captioning sponsored by cbs >> brennan: i'm margaret brennan in washington, and this week on "face the nation," we'll pause to reflect on an eventful 2019 and look forward to what's ahead in 2020. >> if you're a person of faith, live your faith, whether you're elected in politics, whether you're at work, whether you're at home, whatever it may be, you can live your faith. >> brennan: first we'll take a look at the role of prayer in politics with two senators, delaware democrat chris coons and oklahoma republican james lankford, united by the bond of prayer shared with a bipartisan group of senators every week. >> what we really need to do here in washington i think is model the ability to disagree with each other but not be cruel

or sharp or nasty to each other. >> brennan: then a special interview with first daughter and presidential adviser ivanka trump. a new family leave policy gives federal workers 12 weeks of paid leave when they have children or adopt. will more private companies follow the government's lead? >> our goal is to ensure that paid leave is available to all americans. >> brennan: an we'll honor the end of the year with our cbs news correspondents panel. it's a 69-year tradition that's entering its seventh decade as we prepare to enter a new decade in 2020. all this and much more is ahead on "face the nation." good morning and welcome to "face the nation." the holidays are filled with tradition, and one 60-year

senate tradition that's largely gone unnoticed is its weekly prayer group. every wednesday morning a group of bipartisan senators take time to pray, get to know each other, and reflect on their common bond. we sat down with two members of the group, oklahoma public james lankford and delaware democrat chris coons. they have very different politics but agree their prayer meetings are a valuable and increasingly rare opportunity for bridge building. you know, for most people, they sit down at the table at the holidays and the two things that are supposed to be forbidden are talking politics and talking religion, and here in this place of contentiousness, you're bringing them together in a positive way. >> yes. >> brennan: in this political climate, has it hurt attendance, or has it driven up attendance? >> i think it's driven up attendance frankly. we have a fluid group that includes a fairly broad range of both caucuses. >> it's a moment for people to

be able to talk about their faith. it's deeply personal in everyone's journey. it's also very important. you don't understand who someone is until you learn about their faith and their own personal journey with faith. >> brennan: is your faith and your moral foundation has always been part of your consciousness, informing your political beliefs, is that right? >> one of the challenges i think of our service and our time here is to strengthen and sustain our faith even at a time when the political conclusions that people reach from that faith can lead us to have such sharply different views on the role of government, society, on the role of individual liberty, on what sorts of rights we think are most central. one of the great things about having a weekly prayer breakfast is we are not getting together to argue about the issues that are so often used to divide people based on faith. we're not sitting there arguing about gay marriage and abortion and the death penalty. we're frankly sitting there praying within and for each other, singing hymns, talking

about our families, and then sharing some stories. we're in a very sharply divided partisan moment. it is hard to find any space here to be vulnerable, to admit that we don't have all the answers to, admit any sort of lack of certainty and confidence in our party's political view, and having a conversation that starts around the most basic questions, why are we here? what is it we're trying to do? having a conversation about those basic about the end point, the application through law is a good way to have a conversation in a place where we so rarely do that. >> faith is of such importance to people who live their faith. what i challenge people is if you're a person of faith, live your faith, whether you're elcted in politics, whether you're at work, whether you're at home, whatever it may be, you can live your faith. faith should impact who you are. if your faith only affects your weekend, that's not faith, that's a hobby. a hobby is something you do on

weekends. faith is something that personal yaits everything you do. so when i was eledged, when chris was elect, we didn't go there and take our faith off. it's still who you are and part of who i am. my faith in particular has a strong brief that people are createed in the image of god. that means people who i disagree, with i should be able to disagree with them in a way that still respects them as a person. that changes the way that i debate, that changes the way i engage on issues because of my own personal faith. >> brennan: has partnership become ideological? people associate political parties with a fundamental moral judgment of whether you're a good or bad pinch. -- person. >> that's a bad place to be. we shouldn't identify political parties based on a particular faith. because a particular party is not about faith. >> i think one of our challenges as people who did study faith and did practice it in our life before being elected, it's the strike that balance where we are elected officials and thus

represent big states with a wide and robust range of people of different views, either people of one of the main faith, muslims or jews or christian, or people who have no faith tradition but are still entitled to be adequately and well and fairly represented. we have to balance being part of that broad, wide-open society, with our own personal faith. >> brennan: there will be people at home rolling their eye s saying there is no moral high ground left here. you're about to enter an even more contentious period of time. >> it is genuinely draining some of the friendships i've been hard to work over the last decade across the aisle to be in a time when we have such sharply divided politics. i have got a number of friends who i work really well with, but on certain issues and on certain topics, we just can barely speak about it anymore. that just reflex what's happening in our home state.

