live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. coming up thursday morning, michigan republican congressman fred upton discusses combating the opioid epidemic and north carolina's democratic, is meant david price will join us to talk about the state of the available correct. american foundation for suicide prevention vice president john madigan will discuss rising suicide in the u.s. be sure to watch c-span's washington journal live at 7:00 eastern thursday morning. join the discussion. >> earlier today, how speaker ryan told reporters that republicans came to an agreement for a path forward for immigration legislation. lawmakers from the parties forrate wing targeted defeat by democrats struck an optimist tone. they saw to use a discharge petition. it would've split the gop conference in an effort to grant

legal status to undocumented immigrants known as streamers. and look at the announcement and more from speaker ryan's weekly news conference. ms. mcmorris rodgers: good morning, everyone. this is kristen from eastern washington and she struggled with opiod addiction for the

last eight years. she was a successful, highly competitive swimmer when she was injured, she was prescribed some opiods that led to a heroin addiction which has led to her having four stints, rehab, losing her kids, numerous job firings. her addiction has torn her family apart and it's not solved. she's a family that's close to me as well as those in eastern washington as she's my district director's sister. they need help and they need hope. for families like kristen, the people's house is taking more comprehensive steps this week to address this growing opioid crisis all across america and we are focused on increasing our understanding as to how we prevent addiction, protect our communities, crack down on the foreign shipments of fentanyl from places like mexico and china.

as this issue is hitting home to me in eastern washington, it's all across the country. nationwide 116 people die every day from opioid-related deaths. law enforcement and first responders have raised the alarm as to the access of fentanyl. just a few milligrams can be fatal. the amount of fentanyl that will be found on the ear of lincoln on a penny can be deadly. i invite you to go to opioidcrisis.gop. there you can find the list of the legislation we are working on. these are stories from different people, different hometowns, different walks of life but they all have in common the tragedy that many families are endurg

across this country. we are united in doing everything that we can to help these families. so now i'd like to turn it over to the chairman of the energy and commerce committee who has really led the effort on this, chairman greg walden from oregon. mr. walden: well, thank you, cathy, very much. we're here todays because as you heard, the -- we're here today because, as you heard, the opioid epidemic continues to destroy and ravage lives across america. in my state we lose more people to overdose from opioids every year than we do in traffic accidents. at the energy and commerce committee, we've spent the last year and a half working on legislation and working on the investigations. you all are familiar with that of the culmination of our work has been brought to the floor this week. the first of 57 pieces of legislation out of our committee alone. they are all which bipartisan or unanimous.

just this past january, amanda, whose picture i have here today, was seeking relief from pain surrounding her mental illness. tragically, she ended up dying from a fentanyl overdose. her father came before our committee and bravely shared his family's story. he hoped their loss would help spur congress to modernize federal laws. sadly, amanda's story, as you'll hear today, is not unique. all of us know someoneirtly or indirectly affected by this crisis. truly it is the crisis next door. my colleagues here today each have similar stories from their districts. we will have them speak about those. it's for the people in these photos that we rallied around bipartisan legislation. it's for their families, for their friends, for the future of our country.

the ones left behind in their heartbreak, they expect us to act and we are. we will not rest until we have won this fight against the opioid addiction. while this crisis looms large before us, i believe we as a congress, we as the american people are clearly up to this task. we passed the comprehensive addiction recovery act and the 21st century cures act last congress under fred upton's leadership. earlier this year we passed historic $4 billion investment to combat this crisis and this crisis alone. the biggest federal investment ever. now over the next two weeks we will advance numerous additional measures to address this ever-evolving epidemic. in fact, house energy and commerce committee's reported 57 bills to the floor. but let me be clear. while these bills are not our first effort in this fight, you have my word they will not be our last either. we know there will be more work to do even after these become law. we have an opportunity to save lives like amanda's in the future. and we have a responsibility to

