of iowa will be more effective. what he and this incredibly energetic lieutenant governor you got, kim reynolds, are making states like texas have to look around and figure out how we are going to up our game. we are pretty good at this development business in texas and good about putting policies into place. but what i have shared with these men and women who are running for your senate -- i visited with brian schmidt and mike moore had an event that i was participating with, crystal

runtz and jeremy davis over by ames and i talked to each one of them about the concept of making your state even more competitive than it is today, to put tax policies into place that has the burden of those who work and risk your capital to create the jobs that in turn create the wealth, to have a regulatory climate that's fair and predictable. i'll assure you that nothing throws cold water on a project than if you put a substantial amount of capital into a project. you may be building a facility. and halfway through it, they change the rules or the regulations and that has a way to really damen down the enthusiasm to go and invest. you have to have a legal system that doesn't allow for oversuing

and fourth part of that foundation is to have public schools that are accountable, because what that says is, so you are building this big facebook project out here. they are building over one million square feet. they didn't come in here if they didn't feel that the work force was going to be available. that's telling you that your public schools are headed in the right direction. i think you have one of the highest graduation rates in america. and that's the kind of message that corporate america, if you will, or for that matter, a small mom and pop business, they and if you those, want to put iowa on an even more steep trajectory up, in my opinion, you allow those men and women that believe in having those tax policies as wide as they can, the regulatory burden that is stable and predictable,

a legal system that does president allow for oversuing and accountable public schools, put those into place, and what you will have is this state going up to some of the one of the most competitive states in the nation. it can happen in iowa. and when iowa becomes that competitive, what you see is the surrounding states feel to be more compelled. you will see illinois, you will see illinois start putting policies into place to make that state be more competitive. now my caveat on this is that i mentioned four individuals that are running for the senate. they all happen to be republicans. that's the team i play for. i'm for that team. but i think there's an important message here. bransted and the house that those principles and policies in it and make that

senate a republican body, too, because that's what happened in my home state. in 2003, i want to share with you, in 2003, texas became this across-the-board republican governed state, the house, the senate, the governor and lieutenant governor. all of those individuals were republicans and for the first time since back in the 18 70's, we passed the most passing tort reform in the nation and address the tax burden and regulatory climate and the result of that was, in a very short period of time, the people of the state of texas trusted those individuals in the legislature to do the right thing if they weren't going to raise taxes just because the economy turns down. they felt comfortable so they could risk their capital and have return on investment. we saw our economy take off to the point of over that period of time since i have been governor,

almost 14 years now, 35% of all the private sector new jobs created in america have been created in texas. that can and will happen in iowa. i will tell you, it's going to happen. [applause] >> that's a powerful message. and i want to talk about washington. you have the opportunity to change the trajectory of washington, d.c. when you think about what's going on in our country and i don't think i'm the only one that thinks economically we are not where we need to be because of policies coming out of washington, d.c.,. you have harry reid and some republicans -- boy, that was a misstatement -- putting into place that make it hard for businessmen and women to make hard decisions. they are not comfortable that

they can have a return on investment. when you think about the foreign policy did he back wills, whether in libya, egypt and israel, syria and ukraine and isis, america not leading from the front. in some of these places, america not leading at all. it's time to have some real change in washington, d.c. and one of the most powerful ways that you can do that, one of the most powerful ways you can do that is to send joany ernst to the united states senate, a powerful voice, a patriotic veteran who understands that we can no longer hollow out our military. if we are going to have a powerful influence around the world, we need to project that power with a military that is able to stand up. when a red line is drawn, that red line needs to mean something in the world. it needs to mean that america is

going to stand with her allies . d the enemies of america joaney ernst understands that. iowa, over the next 84 days, you have the opportunity to change the trajectory, not just of this state but of this country. that's why i came to iowa. i came to iowa to help those men and women. when iowa is more competitive, texas is going to have to raise its game, too. so is oklahoma and the 47 other states out there in the contiguous united states and alaska and hawaii, too, they have to raise their games. that's what we are about as a people, to compete. i'm thinking when the hawkeyes play iowa state, there might be

a little competition going on there. and that's what we're about. we shun be afraid of it in the private sector and shouldn't be afraid of it in the public sector. i believe in competition. believe it's the powerful explosive, if you will, that can put this country on a trajectory like it's never been on before. i believe the greatest days are ahead of us as a country. the greatest days are ahead of this state. i believe this country is ready for that type of competition and iowa, i'm going to put it on you, iowa, i want iowa to lead this charge over the next 84 days. let's change not only america but the world by what happens here right here in the state of iowa. god bless you all and thanks for coming out here today. [applause]

[captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] [captioning performed by ational captioning institute] >> this month, c-span presents debates on what makes america great. veterans' health care, student loan debt and campus sexual

assault. new perspectives on global warming, voting rights, fighting disease and food safety. and our history tour showing sights and sounds from america's historic places. find our tv circle one week in advance and let us know what you think about the programs you're watching. call us. join the conversation, like us on facebook, follow us on twitter. >> house majority whip steve scalise was in louisiana this week. he talked about the state of congress and issues related to border security, the economy and veterans. his is 30 minutes. [applause]

