>> thanks for joining us. "american news hq" starts now. >> good afternoon. you are looking live at the capitol building in washington, d.c. and that is the story of the day today. we are seven hours from a new bench mark in president trump's early presidency, making an address before joint session of congress for the very first time. hello everyone and good afternoon. wherever you are today. i'm bill hemmer live in washington, d.c. tonight's speech expected to outline mr. trump's budget demands and set the course for his agenda including health care, tax reform, national security. it's gonna be a big night. before the president makes his way down the center aisle tonight, he is busy at the white house signing two new executive

orders. for that let's go to the north lawn and john roberts who joins us now live from the white house. john, what is this all about? >> reporter: bill, good afternoon to you. the president will be signing in the next couple of minutes. we're just waiting for tape to come back. couple executive orsd, one from the obama administration era. called the waters of the united states. basically what the president is going to do is to ask the justice department appealing to the court to put a current court case regarding that waters of the u.s. executive order that was promulgated under an obama administration on hold while it's reviewed here at the white house and the epa. it looks like the president wants to rescind the whole thing. he thinks it was way of an overreach by the obama administration. but he doesn't want the court to go ahead with this while they're reviewing it, so he's going to ask the courts to put that in advance. the other executive or would

bring the black colleges and universities initiative inside the white house. it's been residing inside the department of education. president trump believes some of the momentum gets lost within the department of education. he thinks it could be far more effective if he brings it under the white house roof. as to the speech tonight, it's being built as a renewal of the american spirit. the president will be talking ant, quote, real solutions for real problems, experienced by real people. a lot of this is going to be aimed at the middle class and the challenge that people face and trying to make their children's lives better than the lives they had. talk about bringing jobs back for them. also it will be aimed at people in poor and vulnerable communities, to let them know that help is on the way. lot of the speech is going to be focused on national security, rebuilding the military will be part of that. at the center of all of that, the president's announcement yesterday that he plans to seek a $54 billion increase in the department of defense budget. he talked about that earlier on fox and friends. listen. >> well, we're gonna spend a lot more money on the military.

we have to. we have no choice. lot of people think it's a tremendous amount of money. it could be 30 billion more than that. we're going to upgrade our military. remember this. i also am gonna get involved in negotiating. >> reporter: he hrr has been heavily involved in negotiating, talking with the ceo of lockheed about the strike fighter. president said he has saved $700 million on that contract so far. also talking about the air force one replacement fleet and capping costs at $4 billion for that when he got together with the chairman and ceo of boeing. lot of tonight's speech, lot of it will be aimed at the american people. some of it will be aimed at members of congress with whom the president has to work if he wants to get his legislative agenda passed. it will be really interesting tonight, bill, to watch the body language in that room. >> bill: it certainly will. that will be half the story. thank you, john. president trump taking blame for

the bumpy roll out of his immigration policy. he said this. >> do you think it's not been communicated effectively? >> i don't think so. maybe it's my fault. people don't realize, he deported a lot of people. but we're focused on the bad people. we're focused on the drug lords and the gang members. we're focused on a very very bad group that are in this country that we're getting out rapidly. >> bill: let's bring in the president and founder of the democratic network and former bill clinton adviser. political consultant for fire house strategies. take a little bit of blame for the messaging. take it up with 35,000 feet. do republicans go nuts tonight? do democrats sit on their hands? what is your expectation? >> i'd be surprised if there's not a moment similar to what we saw with republicans.

what's the incentive for democrats to behave nicely tonight? as you've seen in the town halls over the last week the democratic base wants a fight. there's going to be about 200 democrats, one of them is gonna give their base what they want. >> i doubt it. i don't think so. i think the democrats are going to be grinning and bearing it all the way, gritting their teeth, hoping to get through it as quick as they can. i do think you're going to hear a lot of enthusiasm from republicans in the hall. >> bill: you do? >> yeah. >> bill: there's something in this for you, too. infrastructure. that's something democrats would like. you can see a little hand of agreement reached on that, could you not? >> there haven't been that many olive branchs so far coming from the trump white house. certainly, i think democrats have done a good job when we've been in the white house as stewards of the economy. are going to be holding the president to account. we want a strong plan that creates growth. if infrastructure is part of that plan, we will be for it. we're looking for the plan.

