>> you are watching c-span. your unfiltered view of government. c-span was created by america's cable television companies in 1979. today, we are brought to you by these television companies who provide c-span to viewers as a public service. >> live today, the house returns at 9:00 a.m. eastern. a version of the 2021 budget resolution. that is on c-span raid on c-span2 at :00, the u.s. talks about relations between the united states and mexico. at 11:00, georgia representative marjorie taylor greene holds a news conference. coming up in 30 minutes, arkansas congressman ruth westerman, ranking republicans on the national resource

committee. he discusses president biden's climate change agenda and the priorities for covid-19 relief legislation. at 8:30, marcy kaptur talks about covid-19 relief negotiations. ♪ host: good morning. it is friday, february 5, 2021. the house voted to remove congresswoman marjorie taylor greene from her congressional committee assignments in an unusual move that democrats say were necessary over past comments of conspiracy theories and violent rhetoric. we are spending our first 30 minutes getting your reaction on phone lines split as usual. republicans, (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents, (202) 748-8002.

you can also send us a text at (202) 748-8003. otherwise, catch up with us on social media, on twitter and facebook. a good friday morning to you. you can start calling in now. as we start a new day on capitol hill, the house is coming in at 9:00 a.m. the senate finished up its voting work last night, or i should say earlier this morning, about 90 minutes ago with a 15 hour vote-a-rama. they worked through dozens of amendments and approve the 2021 budget resolution, the vehicle the senate will use to move the president's 1.9 trillion dollar stimulus plan through congress. we are starting this morning on the topic of marjorie taylor greene. that is our focus for your calls this morning.

"the washington post" with a one paragraph wrap up of her comments on conspiracy theories in the past and yesterday's actions on capitol hill. "as recently as last year, greene had been an open adherent to the queue and on ideology -- qanon ideology. she made comments on social media suggesting that mass shootings were staged by supporters of gun control, the 9/11 attacks were orchestrated by government for kisses, and a jewish cabal started a wildfire with a space being." -- a space beam." the vote that removed marjorie taylor greene from the two committee assignments, she talked about her past support for these issues. >> so we elected president trump and i started seeing things in

the news that didn't make sense to me, like russian collusion, which are conspiracy theories are also -- also and have been proven so. these things bothered me deeply and i realized by watching cnn or fox news, i might not find the truth. i started looking up things on the internet, asking questions like most people do, used google. i stumbled across something -- and this was in 2017 -- called qanon. these posts were about this russian collusion information. a lot of it is what i would see on the news at night, and i got interested, so i posted about it on facebook, read about it, talked about it, asked questions about it. more information came from it. here's the problem. route 2018, because i was upset about things -- around 2018,

because i was upset about things that people were not doing what i thought they should for us, things i care about. a lot of americans don't trust our government and that is sad. the problem is i was allowed to believe things that weren't true and i would ask questions about them and talk about them, and that is absolutely what i regret, because if it weren't for the facebook posts and comments that i liked in 2018, i wouldn't be standing here saying, you couldn't point a finger and accuse me of anything wrong, because i've lived a very good life that i'm proud of. i family is proud of, my husband is proud of, my children are proud of, and that's what my district elected me for. host: in the end, it was a vote of 230-199. 11 republicans joining democrats in the effort to strip archery taylor green from her committee assignments, removing her from the education and labor

committee, and the budget committee. we are expecting to hear more from marjorie taylor greene today at a news conference at 11:00 eastern. we will be airing that on c-span two and you can listen on the free c-span radio app. here is how it is playing at home and her northwestern georgia district, from "the rome news tribune," words of the past without explicit apology, removed from committee assignments. dam led house drawing the line d --em led house drawing the line and kicks greene off assignments. steny hoyer talked about marjorie taylor greene's facebook post targeting democratic members known as the squad. this is what steny hoyer had to say.

[video clip] >> i heard about motherhood today. two women between them had six children. they are mothers. one of them does not have children. and she has come to this body asking for more housing for people, from more health care for people, for more income for people. how awful. and they are not "the squad," they are [indiscernible] there are people. they are colleagues.

and yes, you may have disagreements, but i don't know anybody, including steve king who you precluded from going on committees, from much less. and this is an ar-15 in the hands of ms. greene. this was on facebook just a few months ago. that is a message of peace and reconciliation and peaceful democratic styles. this squad was her enemy, ar-15. i have never, ever seen that before. host: steny hoyer yesterday on the house floor before the vote

that would remove marjorie taylor greene from two of her committees in the house. getting your reaction this morning, daniel, the line for republicans in washington, d.c. caller: good morning. it is pretty obvious to see 199 republicans basically protecting this woman who is clearly disturbed, and how many americans cannot see and understand, the last four years with a sociopathic president, we've refused to adhere to medical advice. hundreds of thousands of americans have died. violent and sick illness. we have a $1 trillion defense budget that is getting ready to overthrow venezuela. we just did a treaty with 1500 nuclear weapons for the soviets

and americans. host: are you a republican who would agree -- caller: what kind of sickness is going on in our country. host: would you agree with those 11 republicans across the aisle that voted with democrats on this issue? caller: yeah, after the violent riot that took place with tens of thousands of americans, and a woman like marjorie taylor greene representing that mental, disturbed, violent movement, when is america going to wake up to what this whole thing is really about? host: daniel in washington, d.c. those 11 republicans who backed removing marjorie taylor greene, ryan fitzpatrick, john katko,

son kim, adam kinzinger, nicole malliotakis, maria elvira salazar, christopher smith, fred upton, joining democrats in that vote yesterday. scottsboro, alabama, independent. caller: good morning, how are y'all? host: i'm doing all right. caller: i just wanted to comment. i voted for mr. biden because a to thousand dollar raise on my social security. -- a $2000 raise on my social security. that's why i voted for him and i hope you keep that promise. host: what do you think about what happened yesterday and the controversy surrounding marjorie taylor greene? caller: i am not exactly sure. i ain't got all the details, but

from what i understand she does need to be removed. that's the way i understand it. host: alabama, rick, california, citrus heights, democrat. caller: this reminds me of an incident i heard something about. i'm afraid that what may happen to her, i'm afraid of something -- heard something on the news just this past week about her bringing about, ms. taylor bringing a gun on the house floor into the capital -- capitol. this reminds me of a guy named missoni on the california board of supervisors killing harvey milk. host: the story about security in the house floor, there has been new security measures

implemented on the house floor, and metal detectors that members of congress have to go through before they can get on the house floor and vote. those have been installed since what happened on january 6. there are some members pushing back about that, saying it is keeping them from getting to be able to vote, it is holding up the process. that is some of the security stories about specifically the house floor. there has been plenty of security stories about the house since the sixth, including the likelihood of a permanent fence that will go up around the capitol complex in the wake of those events. the police chief has come out in favor of that idea, that has been floated in the past, but plenty of reviews that are ongoing. james in murfreesboro, tennessee, independent. good morning. caller: good morning.

thank you for taking my call. host: go ahead, sir. caller: this lady, they need to put on a spaceship and shoot out to outerspace. after a while, these people with qanon, they will tell you that native americans wasn't here, that when they got here wasn't nothing but air land, and -- bare land and all of a sudden everything just happened. host: do you think conspiracy theories are more prevalent or worse today than i have been in the past, and if so, why? caller: why, you had a man come into office with a lie. he lied from the beginning. he lied the day he was coming down the escalator, that all mexicans were murderers and rapists. that's why. these people have fed into this lie. they just found somebody to say

something they've been wanting to say all the time. thank you. host: here is more from marjorie taylor greene from the house floor. you will notice she is wearing her free speech mask and her appearance, talking about these conspiracy theories, denouncing some of the conspiracy theories she once espoused. [video clip] >> school shootings are absolutely real, and every family who has lost a child mourns it. when i was 16-year-old in 11th grade, my school was a gun free school zone and one of my classmates took our entire school hostage. that happened down the hall for my classroom. i know the fear that david hogg had an these kids have. this is why -- and i say this sincerely -- i love our kids, every single one of your

children, our children, i truly believe that schools should never be left unprotected and they should be as protected as we were with 30,000 national guardsmen. they are our most precious resource. i also want to tell you 9/11 absolutely happened. i remember that day, crying all day long and watching it on the news. it is a tragedy for anyone to say it didn't happen, and so that, i definitely want to tell you, i do not believe that it is fake. i also want to tell you that we have got to be better. you see, big media companies can take teeny, tiny pieces of words that i've said, that you have said, that any of us, and portray us into someone that were not. and that is wrong -- that we are not. that is wrong. cancel culture is a real thing, and when big tech companies like twitter, you can scroll through

