pres. trump: this has nothing to do with china, this is worldwide, the dumping problem is a worldwide problem. >> thank you. pres. trump: thank you, everybody. [applause] >> a look inside the white house east room, reporters and guests awaiting the joint news conference of president trump and the prime minister of italy. expected to discuss some of the issues they have been meeting on today and their relationship as nato partners. while we wait for the press conference to begin, let's look at a discussion about the

executive order president trump signed yesterday on medical care for veterans. taking place on capitol hill yesterday include the president of the united states signing a bill that would extend health care options for veterans who seek it from the veterans administration. joining us on the phone to give us a sense of what happened and what it means for veterans, the capitol hill bureau chief for the military times. could you tell us about this? what happened at the white house? >> a bill signing for a measure the va has been pushing hard in recent months, next engine of the choice act program, a somewhat controversial program that was founded in 2014, in response to the v.a. wait time scandal which allows veterans to go to private care if they meet certain requirements. there has been frustration about the program because of red tape and other bureaucracy, some of

the eligibility requirements. for the most part, lawmakers have liked it and a sunset date is coming up in august. this lets the program go on until it runs out of money. president trump and v.a. officials, top congressional officials were there to celebrate that they have at least provided a short-term fix to problems of access and care. the bigger story will be down once they replace the program with the extension, the money for the program will run out by the end of the year. the next question for the administration and folks on the hill, what will they replace it with? >> what our options when it comes to the future of this program? >> we have heard from the v.a. secretariat that we should see a plan in the next few months, maybe as late as the end of the summer. point is the choice program and changing elibility rules.

for example, veterans now are eligible for this program if they face significant wait times for care at v.a. facilities or live at least 40 minutes -- miles away from a v.a. facility. the secretary said he wants to get rid of those rules and make it easier in general for people to see a private doctor, if it is more convenient for them and better for their schedule. if it fits their care. that is a pretty substantial expansion, in terms of cost. that will be the real fight for lawmakers. how do you pay for all of this? everybody likes making it easier for veterans to find care and access their doctor, but the question is -- how do you pay for it and how much will it cost if you make it very easy? >> how much our veterans groups lobbying for these changes and what do they think about the announcement made yesterday? >> they are excited that congress could get this done this quickly and the president could sign it. the short term fix but one the v.a. said is needed now.

with the state of congress, the slow pace of passing any legislation, everything is across for celebration when you can get easy things taken care of. they are anxious to see what the next step will be. there has been mixed reviews on the choice program, a lot of frustration over the bureaucracy and how it is administered. a lot of support for the idea and potential of finding more ways to get veterans in front of doctors to cut down on some of the wait times. >> is a private industry ready to accept these people who will be coming to them? how do they get paid? what are the specifics? >> those are some of the great questions we will see. the bill signed yesterday passed a slight tweak and how the v.a. handles deductibles and co-pays, they will pay directly to doctors instead of refunding veterans to pay out-of-pocket. that is a tweak they are looking

at. how do people get refunded, how does the v.a. pay for these and is there a way to simple fight because private sector positions -- physicians say how difficult it is to get reimbursements from v.a. a lot of the questions about what is the best choice for veterans who are seeking care? while the doctor down the street may have openings or maybe easier to get to, that dr. may not understand ptsd or prosthetics, or even know to look for service specific things . there is some trepidation among the veterans groups that, if this goes too far, if we go into just pushing veterans to private care, loan, they will not get the best care they need. by the same token, veterans groups want to see a good mixture, they want to have a robust v.a. system that veterans can use as a safety net and expertise. by the same token, if they have

the flu or something simple, they want to go to the doctor down the street. >> the capitol hill bureau chief of the military times talking about the signing of the administration, president trump looking at veterans care, seymour that -- see more of that at the website of the military times been. >> waiting a joint news conference with president trump and the prime minister of italy in the white house east room, they are expected to discuss some of the issues they have been meeting on today, the upcoming group of seven meetings in italy next month and the relationship between the two nato partners. the press coverage running a few minutes behind schedule. while we wait for things to begin, we will look at efforts to revamp the foreign worker visa program in the u.s. >> our first guest is with politico, a labor reporter. we are talking about temporary visas and a review of that program, good morning.

