what more do we know about his condition? >> reporter: well, at this point, jose, it appears the senate minority leader is still in the hospital, recovering from this fall. his office has not given us an update outside of what they told us shortly after the news broke of this situation that he was dealing with last night. of course, mcconnell is 81 years old, he had health scares in the past, heart surgery, he fell in 2019 and broke his shoulder. so he has dealt with health issues and gotten past them before. but in this situation, it is a new issue that has cropped up and we're still waiting to get a status check as to how long he could possibly be out, what caused him to fall during this dinner last night here in washington. and how long this could potentially impact him being away from the united states senate. all of that are the questions

we're still contining to ask, jose. >> in other news from capitol hill, a top health official said a significant data breach exposed personal information about hundreds of lawmakers and staff. what do you know about that? >> reporter: yeah, this is a very big deal, jose. this is information that is stored through the various systems that both members of congress and their staff used to access important information about their health and well-being. this was information that was hacked into and then stolen. there has been reports that it has been available for purchase on the dark web. this is something capitol police are now looking into. as a result, there was a memo that was sent out to all members and staff that were impacted by the breach, suggesting that they take steps to freeze their credit, they were given access to a number of different credit agencies to make that happen. and they are taking it very seriously. capitol police just at the front end of this investigation right

now, they did, however, make it clear that they do not believe that this was an attack specifically on the congress itself, on the house of representatives or the united states senate. it was more about the personal information of the staffers and members themselves. still, pretty alarming that hackers were able to get in and access that material. jose? >> ryan nobles on capitol hill, thank you so much. any minute now the head of norfolk southern is set to face tough questions from senators after two massive train derailments in ohio. moments ago, the company's ceo alan shaw told lawmakers he's deeply sorry for the impact of the derailment in east palestine that triggered a hazardous chemical spill. after the incident, resident ganz reporting headaches and respiratory issues among other symptoms. joining us now is nbc news capitol hill correspondent julie tsirkin and from cleveland, ohio, nbc news correspondent jesse kirsch. julie, what kind of questions can we expect from lawmakers in this hearing today? >> reporter: yeah, well,

certainly alan shaw and the epa officials are going to be grilled by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. let's take a step back here, jose. this is the first time we're hearing from the ceo of norfolk southern and this isn't the only train derailment that has happened under his watch. just more than four train derailments in ohio alone in the last five months. and in this hearing room, which you can see on your screen, you have family members of residents who live in east palestine, you have moms in attendance and right now we're still hearing from officials in their opening statement portion. but we heard from senator shelly moore caputo, the top epublican on the panel. debra shore testified they were on the ground in a matter of hours, we also heard powerful words from ohio's junior senator republican j.d. vance who said that the rail are in the lobbyists' back pockpreventd

republicans, a member of his own party, from doing anything meaningful in terms of legislation to curb some of these safety measures that we have been seeing. a reminder from a union source i spoke to who is actually in the room, he told me that, again, these rail companies all across the country have been operaing for years without meaningful laws, more so guidelines. that's some of what vance and brown and senator casey of pennsylvania hope to fix with their bipartisan rail safety act. i want you to take a listen to some portions from senator brown and senator vance and their opening remarks. >> the company followed the wall street business model. boost profits by cutting costs at all costs, the consequences for places like east palestine be damned. and ten years norfolk southern eliminated 38% of its workforce. >> this is an industry that just three months ago had the federal government come in and save them

from a labor dispute. it was effectively a bailout, and now they're claiming before the senate and the house that our reasonable regulation, our reasonable legislation is somehow a violation of the free market. well, pot meet the kettle, because that doesn't make an ounce of sense. >> reporter: look, vance's comments are in some ways a reminder that this hearing is just a marker for a referendum on the rail industry as a whole. we have seen in the last half a year or so disagreements between union workers and rail companies. right now i'm told there are negotiations for even paid sick leave for those engineers and conductors that are aboard these trains. some of whom are also suffering from the devastation that happened in east palestine. so, a lot to watch here as this hearing is just really getting under way. >> yeah, i mean, jesse, julie was talking about this, there have been three reported incidents involving norfolk southern in ohio. you're in cleveland, where one of the employees of that company was just killed in an accident?

