>> live wednesday on c-span networks, the u.s. house takes up hr one. legislation to reform campaign finance rules. that is at 10 a.m. eastern on c-span. on c-span two, the u.s. senate returns for work on the judicial on the sixth be circuit court of appeals. at 10 a.m. on c-span3, homeland security secretary kirstjen nielsen. senate armed the services committee looks into military sexual assault, prevention, and response. coming up in an hour, david keating on the institute for free speech discusses house democrats bill to reform campaign finance laws. california representative mike

thompson on gun violence prevention legislation. and at 9:00 a.m., joanne pike of the alzheimer's association on her group's latest report on the 5.8 million americans living with alzheimer's disease. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2019] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] ♪ host: good morning. ,t is wednesday, march 6th 2019. the house and senate are in with kiersten nielsen set to make a high-profile appearance before the home -- house homeland security committee -- michael cohen back behind closed doors. we are with you until 10:00 a.m. on the "washington journal." we begin with a question about how america votes. as the house debates a bill that to hows changes

americans register, cast ballots, and draw districts, we want to hear your suggestions for improving voting in america. democrats can call at 202-748-8000. republicans, 202-748-8001. independents, 202-748-8002. you can catch up with us on social media. on twitter it is @cspanwj. on facebook it is facebook.com/cspan. morning to wednesday you. you can call in on this question about how you would change how americans vote. we are talking about the "for the people" act. bill number hr-1. presented first bill to the house for the 116th congress. wejoined to a political -- are joined by a political reporter on the phone. this is a nearly 600-page bill with provisions on transparency,

everything from tax returns -- transparency in the way americans vote. what was included in this bill? steps this is a series of that unite democrats. everybody from the progressive flank of the party to the new freshman coming in, these are issues that include things like automatic voter registration, limits on campaign finance and super pac's relying the wreath -- requiring the release of presidential tax returns. the process that brings democrats together and one of the major reasons nancy pelosi prioritize this. it excites the base and something conservative leaning members of the democratic party also strongly support. host: we are going to focus on the elections aspect. focus on what you talked about, the automatic voter registrations. how would that work and talk about the changes it would make

nationwide. guest: at the heart of that aspect of the bill is an attack on the supreme court's decision, shelled -- shelby county versus holder, it limited a piece of the voting rights act from the 1960's and has become a rallying cry. hurdles for people to register to vote and go to the ballot box. conservatives oppose it and say it opens the door to people who are not properly -- should not be able to vote, makes it easier for them to vote. this is a controversial piece. if you look across partisan lines, it is not going to get much, if any republican support and mitch mcconnell is fiercely opposed to it because limiting campaign-finance restrictions has been one of the causes near and dear to his heart. the: in terms of going to

ballot box, talk about the early voting and vote by mail provisions. designed to expand access to the polls in all sorts of ways. this is an aspect that would limit the role of what is known as dark money in politics and it would improve federal ethics laws as well, especially as we talked about -- where it relates to presidential tax returns. host: it would also make election day a national holiday, correct? guest: that is right. host: some of the pushback on that, what are you hearing in your reporting on capitol hill? why sued -- wouldn't some members want to do that? guest: the white house threatened to veto the bill yesterday, said it was an overreach of federal power that -- macconnell, the republican from kentucky who runs the senate has derisively

called this the democratic politician protection act are going are passing these changes because it would improve their party's political standing. host: one of the ways they are concerned about that is the redistricting aspect. can you dig a little bit into that? guest: right now, this is entirely up to states. in 2010, republicans came to power across states and the house of representatives and used that power to draw districts across the country in various states that entrenched in their own power. they drew them in a way that diluted the power of democratic voters, clustered them into thatfic urban districts were always do they created a lot of red leaning districts that would comfortably -- if not

necessarily vote for republicans. what democrats are trying to do is take politics out of that process of drawing districts to make sure it is fair in the long haul. host: what has been the pushback from republicans? guest: republicans say it is a state issue. host: what is the path ahead for hr-1? guest: debate begins today in the house of representatives. oninal vote is expected friday. this is part of what i would call a series of kumbaya bills that unite various wings of the party. this is not going to be true for very many other bills. when you get into climate and health policy, you will see divisions emerge. this is something they very much liked. host: you have spoken about the reaction from the white house and mitch mcconnell. it does this have a chance of

coming up on the senate floor? guest: it seems highly unlikely to come up on the senate floor. host: you can check out his work, bloomberg.com. thanks for running through it for us on the "washington journal." guest: thank you, john. host: how would you change how america votes? .emocrats, 202-748-8000 republicans, 202-748-8001. independents, 202-748-8002. you can catch up with us on social media on twitter and facebook as well. here is some reaction from social media. david writing with his suggestion calling for instant automatic voter registration upon americans reaching age 18. the elimination of the pectoral college, and paper ballots. susan saying it should be a national holiday and a monetary incentive to vote such as a $100 voucher to go vote, give for

people an added incentive to vote. calling for no electoral college on that holiday. ezekiel saying make candidates read and understand the u.s. constitution first. want to hear your thoughts starting on phone lines for independents. in arizona, good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i feel we should be able to vote when the weather is in clement. it's hard to roll a wheelchair through snow in november. people should have a right to control their own future and the way the voting districts are set up, that is almost impossible. the electoral college was done at a time when other people were not even considered to vote anyway. host: do you think voting by mail would solve that first problem you brought up?

cases, it would. then you have a problem with all the votes to count by mail and that slows down the process. voting by mail along with a day like in june or august or any month when the medic -- the weather is more clement. belso feel people should taught in the primary schools about voting and it is important. i don't think enough emphasis is put on that, the responsibility of american citizens and voting. host: this is richard in alabama, republican. go ahead. all,r: right before you they had the show on hr-1 and some of the amendments to it. it is kind of silly to have a 16-year-old voting.

the way the committee is set up with 9 democrats and 4 republicans, there is no way in the world republicans can get an amendment through because it was a straight vote every time 9-4 and the committee chairman was recommending no votes. you call this a democracy? this is silly. host: you are talking about the action yesterday afternoon in the house rules committee, the place where bills go to have an attachment before they go to the house floor. we were showing a debate from yesterday afternoon just before our program started this morning on the "washington journal." bit from thatle house rules committee hearing yesterday. this is the chairman of the house administration, which has oversight on election issues talking about the importance of the voting provisions in hr-1.

[video clip] important.critically ourout trust, representative system suffers. about half of the voting eligible population did not vote in the 2018 midterms. we are, in many ways, the gold standard of pursuit -- but is up participatory -- too many americans view themselves as shut out from our system. others cannot participate because of arbitrary election procedures that failed to account for how americans live and work in the 21st century. some of these barriers make it harder for certain populations, including communities of color and other underrepresented groups to vote. this is especially the case after the supreme court gutted

core provisions. united provision ushered in nearly a billion dollars in dark money from undisclosed sources since 2010. even though the court affirmed the importance of disclosure by a vote of 8-4. reverses course and strengthens our democracy and makes it easier and more convenient for all eligible americans to vote. it offers solutions to the dominance of big money and politics and ensures public officials work in the public interest. host: hr-1 nearly a 600 page bill and includes quite a bit. we are focusing on the voting provisions included. a reminder of what some of those are, the bill would make election day a federal holiday, allow citizens to register to

vote online, expand automatic voter registration, increase access to early voting and vote by mail and to have independent commissions redraw districts having to do with the concerns over gerrymandering in-house districts. just some of the provisions. we want to hear how you would change how americans vote in this country. on phone lines for democrats, republicans and independent's as usual. cornell, are you with us? try the line for democrats again, carol in ohio. good morning. caller: yes. i have two comments. one, no gerrymandering. i think we should have a national holiday. the other comment, the deficit balloon, 77% because of trump's

tax bill. one man said he had gotten $4000 refunded last year and this year, he had no refund and had to pay. only with a 1% got the tax breaks. tax used -- trump used his office to make money because of his real estate business. every voting citizen not getting the refund, why would you vote for trump and republicans? is jim in delaware, republican. go ahead. guest: i think this is -- caller: this is an attempt to dilute the power in the states. we use to elect state representatives. we have to do away with the 17th amendment and allow the state legislatures to draw the voting districts in their own states states that gives the power. you should be able to vote on election day and have to show up in person to vote.

the people who do not vote are not interested enough to show up in the polls. i have been the first voter in our town for the last 10 years at every election and i work, i take the time to get up early, walk to the polls, wait for the polls to open and go to work. if i have to work early in the morning, i make sure i get to the polls before they close. i don't see why it is a burden on a person. if you are handicapped, you should make arrangements to get to the polls if you are interested enough in voting. they are trying to allow fraud to exist by making it automatically able for people who are not interested to vote. host: what would you say to people in the hospital who cannot make it to the polls on election day? caller: you should get an absentee ballot. host: some of your concerns

about this bill diluting the power of the states shared by the majority leader of the senate, mitch mcconnell. this was at yesterday morning. [video clip] convinceats want to everyone our republic is in crisis. when you scratch the surface of these scare tactics, the two main complaints mean -- seem to be democrats don't win enough elections and people democrats don't like happen to have first amendment rights. look at the data. in 20, turn outraged the third highest rate -- turnout reached to the third highest rate since the 1960's. was set in record presidential ballots cast. last november, the midterm turnout rate set a new 50 year .ecord it democrats are intent on

fixing elections even though they are not broken. their solution amounts to a hostile one-sided takeover of the electoral process without the input of both parties. in the democrats view, our federalist system where state laws evolved to address unique challenges is old-fashioned and no longer to their liking. now it is time for sweeping new decrees from washington. what each state has found works best for them, to register voters or maintain voter rolls, all of that is supposed to yield to what washington democrats want. it starts with a massive influx of government data to the registration roles. in one sweep, all of the duplicative and conflicting data federaloss state and government agencies as well as colleges and universities would flood the voter registration

system, flood it. this isn't the slightly tested automatic voter registration dmv,states solved with the this is a massive data dump that is sure to invite risk of inaccuracy and a loss of privacy. it is especially concerning as democrats want to mandate that agencies register 16 and 17-year-olds. host: throughout this first segment, we will keep showing you does -- the debate happening yesterday and recent weeks on this hr one, the "for the people act or count it is a sweeping bill including major voting provisions, but also provisions about ethics and provisions about money and politics. we will talk more about other provisions later in the program. we are asking you how would you

change how america votes? on twitter, danny thought about this question quite a bit. here is his suggestion. universal registration, lowering the voting age to 16, making election day a national holiday. implement multipass or ranked voting actions. eliminate winner take all electoral vote states if not eliminating the electoral college. to change ability requiring all candidates to pass an extensive background check, the results of which are available to the public and more strictly cap large comp traditions. , photoith her suggestion id required for everyone who votes. david in kansas, republican. good morning. caller: good morning and thank you for c-span.

