>> here on c-span, "newsmakers" is next with republican congressman mark walker of north carolina. then, the national intelligence director and the n.s.a. director testified before congress about russian efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election. later, senator sheldon whitehouse and representative michael mccaul discuss consolidation of cybersecurity operations and other recommendations for combating cyberthreats. guest thissmakers" week is congressman mark walker of colorado. he will be seeing lots of him this year. legislator and

former baptist preacher starting his second term in the house of representatives but was recently elected by his colleagues to leave the 170 have a number conservative republican study committee. thank you for being our guest. our reporters will be asking the questions. scott, congressional reporter for "the health." and lindsey mcpherson who covers congress for "cq roll call." scott, your first. scott: congratulations on your chairmanship. theyems republicans after received a visit from mike pence on capitol hill this week are on the same page when it comes to repeal. but there is a lot of differences of opinion when it comes to the replacement portion. we still have not seen a lot of specifics on the timeline, how long it is going to take, when we are going to see a bill. and also, how long the transition will be. can you help shed light?

how do republicans get on the same page in these next coming months? rep. walker: i believe there is a genuine desire to have a unified government. i don't believe this is in name only. starting on that premise, how do we begin to move forward? a gallup, according to poll recently, over 80% of the population believes obamacare needs to be overhauled or replaced entirely. if that is our premise and foundation, that will be something we are able to come together and find a path forward in repealing it. the first part of your question was timelines about repeal versus repair. speaker ryan said it best when he said repeal is relief. the amount of small businesses and individuals, even stories from friends across the aisle, have people calling constantly saying we need relief. that is first and foremost. how do we unravel some of these

mandates, whether individual or federal? that something very important to us. in that timeline, we have several different things. outerday, the r.n.c. rolled the most cosponsors on the american health care reform act. the doctor from tennessee, who better to draft the policy than the gentleman who employed hundreds of medical professors and understands the industry as a whole? those are the things we want to take to the forefront. is that to your legislation the end-all? it is not. it is round one of the 15-round heavyweight right to make sure we are pushing back on the narrative republicans do not have a plan. as far as the final piece of your question, as far as the timeline on replacement, i believe that is still premature to nail that down. i think the consensus is sometime this year to have some

kind of position to move forward. i've heard 2, 3, 4 years. i believe in following through to our -- on our promise to the american people in this calendar year. scott: in mentioned on the repeal and replace plan you laid out yesterday, can you explain the biggest difference with that plan versus the one speaker ryan and the leadership laid out with a better way? rep. walker: they are very similar. the primary difference would be the tax deduction versus the tax credit. i believe the family under the reform act would allow 2500 as opposed to tax credit. another minor difference, we are making sure we are doing everything we can for pre-existing conditions. as long as you are staying on a plan, you are not out to pasture as well. those are very important things. nobody is planning on pulling the rug out from anyone.

that is something important to us. let me also say this was got --, scott. if you look at even the most centrist polling, 15% have benefited from obamacare in some aspect. but 25% have had some kind of harm or premium spike. the thought process republicans have to have a replacement plan unfairvers 40% is knowing obamacare is failing on a daily basis. pushing back on some of the narrative there is this perfect magical plan, that is the only way we can replace obamacare, is a fallible argument from the beginning. timeline, myhe understanding is the r.n.c. plan does include provisions for transition with some exceptions for things that could be replaced earlier.

can you talk a little bit about that position, is the r.n.c. generally in favor of a two-year transition? rep. walker: i think there are several pieces of discussion going on right now. our goal is to maintain in that year when it comes to replacement. i will add this. we want to make sure we are able to follow through on the budget reconciliation, the deal we were able to work out last year, to make sure we get the vote threshold. it too much is added to the replacement, it would violate according to the senate parliamentarian. we want to make sure as we repeal that we stay within the threshold. lindsey: in mentioned the senate. it seems there is some division in the senate. senate says they want to put up replacement at the same time as repeal. the house is not moving in that

