the right and privilege of doing. i am not sure if there are members who will wait for someone else if that someone else is declining to do it. we can all do it. likelihood there will be articles of impeachment. host: have you heard directly from the minority leader about these efforts, specifically asking you to stop or hold back? anything along those lines? guest: if you have read publications, it is obvious to the most casual observer she and i are in different places on this. i respect her position. i have great respect for the speaker. what the speaker, always a speaker. i have great respect for her. i trust she has a level of respect for me. she understands what my conscience dictates.

host: mrs. mcmorris rodgers: good morning. we're sending a number of bills to the president's desk this week that are all focused on building a safe, secure and proud america. clearly for america to be a diplomatic power it must be a military power. in order to be a military power, you need to be an economic power. it's all connected and that's why i'm so encouraged by the results that we're seeing in our economy. our work to cut taxes and reduce the regulatory environment. we're seeing the lowest unemployment levels since 2000. 75% of small business owners are saying tax reform is positively impacting their business. americans are more optimistic. consumer confidence is at a

near 20-year high. and this is all -- this all means that people are dreaming again. they're hoping for a better life. and this is all about improving people's lives and giving them an opportunity for that better life. that's why economic growth is so important. we're also sending this week a major financial services bill that will unleash main street, provide more relief to our community banks, and, again, so much of the red tape was impacting americans. whether they were trying to get a new mortgage for a home, purchase a car, or meet other important needs. in addition to growing the economy, it's also been a top priority for us to rebuild our military. this week we consider the 2019 ndaa. our military for too long has been asked to do more with not the resources to do it. the impacted readiness, it's imcounty county -- it's impacted our equipment and we're continuing to rebuild our military with the resources they need. it includes the biggest pay raise for our troops in nine years. and as we look to memorial day,

as a reminder of those who have given the ultimate sacrifice, this is a way that we can continue to support and demonstrate our gratitude to those who are serving and to those who have served. with us here this morning is the congressman from wisconsin's eighth district, mike gallagher. he joined the marine corps the day he graduated from high school. college, college. and served for seven years in active duty. he knows what the men and women are facing every day. as they're on the front lines. and we're grateful that he's here to talk from his perspective. mr. gallagher: thank you very much. first of all, i would just like to express my agreement with what the conference chair said. in the 21st century, in order to protect america, we cannot separate our military power from economic power. they're linked. and that's why i'm so proud of this product. because not only does it represent an increase for more ships, for training and recruiting more sailors, soldiers, airmen and marines,

for addressing our readiness crisis which has claimed more of our young men and women in peace time accidents than in war time, but it also represents a more comprehensive approach that is geared toward winning, that long-term great power competition with china and russia. that both the national security strategy and the national defense strategy make clear ill define the 21st century. so, whether it's increasing maritime cooperation, whether it's prohibiting the u.s. government from using risky technology from so, whether it's companies, or ensuring that research dollars don't go toward universities and teams that have been compromised by foreign talent recruitment programs or looking at comprehensive chinese development efforts, or our shortfalls in critical languages like mandarin, like korean, like russian. this bill is a comprehensive whole of government approach because the military can't do it on its own. no single branch of government or agency can do it on its own. i encourage my colleagues to pass it. just as -- in order for our

diplomacy to succeed, it needs to be backed by the credible threat of military force. there was a great wisconsinite, paul, who said, you have no idea how much it contributes to the general plightness and pleasantness of diplomacy to have an armed force in the background. in order to have that force, we need a strong economy and this bill is a significant improvement and a huge step toward -- to turning around the cuts in our defense that we've seen in the last seven years in particular. thank you very much. >> well said, mike. thank you to your service to our country. all the men and women who sacrifice and risk their lives for our freedoms. mr. scalise: when you look at the bill we're going to bring later this week, we're going to whip the bill today. there will be a lot of amendments we'll debate but ultimately we're going to pass a bill that gives our member and women in uniform the tools that they really need. and why is that so important? just look at the last year. in the last year, by more than a three to one margin, we lost more men and women in uniform to training deaths than to combat deaths.

think about that. by more than a three to one margin. because our men and women in uniform need and deserve the tools that they need to not only be able to properly train for the dangerous task ahead when they're deployed, but they need to be able to train in a safe environment. they need to have planes that don't fall out of the sky because they don't have the tools they need. that's how critically important it is to get this bill passed. not the short-term continuing resolutions that don't give our military the tools they need, but long-term certainty so we can actually acquire the parts so our men and women have the tools to actual i had i will go and train -- to actually go and train in a safe an efficient way. that's why it's so important that we get this done, to stand behind our men and women in uniform who give us the freedoms we enjoy. another bill that we're going to pass today is such an important bill, that's the right to try act. a bill that really cuts through some of the red tape and bureaucracy at the f.d.a. and allows people that are terminally ill to have real tools that they need and real