lifelongen a republican. i don't know whether i can pinch my nose and vote republican anymore. -- sickened by what has happened, we are taking away and subverting the process. host: how are republicans doing that, david? caller: through voter suppression. if you cannot see that, you are closing your eyes to the facts. host: where are you seeing it? caller: i am seeing it everywhere. i am seeing it with making it harder and harder for everybody to vote. anybody that is poor, especially. i grew up poor and i know how hard it is sometimes to get to the polls. the thing i would change, the

number one thing i would change is the voting machines, the electronic machines. old makes the majority of and weomatic tellers would not put our money in one of those things without getting a receipt back. it may just be we don't have paper trails on most of these voting sheets. that is the number one thing i would change right off the bat. storythe associated press that appears today in the washington times and likely other newspapers around the country, maybe you are seeing it. time and money running short for states to replace aging or inadequate voting machines. state and local election officials say they want to replace their voting equipment before the elections, but the vast majority said they don't have enough money to do so.

states received some $380 million -- a down payment on what is needed. local jurisdictions, electronic voting machines that do not produce a paper ballot so voters can verify choices. experts say these machines are vulnerable for hackers to manipulate. toaware has set aside money replace machines. to replace plan voting machines was delayed over a dispute in the bidding process. north branford, connecticut, independent. good morning. caller: hello? host: go ahead, patty. caller: i say what he just said. bring back the old voting machines with the paper trail.

tuesday should be a national holiday. count of military votes first. get rid of early voting. close the polls at the proper time. photo id, number one. i also say in connecticut, every time we vote for governor, the republican is winning until we get to harford, bridgeport, and new haven and something happens. we never found out what happened , but has been doing that for years. something happens and that is the end of that. host: could it be there are more democratic voters there? caller: it could be, but it is ironic. we never find out, there is always a problem, something broke down, and they never tell us what happened. host: i haven't heard the count the military votes first before. why do you want to do that?

caller: they defend our country and they have the right to vote. i think they should be number one. they are defending our country. host: eddie in rhode island, republican. good morning. caller: i just have one comment. basically is another attempt to take away states' rights. having a committee at a federal level decide about voting districts is almost impossible to get fairness and equity out of it. onnot even get an agreement everything. up, --her man who called another attempt to undermine states rights. to much of that has gone on and

i think if we erode it, it could be tremendous damage and cause even more political conflict amongst people. that is my comment. anybody 16 years old should be allowed to vote, particularly in this country when a lot of kids don't even get high school education and -- in civics. host: take a listen to what congressman mark green of -- had to say at a hearing last month on this hr-1 bill. [video clip] >> it seems every year that passes, more and more power is shifted from the people into the hands of wealthy politicians. they cannot help themselves from micromanaging more and more of everyday lives. from roads and bridges, firearms, relationships with our doctors, even our toilets, these

freedom and federalism hating politicians cannot seem to help themselves and now they want to decide how we can run our elections in tennessee. you want to tell tennessee to enact same-day voter registration with no time for verification? you want to tell tennessee we cannot require ids to be shown at the polls, increasing the likelihood of voter fraud. you want to tell tennessee some unaccountable commission gets to draw our districts? you want to tell tennessee it has to subsidize far left leaning candidates and other states with our taxpayer dollars? how dare you. how dare you tell tennessee what we can do with our elections. this bill is wrong. it is a power grab. -- politicians that wants to give the federal government more power. does the majority party care about voter fraud? then let's allow states to have

voter identification laws. do the democrats suddenly care about foreign interference in the elections? why are they allowing illegal immigrants to vote? the hypocrisy is mind-boggling. there is no constitutional authority for the federal government seize control of elections in tennessee. the constitution creates the federalist system with power dispersed amongst the people and i will fight to ensure it always does. host: taking your calls on the "washington journal." how would you change how americans vote? david has been waiting in alabama, line for democrats. what do you think? caller: good morning. first thing i would do. if an inmate is out of prison, the first day, he is restored all his rights back in terms of being a registered voter. the day of the election, make it a legal holiday. vote --o do not go to

there should be a penalty for them not to vote. i would make sure on election allthat we do hand count paper ballots because a lot of election laws in the city based upon the voting machine. the third thing i would do in terms of election day is go back nosection five and make sure voting place is changed without notifying the voters. host: your thoughts about felons that completed sentences, that is included in hr-1, that voting rights would be restored after they completed their sentences. part of this sweeping bill, about 570 pages long and the provisions having to do with voting is just one part, probably about a third of the provisions in the fall as a -- bill as a whole.

caller: good morning. you can hear me, i suppose? host: yes, sir. caller: i have three things i think are necessary for thorough elections in the united states. votingst is, when we are for president, it should be the president and vice president are the only two elected officers in any nation in the world not directly elected by the people. there is no need for an electoral college. the reason for the electoral foundersas because the of these -- this nations ought another king might be elected, they put this in as a guarantee. .ow we have a king in power that is the point. the second thing is citizens united versus fec allowed

unfettered dark money to come into politics. this is no longer a government of the people, by the people, for the people, it is for special interest. the third thing is i am a convicted felon. if i lived in florida, i would not be able to vote, but i was born in new york and i live in new york now and i can vote. -- uniform voting laws at least for the president should be throughout the entire nation and there should be paper ballots. these are the three things i think would be necessary for truly fair elections. way, why are native americans in north carolina not allowed to vote? are people in north carolina because they are a different color, not allowed to vote?

when the president says there is election fraud, he should look at his own party. host: can i ask you about the process in getting your voting rights restored in new york? did you ever lose your voting rights when you went to prison? caller: i was convicted in florida. i was convicted on a nonviolent drug charge. in florida, if i remained living in florida, until this year, until they just passed this bill, i would not be eligible to vote in any election in florida. when i moved to new york, new york has -- you can vote in new -- i voted democratic all the way because i am so tired of people abusing the rights of the constitution -- abusing their power. i grew up an hour and a half,

two miles from donald trump and i know a con man. i cannot believe there are republicans -- republicans who loved john mccain would back this guy. thank you for listening to my comment. god bless america. let's have fair voting. host: thanks for the call. a map from the american civil liberties union showing the voting rights for felons around the country. the states in red on this map are states where all people with felony convictions are permanently disenfranchised. the states in orange, some people cannot vote. stayed in yellow, people in prison, on parole, or on probation cannot vote. the blue states, people in prisons cannot vote, everyone else can. green states on this map in the new england area where everyone has the right to vote regardless of your felony convictions.

jacksonville, florida, a democrat. good morning. caller: when i was watching the show and heard mitch mcconnell's comments about what the democrats were trying to do and more voting --d 2016 we had more voting than ever before and he was saying they think they don't get enough votes, i would like to remind him and others there may have been more voting than ever -- butbecause of the because of the electoral college and the gerrymandered states, the popular vote is what -- wasn't what prevailed. clinton got 3 million more votes than donald trump so, yeah, there were more people voting. those 3 million did not count

because of the gerrymandering. what i would have changed is some sort of an independent counsel that creates the districts so that it will be fair. that is my main comment. hr-1 calls for -- for independent commissions to redo the process of drawing maps. the brennan center for justice with their explanation of that part. it would curb partisan gerrymandering by using independent commissions whose members represent diverse communities and establishing fair redistricting criteria and mandating greater transparency for redistricting purpose. the brennan center is one of the organizations that has come out in support of hr-1. mark in pennsylvania, republican. caller: what a surprise the brennan center, named after justice brennan would be in

favor of bringing in more democrat votes. i would like to ask whether we should re-apportion the media since 90% something of all the information that people get, especially millenials, is from the media. in pennsylvania, governor corbin went way out of his way to make sure we got out the vote with voter id in philadelphia and pittsburgh and it resulted in .im being voted out of office i would like to give a shout out to the republican from rhode island who was spot on about states rights, which are nothing more than the rights of the states, and to the guy that called after him who was talking about valance -- felons voting again. maybe you should not break the law. think about that before you think about your show called

--so-called right to vote. host: how would you reapportion the media? caller: that was a bit of a joke. i believe in free speech, but how anyone could ever dispute the fact that if you watch msnbc or cnn or any of the big networks, you hear nothing about the strong economy. i have a degree in economics, i know what that is about. also the crime wave due to the infestation of our country by, frankly, lawbreaking invaders from all around the world, mostly latin america. -- by thennsylvania way, in north carolina day drew up a new district due to the voting rights act that was no wider than a 4-lane superhighway. i would love to know how a blue-ribbon panel would deal with that. host: thanks for your call this morning. on your concerns about the

border and immigration issues, here is a story from the front page of the washington post today about that legislation to disapprove of the president's emergency declaration on the border. gop senators face a test of allegiance to the president on that vote. the vote scheduled in the senate sometime next week. thatrms of the numbers democrats would have to get together for that resolution to pass, all 47 democratic senators have been united against the president's emergency declaration. it just 4 republicans have to vote in favor of the disapproval for it to pass because a resolution needs just a simple majority. senator collins, senator tillis and lisa murkowski all republicans and senator rand paul as well, have declared their support for the resolution with paul predicting more gop senators will join them.

yesterday on capitol hill, the homeland security secretary kiersten nielsen met with republican senators behind closed doors and talk to them about the white house cost view on the resolution. we will cover that on c-span when the vote happens. catherine is in cleves, ohio. good morning. caller: yes, hello? on?i on -- am i host: yes, ma'am. caller: when you are born, you are registered and you can vote anytime, anyplace. vacation, the bills are here before i get here. no longer can we put old, bad machines in black areas or poor people areas. anyone can vote where they want. mr. green from tennessee doesn't have a bit of problem telling women what to do, he just

doesn't want to be told want to do. women do not want abortions, they want -- birth control. plenty of voter fraud in north carolina and the economy is great for those it is great for, but look at the debt. our debt is higher and who is going to pay for it? the rich? think again. welcome to the wild wild west. have a good day. host: laura is an independent, how would you change how america votes? caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. my call is about the need to redistrict. me a radicalll moderate because i don't like the extremism on both sides pre-to the highest country bidding factor is the redistricting that occurred. i appreciate your show because it brings different views. my question is about the argument that the independent

counsel would take away states rights. is there a way in order to get at the same solution of having an independent counsel that retains states rights? i don't like hiding behind the states rights argument if the ultimate problem is really the redistricting. is there a solution that could retain states rights, but get at the independent counsel? host: is there one you have been able to come up with that you have thought about as you were waiting on hold? caller: i am sorry, were you able to hear me? host: was there a solution to that states rights issue that you have come up with as you thought -- you have thought about this? no, i haven't. listening for 20 minutes, i had not heard that argument or understood how that undermines the electoral college as well as the independent commission. for your guests and the other folks adamant about states rights, it is ultimately one of

the more contributing factors to the polarization of our country. is there a way we can get after a solution without undermining the states? host: thanks for the call from arlington. connie in california, good morning. caller: good morning. i worked at the polls for 14 years and nothing i require is for people to show their id. the only time they showed their id is when it is next to their name. in a mailingturns envelope for somebody else or say this is for so-and-so, i would require for them to sign the envelope with their name -- show id and show that they are -- if anything happens that they could come to that. host: how big of a problem do you think voter fraud is in this country? caller: i am sorry, what? host: how big of a problem do

you think voter fraud is in this country? caller: i think because people do not show their ids. i had an elderly man come in and he did not speak english at all, but he had his daughter with him and she was telling him what to do. not speaking english and able to vote? i don't think that is right. he did not have to show id. host: you think you should have to be able to speak english devote? caller: i am 81 years old and when i first started school, everyone was required to speak english. i have a daughter that is a teacher and she has a lot of students that speak spanish. they have to have somebody there to teach them -- to help them. she said that takes a lot of time from the other children to do their work and all of that, you know? to me, that is not right.