and see where someone may have retweeted poor and -- porn, this is a problem, a terrible thing. but when i say i absolutely believe with all my heart that god's creation as he created them male and female and that should not be denied, when i am censored for saying those types of things, that is wrong. host: marjorie taylor greene on the house floor. if you want to hear more from her, she's holding a press conference at 11:00 a.m. and we will be airing it on c-span2. diane, livingston, new jersey, democrat. caller: good morning. if we think that was an apology, then we need to really reevaluate that, because nowhere did i see her express remorse or regret for all the lies that she has said. even recently, that trump won, she wore her mask on congress floor where trump won, and that

led to january 6, all of their followers storming the capital. this is just -- capitol. i applaud the democrats and brave republicans who came forward as a first step in restoring truth, facts, science, information, and honest journalism, but let's be honest. it will take years to restore the trust that they've broken down, way before trump with the right-wing media and their echo system of propaganda, disinformation, conspiracy theories. just watch any foxbusiness at night with lou dobbs and ingram and carlsen. they just propagate. all these networks, they are responsible too. it is going to take all of us to keep on pointing out and fighting for the truth to come. it is dangerous for our lives with all the misinformation of

the covid-19. i see it firsthand in my family. i just had a broken up relationship with the girlfriend for 40 years because she denies all the debts are real -- deaths are real, covid is just like the flu. i know that my whole life. a good they have convinced my family and friends of these lies? host: was this the first time that your friend espoused something like that, that you guys disagreed so vehemently on? have you ever had an incident like that in the past? caller: yes, in the past. i don't like hillary clinton, but i don't believe all the conspiracy theories about her either. i am a proud democrat. she would express all this hatred for hillary ever since the bill clinton thing. i would ask her why, and they could never tell me why they hate her, or if they do, they come out with these unproven

allegations. you would think by now with all the power that he had with the ag barr ready to do everything he wanted, if they had anything on hillary, they would have prosecuted her. we have people in this country believing that any minute, obama was going to be arrested and they are going to be let out in handcuffs. i engage with trump followers, and they would come out with these right wing, made up documents that they have proven that they have seen on right-wing tv. listen, oan held mock trials for the ukrainian with giuliani. people who watch this, the clinton foundation book with desousa, they are convinced of all of these conspiracies, but when they do not reason why, all of the people that hate her, they couldn't have dug up any evidence. host: this is virginia in

california, democrat, good morning. caller: good morning. i actually was a proud republican my whole life until unfortunately -- fortunately, when mr. obama came because i was proud of ourselves for that, and very happy we had him for eight years. i certainly would not switch back to the republican party when mr. trump arrived. my heart breaks. our country is divided for behaving shamefully. this crazy woman with her cue in on theories being allowed in congress, i don't know what to do -- qanon theories being allowed in congress, i don't know what to do. i fear mr. biden will be assassinated. host: on twitter, once again this or minds us we need more qualifications for people to meet to run for office -- this reminds us we need more qualifications for people to

meet to run for office. do we need that? caller: i thought we had that, sworn to defend the constitution which a lot of people thought was such a great document but has a lot of amendments. we already have those situations in place. we raise our children not to spit and scream in the street and say the n-word. when do they have people in congress able to do this? we already have the rules. it is unfortunate. host: rick in casey, iowa, republican. caller: i have always leaned republican my whole life, since 1990, but for the last six years i have been independent. i just want to say, both sides -- can you hear me? host: both sides what? caller: both sides, the democratic party eight the democratic party i grew up -- eight the democratic party --

ain';t the democratic party i grew up with and the republican party ain't the republican party i grew up with. the democrats will try to take over. i thought the minority leadership had to vote out a person from the house of representatives, not the majority leader. the democrats are kicking out republicans. can they do that? host: what happened here was the removal from her committee assignments, although unprecedented in modern times about being a full house about. when that has -- house vote. when that happened in the past most recently with steve king in iowa, republican leadership removed him from his committee assignments. it was an internal conference vote -- or decision, i should say.

mike, independent, norwalk, ohio. go ahead. caller: good morning. i concur with the guy from iowa. he made a lot of sense. there is a lot of disproportion, disbelief. it is hard to get the truth out of the news. the way it seems, they are just a bunch of bobbleheads and puppets. how are we supposed to find out what is true and what isn't true anymore when the media lies itself? i spent years having conversations with steve, who was suspended, and i was military police. once you show your bias in any investigation, you are no longer effective and you should be removed. host: who or what news websites, what news organizations, where do you go for your news? who do you trust? caller: i tried to live -- listen to cnn and msnbc, hate the orange man.

i listen to fox news max and organizations online, and i can sift through the information to figure out what is true and not true. we have aoc pulling jussie smollett on us. we have omar. both sides, and yet it seems to be biased on one side and everybody is going after republicans and trying to get rid of the trump people. they have got the pot so stirring, we are going to have a revolution. host: this morning on newspapers from around the country, this topic, marjorie taylor greene, the focus of many of the national papers' editorial papers. "the washington post" the gop is to blame for ms. greene. republicans should have sidelined this dangerous crackpot long ago. "gop takes the easy way out,

focusing on how kevin mccarthy come at new leader, has navigated marjorie taylor greene and the concern by some in his conference about liz cheney voting to impeach donald trump." this morning from the editorial page of the wall street journal, liz cheney and mark three -- marjorie taylor greene, failed to oblige the democratic desire for a gop civil war. one more from the washington times, stand firm, gop. that is what the editorial board says. your political future depends on it. if you want to read any of those, head to their editorial pages. silver spring, maryland, democrat, next. caller: 190 republicans still believe that donald trump won the election, which means they believe a lie. 74 million americans believe

this lie. what we have is a gasoline nation. these are people, friends, neighbors, who believe something that is not real, and the problem is, how do you bring these people back to reality? how do you convince them that what they think is just not true? in my mind, i think what is happening is that they are honest people, people who would never deceive somebody, who know that lying is wrong, so they cannot believe that somebody would intentionally lie to them and keep spewing things that are simple enough true. if you've ever tried to convince someone, one of these people who support trump so vehemently but they cannot see they killed a policeman, beat him to death in the capital, for what? a lie. please, somebody has to -- everybody needs to just calm down and talk quietly and calmly

to your friends and loved ones. and somehow convince them. one more thing. can people please just read? if you would turn off the radio, if you hate msnbc, turn it off. if you read a newspaper, you will be able to tell if what they see is true. host: more from the house for yesterday, this is jim mcgovern, the chairman on the house rules committee speaking after marjorie taylor greene made her eight to 10 minute remarks on the house floor. this is jim mcgovern reacting. [video clip] >> first of all, madame speaker, to equate the media to qanon is beyond detail. secondly, the chairwoman said she now believes that 9/11 really happened, but let me read

a quote at the conservative american priority conference -- "it is odd that there is never evidence shown for a plane in the pentagon, but otherwise, i won't, i'm not going to dive into the 9/11 conspiracy." that was 2018 and the gentlewoman just told us she had an epiphany and decided not to follow these conspiracy theories anymore. but then in 2019, she claims that speaker pelosi is guilty of treason and then says "it is a crime punishable by death, is what treason is. nancy pelosi is guilty of treason." that is 2019. she liked a comment that advocated a bullet to the head of speaker pelosi. in 2019, in an interview, she called a student survivor of the parkland massacre "very drained, he's like a dog -- trained, he's like a dog or cow and then she

said -- a dog and then she said he is an idiot and only talked when prompted. greene followed a survivor, call owed does calling him a coward and when she ignored him she said, he can't offend his stance. that's 2019. we could be here all week going over comments and posts in 2019 and 2020. host: jim mcgovern reacting to marjorie taylor greene's remarks on the house floor. this is mark from columbus, ohio reacting to marjorie taylor greene's reaction -- remarks. she said "i was allowed to believe things that were not true." really? who allowed her to believe such lies. she did not apologize. when welty -- when will she take

personal responsibility? it is a sorry excuse. time for just one or two more phone calls here. doug out of oregon, independent. good morning. caller: good morning. i want to give a shout out to the caller from maryland. she made some good points. i have been thinking about the proceedings yesterday and representative -- the minority leader -- i believe he set the stage for all this to happen. he should have and could have removed her from those posts and done his responsibility, but he knew that if he did not come he would set the stage for the democrats to hold this vote. and on that, taking marching

orders from the former president trump in the mar-a-lago meeting he had a week or so ago. i think it bodes poorly for the republican party, creating this division in congress. i love your show. host: alyssa out of vienna, virginia, republican. good morning. caller: can you hear me? host: yes, ma'am. caller: i am 31 years old. i have lived in this area, worn in orlando, florida. i am -- born in orlando, florida. i am a republican. i hear a lot of accusations on both sides. each side is guilty of them. i mean, it is what we choose just like, it doesn't discredit

the negative that happened, but all i'm hearing is the negative these days, that she, pelosi, treason, 20, bullet to her head, and then she called someone an idiot who only talked when scripted. but i remember the guy from wednesday, he said he remembers when eisenhower told one lie to him and it was a travesty. i think it was the trump -- even congress, the last session of congress, i know i'm wrong when i say 40,000 he counted but i know it was 60,000. words matter. words do matter. that she called a terrorist survivor a coward and then doubled down last week.

