legal status of undocumented farmworkers. on c-span2 at 10:00 a.m., the senate resumes work on the nomination of javier becerra to be health and human services secretary. members voted noon and then they take up marty walsh's nomination to be labor secretary. on c-span3 at 10:00 a.m. the senate health committee hears from dr. fauci on the federal pandemic response. at 2:00 p.m. charles rettig has a hearing on the 2021 tax filing season. on c-span.org, at 2:00 p.m. a house subcommittee hears from the federal director of prisons on the federal night -- on the covid-19 response in federal prisons. coming up in an hour, tim ryan en covid relief and capital security. at 8:30 a.m., beth van duyne on

covid relief and immigration. at 9:00 a.m., washington correspondent nicholas florko on the biden administration's covid-19 response and vaccine rollout. ♪ host: good morning, it is thursday, march 18. an asian-american community which has been experience in incident hate attacks was shot i the string of attacks around atlanta that killed eight people. while investigators are working to determine the motive of the shooter, president biden and the members of congress spoke out about the rise in anti-asian attacks during the pandemic. that is where we will begin on " washington journal." give us your thoughts on phone line split this way. if you are in the eastern or central time zone, 202-748-8000.

mountain or pacific time zones, 202-748-8001. and a special line for asian americans and pacific islanders, 202-748-8002. you can also send us a text. that number, 202-748-8003. if you do, include your name and where you are from. otherwise catch up on social media and -- on twitter and facebook. a very good thursday morning to you, you can start calling in now. there are some of the headlines stemming from the late tuesday shooting in and around atlanta. this is the front page of "usa today." "horrific georgia hearings titan fear of hate," although it notes that investigators are not calling it a hate crime. the atlanta journal with this headline "in washington calls for increase for gun control and hate crime laws."

it was president biden that spoke out about the issue from the white house yesterday. here's what the president had to say. [video clip] >> i am concerned, because i have been speaking about this for the last couple of months. i think it is very troubling, and while there may be no connection on the motivation of the killer, we will get an answer from that as the investigation proceeds from the f pi and from the just -- from the fbi and the justice department. so, i will have more to say when the investigation is complete. [end video clip] host: down to capitol hill, this is judy chu the chair of the congressional asian-american pacific caucus said that it was clear that asian-american women were targeted during the attacks. [video clip] >> six of the eight victims were asian-american women.

it appears that the shooter, aged 21, a white male went to a spa called young's asian massage. the fact that he went to that one with that title gives you a clue as to what he was thinking. this is one of the more violent tragedies in a string of about 3800 hate incidents and crimes against asian americans. 68% of them, women. it is clear that the individuals were targeted because they are amongst the most vulnerable in our country. immigrant, asian women. the community has been living in fear of verbal and physical attacks and now, we are experiencing increasingly deadly tragedies of racism and violence. we call on georgia officials to ensure that the families are well supported and our followers to support local

efforts that provide community protection and victim support. we express our deepest condolences to the friends and families of these victims. the aapi community tells us that they have been living in a steady state of tension this entire pandemic. yesterday's crimes are beyond terrifying, and it just brings home to so many asian americans that they are fearful of their lives and circumstances where as they would otherwise feel safe in their homes and jobs. and, not only that they are risking infection while going to work in places like a spot and nail salon, and now they are risking increased violence. [end video clip] host: democrat judy chu of california. also from california, from the other side of the aisle, a

republican sent out this video on twitter. [video clip] >> we are still waiting to hear more details of what happens and the motivations behind the shooting. however, the shooting comes at a time when hate crimes against the asian-american pacific islander community are on the rise. i am rallying with the aapi community today and always. let me be clear, they hate we have seen against the asian american communities is unacceptable and must stop. no group in our country is responsible for covid-19. asian americans are americans, and are contributing to communities across the nation every day. while my colleagues and i introduce a resolution in the house to condemn these crimes, we cannot legislate hate out of our hearts and minds. this has been a hard year for everyone, but the only way that we will get through this

pandemic is by working together, not tearing each other apart. i hope we can come together as a country in the coming months and years as we work to safely reopen our communities. this is congresswoman juncker in -- young kim. my heart breaks to hear about the recent events and i am praying for the victims as well as their loved ones. [end video clip] host: plenty more twitter reactions including the speaker of the house nancy pelosi. "all americans are praying for the victims of the shootings in georgia and we are grieving with their families and loved ones. the shootings are a vicious and vile act. the compound fear and pain that asian-americans fear -- feel every day." "it is about racism and misogyny and it shows how demonization fuels acts of violence. we saw this after 9/11 also.

we can win the 21st century without rep. clyde:'s it -- replicating paradigms of division and hate." marco rubio saying "the increase in violence is vile and un-american." michelle steel saying "this is senseless and tragic. hate crimes against asian americans must stop. i am praying for their families and the asian pacific islander community today." some reactions highlighting this issue. getting your thoughts this morning. regional lines. eastern or central time zones, 202-748-8000. mountain or pacific time zones, 202-748-8001. and then that special line for asian-american and pacific islanders, 202-748-8002. with that your thoughts this morning. james from new york. good morning. caller: good morning. my thoughts and prayers are with

my asian brothers and sisters. i am a 74-year-old black man, vietnam veteran. history does not always repeat itself, but a lot of times it rhymes. what is going on right now is the racism in this country, and it is screaming, not just donald trump his followers. the republican people that are talking this crazy stuff, and here we are still fighting for voting rights. let me just say this to my country, to my brothers and sisters in this country whether you like it or not. it is all about racism, it is all about the change in the population from the majority

getting ready to go to the minority. that is the whole thing in a nutshell. host: that is james in new york. this is bob in pittsburgh. caller: good morning, the last weekend a woman was talking about asian racism and i had never heard it and i went on youtube, and chinatown in california, basically, 85% of the vicious attacks are by black people. the 15% that is left over, the confrontations are usually name-calling. host: where'd you go on youtube for these stats? caller: go on youtube? host: where, youtube is pretty big? caller: just put in asian attacks or something. it is all over there. so, anybody who thought this was crazy, they showed them on tv and the ones i would see are all vicious attacks. host: this is harold out of

topeka, kansas. you are next. caller: a lot of people have hatred and that is terrible, but bml -- blm has gone back to something, slavery, something a long time ago. i am not upset. some people are. i, personally had my uncle who i am named after burned alive by the japanese in world war ii. i could feel terrible, i do not, but some people hold long-term grudges just like blm. host: bring us to america in 2021 in a time of pandemic and a time where a rise in asian-american attacks and attacks on them have been documented by multiple organizations. where are we today? caller: a terrible place. i think that people on their own

accord have decided to attack asian americans. i do not think it is because of anything one man said like the narrative suggests. it was all you know who's faults, i do not believe that. i believe people are doing it of their own accord. the example i gave was just an example of my own. blm does their thing from a long time ago and other people have their hatred of people from a long time ago. host: that is harold in kansas. one of those groups documenting the rise in attacks on asian americans in this country, the group stop aapi hate out of san francisco state university. russell, a history professor they running that group. there sites -- there stats have been cited in a number of reports but this is the report that they put out. covering 3795 incidents and the reporting center from march of last year to february 28 of this

year. the number of incidents reported to the center, they say "only a fraction of the number that incur including 68% of the incidents reported verbal harassments, 11% physical assault, civil rights violations and others. asian-american women reported hate incidents 2.3 times more than men." from the group stop aapi hate. another study released this month by the center for the study of hate and extremism out of california state university, san bernardino, revealed that hate crimes targeting asians rose 150% in the year 2020 going from 49 to 142. they note a country of 300 30 million people, the asian-american community close to 20 million. jim, grand forks, north dakota.

you are next. caller: hello. i am heading off to work in 15 minutes but i had to call again, because we are beginning to lose the narrative. bob is right, it is interesting that the dutch the way you began to grill him like where did you find it? you can go to any -- host: youtube is a big place. caller: i used to go to things like: clarity, the journalist -- like collin, the journalist that used to post attacks by blacks to different groups for years. he has been banned. the narrative -- let us go back to trump. somehow words, the china flu triggers people and they wise up and they go after asians. well, what about the german measles? do they go after german people. host: would you agree with scott, the washington times who says that there is a narrative that is trying to be pushed, the

attacks are taking place in cities, not historically known as bastions of conservativism much last hate fueled trumpism. the report that we noted the stop aapi hate noted that the states where these attacks are mostly occurring, the top two states, california and new york from their reported attacks and says that the left sees the rise in attacks as an opportunity to reframe mr. trump's stance on the chinese communist party as being anti-chinese or anti-american in this country. caller: well, i grew up in philadelphia suburbs before i went west and i had a lot of vietnamese friends and a girlfriend for eight years and i know about the hatred that asian immigrants experience when they arise -- arrive especially asian immigrants that were darker at the hands of blacks. there was a spike of attacks where the black kids were

beating and putting in the hospital almost 30 asian kids in one day. the parents, who were not very political, they pulled their kids out and boycotted and finally they had to come up with an orientation thing and i wonder what that was. that is from philadelphia to l.a., the tension between blacks and asians. if you go back to the l.a. riots, the malaysians -- the militias formed where the koreans fighting back the blacks. that is not social economic, but the hatred turned on them because of the jealousy blacks have own age -- for asians and their success. host: that is jim. to tim, and alabama, you are next -- in alabama, you are next. caller: i hear all of these racist white people get on your show and talk about black people and their hate for asians. i am a black man. black people have no hate for

the asians. if you look at the history of what is going on today with the asians. these attacks are not by black people. they are by white males, and if you look at the history of slavery, it was by white people. look at the history with the american indians, it was by white people. so, these racist white people are the biggest racists that have taken place in this country today and that is all i have to say, thank you. host: leon from delaware. good morning. caller: thank you. and it seems like all of the intelligent people are up early. i take exception with my friend from new york that called the shooter a trump supporter. how does he know that? just like kamala harris yesterday came out and

immediately goes to the race card. that has got to stop. you cannot just change the narrative to fit what you want to put on the air. let us get this time to play out. the guy's own word said that he had a sex addiction problem. he did not say anything about hating asians. thank you. host: you mentioned kamala harris. this was her remarks yesterday. [video clip] >> it is tragic. our country, the president, and all of us grieve for all of this loss. our prayers are extended to the families of those who have been killed. and it speaks to a larger issue which is the issue of violence in our country, and what we must do to never tolerate it and to always speak out against it. the investigation is ongoing and we do not knit -- do not yet know and we are unclear about the motive, but i want to say to

our asian-american community that we stand with you and understand how this has frightened, shocked, and outraged all people, but knowing the increasing level of hate crimes against our asian-american brothers and sisters, we also want to speak out in solidarity with them and acknowledge that number of us should -- none of us should be silent in the face of hate. host: the vice president speaking as the vice president. a scary story out of washington d.c.. cnbc with the headline "man wanted by police arrested near the residence of the vice president with gun and ammo found in car. a texas man wanted by police stopped by secret service and arrested near the residence of the vice president in d.c.. police say that they found rifle ammunition in the car was parked some distance away in a garage downtown. paul murray of san antonio was stopped just afternoon in the northwest section of washington

on massachusetts avenue outside of the naval observatory, which contains the vice president's residence." this is how we split the lines, if we are in the -- if you are in the eastern or central time zones, 202-748-8000. mountain or pacific time zones, 202-748-8001. a special line for asian americans, 202-748-8002. omar out of brooklyn, good morning. caller: good morning. i just -- i have been wanting to call for a while about economic stuff, what i wanted to call in specific to speak for -- to the black americans and i want to point out how the united states is going to react to asian attacks and whatnot. i want you to pay attention to how the biden administration has skipped over the promises that

they gave that they wanted us to vote for the democratic party in the election. they are going to skip over that and focus on asian americans, which i have no problem with, but i want to point out that my grandfather as a black american, he was an asian american, but the fact that they are going to skip over all of the promises that they made for black americans. i am not worried about asian americans, nobody is worried about them, but they will skip over us. and they will get to everybody else. host: this week, why would you say nobody is worried about them? caller: i am saying it because i do not -- like black people are trying to just assault asian americans. this country was not african-american. this country was white.