all this about free this and free that, who is going to pay for that? it is not free. somebody has to pay for it. it is us taxpayers. i worked for 41 years. there is still money coming out of my paycheck. host: the original lead sponsor of hr-1 is congressman don sartre, democrat from maryland. he spoke about this issue of voter fraud when he was testifying about the legislation in february at the hearing before one of the committees on the house side about it. [video clip] >> voter fraud is not the problem. we know the statistics on voter fraud. they are microscopic. voter suppression is the problem. in the obstacle course that has been set up that makes it so difficult for people to register and get to the polls and it demoralizes them and they stay

home, it is not worth it. we have to fix that. that is the baseline, the most powerful form of protest and engagement an american citizen has is the right to vote. too many people in this country do not get to the ballot box. that is all it is about. host: asking you how would you change how americans vote. democrats, 202-748-8000. republicans, 202-748-8001. independents, 202-748-8002. it is about 7:45 on the east coast. a couple other stories about .ssues and actions scott gottlieb stood out in the trumpet ministration for efforts

to increase regulations around the vaping and tobacco surprised critics. he was sworn in as fda commissioner in may 2017 will leave in a month. no successor was named on tuesday. president trump tweeted he had done a terrific job as commissioner "he has -- he and his talents will be greatly missed." that was the president yesterday on his twitter page and one other story looking ahead to the next couple of days in washington on the house floor. the house representatives set to vote as early as tomorrow on a democratic resolution condemning anti-semitism, a rebuke to a freshman lawmaker whose criticism of policy toward israel prompted accusations of anti-semitism. the resolution drafted by nancy and other top democrats doesn't name the congresswoman of

minnesota, but condemns the myths of dual loyalty. she has repeatedly come under fire for remarks critical of u.s. policy toward israel. the house measure is the second in the current congress on anti-semitism implicitly aimed omar, one of two muslim women in the house. the first measure was added by republicans to a bill last month suggested support for israel was fueled by lobbyistd and campaign donations . taking your calls this morning, about 15 minutes left in this segment. the question again, how would you change how america votes? republican.york, a go ahead. caller: how are you doing this morning? i appreciate you taking my call. the absolute bottom line is you

have to have a photo id to vote. you have to have it to cash a check, to get on an airline, to buy a bus ticket, everything. that is first. have the polls open on the day they are supposed to be open and closed when they are supposed to be closed. if you are not going to be there, get an absentee ballot. i do it myself and i have used it many times. i am not going to be around on the appropriate voting day. . would not let felons about if you do the crime, you have to do the time, that is part of it. host: what is the concern with early voting? of letting people go to the polls a few weeks before and drop off their ballot? really have -- as long as they have to go

through the same process, i would not be terribly concerned. sarbanes talked about the minuscule figures on voter fraud. the reason they are small is because it is fraud. you cannot catch it if they haven't been caught and they don't go into the statistics. the whole system is wide open for voter fraud. anybody that is not required to --w an id, how do you know it is ridiculous. they tried -- try that one thing in canada or any other country, you will wind up in jail. shouldwho break the law do time for it. if you break the law, if you are voting -- voting illegally and should do time

for it. there has to be consequences for that stuff. i think trump has done a great job and he is going to get reelected in a landslide. host: voter fraud, if you are caught, it is illegal. is your concern the penalties are not harsh enough? caller: i am concerned they don't catch them. you never hear about anybody doing time for it. you never hear about anybody suffering any consequences for it. host: jerry in new jersey, a democrat. good morning. caller: good morning. i am listening to all the callers. i really do think we need to go back to one day voting and have give a holiday to get -- everybody the opportunity to golf. -- to go. talking about the early voting, you get a lot of people

that say they don't remember if they voted or sent it in. there is too much room for too much. this non-voter id thing, that is the craziest thing i ever heard. how do you vote and not be able to show some kind of id? that is nuts. i am a registered democrat, but i would not vote democrat again. they are the most corrupt people i have ever seen. it is funny, you are talking about the media. you talk about russian influence, it is the media that brainwash as the people. charged with or will be charged with campaign-finance law for abusing , not onet one station station, msnbc, cnn, abc, cbs, nbc played it. that is how corrupt.

you can hide things, it doesn't mean you are lying about something, but they hide it, it is amazing. to findk you are going more corruption in the democrat party and going after trump is not going to solve that. just amazing and it is crime, the interference is really the media. host: why are you still registered as a democrat? are you still with us? mark in kansas, a republican. go ahead. caller: yeah. i wonder if anybody has ever suggested the idea of fingerprinting everyone as opposed to the voter id. they had such problems getting birth certificates and ids, we have advanced technology, retinal scans, it looks like we could do something like that.

college, it needs to be there. it was put there by our founders and it protects the smaller states. we are kind of a rural community . otherwise, california and new york could elect all of our presidents. i am not in favor of this ballot harvesting. i think that is right with opportunity for -- ripe with opportunity for corruption. host: would you become trouble with a national retinal scan database? caller: i think we will have something like that anyway. we have cameras on us all the time with facial recognition technology and what have you. i don't like it, but i would rather -- i am kind of reminded of the images of the iraqis voting with the purple fingers, where you know who voted and who did not. i would like to know that

american citizens -- are the ones who are voting. when you have cities and california willing to let illegals and other states -- where they are letting illegals vote and like school elections and that kind of thing -- we are not very far away from not being able to tell who our real citizens are. host: line for democrats, middleton in west virginia. go ahead. caller: good morning, john. host: good morning, sir. caller: right off the bat you started out with mitch mcconnell is not going to bring it up, the white house is already going to veto it. everything that everybody is calling in, making suggestions on what to do, it is going nowhere. two thirds already said no, so why would we want to talk about this when mitch mcconnell has already said i am not going to

do this? it is dead. what good is to talk? way the you think the electoral system works in this country is fine? are there suggestions you might have? caller: i have been voting for 50 years, but i go and vote every year and i see no problems. abuse is aand figment of somebody's imagination. point fox a talking news has got all these people up in arms about. it is nothing. host: that is middleton, west virginia. this is kenny in georgia. good morning. caller: i have often thought people should not vote for the president. the presidency ought to be an office you ascend to and you would get there through the state department. in the secretary of state, if they are still on duty when the

current president retires, they would take over and the president would survey 6 year term and i think the country would be less divided. you have the blue shirt and the red shirt and if you wear a different shirt than yours, all their ideas you think are bad. make the president the president for everybody and they come out and say i wanted to lower health -- they are college all good ideas, right? i am done. host: under your system, who gets to pick the secretary of state? kirk in wisconsin, a democrat. good morning. caller: good morning. host: go ahead. where: first question, are these places where you can just walk in and vote? there is absolutely no id required? or that is in the proposed

legislation? that is crazy. i don't think you should have to go as far as having to speak english, but that would probably be helpful. also, i did not even know there were places you could vote if you have been convicted of a felony. i don't think there is a huge problem with voter fraud or everyone would know about it, chad's.2000, hanging thanks. massachusetts, independent. go ahead. caller: thanks for having me on. just a little bit of history and how werecommendation on can fix the problem. got elected by the supreme court of the united states, that should have been the first warning signal.

at the next election, john kerry versus george bush, the results of that election were a statistical anomaly, that is when the exit polling was put into question because the results did not match up with what -- the anomaly that happened in florida with the hanging chad thing and the fact the supreme court decided the outcome of that. there is a professor -- statistician at penn state who wrote a paper after the george bush-john kerry election proving that the results of that election were a complete statistical anomaly, completely untrue. i am not saying there is voter fraud. what we have is voter counter fraud. it goes way back in history. we don't teach our kids in public school real history anymore.

there is a history of the people that count the votes are the ones that are really in charge and we have the data to back it up. it just because our press does not report it, does not mean it did not happen. now we have this thing where the press is colluding with big government to lie to the american people. to my solution on how we can fix this problem, our voting machine should be like an atm, you get a receipt, it has got your social security number on it, your name on it, and how you voted. you take that receipt away from the polling place and now our make all ofeeds to and data public information you publish how people voted. host: that is dan and massachusetts. a few tweets from viewers who have been watching and tweeting

online. @cspanwj is where you can go for the discussion. skip rights he wants strict voter id laws, that would fix a lot. steve says for proponents, early mailing an absentee ballots are not possible. kathleen sang democrats want to get rid of the electoral college, they are so corrupt hiding their true intent with hr-1, power and control with california always electing the president. stephen has been waiting in texas. a republican, go ahead. c-span.hi, one problem with the states rights and everything is it is possible since the states control the election, if a small state like rhode island reported 400 million votes and rhode island would decide the election, with the states rights , what the electoral college provides is a state can only do

so much impact on an election .ased on their population if california allows illegals to does not,exas california can only do sotexas h effect. had a way that the founders to make sure that every state since theted because states do the elections there's no telling if there's fraud or whatever. one statewant controlling the entire process. host: danny is next. democrat. good morning. caller: my wife's uncle was a world war ii vet living and supported living. he didn't have his id. we had to take into the motor vehicle agency in his wheelchair. put the wheelchair in the trunk of the car. get him into the car. taken to the dmv. mv.take him to the d

after we got his id we had to take him to the polls. how many world war ii veterans and elderly people are in this situation and the states are doing nothing for outreach? make sure these people are able to vote. this is ridiculous. this whole ploy by the republicans is they only want republicans to vote. what's the difference between having an id for voting and gun jacobfor owning a the constitution specifies both things. it should be the same for both. host: stick around this morning. up next, we will continue talking about hr one about the aspects of that

wide-ranging bill. we will be joined by david keating, the president of the institute for free speech. later we will be joined by a person does -- by representative mike thompson to discuss background check legislation that passed the house last week. >> sunday night on q&a. penn state history professor amy greenberg discusses her book lady first: the world of first lady sarah polk. >> i was so astounded by all the stuff sarah polk did in the way she exercised power. she wrote letters to a supreme court justice and members of

congress that were completely confident, 100% about politics and were not noticeably different from a letter that a man would write and they wrote back to her in the same vein. >> sunday night at 8:00 eastern on c-span's q&a. >> the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. >> asked not what your country can do for you. ask what you can do for your country. the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon. , thespan's newest book presidents. noted historians rank america's best and worst chief executives. provides insight into the lives of the 44 american presidents. true stories gathered by