but i do like the positivity from some of the callers. it really brightens my day. host: matt was our last caller in this segment -- that was our last caller in the segment. up next, we are joined by republican congressman bruce westerman on the national resources committee. we will talk about the biden administration's climate and environmental agenda. at 9:00 a.m., -- then we will be joined by marcy kaptur of ohio. stick around. ♪ >> book tv on top nonfiction books and authors every weekend. sunday at noon a third --

eastern, a live conversation with the editor and ceo of "congressional quarterly or cow --." . other books include "where they stand," and "taking on the world." joined with your phone calls, facebook comments, texts, and tweets sure to visit c-span shop.org to get your copy of the books. at 9:00 p.m. on afterwords, "made in china." she is interviewed by the assistant director of princeton university's center on contemporary china. watch books tv this weekend on c-span two. >> saturday on "the

communicators," ellen powell, ceo of a diversity consulting company. >> i see a changing from the system where people get to take their -- with people that look like them, they are comfortable with, they don't want to stop that. it doesn't matter what the numbers are. it doesn't matter what the arguments are. they will find a way to challenge them. they do not want to enforce the change and be forced to admit the system they were so successful in was actually rigged, that they are not actually the products of a true meritocracy, a true system where everybody had a fair chance. it is hard to internalize that. we will continue to see pushback and that is one of the reasons we need these rules. >> watch "the communicators"

saturday at 6:30 p.m. eastern. >> "washington journal" continues. host: glad to welcome back arkansas a republican bruce westerman, the top republican on the house -- committee. you voted no on the vote yesterday for marjorie taylor greene and her post. why? caller: i listened to her speech. she has apologized for her actions in the past. i think everybody has had things they are regretful for, and i take her at her word. it was her constituents that elected her to serve in congress , and she should be able to serve in congress. it is a disservice to strip her of her committees. hopefully we can move past that and start talking about policy issues that i think are important to all americans, things i'm deeply concerned about -- the air we breathe, water we drink, and this place we live.

how do we have a cleaner, healthier, and safer environment? host: have you had a chance to talk to marjorie taylor greene personally? there was an internal conference meeting, can you tell me what she said? guest: that is where she said, i've made mistakes. i've been accused of saying things i did not say. i've liked stuff on facebook. i thought it was a very genuine and humble apology, a lot more than we have seen from probably any other member of congress since i've been serving in congress. there have been other things said by a lot of people that they probably regret saying. i am sure people have looked at things on facebook and clicked that like button and wished they hadn't. she is the only one i heard come forward and say, i made a mistake, i apologize, and let's

move forward. host: new year, new congress, you are the top republican on natural resources. what are the goals for the committee this year? what would you consider a success by the time the 117th congress ends? guest: we have to look at policies that give us a cleaner, safer, and healthier environment, and we want to have a stronger economy while we have a healthier environment. the two actually go hand in hand. there is this perception that you either have a strong economy or a healthy environment, but if you look throughout history and look around the world where you see the most vibrant economies, you also see the best national environments. we do a good job here in the u.s., not to say we can't do better. we have got to look at these market-based conservation ideas that are going to help us thrive both from an environmental health standpoint and from an economic health standpoint.

that's really what conservation is all about. i worked to be the republican leader on the national resources committee. i wanted to put conservative back into conservation. we started the conservation movement. the word "conservation" literally comes from conservative. we believe that we use what we have. we are good stewards of it. we pass it along to future generations in as good or better shape as we found it. i've had the opportunity to study at some great universities. i got an undergraduate degree in biological and agricultural engineering. i got a chance to go to yale and get a masters degree from the yell school of for streaming -- yale school of for stream environmental -- i learned more about conservation in rural, arkansas, then i did in college

and my work experience and congress. i learned it from my-year-old granny who was a child of the depression. she grew up where food was scarce and working in the garden with her, she had this mindset you didn't let anything go to waste. you either ate it, canned it, gave it to an animal, or saved it proceed. the better we took care of the garden spot, the better it would take care of us. that is conservation in a nutshell, and not hard to understand. some people confuse conservation with preservation. reservation is for art in a gallery, some and eight object. if you want to preserve something from the natural world , you take a cucumber and boil it in vinegar and put it in a

jar and you have got a pickle, that is preservation. our world is a dynamic, living, changing everyday situation. we've got to live in it. we use these things to make life better. we take care of it so future generations can have the same opportunities and experiences. host: bruce westerman with us, go ahead start -- go ahead, start calling in. congressman westman, as folks are calling in -- westerman, as folks are calling in, having the environment thrive at the same time, president biden last week was talking about his climate agenda, saying it is also a jobs agenda. here is a little bit of what he had to say. [video clip] president biden climate change, conscience and convenience cross paths, where dealing with this

simple threat to the planet and our economic growth and prosperity are one in the same. when i think of climate change, i think of jobs. a key plank of our build back better recovery plan is building a moderate, -- modern, resilient climate energy. there will be good, union paying jobs, not $12, $13 an hour, good benefits. energy infrastructure, to withstand the impacts of climate. we have to live with what it is now. that will require a lot of work all by itself without it getting worse. we think of renewable energy. we see american manufacturing, american workers racing to lead the global market. host: are you and joe biden on the same page?

guest: i wish we had an opportunity to sit down and discuss these issues and explain why he made some of those executive orders, because a lot of what he said is true, if we go about it in the right way. but when you just randomly with the stroke of a pen shut down a pipeline which is the cleanest, safest, most efficient way to transport petroleum, when you use an executive order to say, we are not going to produce new oil and gas off of federal land, which makes up 20% to 30% of the energy used in the country, it seems like there is a plan that is certainly not helping the economy and not changing the economic dynamics of supply and demand. the infrastructure he talked about, and there is a lot of focus on transportation, all the vehicles in the country aren't going to overnight change to

lower carbon or electric vehicles, so that demand for fuel is still there. it just means we are going to be getting the supply from foreign countries where we have no environmental regulations in place. you are going to have to transport it long distances so you are using lots of energy to transport it. it is detrimental to the economy and environment, and i think we could put a plan in place, how do we get to certain goals by a certain time? what resources do we have, what makes sense? the engineer in me says, let's make this like a project. what alternatives do we have? the lowest carbon sources of energy are hydropower, wind, solar, and nuclear power. we could put 12,000 megawatts of hydropower on a dam without building another dam. it has been controversial in the

past, but we could put new turbines and generators on existing dams. nuclear power, next-generation nuclear reactors are smaller, not watercooled. you can make them more distributed, a lot of benefits to adding more nuclear power. just to go in and cut off the supply of domestic energy i think is bad economics and bad for the environment at the same time. i would love to visit with my colleague across the aisle, with the administration, and talk about pragmatic, proactive solutions to make a safer, healthier environment for now and the future. that is why i proposed bills like the trillion trees act which does those thing. host: plenty of callers. this is sheila in the baystate, republican. caller: good morning. i would like to thank the republican for voting yes

against the removal of ms. -- yes for the removal of ms. greene. there is an effort to silence every single voice that is opposite of what the greenies and progressives are looking for. we are no longer able to have independent thought. i think the thought police deciding who will run from congress -- for congress and when and if they can. this concern with co2 in the atmosphere, it is a minute part of our stratospheric composition. and how anyone thinks that we can possibly control the whole thing when we can't even control floods or anything else, we can put men on the moon but we will never control this climate. it is a pipe dream. we will always be oil resources

