awarded? sec. sanders: right. the federal government had nothing to do with the contract or the process. this is determined by the puerto rican government, and we will look forward to the audit to see if there are other issues beyond that. >> a question on the russia sanctions that the president signed in august. recipients were supposed to be named on october 1, and that just came out today. i am wondering if you can explain the delay and how soon administration will act to implement those sanctions? sec. sanders: right, there was an interagency review that has been completed. that was the cause of the delay. the guidance was issued by the state department. that is now being carried out. for further details, i would refer you to the state department. >> the president tweeted out this morning regarding the russia investigation "after months of costly looking." is the president suggesting that the mueller special investigation is a waste of money? sec. sanders: i think the president has been clear

about his position throughout this process. that is not the own investigation that has taken place. congress has spent a great deal of time on this, a better part of a year. all of your news organizations have actually spent a lot of money on this as well, which we would consider probably a pretty big waste. i think our position has not changed since day one. and i think we are seeing now if it there -- if there was any collusion with russia it was between the dnc and the clintons, and certainly not our campaign. sec. sanders: we have to move around. >> this is an important one on 401(k)s. sec. sanders: maybe your colleagues will ask. >> do you have any comments on the events in catalonia? spain put out a statement. has the president made any phone calls on that? sec. sanders: i am not aware of any phone calls today, but we certainly echo the state department and again reiterate our support for a unified spain. i am going to jump around.

>> the present -- the president met this morning with interior secretary's inky. zinke.interior secretary did the president ask him directly if he has a knowledge of this deal? sec. sanders: the primary purpose of this meeting that has been on the schedule for several weeks was to discuss the secretary's monuments report that will be coming up shortly, and that was the reason for the meeting, but he did ask secretary zinke he just for clarification purposes, and he reiterated once again that we have no role -- the federal government and specifically he had no role in that contract. john? john: thanks a lot, sarah. on whitefsh energy, prior to hurricane maria they had two employees, and after hurricane maria it is awarded a $300 million plus contract. i realize you say it was a contract awarded by officials in puerto rico, but would you acknowledge that does not look right on the surface of things?

sec. sanders: i am not going to comment before the audit is conducted. but we certainly look for to -- forward to seeing the results of that, and this is a state and local decision made by the puerto rican authorities, not the federal government. but we will look into the audit once it's published. >> the president says there is a lot of corruption in puerto rico. --would you think this falls under the umbrella of corruption? sec. sanders: i am not going to get ahead of the audit. once we have that, we will make a determination. >> the president declared a national health emergency. that declaration did not come with a request for money from congress. how much does the president want congress to put toward this crisis, and when will he put in a formal request for the money? sec. sanders: there was $45 million originally in the health care plan that the president supported that no democrat in the country supported. ideally it would have been done through that, but since it wasn't we're hoping congress

, will come together and it will be bipartisan support to put behind the opioid crisis and join the president in dealing with this effort. >> based on your answer just now, $45 billion is what you would like to see as an initial approach to the opioid crisis and done during the budget deal. sec. sanders: i am not going to negotiate with you from the podium, but that was the number we outlined in the health care bill. there has been $1 billion spent to date. we do feel of the $45 billion -- we do feel the $45 billion would have been a good number in the health care bill. that is what we supported. we will continue looking at that and determine future numbers. >> is that a good place to start with congress? >> in the meeting the president had with secretary zinke, did he agree to shrink the size of the national monument in utah? sec. sanders: i will not get ahead of the president's announcement on the specifics of that, but i can tell you he will

be going to utah in the first part of early december and we will be releasing more details at that point, and he also spoke with both senators hatch annalee -- hatch and lee through the course of that meeting. >> sexual harassment has been in the news. 16 women accuse the president of sexual harassing them. during a press confident -- press conference in the rose garden, he called it fake news. is it the official white house statement that all these women are lying? sec. sanders: we have been clear about that from the beginning and the president has spoken on it. >> last weekend, former president jimmy carter offered his availability as a go between two the north korean regime in the hopes of resolving the differences between this country and pyongyang. he has a history with the family of the current leader in north korea, meeting with his grandfather in 1994. is the administration in contact with president carter, and does