interviews with noted presidential historians. explore the life events that shaped our leaders. challenges they faced. and the legacies they have left behind. published by public affairs. he spends the presidents will be on shelves april 23. you can preorder your copy as a hardcover or e-book today at c-span.org/the presidents. or wherever books are sold. washington journal continues. continue our discussion on hr-1, the for the people act that democrats have brought up. we are joined by david keating from the institute for free speech. what is the institute for free speech? of a: it's a combination public interest law firm and a think tank here at half of what we do is represent clients in court who have had their free speech rights infringed in some way. forry to get them back

those people through the rest of the time we educate people on the importance of the first amendment protections to speak, publish, petition government and assemble into groups. host: some of your concerns on that front have to do with hr-1. specifically the campaign finance aspects. finance has so much to do with who is the money behind things. how is the institute for free speech funded? we are funded by individuals and foundations. primarily foundations. host: what is your biggest concern with hr-1? it subsidizes the speech of politicians but limits the speech of virtually everyone else in the country. it greatly complicates the campaign finance laws which are already too complicated. in fact even today, if you want to speak out about government you are well advised to hire a lawyer. but not just any regular lawyer. you need a specialized lawyer. that's bill becomes law

going to get even worse. a lot of organizations are going to find their legal costs are going to skyrocket if they want to speak out about government. provisions inthe this bill would require more donor disclosure from politically active 501(c) fours. guest: that's actually a misnomer. it's not politically active groups. what does that mean? politically active? i don't know what they mean by that. there already is donor disclosure. if a group raises money for ads that it wants to run saying vote for this or that candidate, the people who give money for those ads have to be disclosed. the disclosure in this legislation would cover groups that just want to talk about policies. and what's going to happen is groups are going to choose one of two things neither of which are good for the american democracy. one is they are going to silence their speech or change it so that it's far less effective.

the other thing that will happen is that donors will look at what they are planning on doing and say, i'm sorry. i'm not giving because i don't want my name in a government database available for the entire world to see forever. and the violation of the privacy rights i think would be very detrimental to speaking out on especially controversial issues. host: do you have some of the same concerns about another provision of the legislation, digital companies disclosing digital ad buys of $500 or more. guest: absolutely. it's not only a matter of disclosure. those provisions are so would push costs up for these platforms so much that a lot of platforms i think will totally refuse ads that talk about policy issues or candidates because the compliance cost for a smaller platform will be so large, they will say it's not worth it.

there are two states already where google will not sell political ads because of these types of regulations. washington state and maryland where i live. you can't buy an ad on google if you talk about government policy or candidates. host: jim mcgovern is chairman of the house's committee. this is what jim mcgovern had to say about hr-1 last night. >> this legislation will finally address one of the most pernicious problems we face. the corrosive impact of big money in our democracy. and i was traveling across my district, something stood out. no matter what audience i was speaking to everybody shook their heads in agreement on two points. the first is that congress was dysfunctional. the second is there is too much money in politics. indicationis any that sentiment is not just felt in my district and an astounding

75% of americans have little to no confidence in the elected officials to act in the best interest of the public. this democratic majority was elected to clean up this place and clean up our politics. we are keeping our word and doing exactly that. fixing our broken to not be as our top priority. that is why this legislation was given the bill number hr-1. this legislation. the special interest from drowning out the voice of the public interest. it will strengthen and secure our elections and that includes tearing down the road box placed -- roadblocks put in place to prevent americans from casting their legal ballots. it will strengthen ethics laws across all three branches of government. about trump talks draining the swamp but unfortunately he created a cesspool. when we talk about cleaning up our politics we are actually going to do it. host: david keating, your reaction to that last night.

guest: my guess is he has no idea what's in the bill. it took our team of lawyers countless hours to understand what the impacts of this bill would be. i can tell you it's not going to be something that going to clean up democracy or increase confidence in governments. how are we going to increase confidence in government if we czar at thech is ftc policing speech about government? itn it was originally set up was in the wake of the nixon administration. the same at ministration the created an enemies list. the same administration that wanted to use the irs to punish political enemies. so when they set up the fec they said, we don't want someone like nixon taking control an agency that's going to police speech during campaigns. that theet it up so president would not have control over the agency.

guess what. hr-1 would give the president attrol of the speech czar the fec and we would have actingly speech cop perhaps in a partisan way. i think that's a huge danger in this bill. host: if you want to join the conversation with david keating of the institute for free speech (202) 748-8000 democrats. (202) 748-8001 republicans. (202) 748-8002 independents. coming back to your comments about the fec, the way it works right now is that there is an even number of commissioners on both sides appointed by democrats and republicans. there's concern right now that they are at a deadlock. that they don't get enough done. they can't oversee elections because they are so deadlocked. guest: there's couple things about that. both the president and the senate have utterly failed in

the fec. the fec only has four commissioners right now. it is supposed to have six. it has been at what true for quite a while. the commissioners there have served expired terms of something like 36 years. they have been there too long. they need to be replaced. all of them. the two most important goals of the original federal election ensuren act were to disclosure of contributions to candidates, parties and packs. guess what? everyone thinks the fec does a those two key functions. i don't think anyone really thinks that contributions are being hidden or contribution limits are being broken and windows are broken the fec has been unanimous in enforcing that. where the deadlocks have come up is where the law is unclear and there's two different views of what the law says. that's the way the fec is supposed to work. enforcementrtisan

the law would be interpreted maybe one day -- one way for one party and another way for the other party. that's what this bill would do. i think if it wants to fix the fec's get a full complement of commissioners there. plenty more to talk about in this very large bill. it's hr-1, the for the people act. kerry is up first in connors bill, indiana. democrat. good morning. caller: good morning c-span. that mcgovern speech a little bit ago, it all sounds good. say facing the wind? we and over and over this sort of thing for some time. it's a go nowhere plan apparently. are really going to get serious and focus on making progress in that direction we

may as well not even talk about it. specific issue i think needs to be addressed his citizens united. that needs to be outlawed. that's an unfair advantage. the people with all the money and the power they've got their foot on our throats. host: david keating. citizens united. guest: citizens united was free-speechvery pro- decisions than it was based on a number of precedents including the new york times versus sullivan case in the 1960's. we have to keep in mind what happened citizens united. citizens united was a nonprofit organization that wanted to run a documentary about hillary clinton the candidate. and the federal election laws basically said the group couldn't do it. court said, wait a second. we have first amendment here. this is a nonprofit

organization. it's a corporation. sayings has no business they can't speak out about a candidate. in a nutshell that a sickly is what the citizens united decision is about. bob is in baldwinsville, massachusetts. independent group go ahead. -- independent. go ahead. caller: good morning. i think the free speech is ok because the democrats have all the free-speech they need. did you see that guy get punched in arizona the other day trying to just put out a little bit of conservative view? i don't understand what you mean that free speech is under fire here. democrats have free speech. the republicans do not have free speech. you guys can do whatever you want to alter things but when it comes down to it, the democrats say that the republicans do this to them and they do this to us. thedemocrats have attacked republicans thousands of times in front of me and the republicans have like two things

going. the one guy that tried to bomb everybody and carolina. so i don't understand. we seeone of the things very commonly in the states or anywhere in the country is a lot of laws aimed at controlling or limiting political speech are toally passed away to try repress the speech of the opponents. in a republican legislature you might see if aimed at liberals or democrats and vice versa. in a blue state you might say the opposite. , it woulds right now give a huge subsidy up to $5 million for politician to run for office. one of the ironies of the bill is it would subsidize their speech but make it a lot harder for people who have organizations. host: talk about what the bill

is proposing. give six dollars for every dollar of to a candidate. get $2200.te would interestingly there's no match of contributions to political parties. one of the strange effects of this bill is it would make the political parties far more dependent on the big money they seem to be concerned about. pretendon why is let's you're a donor. you can't give more than say a few hundred dollars per year. are you going to give money to a candidate where they are going to give six dollars for every dollar you give or are you going to give it to a political party where there's no match at all. the answer is no one is going to give to the political parties and that means only the rich donors are going to be giving to the party. host: how do you feel about the

term dark money? guest: i don't like it. i don't think it's descriptive and a lot of the solutions for those that are going to invade the privacy of people that join organizations. south during the civil the segregationist governments would have loved to have known who was giving to the naacp. there was a court case that went to a supreme court on just that --ue or the state of alabama the supreme court said you can't have it. don'tr thing which we have to look too far right now. the gay-rights groups. you think they would have wanted to list all of their members where they are advocating for gay-rights? probably not. even today in this parts of the

country, gay activists are not welcomed at many places of employment if we publish a national government database of every political cause that people believe in the causes that are unpopular are going to find it really hard -- i think that's going to be a serious mistake for our future. host: on the republican line, good morning. thank you very much for pointing out the issues. my question is just around will think throughns this kind of built that limits the speech of the individual. dark money, which i don't believe in. to me it seems like very stupid inking. i don't mean to use that word lightly. just stupid thinking.

can you ask when some of the concepts to meet? >> i think it comes down to this. politicians want to have more speech for themselves. they don't like to be criticized. criticism is to make it more difficult for people to speak. make it more difficult for people to organize, assemble into groups and such. i think this is a very .nfortunate trend ultimately the only power is to raise our voices and tell them no. host: massachusetts. tom is a democrat. good morning. if it: citizens united actually says money is speech and corporations are people in campaign finance is totally impossible in any form. it would be arbitrary. thanrporations are people

governments also our people. why make the distinction? if someen more bizarre politician is bribed by someone and receives money if money is speech than simply the briber speaking to persuade the person to do whatever they want. the whole thing is ridiculous and any changes or restrictions to campaign finance are impossible if you look at citizens united as a totally logical system. guest: that's of course not true. united was decided in 2010 and the campaign finance laws are still standing. contribution limits are still there. disclosure of donors to parties and candidates are still there. idea that money is speech, the court didn't say money is speech. the court said that the government can't ban you from spending money to buy speech.