>> thank you very much. i want to thank the tammany west chamber for inviting me and the work you do throughout the parish. it has been a great experience to see how the business community has grown and even more new developments coming out. i want to talk a little bit about some of the things happening in washington, some of the things we have been working on to try to solve the real problems that our country is facing. when i come back home, it's an honor to be the house majority whip but it's more of an honor to be elected to represent the people of southeast louisiana and i thank you for that opportunity and talk about some of the things i hear from you when i'm back home and good to be back home. because when we go around the district and people and i met with the north shore business council and bruce wayne gave me a real whip and making sure we know how to use that the right

way. i haven't started watching "house of cards," everyone in southeast louisiana has watched it and we'll get an eye of how that works. when you talk about the challenges we are facing right now, you look at how the economy is still struggling. this is not how it's supposed to be. whenever you have recessions and in our economy overdecades, it has gone up and down, you have recessions and have recoveries. today, there are million fewer people working today than when president obama took office six years ago and not seeing the kind of growth that you should be seeing and a lot of it is because of the policies coming out of washington and i hear all the time, when you talk to families that are frustrated for paying too much for gasoline, paying more for food and health care, even though they would be promised that they would be promised less, these are the result of policies coming out of

washington. when you look at that what we are doing to address it, there are a lot of things that have been passed by the house that are not partisan issues. people think everything is partisan and everybody is fighting, why can't you get basic things done to solve these real problems. i want to talk about some of the things that we actually passed that would directly solve these problems that are not partisan. in fact, they are very bipartisan but haven't happened. and there is an important reason why they haven't happened and clearly we don't have the leadership we need in the white house to work with us to solve these problems because they are all very fixable problems. these are not complicated problems. how do you get washington to live within its means? you do it every day. if you weren't controlling your spending and spending more and borrowing it whether from china or the bank down the street. the bank would stop lending you

money, yet why hasn't it happened in washington. first i want to talk about what we did before we left. there is a crisis along the border. this is not the normal immigration problems that our nation has had for decades. it is a fairly recent development over the last few months, 1,000 people a week coming across the border in texas. we have been trying to get the president to work with us to start addressing this problem. he has the tools today to solve it but he has chosen not to. if you look at what happened right before we left, the house and senate took up legislation to solve the crisis at the border. we had different approaches to it. the senate took up the bill and couldn't get the votes to pass it. in the house, my first day as whip they said pass an immigration bill. no border security bill passed in nine years. frankly, when you get to the

base issue, a lot of people across the country disagree how to solve the immigration problems. even within the republican conference there is disagreement. one area that most people don't disagree is that you ought to start by securing the border. prove that you can enforce existing law. get back to rule of law, because we are a nation that was built on immigrants. migrate-grandparents came from italy. you don't have a functioning immigration system. people say first secure the border. what we did is we bought up a border security bill in the house. and we worked it a we that allows the governors to call up the national guard if the federal government won't do its jobs. republicans and democrats have not done their job appropriately in securing the border. if you look what is happening right now where you have thousands of people coming over

every month, where the federal government is saying, if we catch you, they are giving themselves up, if we catch you, we will send you to a state, i talked to the governor the other day, the governor has no idea how many people were sent to louisiana. governors ask for basic things like that. but the governors have said just give me the tools that the federal government won't do its jobs, let me do the job for them and call up the national guard. we pay for it. we didn't add that to the deficit. we said that ought to be paid for out of existing funds in this year's budget. we did a few other reforms that allow for border patrol agents. right now under federal rules, the president can change this but under current federal rule, border patrol agents are not allowed to patrol thousands of miles of the federal border. does that make any sense? we are paying border agents and

say when you get to that stretch of federal land, you can't patrol that area. you know who else knows it? these people, the coyotes, it is a cannotage industry of people being paid thousands of dollars to bring people across our border illegally. they know where border patrol agents can't patrol it. changed that and said if it is federal land, they ought to be patrolled. we passed that bill and we had that will bill over to the senate and we didn't leave until we job and delayed our recess, but the senate didn't do that, but left town without completing their job. i call on the senate to come back to washington and take up the house bill and if they don't like the house bill, anybody who took kisks 101, you can can

change or amend the bill. but take this bill up and solve this crisis. we did this right before we left so we can now go and talk to people and find out what other problems you are facing and how to bring solutions to the table and i want to talk about those. if you start with the economy, in southeast louisiana, one thing we know that is a clear way to get the economy moving again is american energy. i represent the hub of development of oil and gas in the gulf of mexico. one of the high spots in our economy. you look at the 10 lowest unemployment rates in the nation right now and of those 10, half of them, half of them, their economies are based on energy. midland, texas, the lowest. north dakota, the president talks about raising the minimum wage. people will lose their jobs. that's not the right approach. go up to north dakota.

