the settling up of the transportation bill. it is meeting for its daily session and we go right now. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the .s. house of representatives.] 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., december 1, 2015. i hereby appoint the honorable trent kelly to act as speaker pro tempore on this day. signed, paul d. ryan, speaker of the house of representatives . the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the order of the house of january 6, 2015, 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 but in to five minutes, no event shall debate continue beyond 11:50 a.m. the chair recognizes the gentleman from pennsylvania, mr. thompson, for five minutes. thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, a few weeks ago i participated in a forum that was hosted by a foundation that was created in 1980 by congress and this foundation is the national fish and wildlife the tion, or nfwf, and forum was the connection between agriculture and the chesapeake bay. now, the streams and rivers are

in a large portion in the district drain into it. this is also a region which depends on agriculture, the commonwealth's largest industry. among the topics of discussion to the forum was the chesapeake stewardship grants which is funded by the u.s. department of the environmental protection, administered by nfwf. this funding goes towards the restoration of streams which flows into the bay and to those that cut down on nutrient and sediment pollution. this fall i joined the foundation in touring several sites across pennsylvania's fifth congressional district, which were all funded by these grant programs. these sites show the direct connection between agriculture and the health of the chesapeake bay and all of them located on form land. the project ranged -- the projects range from those which keep animal waste out of waterways and flood control and stream bank restoration, all of

which improve the overall health of the local streams, local watersheds and ultimately the health of the chesapeake bay. as chairman of the house agriculture subcommittee on conservation forestry, as well as a member of the house natural resources committee, the health of our water sheds is critically important. healthy watersheds is needed for the sustainability of agriculture and the land. as i explained during the forum, the commitment to agriculture and healthy watersheds continues through the passage last year of a five-year farm bill and the various conservation programs contained within title 2 of that farm bill. the tour that the national fish and wildlife foundation watershed projects along with this recent forum gave me the opportunity to hear firsthand from farmers, agriculture leaders and those involved in the restoration of streams and rivers and what can be done here in washington to help improve the quality of water in our local rivers, streams, the

chesapeake bay watershed and the bay itself. i look forward to working with the agriculture community and the many conservationists as we prepare for the next re-authorization of the farm bill. thank you, mr. speaker, and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the chair recognizes the gentleman from oregon, mr. blumenauer, or five minutes. mr. blumenauer: the eyes of the world on paris as it recovers from one tragedy and as 150 world leaders gather to prevent another. they meet to secure a global agreement on climate change, reliance on fossil fuels, especially coal, wasteful expensive energy consumption shortchanges today's priorities and threatens our future. 10 years from now, even many of the current climate skeptics will wonder, what were we thinking? the scientific evidence and the overwhelming consensus it has created is clear. the immediate impacts of record

temperatures, erratic, very dangerous weather patterns, ocean acidification, drought, disease, social disruption, wildfires all have predictable impacts that have already cost us dearly with many more severe problems on the horizon. it is sad that what should be a straightforward scientific conclusion has become a emotionally charged and politically volatile. it is embarrassing and ironic that in the middle of this historic event on climate change, as the world consensus is strengthening and moving towards action, the best that our republican congress can do is voting on two pieces of legislation that would undo much of the progress we've already done. the republican leader in the senate argues that the carbon rule of the administration is a vast overreach, that the -- at the same time the obama policies won't accomplish anything and then work to

undermine their effectiveness. we will then vote on h.r. 8, a fossil fuel giveaway that will do nothing do to combat climate change but only accelerate the problem. the best solution to the climate threat, not the foolish votes, but the action that has the potential to resolve other strofle issues while addressing our major climate changes. it's past time that our congress enact a revenue neutral fee on carbon emissions. this would not be an excuse to expand government spending in new programs but instead simplify and solve current problems in a cost effectsive -- cost-effective manner. consider for a moment that high on the list of problems in addition to climate change, almost everyone thinks we should fix our broken corporate tax code. we should avoid the looming social security deficit and streamline the patchwork of uneven energy subsidy

provisions. a revenue-neutral carbon tax is a proven market mechanism to reduce the devastating carbon pollution. we could sweep away expensive and often conflicting clean energy subsidies and replace them with something much more effective. we could use the carbon revenues, not for new programs, but to eliminate the looming 25% cut in social security. acting quickly while a solution is more affordable and less disruptive to the lives of our seniors. at the same time, we could adjust the social security tax downward to protect middle and lower income people from the impacts of the fee and we could boost small business, shielding them from part of the costs and lowering the payroll tax they pay, making it cheaper for them to employ people. finally, a portion of the revenues could be used to buy down the world's highest

corporate tax rate that the united states currently has, which distorts business decisions and places us in a competitive disadvantage with other developed countries. think about it. we could solve the climate threat, make the tax system simpler, more fairer and effective, avoid the looming social security crisis and shield individuals and small business from undo impact of the carbon few while making our businesses more competitive. that's about as close as you an get to a nonpartisan, nonideological grand slam policy. instead of policies of division and denial, it's time for us to come together, supporting a revenue-neutral carbon tax to solve multiple problems and meet our obligations to our hildren and grandchildren.

the speaker pro tempore: the chair recognizes the gentleman from west virginia, mr. rooney, for five minutes. thank you, mr. speaker. i rise today to recognize the lives of two outstanding americans who passed away in october. both men were part of the greatest generation and served our country honorably during the second world war. william bostic jr., also known as wil, passed away on october 30. he was a native of west virginia, born in 1922, lived most of his life in ravenswood in the second congressional district and was the son of william bostic sr. and nancy lou. in 1943 he was called to serve his country and serve it well he did. bill served in the pacific theater where he was injured in the line of duty. on february 8 of 1945, corporal

bostic was serving as a member of a military liaison party when the enemy began attacking with rocket, mortars in support of demolition units. bill, with complete disregard for his own safety, left his foxhole and crawled to a point where he could better communicate with the supporting artillery. after establishing communications, he was struck by enemy mortar fragments and though seriously wounded refused to leave his post until the enemy attack had been repulsed. his utter disregard for his own ersonal welfare and own duty adjusted artillery fire that broke up the enemy attack. for this act of gallantry, bill was awarded the silver star. during his 11 years of service to our country, he also earned six bronze stars, a purple heart and a good conduct ribbon, just to name a few. bill is survived by his wife of

5 years, paul even bostic -- pauline bostic. he will be laid to rest at the arlington national cemetery. mr. douglas clayton fargo, doug, is another true american hero who passed away. doug lived in charlestown, west virginia, for over 25 years. after graduating from high school, doug enlisted with the u.s. army and served from 1944 to 1946. he fought in nine major battles and was quickly elevated in rank from a private to a sergeant as he served under the great general george paton. he was awarded the bronze star and the combat infantry badge for his services. in 1951 he was recalled to active duty and served another two years in the korean war where he received his field commission as lieutenant.

he led 11 combat patrols and was awarded a second bronze star and a second combat infantry badge as well as 18 other ribbons and decorations. after his retirement, he remained active in the community and stayed involved with a number of veterans' organizations, including the korean war veterans organization, and quanas and ilitary officers of military association. he was preceded in death by his first wife and second wife as well as the last love of his life. additionally, mr. fargo lost his grandson, adam joseph fargo, on july 22, 2006, when he was killed in action while fighting in iraq. doug will also be buried in the arlington national cemetery. bill and doug were fantastic men who served their country and their communities with honor. thank you, mr. speaker. i yield back the balance of my time.

the speaker pro tempore: the chair recognizes the gentleman from illinois, mr. quigley, for five minutes. mr. quigley: thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, this week more than 40,000 negotiators from 196 governments have descended on the french capital for the paris climate summit. this summit provides the world with a critical opportunity to take a significant step toward creating an ambitious and effective global framework for addressing climate change. climate change is no longer a problem for future generations. it is our problem and we must act now. paris gives that opportunity. the science demonstrating the reality of climate change advances by the day. in fact, 14 of the 15 warmest years on record have occurred since the year 2000. and 2015 is on track to be the warmest year of all. no country, no matter how large or small, wealthy or poor, is

immune to the detrimental effects we will face if we do not address this global climate crisis. the good news is there has been quite a bit of global action over the past few months leading up to the paris summit. nearly 180 countries covering more than 95% of the global greenhouse gas emissions have pledged to take steps to reduce co-2 emissions. a u.n. report shows that pledges submitted so far represents a step in global action which will curtail the world's carbon trajectory. if those pledges are implemented, global warming would slow to roughly 3 degrees by 2100. while this isn't enough to meet u.n. targets, it's better than the four to five-degree increase if nothing were done. with such a significant and impactful opportunity in front of us, many eyes are on the u.s. what will we do, how will we act?