this is the america that happens every time. nobody cares about black lives matter, that is not the point. the point is that this white kid went there and killed x amount of people and it happened that the majority were asians. host: eight people, six of them asian women and concern on capitol hill could propel a new anti-hate crime bill, that is the headline from "usa today." congress is set to debate the issue this week, and today a house panel will hold a hearing addressing the rise in anti-asian hate and discrimination. its first on the issue since 1987. the story noting "there will be testimony from advocates including congresswoman judy chu." you saw her earlier, the head of the congressional asian pacific american off it -- conference.

that happening at noon on capitol hill. the senate is in at 10:00 a.m. and another busy day on capitol hill as congress tries to finish its work before breaking for the easter and passover recess. tracy, eagle point, oregon. you are next. caller: hello, thank you for taking my call. i am worried about the uptake -- uptick in the violence against asian americans, but i have a feeling it is because this new administration is not really dealing with the issue of china and everybody knows that biden is a buddy of china, and so i think, because of this administration's lack of clarity on the subject, it is causing a

lot of people to live in fear, to live in anger, and -- and we are taking it out on one another, and it is not just this issue, there are a lot of issues where that is happening. host: what should the president and vice president be saying? what would you want to hear from them? caller: i want to hear that they are coming down hard on china for what happened. i mean, they basically declared war on the world because we were finally rising up, and doing so well, and they wanted to see that all wiped away and not just the u.s., but everywhere, everywhere was starting to kind of pick up and move up. and they made sure that everybody went down but them.

and, that is just wrong no matter how you look at it. i, myself worry. even though i am white, and of course everybody hates white people now. so that is a worry. but when i was younger, i did some work at the v.a. because i used to go down there because my kids' stepdad worked there, and one of the first things when i walked in there, and i am really white. but i do have brown eyes, and the very first thing they said is you have wonky eyes. and they fought enough in the war to recognize that. i am adopted, i have no idea what nationality i am. host: tracy in oregon this morning. one headline from "the washington post," asian

americans fear that the conflict in china will steer a weight -- a racist backlash. asian american leaders are acknowledging the need to have a count -- a tougher strategy against the influence campaign, but the question is how the federal government and elected officials speak publicly about that challenge and how far they will go to counter it. david is that of l.a., good morning. caller: good morning. for starters, i would like to say to you that i was intimately involved with the 1999 -- 1991 and 1992 uprising. i was one who was part of the justice committee. and, i would like to say upfront that the justice committee was not a committee set up against

the korean people. but, against the the one who murdered latosha hollis. for correction for the clown who said as he was recounting the events during the uprising where you had koreans up on the building. host: james from north dakota's? caller: yes, shooting down at black people. he needs to get the footage to see who was actually involved. black people were not in that vicinity, ok. so, let us make it perfectly clear that i, as one who was intimately involved with the suffering of latosha hollins' family, that did not translate into hating a whole group of asians were specifically koreans.

this is something that, as you had your white audience call in, they reveal themselves as to this collective bigotry in group lumping that seems to be some kind of weird psychic psychological defect and, -- in caucasian people in the united states. so, i would like to say, as -- if you would permit me in conclusion -- host: do you think all caucasian people? caller: i think, for example, when i was doing work with -- trying to build the black-korean alliance and get understanding and further so-called newly arrived koreans, we would question where do they get their understanding of black people? right?

and dam near to a person, they would say through media. right? from information and propaganda that is propagated against the character of black people by white people. and so -- some of them do. and so they come over here with the notion that has been formed by caucasian people about black people. host: that is david out of l.a. this is robert out of massachusetts. good morning. caller: the first thing that we must do is pass a voting rights bill. if that bill does not get past, we will be doomed as a nation. i remember when i grew up in the 50's and 60's, we had black americans, we fought for civil rights and voting rights and we

died for that. everybody else enjoyed the rights but us and that is remarkable. everybody. all we had where the ashes. black people had 20% of all of the jobs because we were being discriminated with at work. they got rid of that bill. lbj got more rights than us. everybody got more rights than us and we died for that. and another thing, misses harris, vice -- mrs.host: that e legislation getting another look this week as there are concerns about the rise in anti-asian attacks but has increased in the

wake of tuesday. senator blumenthal with the no hate act. legislation to improve reporting and expand assistance for victims of hate crimes. that is one that has been talked about on capitol hill. another one is senator mazie hirono's bill, that specifically looking at the rise in crimes in asian americans and pacific islanders. it would assign a point person at the department of justice to run point on covid-19 related justice. to respond specifically to those kind of hate crimes. this is mark out of dearborn, michigan. caller: what a pleasure to be on your show. i would like to talk. i would like to talk about the

dig -- the 1967 detroit riots. when the national guard was pulled in. i was drafted for vietnam. i have seen this racism firsthand. dearborn had the longest term mayor, mayor hubbard. when i saw the color of the guy in the hole next to me, it did not matter. he was my brother. i cannot take this baloney that is being passed in the senate when they are trying to pass a bill to protect women that all they could do is talk about the migration that trump started and biden inherited. what is wrong with these people. they still don't wear masks. i'm just totally frustrated at all of the lying, and the ignorance.

ignorant people are ignorant because they know nothing. intelligent people are intelligent because they know they know nothing. listen and learn. host: you talk about the issue of immigration. that was front and center on capitol hill yesterday and will be today when the house debates two immigration bills. it was yesterday that homeland security secretary testified for the first time before the health committee. he was asked by a congressman about the immigration policies specifically when it comes to covid testing of migrants at the southern border. >> just tell us, i have several questions. are we testing them before or after the process? you said they are being tested. >> we most certainly do. there are four ways that we

accomplish other testing. >> i am reclaiming my time. i think american people are witnessing a question dodged. illegal immigrants are being released at the -- they are either not being tested or tested positive. i have another simple question. do you believe that the policies initiated by president biden since his inauguration have impacted the issues on the southern border and increased illegal crossing? do you believe the cartels were putting it -- paying attention all last year when then candidate biden was messaging and provide some kind of path towards amnesty or citizenship?

process the illegal crossings in a manner that was more conducive to their reception in the united states? he mentions that again and again. you think they heard that? do you think they had to do with what we are dealing with right now? >> i share a background with the ranking member. >> my goodness gracious, i'm not going to get a yes or no out of you. i will submit my questions in writing because you are not here to answer our questions. you are here to repeat narratives that have been prepared by staff and attorneys. i don't appreciate you dodging these questions. i will yield my time and submit my questions in writing to the secretary. i will expect them to be answered. if they are not, we will make some noise. i yield. host: homeland security secretary ella hundred mayorkas

on capitol hill. speaking of biden administration officials, another confirmed yesterday, president biden's u.s. trade representative confirmed by a 98-0 vote in the senate. well known in washington as a lawyer for the office of u.s. trade. she is the first asian-american and first woman of color to be appointed to that job. the only cabinet nominee to get a unanimous, -- confirmation vote from the senate. that is in the wall street journal today. if you go to the opinion pages of the wall street journal, mitch mcconnell, the senate with his own piece today that we spent the first hour talking about yesterday. the idea of possibly getting rid of the filibuster in the senate.

he writes in that piece that democrats killed the filibuster by a 50-50 vote. the pendulum would swing both ways and it would swing hard. the opinion page of "the wall street journal." caller: good morning. i wanted to call to confirm and agree with the guy from dearborn, michigan. i believe his name is mark. i agree with him. we have too much ignorance in america. when you hear somebody say something you know is incorrect, you don't even try to correct them. you should have someone to correct people who speak things they don't have correct. it is just a shame. host: a lot of times callers

will correct him one after the other after we create this forum . people who are doing what you're talking about right now. responding to previous callers. caller: i think he should have somebody on there every day. this happens on a daily basis. people call in and say things that are totally ridiculous. you all should be the main source of correcting these people. it makes us as americans look so bad. we don't know very much. the guy from dearborn, michigan said it very correctly a few minutes ago about the ignorance in our country. it is terrible. do you know how that makes us look as americans? they say anything. they say anything.

it makes us look like we are a lying country. that is the truth. i'm very disappointed. host: that is tina in alexandria. this is ben. caller: i've been watching c-span for over 20 years. the senate has got -- the average person does not have the information that they have. c-span, i love you guys but you are a part of it. you became part of it. all through the election, especially in september and october former president trump was going around telling people to vote twice. host: bring it to this question we are talking about today.

the rise in anti-asian attacks during the pandemic. and issue members on capitol hill were talking about yesterday in the news this week after what happens down in georgia. are you seeing that in chester, pennsylvania? caller: from the senate, it is repeated and repeated. the president's is telling people to vote twice. i never heard any of you say that. i heard over and over telling people to go out and vote. host: who is doing a good job? caller: the person that gathers all the information is doing a good job.

we all are being influenced. host: that is ben in pennsylvania. caller: good morning, thank you for taking my call. i want you guys all the time. to kinda go back as far as what happened in atlanta, i lived in atlanta for 20 years. it kind of hit home from me because i did live there. elena being a melting pot everyone kind of goes there. the assault kind of hit home for me. being from atlanta, everyone grows and thrives there. to me with all of the hatred and bigotry that trump and some republicans do spew, he kind of helped fuel that. i put that to him and blame it to him.

i was there during the march of 1987. the civil rights march. i marched with gary hart, the former mayor, to be there and go through the hate and violence and different things we saw there. to see how atlanta changed and hopefully the rest of the country changes and seeing what we could be. to know we must overcome the bigotry and hatred. basically beast impunity -- the stupidity some people have. we need to go back to where we were. just overcome this. that is all i have to say. thank you for your program for hearing me. host: alan in dallas, oregon, you are next. are you with us? caller: yes, i am.

host: go ahead. caller: i don't how many people realize the american people are very prejudiced against all nationalities. asians also. i served in korea during vietnam. i was very shocked to hear how many black people were prejudice against them knowing that they had suffered, blacks being prejudiced against. i don't understand why people don't realize we are all human beings and we all deserve to respect each other. that is all i have to say. host: that is alan. one of the leading voices in capitol hill yesterday, judy chu , the head of the asian pacific american caucus talking to reporters yesterday. here is more from the california democrat. >> the congressional

asian-pacific caucus that i chair calls for solidarity against hate. these are the actions we are taking. because of president biden we have met with the department of justice and we are determining action against api hate. we called for a hearing in the judiciary committee's against and about these crimes. that hearing will take place tomorrow morning. we are calling for the passage of the no hate act that would finally bring resources to local law enforcement so they could improve their hate crime programs. finally, we are calling for a national day to speak out against api hate, that is march 26. we know that if we stand together we could feed this

hate. it is only if we support one another that this could end. host: that hearing taking place today. we are actually going to be sending c-span viewers there at 10:00 a.m. directly after this program. it is the house judiciary subcommittee on civil rights and civil liberties. stick around after our program today. judy chu will be testifying at that program and others. that happening at 10:00 a.m. eastern, the house not in until noon. stick with us on c-span all morning and all day long. caller: i'm not going to act like pavlov's dog. we used to have open phones. now people can't veer away from these topics.