frankly in some of our families. what we really need to do here in washington i think is model the ability to disagree with each other but not be cruel or sharp or nasty to each other. the whole reason we have a congress is to resolve disputes without resorting to violence so that people who come from very different states and from very different frameworks and very different values can come together here and resolve things. we are underperforming in that area right now in the congress. we are reflecting the deep divisions that exist in our country. but i think part of why we come here and at least part of why i gather with my colleagues across the aisle one hour a week is to try and be open to working across the aisle, because i don't know how else we fix. this i don't know how else we're going to move forward other than respecting each other and getting to know each other across these deep and significant divisions. >> washington, d.c., really is a mirror to the rest of the country. sometimes the country doesn't want to admit it.

one of the key things we can do is just be who we are. there are people of faith scattered all around the country, there are people that don't have a faith all around the country. but we can show respect to each other and say, go will live your faith, whatever that faith chooses to be, i'm going to live mine, and we'll find a way to be able to work together even in areas where we disagree and find areas of common ground. i don't have to compromise my values the find areas of common ground. >> brennan: we're on the verge of this impeachment trial. during the clinton impeachment, we often heard from republicans the criticism and the call for an american president to be a moral leader, an we heard about moral failings. these days you will quietly hear criticism of the president from republicans, but you don't hear that loud criticism in the way we did 20 years ago. what has changed? >> yeah, i'm not sure anything has changed. i think there's still this ongoing conversation about policy and about responsible leadership and about role

models. i said very early on in the campaign time period when people asked me in 2016, what are you looking for, i said, i always look far president who can be a role model. i don't think that president trump as a person is a role model for a lot of youth. that's me personally. i don't like the way that he tweets, some of the things that he says. his word choices at times are not my word choices. he comes across with more new york city swagger than i do from the midwest. that's definitely not the way that i'm raising my kids. saying that, there are policy areas where we agree on, and when we agree on those things, we work on those things together, but it's also been a grand challenge to be able to say for a person of faith, for a person who believes that there is a right way to go on things, i wish that he did and he was more of a role model in those areas. saying all that, on the area of life where i'm very passionate, on the issues of abortion for instance, he's been tenaciously pro-life. he's focused on putting people around him that are very focused

on religious liberty, not honoring a particular faith, but honoring any person of any faith to go be able to live and practice that faith and have respect for that. that's helpful for any person of faith to be able to say, give me the space to be able to live my faith and to be able to put people into the administration that will also allow that and encourage that. so for people of faith, it's a bit of a conundrum at times. i look at some of the moral decisions he's made and go, i disagree with that, but he's also been very, very protective of areas like life and very protective of areas of religious liberties to be able to allow people to live their faith out. at the end of the day what we're looking for in a administration is folks that allow us to be able to live our principles. >> brennan: has that been hard for you as a person who talks about living your faith, is it hard for you? >> it's not hard for me to live that out because my first responsibility is for myself and my family. >> brennan: but people like me, how could you support this? how could you support that? >> it is the most interesting question that i get almost every

day when i walk through anywhere in the capitol, someone from the press will say, the president just tweeted out this, what do you think about it and put a microphone in my face or he said a curse word. i know you're a person of faith, go answer for that. again, the president has a spokesperson, and i'm not the president's spokesperson. i have a responsibility for myself and my team and for what my family is going to do, and then i'm also going to say what i believe is the right role model. everyone has a task here. one of the interesting things about washington, d.c., is i don't get to pick the people that i work with. the american people pick the people that i work with. and in my responsibility is to be able to get things done in that environment that i think drive home a set of values and a set of policies that help the nation long-term. >> brennan: senator, i read that both you and the president are presbyterian and have now some commonality there, but you had an awkward interaction with him once where he personally

challenged you on the democratic party's support for abortion rights. what was that like? >> we have had a number of sharp exchanges. you know, the president has been a real challenge for me to find ways to work with. i'll tell you that praying for the president is probably one of the greatest spiritual challenges i have had to work through in my life. i was raised to pray for those in psitions of authority, senators and governors and congressmen and the president, and president trump and i have very different views about some core issues. we have had a conversation about his treatment of refugees and his blocking folks from coming to our country in the so-called muslim ban that he enacted right when he was elected, and we have also had a conversation about abortion and reproductive rights. i think we vigorously disagree on both. what we haven't had is the time the really have thoughtful conversation. one of the things i respect