as the world's largest economy and the second largest emitter of carbon dioxide, we cannot stand by and do nothing. thanks to president obama, we have made real progress in advancing our goals of reducing emissions and improving our air quality. i recallier this year the administration -- earlier this year the administration finalized the clean power plan which establishes the first standards to eliminate carbon pollution from existing power plants. it will prevent 300,000 missed work days and school days. all the while creating tens of thousands of jobs and saving american families money on their energy bills. right now world leaders at the paris climate summit are working to forge international progress on the climate crisis. so it comes as no surprise to my colleagues here in congress are taking action on this important topic as well.

not so much. in paris they are developing a road map to gradually reduce greenhouse gas emissions. in washington, we are voting on resolutions that would nullify the only national plan we have to address carbon pollution. in paris the burden of slashing greenhouse gases is being shared by everyone, not just the wealthy countries. in washington, some, the majority, are reluctant to take any blame for this growing crisis. this all makes perfect sense, right? at a time when the world is coming together to address one of the defining issues of our lifetime, some of my colleagues have decided to sabotage american leadership on this critical topic. this is not what american families need and this is certainly not what the world needs to see from a global leader. theodore roosevelt once said, knowing what's right doesn't mean much unless you do what's

right. we know we are running out of time to mitigate a climate change. if we fail to take meaningful action now, that knowledge will mean nothing. as with any globe challenge, climate change will not be solved in one fell swoop. no single action, no single government, and no single summit will decisively address one of the greatest global threats our world has ever seen. but paris does allow us the opportunity to devise a common purpose, to create a bert world for future generations. -- better world for future generations. i urge my colleagues to do the right thing, vote against these harmful environmental riders on the floor this week and allow america to be the leader on climate change. thank you. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the chair recognizes the gentleman from kentucky, mr. barr, for five minutes. mr. speaker, i rise

today to celebrate the life and note the end of watch for officer daniel ellis, originally of campbellsville, kentucky, and more recently of richmond, contract c on november 6, officer ellis was suddenly and tragically killed while on duty as an officer with the richmond police department. as the father of a young family, my heart breaks for his wife and their 3-year-old son. officer ellis was known by his friends and family to have a gentle spirit and is servant's heart. his death while tragic has united kentuckians in honoring his service in richmond. my wife, carol, and i were privileged to attend the memorial service for officer ellis on the campus of eastern kentucky university. thousands of people lined the streets to show their support during his funeral procession. blue ribbons and wreaths adorned the windows of local businesses.

and 7,000 mourners packed eastern kentucky university's alumni coliseum, including law enforcement officers from around the commonwealth and the nation. to honor the life of officer ellis, a life as was noted during the service, that was devoted to justice, kindness, and service to others. his death is a tragic reminder of the dangerous, self-less, and heroic work done by law enforcement officers and first responders each and every day. i thank officer ellis for his service and devotion to our community. and we celebrate and honor his life. thank you, mr. speaker, i yield back the balance of my time.

the speaker pro tempore: the chair recognizes the gentleman from texas, mr. veasey, for five minutes. mr. veasey: mr. speaker, i rise today to respectfully share with y colleagues some of the thoughts and concerns shared by residents in the dallas-fort worth metroplex. these are heartfelt views expressed since we last met as a legislative body and voted on the passage of the american safe act. a passionate, public discussion is under way about the role the united states should play during one of the greatest humanitarian crisis of our time. i have received calls, emails, handwritten letters, text, facebook messages thoughts and concerns from fell texans back home. many have expressed clearly they think some of the enhanced security clearances for syrian and iraqi refugees really means that america's legacy as a nation that shares its freedom and opportunity is endangered.

they have expressed their disappointment. sometimes anger that we may be allowing our national security concerns to trump our nation's history of standing for liberty and justice. and i will take a moment to share their thoughts and views to ensure my colleagues that we also consider their views when making any future decision about the syrian refugee crisis. one resident stated, voting for a pause and accepting refugees from iraq and syria may not slow down the trickle that arrived here, but it is a huge symbolic vote. while another resident stated, the safe act only makes it harder for good people to flee from danger and being used by isil and his hope that the obama administration will be able to provide what congress needs to do its job and that good members reconsider the safe act and to override the

president's impending veto. other residents like one in arlington directly stated that this bill was wrong. let me be clear, i did not view the safe act as a vote against syrian or iraqi refugees or the greater refugee community. but the constituents that i represent have sent a strong message that any action that does not effectively balance national security with our national values is off course. we must remember that the statue of liberty is more than just a symbol of freedom. it is a symbol that america is committed to welcoming and protecting those who seek and need refuge. . my democratic colleagues have joined me in supporting legislation that echos this sentiment. we sent letters to the administration and agency upporting refugees this past year. i have co-signed a letter to president obama urging him to convene international negotiations to stop the syrian civil war. co-sponsor religious north

persecute act of 2015. this legislation directs the secretary of state to establish or use existing refugee processing mechanisms to allow those with a credible fear of persecution by isil for gender, religious, or ethnic membership to apply for refugee admission to the united states. but we can do more as a congress to support the goals of refugee resettlement and keep the american people safe at the same time. if we vote to update the refugee resettlement program, we must also allocate appropriate funds to ensure that men, women, and children fleeing violence do not get caught in unnecessary bureaucracy. as a congress, we can give legislative teeth to security enhancements to the visa waiver program implemented by the department of homeland security earlier this year. we can fully fund the president's budget request for aviation security, and we can support and expedite our efforts to expand preclearance capability of foreign airports

around the world. doing so will provide us with a greater ability to prevept those who should not be -- to prevent those who should not be flying here. i am committed to keeping americans safe, i know that doing so is not inconsistent with providing refuge to some of the world's most vulnerable people. to turn our backs on refugees would be to betray our values. the united states is a welcoming country that knows diversity equals strength. our resettlement program must continue to reflect this. any legislation that challenges this legacy should be rejected. i will continue to keep residents' thoughts and concerns at the forefront of my decisionmaking and i thank them for reaching out to me over the last week. i urge my colleagues to do the same. mr. speaker, i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the chair recognizes the gentleman from pennsylvania, mr. costello, for five minutes. mr. costello: thank you. mr. speaker, i rise today to

speak about the issue of public education in america and what we need to do here in washington, d.c., to improve our public ucationcies tefment -- education system. i specifically rise today to urge passage of the student success act. students e of putting first. the bottom line, mr. speaker, is that right now the federal education bureaucracy has imposed more mandates on local classrooms, on students, on teachers, on administrators than was ever intended or contemplated by our constitution . and seengsly runs afoul of the principles of -- essentially runs afoul of the principles of federalism. that being if power is not vested upon the federal government to do something, it should be left to the states or even more local subdivisions, in this case our local school boards. the students access act seeks to empower eaches, administrators, -- teachers, parents, and

students, by sending control to school boards and classrooms across the contry. mr. speaker, the students success act accomplishes a great deal for the sake of the student. i'm going to spend a minute explaining how and why that is, but it's also important to point out what happens if we do not ass this bill. more curriculum mandates out of washington, d.c. more testing mandates out of washington, d.c. if we do not pass this bill, we get more of that. it if we do not pass this bill, we have more power and control administered at the sole discretion of the secretary of education. as it stands right now. the secretary of the education it has the power of the purse at his disposal, and we have a waiver program that essentially plays out as follows.