i want to say i know about the shooting and everything. i don't call in that much. we need a speed span -- c-span4 so we could talk about center-right issues. you guys are turning into pbs and npr. you only serviced half the country. the only deal with things that could make the republicans in a bad light. that is what we talk about. host: appreciate the feedback. what we try to do, the reason we give topics it is so people can respond. we do still have open phones. we ask people for their top public policy issue. we do that every day. let people call in. you are welcome to do it during that time. right now we are talking about the rise in anti-asian attacks during the pandemic. tony is in arlington, virginia. your next. caller: thanks for taking my

call. any type of anti-ethnic group or race is wrong. one of the reasons coders is the guy from one of the dakotas. it is an example of how this works. he is trying to pick asians against black people or vice versa. it is the same old, same old. it is tired and he doesn't know what he is talking about. first of all both asian businesses are in black communities. if there was that much violence going on, why would they set up shop in black communities? black people are the ones who support those asian communities more. i'm pretty sure that guy from

north dakota doesn't shop at asian stores. that settles that. host: a few comments from our text messaging service this morning. this from stephen. this isn't about the biden administration, this isn't about china. this isn't about asian americans being targeted. stop changing the narrative and stick to the problems here. this from deb in columbia, missouri. the attacks in georgia were attacks against human trafficking. democrats seem to politicize everything to fit their narrative. said it was not racial. the viewer talking about the reporting of atlanta on what the shooter said to police. investigations still ongoing to determine whether it could be considered a hate crime.

that investigation continuing. we will bring you more as that continues. it opens up the conversation. the rise in anti-asian attacks in this country. especially during the pandemic. tracy, you are next. caller: thank you for taking my call. i have been watching c-span since i was in college. that was about 30 years ago. the morning journal has always been something i have been a part of in checking out for a long time. thank you for allowing all of us to come and have this open forum. host: do you call in much? caller: not really, what i have

come to realize is i'm really wondering where the narrow focus and the topics, where they are coming from. i just feel like it should be a little bit more broad. there's so much going on in our nation and our world. host: happy for the feedback. there is a group of about 10 of us, 12 of us who work on this program. we are watching news coverage every day. watching what is happening on capitol hill. we come up with these first our questions. it is a question that sometimes we change the morning of. if it is an obvious question, there is no science to it. what are people talking about?

what does america want to talk about? we want to create a forum to do that. we also recognize that people have their own topics they want to talk about. what is your top public policy issue. we did it yesterday. i believe the day before that on this program. it gives you the chance to bring up the topics you want. with issues, the president and vice president, we thought this would be a topic that americans were talking about today. that's why we created the forum, is that helpful? caller: that really is helpful. i appreciate that. i have been watching for years, as i said. host: i saw him this morning. it was about 5:45 a.m. when i saw him. [laughter] he's probably watching, he knows. caller: i appreciate that.

i hope that when you are in that conversation, the 10 or 12 of you, i hope it is a diverse forum and the voices could be heard. that is a question that i have that i really appreciate your explanation and overview on that. host: could i ask you a question? what do you think would be a good question today? caller: i think the rise in anti-asian attacks during the pandemic is a great question. it is so poignant. the other thing i just wanted to mention. i'm sorry if this is a little bit off topic. what i see a lot too is that i see a lot of conservatives calling in on different lines.

maybe they will call in on an independent line. i'm hearing all of this like i wish it was a little more equal. host: i could help you on this. the best we could do is trust callers are being truthful and call in on the line that best fits them. we rotate through our phone lines as folks call in. sometimes perhaps a republican hasn't called and so we have two democrats in a row. we rotate through the lines to create that diversity of voices. caller: i think that is really important. host: we do the best we can and trust our callers. we have this community here. we trust our callers to do it every day.

the vast majority of callers are on topic and i'm sorry if you get frustrated by those who don't. we do have a whole lot of trust in our callers. caller: i really appreciate that as well. to the topic, i just want to say that this is awful what is going on, the anti-asian attacks that have been going in building. that we have seen right here in oakland. in terms of what happened in atlanta, i just feel that this perpetrator who did this could say it is not racial. it is. it is absolutely racial. when six asian women die because of this, that is racial. host: we will head across the country to the finger lakes in

new york, this is linda, good morning. caller: i hope you give me half the time you gave that last caller. i'm really saddened by what happened. you've got all these racists calling in this morning, we are all stupid. there were states that had more than two senators people thought yesterday. to me, that is stupid. host: i think are a member the call, you mentioned that she mentioned three states and said they had six senators. caller: we have more congresspeople. host: he was saying the total sum of senators for three states was six. i think you and him agree. caller: ok.

i didn't hear such a fit from you guys when antifa beat up that gay asian guy because he was trying to film what they were doing. this gets so out of hand. it is so disgusting, the crab i have heard this morning. since you guys have been doing this, it is getting out of hand. host: what we are trying to do is create a forum where people could talk openly about the issues that are happening. that is what we do every day. we will go to mark in

massachusetts. caller: such great patience and composure. i will bring you back to the scope. there is a ton of asian hate in america. trump has been stoking the fears. these trump supporters need an enemy. this guy has been screaming china virus. he was screaming obama was a kenyan, a muslim. these people have short-term memories. they remember these falsities i guess. i would like to hear what mitch mcconnell has to say.

his wife if i believe is an asian american. host: as "washington times," the stop asian hate campaign sounds like a movement that spoke sphere -- stokes fear, each incidents should be investigated on a case-by-case basis. the media should report it that way with unsupported charges of racism. we can address discriminatory attacks on buying into identity or he -- identity politics. caller: that is complete ballyhoo. denial isn't just a river in egypt.

i've never in the past four or five years hurt -- heard such nonsense. i'm from the north, i'm from massachusetts, i'm proud of that. we built america. when i got out of college i moved to new orleans. i lived in the city but i worked all throughout the south. we are talking the past year. the only thing trump wanted to support was the confederate names of basis. caller: first of all, i feel absolutely horrible for all of those lives lost. just senseless and total tragedy.

i'm from los angeles. i was in the riots. i'm 50 years old. i remember the riots very well. kamala harris coming out and using the white supremacy card is atrocious. i think if you were to listen to the police talking at the press conference, the guy was using those massage parlors -- we all know what happens in those massage parlors. host: we will let the investigation continue and see what charges,. our last caller in this first segment.

stick around, two more hours to go. we will be joined by democratic congressman and one of the top members of the appropriations committee, tim ryan of ohio. peter we will be joined by bethann dime of texas. stick around, we will be right back. >> american history tv on c-span three exploring the people and events that tell the american story every weekend. coming up saturday at 6:00 p.m. eastern on the civil war a discussion on the arrival of john philip sheridan. sunday at 4:00 p.m. eastern on real america. the 1987 film crossing borders, at 6:00 p.m. eastern on american artifacts, re-creation of events

on the assassination attempt on ronald reagan. on "the presidency", the offer on what jefferson read and obama tweeted, exploring the american story. watch american history tv this weekend on c-span3. >> listen to c-span podcast, the weekly. senior we search -- research fellow on the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill. >> my big problem is this is a massive bill with the amount and content completely disconnected. >> finds c-span's the weekly

where you get your podcasts. >> "washington journal" continues. host: ohio democratic congressman tim ryan joins us. congressman, when you come on you always give us the view from youngstown, ohio. president biden is currently on a tour selling the american rescue plan. if you makes it to youngstown, what should he say? guest: this is the most comprehensive and bold investment into workers and families in probably 40 years. it is not just be $1400 check, also the child tax credit that will lift half of the kids in the united states out of poverty. that is a significant investment. i would also mention the 40,000 teamsters in ohio who will get their pension made whole.

that is a significant for them. we had a lot of teamsters who were about ready to have their pension cut in half. because of the action of president biden and the democrats, they will now have a full pension. we will work our way over to the investments in the communities. cities like youngstown, farmers and, these iconic cities in the united states will finally get a shot in the arm to try to plug themselves into the global economy. making sure people could pay their rent and utility bills. this has been a comprehensive and bold investment in the working people of this country. host: too much spending on too many non-covid priorities? guest: welcome back from the

witness protection program when it comes to the national debt and deficits. didn't hear a peep when there was a two pointer trillion dollar tax cut. not one of them said anything about debt or deficits. when you spend it on people who are ready to lose their home and cars, they are concerned about debt and deficit. this needed to be done. the republican party is in a circular firing squad. we insulated themselves from the political debate. they are trying to go on and pick culture wars over the economic needs of the american people. they are voting no. when everyone gets the $1400 check, they will know

republicans had nothing to do with it. when the communities get tens of millions of dollars to rebuild, the american people will know the republicans had nothing to do with it. when those who have been scrapping to get their pensions made whole so they could take care of their families and get the money that they earned over the course of the 30 or 40 year career, they will know the republican party has absolutely nothing to do with it. they could continue to do what they are doing. there will be a huge political price to pay. host: congressman tim ryan with us until the bottom of the hour. he's always happy to chat with you. (202) 748-8000 for democrats. (202) 748-8001 for republicans. (202) 748-8002 for independents. what changes are going to be

made to ensure something like the attacks on capitol hill never happen again? guest: we will harden the capital. the windows that got broken for example, the house office buildings, it will be a harder capital. we are going to increase the size of the capitol police force by at least 1000 new officers. we will have a rapid response force that will be made up of military folks that will be able to respond similar to if there is a threat against the white house. all of a sudden the fighter jets get called out and they start going around the capital area. we will have the similar response. and we will have to figure out some level of fencing that we could either rapidly deploy if there is an issue to keep people out. really it continues to push the perimeter of the capital out -- capitol out, with police and

plainclothes folks. we want school groups to be able to come here. i think lastly and almost most importantly is creating a robust intelligence force here with the capitol police that could plug in and interface with the fbi, homeland security, local police here and across the country so that the threats are being identified very early. so they could be acted upon. we could make sure we could go out and get the bad guys. host: fencing at the capital becoming more and more of an issue. there is the shot from this morning right here of the fencing. we will show the video from one of your colleagues from colorado talking about fencing on capitol hill. >> i'm lauren boebert, imam,

small business owner, defender of freedom. you protect what you love. president trump built a big, beautiful wall because he loved america. he wanted to secure our country and protect us from drugs, illegal aliens pouring into our communities, and sex traffickers. democrats fought him every step of the way. now, welcome to fort pelosi. democrats have their own heavily guarded razor wire wall. they don't want to protect you because they don't care about you. they will spare no expense protecting themselves. >> we will not build a wall. >> there will not be another foot of wall constructed in my administration. >> it is time to cut the crap and remember, this is the people's house. madame speaker, tear down this

wall. host: congressman ryan, your thoughts on that video? guest: what do you say about that? that is somebody putting a video together that is trying to raise money from her base. blame nancy pelosi, talk about the wall, scare people. the american people want us to act on their behalf. they want us to make sure they are taken care of. that was clearly just playing politics. that particular member of congress was and has been supportive of the people who storm the capital. that is why the fence is up. now she is saying tear the fence down. that is great for you on the

side of the insurrectionists who storm the capital. for everybody else who feels unsafe including the staffers and the hundreds of people that were here who now have post-traumatic stress because a bunch of people were in their office, basically saying they want to hang the vice president and kill nancy pelosi. we have to have some level of protection. we are going to make sure there is adequate protection. i don't think playing politics with the security of the capit ol trying to look like you are real tough and democrats somehow hate americans. the bottom line is if democrats hate american people so much why

did we just send that check? why did we make sure did we make sure half the kids that live in poverty could come out of poverty? why did we make sure that older white teamsters who lost their pension made sure they are made whole? we are trying to deal with a complicated situation at the border, localization, automation. this is complicated stuff. it is nice to put a little video together. she has been in congress 60 days. this stuff is complicated. you could demagogue all you want. right now there are two clear paths happening in the united states. one is a new and focus democratic party that has focused on the health retirement

needs of the american people. there is a republican party that is led by that new member of congress who are wanting to have fights and talk about culture wars and scare the american people. i think they are on the path of wiley coyote. they are going over the cliff. they will hang there for about two seconds and collapse. they will come with an infrastructure bill now. will put a bunch of building construction people to work. we will rebuild the united states. we will put a bunch of small businesses back to work to help us rebuild the country. we have invested in the local community so they could clean up, build infrastructure, put out broadband to the global economy. we are putting out money to schools so they could do the same thing.