>> reporter: that's right, jose. and that is one of multiple deaths tied to this company that the ntsb says it is looking at more closely now. after that incident, we got word from the national transportation safety board earlier this week they have opened a special investigation. they were already investigating, we know, the derailment in east palestine and the derailment in springfield that happened over the weekend and now they opened a broader special investigation into this company's practices because of the number of events that we have seen come up. i want to flag one other thing we heard out of this hearing so far, julie was talking about what we heard from ohio senators vance and brown. one of the things that was brought up there and an undercurrent is that based on what type of train is moving through a community, officials aren't necessarily aware of what is on that train. and that becomes relevant when you have hazardous materials coming through your community and then, of course, if there is a derailment and first responders are trying to react to that. so, we know that in the case of the east palestine incident,

officials there is a they were not aware of the hazardous materials on board before the derailment and then over the weekend in springfield, i asked that of officials there and that community outside of dayton in columbus and officials there say in springfield over the weekend they did not know there were hazardous materials on board the train before that train derailed. and so that is something that was raised as a concern in this hearing from some of the officials we have heard from so far and just looking, you know, back at what we're getting from the live pictures of this hearing room right now. no questions yet for the ceo of norfolk southern, but we're probably going to be hearing about that, that's something i want to hear questions on, jose, because that is one of those practices that we're asking about possibly seeing a change from this company on, something we know there is a push for in legislation amid a whole range of changes that senators are asking for. >> and we are certainly keeping a close watch on this hearing right there on capitol hill. when that questioning begins, we will bring it to you. i thank julie tsirkin and jesse

kirsch for being with us this morning. we're learning more today about the deadly kidnapping of four americans in mexico. cheryl orange told the associated press she was the fifth person on that trip, but she left the trip before the group crossed the border into mexico because she didn't have identification with her. this comes as republicans are pushing for a tougher response to the kidnapping, calling for the u.s. to designate mexican cartels as foreign terrorist organizations or even send the u.s. military to deal with them. with us now to talk more about this, nbc news correspondent morgan chesky, in brownsville, texas, barry mccaffrey, former u.s. drug czar, commander of the u.s. southern command, among other things, msnbc analyst, and mike vihi. what have we been able to learn about what happened to this group? >> reporter: a startling revelation in the last 24 hours or so with the news that there was a fifth passenger inside

this van that departed south carolina en route to south texas to then go across to neighboring matamoros, mexico, for what was supposed to be a cosmetic procedure. but, jose, a source close to this matter told nbc news that this fifth individual was a woman who did not make the journey across the border, because she did not have the necessary documentation. that woman's identified herself to the associated press as cheryl orange. according to her account, jose, she only anticipated her friends being off for 15 minutes to the border to drop off latavia washington mcgee for the procedure and when they didn't return, that's when she contacted local authorities in brownsville, texas, and that's what began this -- what became a massive investigation as a result of this deadly kidnapping. we are here just across the river from mexico, jose, anticipating the return or the repatriation of those two americans who were killed in

that deadly kidnapping on friday. in the meantime, of the two survivors, we know that one of them is expected back in her native south carolina at some point soon. we're awaiting official confirmation from her family. and then we do believe the other survivor, eric james williams, is still recovering from a gunshot wound in a nearby hospital. important to note here from a larger level, jose, that there was a high level delegation already in mexico expected to speak to government leaders there about the ongoing fentanyl crisis, but as a result of this kidnapping, we do anticipate those conversations to significantly shift towards that today at some point. jose? >> morgan chesky in brownsville, texas, thank you very much. mike, i want to talk to both of you, as the general as well, a lot of focus has been on the cartels. who exactly are these cartels, mike? >> well, the cartels are