>> bill: what he said is we're going to get the bad people out and suggested president obama deported a lot of people, too. that is factually true. what did you think about just to pick up on his comment there about the messaging and perhaps he's to blame? >> i'm a communicator. i feel like whenever things go badly the communicators are the first ones to get blamed. it's not a communications per se. they didn't have the legal argument. it wasn't a public relations problem. so now tonight if they're gonna issue new executive orders, he needs to make a policy case for why this will make the country safer. lot of americans i don't think are convinced that banning immigrants from seven muslim majority countries will make this country safe. the dhs in reports said it would not make us safer. tonight it is income ben on the president to lay out not just what he's going to do, but why. >> bill: some of donald trump's guests tonight on the

immigration front will be jessica davis, susan oliver, widows of california police officers killed by an illegal immigrant. also the father of a high school football star who was killed by an illegal immigrant. he spoke at the rnc in cleveland. do we have that, guys, from july? if we have it, we'll roll it. this was his message in cleveland just about six months ago. >> only trump mentions americans killed by illegals. trump will put america first. >> bill: that from july. brett bayer is reporting the lunch that's on going with the president some of the network anchors that president trump said it's time to push for an immigration bill where there's compromise on both sides. he will push for that tone in the speech and more to come on that. then what is more to come? >> on immigration? listen, he's already done a lot, right? he's come out very aggressively. he even called the deployment

that he's doing with dhs to be a military style deployment domestically. that's one of the reasons people may be getting a little confused. he's using military style language to describe what he's doing. from a democratic standpoint my beef with the president on this stuff is he's exaggerating the threat. i'm not saying that terrorism isn't a threat or that undocumented immigrants shouldn't leave the country, but native born americans have higher crime rates than immigrants. we've had no increase in undocumented immigrants in ten years in america. there's been no foreign fighter attacks in the u.s. since 9/11. >> if you want to get something done, both sides are going to have to give. that's the point of the message i was just reading. >> i was very involved in the 2013 immigration bill when i was working for marco rubio. that bill failed because at the end of the day congress did not believe the executive branch was serious about securing our borders and applying the laws. if trump can convince congress that he is serious about border

enforcement, that does open some very exciting potentials to pass comprehensive immigration reform. it's a very tough issue. i wouldn't bet on it, but the fact that he is talking about it, for anyone that supports immigration reform, should see the opening there and should be saying, look, it's a long shot but it's more than most people were thinking. >> bill: thanks to you. nice to see you gentlemen in person. >> have fun tonight. >> bill: in a moment we'll talk to the house majority leader kevin mccarthy. he's live meeting with the president this afternoon, in fact. we'll ask about plans for the budget and boosting military spending. that will be a big part of his speech later tonight. and how congress will work with the president on health care. stay tuned. also new jersey congressman bill pascell always sitting on the aisle when the president addresses congress. he was there four straight state of the union addresses. will it be the same tone for

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>> bill: it has been just a beautiful day here in washington. maybe some rain later. it felt like the month of may i. so war of words between president trump and house minority leader nancy pelosi. she's criticizing the president's first month in office and he fired back in turn. >> i have been watching nancy. i think she's incompetent if you look at what's going on with the democrats and the party. it's getting smaller and

smaller. >> bill: that from earlier today on fox and friends. pelosi's aide responding this way, quote, in classic fashion the plt is projecting his incompetence onto others instead of calling people names he should focus on how he's going to grow the american economy and live up to the promises he has made to the american people, end quote. let's talk to a democrat. bill paskrell is with me from the hill. sir, thank you for your time. i know it's a superbusy day. thank you for being here. you were on the rope line. i think they call them aisle hogs, for four years in a row with president obama. so where will you be tonight when president trump walks in that room? i will be sitting, in due respect, on the house floor. i don't know where i will be sitting. i will not take an aisle seat. i went to the president's inauguration, in due respect.