to fly our jets and so on and so forth. please stick together, republicans, and stop the thought police from deciding that everybody has to think like the democrats and progressives. host: do you think there is anything we can do about climate change? guest: there is things we could do to make a better environment and be good stewards of what we have. the caller is right. there has 180 million tons of carbon on the planet and .2% of that is in the atmosphere. we are not making new carbon. we are not doing away with carbon. we are just shuffling where it is. science goes that up until the industrial resolution, there was less than 300 parts per million of carbon in the environment -- atmosphere and now we are over 400 parts per million. they are saying there are things we can do to pull that carbon back out and store it underground, and trees are the

natural solution. they take in the carbon dioxide, mix that with water, and you get oxygen going into the atmosphere and you store the carbon in the tree for the life of the tree. that's why using would -- wood and sustainable building is a great idea. a new paper that came out this week said by 2050, there will be 100 gigatons of carbon that goes into buildings. that is the embedded carbon in the carbon that is used to operate and maintain these buildings. we focus on transportation fuels where the data shows globally, transportation accounts for 22% of greenhouse gas emissions whereas buildings make up 38%. part of what i had in the trillion trees act is to plant

more trees, take better care of the forest that we've got, and to use those building products that are going to store carbon overtime. we can have our buildings acting as carbon batteries, and store billions of tons of carbon as we go into the future. when you look at 100 gigatons, and i like to go back and check the math in this article, but that is a coal car long enough to go around the earth 2450 times. that is how much 100 gigatons of carbon is. we could reduce two thirds of the greenhouse gas emissions or the carbon since the industrial revolution, by planting one trillion trees. it is a large planet. we have got a lot of opportunities and proactive solutions we can put in place

that increase the quality of life, increase economic viability, and make this a cleaner, suffer, healthier -- safer, healthier place. host: baltic, connecticut, mike, democrat. caller: good morning. guest: good morning. caller: one third of the country believes in lies. the lies are spoonfed to them by the father of lies. they hate black, they hate brown , indian, asian, gay, muslim, sick, elderly, disabled, and they hate all minorities, even women. just remember, "work will set you free" is the sign they put over auschwitz. host: congressman, do you want to respond? guest: we know who the father of all lies is. that is the devil. i believe jesus said the truth will set you free so that's what

you need to search for, is truth. hopefully that's what we all will strive for, whether it is dealing with the environment or dealing with all the other things that happen in congress. we really need to seek truth, and that is what will set us free. host: a pole from quinnipiac university highlighted by jennifer harp at her -- harper notes that 34% of u.s. adults believe people believing in conspiracy theories is a crisis in this country. 21% overall saying that believing in conspiracy theories is not a problem at all. 33% of republicans, 11% of democrats, 22% of independents. does that second number concern you, 1/5 of this country says it is not a problem to believe in conspiracy theories? guest: that is interesting.

a conspiracy theory obviously is not the truth, and back to the previous caller's statement and my response, we should all be seeking truth. if we are going to allow ourselves to be led astray by some conspiracy theory, and who knows where it comes from, then that is a problem. but it is upon us to speak truth , to answer those questions that are out there, and to not believe everything that you read everything that you hear. i will say that is one of the biggest problems we face in this country, is that we have blurred the lines of truth. when you take away moral absolutes and tried to have something called the moral revolution, that is the fall of mankind throughout history. they have tried to search for some authority other than god, and as long as you strive for that, you will come up short on truth and follow conspiracy

theories. it is not going to be good. host: campbells, maryland, katie, independent. you are next. caller: representative westerman, you strike me as a genuinely dedicated public servant. my question is actually just really quick about marjorie taylor greene. regardless of all the conspiracy stuff, the footage of her harassing the parkland shooting victim was really the most reprehensible behavior i've ever seen from a public servant. my question to you is just, did she specifically apologize for that in that meeting that you said you had with her? and do you think that that apology was -- you said the truth will set us free -- was that apology genuine and is it enough? guest: i don't remember her

mentioning that one specific instance. she may have. i did feel like her apology was genuine. i like to give people the benefit of the doubt. time will tell if it is genuine, and she deserves the opportunity to prove to her constituents and the country that what she says is true host: ken, dundee, florida. . caller: good morning. us as americans, we are pretty stupid and naive. we are all preoccupied with house payments, car payments, making sure the kids are in school. the thing is, when they come out with things like these things, we can never look at them, and we should never look at them, take my word. look at them and take them for what they are, because these are

big -- on us and trying to train our minds to take a certain way. you have got to always look at what is there and there is something else behind that. host: congressman, any comments? guest: again, i think it comes back to discernment and judgment and being able to read something with a critical mind, and look at it and say, that's not right. there is something wrong with this. as members of congress, we joke about this, that it has been put on the internet so many times that we have salary, all these benefits -- salary, all these benefits.

we hardly have a phone call with the constituent where someone is saying, you are getting your free health care and you get your salary for life, and people just choose to believe that when it is easy to look up the facts and know that it is not true. things like that get replicated over and over. it is like we want to hear something bad. we are intrigued by these conspiracy theories and manipulative people a lot of times are from foreign countries, from our enemies, putting these things on the internet, on social media, and it is just not good and not healthy. i would really encourage people to seek the truth and try to find more discernment in the information that you take in. host: groves town, georgia, marion, democrat. caller: thanks for taking my call. first i want to say to the congressman, if you had taken care of marjorie taylor greene,

the democrats wouldn't have had to do anything. and my family, if my son or daughter had done something wrong, i would have taken it and somebody had come to me and said , your daughter and son are doing this and that and the other, i would have taken it in controlled it -- and controlled it. i would have grounded them and done something. you guys didn't. therefore, if the parents don't take care of it, the school will have to. host: i am not marjorie's parent and don't have control over her or what she does. she was elected by her constituents in georgia, which still overwhelmingly support her. if they don't, someone will run against her in 2022 and she will have to answer to her constituents. it is not in my job description as a member of congress to start

disciplining my colleagues. and i can tell you that is going down a slippery slope. you could start looking back at things that people have said on both sides of the aisle. you could look at things that president biden said, and at the end of the day, if we are going to start attacking people for their beliefs and their speech, we are getting very close to not being what this country is about , about following the first amendment, free speech, freedom to assembly, and the freedom to worship. all of those things are bigger issues that are at stake when we start talking about these types of issues. host: just a minute or two left, joseph in carruthers, california, independent. caller: thanks for taking my call. i think the congressman is absolutely correct. we are down a slippery slope.

i don't have a political bias one way or the other, but we live in a time where we have complete political bias in the major news stations, and even c-span, which is supposed to be -- when i talked to your screener about calling to condemn marjorie taylor greene. host: just to be clear, we don't want callers to call in for something we want them to call about. we want you to call in on what you want to talk about. what screeners will occasionally do is try to keep the conversation on-topic, will ask, do you have a question about the topic, whether it is the natural resources committee or the question we are talking about? and not go everywhere with every caller: it absolutely does and that is fair enough.

once you start taking away the ability for people to have free speech in this country, it contradicts everything that we have created over the last couple or hundred years, and i think there is a push by parties in power to take away those rights, and i think that we have to be very careful. it is our constitutional right to be able to speak out loud and not be condemned for speaking in any one way, whether it is on the left or the right. what happens is we are going down a path that is very, very dangerous. host: congressman, i give you the final minute. guest: i agree with that. we all have to be strong enough in our belief that we can defend our positions and our ideas, and i think people should have to defend the statements that they put out. i came on this show to talk about what we do to make a

cleaner, safer, healthier environment. most of the time has been spent talking about a vote that was had on a fellow colleague yesterday. this distracts us from doing the work of this country and taking on the issues that desperately need to be addressed and putting my ideas up against the administration's ideas that right now are killing jobs, and i think harming the economy. we need to be having those discussions, not rehashing old news and continuing to drag ourselves through the mud on that. host: bruce westerman is the top member on the house natural resources committee. republican from arkansas's fourth district. we appreciate your time, sir. guest: thank you, john. host: up next, coming up in the next half-hour, covid-19 relief legislation. we will be joined by that conversation by marcy kaptur, democrat on the appropriations committee.