transnational organized crime units, not only do they operate in mexico, the united states, but when you take a look at the sinaloa cartel, they operate in six of the seven continents. they don't operate in antarctica because the penguins can't buy drugs. so these are very powerful organizations that not only deal drugs anymore, but they have penetrated a lot of the mexican industries to include the theft of billion dollars in petroleum each year in pipelines. >> these are just horrendous, multinational organizations involved in all kinds of things, drugs, human trafficking, human exploitation. aren't they in fact terrorist organizations? >> well, you can certainly classify them as terrorist organizations. the impact on mexico, beautiful

mexico, probably the number one country of importance in the world along with canada, us, economically, just profound. >> general, i'm sorry to interrupt you. the questioning is now happening on capitol hill with the -- on the issue of the ohio train derailment. let's go to those. >> -- damaging our air, our water, possibly making my family and our neighbors sick. what if this disaster lowered the value of our home and our business? i worked my whole life to build? and i would be honest, i would be furious. and i think most of us would be and we would want to make sure norfolk southern took action to make our family and our communiies whole. i think the americans, if they were here, get them all in this room, a lot of them would ask the same questions if this happened in their towns.

yes or no, will you commit that norfolk southern will be there for the -- as long as it takes to make east palestine, ohio, darlington township in pennsylvania and the surrounding communities whole from this disaster, yes or no? >> senator, thank you for that question. i understand that concern. that's the same concern that is shared with me by the residents of east palestine. and darlington township. i'm terribly sorry for the impact this derailment has had on the folks of that community. and, yes, it is my personal commitment that norfolk southern's commitment that we're going to be there for as long as it takes to help east palestine thrive and recover. that's my personal commitment. >> i take that as a yes. thank you. that's the answer i was looking for. next question, will you commit that norfolk southern will

compensate the people in these communities for possible long-term medical costs and economic damages resulting from this disaster, yes or no, please? >> senator, we're committed to doing what's right for the folks of east palestine and the community. that's been my personal commitment since the day after this happened. i pulled my team together and i told my team, we are going to do more than less with the environmental cleanup, and we're going to do more than less with the citizens of east palestine. >> and my third question is, yes or no, will you commit to paying for long-term medical testing for people in the impacted communities to ensure that anyone with suspected exposure to dangerous chemicals due too this disaster is monitored for adverse health effects, yes or no? >> senator, i'm committed to doing what's right.

we're going to be there today, tomorrow, a year from now, five years from now, ten years from now. i told the community that. i've been there in person. i've looked into their eyes. i've heard their concerns. i've been in their family rooms. i'm committed to that community and so is norfolk southern. >> all right, thank you for that. my second question would be for administrator shore. i commend epa, i want to commend its employees and leadership for being in east palestine and for the rank and file to be there within hours of the accident and for the hard work that you and others have been doing every day since then to get the contamination cleaned up. i also commend the epa for continuing to listen and respond to the community's concerns. including adapting the monitoring and sampling to ensure that any adverse environmental impacts and

possible significant health effects from this disaster are known and addressed. administrator regan's level of personal involvement here i believe is unprecedented in anything i've seen in my experience. my question, so i think i know the answer, but i will ask you the same thing i asked mr. shaw this and is to do you commit epa will be there for as long as it takes to protect the public health and the environment of the impacted communities? >> thank you, senator carper. yes, epa is committed to continuing to work with our partners in the community and make sure they have the support that they need and deserve. epa will be on the ground as long as it takes. >> all right, thank you. my last question, i will ask, is of director volcker, to you and mr. brewer. before this hearing, i had the