direction. heavy top-tier counterparts in the chamber about how you move forward? road to the white house in my thet term, -- rep. walker: house and senate are not always on the same page. we want to make sure we are clearly communicating where we want to go with the repeal of obamacare. we have talked with mike lee and others fairly frequently. not always just about this issue, but making sure we are trying to be united when it comes to getting the right approach. scott: this past congress, we saw the rise of the freedom caucus. this is the band of conservative lawmakers, many of them your close friends. they have gotten a lot of attention. withhave been credited forcing out speaker boehner in the last congress. about howlittle bit you see your organization coexisting with the freedom caucus. there has been concern may these

are redundant organizations. criticism from people who have left your organization that the r.n.c. is not effective enough in moving policy to the right. can you talk a little bit about that? republican study committee founded in 1973 historically has been an incredible policymaker when it comes to overall conservative legislation. by the time we came into the 114 congress, the freedom caucus was launched. i don't know we have an adversarial problem with the freedom caucus. re-frozen the recent chairmanship race -- voted for us in the recent chairmanship race. i believe we have an opportunity to leave the republican study committee's because that is our approach.

position, ishis not anymore about policy. there are three components. policy, the right approach, and the right voice. i even dug out the old youtube wherecial from kellogg's the new englander is eating cornflakes. there is a line at the end that helped kellogg's that says this. taste them again for the first time. i feel sometimes conservatives, i like to think about hearing is for the first time. the challenge is not to continue to take the message to the base. that is the easy path. our goal if we truly believe we have a message for upward mobility and economic opportunity, if we truly believe that, in the guys i served with it is challenging an opportunity to take that to new communities and new generations. you have to be careful using one

out rhetoric. it takes energy to go into different places. sometimes, you are outnumbered. sometimes you are in the minority being a conservative. that is the thing i enjoy about all of this. you get to go new places and talk about these things. it has to start with relationships. hopefully, it will begin to get traction. one of the reasons iran was because over the years as a pastor for nearly two decades, we have been able to work in places like cleveland, new york, and baltimore. not just those committees but also younger generations, talking about what is important, where do you see yourself in 25 years? is it the entitlement mindset of the government or to have full control of your lives? you are created with unique opportunities and skill sets to develop the skill sets is a

wonderful component of fulfillment in life and purpose. that is one of the things we are incorporateke and the republican study committee. lindsey: scott's question about the two caucuses sometimes being at odds with each other does not take into account that both have been at odds with leadership over the past couple of conferences. i wanted to ask you about the opening day with the kerfuffle over the ethics rule change and what kind of footing you think that gave the republicans in congress for the brand-new session. and also what you think about what it might have done to the speaker's leadership and how it is viewed by the public. scott: i think one of the -- rep. walker: i think one of the things that speaks strongly is if you look at how many votes paul ryan received on the floor the other day, i think that says a lot. i believe all but one republican voted for the speaker. i think it is rare you have that kind of support for the speaker of the house.

i do believe there is a certain level of confidence in speaker ryan. as far as the oce part of the ethics bill, i believe sometimes even members of congress, you go through the different emotions. you go through different things. there were several testimonies shared at that conference about how different members have been charged hundreds of thousands of dollars without a chance to face their accuser. even saying that, i do believe speaker ryan did the right thing saying not now. a couple of months ago, it was kind of the same argument on earmarks. even if you are willing to make a constitutional argument or can make the point it is within congresses will mark to bring back earmarks, sometimes you have to ask yourself just because it is lawful, is it the right thing to do? we have a new president and new administration coming in who has run on draining the swamp. in their people said this needs

to happen. that is your mindset. -- the american people said this needs to happen. i believe speaker ryan made a wonderful decision working with this administration of saying let's rethink this thing on oce. maybe there is a time for that conversation, but it certainly is not now. lindsey: earmarks is something i want to ask you about. when you tabled the discussion last year, they said it was something they would revisit in the first quarter this year. where do you fall on that discussion of whether earmarks should come back in a limited form? if you believe they should come back, what is the appropriate avenue for reinstating them? rep. walker: i believe the position of the rsc is against earmarks. historically, we have seen where there is not only corruption but abuse when it comes to it. the other argument is the army corps of engineers tickets to choose where the money goes,