so that's who i am. >> bill: why not hang out in the aisle? it's great face time. and you get a few, get a few moments there with the president. >> i didn't do it for face time when i sat close to the aisle or on the aisle. i did it to hello to the president and tell him some beautiful words that i never had the chance to tell him. he would tell me back. we had a good relationship. and who knows, maybe in a few years i'll have that kind of relationship with the sitting president. i doubt it. >> bill: your constituents though, they proudly would like an infrastructure bill. they'd like to see some improvements made in the state of new jersey. why not take the opportunity to have a few words with him about that? >> a person who has 20 years for infrastructure having been on

previous i can appreciate that. but what i don't support is privatizing our roads and our airports. thatly not support. there's no question we need an infusion of money. we got to find a way to pay for it. we just cannot build the deficit any greater than it is right now. we've been working on it for the past three years. we can work on it this year. >> bill: that's gonna come up tonight. we'll see what we do. because washington never gets smaller. this town only grows larger and larger. i know a big topic in this town is this whole russia deal. house speaker paul ryan today offered the following comment about evidence or lack thereof as this investigation stands. take a listen to this right here. >> >> we have an on going investigation. i'm not going to get ahead of that investigation. we have seen no evidence so far

based upon the investigations that have already been conducted. there was an intelligence community investigation last year. the house republicans have been doing an investigation for quite a while on russia itself through the intelligence committee and we have a bipartisan investigation through the house intelligence committee >> bill: do you think this goes anywhere? no evidence so far. they want to investigate the leakers as well. how big of a deal is this, do you think? >> the ranking member on intelligence said we just started the investigation on the house committees. let's give it a chance. secondly, i do believe in an independent review, if not an independent prosecutor. this is what we did in 9/11. it's very significant. nothing can compare to that tragedy. but it's very significant in terms of the history of this country. we need to find out the truth. that's why i have been pushing for seeing the president's tax returns. i'm not gonna give up on that. >> bill: i know you aren't.

how do you think he's doing so far 35 days in? >> well, if it was jobs jobs jobs during the campaign. it certainly hasn't been since he's taken over. i realize -- >> bill: he's done a little bit of that, you know. >> we passed several deregulation bills that are hurting americans. when they find out what those bills are, i think they're going to be an uproar. whether it's people's health, whether it's guns. he's -- the house here. the house. this is not an anti-trump thing. this is something about what the republicans stand for in values and what we stand for. that's what it comes down to. >> bill: he would argue lot of that stuff is holding back business. we will see how this does here. i'm out of time. thank you for yours. we'll see you on the aisle tonight, okay. bill pascrell. >> don't bet on it. >> bill: i know you've got a big heart. divisions in the republican

party over how to replace obama care. two republican senators have a new plan. we'll talk to one of them about that next. also president trump pointing the finger at his predecessor for leaks in town. all protests. martha's gonna weigh in on those comments in tonight's big speech. do not miss the reunion live here in a few moments in washington, d.c. you don't let anything keep you sidelined.