opportunity to speak with several other officials in response to this incident including governors of ohio and pennsylvania. governor shapiro shared with me a letter from february 14th, 20 -- confusion and concerns that alternative options for safely removing the chemicals were not adequately considered. in your experience, did you receive the information that you needed for norfolk southern to adequately make decisions relating to protecting public health and safety, were there any gaps in communication from norfolk southern to respond agencies in first 72 hours of the derailment that may have contributed to distrust within the impacted communities, and if so, has norfolk southern satisfactorily addressed any such communication gaps since that time? >> thank you for your question. i do believe there were quite a

few gaps in communication and missteps in the very early hours of the -- following the derailment. i do believe that those gaps in communication have been addressed. i believe the teams are working well together on the ground today. but, yes, things could have been handled better in the beginning hours. >> all right, thank you. were there any gaps in communication for from folk southern to responding to agencies in first 27 hours or so of the derailment that may have contributed to stress within the impacted communities and if so has norfolk southern satisfactorily addressed such communication gaps since that time? >> thank you. the boots on the ground crews were great to work with. they seemed as bosses or management gets there that's where the communication failures start. that's probably why we're here today. the decision to go from the one

tank car to the five was jaw dropping. and that -- just because of the impact it had. since then they did seem to get better though. >> all right, thank you. senator caputo, you're recognized for your questions. thank you to the panel. >> thank you. thank you all for being here. thank you for your testimony. it is my understanding this is sort of a table setting question here that no one, not the epa, not the state, not norfolk southern has been making these cleanup decisions in a vacuum, that instead a unified command group of these entities and experts have all had input into these major decisions. so, for everybody who is here, could i have a show of hands or whose organization is represented in this unified command group? do you have a comment? >> we used to be up until last week or so. >> okay. >> ema is involved, but columbia. >> thank you. >> and then is that a fair

assessment that i made forward that these decisions are not made individually, they're made by the unified command, you can shake your heads yes, or if you disagree? all right, thank you. so, i mentioned in my opening statement, i want to go right to the epa, to director shore, and thank you for being on the ground early. i commended you in my opening statement and your organization. i understand this may be something we get into a little bit later. region five, region three, within a thousand feet of pennsylvania. i'm concerned now about something senator vance talked about and this is the hazardous waste disposal that we're seeing right now. apparently there are piles and piles of -- sitting there, right now, and not moving. and i understand that facilities in michigan and texas that received waste from east palestine are some of the most qualified in the entire country. the u.s. ecology facility in michigan had already accepted 360 tons of soil and 3,000

gallons of liquid in full compliance with their permits. the epa has stopped -- they have failed to give us an answer on what legal authority you used to stop those trucks at the gates of the facility that had already been accepting large volumes of waste. you said in your statement this is great news because it means the cleanup can continue at a rapid pace. if it is still sitting there, i would say that's a contrarian kind of -- that's in opposition of what we're seeing. so, all shipments of contaminated soils have been suspended on site to test for dioxins, something that might -- should have possibly been done weeks ago, but there was an insistence i think that the dioxin concerns were not as severe as what now you're going back and testing. so, let me be clear, this is just -- it goes to this whole mixed messages of what is going on here. so, help me understand why you

are delaying this cleanup effort, why the piles are still piling up. because any time you get there, it disturbs not just the chemicals, but it brings the odor and then here comes the lack of trust right back down on to the community. and so, could you say -- could you help me with this? is it true that most of the remaining contaminated soil is still sitting there in east palestine, and when are you going get it out of there and where are you going to take it? i know you're not doing it, norfolk southern is doing it. go ahead. >> senator capito, thank you for that. first, i want to thank you for acknowledging the heroic efforts of all the emergency responders who were on the scene within hours, including epa on scene, coordinators from both region three and region five, and i have them the front of mind every day and thanks for acknowledging their efforts.