they don't have any mandates to raise the minimum wage. you start at mcdonald's making $18 because people going into that state to work and can't find enough workers because of energy. one of the top five best employment areas of the nation because of american energy. so one of the bills we brought up, there might be some disagreement. the e.p.a. wants to shut down all development of fossil fuels. they are trying to kill the coal industry and going after natural gas and will go after oil as well. if you look at one area that most people across the country is the keystone xl pipeline. here you got a proposal from canada, who's a friend of ours. canada wants to send 800,000 barrels of oil a day to the united states and they would spend $5 billion of private

money to build this pipeline and would create according to the obama administration would create 40,000 american jobs. people say, wait a minute, we could get almost one million barrels a day from canada instead of the middle eastern countries and we trade with canada 80 cents on a dollar that we don't have to send billions of dollars and use that money against us and our own troops and get less than 50 cents on the dollar. why don't you do it. 40,000 american jobs. those aren't my numbers, the president could approve that with a pen, but he won't. he refuses to, not because the labor unions don't want it. labor unions want to do it because they want to help get some of those jobs but because

of radical extreme environmentalists say don't do it. we brought up a bill in the house to say let's get those jobs and create those jobs that taxpayers want and help give us energy security so we can lower the price of gasoline at the pump and create thousands of jobs. we sent that bill over to the senate over a year ago. a lot of democrats voted on this as well. harry reid won't take it up, debate it. if a majority of his members want to take it up, send it to the president and they won't even bring that bill up in the senate. look at another area of our economy that's struggling. you have all these regulations that are coming out from washington crippling businesses. not just the e.p.a. but e.p.a. is the worst offender in sending jobs to china. look at the national labor

relations board, for example. i hear complaints so often about other agencies like the i.r.s. we have covered in the house through the investigations we have done, we have uncovered that the the speaker pro tempore: r.s. was actually targeting people based on their political beliefs. that happens in third-world nations all the time but not in the united states of america. t shouldn't happen and goss to stop. people say all of this stuff is over herend scalia is and ruth ginsburg is on the other side. more than a dozen times as the president takes these executive acks, more than a dozen times cases that have gone to the u.s. supreme court, the court has ruled unanimously that the president overreached his executive authority. so when we talk about this executive overreach, the

president using his pen to write laws, which is not legal to do, more than a dozen times the supreme court has said the president has gone too far. that doesn't happen that oven but more than -- that often but more than a dozen times. you can go back over 120 days ago. we passed a bill to pay our troops. we disagree on a lot of things. the senate doesn't agree that we should and the president doesn't agree. the president has never proposed a balanced federal budget. it's very much a priority of mine and colleagues in the house. we passed a budget that does balance. there is big disagreement in washington on that. there shouldn't be, but there is. one area we had big, big agreement is we should pay our troops. we passed bill 120 democrats

voting with us to pay our troops. you think the president signed that bill, right? the bill hasn't even come up in the united states senate, a bill to pay our troops. it would fly over in the senate and yet it hasn't even come up. we had a bill on charter schools. we have seen the success of charter schools. communities have said we have real problems in our public education systems but neighbors are saying, we want to try something better within that public school system and it's been highly successful. go to new orleans, probably the st corrupt failed public school system before hurricane katrina. and now that's a model for the nation how to transform a failed education system and done through charter schools. we brought a bill that says expand charter schools and give

those children that are trapped in failing schools and their parents give them better options. we passed that bill, you know we had over 150 democrats vote with us in the house to pass that bill to expand charter schools. incredibly bipartisan issue. you all found something that's bipartisan. clearly the senate must have passed it, did the president sign it? that bill hasn't been taken up in the united states senate, a bill with broad, bipartisan support and i want to give you one more. bill called the hire more heroes act. most of us agree when our men and women come home, they have a hard time working back into society. some of them left their job to go in the military and maybe some of them were in the reserves and had to leave behind a career and when they come back home, they want to come back

into society. had a veterans' job fair in slidell. large turnout and 150 veterans showed up and more than 40 businesses that showed up because they understand the value of hiring veterans when they come home from serving our country. we passed a bill with over 180 democrats joining us in the house to pass the hire more heroes act. the senates nt even taken that bill up. i say all this, there is a lot of good work that is being done to solve real problems and most of it is not partisan. the federal budget has become a partisan issue where liberals in washington don't believe in balancing. we don't believe that's responsible to pass it on to our kids and be more dependant on countries like china. but so many of these other issues are incredibly

bipartisan. and there have been good pieces of legislation that have been passed over in the senate to solve these problems. at some point, we have seen how civics works. you have a system of work that our founders did a debate job of setting up, checks and balances and executive branch with the legislative branch but if the house passes a bill, the senate takes it up and there is differences, you go work out those differences. it happens in the state legislature all the time. people come together and even though you might have one idea how to solve a problem, you come together to figure it out and get it done and yet you can't even start that process if we pass a bill out of the house and the senate won't even take the bill up. i wanted to point that out because people are very frustrated and i'm very frustrated that we aren't getting these problems solved and they ought to be getting

solved. there are commonsense solutions. people look at them and say that makes all the sense in the word, why can't that get done? if you had a leader in the white house to say, harry reid, take that bill up. pay-go our troops, the commander in chief, of all the things that he says he can and can't do with a pen and with a telephone, when your title is commander in chief, you have the responsibility to those men and women who are out there serving in other countries, putting their lives on the line. least you can do is pick up that phone, do it from the golf course and say harry reid. i know you disagree on a lot of stuff, take up the bill to pay our troops. get that issue off the table. over 120 democrats in the house voted for it. take that one up.

