he talked about the spending bill which would fund the government through september 30 and he said the deal would preserve the primesy of the military in the 21st century. speaker ryan was joined by the chair of the house armed services committee, mac thornberry, and they spoke for about 15 minutes. mr. thornberry: i'm macthornberry of texas, chairman of the armed services committee. when we talk about defense, we usually talk about billions of dollars in programs and what not. but the consequence of the vote

we're about to take is about real life flesh and blood. earlier this week, a grandmother called one of my district offices. i'd nominated her grandson to one of the academies, he's a pilot in the military. her message to me was, please ground the planes until you know for certain they're safe for my grandson to fly in. understandable, given the terrible accidents as recently as last week. the bill we're about to vote on turns the corner in fixing our planes and ships and readiness and it also sends a very strong message to allies and adversaries alike that the united states is going to stand all and defend ourselves and that's more important because it's something we're doing than just the things that we're saying.

and i want to specifically thank the speaker for his dedication and his commitment to rebuilding the military. you know if everything is important, then nothing is important. and throughout this process, fixing our military has been the most important thing, the most important priority the speaker has worked toward. i think it's the most important thing in this bill. i think defending the country is the most important thing the federal government does. and there's at least one grandmother in texas who is very grateful for what we're about to do for her grandson and for his colleagues. mr. speaker. speaker ryan: i want to start by thanking you, mac, chairman thornberry, for joining me today and also for your leadership on this issue. no one knows the issues surrounding our military and

mac thornberry. secretary mattis has discussed it, come here so many times to hearings, the fundamental question is whether we're going to preserve the prime soif the american -- the primacy of the american military. we have the greatest force in the world but we have asked them to do so much more with so much less for so long. under the last administration, keeping a modern military force was not a priority and the result has been a staggering readiness crisis that's cost american lives. today we begin to reverse that damage. yes, this bill is critical for many, many other reasons. this bill starts construction on the wall. it turn the gateway decision over to the trump administration. it funds the war on open roads, funds school safety and mental health. what this bill is ultimately about, what we fought for for so long is finally giving our

military the tools and resources it needs to do the job. just last week, your networks covered this, your networks covered this. you always get me there. just last week we lost two naval aviators, f-18 pilots, off key west because of a training accident. we lost seven servicemens in a helicopter crash in western iraq. nine people last week alone because of equipment. we continue to lose more american personnel to accidents and training incidents than to enemy fire. that is just unacceptable. it comes back to resources and training. that's why this bill, that's why this bill is so important. we provide the biggest increase in military funding in 15 years. we provide the biggest pay raise

for troops in eight years. i've got buddies who have done six, seven, eight tours in combat who leave their families home every time. one of my buddies is over in afghanistan right now. you know, i think these guys deserve, these men and women in harm's way deserve our support. they the serve the best equipment, the best training, the best resources and they the serve a pay raise. that's what we're getting them. we're boosting pay for equipment and training. it means a stronger missile defense system. what all this as up to is we're -- adds up to is we're rebuilding the military. the threat of american military decline is coming to an end. that is a promise that we made along with this president to the american people and it is a promise that we are keeping today and we're pleased to do so.

questions? reporter: you said earlier this is on the agenda for this year besides changes to medicaid that didn't pass? speaker ryan: we'll take anything we can get with our partners in government. we regret the fact that the house passed a repeal and replace bill, the biggest entitlement reform ever considered in congress, and unfortunately the senate didn't pass that. i think when it comes to the farm bill and other welfare programs, other work forest development programs we can get some welfare development there as well. >> [inaudible] speaker ryan: first of all, did the process

take longer than we hoped this week? yes. but it was a process between republicans and democrats, house and senate. but we have a hard deadline we're going up against. i would say what's important is this bill has been worked on for months. we passed these bills in the house last september. the appropriations committee, through their committee-led, bottom-up process, has been working on this bill, drafting this bill, negotiating this bill for days, weeks, and even months. so it's not as if these are big surprises. these things have been long works in progress. the finishing touches came out this week. and we have a hard deadline we're working up against. i may just go over here and then come back over there. reporter: mr. speaker, the president's lawyer john dowd just resigned. speaker ryan: i didn't know anything about it, have no thought on it. reporter: was it a good idea for the president to call vladimir

putin and give him congratulations on winning an believe was many not a good election. speaker ryan: vladimir putin is doing everything he can to undermine democracies, not just ours, but all democracies. i would not have kind words to say if i were speaking to him. what you're seeing in the house with the sanctions is calling russia on the carpet. but my thoughts on putin and russia are clear. reporter: the senate is talking about adding to the omnibus, if they do that are you prepared to bring this to the house? speaker ryan: that didn't get included for various reasons, including they wouldn't agree to hyde protection. if we didn't have support for putting it in here now i have a get itme to see how we'd in again. the hyde protections are