let me report that waste is moving offsite, even as recently as yesterday and -- >> where is it going? where is it going? >> to a number of facilities that are epa-approved, that have the capacity to receive the waste, that have contracts with norfolk southern, and that have gone through our due diligence in a compliance review, which is necessary. once federal epa issued the order, and assumed authority for the cleanup work from ohio epa, and we did pause to conduct that necessary due diligence, and compliance review, because then all the facilities fell under the circla regulations. norfolk southern engages facilities wherever they may be to accept solid and liquid waste. it is epa's responsibility to

ensure the safeguards are in place for that waste and the loading transport and unloading, to make sure that they're compliant with regulations, and to make sure that they have the capacity to take the waste. i can share some good news with you that the results from the dioxin testing, that indiana requested, came in yesterday, and there are very low levels. we expect waste to be moving perhaps as soon as today to other facilities. no option is off the table. >> okay, so i would like to see a list of the facilities and i also would like to ask quickly if i could have just another minute, why did you wait a month before you started to order the dioxin testing when the community was asking for this? was that a decision that you made early on that it wasn't critical or how is this decision made? >> senator capito, our air monitoring was searching for

primary indicators, such as fosgene and hydrogen chloride, before, during and after the burn. we detected very low levels, which very quickly went even down to nondetect. without those primary indicators, it was a very low probability that dioxins would have been created. they're secondary byproducts of the burning of vinyl chloride. we were listening to the community. and they expressed significant concerns about dioxins, norfolk southern has submitted a soil sampling plan, it has undergone review by the unified command and our folks will be out sampling soils for dioxins. there is a meeting with agriculture representatives this afternoon. >> yeah, well, thank you. i mean, the air issue is obviously 30 days late is a

little bit well past the time when the intensity might have been felt more. but thank you for your answers, thank you. >> thank you for the questions. and i'm now going to take a couple of minutes and ask a few questions that were submitted by senator fetterman, who can't join us today. >> we have been watching and listening to this senate hearing with norfolk southern as well as the head of the epa, federal and state officials that have been dealing with the aftermath of this derailment more than four weeks ago. i want to go back now to the subject that we were discussing just before we took you to this senate hearing, back with us, retired general barry mccaffrey, former u.s. drug czar and commander of the southern command. and also mike vigil, former head of international operations for the drug enforcement administration. general, right before we -- i didn't mean to interrupt you, but it is breaking news, i was asking you about these organizations. are they not indeed terrorist

organizations? >> well, we got to focus on the fact that this is primarily a criminal threat to mexican citizens, for starters. 77,000 disappeared, huge threat to migrants from central america and as mike has already pointed out, these were international criminal organizations and represent in many cases a primary criminal threat throughout the united states. it is clearly not a responsibility for the u.s. armed forces and would deeply and immediately offend all mexican citizens, never mind their government, and bring cooperation to a halt. so the notion that military forces called for ought to be off the table. >> so, mike, how should they be handled then?

it is very clear, we were talking about this yesterday with the lead anchor at telemundo, there have been maybe 190,000 mexicans died in that country since obrador took office. 190,000 people and as the general says, the victims are primarily people in mexico, and, you know, the victims of narcotrafficing and human smuggling. but, mike, how do you deal with something like this? >> well, it is a very complex situation, jose. and we have been dealing with this issue for a number of years. we need a little bit better cooperation from the mexican government. we need to strengthen our efforts in terms of the financial networks of these cartels. number two, we need to eliminate the corruption in mexico because

the cartels cannot operate without protection of these politicians. the third thing that we need to do is we need to have a larger and more robust intelligence network, so that we can ensure that we have intelligence driven operations instead of haphazard operations and then we have to focus on the networks themselves. in the past, there was a focus on just the heads of the cartels and we saw what happened with that. the cartels fragmented like the proverbial greek hydra and you had more violent cartels, but to really deal with this issue, jose, we need to do a better job in terms of reducing the demand

here in the united states. i will also point out that a lot of these republican congressmen and senators talk about the violence using, you know, armed forces and i agree with general mccaffrey, that's not the solution. but at the same time i look at it as sheer hypocrisy because most of the weapons that are found on mexican soil come from the united states. mexico only has one drugstore and that's on the military base in mexico and it is heavily guarded, soldiers are actually the clerks that work at this gun store. the only issue or sale of 6,500 weapons a year, so if the republican senators are worried about violence in mexico, let's