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president donald trump, joint session of congress behind us here. major divisions are growing among republican lawmakers. they're working on a plan to repeal and replace obama care. it's not easy. but two republican senators have a different idea for reform. that gives some of the power back to the states, that's in their plan. louisiana senator one of the sponsors of the cassidy collins patient freedom act is here. nice to see you, sir. >> thank you, bill. >> bill: your town, mardi gras. >> i have got my tie on. >> bill: nice touch there. you told me two weeks ago that part of the reason you're building the tax credits into your plan is that when people know the money they're spending, there are a lot more aware, they take notice of it and that's a way to cut cost. is that the fundamental difference with your plan? >> every plan on the republican side has a tax credit that goes to the individual. all of our plans give the power to the patient. we all fund health savings

accounts. we prefund them in the cassidy collins plan. now, the advantage of that, under obama care there is a $6,000 deductible, someone of low income making $15,000 a year is not gonna come up with 6k. on the other hand, we prefund with our tax credit. so someone who takes their daughter to the urgent care center has the dollars in the account to pay for the visit to the urgent care center. >> bill: you have a plan, senator rand paul has a plan, mitch mcconnell is quote as saying there is not agreement among republicans on what you replace obama care with. i imagine you would agree with that right now. that there is not an agreement. >> there's an agreement on broad principles. but when you want legislation you have to get down to the n teu ty gritty. there may be some philosophical questions going on. >> bill: nancy pelosi thinks you will fail in this effort and said it on sunday this way. just watch. >> the republicans have been

banging at the moon in seven years. seven years since the president signed the bill. they've been baying at the moon that they had a better idea. they've come up with nothing. >>if they do repeal obama care -- >> they won't be able to do that. they do not have the votes. >> bill: what do you think of that? >> nancy pelosi thought democrats were going to win back the house. not sure she is a very good prognosticator. we have a plan, the one susan collins and i have introduced last year. so i think everything about that is false including and if and but. >> bill: give me a sense about how far apart you are. when you have majority in the senate, you have majority in the house. you have a republican president right down the street. how far apart are you? >> the person to answer that is republican president down the street. during the campaign, the president said he wanted everybody covered, caring for those with preexisting conditions, no mandate to lower cost. the cassidy collins plan gets

him there. he's his most passionate when he talks about the forgotten american, making 25,000, 15,000 left out of the obama years. our plan meets the need of that forgotten america. >> bill: so you need him to push your plan or any plan over the goal line? >> you need the president to just stay true to his goals. if he stays true to his goals, the plan will form around his goals. >> bill: has he? have you talked to him about it? >> i have not spoken to him personally. i have spoke ton a couple of his economic advisers. in his confirmation hearing price repeated what the president's goals are. >> bill: what do you want to hear tonight? what could he say tonight in the capitol building that would coalesce around the same idea? >> if the president stays firm on his goals, everyone insured, caring for those with preexisting conditions, no mandates, lower costs, the plan adapts to his goals. if he's passionate about the

forgotten american, then we have the passion to achieve those goals. >> bill: i think about president obama. what did he spend every day for ten months on obama care? he had both majorities as well. just shows you how much work is involved to try to get this done. i think what president trump said yesterday about how difficult health care is. you know that, too, as a physician yourself. you can answer that in one second when you tell us whether or not you believe this is something you can get done. >> of course. the reason that president obama had to spend every day for ten months is because he wanted the decision making power that normally belongs to the patients and the states to be given to washington, d.c. that would take ten months. our plan would give power back to the states and back to the patient. once you return the decision making power back to them it becomes simpler. >> bill: you're saying it's gonna happen? >> that's my goal. >> bill: that wasn't a yes. >> that's my goal.

>> bill: okay, bill cassidy, we will see if you get to hear what you're listening for tonight. >> thank you, bill. >> bill: have a great lent. nation's security on the line. considering president trump's nominee for director of national intelligence. why he is likely to fine himself caught in the middle of a political fire storm over russia. we are back in a moment, live in washington, right after this.