he have any plans to use them as -- to use him as a go between or an envoy to pyongyang? sec. sanders: i don't think that is part of our process at this time. if that changes, we will certainly let you know. that is not part of our current plan or thinking for how to deal with north korea. >> i will ask the 401k question. sec. sanders: see, you have friends helping you out. [laughter] and you did not think anyone likes you here, john. >> i have john's back. is the president considering dropping the amount of pretax contributions that americans can put into the 401(k)? it seems as if this whole issue is up for negotiation. does the president support taking the $18,000 to a level and potentially lowering that? sec. sanders: as i said earlier this week, the president wants to continue to fight and push for protection of americans' retirement, and that hasn't changed, but i'm not going to negotiate any deals beyond that. that is the president's position, and that is the same today as it was earlier this

week. >> there have been a number of politicians over the past week, including chris christie at the white house yesterday, who said rob mueller should step aside from certain investigations at the special counsel. does the president share those views? sec. sanders: the president wants to see this completed. we think that we are continuing to see day in, day out, as this investigation moves to completion, the same as it started -- there is no evidence of collusion between the president and anyone. if any collusion took place, it would be between the dnc and the clintons, and i think we're starting to now see all the things the democrats accuse this president of doing they are guilty of themselves and i think that is a really big problem that should be looked at. sure. >> the lawmakers in egypt are preparing a measure that would criminalize someone's sexuality with up to five years in prison. will you condemn the measure?

sec. sanders: i'm not aware of the specifics of that, so i would have to look into it before i can make a response. but we will certainly be happy to check into it. >> thank you, sarah -- at the risk of wasting my question, i am going to ask you about the fed. since the last time you are up here, there's been a couple of reports, one that the president is going to make an announcement next week. can you confirm that he will make an announcement, and can you give us timing? second, there have been reports that chairman yellen is out of the running and jerome powell is at the top of the list. can you confirm any of that? sec. sanders: i can confirm the president plans to make an announcement on that next week. but beyond that, i do not have anything else to add. >> i want to ask about a comment sebastian gorka made on fox news. i know that he does not work for the white house anymore, but he claims to be still involved in what is going on here. he was talking about the uranium one deal and hillary clinton and said had this happened in the

1950's, there will be people on treason charges. this is the equivalent to what the rosenbergs did, and those people got the chair. think about it. does the president agree with that statement? sec. sanders: i have not seen the comments. i will not comment on sebastian gorka or validate that. we do think there is a lot of cause for concern regarding that deal, and it should be looked into, but i cannot, then someone outside of the administration's comments. >> question on the upcoming asia trip -- can you talk more about the criteria that you use to decide which of the many multilateral meetings he attended, and can you confirm he will not be at the east asia summit, and why? sec. sanders: he is participating in at least the opening ceremony and some of the other parts of that event. in terms of the specifics, we will do a full and more detailed briefing on that next week. and so, i will wait until we get to next week because the final details of some of those things are still being worked out. >> the president said on twitter

that he congratulated president xi on his extraordinary elevation. does he have any misgivings on the way the elevation occurred or the impact on the nation? sec. sanders: not that i'm aware of. >> i was wondering why did the president involved himself in the uranium one investigation? are you trying to gin up your own russian investigation to hill,one up on capitol and where is the evidence of hillary clinton colluded with the russians as he tweeted this morning? sec. sanders: in terms of the president's involvement, the president has push for transparency, if that is what you are referring to when dealing with congress. i know that is probably something new for a president to push for transparency, and that is what he has done. that was the purpose of what he was trying to do in the process. >> how about evidence of collusion? the president made a charge that hillary clinton -- sec. sanders: i think i have addressed that pretty thoroughly. >> so you are saying --

sec. sanders: i'm saying i am calling on your colleague. >> with the majority leader attacking steve bannon -- i am wondering if the white house has an opinion on that. is mr. bannon fair game, is he still viewed as helpful to the president's cause, and has the president had any success talking him out of backing off on some of the incumbents? sec. sanders: in terms of how a pac spends their money, i would direct you to them. we do not comment on political situations or contributions from the podium. >> monday is going to be the -- sunday is going to be the one-month anniversary the las vegas shooting, four weeks. the shooter increased the speed of his fire by using bump stocks. at first you did not want to comment on that, but i am curious to know. does the president think the atf should prohibit their sales? is he going to ask them to, this

