it is basically an educated district. it is also a working-class district. i go from trenton to princeton to plainfield to old bridge in south brunswick. host: what are some of the typical requests that come up for your constituents that are addressed here on the hill? rep. bonnie watson coleman: i have a large senior population concentrated in the communities that have been built for seniors. social security and medicare. access to good public education and deported -- and affordable higher education. also, jobs, jobs, jobs. and public safety on top of it. [indiscernible]

--host: -- rep. bonnie watson coleman: we have had constituents that have had problems with immigration. we have been able to pull it out of the system and straighten it out for them. we have a very large immigration population in my district. that has been something that we have been very proud of. we have very strong caseloads back in the district for if people have questions and concerns of that nature. host: long-term, what would you like to accomplish in the house? rep. bonnie watson coleman: i would like it to become majority controlled democrat so we can get back to the work of working families and ensuring we have the safety net needed for those in the greatest need, whether it is our elderly or our children. i would like to make sure that

we are the progressive nation we have been. that we protect and respect the woman's right to choose, and that we will ensure that the there is unfettered access to voting. that is what i would like to accomplish. host: how long would you like to serve and do you believe in term limits? rep. bonnie watson coleman: i believe that the terms are limited by the people voting or not voting for you. how long i will serve is dependent upon what god has for me and what the constituents and voters of the congressional district have for me. host: you mentioned that your husband is partly retired. what is it like when you are back in a district work period or on the weekends? rep. bonnie watson coleman: i go to a lot of events and have meetings with constituents that can't make it to washington. i try to make sure that i am seen in the community and accessible to those who are

supporting me and looking for me to support them in washington. host: is the work you do here exponentially harder than the work you were doing in the legislature in new jersey? rep. bonnie watson coleman: it's different in a sense that it has a national and international focus. i was not involved in homeland security when i was in the state legislature. that is the committee i am on here. obviously, i am looking broadly beyond our borders into what is happening around the world and how it affects our homeland security. basically, the issues may be the same but looked at differently and the role of federal government may be different in them. it's environmental issues,

employment, civil rights, union rights, all of those things. access and affordability to health care and education. host: what has surprised you the most since your swearing in in january? rep. bonnie watson coleman: my republican colleagues refusing to let go the issues that have already been won in court such as a woman's right to choose. they singularly focused on immigration from the south and the refusal to move beyond those issues. host: your day-to-day routine on capitol hill, what do you like the most and least? rep. bonnie watson coleman: i like the movement. i like moving from one thing to

the next. i like the excitement of it. i probably like the least being taken away from a committee meeting or something and then having to leave and come back and get that momentum back. host: after a vote? rep. bonnie watson coleman: yeah . sometimes i am frustrated about voting so much on procedural issues or having to push back on issues that have already been addressed. the other day, we were looking at interfering with a woman's right to choose. every other day, there is some negative immigration legislation attached to something that it doesn't belong with. every other day, we are fighting to make sure that people have greater access to affordable health care and not reduced access. probably dealing with those issues over and over and over again is probably that which i like the least. host: congresswoman bonnie

watson coleman of new jersey thank you for being with us. announcer: the french, british and german ambassadors to the u.s. will give us an update on the iran nuclear agreement. later in the day a report on high incarceration rates in the u.s. we currently have the highest number of people incarcerated in the world. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] next a look at u.s. war policy during the presidency of george w. bush. speakers include former veterans affairs secretary james nicholson and new york times chief white house correspondent peter baker. this is part of a conference at hofstra university.

[captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2015] host: welcome. i am an associate professor here at hofstra and i am pleased to be serving as moderator for this distinguished forum. a wars in iraq and afghanistan are arguably the most controversial and consequential decisions of the bush administration. the decision to go to war, how to get out of the wars, and related issues have not only dominated the bulk of president bush's time in office, but have also shaped current u.s. foreign-policy options in and around the regions. they will continue to do so into the foreseeable future. there is very little doubt that

the wars in afghanistan and iraq will continue to be measures by which the legacy of the george w. bush foreign policy will be measured. with that in mind, the conference organizers have brought together this outstanding panel of public servants, journalists, and scholars to examine the way the bush administration waged wars and the consequences of them. each of our panelists is extremely accomplished and i will try to keep the introductions relatively brief although that is hard with a group like this. as i go through, i would ask that you please hold your applause until i have introduced everyone and we can welcome them altogether. giving us perspectives from the administration, we first have thomas basilay, appearing on

forms such as sirius xm radio. for the bush administration in 2003 through 2004, he was a senior press advisor to the authority in iraq. he was a consultant for the republican national committee, presidential campaign, and prior to this service he was director of communications for the u.s. environmental protections agency in 2001 through 2003, and was part of the bush-cheney campaign. he is a hofstra alum as well graduating with a degree in political science and he was named the 2007 hofstra young alumnus. ambassador james nicholson is currently senior counsel at brownstein hyatt farber schreck

counseling clients in health care, regulatory law international relations, oil and gas, and alternative energy. from 2005 before this appointment he was u.s. ambassador to the holy seat during which he was knighted by john paul ii for his human rights. ambassador nichols has been the director of the new community development corporation commissioner and the commissioner on the defense advisory on women services. he was the chairman of the national committee from 2007 to 2001. lawrence wilkerson is distinguished adju