>> bill: busy day for the commander in chief. to the white house. we have tape play of two bill signings. one is ab five minutes. interestingly, melania is there behind him. go ahead and roll him. we'll drop in. >> thank you all very much. i appreciate you being here. we have a number of bills that we are signing and things that we are doing today. busy day. i guess tonight will be a rather busy night. we're looking forward to it. i want to thank majority leader kevin mccarthy, who's been a tremendous friend to a lot of people. and kevin i want to thank you for being here. very much appreciate it. you had so much to do with this. also want to thank everyone else who is with us today.

in fact, i have some names. i'll read some of them off. not everybody knows everybody. leader mccarthy, representative bob comstock, lamar smith. thank you, lamar, very much. joni ernst, who has been a terrific senator. very talented woman. >> thank you. >> and deb fisher. thank you very much. thank you very much. we also have senator morosso and senator woosman, deb we said hello, heidi, hello. senator jim enhoh. senator pat roberts. senator dan sullivan. bill schuster and representative lamar smith. we really appreciate you being here. of course we have our newest ba director linda mcmahon and secretary devos.

lot of talent. today i'm signing two bills that promote women entering and leading the stem field, science technology engineering and math. currently only one in four women who gets a stem degree is working in a stem job. which is not fair and it's not even smart for the people that aren't taking advantage of it. we have so many american women who have these degrees but yet are not being employed in these fields. i think that's going to change. it's going to change rapidly. protecting women with stem degrees, all americans with stem degrees, very important. it also means you have to crack down on off shore, it's a tremendous job that displaces many of our best american workers. and brains. the brain power. so i just want to thank you all for being here. vice president pence, always felt very very strongly ab this

issue and many others. i appreciate, mike, that very much. i'm going to sign this right now. i want to congratulate everybody in the room. we have to sign it today. i know we have a lot of things going on later. if we don't sign this one and the next one today we have to start the process all over again. right? so that's why we're here. okay. well, thank you very much. [ applause ] thank you very much. >> ready for the speech tonight? >> yeah, we look forward to it. i have it in here.

okay. i think we all know what this even though somebody took my notes. this is the second bill that we're signing. hr 321, the inspire women act. the existing national programs, recruit women to stem related jobs and aerospace careers. we're going to go heavy into the whole nasa situation so women will be a big, big part of it. hr 255, promoting women in entrepreneurship act, science foundation to support women as mentors which there are many, researchers and scientists and bring their discoveries to the business world, championing science and entrepreneurship and creating new ways to improve people's lives. so important. we need policies that help

support women in the work force and that's really very much going to be addressed by my administration over the years. gonna get more and more of these bills coming out. and address the barriers faced by female entrepreneurs. we want women to get stem jobs that can support their families and help these women to live out the american dream, which they are so qualified to live out. again, i want to thank you all for being here. this is so important. thank you all for being here very much. >> bill: so that from the white house. melania behind the president. few bills to help encourage women to pursue space and science professions and jobs and

careers. who's against that? >> good idea, right? >> bill: that voice is a voice from the past. the recent past. martha mccowan. nice to see you. >> hi, bill. how you doing? i like it here. >> bill: i do, too. >> great spot, right? >> bill: stunning day. thought we would confuse the viewers even more. adjust your clock. >> those two are always on. >> bill: i want to ask you about what you expect later on tonight. you talked to senator mitch mcconnell earlier today. he is in a lot of pays the man of the moment. he can get things done in the senate. what kind of news did you fine out with him? >> he said it exactly right. he's the man of the year perhaps because in terms of legislation, in terms of getting this work done, he's been waiting for this moment for the past seven years. in the past sort of the excuse he's given was he couldn't get anything through. they didn't have a president who

could sign it. he's been pushing for a republican president. now he says he has one. i talked to him about the differences that exist on the republican side with regard to health care. there's a lot of division about how this should go. he said, do you know what? there's only one thing that matters. are you on the side of putting a bill on the president's desk that he can sign, yes or no? in other words, do you want to repeal obama care or not? and if you do, you're gonna have to get in line. >> bill: sitting there, he has one of these versions. i wanted to get a sense of how far apart they are. did you get a sense of that answer? >> my sense is that you remember when the original aca came out. it was all cobbled together on capitol hill. president obama sort of let them put it together, right? that was something i really wanted to get an understanding of from senator mcconnell is who is generating it? he put it on the shoulders of tom price. he said this is the person who