first and until then, we will give you the chance to talk about your top news story of the week. the phone lines are yours. start calling in. republicans, democrats, independents, the numbers are on your screen. we will be right back. announcer: american history tv on c-span3, exploring the people and events that tell the american story, every weekend. coming up this weekend, saturday at 8:00 p.m. eastern, on lectures in history, a look at world war ii leadership with hillsdale college and -- professor victor davis hanson, on the conversation between frank and delano roosevelt and winston churchill. sunday at 1:05 easton, officer -- author greg cantrell on his book, about the 1890's origins

of the people's party. their political goals and populism's legacy today. at 4:00 p.m. eastern on real america, we will mark the 50th anniversary of the occupational safety and health administration , with three osha films released in 1980 by the carter administration, later recalled by the reagan administration in 1981. at 8:00 p.m. eastern on the presidency, a discussion on past residential transitions and inaugurations with white house historical association historians matthew costello and colleen show gun, highlighting speeches from thomas jefferson, abraham lincoln, franklin d roosevelt, one of kennedy, and ronald reagan. exporting the american story, -- exploring the american story. watch on c-span3. announcer: the senate impeachment trial of former

president trump begins tuesday with senators deciding if the former president should be convicted on incitement of insurrection. watch live coverage of the senate impeachment trial starting tuesday at 1:00 p.m. eastern on c-span2, c-span.org, or listen live on the free c-span radio app. if you miss any of the proceedings, watch any time on demand on c-span.org/impeachment. washington journal continues. host: here is where we are on capitol hill. the house coming in at 9:00 a.m. eastern, in about 59 minutes. we will take you there for live gavel-to-gavel coverage. the senate was in all night last night. they adjourned at about 5:30 a.m. this morning after a 15 hour so-called voter rama which day considered dozens of americans to the budget resolution, eventually passing that resolution. that is the vehicle democrats

will used to move the president biden covid relief package, that $1.9 trillion package through capitol hill. that happening very early this morning. the senate now not inspected to come in until 3:00 p.m. eastern on monday. what we are asking you in this half-hour, for your top news story of the week. here is one of the stories you might consider, the first foreign policy address by president biden. he traveled to the state department yesterday. among the issues he touted were a plan to raise the number of refugees allowed into the united states to 120 5000. that is from 20,000 annually under the trump -- to 125,000. that is from 120,000 -- that is from 20,000 annually under the trump administration. here's president biden yesterday from the state department. [video clip]

pres. biden: today i'm announcing additional steps to course correct our policy and values with diplomatic leadership. defense secretary austen will be leading a global review of our forces so that our military footprint is appropriately aligned with our foreign-policy and national security priorities. it will be coordinated across all elements of our national security, with secretary austen and secretary blinken working in close cooperation. while this review is taking place, we will be stopping any planned troop results from germany. we are also stepping up our diplomacy to end the war in yemen, a war which has created humanitarian and strategic catastrophe. i have asked my middle east team to ensure our support for the united nations led initiative to poke the cease-fire, open humanitarian challenge, and

restore -- to probe the cease-fire, open human terry challenge come and restore peace talks. [end video clip] host: also knew yesterday from former president trump. president trump saying he will not testify at his upcoming impeachment trial next week. president trump's attorneys responding to the request to him to testify by blasting it as a public relations stunt, arguing that needing testimony from the former president showed the democrats "cannot prove their allegations against the 45th president of the united states. a spokeswoman for former president trump saying he had no intention of going under oath as part of the impeachment trial. the president will not testify in an unconstitutional proceeding, is what she said in the statement to usa today. we are asking you what your top story of the past week -- another busy week on capitol hill. what do you think the top story

has been? steve from north carolina, a republican. good morning. caller: my top story is your obsession with marjorie taylor greene. why are you so upset with her? what did she do to you? i'm asking you. what did she do to you? host: you are asking me specifically, steve? caller: yeah, four days in a row you have trashed this woman like she is -- i have no idea what your problem with her is. you brought it up two days ago to a guy yourself come out of the blue. host: an unprecedented move by the house to strip a member of their committee post. it was certainly a newsy event and it was the focus of house proceedings yesterday, it was the focus of a republican conference meeting two days ago. it has been in the news this week. caller: it has been in the news, sir, because of you, because of the media, who keeps talking

about this. she has apologized multiple times, and no matter what you might think, older people did vote for her. so i wish you were just leave her the hell alone, please. thank you. host: steve in north carolina. this is michael out of danville, illinois. good morning, independent. caller: good morning. just trying to get over the previous caller. wow. i would say the top story is representative greene, and i also agree with representative westerman when he said the truth will set you free. but for an informed public to make good decisions, the truth has to be presented to them. representative greene dealt with everything but the truth. the republicans have said that she apologized.

what was shown on c-span as to what she said, i never heard the words "i'm sorry," or "i apologize to the american public." i heard her make reference to "i do believe in this," or "i do believe in that," for example, the attack on 711 being real. but i am just mystified how you can say that the truth will set you free and then turn around and give support to somebody who is a representative of the people and doesn't deal with the truth. host: michael in illinois. it was yesterday where that vote was held, final vote total 230-199. 11 republicans crossing the

aisle and joining democrats in-house and voting to strip marjorie taylor greene of her committee assignments. we expect to hear more from marjorie taylor greene later this morning at 11:00 a.m. eastern. she is holding a news conference, and we will air it on c-span2, c-span.org, and the radio app. here is part of the speech marjorie taylor greene gave on the house floor yesterday, bringing up some of these conspiracy theories, saying her past comments about those conspiracy theories is something that she regrets. there is more from marjorie taylor greene. [video clip] rep. greene: burning bear -- but wants to can -- once to condemn me in the public square for words that i said and i regret a few years ago, i think we are in a real big problem, a

very big problem. what shall we do as americans? shall we stay divided like this? will we allow the media that is just as guilty as qanon of presenting truth and lies to divide us? will we allow ourselves to be addicted to hate and hating one another? i hope not because that is not the future i want for my children. it is not the future i want for any of your children. host: marjorie taylor greene on the house floor yesterday with that mask that has "free-speech speech" written on it. that is what she wore to the statement that she made on the house floor. adam is in cattle's bird, kentucky. independent. caller: it is cap let's berg -- catlettsburg.

host: i won't make that mistake again. caller: i will try to wrap this into the news of the week. working natural resources business, it is hard not to stay focused on the biden administration executive orders on climate change and that kind of stuff. so talking about westerman, i agree with his sentiment on conservation versus preservation. i think we get them confused sometimes. if i could make one statement that is important about kind of the direction of the green movement, i guess i would call it, the renewables. the people of the united states have to understand where these products come from. we have to understand that the solar panels that are developed that will be hung in people's backyards or on the interstates, 99% of those products are turned over, the manufacturer, in china.

there is a problem, in my opinion, with this notion of kind of not in my backyard people. i think the united states people become that. we want the renewable products, but we don't want to manufacture these products. so for the president to kind of go on this route of we are going to manufacture solar panels wherever in the united states, the problem is that the raw materials to make those solar panels -- those have to be mined, and whether it is the copper or the iron that goes into them, the united states it just isn't ready for that. we have a country that doesn't enjoy the mining business, and that is the business that i am in. i think in order for us to make that move toward renewables, we've got to get comfortable with mining. so just, i would like to that to congressman westerman.

host: is catlettsburg in northeast kentucky? how has the mining business in been in that corner of the state? caller: the coal mining industry is taking it in. i am a coal geologist by trade. it is definitely -- it has definitely taken a hit since natural gas prices have gone down, since fracking has been around. also with things likely clean power plant under obama and the clean water act. a lot of people don't understand what the clean water act will do . it sounds good on its face, but it will impact a lot of things. getting a lot of permits through will be impossible. it has impacted a lot. host: we appreciate the call from cap whispered, kentucky this morning.

good morning. caller: i wish i could quote your last speaker because i want to remind him this lady, ms. greene, congressman greene, she is just the bride of frankenstein. she sees just the bride of frankenstein. i remember strom thurmond -- host: what do you mean by that? caller: she is projecting her area. thurmond did. lester maddox did. they are all gone. eventually she will fade, too. so i would let her do her rhetoric and do her speech, and ignore her. i could say this about thurmond. i got to know him pretty well, and some of the things he said he did not really mean, but he had to play to his base. a lot of you know thurmond.