there are two paths. the american people are resonating with what the democrats are doing. host: plenty of colors for you. lawrence up first. -- plenty of callers. caller: my name is lawrence, i am retired military. one of the things i see with this country, first of all, we don't trust each other. we have no trust whether we are democrat, republican, black, white. the only time we come together is when we have a crisis. i served in vietnam and we had a crisis then. some commanders only wanted black troops or white troops. they didn't trust the asian

soldiers that were in their country. -- company. we have always had this problem. i always said here i am fighting in vietnam and at the same time george wallace was standing in the door of the university of alabama and he was not letting black students attend. host: thanks for sharing your experience. congressman ryan? guest: joe's hud difficulty history of this country has been around issues of race. we have a long way to go. when you look at the issues around public health vaccines anywhere near the levels that they needed to. the failure of our public health system. the pregnant african-american

women, the high level of complexity that they have during pregnancy. these are huge. an african-american baby born in youngstown has a higher mortality rate than a baby born in iran. these are structural issues around criminal justice, health, that we have an obligation to try to fix. we all take a step back. we are in significant competition with difficult country -- different countries in the globe. we have to jumpstart our economy , reverse climate change, increased manufacturing. we have a long way to go here in the united states to fix our health care system. we cannot do it divided. we can't do it by making videos about democrats hate you and

want to build a wall. i think the leadership we are seeing now from a president biden is a real focus. we will focus on what is important. we will try to persevere through a lot of the political noise and start delivering for the american people. whether they are white, black, brown, gay, straight. we will try to take care of people. leadership starts with the top and president biden will provide that kind of leadership. this is complicated stuff. we will only rebuild the middle class. if we focus on those issues and work together. that is the leadership we are getting now from the president. caller: thank you for taking my call. i'm not technically a republican, i am an independent.

host: call in on the proper phone line, it is the only way this program works. if we start doing it that way it will not work. i will go to the independent line, joseph also in florida. caller: good morning. host: go ahead. caller: good morning representative, thank you for your service. i have a couple of questions, quickly. first of all, i want to make reference to the mueller report, which i jokingly say the former administration was fairly successful in making the word mueller into a four letter word period -- four letter word. something people couldn't talk about. has anyone in congress seen the entire, unredacted mueller report? if not, when will it be

available? will it be made public? guest: i don't have a good answer. i would assume the people on the intelligence committee have seen the full report. i'm not certain of that. i have not. i have seen the read acted copy of it. we have to make sure everything was done properly. we have to focus back on the economic needs of the american people. that is where my focus is now. host: marlene, a democrat, good morning. caller: i'm totally for everything the biden administration is doing. i keep hearing about this $3600 tax break for parents with

children to help keep them from starving. i heard the other day that you will start giving out checks to families from july to december in the total of that amount depending on the children. i was told you could opt out of it. if you get those monthly checks, when they come next year, you will lose money like they did with obama with the $800 credit. when people want to do their taxes, they lost money. they didn't get the lump sum they wanted. is that what is going to happen with these families, they take this money? are they going to lose it next year when they do their taxes? guest: that is to be determined. my understanding as of right now

is that the department of treasury is trying to figure out exactly if there will be a lump sum or monthly payments made to those families. that is yet to be determined. we want to make sure -- we want to make this child tax credit permanent. it is expensive. once the economy turns around, we want to make sure we are rewarding people who go to work, play by the rules, do everything right. that is an important american value that we have here in the united states. the details are to be determined. the way the program is processed. the fact of the matter is we want to continue this program. we want to make this child tax credit permanent.

we want to live the children -- lift the children out of poverty, that is significant for us. the treasury department figures out how they will process it. caller: i have a question about the teamsters, the pension liability. i don't understand why that was part of the stimulus plan. it seems to me that it was to get votes because it was related to the unions. i think you are ignoring 70 million trumpers. guest: i don't know what the numbers are but probably 50% or 60% of the teamsters in the

country probably voted for donald trump. we are addressing this particular pension issue. i know this is hard to believe for some people. it is the right thing to do. government needs to do the right thing on behalf of people who are suffering. that is our damn job. we are finally getting on track. i will not apologize for one second. i represented a rust belt district for almost 20 years. the number one issue in my community are pension and pension reform. making sure people have a pension. if we did not do this, we could've potentially collapsed the pension benefit guaranty corporation, which ensures that every american gets a pension even if their company goes belly up. we could've collapsed that whole system and made millions of american pensions to collapse.

what a calamity that would be for the american people. the company that was caught up in the restructuring of general motors. there are delphi salary people who lost their pension. they had their pensions significantly reduced. these are not union people. these are white-collar people. we are going to bat to try to fix their pension as well. it takes a long time. nobody asks who do they vote for? we are the kind of country that says you can't be for pension reform, teamsters because they didn't vote for you. i don't think that is the kind of country you want to live in. i want to get the numbers. maybe 50, maybe 60, maybe more

rank and file teamsters voted for trump. now they will know who delivered for them. donald trump did not deliver for them. it was the democrats. they are now going to have a secure retirement. i think it is so unfair for someone in this country to work 40 years. i don't care if you are union or nonunion. i don't give a damn. for you to work 40 years and not get a pension is criminal. that is one of the most important moral issues facing our country today. for people to work hard, play by the rules, do everything right. these teamsters negotiated contracts every three, 4, 5 years. they say to their employer look, we will take a 2% or 3% raise. we will settle for that. we want you to take a percent or two. we want you to put it away for us.

we will defer it for our retirement. i missing baseball games, i'm missing time with my family because i'm working my rear end off. i am not a burden. after 40 years of doing that i am ready to retire. all of a sudden the money is not there. the fact of the matter is the person will not get their retirement. there are hundreds of thousands of these people. there's not a moral issue that i have not learned about. that person deserves their pension. republicans could cry. to not be a part of the solution. now there are hundreds of

thousands of families in this country. they will get their full pension. they will go back to other employers. delphi salary full -- folks, will it happen overnight? no. we will continue to make sure these people who did everything right are going to have a secure retirement. host: you mentioned in the 20 years you represented your district, any issue -- any interest in representing your entire state in the senate? guest: we are looking at it closely. another decisive voice on behalf of the working-class people. i care very deeply about the people that i represent. it is very interesting.

no announcements this morning. host: when do you think you will have a yes or no on that. guest: probably in the next few weeks, i would think. we are in the middle of all of the securing of the capital. i want to make sure i am that. we have the supplemental coming up to take care of those issues. in the coming weeks i want to make sure i'm focused on getting this job done here. host: you're welcome to make any sort of announcement here whenever you do. jerry is next out of portland, ohio. caller: good morning. i love you all, this is a great country. mr. ryan, you said it is the right and moral thing to do to sign executive order to put thousands and thousands of

people out of work. that doesn't seem possible to me. the other thing is where we going to spend this $1.9 trillion? why don't we get all the children out of poverty. not just half of them, what is the right and moral thing to do their? why don't we get all of the children out of poverty? guest: i am all for that. i think a country as big and powerful as ours, we need to make a commitment to get all the kids out of poverty. you could pay for a lot of that by making sure that the billionaires in this country pay a fair share. i'm not here to be antibusiness. we have to develop a new way of governing in this country through private partnerships were we work in conjunction with

the business community to grow the economy. i think you are absolutely right. i think it is criminal. a moral issue that there are so many kids in the united states who don't have access to quality health care, the digital divide we have seen in both urban and rural school districts over the last year. how significantly that impacts people. i think these are all moral issues. we have to stop the fighting. we have to make -- read the stop making people all riled up about whatever. we can't say it is the black -- we have got to come together. i don't hate republicans. i want to work with them.

it is important in this country that we have two strong, mindful, imaginative political parties that can argue and debate and hopefully the end product is better, because the democrats are moving too much one way and the republicans are moving too much the other way. the opportunity for us to come together around solutions that we all can agree on, we can't even agree on the problems. if you think about it, trying to say, there is a pension crisis in this country, a retirement crisis, and the republicans are saying, you are just trying to buy votes. go talk to the teamsters who will have their pension cut in half. they want act -- they want someone to act on their behalf. we need to come together and heal. there is nobody better than joe biden. i invite all of our republican friends to enjoy not -- to join us to rebuild infrastructure and

modernize our infrastructure -- education system. that is where we at. i hope we can. these are important issues. i don't care too much about party affiliation. let's identify the problems and be american and come up with creative solutions to fix those problems. sometimes it is the government and sometimes it is the private sector. who is best to fix it? you cannot have that discussion if one political party is mia like the republicans. host: we do always appreciate your time. guest: always great to be with you. host: tim ryan, democrat of ohio. we will be joined by a freshman republican congresswoman. we will turn our attention to the biden administration's covid response and vaccine rollout. we will be right back. ♪

>> book tv on c-span two has top-notch fiction books and authors every weekend. saturday at 6:55 p.m., "unmasked: inside antifa's radical plan to destroy democracy." actor and health care advocate michael j fox talks about his life with arkansas disease -- parkinson's disease. sunday night at 9:00 p.m. eastern on afterwords, rosa brooks tells of her experiences in policing as an armed police officer in washington, d.c., called "tangled up in blue." she is interviewed by the houston chief police. watch books tv this weekend on c-span two.

>> listen to c-span's podcast. senior research fellow of the merck cato center on the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill and how it impacts the united states' already growing federal debt. >> my big problem is that this is a massive bill which amounts and -- are totally connected -- disconnected with needs brought on by this pandemic. >> c-span's "weekly," where you get your podcasts. "washington journal" continues. host: beth van dyne is a republican from texas, elected last fall to the 24th district in texas. what did you do before this job? why did you want this job? guest: i appreciate the

question, appreciate being here. i lived in irving, texas, and was on the city council for six years, mayor of the city of irving for six years, and went to work in the trump administration under secretary carson at hud, which was a tremendous experience. why did i want this job? i have kids and have worked in our community for decades. seeing what is happening in the country, we need more people who have backbones with a vision and are willing to dedicate their time to working for the community. seeing some of the radical programs coming down the pipe the last few months, we need people who understand how to work with local officials who listen to their constituents in the workforce and understand what is going on with private businesses. more people who are willing to spend their time working for their community and country. host: 22 months from now, what

do you need to have gotten done to consider your term successful? guest: listening to my constituents, having business doors, talking to moms, having our schools reopened, and reopening the economy. the effect the pandemic has had across the country specifically on single working moms trying to get kids back in school, and opening our businesses back up. as great as some of these programs we have had, ppp for small businesses, what i hear overwhelmingly is people want to get back to work and have more control over their destiny. right now, we are seeing that not happening, but 22 months is too long. i would love to see this in our rearview mirror. host: you are one of nine republicans in the house who won in a district that the district voted for joe biden for president. what does that say about your district? what does that say about how you

will represent the 24th district? guest: as you've seen across the country, you look at our senate split 50 flask -- 50/50. you look at how tight the race was for president and you see we are a divided nation. my district is no less than that . you have people on both sides fighting and unfortunately, what we've done is lost track that probably we agree on almost 80% of things. those are things to focus on. i was mayor, so both mayor and city council in the city of irving, texas, you don't have a letter next to your name. you do the hard work, very pragmatic, not based on party policies. it is what the people want. we fought for meat and potato issues, public safety, worked closely with police officers and fire departments, talked about having positive business environments so people are able

to get and keep jobs and be successful. you look at roads, transportation, those are things that i think everyday americans want, are willing to fight for, and they want to see elected officials focus on, and not some of the political favor we have seen. host: congresswoman beth van duyne with us for the next -- until the top of the hour. democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. "texas members of congress demand lawsuit over border crisis." explain this. guest: we have explained that our attorney general in texas look at ways of being able to protect our state from folks coming in illegally over our borders. the biden administration is not doing that.