pay our troops. don't leave them hostage to these games that are being played in the senate and the president won't spend one ounce of political capital even to do that. that's not leadership. you got to have leadership in the white house if you are going to be able to get these problems solved. i will continue to get these problems solved. it's not just the republicans in the house that are going to be doing this. but at some point the senate has to do their job and i know this november we are going to have a serious election to confront this and ultimate accountability that all of you have is that when november comes along, you've got the opportunity to look and say what's been done and how has my house member and senator which if they're up, which in louisiana, we have a senate race, have they done their job? have they taken some idea to tackle this problem or are they part of the problem, are they

ignoring the problem? you can't ignore these problems anymore. you look at health care and i hear from businesses all the time. in louisiana we are facing nearly 100,000 people, men and women in louisiana are facing the loss of their health care plan because of the president's health care law. every small business i talked to, the number one thing from hiring more people is the president's health care law. this isn't just some talking point or some political commercial. i don't like the law, i don't like the president's health care law. it has nothing to do with the name of the president but the text of the bill that went through the committee i serve on in 2009 and i read the bill, the first version and every version that came after it. i have the original copy that came through the energy and commerce committee and i said this is going to create problems for families and take away people's ability to maintain

their doctor and patient relationship. the bill said to amend the internal revenue code, what does i.r.s. have to do with health care. they put layer upon layer of unelected bureaucrats between you and your doctor and it's in the bill and you could see where it was going to take away the good health care bill. probably the most repeated false statement in political history, which says a lot, but now millions of people are losing their health care, more than 100,000 just in louisiana that are going to lose their health care because of that law, we ought to repeal that law and put patients back in charge. i worked with a number of medical doctors and other experts to put the american health care reform act. you have invoke competition

where you let people buy insurance across state lines like car insurance. people are used to shopping around to find the best deal for their family and in health care, you don't have that option because of a lot of things that limit your ability to do that. we ought to do commonsense liability reform so doctors don't run tests on you. they are running tests because of frivolous lawsuits. it makes you run a lot of tests and schedule appointments you shouldn't have to go through. we do all of that in the american health care reform act. there are better ways to handle all of these problems but i'll get back to something that we have seen in southeast louisiana. you know, getting the economy back on track, it's not real complicated prospect. look at what's working.

louisiana's been doing well in terms of beating the national average in unemployment. if you look at a lot of states that are well below the national average, they are not trying to pick fights with businesses but encouraging people to bring businesses in, give individuals more freedoms and don't let government get in the way and putting regulations that have nothing to do with health or safety, but it is all about promoting some radical agenda. if the e.p.a. thinks you should only be driving around and fueling your house with windmills, that's great. if you are maxed out, you aren't going to get 20% let alone your transportation needs. there ought to be an honest conversation. american energy has prout a renaissance in manufacturing jobs. manufacturing is starting to come back but coming back

through energy and when the federal government declares war on the coal industry and not ending there, it threatens our ability to continue to provide jobs for families to create and grow a middle class. unfortunately people are being forced to learn how to do more with less. this is not the way it has to be. and you can go through our history. ronald reagan and tip o'neil did not see eye to high. reagan had tip over at the white house every week they worked well. when the complicated issues came up, they got together and solved them. look at the relationship between the president and president clinton. when problems came up, they solved them. not partisan.

very different views idealogically but when problems came up, they got together and solved them. they balanced the federal budget and got the economy moving again. this can happen again. and i'm going to continue to fight to make sure the house is making sure we are bringing these issues up and confronting the challenges our nation faces. you have to have the senate start doing their job, put some good ideas on the table. medicare will go bankrupt in just about 10 years. i don't think it's responsible to let medicare go bankrupt. we put a plan in our budget to save medicare from bankruptcy. the president and senate criticized us. they never laid a plan on the table to stop it from going bust. and so i'll continue working, continue reaching out to the president and to the senate to

do their jobs and to do their part and stepping up and confronting these big challenges. you look around the world, the world is a dangerous place. russia is trying to re-establish the old soviet union and america ties sitting by. israel, one of our strongest allies in the world. this is something that has been brewing, not only iran trying to develop nuclear weapons. do you think they will stop at israel. they see us as the debater satan and america has got to engage again. these are solveable problems. but i want to lay this out, there are ways to get our country back on track and not something that would take a long time. just reforming our tax code to make our nation more competitive again, highest tax rate in the

world. tax code is encouraging businesses to leave the country. that is ridiculous and insane policy. we ought to change those policies. i wanted to lay that out. i hear from you all the time. great to be back home because when i'm sitting down with you, these are the things that you bringing up, not only to get our economy back on track and get people back to work and you can make a profit so you can hire more people. you shouldn't be afraid to hire people. washington ought to be there to help you get back on track and ake sure that you can be successful. but with that, i thank you for having me and see if we can take ome questions. inaudible]