our families, our friends, and our communities. mr. walberg: i think this -- this is a picture of jessie grubb. tells a story of what shouldn't have happened. jessie's law was passed yesterday on the floor of the house. jessie was a recovering addict. she was coming to michigan, making it in both education and the work force and preparing for a marathon. had an injury. subsequently had a surgery. that surgery dealt with an infection as well. a part was put in her body. she and her parents both informed the surgeons and the doctoral staff at the hospital she was a recovering addict and so opioids shouldn't be part of her therapy. sadly didn't make it to the discharging physician and he

discharged her with 50 oxycodone pills. she went home the next night, overdosed and jessie grubb is no longer with us but her story goes on and it's a story that speaks to the reason why we're doing what we're doing, to make sure this doesn't happen again. and we have people that successfully beat the addiction, can go on and have stories that speak of a future. and so i'm thankful that this bill passed, worked closely with my good friend and colleague on the other side of the aisle, debbie dingell, and we hope jessie's law becomes a law of hope and safety and security for other generations. mr. barr: good morning. andy barr from kentucky. my home state of kentucky suffers from the third highest opioid mortality rate in the country. so many of these stories are stories of tragedy. this is a story of hope and this is roger with his two kids. roger arrived at shepherd's

house recovery program in lexington, kentucky, on may 1, 2015, after making parole. when roger arrived he was helpless. all of his belongings fit into a single garbage bag. he was unemployed, unemployable. he had not seen his kids in 2 1/2 years and his family gave up on him. roger told the people at shepherd's house how to be responsible, show up on time, stay out of jail. he had no idea how to stay sober. but shepherd's house changed his perspective. through a housing program, a long-term transitional housing program, he learned how to build a support network that would teach him how to be a father and soon he was back visiting with his children on the weekends. eventually shepherd's house allowed roger to find freedom that he was never able to obtain before. he was able to get his own apartment for the first time, had bills in his own name and most importantly, roger stayed sober. and he's now the program

director of an intensive outpatient program for shepherd's house helping the very type of people that roger once was. so we are very happy that this week the house of representatives will be voting on our bill, the thrive act, transitional housing for recovery and viable environment's act it will provide housing vouchers to places like shepherd's house and provide hope for long-term addiction recovery. mr. barletta: lou barletta, pennsylvania. this is a picture of brayden and his mother. brayden was born addicted. released from the hospital back to his mother who was still an addict. protective services were not notified. at 6 weeks old, brayden was in bed with his mother who was high on three different opioids. and brayden's mother had rolled

over on top of him and suffocated him to death. this case led to a national investigation as to the federal dollars that are going to the states to make sure that hospitals and doctors are reporting to federal agencies, to agencies, protective services, before a baby is released. we found only nine states are actually using that money, as they should, which led to a bill that i had passed holding the federal government accountable to hold the states accountable to hold hospitals accountable so other children like brayden do not lose their lives. mr. paulsen: erik paulsen from minnesota's third district. i am showing a picture of keegan. he was addict and died of an overdose. he was a successful masters

student who became a professional computer engineer and like many minnesota families succumbed to addiction. it's a tragedy that can be avoided. after he had chronic back pain, his doctor prescribed him 120 pills for back pain that led to his addiction. through our actions and bipartisan work we will pass solutions that will help many families like keegan's, unfortunately, avoid this tragedy in the future. ms. brooks: hello. susan brooks from indiana 5. i am holding a picture of arron, a young athlete who also had an injury, who got addicted to opioids and died of an overdose. what's amazing about him, his mother, justin philips, started an organization called lifeline -- overdose lifeline and it raises funds to try to ensure that first responders and others, including family members, have narcan, that naloxone to stop the overdose. and in indiana, we passed what was called air aaron's law, named on behalf of aaron symms,

because we need to make sure that we provide that narcan and all of that hope for those families and those addicted to prevent that overdose. mr. carter: hello. buddy carter from georgia. currently the only pharmacist in congress. i have a unique perspective on this particular situation, having practiced pharmacy for over 30 years. i saw this epidemic evolve. i saw it evolve over years. i've seen the impact it has had. i've seen lives ruined. i've seen careers ruined, families ruined. i know the impact that this can have. i want to applaud chairman walden and the cmittee for the work that they've done on this particular subject because it is important.