if the secretary of education at the federal level likes what you're doing with your curriculum and accountability measures at the local level, you get grant money. if he doesn't like it, you don't get the grant money. way too much discretion in washington, d.c., over how public education is managed and administered in this contry. that's not the way it was -- country. that's not the way it was intended to be. the waiver program, which is in effect right now, is acting as a topdown lever to dictate what is taught in the classrooms, how it's taught, when and how much testing should be employed by teachers, how they teach in the classroom, and when students have to take tests. i cannot tell you how often i hear from parents and students and teachers lamenting about not only the day spent testing but the days spent preparing to test. and the effort with the student

success act is to roll that back and have states take a leadership role in that and the federal government retreat, reduce the federal footprint in federal -- in education in this country. this is not a partisan issue. this is an issue of fairness. it's only fair that teachers and parents get more say over public education and washington, d.c., gets less. a vote against this bill is a vote for the status quo. and i don't think anyone really, truly wants public education more out of washington, d.c. the student success act ensures that states cannot be coerced into common core. if we do not pass this bill, the secretary of education through the waiver program has more ability to impose common core. by passing this bill, states cannot be coerced into the common core curriculum. the student success act eliminates 49 duplicative

ineffective federal programs. if we do not pass this bill, those 49 duplicative ineffective programs stay on the books. the student success act provides more flexible funding for school districts to fund their priorities at the local level. i want to thank chairman kline, mr. rokita, and all my colleagues on the education and work force committee for their work on the student success act. let's put children first and pass this bill. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the chair recognizes the gentlewoman from ohio, mrs. beatty, for five minutes. mrs. beatty: thank you, mr. speaker. i rise today to honor and celebrate the memory of the great rosa parks, also known as the mother of modern civil rights movement. today, december 1, marks the parks' iversary of rosa

arrest for refusing to surrender her seat on a city bus in montgomery, alabama, to a white male. her arrest on this date in 1955 put a face to jim crow and the disgrace of segregation in this country and in many ways united a nation in the struggle for civil rights for all. . rosa parks refused to give up her seat, sparking the peaceful montgomery bus boycott, which sted 381 days and led to the eventually desegregation of the public transportation system across this nation. rosa parks, in every way, embodies the tremendous difference a single person, mr. speaker, can make through the power of protest, nonviolence and courage. as a member of the ohio general assembly, where i served as

house leader, i was proud to have led the efforts that resulted in the 2005 passage of house bill 421, designating december 1 as rosa parks day, the first state in the nation to do so. each year the state of ohio, spearheaded by the central ohio transit authority, proudly celebrates the life of rosa parks in our state capital, columbus, ohio. it's important that we do not let her legacy of bravery die. i look forward to joining my constituents when i travel back to the district on december 3 to celebrate the 11th annual statewide tribute to rosa parks, the power of one. mr. speaker, i would like to thank congressman john conyers, the dean of this house, for agreeing to participate in my community leaders' forum for

this celebration. for five decades, congressman conyers has been a champion of civil rights and voting rights. his distinguished career is highlighted by his work on important civil rights legislation, such as the martin luther king holiday act of 1983, the motor voters bill of 1993, and the help america vote act of 2002. today he continues to fight for voting rights and civil rights as the ranking member on the house judiciary committee. i look forward to welcoming him to our rosa parks celebration because he shared a personal relationship with her, who worked for congressman conyers from 1964 until 1988. however, before working with congressman conyers, she took a stand for justice and equality. the power of one person changed our nation forever. our fight for racial equality

and real inclusion is ongoing as recently publicized tensions across our nation has made this clear. with the supreme court decision to strike down section 4 of the voting rights act of 1965 in shelby v. holder, we no longer have the safety net that ensures americans, especially minorities, are able to participate in our democratic process. mr. speaker, we should not be rolling back voting rights protection. instead, we should honor the progress our country has made to ensure and protect equal rights and equal treatment for all. that is why i am the co-sponsor of the voting rights advancement act of 2015, h.r. 2867, which enjoys bipartisan and bicameral support. congress should immediately bring this legislation to the floor to ensure that all americans may cast ballots to

choose their leaders and public servants. mr. speaker, many of the policies being pushed by house republican leadership will adversely and disproportionately affect people of color and individuals in low-income communities. when we talk about reform in washington, and starting with a clean slate, without consideration of how these policies will affect all communities, we do our nation a disservice. i am confident we can do better. i am hopeful that we can do better. we have a responsibility to do better. today and every day, let us be inspired by rosa parks and remember that each person must live their life as a model for others. mr. speaker, i thank you for the opportunity to speak on this important issue, and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the chair recognizes the

gentlewoman from north five a, ms. foxx, for minutes. ms. foxx: thank you, mr. speaker. last month we celebrated veterans day, a day where we rightly single out these members past and present. when you stop to think about it, it's amazing that men and women choose to serve in our armed forces, knowing full well their sacrifice could be tremendous and even require their life. but still they volunteer. they do so because america, her ideals, her people and her way of life is worth defending. the entire nation owes our military personnel and veterans a huge debt of gratitude and ensuring that debt is properly repaid is one of my top priorities in congress. as i travel north carolina's fifth district, i hear similar refrain. no matter where i go, constituents tell me horror stories of their experiences

with the department of veterans affairs. veterans from my district and across the country are frustrated with the lack of service they're receiving. they're angry because they can't get an appointment or phone call returned, and they're outraged, as i am, that the obama administration is doing nothing to solve the multitude of problems that have been revealed. my heart is always touched when veterans and their families describe their efforts to get service through the v.a. and how the v.a. wouldn't help them until my office intervened. these stories affect me more than words can say. i'm always happy to know that my office has helped and my staff is encouraged when we get a problem solved. however, these veterans shouldn't have to contact their congressional office to access to benefits they've earned. to say i'm fed up with this administration's treatment to veterans is an understatement. how they can turn their backs on the veterans the way they do is unconscionable to me. it's past time to put an end to

the agencywide pattern of mismanagement at the department of veterans affairs. the bureaucratic incompetence is unabominable. the agency needs to be led and staffed by people who believe america has a duty and an obligation to help our veterans. right now it seems there's no sense of responsibility or concern from the obama administration with the disgraceful way our veterans are being treated. it's time for president obama to truly commit to reforming the v.a. and give america's veterans a meaningful decisive plan to right the many wrongs, regardless of the outcome, my office will continue to leave no stone unturned when it comes to serving our veterans. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the chair recognizes the gentlewoman from california, ms. pelosi, for five minutes. thank you, mr.

speaker, for the recognition. mr. speaker, i come to the floor today to mark world aids day, and i do so in great pride in following my colleague, congresswoman joyce beatty, who spoke on the floor about the 60th anniversary of what happened in montgomery, when rosa parks with great courage refused to give up her seat on the bus. the courage of that woman and all of those who supported her has made such an incredible difference in our country, and it is indeed related to what i want to say about h.i.v. and aids. because of rosa parks' courage and many of us had the privilege of knowing her when she worked for john conyers and when we honored her here in the house and so proud that we have a statue to rosa parks in the capitol of the united states,

when we think of her and the courage she had which led to the civil rights act, the voting rights act and that voting rights act and civil rights act led to our having a much more diverse congress of the united states. from then came our congressional black caucus, the hispanic caucus, the asian pacific caucus and that caucus directly related to mr. conyers, who was a founding was r, and rosa parks, who inspiration, was responsible for so much change and leadership in congress on so many issues sprang from the congressional black caucus. some say the conscience of the congress. and so the relationship from the -- from rosa parks to the caucus to now we're observing the 25th anniversary of world is day, the link congresswoman barbara lee, who has been a champion in the

congress on this subject, and we take great pride in the accomplishments in her capacity as a member of congress but also a representative to the united nations general assembly. each day world aids day is observed internationally to reflect the progress that has been made and reaffirming our determination to banish aids to the annals of history. we recognize that achieving an aids-free generation requires our relentless, energetic and undaunted commitment to test, treatment and finding a cure. -- to testing, treatment and finding a cure. the theme this year, the time to act is now, challenges us to act with the urgency that this global epidemic demands. aids, as we know, and h.i.v. virus, is a ferocious and resourceful disease. it's a resourceful virus, ever

mutating to escape our efforts to destroy it and, therefore, we have to be ferocious and resourceful and adaptable in our effort to succeed to end h.i.v. we must bring bold thinking and deep commitment to testing, treatment, again, and the search for a cure, vaccine to prevent. president bush with his pepfar initiative took a big advance in how we can help prevent the spread of aids in the rest of the world. he and mrs. bush with their pink ribbon, red ribbon initiative to link cervical cancer prevention with h.i.v. testing and treatment in africa is a remarkable initiative. so we salute the bipartisanship we supported, of course, president bush with pepfar, we wanted it bigger. he wanted it strong and there

we were with something that has saved millions of lives and given hope to people. i visited some of the clinics in africa where pepfar is being administered and some of the people i met said i would have never come to be tested before because there was no reason. i had no hope there would be any remedy or any maintaining that would of life have -- encourage me to risk the stigma of saying i was h.i.v. infected. o, again, it's all about the people. new york today, bono will be observing the 10th anniversary , one, an initiative red one an initiative that helped alleviate poverty, eradicate the disease. we know the work of the melinda and bill gates foundation and what they have done on this issue, particularly in india.