during his candidacy, biden talked about having open borders. we are seeing that right now, people coming in from mexico and other places that quite honestly, when you pass our borders illegally, you are committing a crime. what we are seeing on top of that is under title 42, we are in the middle of a pandemic. we don't want people coming in with covid-19 and we are seeing that happening. under the trump administration, when title 42 was put in, it basically said we will not import covid. we are seeing this administration ignore that the biden administration has completely manufactured this crisis, but they are saying at the border, the pandemic is not an issue. we can import covid 19 without fear of reprisal, but the rest of the country we will continue shutting down and keeping kids out of school. but we are trying to do from a texas delegation perspective is just urge our state, our

president is not taking advantage of being able to keep our borders under control, is every method, every tool possible to us using. under that title, it allows us an opportunity to enforce our laws while not increasing the pandemic risk. host: at noon today, the house coming in, two bills, the american dream and promise asked and the farm workforce modernization act, looking at pathways to citizenship for certain illegal immigrants in this country. will you be supporting either? guest: i will not be. it is talking to the constituents i represent, getting their feedback on it. we are in the middle of a crisis, and i know the biden administration does not want to call it that we are playing semantics. when we have 4000 to 5000 people rushing our border on a daily basis, people coming into our

neighborhood, drug cartels coming over, folks who are human trafficking, using women and children as victims and sex trafficking as well. these are coming into our country. we have an administration who has invited the men. we are going to figure out ways of giving you stimulus checks, health care coverage. at the same time, we are not able to protect the people in our country now. so yeah, we definitely are looking at ways of being able to allow folks who need to be here, who have gotten in line, who are doing it legally, but what we are seeing with these bills is taking people who have committed a crime, putting them at the top-of-the-line to be able to get in line for citizenship or for legal status in front of everybody who has done it the correct way. we create laws, we enforce laws, until we don't. that is what you are seeing under the biden administration is they are completely ignoring the laws and letting people jump

in front. you are seeing people who are employees as well as employers saying, this is not right. in my district and my state, that is the overwhelming opinion. host: talking about yesterday on the house floor votes on the equal rights amendment and the violence against women act. guest: the way that they state them is usually a misnomer. equal rights sounds great, except for the fact that we are ready have those amendments in place. me giving extra status was something that would hurt women, so i voted against it because it increases the ability for folks to be able to sue but decreased women's rights. there was not an equal women's rights. to fun things like planned parenthood and give more money for abortions, when you listen to your constituents, you do not

need to do these things. it is an opportunity for more lawsuits and will cost women the ability to have those kinds of equal relationships we have been living for the last 40 years under the current amendment that we have. there was no reason to do it other than a left talking point. host: and the violence against women act? guest: that was a tough one. what we need to focus on for women is funding police. i was mayor for six years. i was on the city council for six years. i saw the amazing work police officers did in our communities defending women. these types of acts where we are defending police best defunding police on one hand and talking about increasing our debt on the other, it is not helpful. host: plenty of calls. rob in independence, missouri, democrat. guest: good morning. caller: good morning, everybody. i don't know you, congresswoman,

but during this last weather disaster and i republican led state, i had to find a pizza hut to send to my niece and her two children because they had no food. i hope the people of texas remember what a disaster the state is under the republicans. by the way, all of your talking points are straight from right-wing fox news, and i call them one america nazi news network. host: congresswoman? guest: you are mentioning the storm we had in texas a few weeks ago. i was in the middle of it. i lost my heat and electricity for almost three days and had pipes burst as well. part of the problem is we are not focused on our energy needs. we are one of the fastest growing states in the country and are not focused on the increased population we've got. instead of looking at ways to provide consistent and reliable power, we are looking at

diversifying power sources that are not dependable, that are not reliable, especially when we've got some of those storms that are coming through. that's what we found. wind power was not working, solar power was not working in the middle of a storm. we have moved resources away from looking at sources that are reliable, that would have been able to provide power, and we have moved those resources over to renewables. it was a cluster that we experienced in that state. i was right in the middle of it. moving forward, we need to look forward, are there next-generation nuclear sources that we would be able to provide clean energy? still looking at the liability, but also looking at cost. especially when you think about the pandemic and what it has cost working families of the last year, the cost some of these sources is busy kilis lehigh.

-- ridiculously high. people are stuck being able to pay for their heat or food. in texas, how we will handle that, communications have to be better. i have worked with our mayors and county commissioners to figure out how best to do that. ercot and the board retiring was a good thing moving forward and getting people who live and understand the state is important. also, making sure we are exploring new energy sources that are reliable and affordable , and that will actually provide a type of baseload support under the most stringent of circumstances. host: anthony, independent, new jersey. caller: thanks for taking my call. c-span, you are the best thing out there, not perfect, but better than the other stuff. for the congressperson, i have a statement and a suggestion and i have a question.

i am going to make it quick. my statement is, yes, i'm very concerned about people coming in with covid. we are not testing these people. we are supposed to be going with the science, and we know that covid is coming in. we should be quarantining these people. my ancestors came in, went to ellis island, were quarantined, disease-free and were put into the community. now we are putting them on a bus to a community near you. i am not -- i was a registered democrat but now i am an independent because i cannot deal with allies anymore. let me use a democratic statement -- but will die. host: congresswoman? guest: your point was well taken. we are importing this disease and this virus, and it is a shame we are doing that. you are making a statement

basically what is happening at the border. i am getting ready to go down there in two weeks with the number of folks from texas who want to see firsthand. i've already made a number of trips. it is frightening. they have got kids being packed and stacked in unsafe conditions. they don't have access to food, don't have access to showers. exactly right, we are busing them to other areas around the country. in dallas, they are getting ready to receive 3000 of these unaccompanied 15 to 17-year-olds on average, illegal immigrants into our communities. we have no way of being able to say what happens after 90 days when they've been there. we saw some under the last administration, saw some good policy points. for example, immigrants are trying to claim amnesty. do it and the first safe country you are in. it prevents before she is at the

border that we cannot handle -- prevents the pushes at the border that we cannot handle. the biden administration has reversed on that and now people are rushing our border. we have no ability to house them, feed them, clothe them, so we are taking them and not even testing them -- and that is the scary part -- people are coming in and not being tested. if we leave the country and come back in, we have to be tested and quarantine, but people coming in on the border, because it is a crisis, they have no clue what to do with them. it is forcing people to be bused to other areas of the country. host: houston -- berkshire, texas, tiny, and republican. caller: good morning, congresswoman. thank you very much. i agree with everything you just said. i called earlier to speak to the man that was on about their

retirement plan. but i'm not going to go there. they are using money, sending the stimulus checks to everyone. i am on a fixed income. i can barely pay my bills. i don't get enough to pay my bills, but yet they can allow, open the border and want to be available to harbor illegal immigrants. they shut down this nation, but yet you can open the door. they ran on covid, covid, covid. it was nothing but a topic point -- talking point. the republic -- democratic party does not care about the united states. guest: i don't know if there was a question, but i appreciate your comments. yes, you're right. we have run on covid, covid, covid, but it seems we are

talking on both sides of our mouths. at the border, they are not dealing with the covid issue and enforcing title 42. the rest of the country, they are keeping our schools closed. we are not opening the economy, talking about further mandates. we need to open the economy. people are starving now. they are having to make the choice between paying their mortgage, paying their insurance, paying for gas, and through no fault of their own. this was a government that came in and shut them down. i talked to folks in my district. it is heartbreaking. when you talk to small business owners who have put in everything they've had into the small businesses, that were successful until a year ago, and now people they've employed, their own families are out of work and they've got nothing to look forward to. people do not want to continue receiving checks from the government. they want to be able to be

successful, be able to succeed on their own, be independent. that is what we are hearing over and over again, and as long as we continue this crisis throughout the country -- and i'm talking about the pandemic -- we are opening up the borders. they cannot have it both ways. a lot of americans just like you are in those positions and understand it, don't appreciate it, and want the folks representing them to fight for them. i've often said, i don't represent washington, d.c. and texas 24. i represent texas 24 and washington, d.c., which means getting out of this fortress that we have here with all these national guardsmen and these wires and barbed wire fences, getting out of this, and going and talk to people in our district. you will find that most of them agree 100% with what you are saying. we have to focus on american people, making sure they are getting back to work, kids are

getting back to school, and not get off with a political fear that has ruining -- is ruining this country. host: george in ridgewood, democrat. guest: good morning. caller: thank you, c-span. i enjoy watching your show and you get both sides of the story. i appreciate that when i was calling about, the border was something that was created from the trump administration. and if you think that we can just take in and one week and three weeks and turn everything around, i don't know where you are coming from. it took trump four years to demolish, ok, to set back our country years and years and years. he thinks we are back into the 1940's. you have to go with what is really in the country.

you have to be able to adjust, and you can't be saying the same thing over and over and over. both parties have got to come together. one party can't set there and set one thing and say, i am sticking with the side and i don't care what they say. that is all there is going to be. the other side does the same thing. why is it the people, when they get on, if they are republican, they can't say anything got about a democrat? and if they are democrat, they can't say anything good about a republican? we all got things in us that are good. host: that is george in ohio. guest: i agree with everything you said. it should not be about party politics. when i was mayor, it was not about being an r or dk, it was about doing what was good. it was focused on what we needed

to do to make our constituents have a better life, have a higher quality of life, have a safer life, those of the things we are focused on. i appreciate your sentiment. what we have seen since took office a short time ago, we are not having a lot of debates, not having both teams at the table. we are seeing those brought down to us narrowing any opportunity to debate them before they get past. all of us have been elected. we represent different constituencies. we have to have those voices at the table to have better policy. your question about the border and whether this was created by the trump administration, i would say we did not have this crisis in the last year because it did take four years to reverse a lot of the negative policies put in place under the obama administration. having worked with immigrations and customs enforcement as the mayor, when i found was the partnerships to support the

federal government and working with local law enforcement and state law enforcement agencies made our streets safer. we had a partnership with ice at the time where folks that were committing crimes in our area were arrested and they could not prove that they were citizens. we called ice who came and interviewed them and if they were here illegally, they were deported. our city's crime rate plummeted. we had the lowest crime rate in our city for nine years. those programs under obama were cut back drastically. what we saw under the trump administration were ways of being able to listen to the subject matter experts on the border, listen to customs and border control, going out to find where you need a physical barrier. those things were helping. those were working. the specifics will prove it.

it wasn't until the biden administration came in and opened up the borders, said they were going to open up the borders, that you saw this sudden onslaught. this was not a trump created problem. this was specifically under the biden administration that we are seeing this. they are having to ask fema for their help and where to house people. this is a created crisis, didn't have to happen. the last administration worked hard to make sure what was happening when trump got into office stopped, but what we are seeing right now is this massive onslaught of people because of the priorities that this administration is putting through, which is working on folks who want to come here illegally and letting them in, and ignoring the needs of the american people. host: that caller was frustrated because neither side can get anything nice about the other side. it's -- is there anything nice

you can say about your democratic colleagues? guest: i've worked with democrats in the past that i've had great relationships with, but it is a matter of having these conversations. what we've seen is those bills are not being discussed for they are coming out we are seeing them for the first time days before we are supposed to vote on them, not having debates. we are not able to talk about the pros and cons, which create great policy. our presented of policy, we are not seeing that. i have worked with democrats in the past when i was running as a candidate for mayor and congress, i sent i want to work with adults in the room who are pragmatists, that want to figure out the best policy that could be long-term sustainable. i would love to have an opportunity to do that. when i was first elected, i worked with some of my freshman colleagues on a letter to president biden about we want to work with you on the economy, on

national security. we haven't seen any kind of compromises made. we haven't seen any kind of opportunities to even be at the table while this legislation is being set. it is a shame. i am still willing to do that, able to do that, wanting to do that, and we would have better policies, stronger policies that were less divisive from our country if we had those conversations. host: scott has been waiting in port huron, michigan, a republican, good morning. caller: good morning. i would just like to say, we have sold thousands and thousands of hotels and motels across this country. we should be able to put these people up and help them out, and another thing, since we are going to do all this wonderful infrastructure, make them citizens, give them a social security number and have them start paying.