i've always described it as being two different components. one is, how do we control the drugs? how do we control the number of pills, prescriptions? secondly and perhaps more importantly, what do we do to help those 2 1/2 million people out there who are addicted? i'm here to tell you today, if you hearing the sound of my voice and you have app addiction problem, reach out to your physician. reach out to your pharmacist, your friends, your family member and tell them, i want to get better. i need help. we need you and we want you to get better. this legislation, parts of this legislation are going to do just that. they're there to help you. help you get over that addiction and that's what we want to do. again, thank you and thank you, mr. chairman. ms. hartzler: hello. vicky hartzler, missouri's fourth district. samantha huntley was a beautiful girl, straight a student, cheerleader. she was in a car accident when she was 16 years old. broke her back in three places. as a result she was put on prescription painkillers and sadly after that a friend introduced her to heroin to continue to try to address the pain. she overdosed and now her mother is alone and doesn't have anyone to celebrate mother's day with.

and i applaud her mother, julie, for participating in over seven high school assemblies i held this spring, challenging young people to choose to be drug-free and warning them of the problems. i truly believe this week is an historic week in our nation's history where we as members of congress, both sides of the aisle, are coming together saying no more. it's a tragedy in 2016 when we lose more americans to addiction overdose than died during the entire vietnam war. this is an opportunity, a turning point in our nation where we are rallying together, we are passing over 60 bills that will address all aspects of this problem. and i feel confident that as we continue to work together in the future we will look back to this week and we'll say we made a difference. things have changed. lives are being saved because of what we're doing here.

mr. scalise: good morning. my colleagues are sharing both stories and others are too often occurring in our country. i want to talk a little bit about kemper from slidell, louisiana. her mother was addicted to opioids. got in a car accident, started getting prescribed drugs and became an addict. when he was born he was born addicted to drugs. it's a syndrome. unfortunately according to the centers for disease control, about once every 25 minutes a baby is born addicted to opioids. n.a.s. that's how serious this epidemic is. fortunately he was able to beat the odds and now 3 years old and very healthy. there are too many stories like this happening across our country and that's why it's so important that this package of bills to address this opioid

crisis all across our country is so important to saving lives and will be effective once it's carried out. obviously there's a few other things going on this week. speaker, i'm sure, will get into a lot more detail. we have been having very productive meetings on solving the immigration problem in this country. we have been -- working very closely with the trump administration and clearly our objectives are to get a bill that first secures the border. to fund the wall that president trump campaigned so actively on. and built such a core around. then also to address so many of the other problems. the interior border security problems, closing loopholes, addressing chain migration and the visa lottery. when you talk to homeland security nielsen, someone that comes to this country illegally and then commits a felony, after they served their time after committing a felony, send the person back to the country they

came from, she has to call that country for permission to take them back. you may find out in many cases those countries say no thank you, we don't want the felon back in our country. and so because of current law and rulings by the courts, she has to let those people go. we need to close those loopholes. we also solve the daca problem. i'm really glad our colleagues have come together to work in a way that addresses this problem. finally, i want to commend president trump for his leadership on the world stage. the historic meeting that we saw between the president and north korea's leader, kim jong un, is so incredibly meaningful to finally get us to a place where we can actually see a de-nuclearized north korea. just think about that. imagine how important that would be not only for our allies in south korea, japan, others throughout the peninsula, but what that would then mean to

isolating iran and what we can do to finally denuclearize some of these dangerous countries. so obviously there are a lot more details to work out but the fact that you saw the north korean leader agree to denuclearize in a verifiable way is an incredible achievement. i commend president trump. our former colleague on house energy and commerce committee, mike pompeo, who is doing great job. mr. mccarthy: as you can see by all the members and pictures, there's not one place in america that this does not touch. more than 100 people will die today. tomorrow the same. our friends, our family, some of the brightest stars that we've had unbeknownst to them became addicted simply because they got injured. this is not the first time we have dealt with this subject. as you can tell it's personal to so many members in congress. in the last congress we passed the comprehensive addiction and

recovery act and the 21st century cures. we added, as the chairman said, $4 billion in the omnibus for funding. we are spending this week and next week passing more than 70 bills dealing with this addiction. this is not the first step and it's not the last step. it is simply the next step. this is destroying the fiber of this nation. and we should battle it in the seriousness of what it is. that's why you'll find the work that not just one committee but numerous committees of every different element of what we're trying to do. and our commitment to the american public that we will not stop until we're able to deal with every ability of this addiction. america deserves better, and families need to be protected. that's what our goal is. that's what our mission and that's what we'll accomplish.