about james is when we were both invited to go to the white house, a year ago now? >> a year. >> brennan: i frankly said, i'm not sure i see the point, and he encouraged me to be hopeful and to keep an open heart and to believe in the possibility of a positive and meaningful conversation. so far i haven't made as much progress in that directs as i might have hoped, but part of the point of being a person who believes in the potential of everybody to change and to grow is that i live in a very challenging time in a challenging environment, and i hope that i can be a good model of what it means to believe deeply in certain principles and yet respect others, others who are my colleagues to believe equally deeply in an opposite application of that same principle. >> brennan: we wish you both luck. thank you for your time. our full conversation with senators coons and lankford is on our website at

facethenation.com. we'll be right back with adviser to the president ivanka trump. stay with us. (man) we weave security into their business. (second man) virtualize their operations. (woman) and build ai customer experiences. (second woman) we also keep them ready for the next big opportunity. like 5g. almost all of the fortune 500 partner with us. (woman) when it comes to digital transformation... verizon keeps business ready. skip to the good part with alka-seltzer plus. now with 25% more concentrated power. nothing works faster for powerful cold relief. oh, what a relief it is! so fast! [fa♪mers bell] (burke) a "rock and wreck." seen it. covered it. at farmers insurance, we know a thing or two because we've seen a thing or two.

♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪ . >> as the country's largest employer, we must lead by example and after decades are finally doing so. >> brennan: that was adviser to the president and first daughter ivanka trump at a white house summit earlier this month focusing on paid leave and childcare. she joins us now to talk about that new federal employee paid leave policy and the path forward for other americans. good morning and thank you for coming in. happy holidays to you. >> you, as well. >> brennan: now, you have found an area of agreement with speaker pelosi, who championed paid family leave. you worked to get republicans on board with what just ended up in the ndaa, which is to guarantee government workers 12 weeks of paid leave. >> this has been years of discussion and education on the

merits of paid family leave grounded in conservative values of work and of family. and the reality is the world has changed, and it's changed quickly. today women make up 47% of the workforce, yet we provide the vast majority of unpaid care for children and, of course, adult dependents. and it is not acceptable that in america today one in four women go back to work two weeks after having a child. it's just not acceptable. we can't tell the private sector to step up and to offer these critical benefits to their employees and not be willing to do it ourselves. and it's taken time. it's been the course of two and a half years of building our coalitions of support for this policy. but we have made more progress on paid family leave than in the

25 years since the family and medical leave act was passed. >> brennan: so you not only have, this and this is huge, it's a huge step forward in providing paid leave to all americans, which is our ultimate objective, but we also as part of tax reform approved the first-ever tax credit to employers offering leave to their employees making under $72,000 a year, which are the people that are very, very unlikely to receive it. so incentivizing employers to step forward. >> brennan: how did you get the republican caucus to support these things? because there has been republican opposition to any kind of government mandate. >> this has been, as i said, the accumulation of several years of discussion. when i first came to washingtoning, i was surprised at how few democrats had taken their arguments to the merit of paid leave to their colleagues across the aisle. so it rally was starting from the beginning and talking about this policy and framing it in

different terms. so republicans didn't want a payroll tax increase that disproportionately impacts the most vulnerable. so what are new solutions? we proposed the first-ever bipartisan, bicameral plan that would allow people the flexibility to determine if they want to pull forward their child tax credit and then pay it back over ten years. and by the way, paying it back over ten years, they'll still receive an annual distribution that is traumatically higher than what they received prior to us passing tax reform. >> brennan: are you though, just to clarify that, are you endorsing any of those bills? >> so the way i have approached this from inception is the president has made very clear he thinks that this is critical policy, and now we are working with members op both sides of the aisle to see who has the right policy to move forward and to be able to garner the votes to passes this into law.