and today, i wish i could be in san francisco, where amfar will be saluting the work at university of california-san francisco, by establishing a new initiative there. just mentioning a few other observances of world aids day. but it's happening throughout the world, and it's -- you go back a number of years when i came to congress, we were going to two funerals a day. it was the saddest thing, and now we're going to weddings and we're helping people make out their wills and all the rest because they have a longer life ahead. the maintenance of life, the quality of life is really important, but we do want a cure. as i said, the 25th anniversary of world aids day. to say the 25th anniversary of the ryan white care act, that young man whose name is something that's iconic to all

of us. left us but his mother carries on the tradition and it is -- has made such a tremendous difference. my colleague, henry waxman, who's no longer in the congress, but still a champion on hiv-aids, was so instrumental in leading us to passing that legislation. so it's been bipartisan, it's global, it's personal, it's urgent that we continue so that one day 50 years from now people will say, what was aids? what was that? we'll say -- the books will show it was a terrible, terrible tragedy that befell the world population, regardless of status, of wealth, of gender, of race and something that is now buried in a museum somewhere as a terrible memory but not a part of our future.

so, again, as we observe world aids day, may we all wear our red ribbons and sympathy with those who have lost their lives , sadly, before the science took us to a better place on this and that is what we're counting on, research and science to take us to a better place on this and also with the enthusiasm, determination and relentlessness of so many people throughout the world to make h.i.v. and aids a horrible memory, again, but not part of our future. with that, mr. speaker, i yield back the balance of my time. . the speaker pro tempore: the chair recognizes the gentleman from texas, mr. poe, for five minutes. mr. poe: thank you, mr. speaker. like most americans, i store a lot on my computer and on my phone. family photographs, personal calendars, emails, schedules, and even weekend to-do lists, as my wife calls them, honey-do

lists. but this information stored on a phone like the one i have here in my hand is not private from the prying, spying eyes of government. our government. most americans have no idea that big brother can snoop on tweets, text, instagrams, and even emails. anything that is stored in the cloud for over six months is spied on by o be government. as long as it's older than 180 days. now, why is that? it goes all the way back to the outdated electronic communication privacy act of 1986. that act protects privacy of are less by government. as long as it's older than 180 days. now, why is that? it goes all the way back to the outdated electronic communication privacy act of 1986. that act than six months old. in 1986 those were the days before the world wide web even existed.

many of us have staff that weren't even born before 1986. we stored letters in folders, filing cabinets, and desk drawers. no one knew what the cloud was because the cloud did not exist. there was not any broadband, no social media, no tablets, or no smart phones. so in 1986 lawmakers tried to protect emails but only did so for 180 days. but under current law, every email, every text, every googled doc and facebook message, every photograph of our vacation is subject to government inspection without a warrant, without probable cause, and without our knowledge if it's older than six months. this is an invasion of privacy. constitutional protection for six months only? that's nonsense, mr. speaker. what is worse, some government agencies don't want the law changed. the security and exchange commission is lobbying to keep the same law on the books so they can snoop around in emails after six months without a warrant. the s.e.c. is not even a law enforcement agency. but yet they want to keep the

ability to look at emails. i suspect they want to be able to read personal financial records and communications without a warrant. spying on citizens by government sounds like conduct reminiscent of the old soviet union. the s.e.c. is not the only government agency that has access to emails over six months old. any government agency can go in, confiscate emails that are six months old -- older than six months without warrant, without probable cause, and knowledge of the person that they are snooping on. to me this is a clear violation of the spirit of the united states constitution. mr. speaker, if we go back to the days of snail mail and you write a letter and you put it in an envelope and you put it in the mailbox and it floats around the country from place to place and finally ends up in somebody else's mailbox, government cannot go and grab that letter and search it without warrant under most circumstances, no matter where it goes in the

u.s., because it's protected. it's prifesiff of the person who wrote the letter and the person who is receiving the letter. why should government have the ability to snoop around in our personal emails? they don't have that right even though they have the ability to do so. mr. speaker, the fourth amendment makes us, the u.s., different than any nation on earth. to protect the privacy of american citizens. government agencies can't raid homes or tap into phones or read mail without showing a judge they have probable cause. that a crime was committed. then they must obtain a search warrant. mr. speaker, i was a judge in texas for 22 years, criminal court judge, saw 20,000 cases or more. peace officers would come to me all times day or night with a search warrant. if it stated probable cause, i would sign the warrant and they would be instructed to go search whatever it was they had probable cause to search.

that's what the constitution requires before you can snoop around and spy on americans. if you want to search, get a warrant. that's the rule under our law. so why should our possessions and communications be less private because they're on line? they shouldn't be. that's why i teamed up with representative zoe lofgren on the other side and lots of other members of congress of both parties to introduce legislation to update the law. there are several bills pending. in fact, these bills have over 300 sponsors right now, bipartisan. to restore the original purpose to protect the privacy of american citizens. this legislation would protect the sacred right of privacy from ever-increasing spying government trolls on americans. our mission is simple. extend constitutional protections to communications and records that americans store online for any amount of time.

mr. speaker, technology may change but the constitution remains the same. thomas jefferson said in the declaration of independence, i quote, governments are created to secure our rights. not violate those rights. it's about time we make government protect the right of privacy rather than violate the right of privacy. we need to pass this epca law and get privacy back in america. that's just the way it is. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to clause 12-a of rule 1, the chair declares the housec

from their congressional reporter, good morning. think you for having me on. talk a little bit about the timeframe that we have between now and when we have run out of funding for the federal highway projects. now,r: basically, right what we are looking at his everyone will be checking out house verification committee. they will unveil a final highway bill. we have an indication from the chairman bill shuster that the bill would come out today and that the bill would also have a five-year authorization. congress is working on a tight deadline to get this final highway bill to the president's desk because current funding authorities expires friday,

december 4. and schuster and other republican leaders and transportation policy makers are animate but they don't want to have another short of the highway fund operating under the short-term extension of that fund from 2009. host: you mentioned a five-year plan but the numbers before were six years, so why the change? caller: what i'm am hearing from several aides for the committee and grumbling on capitol hill, right now we don't have anything yet on the record from schuster and the other leaders but there have been some strong disagreements on how to take this bill so initially as he said, the senate and the house had unveiled six-year bills ranging anywhere from 300 and 40 billion to 60 billion dollars

worth of authorizations. a strong dispute on how to fund these bills because congress is not using the traditional way of how highway bills have been funded which is raising taxes so instead they have done what critics have called funding gimmicks which includes tapping into the strategic petroleum reserve and also, the latest plan which was produced by congress from texas. which would have included $3 billion of new highway programs. they will come from liquidating the federal reserve surplus. we are going to be looking to see how they will have these programs and if they will have the petroleum reserve or using the federal reserve surplus and

other funding strategies to pack this bill. the funding has been a big question. >> will any legislators put up resistance to this effect if passed by friday? caller: yes. objectedenators have to relying on the strategic petroleum reserve. and then the question of the federal reserve. we saw the congressman -- senator richard shelby of alabama defend that account. there is some pushback to be expected. not only schuster but his counterpart in the senate, james said yesterday that they are very confident that this report will go through the house and is expected.