>> when i talk about some of those lawsuits that have gone through the courts, the e.p.a.'s abuse of the clean water act is one of those areas where they overreached their authority and the supreme court has agreed. there is a bill we passed out of the house that is called the rains act. it would solve a lot of problems. what the rains act says, if there is a federal agency, unelected bureaucrats that come up with rules that affect our economy, not carrying out laws as was stated but congress writes laws and gives agencies the ability to write rules to implement the laws and we are seeing these federal agencies go way beyond congress' intent and start writing regulations that

are outside the scope of the law. you can try to challenge those in court. sometimes you win in court. it's a very long process, but creates uncertainty. one of the things we said is if a federal agency, e.p.a., nlrb comes out with a rule or regulation that is going to have a negative impact on our economy, it has to go through congress. if it's good policy and supposedly save lives and be important for the nation, then let it go through congress and state your case in public venues, not a bunch of close-door meetings but hold hearings in public and if it is good policy, it will rule the day. but somebody's idea part of their ajeopardya that is going to hurt the economy, it should go down and not be dumped on the american people and wonder why the jobs go to china. the rains act has been sitting

in the senate for over a year. great example of how you can put checks and balances on federal agencies so unelected bureaucrats won't do things that lead to devastating impacts not only to jobs, but also things that increase our costs. you are paying more for electricity today and higher electricity costs not because of things that are coming out of laws, but things that are coming out of rules and regulations by unelected bureaucrats in washington. the rains act would stop that. there would be scrutiny and have public hearings on some of these things that are forcing people to pay more on energy and people losing jobs. i highlight the rains act of how you combat that. we passed it out of the house. the senate has yet to take it up. great to be with you. thank you for having me and

thanks for what you all do in our communities. [applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] >> here's a look at our prime time lineup each night starting at 8:00 eastern. modified food. on tuesday, issues spotlight on general motors safety recall. wednesday night, highlights from new york idea forum. thursday, we'll look at the issue of climate change and friday night, we'll visit important sites in the history of the civil rights movement. c-span, discussion about fracking. tuesday night at 8:00, "after words" on the history of money. wednesday the authors of the second machine age talk about how new technology will change every day life. thursday night, a discussion about the future of politics

with governorer lick and friday, "in depth." american history tv on c-span three. entire week on the civil war. monday, overland campaign in virginia. tuesday, the wars only battle in washington, d.c. wednesday night, the union defeat at the battle of the crater and thursday the capture of atlanta and general sherman's march to the sea and friday, hollywood's portrayal of slavery. find our television schedule one week in advance and let us know what you think about the programs you are watching. or email us at comments. join us in the conversation, like us on twitter. >> while congress is in recess, members have been holding town meetings. representative becerra held a

town hall in northeast l.a. and talked about a number of issues. his is an hour and a half. >> so welcome everyone this evening. great evening. another l.a. evening. thank you for taking the time to be here. we are going to try to move through this town hall the way we always do. what i'm going to try to do is just outline. very privileged to -- in my 22nd year as a member of congress and i thank you for giving me that opportunity. thank you to so many i have seen in town hall after town hall. thanks for those who participate in the telephone town halls in washington, d.c. i love it that you participate. so let's keep doing them. let me run through format for

those who may be new and most of you have been to my town halls in the past. i try to keep it to an hour but will go a little over. i will give you a quick presentation of what's going on in d.c. and then reserve the rest of the time. because we typically get more time to answer questions and me not picking favorites in terms of who gets to answer the question. randomly i'll select the names and go through as many as i can and i ask everyone confine themselves to asking a quick question or a quick comment and i told my staff to keep me on the clock to try to give as concise an answer as i can. other times it's tough because i find you ask good questions and sometimes i have to dig a little deeper so you get the meat of the response. let me thank the center for the

arts in using this facility. let's give them a round of applause. [applause] michael is in the back. we want to say thank you for him. let me introduce my staff. i want to make sure you know who you can connect to directly when i am not here. jill greenberg is in charge of this particular town hall. where are you? raise your hand. my district director in los angeles, raise your hand. my two field deputies cover the entire district. 700,000 people. raise your hands.

the field deputies. my press secretary. the case supervisor many of you speak to when you have an issue you need resolved. michael nielsen. ava garcia is my caseworker. many of you have spoken to her as well. two of my d.c. staffers are here this week. since we are not having votes, this is the best time to have my staff connecting coordinate. my chief of staff, who is new to the position, less than two months, but who has been with me for several years, sean mccluskey. sean is right here. sean is my new chief of staff. he has been my policy director for quite some time. if you ever want to talk health care, this is the guy to do it with. he knows as much as you will ever want to know.