they always give it to the red states so i can understand frustration. i believe if we are going to continue to try to say here is what we are trying to a accomplish with congress, here is the honesty, here is the transparency, i believe this is not the time for your marks to return to be able to have the members able to specifically designate where the funds go. scott: you mentioned donald trump's motto drain the swamp and how the o.c. action and possibly earmarks might fly in the face of that mantra. we saw donald trump weigh in on twitter on the ethics issue earlier this week, sort of putting that issue over the top, and forcing republicans to back off and rethink that issue. about this newit trump inra of donald his communication by twitter. how has that caused republicans

on capitol hill to rethink things they are doing and approach things differently? rep. walker: if you look at the context of looking at the numbers, and i believe this number is correct. close to0, i believe 70% of the members of congress are new. that means 70% have not even served with a republican president, specifically in the republican party. it is a transformation or transitional thinking perspective. instead of being in an adversarial position pushing back on the current administration's policies, instinctively how do we work? there are some growing pains with that. the twitter age we live in, i thought about ronald reagan's ability to talk to the american people. donald trump has his own way of talking directly to the american people. so far, it has worked well for him. i will add this as well. there may come a time the

administration maybe has a different position than the legislative branch. i don't know everything will be high in the sky. there are times we will have to have real discussion as far as which direction we may be wanting to go. as of right now, i think it is incumbent on congress to do everything we can to work with the new administration. this is the president of people have selected. week engagedc this with donald trump on twitter responding to one of his health care tweets. is this something more we will see with the rsc? rep. walker: i think so. here is why. a former chairman of the republican study committee was mike pence. having someone in the white house, the vice president-elect, who has served in the same role, opens up the lines of communication on legislation. as part of the desire -- that is

-- we want to take more of a position of proactive than reactionary. lindsey: you mentioned there will be areas where the president-elect and congress might disagree. one thing that might cause trouble is the infrastructure package the president-elect is proposing. is there a way to fund $1 trillion in a conservative white? -- way? rep. walker: i commend the president for coming in and saying these are where we have needs. to say this is as far as we can go, as part of it is not paid for. i believe it is our job to sometimes share our concerns in moving forward. like i said earlier, i don't know we can anticipate specifically what that might be. if it is $1 trillion on infrastructure, we may have to say there is a portion we are

not comfortable with and come back to the table. as a legislative body, that is still our job. not trying to be overly aggressive in pushing back on the administration. i am hoping before it gets to that place, we have an opportunity with others to make sure the budget is fiscally sound as we move forward. budget withverall issues -- items like infrastructure. scott: tom price has been nominated for hhs secretary. he has come under scrutiny this past week. there were reports saying he had bought and sold some stocks, health-care related stocks, as a member of congress. does that raise red flags for you at all? democrats held a press conference and called on -- call for an ethics investigation. is that something you believe is warranted at this point? rep. walker: i have not read

through all of it so i have to be careful speaking on it. but i can speak personally knowing tom price, a surgeon very involved in the health care industry so it would not surprise me he had investments. i will share this quick story. three years ago when i drove up to washington, january of 2014, nobody had time to meet with us as we were looking to run for congress. but there was one person i wanted to speak with that make time for us. that was dr. tom price. from a personal standpoint, i see how he reaches out to all communities. he certainly has 100% of my support. lindsey: obamacare is getting a lot of attention now first out of the gate. there is a second crack at budget reconciliation. that is coming up later in the spring. we are hearing a lot about a possible candidate for that. speaker ryan said this week democrats are saying they want , if that could

be bipartisan, either other more conservative policies reconciliation would be a better candidate for? rep. walker: i think right now, tax reform is crucial. even in my previous location, how many -- vocation, how may times have we heard congress's job is to do something with the tax code? now 75,000 pages long. this administration has added another 8000 to 9000 pages. people are frustrated being targeted by the i.r.s. kevin brady is aggressive doing something here, genuine tax reform. whether that is six months or a year, i believe that is something specific to your question. that second reconciliation opportunity we have, i believe there is a lot of momentum. maybe this is an opportunity as we talk about bipartisanship. i believe our friends on the other side of the aisle understand we need genuine tax reform.