if it comes out today the expectation is it will reach the house floor thursday and the house will send it to the senate on friday and by friday the senate will clear it for the president just in time to meet the deadline. >> that is eugene with the publication transport topic on the line to the congress the

violating the nuclear forces treaty also known as the i.n.f., c-span3 will have live coverage at that hearing at 3:30 eastern. >> abigail fill more was the first first lady to workout side a home teaching at a private school. she created the firts white house library. maimy eisenhower's hairstyle and sensations. created

mimi pink was a hot seller. jackie kennedy was responsible for the creation of the white house historical association. and nancy reagan, as a young actress, saw her name mistakenly on the blacklist of communiques sympathizers in the late 1940's. she aspeed to screen actors guild head ronald reagan for help. she later became his life. these stories and more are featuring in the work, first ladies, presidential historians. the book makes a great gift for the holidays, gift a look at every first lady in history. how they are legacies rest nate today based on the original interviews from c-span first lady series and received numerous reviewsing including this one who said, quote, c-span is a national treasure and its path breaking series on america's first lady series is another reason why.

c-span has performed another valuable public service. on our nation's first ladies and the important role they played in shaping -- share the stories of america's first ladies for the holidays. c-span's book "first ladies" is available for a hard book or ebook at your favorite bookstore or online book seller. be sure to order your copy today. >> president obama held a press conference in paris that ended just over an hour ago after meeting with heads of state at the climate change conference. he explained how an agreement

would help the economy and he expressed confidence that the u.s. would lead in climate change targets. the president also made remarks on russia's role in syria, the planned parenthood shooting. his is just under an hour. president obama: good afternoon. once again, i want to thank you the people of france and president hollande for their extraordinary hospitality, hosting nearly 200 nations is an enormous task for anybody, but to do so two weeks after the terrorist attacks here is a remarkable display of resolve. and that's why the first place i visited when i arrived on sunday night was the bataclan so i could pay my respects on behalf of the american people who share the french people's

resolve. it was a powerful reminder of the awful human toll of those attacks. our hearts continue to go out to the victims' families, but here in paris we also see the resilience of the universal alues that we share. [speaking french] based on my discussions with president hollande and other leaders, i'm confident that we can continue building momentum and adding resources to our effort to degrade and ultimately destroy isil, to disrupt plots against america and our allies and to bring about the political resolution necessary to resolve the situation in syria and relieve the hardships on the syrian people. now, this has been a quick visit. of course, all visits to paris seem quick. you always want to stay a little bit longer, but we have accomplished a lot here, and i

have high hopes over the next two weeks we'll accomplish even more. i know some have asked why the world would dedicate some of our focus right now to combating climate change even as we work to protect our people and go after terrorist networks. the reason is because this one trend, climate change, affects all trends. if we let the world keep warming as fast as it is and sea levels rising as fast as they are and weather patterns keep shifting in more unexpected ways, before long we'll have to devote more and more and more of our economic and military resources, not to growing opportunity for our people, but to adapting to the various consequences of a changing planet. this is an economic and security imperative that we have to tackle now. and great nations can handle a

lot at once. america's already leading on many issues, and climate is no different. we've made significant progress at home -- increasing production of clean energy, working to reduce emissions while our businesses have kept creating jobs for 68 straight months. and we've been able to lower our unemployment rate to 5% in the process. and since we worked with china last year to show that the two largest economies and two largest emitters can cooperate on climate, more than 180 countries have followed our lead in announcing their own targets. the task that remains here in paris is to turn these achievements into an enduring framework for progress that gives the world confidence and a low-carbon future. as i said yesterday, what we seek is an agreement where progress paves the way for countries to update their emissions target on a regular

basis, and each nation has the confidence that other nations are meeting their commitments. we seek an agreement to make sure developing nations have the resources they need to skip the dirty phase of development if they're willing to do their work and to make sure the nations most vulnerable to climate change have resources to adapt to the impacts we can no longer avoid. we seek an agreement that gives businesses and investors the certainty that the global economy is on a firm path towards a low carbon future, because that will spur the kind of investment that will be vital to combine reduced emissions with economic growth. that's the goal, not just an agreement to roll back the pollution that threatens our planet, but an agreement that helps our economies grow and our people to thrive without condemning the next generation to a planet that is beyond its capacity to repair.

now, all of this will be hard. getting 200 nations to agree on anything is hard, and i'm sure there will be moments over the next two weeks where progress seems stymied and everyone rushes to write that we are doomed. but i am convinced that we're going to get big things done here. keep in mind nobody expected that 180 countries would show up in paris with serious climate targets in hand. nobody expected that the price of clean energy would fall as fast as it has or that back in the united states the solar industry would be creating jobs 10 times faster than the rest of the economy. nobody expected that more than 150 of america's biggest companies would pledge their support to an ambitious paris outcome or a couple dozen of the world's private citizens would join us here to pledge to invest unprecedented resources to bring clean energy

technologies to market faster. what gives me confidence that progress is possible is somebody like bill gates, who i was with yesterday, understands that tackling climate change is not just a moral imperative, it's an opportunity. without batting an eye he said, we're just going to have to go ahead and invent some new technologies to tackle this challenge. that kind of optimism, that kind of sense that we can do what is necessary is infectious, and you tend to believe somebody like bill when he says that we're going to get it done because he's done some pretty remarkable things. and i believe that a successful two weeks here could give the world that same kind of optimism that the future is ours to shape. so with that i'm going to take a few questions. we'll start with jerome of a.p.

where's jerome? there he is. jerome: good morning, sir. thank you, mr. president. for months you've been asking mr. putin to play basically a more constructive role in syria, basically from defending assad to attacking isil. it appears your calls have not been heard. what's your strategy going forward? president obama: well, i'm not sure that's true. the fact that the vienna process is moving forward steadily, not conclusively but steadily i think is an indication that mr. putin recognizes there is not going to be a military resolution to the situation in syria. the russians now have been here for several weeks, over a month, and i think fair-minded reporters who've looked at the situation would say that the situation hasn't changed

significantly. in the interim, russia's lost a commercial passenger jet. you've seen another jet shot down. there have been losses in terms of russian personnel. and i think mr. putin understands that with afghanistan fresh in the memory for him to simply get bogged down in an inconclusive and paralyzing civil conflict is not the outcome that he's looking for. now, where we continue to have an ongoing difference is not on the need for a political settlement. it's the issue of whether mr. assad can continue to serve as president while still bringing

civil war to an end. it's been my estimation for five years now that that's not possible. regardless of how you feel about mr. assad -- and i consider somebody who kills hundreds of thousands of his n people illegitimate -- but regardless of the moral equation, as a practical matter, it is impossible for mr. assad to bring that country together and to bring all the parties and do an inclusive government. it is possible, however, to preserve the syrian state to have an inclusive government in which the interest of the various groups inside of syria are represented, and so as part of the vienna process you're going to see the opposition groups, the moderate opposition groups that exist within syria some of which, frankly, we

don't have a lot in common with but do represent significant factions inside of syria, they'll be coming together in order for them to form at least process ting unit or that can move vienna forward. and we're just going to keep on working at this and my hope and expectation is that that political track will move at the same time as we continue to apply greater and greater pressure on isil. and with the contributions that french have made, the germans have recently announced additional resources to the brits have been steady partners in iraq and i think are now very interested in how they can expand their efforts to help deal with isil

inside of syria, with not just the cohesion of the coalition that the united states put together but also the increasing intensity of our actions in the air and progressively on the ground, you know, i think it is possible over the next several months that we both see a shift in calculation in the russians and a recognition that it's time to bring the civil war in syria to a close. it's not going to be easy. too much blood has been shed. too much infrastructure has been destroyed. too many people have been displaced for us to anticipate it will be a smooth transition, and isil is going to continue to be a deadly organization because of its social media, the resources it has and the

networks of experienced fighters that it possesses. it's going to be a serious threat for some time to come, but i'm confident that we are on the winning side of this and that ultimately russia's going to recognize the threat that isil poses to its countries, to its people is the most significant and that they need to align themselves with those of us who are fighting isil. justin. justin: thanks, mr. president. i guess i wanted to follow on that shift in calculation that you discussed with -- in terms of president putin. did you receive assurances from either him or president hollande who said earlier this week that, you know, president putin told him he would only target jihaddis and isis, that would be the focus of russia's