do something about the weapons flowing into that country. general mccaffrey has a very valid point, designating them as terrorist organizations only does three things. number one, it allows the u.s. government to basically seize assets in financial institutions here in the united states. secondly, it prohibits u.s. citizens from dealing with cartel-based businesses, if you will, if they were designated, and then thoroughly has immigration, prohibitions, preventing them from coming to the united states, but they're never going to come here because there is arrest warrants for them here. so it is not a game changer. >> well, general barry mccaffrey and mike vigil, thank you for being with us. this is a very important

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35 past the hour. now to the white house where president biden is set to leave in just a couple of minutes to head to philadelphia to outline his 2024 budget proposal.

the white house will officially unveil the plan at noon eastern time. the white house budget director tells nbc news the budget will reduce the deficit by nearly $3 trillion over ten years and that the proposal is, quote, the beginning of a dialogue with republicans. with us now to talk more about this, eugene daniels, politico white house reporter and msnbc political contributor and cnbc's dominic chu. if it is not going anywhere, is this just a priority list or a political statement looking ahead to 2024? >> all of the above is exactly what you just said. they know this white house is not under any kind of foolish thoughts that this is going to turn into an actual document that president biden is going to sign in the oval office or anywhere else. this is about saying to the country, this is what i believe and this is what i want, you know. there is four categories, reducing the deficit, lowering costs for families, medicare and

social security strengthening and investing in america. now, if you're someone who covered politics, what that sounds like to me is a re-election campaign message. this is a white house that with all intents and purposes is gearing up to announce something about president biden's choices and likely him running for president again. this is a way for him to do that. what is fascinating is there are things that are kind of throughout the list of things that have come up before we're going to hear -- see the actual budget at noon, which are the focus on the deficit, right? that is him saying to republicans, you know, i am not the party of socialists who are going to try to spend all the money he's thinking about those kinds of things and i think he also, when i talked to a bunch of different people about this over the last week or so, this is also the white house trying to force republicans' hands to show their budget, to say what their priorities are, because we haven't seen that and they made promises to balance the budget over ten years, and if you don't touch medicare, social security, or the defense budget, there is

not much you can actually pull from in that case. that's what the white house is hoping to push this week. >> yeah, and dominic, the president's deficit reduction plan relies a lot on higher or newer taxes on the wealthier. >> that's right, jose. and, by the way, to eugene's point, the other thing this does set the stage for is the debate later on down the line about what we're going to do to raise america's borrowing authority, the debt ceiling debate. this is all an opening salvo here. we're talking about a range of tax hikes when it comes to the revenue side of this. it is going to seek to target the wealthiest americans out there. and it is also going to target corporations. now, on the individual front, it is going to call for a 25% minimum tax for billionaires, right? the richest of the rich. it is also going to raise, though, the tax on households making over $400,000 a year. so, yes, the rich, but not the super, super rich. it is also going to significantly raise the tax paid

on capital gains or stock market gains. on the corporate front, the expectation here will be for a hike in the corporate tax rate to 28%. it is currently 21%. and also significantly raise a tax paid by companies when they choose to use their profits as a way to buy back their own stock. that's the revenue side. now, on the spending side, remember, expect to see a huge boost in the defense budget that's going to be keyed on by a lot of investors and defense contractors. it should be one of the biggest increases in defense spending at a time when america itself is not at war, but, of course, war rages between ukraine and russia and tensions with china continue to escalate. so, again, jose, a lot of investors will be keying on whether or not this particular plan will survive in some kind of form, but right now a lot of focus on wall street is being paid to what the tax situation is going to look like. >> and, dominic, we got the jobless claims from the last week and we saw a huge increase