is in charge of putting something in front of all of us that we can all get behind. so hhs is the center and the hub for this legislation and no doubt they're taking into account what senator cassidy, congressman cassidy is putting forward and all these others. there are a lot who are doctors themselves who wanted to be involved in this fix. but i think hhs is the central processing area for this. >> bill: that would make sense based on what senator cassidy said. his big point was, if the president doesn't take his eye off the ball, it will happen. but if he starts to listen to other people and suggest you don't have the votes, then you start to make deals and perhaps it doesn't get through based on republicans in congress. did you get a sense from mitch mcconnell, was he optimistic? where's his head right now? >> he's such a fascinating person. he's been here a long time. he sees a moment where he can get things passed.

he seems to feel very good ab the direction the president is taking things in. he wants to see this happen. tax reform. the infrastructure reform, health care. the biggest challenge is having a health care that is pretty much obama care with a republican name on it. either you're going to have some sort of huge federal rule for organizing these perhaps state-run systems or not. or you push it back to the private sector and say, insurance companies, companies, independent people, that's where the power structure should be in health care. but i don't think that's gonna happen. i think it's going to remain basically at the federal level but they'll find ways to make it more palletable to republicans. >> bill: nice to see you. like a reunion. >> good to see you, buddy. >> bill: take this show on the road. >> absolutely. i'll come up here any time. >> bill: see you tone. a few moments ago president trump signing an executive order aimed at revoking the clean water rule. there you go. fox's alert. obama era law expanding federal

protection to streams and water ways across the country. president making good on a campaign promise to do away with a lot of environmental regulations they believe, and he believes, have hurt jobs in america. drop in on this one now. >> this was just handed to me now. make counties great again. you're right. hold that for me. i'll take it. thank you, everybody. we appreciate you being here. thank you very much. first of all, i want to congratulate scott pruitt, who is here someplace. where's scott? [ applause ] so important. we're going to free up our country and it's going to be done in a very environmental and positive environmental way, i will tell you that. create millions of jobs, so many jobs have been delayed for so many years that it's unfair to everybody. i want to congratulate scott. i want to thank everybody for being here. we have a great group of tparbger, home builders and county commissioners who are all represented. they're standing alongside of

me. i'd all like to thank jim enhoff who has been so terrific in so many different way, beyond even this. so i want to thank jim. also the leadership in the senate on this issue. a great friend of mine. epa so called waters of the u.s. rule is one of the worst examples of federal regulation. it has truly run amuck. it is one of the rules, most strongly opposed by farmers, ranchers and agricultural workers across our land. it's prohibiting them from being allowed to do what they're supposed to be doing. it's been a disaster. the clean waters act says the epa can regulate navicable waters, those that affect interstate commerce. few years ago the epa decided that can mean nearly every puddle or every ditch on a farmer's land or anyplace else

that they decide. right? massive power grab. epa's regulators were putting people out of jobs by the hundreds of thousands and regulations and permits started treating our wonderful small farmers and small businesses as if they were a major industrial polluter. they treated them horribly. horribly. if you want to build a new home, you have to worry about getting hit with a huge fine if you fill in as much as a puddle, just a puddle on your lot. i have seen it. when it was first shown to me i said, you're kidding, aren't you? but they weren't kidding. in one case in wyoming, a rancher was fined $37,000 a day by the epa for digging a small watering hole for his cattle. his land. these abuses were and are why such incredible opposition to this rule from the hundreds of

organizations took place in all 50 states. it's a horrible, horrible rule. has sort of a nice name, but everything else is bad. i have been hearing about it for years and years. i didn't know i'd necessarily be in this position to do something about it. but we've been hearing about it for years. with today's executive order i am directing the epa to take action paving the way for the elimination of this very destructive and horrible rule. so i want to thank everybody for being here and i will sign wherever i'm supposed to sign. there we are. thank you very much. >> thank you, mr. president. [ applause ] >> start hiring those people, fellows. right? how important is this? >> huge. >> very very.