military campaign going forward? and then separately, i just wanted to ask about climate. the outstanding issues seem to be whether republicans who have kind of voiced opposition to your agenda could somehow get funding for the green climate fund, a crucial part here. i'm wondering how you both prevent that in the upcoming appropriations process and if you're concerned what senator mcconnell earlier today or yesterday that a future republican president could undo what you're trying to accomplish here in paris. president obama: first of all on mr. putin, i don't expect you're going to see a 180 turn on their tratt gee over the next several weeks. they have invested for years now in keeping us out in power. their presence there is predicated on propping him up. and so that's going to take

some time for them to change how they think about the issue. and so long as they are aligned with the regime, a lot of russian resources are still going to be targeted as opposition groups that ultimately are going to end up being part of an inclusive vernment, that we support or other members of the coalition support and are fighting the regime and fighting isil at the same time. so i don't think we should be under any illusions that somehow russia starts hitting only isil targets. that's not happening now. it was never happening. it's not going to be happening in the next several weeks. what can happen is if the political process that john kerry has so meticulously stitched together in concert with foreign minister of

russia, if that works in vienna, then it's possible given the existing accord that parties have already agreed to that we start seeing at least pockets of cease-fires in and around syria. that may mean then that certain opposition groups no longer find themselves subject to either syrian or russian bombing. they are then in a conversation about politics, and slowly we then are able to get everybody's attention diverted to where it needs to be and that is going after isil in a systematic way. with respect to climate and what's taking place here -- i don't want to get ahead of ourselves. we still need paris agreement, so my main focus is making sure

the united states is a leader in bringing a successful agreement home here in paris, and there are a number of components to it. so i just want to repeat so that everybody understands what we will consider a success several weeks from now. number one, that it is an low ious target that seeks carbon global economy over the course of this century. that means that countries have put forward specific targets and although those are self-generating, there is a mechanism in which they are presenting to the world confirmation that they are working on those targets,

meeting on those targets so there's a single transparency mechanism that all countries are adhering to and that those are legally binding, that there's periodic reviews so that as the science changes and aztec nothing changes five years from -- as technology changes five years from now, 10 years from now, 15 years from now in each successful cycle, countries can update the pledges that they make. and that we got a climate fund that helps developing countries to not only adapt and mitigate dirty leapfrog over power generation in favor of clean energy. and if we hit those targets, then we will have been successful, not because, by the way, the pledges alone will

meet the necessary targets for us to prevent catastrophic because we ge but will have built the architecture that is needed, we will have established a global consensus of how we're going to approach the problem and then we can successfully turn up the dials as new sources of energy become available, as the unit costs for something like solar or improvements in battery technology make it easier for us to meet even higher targets and systematically we can drive down carbon emissions and the pace of climate change over the course of several decades. so i want to emphasize this, because i know that in some of the reporting, if you add up all the pledges and they were all met right now, we would be centigrade ed 2.7

increase in temperature. that's too high. centgrade or two lower than that. -- centigrade or lower than that. if we have these periodic reviews built in, what we will have is sending that signal to researchers and scientists and investors and entrepreneurs and venture funds, we'll actually start hitting these targets faster than we expected. and we can be even more ambitious. and so when you look at the cumulative targets that may exist 10 years from now, we may well be within the 2% sent grade -- centigrade increase. and by the way, that's not just foolish optimism. when you look at the experience of the united states, for example, i came into office, i

prioritized clean energy. i said we're going to double our clean energy production through the recovery act. we recognized that making these big investments were also good for the economy and helping us get out of recession and could create jobs so we made a big investment, and it turned out that we met our goals a lot quicker than we expected. if you had asked me when i first came into office my expectations for the price of solar generated power versus traditional coal or other fossil fuel generated power, i would say we would make some progress but that solar would still require substantial subsidies in order to be economical. the cost of solar has gone down much faster than any of us would have even predicted, even

five years ago. so the key here is to set up the structure so that we're sending signals all around the world, this is happening. we're not turning back. human thing about ingenuity -- i was going to say american ingenuity, but there are other smart folks around too. don't want to be too parochial about this. the thing about human ingenuity is that it responds when it gets a strong signal of what needs to be done. u know, the old expression that necessity is the mother of invention, well, this is necessary, and us getting a in place, h ambition even if we don't get all the goals we want, it will spur on

the innovation that will ultimately meet our goals. nancy. nancy: thank you, mr. president. one follow-up on the climate change issue. are you confident that you can hold the u.s. to its commitments under the -- under existing treaties with no new vote needed? and separately on planned parenthood, i wonder if you could share your thoughts on that shooting and any thoughts in the context of the sharp political rhetoric in the country at this time. president obama: i apologize justin i didn't address that. fortunately nancy was batting cleanup. on the issue of climate fund, we already engage in assistance for countries for adaptation, mitigation, sharing technology that can help them meet their

energy needs in a clean way. and so this is not just one slug of funding that happens in one year. this is multiyear commitments that in many cases already embedded in a whole range of programs that we have around the world. and my expectation is that we will absolutely be able to meet our commitments. this is part of american leadership, by the way. and this is part of the debate that we have to have in the united states more frequently. for some reason too often in washington, american leadership is defined by whether or not we're sending troops somewhere, and that's the sole definition of leadership. and part of what i've been

trying to describe during the course of my presidency is that here we make the most impact and where, by the way, we strengthen our relationships and influence the most is when we are helping to organize the world around a particular problem. now, because we're the largest country, because we have the most powerful military, we should welcome the fact that we're going to do more and oftentimes we're going to do it first. so during the ebola response, other countries could not respond until we had set up the infrastructure to allow other countries to respond. and until we had made the call and showed we were going to make that investment. you know, the same was true with respect to making sure that iran didn't get a nuclear

weapon. we had to lead the way but ultimately, because we reached out and brought our allies and partners together, we're able to achieve goals that we could not achieve by ourselves. the same is true with climate. you know, when i made the announcement in beijing with president xi, i was able to do so in part because we had led domestically. i could put my money where my mouth was and said, here are the tough political decisions we're making. now, what are you going to do? and once we were able to get china involved, that gave confidence to other countries that we're in a position to make a difference as well. and that they needed to be involved in the process as well. it's organizing the

coalition that's fighting isil r dealing with climate change, r role is central but on large international issues like this, it's not going to be sufficient. at least not if we want to take. if we want it to sustain itself, we got to have partners, and that's the kind of leadership that we should aspire to. with respect to planned parenthood, obviously my heart goes out to the families of . ose impacted i mean, nancy, i say this every time we got one of these mass shootings. this just doesn't happen in other countries. u know, we are rightly

determined to prevent terrorist attacks wherever they occur, whether in the united states or with friends and allies like france, and we devote enormous resources and properly so to rooting out networks and debilitating organizations like isil and maintaining the intelligence and improving the information sharing that can identify those who would try to kill innocent people. and yet in the united states we have the power to do more to prevent what is just a regular gun homicides. ed by multiples

, and i think 10 the american people understand that. so my hope is that once again this spurs the conversation and action, and i will continue to present those things that i can do administratively, but at the end of the day, congress, states, local governments are going to have to act in order to make sure that we're preventing people who are deranged or have violent tendencies from getting weapons that can magnify the damage that they do. and with respect to planned parenthood, i think it's clore. i've said it -- i think it's clear. i've said it before.

they provide health services to women all across the country. have for generations. in many cases, that's the only organization that provides health services to impoverished women. i think it's fair to have a legitimate, honest debate about abortion. i don't think that's something that's beyond the pale of our political discussion. it's a serious, legitimate issue. how we talk about it, making sure we're talking about it factually, accurately and not demonizing organizations like planned parenthood i think is important. jeff mason. jeff: thank you, mr. president. do you believe that turkey is doing enough to strengthen its northwest border with syria? how is it that a nato country with as large a military that turkey has has not sealed this

border? is that something you raised today with their president? and then to put a finer point on climate change. can the leaders here believe the united states will keep its commitments if a republican succeeds you in the white house? president obama: just with respect to my successor, let me first of all say i'm anticipating a democrat succeeding me. [laughter] president obama: i'm confident in the wisdom of the american people on that front. but even if somebody from a different party succeeded me, one of the things that you find is when you're in this job, you think about it differently than when you're just running for the job. and what you realize is what i mentioned earlier, that american leadership involves

not just playing to a narrow constituency back home but you now are in fact at the center of what happens around the world. nd that your credibility and america's ability to influence events depends on taking countries at other care about. now, the fact of the matter is this is' a reason why you have the largest gathering of world leaders probably in human history here in paris. everybody else is taking climate change really seriously. they think it's a really big problem. it spans political parties.