drugs and access to the things that they need to have a chance to save their life. this is an important bill that once we pass it in the house, it will go straight to the president's desk. president trump has been pushing for this legislation to get to his desk. today we're going pass that bill so that it goss president trump's desk. and ultimately get signed into law. and i do want to say one thing on the farm bill. because there's been a lot of conversation about the farm bill and what happened and which republicans didn't vote for the bill. if you look at it, we're going to pass this bill. but i think the most important point of last week, when you break down the votes, is that every single democrat voted against that bill, not because they don't support the farm components, but every democrat in congress voted against that bill because it actually put work requirements in place for welfare. so think about this. at a time when we've got great economic growth, because we passed this tax cut bill, the highest willful of consumer confidence in -- level of consumer confidence in people

who believe they can go get and a job and companies are looking for workers and at that same time there's a policy that's paying people not to work and we said, shouldn't there be a work requirement for able-body idea sneem if you're able to work, and -- people? if you're able to work and there's a job out there, shouldn't be get that job instead of being on a welfare program? that policy alone caused every single democrat to oppose it. i think that's something that republicans, democrats and independents across the country alike would agree was a radical no vote. because ultimately it's common sense to say, if there's a job out there waiting for you, you should have that opportunity to go seek the american dream, not to continue to remain on welfare. -- to a welfare program. >> good morning. i want to thank congressman gallagher. this is his first stakeout. but more importantly i want to thank him for his service to our country, his work on the committee and also he stays in shape. mr. mccarthy: he'd want you to make sure you noted that last week he won the race, is that correct?

of course his time was a little slower than last year, but he had the ndaa markup. [laughter] >> [inaudible] mr. mccarthy: all that being said, i want us to pause for one moment and reflect on exactly what's going to happen on this floor this week. if you sat back and you analyzed what bills are going to pass, two of them are going to become direct law to the president. the scope and structure of how much we're dealing with. this is actually a very big week for america, a very big week for the house of representatives. we're going to start with passing the national defense authorization act. so herb knows what ndaa -- so everybody knows what ndaa means. as has been said, largest pay raise in almost a decade. starts rebuilding. we've watched the decline of more than 20%, the world has not gotten 20% safer. more men and women are dying in training than in combat. we have to reverse that. and this is the beginning of it. just as we had the vote before.

also, hasn't been noted but doug collins' prison reform bill. this is a bipartisan bill. giving individuals the skills when they come out of prisonen to re-enter, not only just the work force, but society. after they paid their debt. i think this is something that many in this congress have been working on for a number of congresses, coming to fruition and coming out off the floor. we also have the opportunity to try to pass right to try directly to the president. i think a lot of people know this bill, though, and the story of gordon mclinn, -- jordan mclinn, young kid with muscular dystrophy. struggle, perseverance. this is actually what inspired the vice president at the time, the governor of indiana, to pass this bill as well in indiana. think for a moment how many times you struggle. somebody you know that has some life-ending disease. and if they just had another opportunity for a trial, to be

able to have that one more. lots of times it becomes a breakthrough. lots of times it saves a life. why wouldn't we want to give people that opportunity? and that's exactly what we're going to do this week, sending it to the president's desk. this is something that the president asked for in the state of the union. if we all remember, this is something that he's worked very hard on. many times the president's been making phone calls. so this is actually a very big success. and then, something we have campaigned on for quite some time. we have watched capital dry up in a lot of different places after the passage of dodd-frank. we've watched a bipartisan bill get passed with a lot of ideas here inside this house. we're going to move that senate bill directly to the president's desk. getting that reform, again, helping the economy to grow further. making community banks stronger. creating more small businesses as we go. this is going to free up a great deal of capital to help a lot. so, if you focus on what we're going to accomplish, sending dodd-frank reform, it's going to become law. right to try. passing the ndaa and passing

prison reform. all this week while at the same time dealing with hundreds of amendments doing the ndaa. we are committed toen to grow this economy. we continue -- to continue to grow in this economy. we continue to make america stronger and this week is a prime example of that accomplishment. mr. ryan: i too want to inis right and thank mike for being here and thank him for his service but you all need to go to gaye and go to gallagher's -- green bay and go to gallagher's pizza if you want to see good, irish pizza. so this is, as kevin just mentioned, a very, very busy week here in the house. we're sending president a number of important bills. it starts with the financial service reforms that we're going to pass today. this is a bill for the small banks that are the financial anchors of our communities. if you chris-cross the country, you will find -- crisscross the country, you will find that community banks have been drying up, we'veland losing them. that means capital has been starved to businesses that need it to expand. this will help reverse that. it addresses some of dodd-frank's biggest burdens to ease the regulatory costs on these smaller banks.

costs which are ultimately transferred onto consumers. it ensures businesses have access to reliable financing. and it improves credit access for small businesses and americans by making it a lot easier for these community banks to stay in business and to lend. i want to thank chairman hensarling for being a consistent champion of these efforts. no one has been more exited to getting this done thanory -- committed to getting this done. these reforms are yet just one other way that we are unlocking economic growth so that we can make a real difference in people's lives. we are never going to stop fighting to make this economy better, to make it deeper, and to make it so that everyone has a shot at their version of the american idea. we are already seeing these policies working by the way. just yesterday -- [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2018] >> we will leave this briefing at this point as the house is about to gavel. in you can see the rest of it online at cspan.org. the house again set to work on financial regulation legislation today. experimental drugs for the terminally ill.