could you start out by saying what a temporary visa is and what it does? >> it gives a foreign worker permission to come to the u.s. or a company permission to bring the foreign worker to the u.s. for a time. the visa we talk about today is specifically geared towards high skilled workers and people who are coming in often in fields, science, technology, engineering, math. >> how many of those people can come in yearly? >> it depends on the visa come in this category, 85 thousand pieces per year with 65,000 what they call general abuses and 20,000 -- visas and 20,000 with people with masters degree. a company will need to petition on behalf of the worker. , they case of the h1b have to submit an application of why they need to bring the worker from abroad and give documentation that they have sought a u.s. worker before they

go and look for a temporary worker from overseas. process, do they get in line, is it a lottery system? how does that work? typicallyvisas, and there has been much more desire for the visas then that limit. they go to a lottery once they go over the cap. it is a random lottery. companies that have submitted petitions for the visas will be put in the lottery and they will choose 85,000. >> they will be assigned to companies, they will come in and start work. how long does the visa last? >> three years and can be ready for another three years. in some cases, poor people adjusting to lawful permanent residents, green card, they can be extended more. about foreignk workers who come in and efforts

by the administration to look at that. republicans.for democrats, 202-748-8000. holder, wea h1b visa want to hear from you. the president, earlier this week, put out an executive order saying he wanted to review all visa programs and have his federal agencies look and make sure they are not discriminating against the u.s. workers and displacing them. in particular, he doesn't want to look more closely at the lottery. the idea that it should not be random and maybe should be a merit-based system where the jobs paying the most or the positions needed the most are the ones the visas are going to. something they will evaluate and we could see new regulations and rulemaking from the different agencies to address these. >> what brought on this review? >> high-profile cases of the visas within the system, one

involving disney i.t. workers. it was found that the company's were using these legally. all of them the program rules but displacing u.s. workers by taking full-time positions and turning them into contract jobs and bringing in temporary workers from abroad to take the roles at a cheaper price. >> the people coming in to take the jobs, is there a case to be made of enough americans to take the jobs? >> you will hear both arguments, from the labor sector, yes, they think they should -- u.s. workers should have the first crack at the jobs. from businesses, lots will say they do need talent from abroad, specifically the tech sector has thought about, they have made the case for bringing in foreign workers for their roles. >> continuing on the conversation. the first call from daniel in tacoma park, maryland, democrats line. you are on with our guest. >> when i was in california,

there are two main things, my comment is, the foreign workers get paid less than americans, is that an incentive for companies to hire? do you hear about the report in california that did a survey of the twitter workers and found 93% of them were white and asian. i do not think they are doing a good job hiring a diverse group of people. not hiring black people or people from india or various parts of the world that would give -- they are specifically targeting certain foreigners. other foreigners are brought out of the workforce. >> i will answer the first part when you said our workers coming in and making more money than u.s. workers? it depends on the position. it you do a google search, you will see different companies are offering different cell race on average. , u.s. tech company's

like facebook tend to be offering higher salaries for holders thena india companies bringing in workers on a temporary basis. >> michelle in minneapolis. you are on with our guest, republican line. >> you hit the topic i was going to talk about. you have these outside contracting sources who are bringing in a lot of people from india. they can go to the large companies and say, we can give t person for $20,000, $30,000 less. they need to stop giving those preferences to the specific companies. >> the way the system works is that the employers need to pay at least what they call a prevailing wage, which is an average of wages for the location and the occupation that is in question.

the issuer that is the prevailing wages for into four levels, one being the lowest tier of the scale and four being the highest. the employer can define what the occupation is and choose the level based on that. occupations, the computer programmer, you are paying below the average waste because you are paying a level one way instead of a level for wage when the average is somewhere in the middle. >> an opinion posed in usa today by the ceo of nexium who talks about the visa program and says, visa was designed to attract the world's best talent but critics have complained the program is abused by global outsourcing firms. and you expand on that? >> a divide we have seen. different companies are using the visa, something's primary business is outsourcing. other companies, i mentioned facebook and also google and apple, who are bringing in it

workers and computer programmers from abroad to work in the u.s. you have seen the line drawn. there is less tolerant for company using this for outsourcing from the administration, and from critics of the program. >> is the outsourcing form a go between? >> you have companies, based in the u.s. or abroad, the primary job is to outsource i.t. services, and they use this visa to facilitate that. >> mark in philadelphia, independent line. go ahead. pres. trump: thank you, very much. minister, welcome. great honor. it is