host: how did you get to know strom thurmond, ray? caller: i am from south carolina. i went to a black school. host: where did you meet him? caller: he came up on the campus and we talked. he told me one day, when you graduate, come see me. i graduated, went in the navy. i did not have the heart to see him because of his rhetoric. who knows what he could have done for me, what i did a lot for myself and i became what i got everything god wanted me to have. host: thanks for the call, from orangeburg, south carolina. we are asking for your top news story of the week in this segment of "the washington journal." if we were to do this segment next week, likely the top news story would be the impeachment of former president trump. it was yesterday during her weekly news conference when speaker nancy pelosi was asked about the senate impeachment

trial next week. this is what she had to say yesterday. [video clip] >> there are plenty of people who say why bother? why go through this? what do you say to that? spkr. pelosi: i appreciate that question because it seems to me the answer is self-evident. we are here to support the constitution of the united states. the world witnessed the incitement that the president caused to incite an insurrection against our government, against our capitol, against members of congress. with the use of force and violence. so for us to -- why bother? why bother? ask our founders why bother. ask those who wrote the constitution, ask abraham lincoln. ask anyone who cares about our

democracy why we are bothering. you cannot go forward until you have justice. what did we say about the preamble to the constitution? didn't we say it started out with justice? we the people of the united states, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice. you heard me say it again and again -- if you want peace, work for justice. martin luther king -- peace is not just the absence of dissension, it is the presence of justice. so we will honor the constitution by establishing justice. host: speaker nancy pelosi yesterday during her weekly news conference. time for a few more are of your cal -- time for a few more of your calls.

randy from arkansas, good morning. caller: i appreciate your work. it seems like you take a lot of heat when you open up the phone lines to america. i believe the topics of impeachment and the congress lady, ms. greene, i think they go together. i think that the narrative that has been driven in our nation concerning racism and the white supremacy, i think that is what drives democrats crazy, wanting to re-impeach the president again, along with the lady congressman from georgia. you know, we have just had a black president for two terms. and if our nation was as racist as they try to say it is, there is no way we would have voted in

a black president for two terms. host: you talk about things being tied together. two stories that very much have been tied together over the course of this past week is marjorie taylor greene and what happened yesterday on the house floor, but also that vote in the republican conference on whether to remove liz cheney from her leadership position among house republicans, or her support for impeaching president trump. this is one of the headlines on the gop, more in trump's shadow. i wonder what you think, randy -- who best represents the republican party right now? is it more liz cheney, is it more marjorie taylor greene? caller: that is a loaded question. i think ms. cheney is atypical in the establishment republican. and ms. greene is kind of the outside. she has taken a lot of hits

because of some of the statements coming out of the qanon. but, ok, the questions involving the irregularities of our election -- some of the things that happened that brought the pandemic, the virus, whether it was intentional or not, i think that gives a lot of steam to the conspiracy. host: that is randy in arkansas. this is bernie out of louisville, kentucky, a democrat. good morning. caller: good morning, john. i like this topic. this should be done on friday every week. as far as the top news story of the week. i think it has to be marjorie greene. this story is going to have a shelf life. it will last for a while, and i think it is about ready to expire. something new will come up and we will have a new story to take

its place. john: we are going to have impeachment next week, bernie. caller: that will have a big story, too. it might be the story of the week, it may be the story of the month. everything has a shelf life. this will go through and last its term. we will move onto something else. i did not know you were so powerful to make all these decisions. pretty crazy call, the first one. host: when you talk about a shelf life, do you think it was the right thing to do this week? you're calling on our line for democrats, democrats deciding to hold this vote in the house, an unprecedented vote in modern times, to remove another party's member from their committees? do you think it was the right thing to do, or do you think it was a shelf life thing that people will forget about? caller: something had to be done. there was too much talk about it. some of these things cannot be walked back. she kind of stepped in it, she

had to face the consequences, and democrats and republicans had to do something. just cut the cord because certainly people are not ignoring it. host: that is bernie out of kentucky. a couple of colors from the bluegrass state. independent, good morning. caller: good morning. it is pronounced to race -- terrace -- terese. i was living in osterville, massachusetts, and i went down to tampa bay to help out a lung cancer patient who became violent. i struck him, and i got arrested. i went to panella's county, denied legal counsel.

every jail guard took photos with their cell phones of the inmates that were in distress. i walked 11 hours back to get my stuff. when i got back to osterville, this happened in march 2017. when i got back to osterville, it is september of 2018. i got arrested again. i got locked up for almost a month and was poisoned. i got arrested again in february -- no, january of 2019 same thing, ended up in a jail cell in barnstable, shipped to cape cod hospital for almost a month, and poisoned again. host: i imagine you would have some thoughts on the idea, the public policy idea of criminal justice reform in this country. do you think we have come far enough? there was a lot of discussion in the trump administration about

efforts at criminal justice reform. do you think we need more? caller: i am not a biden supporter, i am an independent. i have always been an independent. i think what is going on -- i could care less. but my story -- i was born in craig vero beach every day. i was swimming, i was walking. when i got arrested, i have had broken bones, i weighed 100 pounds, and i could not see that well. host: i appreciate you sharing your story with us on the washington journal. we have a couple minutes left in this segment. a lot of colors are waiting, including wanda -- a lot of callers are waiting, including wanda, a republican. caller: the reason i'm calling here is i would like to see some truth on something that is said. every issue we come up with, i don't see the truth coming out. i would like to see it where we are not -- the man from

kentucky, the young fellow who gave up the energy thing. i got to congratulate him because he seems logical about a lot of these things. because biden said we are going to do the environment. the truth there is he flew that plane everywhere when he was running for office. i didn't hear anything about the environment then, i didn't hear anything on that about all the people that have lost their homes, have been taken over by power places because of eminent domain so we can take care of everybody else in the country. they have lights, they have energy. i don't hear anything coming out about that, the truth of what goes into that. this thing of we are going to do the impeachment next week, the truth is when i voted in 2016, my vote was changed. when i cast my ballot, it was voted all democrat. had i pushed the button, i would have voted for a democrat.

i hear russia, russia, russia. how were the russians involved if my vote was changed from republican to straight democrat? i don't understand that. host: you said you were able to make sure you voted correctly, though? caller: yes because when it came up, the machine tells you to recheck your ballot. when it came up, it was completely democrat. i never cast straight party because i don't always believe it -- in who is running. my husband was beside me and i said wait, i said don't cast your ballot until you check it. his came up the same way. when i called the state person, i tell you what, she was mean and she was nasty because she informed me that she herself had set these machines up. host: wanda in pennsylvania. our last call in this segment of the washington journal.

we have a half hour before the house comes in. and that 30 minutes, we will be joined by congressman marcy kaptur, democrat of ohio, top member on the appropriations committee. stick around. we will be right back. announcer: sunday night on q&a, a look at the january 6 attack on the u.s. capitol and the government response with wall street journal reporter runa vish were not the -- and max abrams. >> this is an incredibly fast-moving investigation that has already resulted in more than 150 arrests. to see the scope of this investigation in terms of hundreds of fbi agent's across the country, running down suspects literally across the country, to be able to pull all of these cases together in the three to four weeks is been since the january 6 riots, it

shows you how much they have been putting into this and running nonstop 24/7 come already more than 500 subpoenas, search warrants, and field offices across the country devoted to this investigation. >> what the government really needs to do is to prevent people from moving from the political extremist camp to tactical extremism. it needs to find a way, in order to accept people on the right, without pushing them into the far right. i am not actually sure that is the zeitgeist that the united states is going right now in the aftermath of the january 6 attack, where people seem to be getting elevated and credited. they are basically outbidding each other for increasingly extreme behaviors and responses against the right. i think we need to pay attention to that threat and not just the

threat coming from the far right it so. announcer: the federal attack on -- the attack on the u.s. capitol. sunday on q&a. announcer: washington journal continues. host: we welcome back democratic congresswoman horn marcy kaptur, a senior -- democratic congresswoman marcy kaptur. guest: good morning, john, and to your listeners. appreciate what you do. host: a new call creating a national institute of viral diseases. how would that be difficult from the other nih institutes that already look at viruses? guest: this idea was suggested by a preeminent scientist in the region that i come from. he believes that the most recent

illnesses that people are contracting -- for example, we all know about covid-19 now, but whether it is the flu, whether it is avian flu, ebola -- because of, i would say, rising population globally, what is happening is there is much more interaction between the animal kingdom and the human kingdom. i didn't realize, but he believes, that we are not set up properly to do the necessary research to handle these new viral diseases impacting millions and millions of people. obviously changing our way of life. this would be, in addition to some of the other sciences -- cancer, we do a lot of research obviously on that. kidney disease -- we have different institutes at the national institute of health, but not one that focus on -- that focuses on the biogenetic

set this cluster of illnesses. we see help hard people that we see how hard people were working on a vaccine because we did not have one. -- we see how hard people were working on a vaccine because we did not have one. host: a $1.9 trillion covid relief bill working its way through congress. any chance that that funding for a new national institute of viral diseases makes it into that very large bill? guest: i hope so. this bill is not being handled in regular order. because of what we face in trying to get anything past now, they are using a process called reconciliation. it has been difficult. we give suggestions to the leadership, and then both the house and senate leaders have been working very hard to try to reach agreement, and hopefully they will. the president is coming over here this morning to meet with top leaders in the house.