we all have the right to freedom of religion. awspapers have the right to free press. we have the right to speech. what if congress said you can publish a newspaper as much as you want but you can only spend $25,000 a year. the washington post wouldn't be able to publish too many newspapers if they put in a spending limit like that. that's what the supreme court has said. you can't limit the amount of money that people can spend publishing newspapers, advancing religion or buying speech. publishing flyers, running ads and things of that nature. in terms of corporations like people, that's not right either. corporations are just groups of people. i don't lose their rights just because they are in the corporate form. if they lost their rights the police could come in and search without a warrant. they could seize property and not give compensation. i think everybody would say that

would be a really bad idea. i work hard. i create a business and then the government just takes it because it has nothing to do with a person? of course as something to do with a person. host: what does hr-1 look to do when it comes to foreign money and influence in u.s. elections? guest: it's interesting. there is a manager's amendment. went from something that was highly complex that no one really understood that would have had serious effects we thought on people that worked for a domestic corporation of a multinational corporation. let's say you worked at anheuser-busch. you may not have been able to donate to the budweiser political action committee for example. ad just because you work for u.s. corporation we think you should have the same rights as everyone else. the manager's amendment would fix that and basically it would take the current fec guidance

and put it in the statute. host: what is that guidance? guest: it's too constituted to explain here. ownersly the foreign cannot control u.s. decisions basically. if it is set up so the americans are the ones making the decisions -- i'm oversimplifying here. then it's ok. host: jack is in fairfax, virginia. democrat. good morning. caller: good morning. thanks for taking my call. i'm sort of listening to what's being said here right now and it teams like the gentleman is speaking out of both sides of his mouth. basically saying that money isn't speech, that's not really what the supreme court said. but in its entirety if you actually see what's actually going on today, money is speech. we have super pac's today where people can donate unlimited amounts of money and actually push a certain agenda that is

decided by one party or the me that's money is speech. we have the nra who we just who has found out committed something like $50 million to the trump campaign and there are people who are that itsto the nra foreign money. so please don't sit there and say that money is not speech because it's quite obvious to everyone that money is speech and why can't politicians simply listen to the people instead of having to actually listen to multimillionaires. host: mr. keating? guest: i didn't say money was speech. i said money can buy speech just like money pays to do a newspaper and people donate to their religious churches and synagogues and whatnot and if congress can limit that than it

limits our ability to exercise this important right. host: david in denison, texas. a republican. good morning. caller: good morning. i would like to thank the fellow taking the questions. he seems to have a very in-depth understanding of what's going on. this hr-1, i think it's amazing. obviously it's not going to make it to the senate floor thank goodness. the idea of 16-year-olds voting which is obviously another attempt to pad the democratic voting rolls. keep calling in and talking about the electoral college and refer to it all sorts of different ways. there wouldn't be a united states that it wasn't for the electoral college. that was the part of the compromise for the smaller states and connecticut, new hampshire, vermont.

and then of course the bill of rights. the a constitutional provision. nobody's going to pass some kind of rule in congress to do away with it. and a halfhe three million votes that trump lost by, he didn't campaign in california. there was no point in it. because of the way the census works representatives are selected which then translates into electoral votes. at least six electoral college based on the number of illegal immigrants that are in the country because the congress people and their representatives, the people they represent the distinction between citizen and noncitizen. they couldn't if they wanted to because they haven't been in a census for 15 and 20 years. as far as no voting fraud, has

everybody forgotten about acorn in 2008? they were taking tens of thousands of fraudulent voter applications. they ended up being disbanded and done away with. if my memory serves me correctly they have reconstituted under another name. host: you bring up a lot of topics. guest: none of them weren't speech related so i'm not really sure what to say. we haven't covered another provision of the many provisions in hr-1 that creates new disclaimer requirements. thelready think that it -- disclaimer requirements are silly as it is. the candidate saying i'm john smith and i approve this message. of course he approves this message. he paid for. let me read you a disclaimer we would have to have on radio ads if this bill becomes law. this is by fictional group called americans for the environment. it doesn't exist. it would say paid for by

americans for the environment. clean environment.org. not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee. doe, president of americans for the environment and americans for the environment approves this message. top two funders are first name last name and first name last name. that took about 18 seconds. the ceo actually has to read that so unless the ceo is head of the national auctioneers society they probably won't be able to read it that much faster and a lot of this is total nonce ends. host: what should be included? host: paid for by americans for the environment. that's all you need to know. we should make the disclaimers short as possible while giving people the information about who's paying for the group and then they can look up the group from their online or in the fec database. group andid for the

of course they approve this smith, and what is john the ceo of the organization need to say the message? it makes absolutely no sense. is only thing this is for the government wants you to say this nonsense instead of things like give me liberty or give me death or i have a dream. this disclaimer is longer than any of martin luther king's famous paragraphs in his i have a dream speech. wild and wonderful on twitter says i wholeheartedly support the right to freely associate and protection of your advisory. when you and your associates give money to political parties and candidates we have the right to know who you are. >> that's the law today. the proposed bill would go much further than that. it wouldn't just be political parties and candidates and political committees. it would be if you give to an organization that speaks out about the government policy.

and i think this is especially harmful to the organizations on the cutting edge or expressing popular views. as people simply won't give to a group like that if they know the whole world is going to know who they are. host: david keating is the president of the institute for the speech. we appreciate your time. me.hanks for having host: we will be joined by congressman mike thompson of california to discuss his gun background check legislation that passed the house last week and later the alzheimer's association joanne pike will discuss her latest report on alzheimer's disease in the united states. we will be right back. >> the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.

>> asked not what your country can do for you. ask what you can do for your country. >> the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon. book, thes newest president. noted historians rank america's best and worst chief executives. provides insight into the lives of the 44 american presidents. through stories gathered by interviews with noted residential historians. explore the life events that shaped our leader. and thees they faced legacies they have left behind. by public affairs. c-span's the presidents will be on shelves april 23. you can preorder your copy of the hardcover or e-book today at c-span.org/the president or wherever books are sold.

c-span, where history unfolds daily. created as aan was public service by america's cable television companies. today we continue to bring you unfiltered coverage of congress. the white house. the supreme court. and public policy events in washington, d.c. and around the country. c-span is brought to you by your cable or satellite provider. >> sunday night on q&a, penn state history professor amy bring -- amy greenberg discusses her book, the world of first lady sarah polk. >> i was so astounded by all that she did and the way she .xercised power she wrote letters to a supreme court justice and members of congress that were completely confident, 100% about politics

and were not noticeably different from a letter that a man would write and they wrote back to her in the same vein. >> sunday night at 8:00 eastern on expense q&a. >> washington journal continues. host: mike thompson serves as chairman of the gun violence prevention task force in the house. hr eight wass what which passed the house last week. what would it do? >> that's the bill that i wrote that is supported by a bipartisan group of my colleagues that would expand background checks. would require a background check for anyone who purchases a firearm. bipartisanaid it's a bill. eight republicans side with democrats on that background check bill. is eight more or less than what you were expecting last week? guest: it's actually more than i getght i thought we would six. there were five republican co-authors and i was pleasantly

surprised that we picked up those three other republicans. host: why do you think you were able to pick them up? is different about your bill? saves it's a bill that lives. it doesn't restrict anyone's right to own a firearm provided they are not a criminal or dangerously mentally ill. it was written with the help of some of my republican colleagues and it's widely supported across the country. over 90% of americans believe we should expand background checks. how many gun purchases today are covered under federal background checks under the current system? under the federal law any firearms is purchased from a licensed dealer is required to go through a background check. some states require individual sales be covered as well. many states only go by the federal law.

so in those states it would only be guns that are purchased from a licensed dealer. host: if your bill was implemented, how many more gun purchases would be covered by federal background check? it would close a big loophole in the existing law. it would cover specifically gun shows, internet sales and would require that individuals do it granted some of the criticism we have heard is pretty hard to enforce that all across the country and there is some truth to that it does close a lot of those loopholes. host: phone numbers if you want to join this segment of the washington journal (202) 748-8000 democrats. (202) 748-8001 republicans. (202) 748-8002 independents.

a special line for gun owners, (202) 748-8003. one of those who has leveled criticism is ben cline on the floor of the house last week. here's what he had to say. gun-control measures do not address the problems of gun violence and this bill will not address gun violence. strong opposition to hr eight. the legislation is an attempt to take away our second amendment rights. my colleagues on the other side of the aisle claimed the bill will save lives that nothing in this bill would stop any of the recent mass casualty shootings that have occurred in our country. the only thing the bill does is limit the second amendment rights of law-abiding citizens or they will tell you this bill closes loopholes however the loophole they believe exists is private gun ownership and what they really want is to regulate the private transfers of firearms. if my neighbors in trouble and

needs to borrow a firearm to protect his family i should be allowed to loan that firearm to my neighbor so that he can protect himself and his family. this is not something we should need to go to the federal government to get permission to do. the second amendment does not say that after you get permission from the government you're right to keep under arms shall not be infringed. thefounding fathers wrote constitution to protect us from the government and gave individuals the second amendment to protect themselves. host: you were on the floor of the house that day. your response to that. >> it's ridiculous. the supreme court in the heller decision was very clear. the government has a right to regulate firearms. there is nothing in this bill that would restrict your rights under the second amendment. as you know i'm a gun owner. i'm a strong believer in the second amendment and if you are not a criminal, if you are not dangerously mentally ill you can own a firearm and you should be able to own a firearm if you so

desire. of detectionevel to ensure that people who are a danger to the cells are of others -- or others don't get access to a firearm. the part about lending firearms is just flat wrong. and his criticism about this bill won't save lives. we know that's wrong. day 170that every felons are stopped from buying a gun through the background system. we have laws on the books in states that didn't have them before where we have seen a significant decrease in crime associated with firearms because of the background check and for

someone to stand up and say this bill would not have stopped this mass shooting for that mass , if the standard is i would only support a bill that will stop all of these mass shootings, he's talking about supporting a bill that does away with all firearms. and i'm not for that and i don't know anybody else who is. peter's calling from new jersey. republican. go ahead. caller: i've got one question. how areif they tell me they going to stop crips, the brotherhood, the italian mafia, the chinese, the russians, the jamaican mafia. how are they going to stop them from getting weapons? guest: this bill deals with people who try and purchase

weapons and it stops criminals and the dangerously mentally ill from purchasing weapons. we have plenty of laws on the books that deal with people who try and get firearms illegally or people who possess firearms am fully in full support of doing whatever we need to do to make sure that thing members don't get guns and we get guns away from gang members. those are separate issues. there any effort looking at those illegal gun purchases to try and strengthen those laws or change them to make them more effective? >> there are a number of legislation. the whole illegal trafficking of firearms treated as you know, a lot of folks will say chicago has strict gun laws but there's big gun crime there. that a large percentage,

a majority of the firearms seized in crimes in chicago come from out of the area. so they are imported illegally into chicago and we need to double down our effort to stop that. host: indiana, pennsylvania is next. good morning. go ahead. caller: i'm 70 years old and i have been an independent voter for 50 years. proof thatto see any gun registration prevents crime as the representatives say. i live around pittsburgh. most of the crimes and murders are committed with guns gotten from the black market or stolen. i think this is another disguised part of the democratic party to try and get gun registration so that like the representatives friend from

california i can eventually confiscate all our guns. guest: there's a provision in my legislation that passed last week. that specifically states that nothing in this bill can be used to set up a federal gun registry. so that's not my intent. there's nothing about this that deals with gun registration. it merely deals with one more effort to stop people who shouldn't have guns from getting guns. i will believe that criminals, anyone who is a threat to themselves or someone else should be allowed to get guns. host: remind viewers what hr 1112 would do. it passed last week. guest: that was written to close a loophole in existing law. in some states if you try and purchase a firearm and you go in

for your background check and it doesn't clear within three days, the seller has the option to give the buyer the gun even though the background check has not been completed. is known as the charleston loophole because of individual in south carolina tried to purchase a gun, three days went by. the background check hadn't cleared. the gun dealer gave him the gun anyway. he went into a church and he killed nine people. this bill written by jim clyburn from south carolina would extend the period whereby the background check could be completed to 10 days. it hr eight or 1112 have a path forward in the senate? >> i believe so. i have it on your show before talking about this issue.

