watch live on c-span, watch any . me on c-span.org earlier this afternoon, house nancy paul ryan and pelosi spoke at their weekly press conferences. we'll begin with speaker ryan. the speaker: i am about to sign

h.r. 2353 so we can send it to the president's desk. i am really excited about this bill. this is a big piece of our better way agenda. this provides for a complete overall of our career and technical education system. i see the author of the bill. so i'm proud of this effort that he and all of our colleagues put together. one obstacle our workers are facing there is a job that they want but don't have the right skills to take that job. we call that the skills gap. it is a big reason why right now we have more job openings in america than we have people looking for work. that's part of the skills gap. so the demand for skills worker just keeps growing but washington has badly been behind the curve on this. we have not properly equipped our education system. this changes that. this closes the skills gap.

students and workers are now going to have a much clearer path to all of the great career and technical education programs out there. we have a bunch of these in southern wisconsin. i see it all the time where i come from. great careers and great jobs are being offered. people need work but don't have the skills to get these careers and jobs. this closes this gap. with the economy back on track and businesses spappeding and hiring again. so we are very excited. this didn't get a lot of headlines. this did not get a big splashy news story or ticker or on the front page, but this matters. it will make it easier for people to provide for their families. this is the kind of thing i'm in this job for and g.t. thompson and why we come to these jobs to improve people's lives and take good ideas to make a lasting

difference for people. look at some of the things we have gotten done in the last few months alone. we are producing. better care for our veterans. hope for the terminally ill, more tools to find transnational gangs more resources to fight opioidses. and today, right now you can see the vote on the vote. the national defense bill to rebuild our military. things like this, they may not make the cut against the intrigue but we are getting things done to improve people's lines. i want to encourage you, i really enjoy this, i want to encourage to go to better.gop to see we have been executing our enda and people are better

off. go to better.gop to learn about these things. i want to take a moment of personal privilege if you allow. today is bittersweet one for me. it is my last day with will miller on my staff. many of you know will. if you have seen me walking around here, you have seen will miller. he makes sure he's dependable, he's unflappable. he has a really nice way about him. i know many of you know him. so i just want to say to will miller, thank you very much for all that you've done for all of us here. really appreciate it. with this i'd like to sign this ill. > get down in front.

mr. ryan: do any of you have questions? reporter: is it appropriate for your colleagues to try to impeach rod rosenstein? also, is it appropriate for them to seek documents that are directly pertinent to an ongoing investigation, the mueller investigation? mr. ryan: well, let me step back. first of all, it is appropriate that we conduct oversight of the executive branch and that we get full compliance with the executive branch on what are very legitimate document requests. do i support impeachment of rod rosenstein? , no i do not. i do not for a number of reasons. first, it takes -- i don't think we should be cavalier with this process or with this term. number one. number two, i don't think that this rises to the level of high crimes and miss demeaners.

-- misdemeanors. number three, since i got involved, have been getting a lot of compliance from d.o.j. on the document requests. we do not have full compliance and we have to get full compliance. but we've been making tremendous bro gress to that point -- progress to that point. the second reason why i think that it's not the right way to go is because, knowing the senate procedures and the rules over there, this is about as privileged as anything gets over there. it's one of the most privileged things that occurs in the senate. and if this were to pass through the house, then what it would do is tie the senate into knots. what does that mean to us practically speaking? that means it would derail or largely delay a big part of our agenda. our appropriation bills. our infrastructure bills. and it would clearly dramatically delay the confirmation of brett kavanaugh to go to the supreme court, which we expect to get done by october 1, when the supreme court reconvenes.

so, for many reasons i don't think it's the right way to go. but we do expect compliance, we want to make sure that we get compliance, and we look at all the various tools we have available, including having the kind of dialogue we've been having recently in order to get compliance from d.o.j. reporter: what are the specific documents related to the mueller investigation -- mr. ryan: so, we have a process with d.o.j. on that. we have a process with d.o.j. on the documents. and the special counsel gets involved when some documents might be in their per view and could -- purview and could compromise their investigation. those documents do not come. so we have a process with donk to make sure that we -- d.o.j. to make sure that we deconflict any of these matters. reporter: on that front, given what you just said, did you try to disturge your colleagues from take -- discourage your colleagues from taking this step? do you view this as a legitimate effort or a stunt? mr. ryan: they know how i feel about this. we all want to make sure we get compliance. and different members have different beliefs on how best to