>> bill: big league. huge. big part of his campaign, too, which candidate trump talked about regulations hurting american businesses. he said he was gonna cut them out. right now he is doing just that in the early days after being sworn in. he would get rid of two regulations for every one created. so this is following through on that. also, president trump talked ab his plan to increase defense spending, which is a big part of this address later tonight and also how he's gonna pay for it. he was on with fox and friends earlier today. >> if you cut all the money from epa and all the money, that's about $50 billion. >> i think the money will come from a revved up economy. look at the kind of numbers we're doing. we will probably gdp of a little more than 1%. if i can get that up to 3% or maybe more, we have a whole different ball game. that's a whole different ball game. and that's what we're looking to do. >> bill: he said a lot. kevin mccarthy with me now on the hill.

nice to see you. i know you were just at the white house. i heard him mention your name three times about 20 minutes ago. thanks for the quick work. this is a town that only gets bigger. how are you gonna trim 12% off the federal budget? >> you can always find ways with a budget as large as ours. what's more important, the ability of growth will solve so many problems. when you're going from 1.5% growth to 3%, that solves a lot of things that we haven't had in the past. this is an investment that we need for the military. we will be able to get there. we'll be able to find what needs -- where cuts have to come. we have to get tax reform, health care reform. look what he's doing on regulatory reform. he's setting new records of what he's been able to do in this short amount of time. never before when you look at the congressional review act, be able to look at what has been imposed on us. think about in this last administration, they added more

than 16,000 pages of regulation. that's 12 king james bibles. we've been able to set a whole new record ab being able to repeal a lot of that to bring some commonsense back. you will see a new investment in this country. >> bill: $54 billion in defense spending. that's offset by cuts in the bug elsewhere which i just suggested is a difficult thing to do. you're explaining how it can be done. you do it through growth. that's if you get the growth. gdp was 1.9% last year. he was talking ab 3% at a minimum. >> that's where we need to be. if we want to solve our problems we need to get growth back in america to 3% and higher. think for one moment. where has the market been since election day? we've been able to grow just from a small amount because of the anticipation for what's going to happen right behind us. we are on pace to make that happen. we said it's a 200 day agenda. start with regulation. you're watching him sign those bills today. one after another.

congressional review act. before president trump went into office only one time in history has one ever been signed. we will pass our 14th one on the floor. he's already signed two into law. he's making a transformation. health care we start next. >> bill: when you think a lot about the work that happens back here, tax reform is very important to you. >> very important. >> bill: from what i read and hear, it's august at the earliest. two days ago i'm hearing the treasury secretary say it could float into next year. >> it will not float into next year. we'll get health care replaced. then we'll go into tax care. you want health care done first. one, it's collapsing. obama care is in essence two things. it's exchanging and expansion of medicade. both are collapsing in the process. so we've got to solve that problem. by doing that, you repeal all

those taxes. when you repeal all those taxes from inside the baseball, you change the baseline so you can do bigge comprehensive tax reform for everyone that brings greater growth. >> bill: understand. lot of it makes sense. i think the question is whether or not you can get it done and get everybody on the same page with the majorities that you have. >> i'll make this promise. >> bill: please. >> i'm very optimistic. we have what is called reconciliation. all the politics that want to go on on the outside, for those who want to be serious and have tax reform and health care reform, engage in the process, because it is going to happen. >> bill: we will see. thank you for your time. >> thank you. >> bill: thank you. >> thanks for having me. >> bill: president trump signing another executive order. this one meant to strengthen historically black colleges and universities. to give the program greater visibility. that happened just a moment ago as well.