there. what is happening? >> this is a volatile number. a lot of this could have seasonality aspects due to vacations for schools and teachers who might be not working because kids are out of class. but they did come in hotter than expected. 211,000 americans, jose, first time unemployment benefits. that's more than economists were expecting. it is worth noting right now that the number of americans who are claiming multiple weeks of unemployment benefits rose to 1.7 million from 1.6 million in the prior week. so on the one hand, it shows there is a weakening, if you will, of the jobs market. it is about the only data point we have seen over the last several weeks that indicates a weaker job market. the big data comes tomorrow with the monthly nonfarm payrolls report and not just that, the wage data that goes along with it that could indicate the direction of inflation. >> eugene and dominic, thank you very much. there is a new push to fix

at least one part of the nation's broken immigration system. several house democrats just introduced a bill this morning that would update the registration system that allows eligible people to apply for residency, creating a pathway to citizenship. with us now, one of the sponsors of that bill, california congresswoman norma torres, always a pleasure, congresswoman, to see you. so, what exactly is this bill intending to do? >> yes, thank you for the opportunity to speak to you, jose about this very important bill. it is simply addresses an issue of the registration date. the bill is a page and a half, it is a very, very simple bill. it talks about -- it recognizes the fact that we have residents of the united states that have been here and are long-term residents of seven years, and they're residents in good standing. so we want them to have an

opportunity to come out of the shadows, most of these people are frontline workers, who deserve to have an opportunity to have legal status in this country. and that's what this registry bill seeks to address. >> you know, and it is important to talk about because it is just one and a half pages, and it is, you know, in the language of washington, d.c., this is, you know, nothing -- it is actually just an update on the registry of the act of 1929. there have been congresswoman, no substantial immigration, not comprehensive immigration reform since 1986. is this one part of a larger perspective of bills possibly that could start the ball rolling on immigration reform? >> absolutely. when we first brought this bill to chairwoman lofgren, you know, we were thinking about something

that wasn't, you know, a thousand pages long. something that was not a complicated -- written in complicated legal language, but something that the average, you know, american could understand. these are your neighbors, these are your colleagues at work, you know, who deserve an opportunity to have legal status here in the u.s. and, again, we're not changing anything else. we have big dreams of having a real immigration reform bill pushed in the 118th congress as we did in the 117th congress. and that is why i was asked to wait to introduce this bill in the last congress. however, we recognize the fact that to have an immigration win with republicans is going to take a very simple small approach, such as this bill. and although it is a very small bill, it is going to impact in a

good way millions of people. >> so, congresswoman, it would be, i guess, i mean, fundamental to have some bipartisan work done on this or any other bill that -- so it could have a chance of passing. are there some movement -- is there some movement that you all can create with some in the other political party? you see if there can be some bipartisan work done? >> i think there can be some bipartisan work on this bill. we have seen and we have heard from several republican members that have come on, on to this network, talking about, you know, border issues and talking about dealing with immigration reform. well, here is a simple way that you can help american companies who hire these folks, who risk

themselves every single day because no one else is readily available to take, you know this kind of work that they need, and these workers are already doing the work. these are not safety concerns for the u.s. these are people that have to be residents in good standing in order for them to advance their residency here in the u.s. >> congresswoman norma torres, a pleasure to see you. thank you for being with us this morning. >> thank you, jose. we have got breaking news of another train derailment that happened today. much more details after a quick break. t happened today much more details after a quick break. so it's decided, we'll park even deeper into parking spaces so people think they're open. surprise. [ laughs ] [ horn honks, muffled talking ] -can't hear you, jerry. -sorry. uh, yeah, can we get a system where when someone's bike is in the shop, then we could borrow someone else's? -no! -no!