go achieve those goals. but we want to make sure we get compliance from d.o.j. with document requests. we've gotten a great deal of progress on the compliance but we don't have full compliance and we expect to get that. reporter: one of those colleagues of yours -- mr. ryan: didn't you want to talk about the better off now? ou know? reporter: one of your colleagues that brought those articles of impeachment, jim jordan, will announce shortly we understand that he's running for speaker of the house. has he shared those plans with you and could you support jim gordon for speaker? -- jim jordan for speaker? mr. ryan: i'm not going to be here. i support kevin mccarthy, everybody knows that. i won't be here. reporter: mr. speaker, yesterday you addressed interns and asked them to rediscover their -- [inaudible] -- and treat other people with respect. i ask you. one of your colleagues in the house, jason lewis, there has been reports, in his prior life -- mr. ryan: oh, yeah. i was wondering where you were

going with this. reporter: he said some very disrftful thingses about women and african-americans. saying -- [inaudible] -- entitlement mentality and that women couldn't be called certain words. should he apologize for those comments? mr. ryan: i thai actually -- whenever i drive around western wisconsin, as i have in the past years, i turn on minneapolis radio and i remember jason lewis back in those days. he was a shock jock. that was his job at the time. i've seen some of these comments and i obviously don't support those comments. but the jason lewis i know here, who is a congressman, is an extremely conscientious man, a very hardworking, very effective member of congress, who has been nothing but an exemplary congressman, who represents his constituents well. reporter: would an apology help? mr. ryan: i'll leave it to him. reporter: thank you, mr. speaker. when the house returns in september, there will be just 19 days before the midterm election.

how confident are you right now in election security and the u.s. government's ability to protect itself from -- [inaudible] -- russian interference and do you think there needs to be more done by congress to protect the integrity of the elections? mr. ryan: i believe -- well, the appropriations process is something that's always ongoing. i do believe we have learned a great deal more about how russia attempts to interfere with elections and meddles in elections. we've learned a great deal more on the cyber front on that. i think we're far better prepared today than we were just a couple of years ago on that front. number one. number two, we have to make sure that we have the right kind of information sharing with states, with secretaries of states, and with anybody else that could see a cyber threat from russia. including our allies by the way when they have their own elections. so i think we're far better prepared for this. that is part of the reason why we had these investigations. there's always more we can do to

learn and prepare ourselves for these thing. because the threats evolve. their tactics change. we have to always be vigilant to make sure that we guard against evolve threats and tactical changes from russia, who tries to interfere with not just our democracy, but all democracies. >> last question. reporter: you met with the president yesterday. i understand you guys talked about government funding. do you feel -- two questions. do you feel the president's willing to push the border wall until after the fiscal year so you guys can get some appropriations enacted into law before the deadline? and also, said yesterday defense was a priority. is there a plan for ensuring defense against -- [inaudible] -- [inaudible] mr. ryan: first of all. leader mcconnell and i, like we always do, had a very productive meeting. we walked the president through our strategy for appropriations before the fiscal year. he agreed with our strategy. so we think we have a unified

strategy to make sure that we can get as many appropriation bills done as possible. we think we have a very good chance, unlike a handful of years in the past, we think we have a very good chance of getting a lot of these appropriation bill dons and into law before the fiscal year deadline there. will be some bills that will not pass, that won't be ready or done by then. and we'll have to have a c.r. to bridge us over until later on. as far as the wall is concerned, we've gotten some wall funding already under way. that is being funded. but i think it's not a question of if, it's a question of when. and the president's willing to be patient to make sure that we get what we need so that we can get that done. because border security's extremely important. i would note that the position between our two parties could not be starker. we're funding the wall. we are force securing the border and the democrats are for abolishing i.c.e. it's the craziest thing i've ever seen. i think we have a very clear contrast on that. but we feel very good that we are on the same page and in sync with the administration and the

president on getting as much appropriation bills done as possible, including funding our military on time. thank you very much. appreciate it. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national able satellite corp. 2018] >> hey, guys. they're going to open it up. pelosi phelps good morning -- ms. pelosi: good morning. here we are this morning. maybe the last time for many weeks to come. because today the republican majority closes down the house for five weeks. heading home after months spent stacking