that is the problem, too much red tape. make them a citizen, speed up the process. who cares where the people came from? it is what america is all about. host: got the question. the comment? guest: as far as hotels, somebody has to pay for them. the hotels are not public entities, they are private -- found in the private sector, to be able to make residents. somebody has to pay for those and what we are seeing is the ability of democrats to shut down the throat of -- shove down the throat trillions of dollars of debt that will be on my back, your back, our children's back, that we will have to pay for. we talk about ways of letting people come into this country, we absolutely need to do that, and we are not suggesting that we not allow people to emigrate here and get citizenship. we are saying follow the law. we have these laws in place.

other countries have these laws in place for a reason. you want to know who is in your community. people committing crimes, you want to know who they are, and when people come over the are. when you have people coming over the border illegally, you have no way to do that. find out what allows them to keep your cities safe. when we are focused on nothing more than talking points and on, you know, leftist extreme wish list, we are not doing what we need to do for the people. i will continue talking to our law enforcement agents, customs and border patrol, the people that live in our cities and find out what they are wanting. what we are fighting is they are struggling. our focus should be on them. we are absolutely for illegal immigration but we need to do so in a safe manner, where we are not bringing viruses into our country, not bringing human traffickers into our country, people who are smuggling drugs, drug cartels hurting our

neighborhoods. we have laws in place to do that. we just have to enforce them. host: richard has been waiting for about 10 minutes to chat with you. can you make a quick? caller: i want to first say i am a political cynic. if i could ask more questions, it would be about fusion, since texas had this energy challenge they were dealing with. what does the fencing -- the fencing around the white house, is it a broader symbol? as mayor, how many people did she move out of poverty? host: i will give the congresswoman a chance in the final minute and have. guest: you have a ton of questions. as mayor, we worked on bringing in businesses that could employ people. we had our fastest growing

population increase during the time i was mayor. we were bringing groups and from all over the world. we did take people out of poverty. over 40,000 people became employed in that time, $3 billion of private investment in our city. those are things that are pragmatic, that don't put your city in debt, but help everybody. those are the policies that we should be looking at countrywide, but we are not. as far as your comment about what is going on at the capitol, from a group that says walls are old and they don't help and we shouldn't be looking at them because they divide us, they need to come to the capitol and see these walls. see the national guardsmen standing out there with rifles. it is a completely different world. people who have not been to d.c. the last several months wouldn't recognize it. walls don't work. why do we have them here?

i agree with you. it is not living in the real world. i cannot wait to get back home. we need to work on safety issues. this is not it. we have wasted a billion dollars on the national guard here but we have seen cities across the country on fire, where we are not enforcing our laws, defunding our police officers. day and night difference. this is a complete overreaction we are also downplaying what is happening in cities across the country by not enforcement our laws, and honestly just not respecting ourselves, not respecting our neighbors, not respecting our officials who are in place to provide safety at their own risk. we need to come together as a country, stop with the political theater, and work on policies that will make a difference. i have offered to do that, i have done it before, and i will continue to reach across the aisle and work with my

colleagues will be adults in the room, focused on the things that will help people, but also recognize we have to be held accountable. increasing our debt by trillions of dollars by not enforcing our laws by not allowing businesses to open by keeping kids out of schools is hurting us, not just in the short term but in the long term. i appreciate the opportunity to be here. i will continue fighting for what i think is best, listening to my constituents. host: the 24th district of texas, a freshman republican. appreciate your time. guest: thank you. host: next, we turn our attention to the biden administration's covid-19 response and vaccination rollout david that conversation with nick of stat news. >> cohost of the history chicks

podcast, talk about the origins and growing popularity over the years, covering women in u.s. history. >> women and girls are hungry for role models. we keep hearing representation is important even that is so true. the amount of emails and messages we get from very young girls and/or their mothers saying how either the subject we cover or just the fact that they hear two women speaking in that format, how it has affected them. >> women have typically been the woman behind the man. what we get to do here is we get to talk about the men behind the woman but focus on her life, tell the story from her point of view. the fact that we get to do that,

we hope it inspires people to do the same, and we know it does. >> sunday at 8:00 eastern on q&a. you can also listen as a podcast. >> 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 buy these television companies who provide c-span2 viewers as a public service. >> washington journal continues. host: the focus on the biden administration's covid-19 response with nicholas florko. several members of the biden administration covid response team were on capitol hill yesterday, will be back today.

what did we learn yesterday, where are we expecting the toughest drilling today when they come back? guest: yesterday's hearing provided lawmakers the first opportunity for government officials to question the biden team after the president's recent primetime speech where he promised the u.s. could get back to some level of normalcy by july 4, where he unveiled his new federal directive for states to open vaccines to all americans by may 1. the unanswered question in all of this, even if vaccines are open to all lawmakers, when will people be able to make appointments? as we know, even though a limited number of people are available to get vaccines, they have struggled to get appointments, and that has led to frustration. there are lots of concerns about when that will actually happen, when people can get a vaccine. rochelle walensky was asked

about this in the hearing, and she frankly refused to answer. her response was well the u.s. believes it will have enough supply to vaccinate all americans by the end of may, it is hard to predict when we will have people actually getting there vaccines. host: that hearing yesterday on capitol hill. today, 10:00, airing on c-span3. rochelle walensky will be testifying there along with anthony fauci. you can also watch on c-span.org , listen on the free c-span radio app in just about one hour from now. also expecting to hear from president biden today, on the state of vaccinations in this country. check c-span listings for that. what have you heard about the biden comments today? guest: not much has come out about what the speech will be about. what we do know is that the vaccine pace is looking up.

yesterday, lawmakers on both sides were really praising the progress made by the biden team. i was struck by remarks from billy long, a republican from missouri. he thanked the witnesses and said basically my phone lines have settled down, people can access the vaccine more than a month ago. as of today, 22% of the population has received one dose, and 12% is fully vaccinated. the average number administered per day is right now over 2 million, which is pretty impressive, given the fact that the biden team promised roughly one million per day across the first 100 days. that was their goal. they more than surpassed it. with all of these new announcement that the administration is making, they are giving folks indications that they believe most people will be vaccinated by the summer, so things are starting to look up. i would expect the remarkable piggyback on that. host: on the arrival of new

vaccines to help meet this may 1 goal, what have we learned about the astrazeneca vaccine that has faced questions overseas, concerns overseas? guest: a number of european countries have stopped using the vaccine temporarily in recent days over concerns about potential side effects related to blood clots. the european medicine agency, essentially their fda, believes the benefits of the vaccine do still outweigh the risk. they and outside experts have said so far there is no causal link between the rare number of blood clots and the vaccine. that being said, a number of countries are still halting use of the vaccine, so the european medicine agency is holding a meeting today to discuss this topic. i should say, as of right now, this doesn't have a bearing on the u.s. astrazeneca is doing a separate trial on their drug in the u.s. that should be wrapping soon.

they will ask the fda for regulatory authorization to launch vaccine here. whatever europe decides, so far, will not have any bearing on what we are doing. host: if you watched yesterday's hearing with dr. fauci and had thoughts, planning to watch today's hearing and have questions, start calling in. nicholas florko is our guest, the washington correspondent for stat news. phone lines for viewers to call in, as usual, in this segment, regional lines. eastern or central time zone, (202) 748-8000. mountain or pacific time zones, (202) 748-8001. as folks are calling in, i want to give them a flavor of yesterday's hearing. dr. anthony found she testifying before the house energy and commerce committee oversight subcommittee, facing questions

about the vaccine timeline, specifically when it comes to children and those under 18. [video clip] >> the question on the tops of parents mines around the country is not of the vaccines available are available for adolescents under 16. when do you anticipate younger teenagers and children will be vaccinated? does the lack of an inoculation affect our ability to contain the pandemic? can parents have confidence sending their kids back to school knowing they are not being vaccinated? >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. as a matter of fact, there are studies going on right now both for high school age children as well as for elementary aged children. the way these tests are now designed, to give safety and comparable immunogenicity. we don't have to prove in an efficacy trial that they work,

we just have to show that it is safe and induces a comparable immune response that we know correlate with protection. for high school students, it looks like they will be available to get vaccinated in the beginning of the fall, likely for the fall term. with regard to children, we are doing an age de-escalation study in elementary school children from 12 to 9, 9 to 6, and 6 to 2 years. we think we will have enough data available to be able to vaccinate these children by 2022. host: help to put some of that in plain english for us. guest: right now, drug companies are studying these vaccines in young adults and in children. these are abbreviated studies. as viewers might remember, when we were doing these initial

studies, we needed to reboot -- prove efficacy of these vaccines. now these are basically abbreviated trials to figure out, is the vaccine safe for younger people, does it produce an immune response, and what is the optimum dose. that is why this can go so much quicker. after that, we should have data on whether kids can be vaccinated. host: dolores is calling from buffalo, new york. you are on with nick blago -- florko with stat news. caller: good morning. i had my johnson & johnson shot on thursday. i had some aches but nothing else. i am so happy that biden is doing such a wonderful job. it has not been 100 days. we need to give him the opportunity to do what he said he would do. i am very proud of him and happy

that i got the vaccine. i think the american people just need to calm down and relax, we will get through this. it's been four years of -- but we need to come together and relax and work with this administration. everything will be ok. i feel very good about that. host: this is carol out of tulsa, oklahoma. good morning. caller: good morning, i am from boca raton, florida originally, but i moved here not long ago because of my daughter and her family living here. my little dog and i have come here. but i will go home to florida when i die, be buried in the national cemetery. i had my shot yesterday. it didn't even hurt. i feel fine today. i didn't feel anything today, i

don't feel anything today. host: thanks for sharing your story. nic florko, on those stories, this issue that has come up this week -- no scholars happy about their experience -- concerns about vaccine hesitancy. did that come up at the hearing? guest: it did, and this is an issue that we have known about in this country for a while. this has been the big concern. it is supply going to outpace demand? will there be vaccine hesitancy keeping us from her community? there was some talk about it that yesterday's hearing, but no policy announcements. my colleague at stat news recently wrote a story that the administration is readying a big campaign, pr campaign, aimed at those who are ambivalent at getting the vaccine and those who are hesitant. that should be launching soon. over $1 billion they are putting into that.

reports suggest that the administration is already meeting with community leaders to address these issues as well. i should say, this is pretty overdue. we knew hesitancy would be an issue since we started talking about this vaccine. we didn't see a large scale pr campaign from the trump administration. nothing came to fruition. stay tuned for something soon. it is on the minds of the biden administration but we have not seen a full court press yet to deal with this. host: we will see what he has to say in the remarks. we are told the president will be talking about the state of vaccinations, happening today at 3:00 eastern. this is eric in clearwater, florida. good morning. caller: good morning. hi, nic. here is a question, long does it take to actually manufacture the vaccine? guest: it varies by company.

i don't have the numbers in front of me, but the companies are working 24/7 to develop, manufacture the vaccines. they been doing so since before they had authorization from the fda. it is a slow process. we saw that in the beginning, when vaccines were first authorized, there was not a huge stockpile. the government spent billions of dollars helping companies scale up manufacturing in advance. unfortunately, i don't have the exact numbers in front of me, but it is not an easy process, is the short of it. host: in terms of what we are waiting for from the cdc, one of the other issues was this guidance on what is a safe distance, especially in schools, to stop the spread of the vaccine. this question of six feet or

three feet being a key issue in reopening's. what did we hear yesterday? guest: this was one of the few flashpoints in the hearings where things got a little testy. there was some frustration from republican lawmakers about the cdc guidance on reopening's. i guidance currently out there says schools should have six feet of distance between students in the classroom. for anyone that's been in a public school classroom, that is not easy to do. there was recently a study that came out testing schools in massachusetts which showed no significant difference in coronavirus spread among students and staff when students were masked, comparing three feet of distance to six feet of distance. there was a lot of pressing of director walensky to revisit that guidance. she said that the cdc was, did not give any promise about what the new got its would say.