the last background check bill that i had in the last congress, we never got a hearing on that hill. we never got a vote on the bill. the country were outraged by that and they went to the polls in the midterm elections and they flipped the representation in the house and it was after that election we had a hearing and we had a vote on the bill. the same people are going to be ginned up to push their u.s. senators to take this issue up. out this waiting in watertown, tennessee. independent. good morning. thanks for taking my call. i'm going to give you a little six -- a little history. before 1968 there were no requirements for guns to even have serial numbers on them. you could send a cash, check or money order to a gun wholesaler and they would send to your post office a semiautomatic magazine pistol with the same potency that they are trying to regulate today.

you do a google search for school shootings before 1970 you will find nothing. we have a destruction of the family through a great society plan and that's the problem. when you put all of these firearms in a big database that's called registration. the purpose for that is so one day you can recall them. that's called confiscation. and sir, that will trigger a civil war. host: congressman. guest: again come his argument makes no sense as it pertains to my bill. my bill states that nothing in the legislation can be used to establish a national database. so there's no provision in that to do what this individual is afraid of. host: did you add that specifically because of this concern? guest: absolutely. i wanted folks to know that this is not what this is about.

host: independence, oregon. dan is a democrat. by the way, john mcardle is still the mayor of independence. i think the best thing we can do for gun control is to get involved clips and make all clips internal so that they only carry five rounds and it doesn't matter what kind of gun you own. if it can only hold five rounds and you have to load it back into the gun, it would cause a home difference in all of this. i want to thank you for your efforts and see what you have to say. host: thanks for the call. give my best to your mayor in independence. guest: magazines, that is something that is being debated right now. there's a number of pieces of legislation dealing with it isne capacity and something that will continue to be debated in washington until that issue is brought forward.

many states, i know new york passed legislation that limits the magazine capacity. my home state of california has a law on the books that limits magazine capacity and it is something that is understandably of concern to people. when someone goes into a movie theater or to a member of congress's town hall meeting or congresswoman on the corner, we know gabby giffords my former colleague. and someone comes in with extended magazines and can just shoot until tomorrow. and not have to reload very often. it is a concern with a lot of folks. host: where do you think the line should be drawn? what is fair in terms of magazine capacity? guest: i'm a proponent of 10 shots. host: why? guest: it seems like a good spot. you can still recreationally and you still have to

reload so you can do less damage. about 10 minutes left with congressman mike thompson. democrat from california. the chair of the gun violence prevention task force. owners that line for gun (202) 748-8003. spent the first half of our , theam talking about hr-1 building is being debated on the floor in the coming days. includes voting rights, money and politics, ethics issues. it is nearly 600 pages. why include all of that in one large bill? guest: i'm a big proponent of exiting all of those things that are problematic. we should have full disclosure in government to include campaign-finance disclosure. effort tomake every ensure that everybody gets the

opportunity to vote. everyone has that right. should make sure that it carries through. as far as ethics in government, we should be the high bar. if we are in office we should be the high bar as to how do we conduct our business. i don't think it's a problem to combine everything and draw attention to the needs that we have of fixing the problems that we have. host: the president's advisor said they would advise the president to veto this bill. mitch mcconnell spoke against it on the floor of the senate today. why not pull out pieces of this bill that might be the to get support from republicans? guest: what piece do you think he's going to support? the piece that says president of candidates have to disclose their taxes? or do you think he's going to support the part that deals with the dark money in politics? do you think this president is

going to sign a piece of legislation is going to ethically clean up government? thinkare there areas you could gain bipartisan support? guest: i don't know where he is on all the different components of the bill. has puty colleagues together a package that really does address the issues that are of concern to the american people. host: kentucky, republican. good morning. we will go to been in personal, virginia. independent. good morning. caller: good morning. i am a republican calling on the gunowners line. i want to thank you for your service to our country. i would like to take issue with a number of statements you made and prefaced that by saying i am an instructor for active shooter response. i am a firearms instructor. i have researched every major

act if shooter events in our guntry and i research violence extensively. i believe i can state emphatically that a number of things you have said this morning are at the very least this ingenuous. you made the claim regarding gun shows. when most people don't know is that it costs more than $2000 to rent a table at a gun show. very few people who are not licensed dealers are able to sell guns at gun shows. solde fact that a farm is at a gun show does not determine whether or not a background check is conducted. it's whether or not it is sold by a licensed dealer printed more than 95% of guns sold at firearms are sold by licensed wheelers and required background checks. you made the statement about internet sales. internet sales all require a background check because they are either sold from a licensed dealer or if you are purchasing from another individual, that firearm has to be shipped to a licensed dealer because individuals cannot ship firearms

to other people without violating the law. even if you are selling person-to-person over the internet the firearm must be shipped to a licensed dealer and the dealer must conduct a background check. those background checks are taking place. serve, you stated you are a firearms owner. host: let let the congressman them up. guest: he is half right. if you buy a gun at a gun show in some states. and you buy it from a licensed dealer at that gun show. you have to get a background check. them up. guest:as he stated and i don't w about the $2000 fee. i think that's a little high. it may be a $2000 fee at some gun shows but certainly not all gun shows. if an individual is selling his or her individual firearms at a gun show in some states there is no requirement for a background check. and we know for a fact that internet sales without a background check do take place. if you are a licensed dealer and

you're selling on the internet then yes, he's correct. you have to get a background check. if you are an individual selling over the internet, you can do the deal over the internet. meet somebody in the back alley for the parking lot of downtown and do the deal right there with no background check. five minutesout left with mike thompson of california. i want to ask you about another issue expected to be on the floor perhaps tomorrow. are's the lead from front-page story of the new york times today a formal common -- condemnation of anti-semitism has touched off a furious debate between older democrats and over young colleagues representative ilhan omar and whether she is being singled out for unfair treatment to the resolution likely to be voted on on thursday crew out of her

suggestion last week that pro-israel activists were pushing for allegiance to a foreign country. a remark that infuriated leading jewish members of the house who say played into anti-semitic tropes. guest: i'm against any divisive or angry language or statements. i have not seen the resolution that you suggest will be up on thursday for a vote. the text has been fully vetted and written yet. i think it's appropriate for congress to speak out against any hate language irrespective of where it's directed. deborah is in west chester, ohio. republican. good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. a criticism. i'm trying to get a better understanding of the mentally ill aspect. examplekolas cruz as an

. the fbi was contacted regarding his behavior. him and worker cleared kids at the school said, if there's a shooter it's going to be nikolas cruz if that ever happens. so how would hr eight address that area mental illness? guest: as i said in the beginning, hr eight is not going to solve every murder, every gun purchase. make our step to communities safer. the first line of defense if you will to check before someone purchases a gun to make sure that they are not a criminal, they are not dangerously mentally ill, they are not at risk to themselves or to others. of other a number proposals. there's laws on the books that deal with a lot of these issues. this is just one step.

host: tim. lakeview, arkansas. independent. good morning. caller: i'm taking my one month called to respond to this guy. law tos passes a restrict rights. we've got gun laws on the books for a long long time and people are still dropping like flies in chicago. obviously gun laws don't work. what the representative is is one step again closer to registration because every private sale must be registered now. you're trying to make paperwork criminals out of every individual. if you want to put the responsibility on the government to take care of us, the government fails in parkland. the schools failed. the social workers failed. the fbi failed. the local police failed and people still died and yet nobody was held accountable there. the governor finally got rid of the police chief may be. but nobody is ever held

criminally responsible except for the individual like me. i might have handed my gun to somebody for a short time or decided to elliott because i was on hard times and you want to make me a paperwork criminal. host: congressman. in.t: thank you for calling the idea that this is registration is just wrong. thategislation specifies nothing in the bill can be used to establish a national registrar. it doesn't deal with registrations. as far as the idea that this wouldn't have solved it and there's already laws on the books so we shouldn't pass any more laws, if you follow that logic, there is a law against murder people. so what do we do, get rid of all the laws? there's laws against speeding. people still speed. do you get rid of all the speed limits?

that's nonsensical to make that argument. this bill says if you are a criminal or you are dangerously mentally ill, you can't get a gun. i just don't know of any reasonable individual who could be against that. johnstown, pennsylvania. we have just about a minute left. caller: good morning. my call is about the second amendment. i think it is not a commitment. it's an amendment which can be amended and it should be amended for the 21st century. i think all guns should be registered. there should definitely be stricter gun laws in this country period. call andanks for the i'm sorry to disappoint you. this bill doesn't require registration. as to whether or not any amendment should be amended that is certainly an open issue and that can be pursued. bill is within the

confines of the second amendment. that doesn't take away anybody's right to own a firearm. that you havees to establish that you are not a criminal or dangerously mentally ill. host: congressman mike thompson, democrat from california. host: up next, we continue the discussion with joanne pike, we will discuss the latest report on alzheimer's in the u.s. stick around. >> the only thing we have to fear, is fear itself. -- ask nott what you what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country. >> the people who knock these buildings down --

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conversation about alzheimer's with joanne pike, programming officer at the alzheimer's association. she joins us from chicago. what is alzheimer's? of dementia a part umbrella syndrome, one of several dementia sets. you can tell by a progressive change in memory over time. it is fatal. we do not have a treatment or cure. ultimately, what we need to impact this disease is much more research over the next several years. host: how does one get alzheimer's? that, youis a disease are impacted most by age, at risk.

a part ofs is not normal aging. factor, its a risk not, isnormal aging is different than alzheimer's disease. you're able, there are other age actors in addition to time,s head injury over could be a predictor. however, what we need to be able to understand is -- how can we help individuals get to a place where they can identify if they have cognitive changes? relationshipis the they have with their health care provider. host: joanne pike, out with a new report, 2019 alzheimer's disease facts and figures,

noting 5.8 million americans are living with alzheimer's. guest: that number continues to grow. report isway from the numbers are trending up. the burden of alzheimer's continues to grow. 5.8 million americans are living with the disease today, inclusive of 200,000 under the age of 65 and five 6 million 65. 65 -- 5.6 million over over 16 million individuals are providing unpaid care for someone living with dementia or alzheimer's in america. host: if you are a caregiver, or have experience with alzheimer's, join us in this segment. phone lines, a bit differently. eastern or central time zones,

(202)-748-8001. pacific and mountain time zones, (202)-748-8002. joanne pike is our guest. explain what the alzheimer's association does. guest: the leading nonprofit funder of research. in addition, we provide support services for anyone impacted. we are working with health systems to change how they are toviding quality care, influencing industries through other recommendations. ultimately, our main goal is research advocacy, care and support. host: 5.8 million americans living with alzheimer's. from 2017,se according to the latest report. re: getting better at diagnosing

it -- are we getting better at diagnosing it? better atare getting diagnosing alzheimer's. the population most impacted is growing. the baby boomers are moving the older age group. increase by the sheer numbers of the population moving to the older age group. host: is there a test to determine if you have alzheimer's or will get it? guest: great question. the place where testing or assessment should begin is in primary care relationship. it is part of our 2019 report. we had a special report where we talked to primary care doctors and seniors about their experience with assessment.