nonnegotiable. reporter: the senate is going to do a budget for reconciliation -- speaker ryan: i'm sure the democrats want to work with us. we think there's more we can do. so this is not just a technical correction discussion which we have to have that. the way we look at tax reform, we have the co-op text in here which we think is important. what i learned from studying tax reform systems for a long time, when you convert your international system from worldwide to territorial, like the brits did like the japanese did, there'll be details you miss. lessons that you learn. we're going to have to take some more time to get those lessons. i believe by the end of the year we'll have some lessons learned, some technical fixes that are going to have to happen. and if we're going to do that, we might as well make the tax code even better. reporter: this bill provides for only 30 miles of new fence along the border. what do you say to republican

voters and the president's supporters who are looking for that big, beautiful wall. speaker ryan: this bill has funding that lasts for six months. six months. and we're putting the administration's full request for the border and for border security and the wall in here for the next sick months. a one year's worth of requests in six months this has more wall funding and more wall allotment than the administration's request had. we even do more in this bill than what the president's budget asked us to do. so we're going to be getting a down payment and starting on the border security and by the way, border security means a lot of things. it means a wall, it means a levee, it means see throw, it means resources. it's a very diverse aborter. we listen to the border patrol, what do you need? where do you need it? we listen to them who tell us, based on conditions on the ground, these are the physical barrier structures that are necessary. that's what we're funding here and we're getting a good head

starten it. reporter: when you took over the gavel you promised to have a more open and deliberative process. a three-day rule, you talk about open amendments. you made a number of promises. do you feel you delivered on those? speaker ryan: by and large we have done a phenomenal job of that. what happens is when you run against tough deadlines. as you know, the house passed all its appropriations bills ahead of schedule. as you also know the appropriations committee has been having hearings and markups all along. it isn't as if this is a one-week process. this is a months long process. the negotiations took longer, why? because we had to negotiate with democrats and with the senate. so those took a little longer than we anticipated but we have a deadline we have to move up against and we don't want to see a shutdown in the meantime. reporter: why not give people more time? speaker ryan: we have a deadline and we have a member who passed away whose funeral is tomorrow

and we want to be sensitive to that as well. reporter: thank you, mr. speaker. you were invited to the white house yesterday to talk to president trump -- speaker ryan: i'm invited to the white house all the time. reporter: can you tell us what you're trying to convey to the president and are you confident he's behind you? speaker ryan: the president support this is bill, no two ways about it. when we do big legislation it's not uncommon for me to brief the president. a bill like this where you have a lot of misinformation or confusion surrounding a bill like this, it's important. take gateway, for example. the house passed bail had very specific language in gateway that basically steered the money to one predictable project. we stripped that language from this bill so that there's more discretion for the administration and other cities like chicago or philadelphia could get those transportation

dollars. so it was important for me to explain these things and on big bills that's typically what i do with the president, walk him through the contours an complexities of the legislation we pass. yes, he supports the bill new york two ways about it. last question. reporter: when you met with the president yesterday, did you address the call with vladimir putin? speaker ryan: no, we just talked about appropriations legislation. reporter: how did he respond to the $1.6 billion for the wall? speaker ryan: i think he liked it. he administration asked us for $1.6 billion for the border, for the wall and he got it. i think he was happy. thank you. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2018] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

>> with current funding set to expire tomorrow at midnight, the house went on to pass that $1.3 trillion government spending bill by a vote of 256-167. the bill now heads to the senate for their consideration. the house is done for the week and for the month as members head home for the two-week easter recess. follow the house live on c-span when members return tuesday, april 10. tonight, housing and urban development secretary ben carson testifies on president trump's 2019 budget for his department. he spoke earlier today in front of the senate banking committee. we'll air that at 10:00 p.m. eastern on c-span2. and saturday, c-span has live coverage of the march for our lives rally in washington. activist and participants join politicians to rally against gun violence and recent mass shootings. that's live saturday starting at noon eastern.

>> on saturday, at 8:00 p.m. eastern on book tv on c-span2, ben steel chronicles the efforts to erebuild western europe following world war ii in his book "the marshall plan: dawn of the cold war." 11:00 p.m. the 2018 noork book critics circle awards. saturday on c-span3s a 7:05 p.m., nancy pelosi's smithsonsonian donation ceremony where she donated articles from her swearing in, including the speaker's gavel, a copy of her speech and the suit she wore. at 10:00 p.m., the speech by president lyndon b. johnson announce e-- announcing he would not seek re-election followed by president nixon campaign film.

sunday, we examine the creation and enactment of lyndon johnson's great society legislation. at 9:00 p.m. on "after words," sara mcbride discusses her life as a transgendered person. sunday on american history to have at 12:55 eastern, remembering the life and legacy of william f. buckley jr., the tv personality, activist and founder of "the national review" who died in 2008. at 8:00 p.m. on "the presidency" the relationship between george washington and native americans is examined by author colin calloway, in his book "the indian world of george washington." >> earlier today outgoing secretary of state rex