speaker ryan: you heard some stories here today. let me give you a number. 115. 115 lives lost every day in america. addiction can feel all-consuming. it can seem impossible to live out your true purpose. but it does not lower the inherent value of a human life. every life has meaning and no drug can take that away. all of us can offer our compassion to one another so people struggling feel they have a place to turn. that is also something we are tackling here today. look, this is michelle viscolski, that's a good wisconsin name. has two sons. former high school athletes. they became addicted to prescription painkillers from injuries and then later heroin.

they are alive. they are clean now. but it was a long road there, and michelle still worries because you all know, sobriety, it's very fragile. they don't fully recover. it takes a long time. one thing that strikes me about how she describes dealing with her son's addiction, it's the pervasive loneliness. she says she felt like no one dealing with her same struggle. she felt disconnected from her nds. she felt disconnected from her pants, her faith. it goes to show this can be such an isolating battle, not as one struggling with drug use, but those trying to figure out how they can be there for their loved ones. michelle has made it her mission to help families like hers struggle. it's her mission to help families like hers get through the wilderness of addiction and

to the road of recovery. she's been an advocate for more resources to treat addiction. congress has heard that call too. we have taken action to tackle this opioid epidemic. this will stem the flow of opioids in our country. they change the way opioids are prescribed and encourage nonopioid treatments and crack down on deadly synthetic drugs like fentanyl. and then they strengthen resources, prevention and treatment, including establishing more comprehensive recovery centers. we learned a whole lot of this problem in a short period of time. in fact, the recovery community, the community that michelle now helps uphold someone of the most resilient. this is what she is doing now with her life, making sure that other families don't fall in the trap that hers did. we should apply that model of support. our institutions should immolate and encourage this kind of fellowship. those overcoming addiction and those supporting them, this is where i see america at its strongest. people coming together to help each other through these difficult times, getting rid of the isolation and having a multiprong approach to tackle

this opioid crisis. this is all about restoring hope. it's about lifting up communities and it's about hopefully saving lives. questions. reporter: good morning. this agreement -- bringing immigration bills to the floor next week, it's unclear what the bills will look like, if it will pass. wasn't it an effort to stall the discharge petition so you won't imperil the farm bill? the farm bill went down because this issue of immigration was not resolved in your conference? speaker ryan: this is to bring our caucus together on immigration. i'm very pleased with our members. what happened was our members got together, spoke with one another, and compromised with each other so we can find a way forward without exercising a discharge petition which mean we would never make law. now we have a chance at making law and solving this problem. and members wanted to have votes

on their issues. there are members that wanted to have a vote on the goodlatte-mccaul bill. a compromise will be brought to the floor so members can vote on legislation tackling this issue. this has a chance going into law. like i said before, last thing i want to do is bring a bill out of here that i know the president won't support. we have been working hand in glove with the administration on this to make sure we're bringing a bill that represents the president's four pillars so we can come together, have the votes everybody's looking for, but more importantly, this represents a consensus between our members so we can move forward on the immigration issue. i think it's a product of good compromise by my members. reporter: stall the effort of the farm bill -- speaker ryan: the discharge petition was the time sensitive activity we had. reporter: on the opioid -- speaker ryan: thank you. [laughter] reporter: i do have a question.