at, how does that process happen? beliefs the attitudes, and utilization of cognitive assessment within the primary care setting? the assessment is an entry point into further diagnosis for accurate diagnosis of what could cause cognitive impairment. this assessment should be short in length, 2-5 minutes. quick exchange between a doctor and patient to ask about, if they have seen changes in memory or thinking. it could be short through a standardized test or it could be talking to a family member or of,giver to be that voice what they have seen change within the individual. this brief test, if there is an

indicator that something is going on, it should go on to further assessment or a broader discussion. that entry point is the quick conversation with a doctor. host: there would be a long time between that entry point and what we have talked about, dementia due to alzheimer's. talk about the stages. guest: sure. a couple stages. hopefully, in this process, what we hope to do is make sure people are being diagnosed or recognized early stages. on toeryone who goes develop dementia/alzheimer's, they go through the first age of mild cognitive impairment. that is the front end of the disease process. you are seeing changes in your memory but it is not affecting

your day-to-day living yet. buts causing a few issues you can go on with your activities. dementia is a more progressive stage. continue --le unable to continue on with those activities of daily living. you need additional assistance, whether through a caregiver or other living arrangement. final stages, unfortunately, the body begins to close down. host: you mentioned it was a fatal disease. what is the cause of death? guest: several things could cause death. ultimately, the brain shuts down, so do the functions of the body. cause, it could be listed as some type of acute

issue like pneumonia or heart disease. really, the underlying cause could be because of that alzheimer's diagnosis. host: we are talking alzheimer's disease in this last hour of the washington journal. joanne pike is our guest. taking your calls and questions. bernadette, new mexico, good morning. caller: good morning. is i amon i have called speaking from experience. part of the problem is it starts out as an eye exam and slowly progresses and your vision becomes discordant. just -- theit ophthalmologist, the eye surgeons, they are part of the problem. i have not been able to get a decent pair of prescription

glasses because they are putting me through stages. my vision is corrected, all of a sudden, i go back and they redo a process, using a laser, and my vision is distorted again. host: bring us to alzheimer's. caller: exactly. i said, i am not a part of your study. said, you are part of the study. no consent of mine. that is what they are doing. they're using senior citizens or any type of individual that may have a compromised and they are using them and not reporting the truth. guest: i am sorry to hear about the challenges you seem to be doctor and your progressive care. alluld recommend, and for

the viewers, to think about, medicare now covers a care planning benefit. anyone diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment, dimension or alzheimer's, this is available to you and your doctor through what services you need. if you need additional resources, how can you access those? host: talk about the evolution of efforts to study alzheimer's and find people to be part of studies and whether more of that is happening these days? guest: clinical trials are the key to what is going to bring us to a treatment long-term. we need people to participate in trials. diagnosed with alzheimer's, dementia or mild

impairment so they can participate. the first version who will receive -- first verse and who will receive treatment -- the first person who will receive treatment will go through clinical trials. that needs to happen with diagnosis. that is a key benefit of early diagnosis in dementia or alzheimer's -- the ability to access a clinical trial. host: what are the current treatments? guest: there are no treatments that will stop the disease. there are treatments that will help symptoms. we are making progress every day towards a treatment or cure for alzheimer's. we need more research. this country has invested, when it has invested in the research

to the levels of cancer and hiv, we have seen breakers. we need to invest in those same levels. -- we have seen breakthroughs. year, a big thank you to congress for this, alzheimer's is now funded at $2.3 billion per year. when we talk to scientists about what they need to fight the disease, that is not enough. continuing to advance how much we fund in research is a key priority. host: ben, elk creek, nebraska. caller: good morning. glad to talk to you. [indiscernible]

dying inld people are this country down here by puerto rico, and that area. if they cannot figure out how to stop them people from dying at reagan, --and ronnie i am 90 years old -- i called in on your station in 1979 and begged people not to vote for ronald reagan. luckily, he had a wife that had some sense. host: talk about the difference between alzheimer's, dementia, and other types of dementia. guest: alzheimer's dementia is the largest form of dementia in the full spectrum of dementia syndrome. 80% of all, 60% to

cases, and there are other types of dementia that make up the other smaller percentages. affects daily living -- symptoms and the 10 warning signs include things like not orng able to problem solve changing your ability to use the same routines you have historically participated in. host: richard, ohio, good morning. caller: good morning. i am a caregiver, alzheimer's caregiver. 1.5 yearss diagnosed ago. i was suggested by a doctor in a family that she have

geriatric physician. i did that. she took away all my wife's medications and said, these are not recommended for seniors. we had a couple visits. topt connected with the neurologist in the area. we are now, between my doctor and this neurologist, that is where we are at. he put her back on everything again. who do you believe? the neurologist? the geriatric's vision? one more thing i am finding out -- if alzheimer's can devastate everything you have, you can lose everything you have. if you are wealthy, you write checks. if you have nothing, uncle sam writes the checks for you. if you are in the middle, we get the shaft. there is no financial health.

those are my questions. thank you. let me say, thank you for all you do as a caregiver. if you ever need assistance, if things become too burdensome or you are in a stressful situation by phone, contact us or online, there are resources online and other caregivers throughout the country to help them with transitions and questions around the medical care your wife is receiving. the best way to go about treatment is finding the provider you trust the most and talking with them about what the land -- plan for care is. i mentioned the medicare plan before. i would encourage you to contact

your doctor and talk through that planning benefit. [indiscernible] host: joanne pike, going to work on that signal to make sure we can hear you correctly. stephanie, long beach, california. caller:hi. the alzheimer's association is the most wonderful organization. the website is wonderful. they have workshops. they are terrific. my father recently died of alzheimer's. we lived with it for 13 years. there are many misconceptions i would like to talk about. is everyone talks memory loss. it is not just memory loss. the first signs are a lack of

impulse control. saying inappropriate things, overspending, and ability to lying,ead, exaggerating, obsession with objects. these are the things we noticed way before memory loss. it is almost personality change. those things are not really talked about. the other thing is, alzheimer's, the diagnosis itself, it has a stigma like cancer used to have. it is nice to say dementia, because that does not bring it home. fatal, a serious, degrading disease. it will not get better. not only is the patient in denial, the family is in denial. part of the problem is to get over that huge block of denial.

everyone wants to think -- it is a little thing. it is not. they do not prepare themselves for what is coming. the other problem i have is elder abuse and fraud. targetketing -- they areas where people are elderly and wealthy because they will give out social security numbers, bank account, they think the person is friendly and they give out way too much info. that is something congress needs to step in about. host: let's focus on those. thank you. stephanie, sounds like you have a wealth of experience with what happened with your father. signs, how unique they are for everybody -- there

are 10 main warning signs, interested.r anyone there are some that more people talk about than others. i would encourage everyone to look at them and if you see anything you have questions about or you notice changes in someone in your family or yourself, talk to your primary care provider. host: the caller suggested more legislation when it comes to elder abuse and marketers trying to take advantage of oaks -- folks. is that happening on capitol hill? guest: there are several pieces arounduld be supportive elder abuse. it is important.

levelr that is at federal or state level. host: one of the previous callers talking about the cost of treatment. -- $290d cost, 2019 billion. $146, 51%ill pick up of the cost of care for patients 65 and older. medicaid, $49 billion. out-of-pocket expenses, $63 billion. other cost, $32 billion. explain about the other category. cost tohat we see in $290 billion this year, for the third year in a

row reaching that quarter of $1 trillion. we anticipate that cost will by 2050 to $1 trillion without a change in treatment. government, bear s the majority of that cost through medicare and medicaid. out-of-pocket cost, really take a can financial toll on families. familyividual cost for a over lifetime of someone diagnosed is $350,000. some of that is covered by medicare. some is out-of-pocket. that is unsustainable without further advances in care. host: you mentioned 2050. another chart.

number ofted americans living with alzheimer's, 65 and older, 13.8 inlion, up from 4.7 million 2010. taking your calls this morning with joanne pike. eastern or central time zones, (202)-748-8000. mountain and pacific times, (202)-748-8002. we will be having this conversation until the house comes in at 10:00. david, concorde, north carolina. caller: thank you. why thedering association doesn't explain the digital age we live in?

raised since 4g phones have come in. 5g fixing to come in. it will double in three years? it doesn't make sense that the government knows all this electronics we do. my mom has dementia. host: what doesn't make sense to you? the number of americans who have alzheimer's? caller: yeah. they added a smart meter to her home. increase inow the the number of people living with alzheimer's is primarily driven by population total and baby boomers aging into the group. age is the largest risk factor. alzheimer's is not a normal part

of aging. host: talk about the differences by sex between men and women and the risk for alzheimer's? guest: absolutely. /3 of all individuals living with alzheimer's. they carry a larger caregiver burden. daughters./3 our women have the disease more often but they are also caring for someone more often as well. women are the epicenter of this disease. we need to understand some of those differences and ultimately, how we will get to those answers through additional research. host: for the visual learners, here is the chart. by sexed lifetime risk

45, for men age 10.3%, women 19.5%. charlotte, st. louis, missouri. caller: hi. how younting to know diagnose alzheimer's? how do you tell the difference between alzheimer's and other dementia? host: thanks. guest: the first and most important step in that conversation is having a conversation with your provider. as part of this report, we looked at, how does that first conversation happened between provider and senior? that is the first step.

brief cognitive assessment. if someone shows signs they may need a deeper diagnosis, they should either be referred to a specialist or having a more detailed conversation with the provider to look at what could be causing some changes in cognition? there are benefits to early diagnosis. those include, accurate diagnosis. having that means there could be changes in cognition because by things other than dementia or alzheimer's, and being able to look at those factors and see if they are treatable. the other factors, there are benefits like clinical trials where if someone goes on to be diagnosed, they can participate in clinical trials and access

potential treatment being tested today. there are emotional and social benefits to diagnosis. spending time with family, financial planning, legal planning, being able to think about, how do you want to see care delivered in the future? in addition, taking care of other medical conditions and change of lifestyle that could protect cognition you still have. host: cognitive assessments. them andstandards for are you comfortable primary care physicians are being trained well enough to make that identification to move to the next step? assessments brief are a required component of the medicare annual wellness visit. that went into effect in 2011 with the aca.

it is new. when we talk to physicians, they related that while they feel confident and support the idea of brief cognitive assessments for all seniors, they relayed there were things they would like to learn more about. part of that is the assessment process. how does it look? how do you have a conversation with a patient? with a family member? if something shows up, how do you move diagnostic? it should be conducted by a specialist or someone with deeper knowledge? the primary care relationship is usually the most trusted physician in someone's life.