she was pressed when you can do it, but she didn't give a firm timeline. it is clear this is something on the mind of the lawmakers, cdc. cdc says they are looking into it. in light of the new study, they may be changing those guidelines. host: from alma, arkansas. good morning. caller: good morning. i am calling about the vaccine. i watched c-span daily, the house, senate, congress. it is so much confusion going on. you don't know who to trust or believe. the main thing is, nobody has talked about what is in the vaccine. how do i know that i'm safe? i am hearing people dying, people are totally different after getting the vaccine. host: nic florko, what do the companies, public health issues

say on the issue? guest: first, there is a lot of misinformation out there and it is hard to know where to go for information. i would say, definitively, all of these vaccines have been vetted both by regulators, independent experts, safety monitoring boards at each of these companies where people don't have any affiliation with the company's. they have said the vaccines are safe and highly effective against a deadly virus. there are lots of great resources out there to learn about the vaccines. unfortunately, there is a lot of misinformation out there, too. if you don't know where to start, go to the cdc webpage. there are lots of questions there about vaccine safety. i just want to emphasize, again, it is consensus that these vaccines are very safe, they are very effective, and they do quite a bit to get us out of

this pandemic and protect you from dying from covid-19. please get your vaccine. host: that hearing at 10:00, happening with dr. anthony fauci and other officials. we will have that live on c-span3. also today on the senate floor, the senate returning at 10:00 eastern as well. they will resume their debate on the nominations for attorney general javier becerra to be the next health and human services secretary. does he have the votes? guest: i believe so. we will see but it looks like he has the votes. host: we will watch c-span2 today for that and the debates, and we hear from bob next out of margaret bill, new york. caller: good morning. the last representative from texas was concerned about opening schools, being safe for the children.

she also mentioned that these people coming over the border were literally infested with covid. i don't believe that to be true. i thought there was testing going on. they are not carrying the virus around. to open up the rest of the country and the schools, we have seen how big we do things in texas, but when we do them big, we do them big, right or wrong. to have the attorney general down there right now, who is under investigation by the fbi for trying to sue another city down there for wearing masks and being safe, i want to ask the question about the reference she made about these people from mexico coming in. host: mr. florko? guest: i have not seen any reputable studies showing there has been a huge spike in covid from undocumented folks coming across the border. that is all i can say. have not seen it. host: greg is in ohio.

you are next. caller: good morning. i don't know why they don't impeach biden. host: do you have a question about the covid-19 response? caller: no, i don't. host: we will stick with nic florko, with us for another five minutes or so. tina, richmond, indiana. good morning. caller: i would like to ask nic, he had a question a couple minutes ago about what was in the vaccinations, and he never answered. he just said the consensus was it was safe. what is in the shot? guest: the moderna and pfizer vaccines are both mrna vaccines.

this is a technology that's been tested by the nih for a long time, showed a lot of promise. these are vaccines that are proven to be safe and effective. there is nothing in the vaccines that any independent experts have found is harmful. that is all i can say. the consensus is this vaccines are safe and there is nothing harmful in them. they had been proven to work and have been highly effective against this deadly virus. host: in recent weeks, we have heard about upping the vaccine supply. mark with this question, president biden announced a purchase of 100 million doses of j&j. is that for here or are we shipping it outside of our borders? guest: as of right now, we are not shipping any outside the borders. as of right now, the biden team says we have enough vaccine to vaccinate all willing americans by the end of may. we will probably have a vaccine surplus, especially as we get

another one or two vaccines as we cross the finish line. if we have extra vaccines, why don't we ship it out and need it, some are asking. the biden team says we are going to make sure that we are all ok first before we think about shipping vaccines out. hit enter to the question is, the new j&j vaccines are staying with us for now. no indication they will be shipped out. the u.s. has made it clear they will vaccinate the population before we think about sending it to other countries. host: you have written quite a bit about the fda commissioner in the biden administration. explain what is going on. guest: the short of it is there is not one. the agency is being run by an acting commissioner, frankly, very qualified. she is the top drug regulator of the fda, but this is a

ceremonial position when there is not a commissioner in place. increasingly, because the fda plays a role in the pandemic, approving the vaccines, there's been a growing push for the biden administration to name a permanent commissioner now. that even comes from a number of former fda commissioner's themselves. they wrote a letter to the administration emphasizing how key having this role filled is in response to the pandemic, urging him to name someone as soon as possible. host: dj in hampton, virginia. good morning. caller: you didn't answer the question, where can we find out what is in the shot? where is a list of the components in it? secondly, i heard on the news yesterday that if this is such a great vaccine, 72% of congress

is not getting the shot. why is that? host: nic florko? guest: the first part of that, if you want a list of what is in the vaccine, go to the fda website. i warn you that these documents are dense, but the fda's briefing documents for these vaccines are literally thousands of pages long. that is every bit of information that the fda has used when they decide to approve these vaccines. a lot of it is available online. if you are looking for that scientific information, go to the fda or cdc and find it. i would caution you, there is a lot of information there. if you are not a trained chemist or vaccinate all just, i would stress, to go to the cdc website, read the information there that is meant for consumers. that will be your best source of information for the vaccine. any questions you have about safety.

in terms of the statistic about congress getting the vaccine, i have not seen that statistic, so i cannot verify whether or not that is true. all i know is there are a very prominent number of lawmakers getting the vaccine. president trump this past week said on fox news that he got the vaccine and encouraged others to get it. i cannot speak to the percentage of lawmakers who have gotten it, but i can tell you a number of prominent republican lawmakers have gotten the vaccine. again, i will stress, folks should trust this vaccine. host: rich in lake ariel, pennsylvania. good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. there have been some questions about what is in the vaccine. even if you told me the ingredients in the vaccine, i don't know if i or other people would understand exactly how they work or whatever.

but maybe you can offer some advice as to what the vaccine does. all i understand is it is some type of blocker. can you expand on what the vaccine does? guest: of course. it tricks your body into making antibodies, which is what you get when you recover from covid. basically these are your immune system fighters of the virus. by getting a vaccine, you are not being infected with the coronavirus. it is tricking your body into creating an immune response, which can fight off covid and keep you from getting sick. two of the vaccines are a new type of technology called mrna technology. it is safe. basically all are stimulating an immune response so you can fight off covid. host: nic florko is the washington correspondent for stat news.

appreciate it. good luck up her and all the action today on capitol hill. next, we are turning to your phone calls in this last half-hour, tracking several stories this morning, including discrimination and violence against asian americans. the house votes on immigration bills. dr. fauci testifying on covid-19. let us know what your public policy issue is. democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. start calling in now, and we will be right back. >> american history tv on c-span3. exploring the people and events that tells the american story every weekend. this weekend, saturday at 6:00

eastern on the civil war, a discussion on the october 1864 ride of general sheridan ending the confederacy resistance in the shenandoah valley. sunday at 6:00 eastern. four films marking women's history month, including crossing borders. at 6:00 eastern on american artifacts, a recreation of events of the assassination attempt on president ronald reagan by john hinckley junior. at 8:00, on the presidency, talking about how popular culture influences presidents. exploring the american story. watch american history tv this weekend on c-span3. >> listen to c-span podcasts.

the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill and how it impacts the united states' already growing federal debt. >> my problem is this is a massive bill which amounts, is totally disconnected with needs that are brought on by this pandemic. >> find c-span's the weekly, where you get your podcasts. >> washington journal continues. host: 25 minutes left in the program. here are three of the stories we've been talking about quite a bit here this morning. discrimination and violence against asian americans during the pandemic. the houseboats today on two immigration bills. dr. fauci back on capitol hill testifying on the biden administration's covid-19 response. we want to hear from you on

those topics. here are some of the headlines on those topics we talked about. this from the front page of usa today. the horrific georgia killings heightened fear of hate. investigators are not yet calling it a hate crime this early into their probe, but six asian women among the eight did in those shootings at spas around atlanta. from the washington times, a wrap up of yesterday's hearing, a la hundred mayorkas, his first appearance on capitol hill. his first grilling before lawmakers. homeland security chief admits to the release of untested migrants. one more on that hearing. dr. fauci on capitol hill and back again today, from yesterday's hearing, the story focusing on the cdc and their

recommendations when it comes to spacing of children in schools. three feet may go a long way to opening schools, the headline in the washington post. let us know your thoughts on those topics and others in the last 25 minutes. ed is in greensboro, north carolina. a democrat. caller: good morning. one thing i was listening to this morning when i heard the representative from -- the republican representative from florida, from texas, i wondered if texas would be accepting the funds from the bill. she was bashing the bill for how much it cost, how the grandchildren would have to pay for it. is texas accepting the funds or refusing it?

also, it is her district. it would be great if they did not, if they are not interested. that would give funds for everyone else. host: what part of that funding bill do you think will be most helpful in greensboro, north carolina? caller: all of it. stimulus for those persons who were out of work. stimulus helping the small businesses. i think all of it will be helpful. of course, funding for testing. everything in the bill is set up for some reason to assist. but the republicans insist on bashing it. it is just logical, if you don't want it, don't take it. that would help everyone else. what they claim about the

deficit would be less. host: a few of the major items from the $1.9 trillion american rescue plan. direct payments, $1400 for individuals, per dependent. $300 a week unemployment insurance supplement through september 6. $350 billion for state and local governments. $130 billion to help reopen k-12 schools. 106 $2 billion for vaccines and testing. $150 billion for small businesses and restaurants. it expands the child tax credit. rental and mortgage assistance in the bill among other things in that very large $1.9 trillion bill. bill is in old bethpage, new york. a republican. go ahead. caller: good morning, great show, thanks for all you do. my concern, really, for what

they are calling the vaccine -- the problem is this is brand-new technology, this technology of delivering this jab, injection. we have absolutely no idea how this will affect people in the future. the pharmaceutical companies are looking at this as a boon to business when people start getting autoimmune diseases from this. host: beyond the months of testing that has gone into this, there have been 113 million doses administered in this country so far. when will you feel comfortable? caller: normally for a vaccine to be proven effective and safe, it takes between five and seven years. number one, they skip the animal testing, which is crucial. host: are you going to wait five years before you get a coronavirus vaccine? caller: as it turns out, there

are therapeutics which are extremely effective in reducing the viral load at the very beginning, when given at the right time. this is the key. i don't know why people in the media are not talking about this. host: bill in new york. this is rudy in chicago. a democrat. caller: good morning and thank you for taking my call. i know that you focused on the killings in atlanta, georgia, based on the asian population. in the city of chicago, we had 20 people shop the same day that these people were shot in atlanta. then what happens so many times, one thing producing the vaccine and it is one thing to administer. the black community in chicago is still not getting immunized at the levels they should to prevent the epidemic from

impacting deaths in the state of illinois. across the country, particularly when you have the representative from texas, their whole electric and gas and utility system shut down. i don't know why c-span doesn't go back to ask the governor of texas, what are you going to do to ensure that people have gas, water, these major infrastructure issues that have been getting at the trump administration since they found out michigan redirected the flint, michigan water. and it is causing deaths that we still have not realized in the state of michigan. host: that is rudy in chicago. he started by talking about the rise in anti-asian hatred in this country, an issue very much in the news in the wake of the shooting, very much in the news because the president, vice

president, and several members of congress yesterday spoke out against the issue. here is vice president kamala harris. vice president harris: it is tragic. the vice president, president, we extend our grief to the families of those who have been killed. it speaks to a larger issue, which is the issue of violence in our country, and what we must do to never tolerate it, to always speak out against it. the investigation is ongoing, we are not yet clear about the motive, but i want to say with our asian-american community, we stand with you. we understand how this has shocked and outraged all people, but knowing the increasing level of hate crimes against asian americans, brothers and sisters, we also want to speak out in solidarity with them,

acknowledge that none of us should ever be silent in the form of any eight -- hate. host: there is about 15 mins left in the washington journal this morning. a very busy day on capitol hill. let's take you through what is happening today. the house is in at noon, the senate at 10:00 eastern. at 10:00 on the house side, in one of the committee hearing rooms, we will hear from dr. anthony found to and dr. rochelle walensky on the biden administration's covid-19 response. we will take you there live at 10:00 on c-span3. switch over to c-span3 and you can see that live. you can also watch it on c-span.org or listen on the c-span radio app. also expecting comments from president biden today on the state of vaccinations in this country. those comments coming from the east room today.