if you ever need to hire mariachi, danny is probably as good at marriott gse is a communications. he has a voice and he plays guitar. he is really good, really, really good. let me introduce my interns. they get the loudest round of applause because they do tremendous work. they are fabulous college students, and we get them for free. melissa from uc berkeley. assad from usc. caesar from uc riverside and lily from williams college. wave your hands. thank you to them for their work. to armando florez who is doing our translating to assist those who need help understanding what we are saying. [speaking spanish]

who has the ear phones for the spanish translation? -- right here. i want to thank our guest from the los angeles police department who have been gracious enough to be here today. if we have any questions particular to the lapd, i know they would be willing to respond. they are also here to make sure everything goes well. one of the requirements for members of congress is to make sure we protect your safety as well as mine. we have never had to use them, but it is great that lapd make themselves available. let me introduce you to the senior lead officers. thank you all very much for

being with us. ok. having done that, let me just again mention some things about d.c.. maybe to stimulate conversation, but mostly to give you a sense of what is going on. i hope most of you receive the newsletter i just recently sent out. we have copies here as well. it gives information about what is going on. let me mention a couple of things that are pressing. you may have heard the congress finally was able to reconcile differences in passed legislation to deal with the veterans administration crisis going on with our veterans. essentially, what has been happening is that with so many vets coming in as a result of finishing up their tours of duty in iraq and afghanistan and elsewhere, but also because the president did something i think presidents should have done

before him a long time ago, and that is to re-gauge the situation for veterans as far back as vietnam. remember agent orange? remember some of those things? we never gave that's full accountability and credit for their service, having served at a time when we use things like agent orange. many of them came back and suffered healthwise and we never gave them full credit for the disability they may have suffered due to the fact that they served at a time when we were using chemical agents. president obama said you are getting on in nature. it is difficult to document 100% that your chronic emphysema or whatever it might be was caused by agent orange or something else, but there is a chance it could have been, a good likelihood, and rather than make veterans can only partial service from v.a. for that and

then have to go on and find services somewhere else at a high expense, the president that it's time to give service to our men and women who serve and consider it 100%. as a result of that, more vets made use of veterans health services. you put that in combination with all the men and women coming back from iraq and afghanistan, and it was too much. remember, today's soldiers are surviving what would've killed that soldier 40 years ago in vietnam. think. they are surviving, but they come back with injuries that make it difficult for them to adjust and get work and all the rest. so a compromise to hill said this -- a compromised bill said this, for veterans who have been waiting more than 30 days to get

into a v.a. system and get their care, or for veterans who live more than 40 miles from a v.a. facility, they are going to be able to go to a health-care provider locally, close by, without having to go to a va hospital or center to get their services. that is to get them through the door right away. we are also providing additional services for the v.a. to beef up services so they can bring more doctors and health-care providers to provide service to those in the system. we are trying to beef up the v.a. as quickly as we can so we can provide them with the services they earned. they don't just deserve them. they earned them. madison signed by the president, so that will be underway. two, we just passed a bill -- that will be signed by the president, so that will be

underway. two, we just signed a bill on transportation. in l.a., we have seen major projects going forward. the purple line is moving west toward the ocean. we were able to secure funding that will help us move forward with that project, that is costing several billion dollars. we secured close to $800 million in federal loan moneys. that's about $2 billion to help extend that subway line to the west. we recently secured about two thirds of a billion dollars for what is being called the regional connector line downtown. if you try to travel mass transit downtown on the trains and subways, you often have to get off one to get on another. with the regional connector, it will be a seamless trip. it will be a lot more convenient for people who want to use mass transit to get around.

we got a grant commitment from the federal government for two thirds of a billion dollars and about another $200 million in loan guarantees as well. that will help cover a large portion of that connector. we are also going to be doing construction on the 6th street bridge. many of you are aware it needs refurbishing. it is not going to be just a patch job. a lot of work needs to be done. the transportation projects are not done in three months. many are not done in three years because they are very big projects. the difficulty in washington is we have not been able to get consensus, bipartisan consensus on reauthorizing the

transportation legislation, the law that makes possible all of these major infrastructure projects for rail, highway, buses, freeways and roads. and we didn't again. these past couple of weeks, we passed a patch bill. it moves us forward eight months. that's good because by then the highway trust fund would be so depleted that the federal government would have to inform the states, you know the money you're going to get from the highway trust fund, we have to take a back. if we gave you the full amount you were due, we would run out of trust fund moneys to quickly. of course, the state can not go to some contractor who is about to purchase steel for a bridge renovation where the guy who

purchases the asphalt and cement to do the highway renovation. just do me a favor. by about four months of that stuff. you don't do it that way. time is money. we have to do what we typically do, and that's about a five-seven your bill on transportation. so counties and cities and major contractors and no ok, i can forecast for 5-7 years. hopefully when we come back we will get to work on doing the long-term transportation bill that everyone needs so we can get those tax dollars that when you go to the gas station and pumped gas in your car, that gas money helps pay for those projects. we need to get that money coming back in a smart way. there are any number of things i can tell you about. we can talk about international issues, international hotspots. he can talk about education,