i believe he was in the senate yesterday, dealing with senate leadership, so i know they are working very hard. host: congresswoman marcy kaptur, our guest on the senior appropriations committee. the houses expected to come in at 9:00 a.m. this morning. go ahead and start calling in. republicans, it is 202-748-8001. democrats, 202-748-8000. independents, 202-748-8002. we talk about this $1.9 trillion bill being moved through senate budget reconciliation, a move without republican support. but there was a chance earlier this week, a proposal from 10 republican senators for about a $600 billion deal, that at least offered a by -- a path for bipartisanship. is that a path that democrats should have looked at more? guest: the president went to the

senate and he spent three decades in the senate and knows many of the senators. i am not quite sure everything they agreed to. it is still a work in progress. i am sure some of what they asked for is in the altered bill that will be sent over to the house from the senate. yesterday's bill includes small businesses, particularly restaurants, at a healthy level. in terms of getting them a bridge to make it through this difficult period they are facing. so i know that the republicans in the senate have had an influence on changing the bill, at least from what i have been able to gather. host: you talk about money for businesses. certainly that and unemployment a big concern for this bill. new numbers out a couple minutes ago from the balearic -- from the bureau of labor statistics. unemployment rates in january fell to 6.3%. payroll employment changed very

little. 49% plus. new weekly unemployment claims came in at 779,000, still way ahead of the pre-pandemic peak. guest: we have a lot of calls. where i come from in ohio, one of the most frequent issues that people raise when they call is help, trying to get qualified for unemployment. the state unemployment offices -- and those other ones that handle unemployment claims, or overwhelmed. they have been overwhelmed from the beginning and people are getting straight answers -- are not getting straight answers, they are having trouble filing. it is a big bureaucratic nightmare. the same is true with trying to get the vaccine. it has been very difficult. it is not necessarily our job at the federal level. the prior administration gave the job to the states, but many of the big states -- ohio is one

of those -- as hard as they tried, they could not handle the volume of people that are calling, and the systems broke down. our office got very involved across our region, at least answering the phones to relieve some of the anxiety out there. but there have been real problems that i have been pushing, for more health -- for more help to get call centers at the local levels to answer people's calls so we can get them there unemployment or get them their vaccines if a vaccine becomes more available more and more over the coming weeks. it has been frustrating for people who need to help and cannot get it. host: a lot of working class people. there is a headline in the hill recently, ohio democrats as many in her own party cannot understand working-class concerns. that is you, congresswoman. explain. guest: the part of the country i come from, which has been heavily industrial, market oriented, heavily agricultural

-- that the major industries that we have seen grow recently, whether it is in telecommunications, the semiconductor industry -- they are coastal. the financial industry. the financial industry employment, they are past manufacturing back in the 1990's. it is dramatic. the drop in manufacturing jobs just plummeted. i come from a part of the country where steel mills are closed, where the automotive sector is in stiff competition with foreign presence in the local marketplace. i could go on and on about that. but the point is that the people who come from financial centers, they don't deal with real goods, they deal virtually. and it has been difficult to get attention to the parts of the country where people actually make something for a living. a product, a product that sells in the marketplace. so we have -- the former

president still believes, and said in some of his speeches, that certain steel mills in ohio have gone back to work. fed. there is a disconnect from what you factoring cause, and now we are facing a conversion of vehicles to electric, hydrogen, other forms of power. if we don't do it right, it could hurt our part of the country more. host: have you talked to speaker pelosi, majority leader hoyer, about the disconnect, that it needs to be fixed? guest: i definitely have. host: what have they said? guest: they are very sympathetic, when you come from maryland, as the majority leader does -- he and speaker pelosi

come from the top 20 districts in the country in terms of median income. the greater washington, d.c., area, because it is the national capital, has a much higher per capita income then the region i represent. i am at the polar opposite end of the income spectrum. though they might show sympathy, they have not lived it. the speaker comes from the tech boom region of the country in northern california, and they have had a lot of job creation, wealth creation. it is very skewed in terms of who is making money and who is struggling, but the point is it is very different than when you come from the part of america where you're actually building tanks, jeeps, ford, the gm vehicles, the trucks, and all of the componentry that goes with that. making steel. if our part of the country shut down, we could not conduct war as a nation.

the economy is very different, and our part of america, when you look at what is happening to the manufacturing base, i was very thrilled that president biden put a focus on that. when he was campaigning. frankly, president trump talked about it a lot, but this is a generational problem that we have to solve so that people feel greater security in their working lives and in their personal lives. they cannot always be so at risk . it creates great political havoc across regions of the country. host: i guess for viewers who are not familiar with your district, explain where the ninth district in ohio is. we can show a map as well. guest: thank you so much. the ninth district hugs the great lakes, joins candida with the great lakes. so we are far north. my district extends from cleveland, ohio, the east of ohio, all the way west to

toledo, ohio. they lift ohio up with iowa, but we are not iowa. we have three vowels in our name, ohio and iowa. the part of ohio i represent is part of lower michigan. host: marcy kaptur will be with us until 9:00 a.m. eastern. line for democrats, good morning. caller: hi, good morning. i just wanted to make a correction, a slight correction, to point something out to you. you mentioned the animal kingdom and the human kingdom. there is not a human kingdom. bio genetics, humans are part of the animal kingdom. just wanted to point that out. guest: and sometimes we behave like that, too, don't we? host: did you have a question? caller: know, that was it, i

just wanted to point that out. thank you. host: in fort dodge, this is john, a republican. good morning. caller: good morning. i want to thank the representative for taking my question. there is a lot of talk about raising the minimum wage. my question to her is, the minimum wage is the baseline for setting an individual's ability to purchase, otherwise their purchasing power, and if you do that, if we raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, depending on where a person is drawing on social security or what their income is per hour, you are going to cut that purchasing power of those people anywhere from half to even less in some instances. say, for instance, a person is making $25 an hour.

their hourly wage is three times or 3.5 times the minimum wage. $15, that will drop down to 1.5. eventually, that is all going to come back to that 2.5 point range. so what is the benefit of doing that if we are cutting peoples social security in half, purchasing power and social security in half, that our julie -- their hourly wage. guest: the bill they are drafting right now, i am not quite sure where it is going to come up, but there is a commitment to helping people to earn more money, and therefore increase their purchasing power, not lower it. but it will not happen all at once. i don't know what the stair steps are right now. i don't think they have finalized that. i think $15 is the ultimate goal, but i come from a small business family, and in the past when the minimum wage has been

raised, they have set up certain rules like if you have under 50 employees, or under 25 employees, you do not have to meet the requirement. it will be interesting to see from those committees where they establish the baseline. but i think the objective is to help people not have to be on welfare when they are working. and to make sure people do earn a living wage in our country. i don't understand your point about why that would cause social security to be cut. i don't really understand that because if you earn more money, then you obviously would have a higher placement in social security benefits once you retire and you could get more social security, not less. the idea is to raise the standard of living for people working. host: to merrifield, virginia. this is andre, line for democrats. good morning. caller: good morning. my question has to do with gerrymandering, but i wanted to

talk earlier in terms of -- everything you mentioned, when i was a kid, all politics was local. today it seems all politics is national. you had situations where people are voting against their own self-interest locally so they can appease a whole line nationally. even the gentleman causing them -- calling for 15 bucks an hour, i cannot believe that someone could be against their fellow american. i am sure there are millions of americans in certain parts of the country who would love to get to $15 an hour, but because the party line says we don't want to do it, they are voting against their self-interest. active gerrymandering, in congress there is no accountability because folks are coming from districts and they are secure and they can do and say whatever they want to say.