>> you've been busy today. >> yep. >> tell us when you're ready. you okay? good. so this is historically black colleges and universities executive order. very important to all of us. this group has been fantastic, many of which we were with yesterday. really developed something very special. so thank you, thank you all for being here. thank you, mr. vice president, for being here. it's a very important moment and a moment that means a great deal to me. this month has been a wonderful opportunity to celebrate african-american history and to begin working together to create a better future for african-americans and universities and colleges and everything that is african-american. today we're taking action to help make that future happen and

that future better. historically black colleges and universities are incredibly important institutions woven into the fabric of our history just about like no other. church is very important. right? colleges and universities. come here. my defender. [ laughter ] education has the power to uplift. it has the power to transform and perhaps most important, education has the power to create greater equality and justice in our lives. that's why today i'm thrilled to be signing an executive order to recognize the importance of historically black colleges and universiti universities. very important. they play such an important role in achieving progress for african-americans and our nation's march for justice. hbcu's have been really pillars

of the african-american community for more than 150 years. amazing job. and a grand and enduring symbol of america at its absolute best. i congratulate you all as i say that. >> thank you. >> this executive order will make hbcu's a priority in the white house, an absolute priority. [ applause ] lot of people will be angry at that, that they're not a priority. but that's okay. we will pledge our support to you, your mission, and our shared mission of bringing education and opportunity to all of our people. and so i just want to congratulate you. these are very, very special people surrounding me. you've done an amazing job. it's not easy. nothing is easy. you've done an amazing job. i just want to congratulate you and thank you. i'm gonna sign this.

this is really fantastic. >> bill: grand sum of one hour, you have two executive orders and two bills signed into law there in the oval office at the white house. capitol hill behind me. some question whether or not the partisan divide in the audience tonight will mean open objections on the speech. that's something we're watching for. protesters, they can be taken out. members of the house and senate cannot. mike emanuel is with us. live on the hill. so what are republicans expecting from the speech, mike? start there. >> reporter: welsh bill, leading republicans say the american people voted for a new direction. tonight president trump has a unique opportunity to talk ab making that change, top republicans on capitol hill and president trump have set an aggressive agenda including tax

reform, appealing and replacing obama care, rebuilding the nation's infrastructure and more. house speaker paul ryan calls this a once in a generation opportunity to tackle big problems in this country. >> we can fix our broken tax code so that rates go down and growth goes up. we can fix our regulatory system so that it protects us instead of punishes us. and we can secure our border and rebuild our military for the 21st century. >> reporter: some of the sausage making here on capitol hill is not always pretty. the president talked about reducing funding for the state department. mitch mcconnell said he didn't think that would go anywhere on the hill, and so there's still a lot of things to be worked out. bill? >> bill: quickly, mike, any concerns about the disruptions tonight? >> reporter: anything is possible but democrats are saying bottom line is they don't expect any protests actually in the house chamber.

>> i think as much as we have nothing in common with the present president, we do respect the office of the presidency. i respect the office of the presidency itself. and keeping that in mind, we'll be polite. >> reporter: ahead of the big joint address some of the characters are out here on capitol hill and other big name democrats say they don't believe the president's populous words are meeting his actions so far, bill. >> bill: what a night it will be. talk to you soon. quick break. back in a moment in washington. my day starts well before

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now. keep it here on the fox news channel for complete coverage. the best coverage you'll find anywhere in fact, this is a moment for the president. this is a moment for any president. we'll see how it goes. i'm bill hemmer. here's shep in d.c. as well. >> shepard: it's noon on the west coast, 3:00 in d.c. where president trump is getting ready to address his first joint session of congress. we talk of the opportunities ahead. president trump says he will talk about the promises he kept and what remains to be done including with the u.s. military and immigration. a preview of the speech and the democrat's response. and russia's interference in america's election. paul ryan now promising a bipartisan investigation. what about calls for a special prosecutor? and looking into leaks. the white house is calling for crimin