look to the c-span networks for coverage of that event. stick with us all day long as congress continues to work toward the end of another very busy week for members on capitol hill recess for the easter, passover recess. this will be their last work week for two weeks. back to your phone calls. alex in fairlawn, new jersey. an independent payment good morning. caller: good morning. referencing the vaccination shot, it looks like we are using the american public as guinea pigs. in europe, they are shutting down. their fda, they are stopping the vaccination because it is having a lot of side effects. they are not proceeding and we are and giving the american public a shop. host: it is not the same shot. the concern you are talking about, the astrazeneca vaccine. in this country we are using

moderna, pfizer, johnson & johnson. we have noted some of those stories about countries in europe and asia as well pulling back on the use of the after zeneca vaccine. caller: once again, we are still using the american public as a guinea pig. we are going through some abbreviated testing. there is no testing to say is working or 100% safe. host: when will you feel comfortable getting the shot, ever get comfortable? caller: that is what you are using as a key point, will you or will you not take the shot? host: will you or will you not take the shot? caller: right now, i will not. i am not in the category that is supposedly at risk. host: this is tommy in illinois. independent. good morning. caller: good morning. i am calling about the emphasis

on the fact that the women who were killed were asian. they were not all asian. a few of them were white. i watched the news conference yesterday with a law enforcement official, and they were asked more than once if it was a hate crime. their response was, no, the man that did a shooting had a sexual addiction. he felt like those places were keeping his addiction going, and that was his beef. it really bothers me that press headlines, our president and vice president, are pulling up the racial issue. it sounded to me in that press conference like the race had nothing to do with it. he was addicted to sex. that is my comment on that. host: ann in dallas, texas. a republican. good morning.

caller: howdy from texas. my issue is the prevailing racism in our state. i am 63 years old and i have never seen -- everybody is against everybody now. why can't we just accept people for who they are? host: what would help us do that? caller: i don't know. i have never seen in my life -- again, i am 53. -- 63. i retired at 60 because i could. everything is a race card. if you buy a certain brand of ketchup, it is a race card. my best friend of over 20 years happens to be a woman of color. i don't think of her that way. i think of her as my best friend. i don't know how or when we are going to get past labeling everyone. host: when was the last time we

didn't do that? caller: when i was growing up, i never saw it. i lived in a predominantly white neighborhood, yes. but now it seems like there is so much intense hatred against people, for who they are and what they are. host: gary and the mount rushmore state. a democrat. good morning. caller: actually, oregon. . host: i have you as south dakota, sorry about that. caller: maybe they missed the zip code or something, i don't know. my question is, when people are getting the vaccine, how many of them are having to pay to get the vaccine? it was my understanding that the vaccine was supposed to be given to the public at no charge. host: that is how it is supposed to be given, yes. caller: i went to a community

health center here that i had been going to, and they called me and said, would you like to get your vaccine? i said sure. the next day i get a bill for $30, saying, i thought this was supposed to be free, at least to the public. they took my insurance information and then co-pay -- they send me a bill the next day. i don't know if anybody else has had that situation but it just seemed to me, i heard president biden say that this will be free of charge to the general public to get people inoculated, and then i go in and get a bill. i guess i will have to check that out some more. maybe you could do some research on that? host: that is gary in oregon.

audrey is next out of the mountaineer state. republican. good morning. caller: one of the main issues for me is opening the borders and allowing people are coming into the united states with covid. also allowing terrorists and criminals to come through unchecked. it puts the american people at danger. it is the president's job to protect us from danger. if it is, he is not doing his job. and i believe he should be impeached. host: you might be interested in our interview earlier this week with the president of the national border patrol council. we very much talked about the issues that you brought up. mark 16, you can watch that in its entirety at our website, c-span.org. in the search bar, type in brandon judd.

steve in michigan, a democrat. good morning. caller: my biggest concern is i want to know what will be done about the criminals in trump's cabinet. fromzinke to pruitt, chow, they are all guilty. bill barr. they were all lying about who was interfering in the election. radcliffe, grenell. these people that don't want to take the vaccine, don't take it. if you don't trust it, don't take it. nobody is forcing it on you. and the lady that wants to impeach the president over the border? miss, he didn't kill 500,000 people like donny did. appreciate it. host: kathy in louisiana, independent. good morning. caller: i was calling in regard

to that gentleman who called from new york about the vaccine. i have done some research also. i have heart problems and i'm a diabetic. yes, the vaccine was pushed on the people through the government. there was not enough research done on the vaccine. host: will you take it, kathy? caller: from what i read, no, sir. host: what will you need to feel comfortable taking it? caller: if it was tested more, like the man said, on animals. if you read up on the vaccine, it takes five to 10 years. host: will you wait five years to take it? caller: we already have herd immunity from what i'm seeing on tv. host: cliff is in maryland. a republican. good morning. caller: thank you for taking my

call. my biggest policy issue are the communist chinese, who with the communist democrats have foisted this pandemic on not only this country but the world, and used it to steal donald trump's reelection. now this country is run by communist globalists. this past year demonstrates what the new world order will look like for americans if we don't stand up against this. host: about 10 minute left in the program. in 10 minutes, we are going to the house judiciary subcommittee on constitution, civil rights, and civil limiters. -- liberties. a hearing taking place on discrimination against asian americans. among those we expect to hear from is the chair of the asian american pacific islander caucus, congressman judy chu. that is the hearing room, where we will be in 10 minutes. if you stick with us, your calls

until then. mary in green cove springs, florida. democrats line. caller: good morning. i am concerned about all the policies that have been mentioned. the most i have concern over is the policy of voting. it seems like, if we cannot get a fair and honest about, we don't have a democracy. what happened with the insurrection, the people at the capitol, they were trying to destroy our democracy. i am still concerned about this because there is so much hate about the world. i remember the woman was saying, you asked her, do you have any

ideas -- i am paraphrasing you -- any ideas on how to solve this racism? the woman said it. we need to look at each other as human beings, not just color. we have to stop this. russia wants us to be fighting. like this that previous caller said the chinese communist -- we know the chinese are communist and they have their issues, but trump has been in their pocket for a long time. i am trying hard to understand the base of trumpers. i don't understand how they don't see all of these connections. i don't know how we are ever going to get together, but we have to solve the voter registration problem, because

we'll lose our democracy. host: are you friends with anybody that supported president trump in the 2020 election? caller: yes, my husband has family members, yes. host: what is your relationship with them like, how has it been over the past? caller: it has been pretty difficult. my husband has gotten into some altercations. they believe in conspiracy theories, or they don't believe this or that is true. it is very difficult. we try to maintain ourselves. even where i live, this enclave is trump supporters. we are sort of a minority here. it is very sad, there are no masks. people don't have to wear their masks. it is really hard. and they don't care about other human beings, and i have to tolerate it.

i have no choice. host: maria is in fairfax, virginia. a democrat. good morning. caller: i just want to make a comment about this case against asians. it is absolutely horrible. i'm sorry, i just came out of the elevator from the fairfax county hospital. it is disgusting. we cannot live in a country like that. everybody is welcome here. this is horrible. it is happening on a daily basis. [indiscernible]

this has to end, these hate crimes. host: that is maria in fairfax. this is jake in greenville, new hampshire. a republican. good morning. caller: i want to know how, all the northern states have voter id laws? i don't care what you do, you have to have some kind of allied to do anything, whether you cash a check, welfare office, unemployment office. i have never seen discrimination like it is now in my complete lifetime. this all started right around 19 60 with john kennedy. and then his brother ted kennedy passed the civil rights bill.

from that point on, some things are good, but it makes a lot more worse. host: you are blaming the civil rights legislation fo racism -- for racism in our country now? caller: yes, i do. host: bloomington, indiana. a democrat. good morning. caller: well, that caller is wrong. if he would have listened to raphael warnock yesterday in the senate doing his first speech, he would realize that our voting rights are very important. fox channel is letting the fake news -- they are the ones that lie. we have social on the computers. they are not telling the truth

to people, and that is a lot of our problems today. they let our former president on there and speak and say that our election was a fraud and a fake, and that is why we had the insurrection. this is getting very sad. now we have people -- we already have a bunch of americans dead from covid. now, we have them not only killing black people but killing the asian people. host: this is rilla in texas, a republican. good morning. caller: hi. you know, i was born and raised in the rio grande valley. i'm 82 years old. we didn't have discrimination like this. hello? host: we didn't have this

commission like this -- why? caller: i don't know, i went to school with black and brown, we were all friends. we didn't have things like this. i can tell you, the border, we did have people come and get green cards. host: go ahead and finish your comment. caller: we didn't have people blatantly coming, they did come once in a while. i don't understand the hate. the rhetoric will cause a civil war. you have to back off and start looking at people ask people and not color. this is ridiculous. you are hurting our whole country. i don't understand why the big division. i am sick of the media trying to push black and white and brown and green -- it has got to stop.

host: this is betty in blacksburg, south carolina. republican. good morning. caller: i don't agree with none of those politicians. all of them in the senate need to be impeached. you look at 2019 and 2021, it was doing good in 2019. look at the country now. host: rick is in gulf breeze, florida. democrat. good morning. caller: i don't know which planet these republicans are living on. you cannot believe what you hear or see. i don't understand why donald trump is not in jail. i don't understand why mo brooks is not in jail. i don't understand why rudy giuliani is not in jail.

trump didn't just want to slow down the count, he was after the succession to the presidency. he was after mike pence, nancy pelosi, and patrick lahey, the successors to the presidency. then he could have michael flynn's advice and declare martial law. host: that is rick in gulf breeze, florida. waiting for this house to do subcommittee to convene, a hearing being held today on the issue of discrimination and violence against asian americans. photographers gathering therefore that hearing. one of the reporters in the room there. plenty of members of congress speaking out about the issue of violence and the rise of violence against asian americans, especially in the past year in the wake of the pandemic.

we will take you there when it starts. we will take your calls until then. charlie in dover, arkansas. you are next. caller: hello. ok. host: go ahead, charlie. caller: your drug war, what did it give you? the war on drugs gives you drugs. drugs all over the united states now. now they have a hate law. all it does is create hate. you are going to have a lot of hate. caller: i am blown away by the absence of historical context. asian americans and black americans both came to the united states as free labor. it took hundreds of years of legislation to give them full

rights of white americans. asian americans and black americans constantly have to reassert the fact that they are not foreign, that they are from here and are part of the american story. it is even more disappointing to hear people say that they are educated and understand the issues and still refer to african-americans as the blacks, or to consider asians as one homogenous group. the violence visited upon these women is part of a long legacy of the hypersexual is asian and the mineralization and the terrible treatment of asians. even when we let asian men come to the united states as free labor in the early 1900s all the way to the 1950's, when they were finally allowed to be here legally, we didn't let asian women to come because we didn't want them to create roots. internment camps that put japanese in cages, allowed germans to freely go about themselves despite the war going

on, we are ignoring history, which is easily accessible to -- through youtube. host: that is megan in new york city. last caller this morning. we are back tomorrow morning at 7:00 eastern. we now take you to the house judiciary subcommittee. members taking their seats. that hearing getting ready momentarily.