i know gerrymandering has happened. my question is, how do you go about reversing it? and not to say we are putting the situation in where the democrats are in control, i don't want that. just making it more fair so that when the election time comes around, you know, people can be held accountable and do their job, if they didn't do their job, to tell the national line, or did they do specifically what happened for the community they are supposed to represent? guest: thank you for calling in. they call my district the poster child for gerrymandering. they call it the snake on the lake, and every single one of the five counties i am privileged to represent has been hacked apart and they only gave me pieces. why was that done in ohio by the republican majority in the state capital 10 years ago? why was that done? because in ohio we have 16 members of congress, and ohio is

a state that votes 50-50. we voted for president trump, we voted for barack obama. the reason they did it is because out of the 16 representatives from the house of representatives, they were able to rig it so that there are only four democrats and 12 republicans. out of 16. so it is not 50-50, it is not balanced. that was done all over the country, in more than two dozen states. people come here assured of their own opinion, and i have been in congress long enough to know i have represented republican counties, democratic counties. i know what it means to find the middle and try to get people to compromise. gerrymandering has really hurt the congress of the united states. and our ability to function. host: a couple of particular strange looking districts in the buckeye states. -- in the buckeye state. that is the fourth district and

some say it looks like a duck walking. over the course of an hour, with david wasserman, just came out with their early look at this year's reapportionment, redistricting effort. that is all on our website, c-span.org. congresswoman peters waiting for you -- caller: good morning. first of all, there is a political class in this country, motivated by arrogance, mendacity, vanity, partisan stupidity, and just plain immorality. unfortunately, while you are very pleasant spoken, you are part of that class. term limits are absolutely essential.

the democrat party slamming everything through, whether it is good or bad or whether it is into neat interest -- in the interest of the american people or not. host: congresswoman, on term limits? guest: i will tell you this, sir. i am the author of a bill that created a world war ii memorial in washington, d.c., and if you think you can accomplish something in one or two terms, or even three, that is not how it works here. it took us 17 years for something the american people wanted. i won't go through the history. there are books written about it, including one called "the last battle," by nick mills. i recommend that. that tells the truth about what happened. i was talking last night about a pension program that people in our country have worked for, and

for 30 years their benefits have been denied them. i am working to try to help get those benefits, the butch lewis act, and what is being currently considered. i don't know whether we will be successful or not. 30 years. what will happen, if you put term limits on people -- and frankly, every election we face reelection, so it is not so easy to go through those campaigns. you should follow around and see what it is like to campaign. the lobbies that are significant will have even more voice. when you don't have people who are actually knowledgeable in a given arena -- we specialize once we come to congress, and you learn more and more and more about an issue, a topical area. part of what my committee handles deals with our nuclear capabilities.

you do not learn that overnight. when we are asked to do things on behalf of the american people, i don't think you want a jr. class in here. host: 20 terms in, what is the best part of the job? guest: the best part of the job is delivering for the district, and at the district level we have a major crossing of our river, the largest river that flows into the great lakes, that had been needed for generations, and we were finally able to achieve it. we now face cleaning up lake erie, which is seriously damaged because of added rainfall and all of the runoff that comes from the adjoining lands. we are making progress on that. these are regional questions. the house of representatives puts the pieces of the puzzle together, and we have specific knowledge about huge means that face our area. in terms of the international level currently helping the

nation of ukraine access to a free europe, rather than being under russia, and this is a fight that goes on in that country. i have been a voice of liberty across europe and for the preservation, close a set of alliances, the transatlantic alliance. that has been a fight. an intellectual fight, a fight for resources, and a fight for maintaining relationships that are extremely important. and we have been under duress in different ways. i will not go into all that right now, but i would say most importantly defending liberty when she is under attack, either abroad or at home. and being able to deliver for the american people in my capacity as the chair, i have been responsibility for such things as the department -- the army corps of engineers budget. we are going to get into this issue of climate change, in order to meet these new challenges that we face,

including water systems that the army corps of engineers is involved in, talking about the ribs -- the mississippi river, lake mead, major parts of the country. we are involved in it. trying to help america meet the needs of a new day. you get satisfaction from that, but believe me, it doesn't come overnight. host: alexandria, virginia, this is johnny, an independent. good morning. caller: thank you for your time and the years of service. two things -- the first question, which is the only question -- covid relief. it seems like one of those things that the country is struggling, americans are struggling. why can't we simply put that alone in a bill where everybody, the congress can vote on it and not have it tied to tax prep -- tax breaks to other things, so we can get money out? why is that so difficult? on another note, you

mentioned the steel industry. i will make the statement that if steel were to stop, it would be hard to go to war. i want to caution that statement. it is very loaded. it runs with a lot of emotion to say that. be careful with that. as the strongest military in the world, i'm sure we could still go to war. we will find ways to protect ourselves. guest: thank you very much. as far as the bill goes, it is my understanding that the major portions of the bill have to do with covid relief. it is not just the vaccination. by the way, a third of what goes into the manufacture does not come from this country. i am very much for a componentry in this country, all the ingredients for the various vaccines, rather than importing them. my impression is that the bill is heavily oriented toward covid relief to make sure that those on the front lines see

vaccinations, and those that are over 75, there's a whole pecking order of who gets a shot first and then trying to help families that have lost their jobs, obviously trying to help health systems that have had huge changes because of covid. the majority as a bill will relate to covid relief, lifting the economy so we can recover from this more quickly. i take your criticism. i am hearing what you're saying, but what i said was true. it is important for us as a country to make sure that we have the wherewithal to meet needs that might present themselves, that we would not welcome but we cannot leave the american people at risk. that is part of my job. host: a couple of mitts before the house comes in. senator rob portman announced he

will not seek a third term. would you consider running for the senate? guest: there is another gentleman from ohio, thomas -- congressman tim brian, avidly weighing that question. i serve with him on defense and he is on the appropriations committee as well. he seems to be very interested in running, and i have said that my support would obviously lend to him. so right now i chair a committee that i have talked about this morning. i think it has taken a very long time to get that gavel, and i know quite a bit about the jurisdiction, so i have been talking to congressman ryan about his interest. i don't think he has formally announced, but i am leaning that way. guest: time -- host: time for one or two calls before the house comes in. rex, a democrat, good morning. caller: good morning.

i just wanted to thank president obama for saving our jobs. i work for a tire company, and he put a tariff on the chinese that saved our jobs. i want to thank you and chair brown for the work that you have done in ohio. i am 66 years old, retired, but i am upset that jim jordan, what he has done to this country, for lying for president trump -- i am ashamed to live in the strictest -- in this district with jim jordan. thank you. guest: one of the most important things the american people can do -- there was a lot of conjecture about electoral votes and so forth when we had the insurrection here at the capitol and our officers lost their lives, and dozens were injured. i won't go into all of that because it is an american tragedy that did not need to happen. but i say to the american

people, get involved locally with your board of elections. when elections come up, sign up to work. you will get paid and you will see how you will be trained in how to count the votes. in ohio, the gentleman that just called in, at every precinct we have two republicans, two democrats, and a judge. they count the votes together. if there is any disagreement, it goes up to the judge. if they disagree, it goes to the board of elections itself. people cannot be divorced from the political process. they have to get involved. and whatever party you are in, you're helping your local community. you can get involved in helping to count the vote. there are mail-in ballots happening more and more full stuff you can be there at the board of elections, you can open those ballots. if there are computers, you can get involved in electing the technologies and so forth. so let the american people know -- they are not powerless in this. they can participate. host: congresswoman, we always

enjoy having you on, but we have to leave it there because the house is getting rid to gavel in. marcy kaptur, senior member on the appropriations committee. now we take viewers live to the house floor for gavel-to-gavel coverage. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2021] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] ses is expressly prohibited by the u.s. house of representatives.] search the house will be in order of the the chair lays before the house a communication from the speaker. the clerk: the speaker's rooms, washington, d.c. february 5, 2021. i hereby appoint the honorable henry cuellar to act as speaker pro tempore on this day. signed, nancy pelosi, speaker of the house of representatives. the speaker pro tempore: the prayer will be offered by chaplain kibben. chaplain kibben: would you pray with me. sovereign