>> brennan: it would be a democratic-led bill, but you would still support it? >> it could be. it definitely could be. i think the options that have been put out there by the democrats without even opining on the policy of it, it has sat there since 2012, has never been scored, has never received the endorsement of a president, including president obama, and it has never received bipartisan support from colleagues in the senate. so the way i look at it is the debate had grown stale. if we want to deliver relief to working parents who need this, we need to come up with new fresh solutions. so we have been working with republicans, with democrats on proposing alternatives and what has become incredible is that people aren't debating anymore whether or not paid family leave is good policy. they're debating what's the best policy. >> brennan: but what did just become law, just to clarify for

people who don't follow this the way you do, and what was tucked inside the ndaa is 12 weeks of leave for a person who gave birth, a woman or her partner, or if they adopted or a foster caregiver. and with that, though, this was tucked inside in a way that some republican senators said they didn't get to fully vest this. they have highlighted some flaws in it that the f.a.a. or t.s.a. or people who work at the v.a., the veterans agency won't receive full benefits. can you guarantee for all government workers that that will be fixed, that they will all receive 12 weeks? >> the t.s.a. is a flaw that applies to basically every benefit that members of congress on both sides of the aisle have been working to fix. so it's not specific to this particular benefit. this applies to the full federal workforce, understanding that that is a meaningful glitch that

has applied to many, many things for many, many years and that we're working to fix. >> brennan: will contractors get to receive the benefits? i think four out of ten people who work for the government are contractors? >> it applies to our workforce, and under the same provision that all other benefits are administered, so it's consistent with that. >> brennan: but you would like to expand it? >> oh, our goal is to ensure that paid leave is available to all americans. but we're putting forth new solutions. a payroll tax increase is not going to be passed into law any time in the near future, so what are the other options? that's why the cassidy bill is so interesting. it's bypass. cosponsors in the house, in the senate. it provides people with flexibility. it is not mandate on business. oftentimes small business cannot afford the mandate. so it creates flexibility and discretion for the benefit of

the person who ultimately wants to use it. >> brennan: how do you get a private business? you were in the private sector. you didn't have a policy yourself in the beginning, but now you support it. how do you... do you ask -- >> well, in my own business after i had employees i did. so i think what's my -- the fourth person i hired was pregnant when i hired her, so we put a policy in place for her, so everyone who has ever had a baby at one of my companies has had access to leave. so that's something i recognize as critically important, but i do think elevating awareness around the benefits to attracting and retaining the best talent this country has to offer, it is in companies' self-interest to do this. that's why we've seen employers increasingly adopt paid leave. i had a conversation with doug mcmillan, the c.e.o. of walmart, about how important this policy was in the first year of the administration. walmart adopted and expanded

upon their parental leave policies following tax reform. i got a call from doug right after they announced the policy change, and he said, you know it was the most popular thing we did, even more than raising our wage, offering that benefit, because it is incredibly valuable to families. but it is important to note that thinking about caring for the next generation, the most important resource in this country, and, of course, the parents, it doesn't stop at 12 weeks. >> brennan: whenever anyone hears you talk about the importance of being with your children, they also think about your personal, and you were vocal if your opposition to the family separation policy when it came to immigration and the u.s. border. you said that was a low point for you. >> correct. >> brennan: we went and looked. homeland security says there are still around 900 children who remain separated from their families is. that something you continue to remain engaged on when it comes to immigration? >> well, immigration is not part

of my portfolio. obviously i think everyone should be engaged in the full force of the u.s. government is committed tonkis effort of border security to, protecting the most vulnerable, that includes those being trafficked across our border, which this president has committed to countering and combating human trafficking in an incredibly comprehensive, aggressive way. so the full united states government has been focused on this issue starting with the president. >> brennan: ivanka trump, thank you very much for your time. >> thank you. >> brennan: and we will be right back with a lot more "face the nation." so stay with us. in one week... a lot will happen in your life. wrinkles just won't. neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair's derm-proven retinol works so fast, it takes only one week to reveal younger looking skin. making wrinkles look so last week.

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ensuring clean energy across the country. how are we going to pull this country together? we take on the biggest challenge in history, we save the world and do it together. but he wanted snow for thelace holidays.. so we built a snow globe. i'll get that later. dylan! but the one thing we could both agree on was getting geico to help with homeowners insurance. what? switching and saving was really easy! i love you! what? sweetie! hands off the glass. ugh!! call geico and see how easy saving on homeowners and condo insurance can be. i love her! >> brennan: coming up next, a look back at 2019 and what to look out for in 20 with our cbs news correspondent's year-end roundtable. problems.

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[captioning funded by cbs sports [captioning funded by cbs sports division] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] ♪ james: week 17 in the nfl. dealt with a few jr injuries but still 25 touchdowns a four interceptions. ex-seating and fun to watch. >> philip rivers has started every game as a charger in the last 14 yearars. could today be his last as he enters arrowhead stadium? >> josh allen running intohe