-- does he think only congress can do it, or does he think bump stocks are not the problem? sec. sanders: he has asked that the process be reviewed and we are waiting on some of the details to take place, but a decision has not been finalized on that. but we're looking at that and it is certainly under review. i am going to cut us a little short today and i have one last announcement i wanted to make. the president asked me to let all of you know -- those of you that have your kids here for trick-or-treating, before they go over to the executive office building for trick-or-treating, he has invited them to come into the oval, so if you would like to have your kids participate, please meet us here, and we will walk them over shortly, and then give them back to you so that you can sugar them up and take them home to your house to run wild. thanks so much, and have a good friday. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2017] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] q&a -- week on [chanting] >> they were shoving.

i was a little bit behind him. it looked like he was going to fall to the ground. at the time, he was a 71-year-old man. i did what any human being would do if you see a man about to fall, i grabbed him by the arm to make sure he didn't fall, but of beings fearful separated from them and being left behind. so i took his arm, and when i did, that is when it turned on me. somebody grabbed my hair and a-day slammed me. >> a professor discusses a violent protest on campus. watch professor allison stanger on c-span's "q&a." >> next, adhering to assess the public health repair it miss for

hurricane season -- prepared ness for hurricane season. rico is home to several drug manufacturers, whose facilities were destroyed. the house energy and commerce subcommittee's on oversight and investigations her testimony. eb. the hearing is two hours and 35 minutes. >> i'll go ahead and get us started. we are here today to examine the department of health and human services public health repairedness for and response to the 2017 hurricane season. in the last two months, texas, florida, puerto rico, and the u.s. virgin islands have been

devastated by hurricanes. i first want to express our heart felt sorrow for the millions of americans impact by these devastating storms and say that all members of this committee, on both sides of the aisle, stand with those affected by these hurricanes. i would also like to thank dr. burgess and dr. reeves, both members of the subcommittee who recently visited puerto rico to assess the impact these hurricanes have had and

continue to have on americans. this committee has been conducting oversight of the federal response to the recent hurricanes since shortly after harvey made landfall in texas. unfortunately, i expect that our work here will continue for years to come. the committee's jurisdiction involves not just public health issues but rebuilding the electrical grid, addressing environmental cleanup and restoring telecommunications to name only a few. the people of puerto rico and the u.s. virgin islands continue to face a long road to recovery and many are living without power and running water. i believe we are going to be joined today by representative jennifer gonzalez from puerto rico, someone who knows all too well about the difficult challenges her home is facing. thank you for being here at this

important hearing. from coordinating overall response to insuring that individuals have the medical treatment they need to protecting the blood and pharmaceutical supply, to granting medical waivers hhs has been working tirelessly to provide medical care and services to individuals affected by the storms. the overwhelming majority of health care facilities in the impacted areas went above and beyond to protect and cheat those in harm's way yet media reports indicate that some health care providers failed in their duty to protect their patients. there was a tragic situation at a nursing home in florida where 14 residents died after the facility lost its air conditioning and this despite a hospital across the street that never lost power or cooling. the response in puerto rico and the u.s. virgin islands has involved numerous federal agencies working together with each other and state and local officials. for example, before hurricane maria made landfall in puerto rico and every day since hhs, the department of defense,the department of veterans affairs

and federal emergency management agency have been coordinating with local emergency response officials to provide medical care and help reestablish the health care infrastructure. hhs has worked with puerto rico's department of health to prioritize resources needed for dialysis facilities and have coordinate would fema to help ensure critical supplies are delivered where they are needed. similar efforts are ongoing in the u.s. virgin islands, as well. many questions remain. has the interagency response beeneffective from the hhs? are we utilizing our resources in the most efficient and effective ways to help our fellow americans in puerto rico and u.s. virgin islands in particular? it is critical that we understand the public health challenges ahead. mold formation is likely in nearly all the effected regions. as we have seen after hurricane harvey there is inse