they trust that person with all their basic health needs and they are more than likely to see a primary care physician at some point during the year. the medicare annual wellness as it offers -- visit offers that are store -- offers that first door. host: rachel, are you with us? caller: i am here. i have a question on the power of attorney. my older sister turned 70. she had been in a family care home in washington state for 23 years successfully. caregiverll from her saying that things were going radically different, and a month after the holidays. i worked on trying to find out what was going on. it was apparent she was having

-- she has been intellectually disabled from birth because of a lack of thyroid. profoundlyd the -- mentally handicapped. she is now showing signs of dementia. running away, tearing up the house, all sorts of things she had never done before. i went out from pennsylvania. it took me over one month to get anyone to listen about her being able to have a diagnosis of dementia on top of her disability. it was frustrating. i spent hours trying to tell her admitted she had signs. she admitted she was inadequate. she would not go out on a limb and diagnose.

way to get herly to a safe lace -- a safe place. if, how you help people through that. it was difficult for me and i am a lawyer. i am sorry to hear about your experience. it seems complicated. in a moment of crisis, unfortunately. there is care consultation for families offered by the association when something has changed about the care or level of care they need. those consultation services are 00-272-3900. 47, 18

host: i wonder what you make of this. makes voids in the brain. i could ask my mom about her scrapbook she knew every face." great description of her experience. uniquendicative of how the experience can be. one of the things we often hear they use thatis storytelling with family to pull the older sensory-based memories out. host: one more comment from twitter. how does cannabis help with

alzheimer's and have there been studies? guest: so far, there has not been any long-term studies to show benefit from cannabis or medical marijuana. without research, there is no knowledge about benefits. host: 20 minutes left with joann pike before the house comes in. we will take you there live when they do. until then, your calls and questions. eastern and central time zones, (202)-748-8001. mountain and pacific time zones, (202)-748-8002. josh is in l.a. caller: thank you. [indiscernible] host: we will go to warner, new hampshire. husband is 54.

relatives heclose knows of with dementia. on you give me data likelihood he will have it? i have noticed changes. we have been married 30 years. forgetfulness is way beyond his age, and actually, personality changes. host: stay on the line. guest: there are genetic or family risk factors associated with all cymer. i cannot offer -- associated with alzheimer's. i cannot offer you data. but, talking with a primary care provider or a trusted provider you know about those changes,

the family connection, the background, and make sure you go with him. a big nice to this -- a big piece to this cognitive assessment is not just a standardized test but also being ore to hear from the patient one of their caregivers, or the voice for that person about changes they are seeing. host: have you tried to have this conversation with him? how receptive has he been? there are understands close relatives he knows of. there could be more. sometimes, i think he is in denial. i think there is a stigma attached. people don't want to talk about it. we really need to. host: thanks.

that pike, even before primary care visit, how do you have that conversation? forou have suggestions folks making that first comment about their concerns? guest: she brought up an important point. stigma. ais disease does still have stigma. when we talk with individuals about that primary care relationship and why they would not bring up any questions about having a brief cognitive assessment. their biggest concern was around being scared to know. it is a hard conversation. if you are noticing changes, being worried about the reaction you will get can be a big concern. on association offers tips

how to have that conversation, in an environment when it is a not that name opportunity -- when it is a nonthreatening opportunity to have that conversation. caller: good morning, thank you for taking my call. this is such an important subject. i went through this with my away over just passed one year ago. it is absolutely the most heartbreaking disease you can watch a parent go through and the many steps it entails. was well first of all i have a medical background and i was surrounded by advice which was mostly beneficial.

with the alzheimer's person themselves, they have a hard time accepting what is going on with them. as a daughter, being close to my mom, i had a difficult time understanding what she was going role in trying to give her dignity but also pushing her along a path of getting help. so the first thing i needed to do was get medical power of attorney. in order to do that, i took her and to take that tonitive test and, but i had fool my mom into doing it. the doctor and i had a conversation ahead of time to fool my mom into going along

with it. the doctor totally disappointed me. she turned to my mom and asked her, ruth, you think you can make these medical decisions on your own? of course my mom said, yes. well. she was so far beyond being able to do that i finally did, -- insisted, you need to give her this test. from there it became easier for all of us deal with. she lived with me but finally needed to go into a memory or facility -- memory care facility. she quit eating. .he could not wallow at the end it is a horrible thing. thanks, joanne. it is important. host: thank you for sharing. guest: maggie, your story

represents what we hear from us. families who contact transitions, you know something about the care that needs to be changed, whether power of attorney or the transition to a nursing facility or residential care facility, those are all moments of decisions that happen within families so often. it sounds like you were able to navigate that. if others are having trouble navigating those situations, the alzheimer's association is here to help. alz.org. association.th the gloria, virginia, good morning. caller: good morning. i am wondering if you could give

me info on how to find out about the clinical trials and joann, you mentioned causes were head injuries. are there other common causes associated? accessyou are able to info about clinical trials on our website and trial match. org. we offer a repository of clinical trial information. background,o on whether you or the person you are caring for and hopefully a trial will come back as a match. risk factors overall -- age is the largest. other ones are genetic. connection to be a between head trauma and dementia. host: what about cardio the

other disease -- cardiovascular disease? guest: there are other connections within the body that can complicate dementia and alzheimer's. cardiovascular disease. if you have those conditions, managing them can reduce risk. host: the prevalence of alzheimer's by gender -- talk about ethnicity and race differences. there are differences in race and ethnicity. as with so many things, we need to understand that to greater detail, which will come from research. african-americans are two times alzheimer's orve dementia.

hispanic latinos are 1.5 times more likely than non-hispanic white to have it as well. host: one more chart from the latest stats from the alzheimer's association. ins shows projected increase alzheimer's dementia and prevalence by state, larger increases in the state with darker coloring. is there a regional difference? guest: the big regional differences are the size of the population in the state, and the population.65 bus some of those states have a large 65+ population. florida. arizona. california. texas. host: pat, michigan, good

morning. caller: good morning. i am a caregiver. my husband has alzheimer's. i'm concerned about the behavioral and the emotional changes. the medications given are off label to help prevent agitation, aggression. we don't want our loved ones to be drugged but we don't want them to be violent. one of the benefits of having diagnosis and speaking out, -- seeking out a support network is finding other behavioral interventions that can help with changes in mood and behavior. the association offers support groups and education nationwide

to learn more. looking forde is professionals who understand a verse and centered approach -- person centered approach to care. when you are working with paid caregivers, making sure they are doing that from understanding that person. shown toh has been reduce behavioral issues long-term. host: when was the first diagnosis? alzheimer was part of the original diagnosis. what we know is young. startedcurrent makeup in 1980. started in the

early 19th century, sorry, the early 20th entry. -- century. what we are learning today, the investment in research, knowledge,hows us making sure we are reducing stigma. recognition byt the federal government that research dollars needed to go --e -- how did that dark start? guest: it has changed over time. the alzheimer's impact movement has had a concentrated effort on bringing research dollars up. in the past decade or so, we have passed the national alzheimer's act. we have looked at that he uses

of research dollars and in the $2.3year, we are up to billion. host: if you have questions or comments, taking your call on regional lines. tammy, iron river, michigan. caller: good morning. thank you. two questions. we talked about alzheimer's being an elderly disease. doesn't it show up in the late 40's if symptoms show up? would someone be evaluated? how does it compare to parkinson's. onset is a piece -- to the numbers we have been talking about.

5.8 million people are affected overall. younger 200,000 are than 65. start symptoms but it is more likely some biological changes are happening but symptoms have not shown yet. if you believe you are showing thatoms or you have signs you think are troublesome, talking to your doctor is the first step you should take. signswe have 10 warning available on alz.org. host: comparing it to parkinson's? guest: the best way to be able to understand differences between parkinson's and alzheimer's is to have that conversation with your doctor. parkinson's tends to have more

physical symptoms with changes in thinking or cognition. ultimately, differentiating diagnoses should be a conversation between the individual and their doctor. host: walk us through the warning signs. colors have done a -- callers have done a good job of talking about them. changes in memory or thinking different than just basic forgetfulness or -- so, changes to how you do routine or if you cannot remember a routine. changes in mood, depression, isolation. those are all symptoms or warning signs that there could

be a bigger issue. lz.org. the early signs listed there. gary, ohio. yes, thank you. joanne, i have heard eating too much sugar can be a cause. doctor,his book by a neurosurgeon. he showed a picture of a normal person's brain and someone that has a brain with too much sugar and they got alzheimer's. can you back that up? also, high cholesterol? guest: the conversation around

diet is interesting, given what we are learning more and more every day about lifestyle indications that could produce risk -- reduce risk of alzheimer's or change what your current health is. a healthy diet is always better than one that is not healthy. things that are good for your heart -- eating well, exercising, those are all going to be good for your brain. there is not enough research/evidence 2.2 one toticular food -- to point one particular food. we are investing in large-scale lifestyle intervention studies now to look at if we can change risk over time.

int: tuscaloosa, kim alabama. caller: thank you for this program. it is wonderful to hear this. 2003 from allin summers. i was a caregiver -- alzheimer's. i was a caregiver. clue what we were doing. we had good health care. we found out from our pcp. she was a homemaker forever, active, cooking was her thing. cooking, it, the tasted horrible. we figured out she was putting dishwashing liquid -- it was so sad. the most cruel disease. it was horrible. sheot good health care and

-- it was challenging, needless to say. way.s a blessing in a we knew 2003, january -- she did not recognize my dad. she remembered one number. my sisters. she would call and say there was a man, who had broken in and raping her. it scared us to death. we all lived close. clothesd get all her out of the closet and throw them on the porch. we knew something was really wrong. she was not in denial. she would cry. my dad had promised her he would never put her in the nursing home.

she was from a family of 10. six out of the seven sisters passed away from alzheimer's. unreal. my mom was the third. we had had a support group. i knew nothing about any support. i listen to you, all these symptoms, it is just like it is all coming back. it is said. it is challenging. i am so glad there is work for people because we did not have the support from professionals. we were the caregivers. we took her to all her immense -- appointments. she was violent. she would kick the door. it was a nightmare. host: thanks for sharing your

story. a minute to go before the house. guest: thank you. your story touches so many people who are listening. you even brought up the warning sign, the change of routine in cooking -- something your mom knew how to do well, but then that routine went away. having those moments where you can recognize that warning sign is important. i am glad you had access to wonderful health care. that is a big ease, having a trusted provider you can work with in creating long-term plans. host: is congress going to look at this report? guest: we hope. away is we need

more research funding. we need funding for research at the same levels at other diseases that have had breakthroughs. when we on research -- fund research as a country, we see breakthroughs. host: we have to end it there. alz.org. thank you. live to the floor of the house. speaker's rooms, washington, d.c. march 6, 2019. i hereby appoint the honorable cheri bustos to act as speaker pro tempore on this day. signed, nancy pelosi, speaker of the house of representatives. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the order of the house of january 3, 2019, the chair will now recognize members from lists submitted by the majority and minority leaders for morning hour debate. the chair will a