you travel around europe and you talk to leaders of governments and the opposition and they are arguing about a whole bunch of things. one thing they're not arguing is where the science of climate change is real and whether we should do something about it. whoever is the next president of the united states, if they come in and they suggest somehow that that global consensus -- not just 99.5% of scientists and experts but 99% of world leaders think this is really important, i think the president of the united states is going to need to think this is really important. and that's why it's important for us to not project what's being said on a campaign trail but to do what's right and make

the case. and i would note that the american people, i think in the most recent survey, 2/3 of them said america should be a signatory to any agreement that emerges, that is actually addressing climate change in a serious way. so the good news is the politics inside the united states is changing as well. you know, sometimes it may be hard for republicans to support something that i'm doing but, matter that's more a of games washington plays. and that's why i think people should be confident that we'll meet our commitments on this. with respect to turkey, i have had repeated conversations with the president about the need to close the border between turkey and syria. we've seen some serious progress on that front but there's still some gaps.

in particular, there's about 98 kilometers that are still used as a transit point for foreign fighters, isil shipping out fuel for sale that helps finance their terrorist been ties, and so we have working -- having our militaries work together to see how a combination of air and turkish ground forces on the turkish side of the border can do a much better job of sealing the border than currently is. and i think president erdogan recognizes that. i'm also encouraged by the fact that president erdogan and the e.u. had a series of meetings around -- or turkey and the e.u. had a series of meetings the turkish sue of border. we have to remind ourselves, turkey has taken on an enormous

humanitarian effort. there are millions of syrians who are displaced and living inside of turkey, not just refugee camps but they are now moving into major cities throughout turkey that puts enormous strains on their infrastructure, on their ousing, on employment, and turkey has continued to keep for people s open in real need. so i'm proud that the united states is the single largest contributor of humanitarian aid for syrian refugees. i'm glad that e.u. is looking to do more to help turkey manage those refugee flows, but also think the e.u. rightly

wants to see the kind of orderly process along the turk ish-greek border that's necessary for europe to be able to regulate the amount of refugees it's absorbing and to save the lives of refugees that are oftentimes taking enormous risks because they're being erried back and forth by human traffickers the same way you see drug traffickers operating under at enormous profit and ithout regard to human life. [inaudible] president obama: we talked about it today but jeff, this is an ongoing conversation. we recognize this is a central part of our anti-isil strategy. we got to choke them off. we have to choke off how they

make money. we got to choke off their ability to bring in new fighters because, you know, we've taken tens of thousands of their fighters off the battlefield but if new ones are still coming in, then they continue to maintain a stranglehold over certain population centers inside of iraq or syria so we have to cut off their source of new fighters. that's also part of the great danger for europe and ultimately the united states as well and countries as far flung of australia or singapore, if you have foreign fighters coming in that are getting not only ideologically hardened but battle hardened and then they're returning to their home countries, they are likely candidates for engaging in the terrorist attacks we've seen in paris. so this has been an ongoing concern, and we're going to

continue to push hard among all our allies to cut off the financing, cut off the foreign fighters, improve our intelligence gathering, which has allowed us to accelerate the strikes we're taking against isil. you know, a lot of the discussion over the last couple of weeks was the pace of air strikes. the pace of air strikes is not constrained by the amount of planes or missiles that we have. the pace has been dictated by how many affected targets do we have and our intelligence continues to improve. and the better we get at that the better we'll be at going after them. scott. scott: thank you, mr. speaker. in terms of sending that market signal you talked about today and a couple times this week, i

wonder if you see any political path back home towards putting an explicit price on carbon? president obama: i have long believed that the most elegant way to reduce carbon emissions is to put a price on it. this is a classic market failure. econ open up an textbook, it will say the market is very good about determining prices and allocating capital towards the most productive use except there are certain things that the market just doesn't count, it doesn't price. at least not on its own. clean air is an example. clean water or the converse, dirty water, dirty air.

in this case, the carbons that are being sent up that originally we didn't have the science to fully understand we do now. and if that's the case, if you put a price on it, then the entire market would respond. and the best investments and the smartest technologies would begin scrubbing effectively our entire economy. so i 's difficult and the science around climate change is more accepted, as people start realizing that even today you can put a price on the damage that climate change is doing. you go down to miami when it's

flooding at high tide on a sunny day and fish are swimming through the middle of the streets, you know, there's a cost to that. insurance companies are beginning to realize that in terms of how they price risk. and the more the market on its own starts putting a price on it because of risk, it may be that the politics around setting a cap and trade system, for example, shifts as well. obviously i'm not under any illusion that this congress will impose something like that. but it is worth remembering that center right think tanks figured out this was a smarter way to deal with pollution than a command and control system.

and there was folks like george h.w. bush and his e.p.a. that effectively martialed this approach to dealing with acid rain. we ended up solving it a lot faster and cheaper than anybody anticipated. i guess more than anything, that's the main message i want to send here is climate change s a massive problem. it is a generational problem. by a problem that definition is just about the hardest thing for any political system to absorb because the effects are gradual, they're diffuse. people don't feel it immediately and so there's not a lot of constituency pressure on politicians to do something about it right away. it kind of creeps up on you.

you got the problem of the commons and you got to get everybody doing it because just one nation is helping but the other nations aren't doing it, then it doesn't do any good. so you have this huge coordination problem and the danger of free riders. so on all these dimensions, it's hard to come up with a tougher problem than climate change or more consequential problem. and yet, despite all that, the main message i got is, i actually think we're going to solve this thing. if you would have said to people as repeatly as two years ago that we'd have 180 countries showing up in paris with pretty ambitious targets for carbon reduction, most people would have said, you're crazy. that's a pipe dream. and yet here we are. that's already happened. before the agreement's even

signed, that's already happened. as i said earlier, if you had told folks what the cost of generating solar energy would be today, relative to what it was five years ago, people would have said, not a chance. and with relatively modest inputs that's already happening. imagine if we're starting to put morerd dollars into it, which is why the emission innovation statement was significant. the biggest countries, the most prosperous countries are doubling theirrd but then you have bill gates and other extraordinarily wealthy individuals saying we're going o put our money into this. i'm optimistic. i think we're going to solve it. i think the issue is going to be the pace and how much damage is done before we are able to fully apply the brakes.

and in some ways, it's akin to the problem of terrorism. and isil. in the immediate aftermath of a terrible attack like what happened here in paris, sometimes it's natural for at e to despair, but look paris. you can't tear down paris -- use the deminted deemented actions of a few individuals. the beauty, the life, the culture, the diversity, that's going to win out every time. we have to be steady in going after the problem, we have to keep going at it, we have to

change our approach. but most of all, we have to and have fear confidence that human innovation, our values, our judgment, our solidarity it will win out. and i guess i've been at this long enough where i have some cause for confidence. we went, what, a month, month and a half where people were pretty sure ebola was going to kill us all. nobody asked me about it anymore. and although, you know, we still see flickers of it in west africa, we set up an entire global health security agenda, part of american leadership, to deal with not only ebola but deal with the possibility of future

pandemics. it's not easy. it takes time, and when you're in the midst of it, it's frightening. but it's solvable. all right. with that i'm going to go home. viva la france. thank you very much. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2015] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> president obama's news conference just outside paris this morning. shortly after the news conference, he boreded air force one to head back to the white house this evening. the president has agreed to hold his state of the union speech next month as is the tradition, the date was set by republican leadership of the house who invited the president to capitol hill to speak. it's the earliest president obama has delivered the state of the union and will, of course, have live coverage on january 12. house speaker paul ryan was joined by other house republican leaders this morning after their weekly party meeting. speaker ryan was asked by reporters about the upcoming legislative schedule. here's a look at that 10-minute news briefing.