susan: five minutes left. scott: and wanted to switch gears to russia. as a member of the house homeland security to, do you believe the analysis from some of the top u.s. intelligence officials that russia had hacked into the mill systems in the united states -- the emails systems in the united states and try to interfere with the u.s. election? rep. walker: i believe there is a big discrepancy between what the c.i.a. has said versus the f.b.i. for me to pick or choose which is more accurate is not something i feel is my right to do. anyone,to make sure if russia, china, or anyone, is attempting to interfere in our elections, we need to do everything we can to exhaust every possibility to hold whoever it is accountable. i am not opposed to thinking they would not try to do that. if we are getting tens of thousands of attacks, cyber

attacks from china and russia daily, weather state-sponsored or private sponsored, it is not outside the realm of thought these countries would try to damage any aspect of our democracy. i think we need to do due diligence. i don't think we need to jump to conclusions and say this was russia. at the same time, i think you can take the other extreme and say it could not have been russia. we have to make sure we are being diligent and are not swayed. the f.b.i. n.g.i. always been bodies that were not -- the f.b.i. and the c.i.a. have always been bodies that were not partisan. i have no problem looking to see if there was. i want to make sure we do not jump to conclusions and put all of our apples in one basket blaming one person for the election result. susan: you talked about coming in as a unified government.

do you foresee this as an area where congress will have a different opinion of russia van president-elect trump? rep. walker: i have read some things as far as what donald trump has said. when it comes to different opinion of him that would cause me to actually the depth of donald trump's opinion. i have heard him say there is a respected leadership component as far as strength. it comes to relationship, i have heard him say there is no personal relationship. as far comes to congress as serving on the committee of homeland security, we have to be skeptical of any outside influence on not just the elections. we have many attacks on our grid that controls everything on the east coast. it is hit thousands of times a day. want to look at the fritz we have. this has caught the media attention. we will do our due diligence on this. right now, i think it is

premature to say who is responsible for what. again,: switching topics one of the things you talked debt is looking at the ceiling and ways you can come up with a plan. where do those discussions stand? rep. walker: we are wanting to make sure we are getting beyond the adage that the train has left the station. i think the american people are getting frustrated saying how can you back the train up? you can take a different direction. we have meetings scheduled to talk about how we get to the place where this is not an automatic raise the debt ceiling. this may be an issue as far as opposition with the administration. this could be one of those items. i know myself and the rsc will take strong positions when it comes to raising the debt

ceiling. i hope we are able to get a long-term solution. in washington, if you wait until the time to vote or deal with something, most of the time it is way too late. whether that is intentional or not can be debated. we have to be proactive enough that we are able to push back on things like the debt ceiling. susan: 30 seconds. final question, scott? scott: a lot of times, we forget members of congress are people fascinating that grounds -- that grounds. you are a preacher. how does that affect the way you approach your job and health care? rep. walker: my wife is a nurse. dealing with people from all walks of life has provided me a chance to get moving quickly. when you deal with people from different socioeconomic backgrounds and educational backgrounds, in allows you -- it allows you to listen more.