immigration, the situation that the border with the kids who have come. we can talk about all of those things. but let me do this. let me stop and see how much time we have. we have a good 45 minutes. i can stay a little after we finish because i know sometimes a lot of you want to say a quick hello. we can do that. so after we break, we can stick around a little longer. please do me a favor and if you are going to say hello, just make it a quick hello because sometimes people want to unload all of their worries and cares and we have a long line of people who just want to say hello and it is tough. here is the bowl with the names. l.a., we are starting again to see activity. residentially, we have seen housing prices jump again -- i think a little too fast, and i know if you live in eagle rocket is a little scary. it's reminiscent of what we saw

before. it's heating up too much. i just told you about the construction projects. i told you about the guys i met with from the building and construction trade. construction had some of the highest rates of unemployment over the last several years. you had somewhere between 15%-30% unemployment, laborers, operating engineers, all the construction folks were really feeling it because everything got shut down, essentially. now they are starting to churn. they are starting to churn, and they are decent paying jobs. we like that, because we need to start the economy. and there are some decent science. things are still tough -- signs. things are still tough for a lot of families in america, but they have gotten better.

last month we had more than 200,000 jobs created by the private sector. that's good. but the actual unemployment rate ticked up, not down. what's going on? a lot of folks during the 2008 crash who could not get to back -- get back to work quickly left the workforce. they are discouraged workers who don't even get counted in the unemployment rates. now they are feeling better in coming back into the system. even though 200 thousand plus jobs were created last month in this country, the unemployment rate went up in knots because more of those discouraged workers are filing again to get noticed to be part of the system to try to get jobs. which is good. i don't think you can see that very well, can you? you can see it some.

with the lights from the cameras, it is also tough. here is another chart. maybe -- let me hold it up. the red is the beginning of the 2008 wall street crisis, where essentially everything shut down. just a quick note -- and i know i wanted to close, but in september, two thousand eight, democrats were in the majority of the house at the time. nancy pelosi was speaker of the house. on a saturday, i remember, i was in california. she called and she said we need to do a conference call, i just got a call from the president of the united states, george bush. she said he needed immediate action on a bill he wanted to send to us on monday. she asked us all together for a conference call. in the conference call she said

this is what the president just said to me. he is going to send me a bill asking for $800 billion and he needs it by monday. if he doesn't get it by monday, wall street will crash and take the whole economy with it. we started asking the questions about how the money was going to be used. the legislation did not get passed on monday because a lot of folks were saying wait a minute, 800 billion dollars, for whom and for what? it took several times. during that time, if you look back, the market gyrated. it was swinging like 600 points in a day. well, what was going on is the beginning of that red. in the beginning of that red is job losses. the bottom of the red lines,

those were months in america where we were losing about 21,000 american jobs per day. over 800,000 jobs in january of 2009. and during that time, the red, everything below the zero line, those were all job losses. we lost over 8 million jobs in that short time. the economy collapsed. you couldn't borrow anymore. small businesses no longer have a line of credit. banks aren't lending. they had so many toxic loans, they didn't know who they could lend to and who would pay it back. so when they stopped lending, they stopped the wheels of the economy.

four 52 consecutive months, since a little after that crash, we have had job growth. but you don't see any blue line above the zero line that matches anything near the loss of jobs. so, 200,000 jobs, two hundred 80,000 jobs a month before, good. but when you lose 800 and one month, you need four good months to just catch up to one month. that's what's difficult. so the president has worked really hard with the private sector to see what we can do, but that's a lot of making up to do. and that's the difficulty. so many of us believe we still have to try to jumpstart the economy, and there are some simple things we can do to do that. we think we should concentrate on mostly middle-class americans right now because they are the

ones who have been hit the hardest. if you are a rich, you're not going to feel it. warren buffett loss of major dollars during the downturn, but he is making some major dollars now. if you are very low income, we have programs to help you from falling through the safety net altogether. in some cases not enough, but we don't let people die on the streets and suffer that way. but the middle class, try to send your kid to college today if you are making $60,000-$70,000. it's very difficult. try to buy a house in eagle rock. it's not beverly hills. maybe in some peoples opinions it's better than beverly hills.

we like our home in eagle rock. there are some basic things we can do. one of the things some of us would do is -- to me this was an easy one. if you are a company in america and you decide to shut down some of your jobs, and you reopen some of that manufacturing in another country, you get to write off the cost of sending jobs to that country and hiring people in that other country even if you let people in america go so you could do it over there because the wages are lower. but if you open a new job in america in your company, you don't get any kind of tax relief for that. it's a little upside down. we give you tax relief if you ship a job overseas, but not if you open up a new job for an american here. use the money we give away in tax credits to countries that ship jobs overseas to give tax credits to companies that create