south carolina voters told mark sanford take a hike last night. is that because he opposed the president? speaker ryan: i can't speak to it. i talk to mark sanford and the south carolina voters. some our members lost primaries. that's what happened in contested primaries. reporter: because he opposed the president? speaker ryan: every cycle everybody loses primaries. what was your opioid question? [laughter] reporter: how much responsibility do pharmaceutical companies bear for it? speaker ryan: i'd ask some of the members of the committee. maybe the chairman could chime in on this i think there is responsibility to go all around. you're discharging people coming out of the hospital with 120, you know, vicodin with comes kids coming out wisdom teeth with three weeks' worth. we need to come up with nonopioid pain management treatment. nonopioid is key here. there's a lot of responsibility to be shared. greg, do you want to add to that? buddy. mr. carter: one thing that's for sure about the opioid epidemic

and that is there is enough blame to go around. certainly the pharmaceutical manufacturers have the responsibility and they know that. drug distributors, wholesalers ha a responsibility, pharmacists, physicians, everyone shares in that responsibility. d.e.a. why did it take us so long to schedule hydrocodone and apap as a schedule 2 drug? that's a question that needs to be asked. it wasn't scheduled until a schedule 2 drug until 2014. there's a lot of blame to go around. the package of bills out there, you know, there's no one solution to this. that's one thing you have to keep in mind. speaking specifically to the pharmaceutical manufacturers, i have been on them because there's a gap between what you can prescribe like advil and tylenol, there is a big gap and then go to opioids. they do what they're supposed to do but they're highly addictive. the pharmaceutical manufacturers, i have been calling on them to fill that gap. give us an option, something.

we have been talking about nonmedication treatments and nonopioid treatments. that's the type of thing we need to encourage and we need to be pushing the main pharmaceutical manufacturers and medicine in general to do. reporter: you said this compromise coming out, members are working together. the supreme caucus said they would not back this bill. speaker ryan: i am not asking them to back bail they have not seen yet. they have been negotiating to come up with proposal. we had to put legislation forward. we put something that all members agree to. that means we don't do a discharge petition and we bring these bills to the floor. members will reserve judgment on final vote of a piece of legislation before and after they read that legislation. i would expect that of any member.

reporter: do you view kim jong un as a great guy and no longer poses a threat to the united states? speaker ryan: look, the status quo was not working with north korea. what was the status quo with north korea? they were racing toward a nuclear weapon, they were racing toward having independent icbm's with nuclear tipped warheads on top. the president needed to disrupt the status quo and the president has disrupted the status quo. he should be applauded for that we should be under no delusion with north korea. it's a terrible regime. done terrible things. it's really important we disrupted the status quo like the president has. i am encouraged by the negotiations that are now taking place between secretary pompeo and the north koreans. the path we were on was not working. prior administrations have failed to fix this. and so it's really important that we dealt with this issue as it was because it wasn't going to get any better. the president should be applauded for disrupting the status quo. now, let's go get an agreement. we should be under no delusion this will be fast. this will take time and we have to make sure we have

irreversible, comprehensive denuclearization of north korea. so that's what we need to get out of this. i'm pleased the president has gotten us to the position we are in. time will tell how this ends. thank you very much. reporter: could you follow-up one questionmr. speaker. do you agree with the president that north korea is no longer a threat? >> here is what is live on the c-span's network thursday following members speeches, the house continues work on a number of opioid related bills while the house coverage on c-span. on c-span2, more debate of the 2019 defense measure. on c-span3, president trump's to be u.s. ambassador to south korea.

he testifies along with other state department nominees at a confirmation hearing. eastern. at 10:00 a.m. in the evening, house democrats and republicans face each other in the annual congressional baseball game at 7:00 eastern. announcer: this weekend, c-span's cities tour takes you to new orleans on its try centennial year. literaryxplore the scene and history of the city. saturday on book tv, here about tennessee williams, best known for his plays the glass and aing -- menagerie streetcar named desire. on sunday at 2 p.m. eastern on american history tv come explore the exhibit, new orleans, the founding era. >> new orleans is celebrating

its try centennial. -- tricentennial for our exhibition, we want to look back at the city's earliest years and what it was like when the city first developed. announcer: than a visit to one of the city's oldest restaurants. >> the food here takes a much -- that it does anywhere else. we live to eat in new orleans. announcer: watch c-span cities tour of new orleans, louisiana. and sunday at 2 p.m. on american history tv on c-span3. working with our cable affiliates as we explore america. this afternoon, jerome powell announced another interest rate hike, bringing the federal rate to 2%. the new york times notes that the rate increase was the second th