good morning, everybody. the american people, they sent us here to find common ground and to advance the nation's interests. this week we will take up two bills that are a product of formal house-senate conference committees. this is the way things are supposed to happen. this is regular order. this is the committees doing their jobs, members serving on conference committees and hammering out an agreement, and this week we're going to have a highway bill which will help families build our infrastructure and giving a boost to our economy and then we'll have the education bill which will help parents and students by returning power to the states and schools through commonsense conservative reforms. these are good bipartisan victories that we look forward to delivering on in the coming days. i also want to expriss my -- express my condolences to the families of the victims of friday's shooting in colorado

springs. what happened is appalling, and justice should be swift. clearly we can do more, and one common denominator in these tragedies is mental illness. that's why we need to look at fixing our nation's mental illness health system. an example, tim murphy, congressman from pennsylvania, has a bill that is working its way through the energy and commerce committee. i'm sure that members of both parties have lots of ideas in this area, but we should make this a priority to prevent the violence and to protect our citizens. with that, the leader. mr. mccarthy: i hope everybody had a good thanksgiving. this week on the floor we got a lot of work done. a lot of work to finish up. you have the president leaving paris and you also have a contrast. i know when the democrats were in the majority they tried to pass cap and trade. many wrote the story that was

one of the reasons they lost the majority because the american people were not with them. i noticed what the president's proposing now, a regulatory cap and trade, you'll see a disapproval, not just for the senate but in the house as well. one thing that i found probably the president did not talk about in paris is the success story in america. e.p.a. did a study on greenhouse gas, co-2 emissions from 2005 to 2013. some of the biggest growth time for america when it came to fracking for our natural gas and crude. we lowered our co-2 emissions by 9%. it was the largest of any country in the world. we have proven with innovation and a free market we can have a clean environment but have a strong economy at the same time. i hope that story gets told. also on the floor this week, which the speaker talked about, you found the process is

working when we will have the elementary and secondary education act and we'll also bring up the highway bill. a place where everybody could participate, a conference and a plan for the future. there is a difference of where we're able to go and there's a difference to one side listening to the american people. that's why you'll also see our task force on homeland security meeting again today to talk about the visa waiver program. i know we had a very successful vote, bipartisan, before we departed. i think there's more success to happen to keep america secure and we'll have that meeting today. mr. scalise: last week the president signed an important piece of legislation that we sent to him, the national defense authorization act. there were many important components of that bill that strengthened america's national security. one of the components in that bill requires the president to put together and lay out a plan to defeat isis and to submit that plan to congress by mid

february. while the president continues to talk about the national security threat posed by global warming, the american people want more focus put on the strategy to defeat isis, and in the house we've been focusing on national security and energy security and jobs and the economy. and this week is no different. in fact, we're going to be bringing legislation to the floor to continue that focus on all those different components, continuing to focus on national security just like the bill we passed two weeks ago with a veto-proof majority to actually require vetting of refugees that come to america. but then also when you talk about energy security, not only is it important to our economy when you look at the architecture of abundance that we're going to be bringing to the floor, but it's important to our allies all around the world. one of the amendments that's going to be brought forward is lifting the ban on oil exports. this is something that will not only create thousands of good jobs in america but actually give us the ability to help our allies around the world who don't want to have to get their energy from iran or from

russia. now, they'll be able to get that energy from america, creating american jobs and helping our allies around the world at the same time. and then of course when you look at some of the regulations that we're going to be addressing with the congressional review act, this new source performance standard, yet, one more example of unelected bureaucrats over at the e.p.a. trying to bring forth regulations that will kill jobs in america and increase and other costs on other hardworking taxpayers who are struggling to get by. that money should be in the pockets of hardworking taxpayers who can buy christmas gifts to their families, not send more money to washington because of radical legislation. again, important legislation that the house is focusing to support national security and jobs and the economy. ms. mcmorris rogers: well, i hope everyone had a great thanksgiving. it gives us some time to reflect on the tremendous blessings of being an american and what this country has to offer. for me it really is a time to recommit here on capitol hill

to ensuring that every person has the opportunity to fulfill their version of the american dream and as we approach the week ahead, there's a number of bills that are really important in that effort. the architecture of energy abundance and for me coming from the pacific northwest, i always like to highlight the important role that hydropower also plays in meeting important energy needs in this country. hydropower is clean, it's renewable, it's affordable, it's reliable. you know, we can double hydropower without building another dam in this country simply by encouraging investment in technology and streamlining the permitting process. in addition to that, we could create hundreds of thousands of jobs. there's all kinds of bipartisan, commonsense solutions. it really is about unleashing americans and american ingenuity. i'm proud to be a part of what we're advancing this week, making government work better for those that we were elected

o represent. ms. jenkins: time and time again, the president continues to govern through regulation, believing the power of his pen is more important than the will of the american people working through their elected representatives. here in congress. the latest executive overreach from the president's administration has been more overbearing and burdened regulation from the e.p.a. it stiffles job creation and threatens our economy. for example, under the e.p.a.'s regulations, electrical utility companies in my district will have to spend huge amounts of money to meet the new bureaucratic requirements. unfortunately, most of this cost will be passed onto their consumers, hardworking families and senior citizens in kansas. that's why we're voting to

strengthen our energy security infrastructure and promote job growth by stopping farmful regulations. we'll continue to stand with the american people against these unforgiving regulations f this administration. mr. johnson: i'm honored to be here this morning to talk about h.r. 8, the north american energy security and infrastructure act. you know, many of america's energy policies have been based on a belief dating way back that america's energy resources were scarce. if this president and his administration has their way, they'll make our energy resources even more scarce, shutting down the coal industry, slow walking our ability to go after the large

reserves of oil and natural gas that we have. h.r. 8, the north american security and infrastructure act, begins to reverse that in a big way. in addition to securing the reliability, the efficiency and the cost of our energy grid, boom. a real economic look at what would happen, for ample, if we're able to more expeditious with liquified natural gas. experts say we're looking at tens of thousands of new jobs. billions added to america's economy, and you already heard from others this morning about the foreign policy leverage that it gives america. we have an opportunity this week, and the house is going to take it and we believe that the senate will follow suit to reassert america can be energy independent and secure and we can provide our own energy.

we don't need help from the russians, from opec. we can do it right here at home. i'm proud and honored to stand with my colleagues to do exactly that. thank you very much. the speaker: questions. reporter: you had a meeting about the [inaudible] will be fully funded? mr. the speaker: we don't know what vehicle or what funding level but it's something we spend to get done by the end of the year. reporter: anticipate with some sort of standoff with environmental riders or planned parenthood? the speaker: we have differences of opinions on these issues. these negotiations are ongoing right now. the last thing i want to do is getting ahead of our appropriations committees which is taking a lead on those negotiations. reporter: on climate change, there is a poll out by "the new york times" showing the united states thinks the -- the american people thinks the

united states should join others and there should be some legally binding provision in there which is what the president called for this morning in paris. is that a step with public opinion? the speaker: i don't think we're weighing the cost and benefits. if you weigh the cost and benefits against the so-called legally and binding obligations they don't add up. i think it's very clear. people want jobs. look at the legislation we're bringing to the floor just this week. we can become an energy independent country if we set our minds to it. if we allow the power of the entrepreneur and innovation right here in our country to occur. this is fantastic legislation that will create jobs, more take-home pay for working families and improving our foreign policy, making us energy independent. oh, by the way, as kevin mentioned, can improve our environment. these are the win-win-win kind of issues we need to be advancing, not win-lose-lose like these other ideas. in the back. reporter: speaker ryan, you said part of the response to

the planned parenthood shooting is the murphy bill. explain. the speaker: i'll let the commerce committee and congressman murphy talk about his bill. the point i'm making is the common theme with these kinds of shootings is mental illness and this is something we should not be ignoring. this is why we've been working very diligently with the commerce committee, with congressman murphy, a clinical psychologist, to advance legislation overhauling our much -- we need to overhaul our mental health system. congressman murphy has put a very comprehensive effort under way. he's put years into this. this is something that requires our attention. reporter: the houses a a number of major bills that needs to pass by the end of the year. the omnibus. you said before on major bills that you commit to a majority of the majority. do you think that's feasible? the speaker: we're whipping right now. we have two big conference reports c