new jobs. net increase. you want to do a net increase? we will give you a tax credit. weekend pay for it by not giving -- we can pay for it by not giving tax credits to companies that ship jobs overseas. employee pay a stagnant right now. that's another problem. we are creating jobs but we don't see a big bump in salaries. where do we see a big bump? ceo pay. today if you are a worker in a company, it is not unheard of to watch your president and chief executive officer make about 400 times what you make. when i was a kid, when my parents were working hard, the difference between the president of the company and the line worker was about dirty 5-40 ti -- 35-40 times greater, which is still pretty good money. today it's about 400 times. so let's do this. when you pay salary as a businessperson -- if any of you have a business -- that's an expense. all of your salaries to all of your employees or expenses. let's say i make $10 million in profits and i pay myself a million dollars and pay the rest of my workers another million dollars. that's $2 million in business expenses. net that away from my 10 million 10 million dollars in profits,

and of making $8 million in profits. what if i have a million and expenses for my employee salaries and the pay myself $9 million. that's a total of $10 million. guess how much i have in profits now? zero. do i pay on zero profit? zero. why should we subsidize companies that are willing to pay ceos in the tens of millions of dollars by giving them tax breaks that allow them to write off part of the seo salary when it is so high. if you are going to pay your chief executive more than a million dollars and you want to be able to write it off, then you have to be able to show you have also increased pay for your front-line workers as well. otherwise, you can raise the salary for that ceo but you can't get a tax write off for having done it. maybe it will make them think more about sharing

some of the games with those who helped make the profit possible. we cannot continue to see middle-class workers have their incomes stay stagnant when the cost of college, housing, health care goes up. i will stop there. let's take questions. let me pick a few names. ok, i have three names. we will go on the order that i selected them. the first person i named will get to go first. raise your hand. if you'll step out in the ilm will make it easier. we have microphones. the first person is anna garcia. then we have alexia.

then hunter cobb. those three will go first and then we will just keep knowing down the line. if you could do us a favor, your question or comment as concise as possible and i will try to be as well. >> thank you for holding the town hall. my question is regarding the issue of unaccompanied minors that have gone through severe trauma fleeing imminence poverty. how likely is it that these children are going to receive refugee status? >> the situation at the border, most of the kids are coming from three countries, el salvador, guatemala, and honduras. the law in place today which provides relief for those kids if they can prove they have a fear of persecution or death would allow them to get asylum, not refugee status. it is different.

a refugee in the home country are saying they need to escape and someone on the ground says, yes. like in syria, iraq. you have relief organizations who say absolutely you cannot remain here because you will perish because these terrorists or rubbles will come after you. we know you are a refugee and then you get to come to a particular country. someone seeking asylum said they had to flee their country in secret and now they are here showing up at the doorstep of the border. if i am sent back, i fear persecution or death. please give me asylum. they would qualify if they could meet that standard for asylum. it's a distinction that a lot of people do not make. >> if they are under 18 years of age, unaccompanied minors, the law says you treated differently

than a minor that is with an adult. what are you doing here, etc. those who come with an adult go through the process with an adult because it is far faster because you can ask the adult if you are are sick you did. if the adult says yes, then we process them quicker and we send them back. you have seen the news where some of these people were sent back because they could not prove they had a fear of persecution or death. can they prove fear of persecution or death? many will tell you that they have actually witnessed murder and torture of their family members or others. many have told stories about how it a do not join the gang they

will be killed. for some kids, they will be able to make those claims. it will be tough for a 10 or 12-year-old to make the claim which is why they are giving assistance. the sticking point here is the time it takes to process them. because it's a large number and we are not equipped, there are 240 immigration judges in the united states. to give you perspective, in the county of los angeles, there are twice as many judges just in the county of los angeles as there are the total number of immigration judges for the entire u.s. you have this bottleneck and it's making the process take a while. but i think will happen is a number of these kids if given the opportunity to present their

case will be able to make a claim. they will be given the opportunity. while they are waiting to have their hearing, the law requires they be treated under the lease restrict it setting as possible. you do not want to have a kid block the. if there's a way to have them with a responsible adult who is related, we will do that. if not come you try to find a temporary setting, possibly foster care. that is what you do. you monitor them and get a hearing. there's legislation about whether we change the law or not. some people want to change the law so in five or seven days you can process them and send them back. i'm against that. i'm not one of those that for the grace of god could it have been me. i'm the son of immigrants. my country is better than that and we can do this the right

way. at the same time, we don't have an obligation to keep kids who, simply for economic reasons. if you were duped and you get a permit -- no. i want our country to have a good heart to we have to do this the right way. we have the situation where you prove you really need a place to shelter were you might face persecution or death, absolutely. as much as i feel for you because of economic conditions, you've got to do it the right way. the next question from alexia then hunter. >> i'm over here. thank you for giving me a minute or two, congressman. good to see you again. sometimes, some of us who are very low income, the city of the country keeps taking from us. you know it's very difficult.

there are people out there who need but there are also the ones who don't want to give a penny. i'm not saying don't take some if you really needed, but when some of us are in dire need, teeth, glasses, and it's taken away from us and more, they might as well just dig a hole in the ground and put us there. if there is anything us you can do to help your friends up there, thank you. >> i appreciate the comment. again, we have a responsibility as a sovereign nation to our whether it is through medicare, the pell grant program for students going to college, we try to figure out ways for all of us to succeed. i'm the first in my family to get a college degree. i got a lot of aid from the stanford. i worked all four years.