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they say there are roughly 30 cars that derailed from the initial reports. norfolk southern responded and is working closely with us, that's what i'm reading from local officials. they say there's no report of a hazmat situation. this comes in the middle of this hearing on capitol hill with the ceo of norfolk southern testifying. we have been monitoring the hearing. we have not seen the ceo be asked about the latest derailment. this comes amid a string of situations involving this railroad which is under intense scrutiny following that situation in east palestine that led to a toxic leak of material in that community in eastern ohio. that happened. then we had another derailment in ohio over the weekend. then here in cleveland, in this community this week after the second derailment, we had a situation where according to the company, a worker was killed in a situation involving one of their trains. now the ntsb has opened a special investigation into this

company's broader practices. amid that, with all this scrutiny, the ceo on capitol hill, another derailment apparently by this company today in alabama. >> thank you so very much. today we are hearing new comments from lloyd austin as he visits israel with anti-government protests over israel's judicial reform in full swing throughout the country, even on the road to the airport. funerals on the west bank for three palestinian militants israel said it killed in a raid last night. raf sanchez is live in tel aviv with the latest. what's the latest from austin's visit there? >> reporter: jose, good morning. second austin has departed israel after a very brief and very chaotic visit. the secretary was supposed to come here to tel aviv, go to the israeli defense ministry a mile in that direction. as you said, israeli protesters out in tens of thousands blocking major highways.

instead, the secretary landed in israel and he stayed there his entire trip inside the airport compound. he did his meetings there. the reason the protesters were out is this very controversial plan by benjamin netanyahu to weaken israel's supreme court. he says this is a necessary reform to curb activist judges. protesters fear this could be a potentially fatal blow to israeli democracy. interestingly, secretary austin went out of his way to signal that the u.s. shares at least some of the protests' concerns. take a listen. >> as president biden has said, the genius of american democracy and israeli democracy is that they are both built on strong institutions, on checks and balances, and on an independent judiciary.

>> reporter: checks and balances and independent judiciary. those are things of protesters fear will be wiped out by this plan, which would allow israel's parliament to vote by a simple majority to ignore rulings of the supreme court. prime minister netanyahu showing no sign of backing down. >> raf sanchez in tel aviv, thank you. at home, an update on the case involving a 6-year-old student who shot his teacher. the local prosecutor in virginia said wednesday that he will not seek charges against that student but has not decided whether any adults involved could be held criminally liable. joining us with more is anne thompson. who could be held accountable here? >> jose, you have to believe that they would focus on the adult who owned the gun. police have said that is the 6-year-old's mother. that gun apparently was legally purchased, according to police. but a big question is, how did the 6-year-old get ahold of that

gun? how did the 6-year-old load the gun with bullets? how did the 6-year-old know how to fire the gun? all of those questions still have yet to be answered. what the prosecutor said is in deciding not to charge the 6-year-old, he weighed a couple of things. first of all, the child's age. could the child understand the legal process? would he understand the charges that would be brought against him? would he understand the legal system? was he competent to participate in his own defense? the prosecuting attorney looked at all of that and found it to be problematic. that doesn't mean this case is over. he is still looking at other possible charges involving adults. jose? >> this is just an unbelievable story. this whole concept we are looking at the possibility -- we are talking about a 6-year-old child who took a gun to school

and shot his teacher. >> it's just incredibly difficult to literally wrap your head around. then add to this -- the teacher's attorney -- the teacher, and her attorney says three times on the days she was shot, three different people, two teachers and an employee, went to school administrators and warned them that this child had a gun. nothing was done. that's on top of the fact that she herself went to administrators earlier in the day and said that the child seemed particularly violent. he had a history of behavioral problems that she was well aware of and other people became aware of as the day went on. it's just a tragedy all around. >> it certainly is. anne thompson, thank you very much. that wraps up the hour for me.

can reach me on twitter and instagram. you can watch highlights from today's show online. thank you for the privilege of your time. andrea mitchell picks up with more news after a quick break. a. ! 50% off?! that deal's so good we don't even need an eight-time all-star to tell you about it. wait what? get it before it's gone on the subway app!

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right now on "andrea mitchell reports," norfolk southern's ceo apologizing to lawmakers and the country for a string of derailments, primarily the derailment and