we have seen that in our community work. we have seen that where prominent democrats have endorsed us for congress. we are excited about bringing in a new h.b.c. you president in february. we look forward to continuing that work. susan: we covered a lot of the issues with you this week. thank you for being our guest this week on "newsmakers." back.akers" is we had just talked with congressman mark walker in his second term in congress and was elected as the incoming head of the republican study committee, the 170-member conservative caucus inside the house of representatives. scott wong and lindsey mcpherson are our reporters. everyone is waiting until january 22 no the direction. from what you have seen so far of the republican congress, what can you discern about the

direction? scott: i think you are starting to see faultlines form. everyone has been preaching on the republican side about g.o.p. unity since the election. but at the same time, you are starting to see little cracks emerge on various issues from infrastructure to health care. we saw it this week with the ethics reform issue where republicans tried to push through an overhaul of the independent ethics office, really try to gut that office and water it down. donald trump tweeted right back at them saying this is not what the american people told us we should be focusing on, and that ended that. i think we are starting to see these cracks appear. susan: lindsey, you talked about the two big caucuses inside the republican conference. that is the freedom caucus which has given speakers trouble in the past couple of cycles and

the older, established republican study committee. the election of a freshman member of the house coming into sophomore term, what is the rsc signaling about the direction? lindsey: mark walker run against a senior caucus member for the position. it was an interesting race in that regard. the other ran on the idea of merging the groups. heyou were chairman -- if were chairman, you would have made the need for the caucus obsolete by the end of his term. the choice of walker, for younger and more in expressed member -- in expressed member, shows they are looking for a change. and has nothing to do with conservatives i don't think. i think a lot of people respect him as a person. he is willing to work with various caucuses and across the aisle. and his character. we talked about his experiences as a preacher. i think people really respect

him. susan: he has talked about working across the aisle. is there an appetite in the new congress for working with democrats now that they have a unified government? scott: is does not seem so from the democratic side. to theocrats have looked republican playbook when president obama was in power and seen how republicans obstructed the president at every turn. i think democrats are going to try to do the same thing with the republican president in power with donald trump. it remains to be seen. it does not look like there is a lot of issues they agree on right now. we heard a little bit about earmarks today from mr. walker. i have heard that is one possible area where the two sides could come together and agree on something. but again, that will be a steep climb. were you surprised to hear he has been talking with senator mike lee about legislative priorities? lindsey: no.

likely is a conservative in the senate -- mike lee is a conservative in the senate in line with rsc ideals. he made it clear he would try to build those relationships. it is not surprising. it is encouraging given that one of the big things we need to see play out for republicans to enact their agenda is cooperation between the house and senate. that has not existed when obama was in office. susan: when are we learning about the senate and its willingness to play ball with a republican majority in the house? saw an interesting thing happened earlier today with rand paul walking across the capital to meet with the house freedom caucus. he was trying to rally the freedom caucus against the republican budget saying he thinks is going to be spending too much money in that budget. given that we have a republican

president, republican house and senate, there are going to be all sorts of conversations happening throughout the capital and in washington. it is going to be difficult to keep track of it all. susan: as we close out, we still have a couple of weeks to go until the new president is inaugurated. what will congress look like in the interim? lindsey: they will focus on getting the budget resolution through to get the reconciliation process so the repeal bill will be ready to go. in addition to that, they are starting the process for regulatory reform. they have laid down some things in the coming weeks on regulations. after trump gets here, they will start the congressional review process figuring out what congress needs to do to roll back obama's regulations and what trump can do on executive actions. susan: on the senate side, we will see confirmation hearings

quickly and a lot of attention on president trump's selections for these cabinet positions. thanks to both of you for being our guests. >> c-span's studentcam video documentary contest is underway. students across the country are busy at work and sharing their expense with us through twit ter. >> ♪ >> it is not too late to enter. our deadline is january 20, 2017. in your documentary, tell us the most urgent issue for the new progress --president and callers to address in 2017. our competition is open to all middle and high school students grades six through 12 with $100,000 awarded in cash prizes. the grand prize of $5,000 will go to the student or team with the best overall entry.

the remaining cash money will be awarded in shared between 150 students and 53 teachers. for more information on our competition and rules, go to our website. >> national intelligence director james clapper called russia and existential threat to the u.s. this past week while testifying with other intelligence officials about rush's to influence the 2016 presidential election. this hearing occurred one day before the declassified report concluded russian president vladimir putin ordered a so-called influence campaign aide the mesh and get the u.s. election. a half just over two and hours. before we begin, i want to welcome all of our