i mentioned earlier -- heitkamp, donnelly, and mccaskill on the tax cut ill. that is an example of them latantly choosing partisanship over what is best for the states, and i think it will be held accountable in an effective way on that front. host: have you ever supported a democrat? mr. phillips: we have on the state level. there have been some good free-market champions over the last decade or so. and at the federal level, we would love to. we were genuinely hoping senator manchin or senator donnelly or heitkamp, who talked a good game at the beginning of this year -- we were hoping, and reached out and said guys, support this tax reform, support some of the cra work, rolling back or getting rid of regulations using the congressional review act, and they have not done that and it has been disappointing. maggie: you had asked about the structure of the network, and i know you have that big $400 million plan for the midterms. last cycle, there was some talk about and some reports of the kochscaling back its reach. network you talked about the spending target,

so that's a fourth one that senator heitkamp and i were the co-authors of last year. i'm sure there are others who would like to -- >> final question. >> hold on, hold on. hold on. reporter: senator collins, can you -- [indiscernible] reporter: how are democrats -- [inaudible] reporter: what's the whip count? how close are you to 60? senator flake: i don't think -- >> i don't think we know exactly how many senators until we are calling on a vote. there is a democratic caucus meeting going on right now which is to reinforce the support of our caucus leadership for this bipartisan compromise. it's exactly the sort of compromise in which there are people unhappy in both caucuses about it because it either gives too much to the president of his priorities or doesn't go far enough in meeting the priorities of those who want to do comprehensive immigration reform. senator coons: the great thing about a compromise, it solves two, as this case does, two real problems right in front of us. i am optimistic every democrat will support this bipartisan compromise and i'm hopeful w

acknowledge him and senators casey and stabenow, manchin, klobuchar, baldwin, mccaskill, donnelly and heitkamp, who worked so long and hard on pensions. the budget deal also includes long-awaited disaster relief for texas, louisiana, florida, the western states, puerto rico, and the u.s. virgin islands. many of these places are still taking their first steps in the long march to recovery. much of puerto rico and the virgin islands remains damaged and in the dark. this recovery aid could not have come a moment too soon. senator nelson worked very hard for both florida and puerto rico relief, as did so many others in this chamber. i'd also like to thank our ranking member on the appropriations committee, senator leahy, who worked so diligently with his staff and his ranking members on these issues, as well as senator murray, who's been our beacon on health issues where we've made real progress today. the budget deal is a win for the american people. it will also do so much good for our military and for so many middle-class americans. and finally, sign the arbitrary and pointless sequester caps t

>> sure, drawing the distinction, ashley, between senator heitkamp and me, senator heitkamp won electionth the same state, with the exact same constituency. we both have a record little over five years old. i'm more than happy to run on my record and she will be running from hers. i'm looking forward to drawing the distinction between somebody who supported repealing and replacing obamacare with much more centric, patient centric, state centric plan. she was decided vote in not passing that bill in the senate. i supported tax cuts wildly popular and proving to be very, very favorable to the economy, to jobs creation. she of course voted against those. i oppose sanctuary cities. last week she supported sanctuary cities. there are a whole host of policy differences between senator heitkamp and me that i look forward to debating. ashley: of course our topic right now, congressman, gun control. the president has said he's open to perhaps improving certainly the background checks in purchasing funds. where do you stand on that -- guns. >> first of all i'm a strong proponent of the second amen

heitkamp: mr. president, i rise today to talk about paid family leave. i want to kind of introduce this topic by saying, you know, politicians across america, whether they are local, whether they are in state offices, or whether they are in very important bodies like the united states senate, make one pledge, and that is to support american families, to make life just a little easier for the people who are raising the next generation, to do what it takes to encourage people to have families and to have children so our future is secured with a workforce and also the vibrancy that is america. so it is 25 years since we adopted the family medical leave act. that was a great step forward and actually -- i actually remember when it happened. i was north dakota's attorney general cheering from the sidelines thinking, we involved this problem, we are protecting parents from losing their jobs and able to care for their newborns. unfortunately, it wasn't enough. it wasn't enough because how many people, even if they have the protection can afford to exercise thei

heitkamp: you cannot force that. we've got our jurisdiction here. but let's not pretend that we are going to get a broad authorization in oversight capacity here with this kind of mixed jurisdiction. toncourage this committee start asserting its jurisdiction and talking about this as a problem. are also not we going to pretend we can solve that problem overnight. sen. heitkamp: ron, how old is the agency? 15 years. it is not overnight. pretending that 15 years of dispersed jurisdiction here is acceptable, and we have to wait longer. we have to get this problem fixed, especially when you're going to get $25 billion extra. sen. johnson: we are recommending some kind of commission to point out we are putting our nations security at risk by having dhs so scattered. we are on the same page here. it is how you fix it. i will follow on the theme of accountability. the last two questioners, that deals with the grantmaking that occurs within your agency. tens of billions of dollars of money has been put out in various grants since 9/11, and taxpayers have a

congressman kevin kramer initially decided not to run against a freshman democratic senator heidi heitkampshe is thought to be one of the most vulnerable senators this cycle. kramer tells fox news he will make a decision by the end of this weekend. a left-leaning public policy group wants to -- citing cyber security concerns per the center for american progress takes you to report this week rep -- colo secretary of state defended the practice saying that state has incorporated enough safeguards and someone who works on a submarine should be allowed to vote. plenty of room for improvement but entering the second year of his term on an upswing, pick up seats and flipped the house and the 28 midterms. >> you cannot just run against donald trump. it is the job of we democrats to put together a strong, cohesive, economic group of proposals. aimed at the middle class and those struggling to get there. >> >> shannon: fox news politics editor chris stirewalt about the current political lay of the land. >> it's my jam. >> shannon: it is your jam, jam on it. the world can change between now and then

even some conservative democrats in the senate, people like joe manchin and heidi heitkamp, in the past they have voted against expanded background checks. or they voted against gun control measures that more liberal democrats are 100% behind. whenever these things happen, sadly far too often, there's a lot of talk of mental health issues. is there any proposal to address that? the president talked about it a lot at the white house. arit: one idea going around is sort of restraining orders against people who have guns, but they have mental health issues or are deemed to be a danger to other people. like some sort of way to take guns away from those people. we did also hear about the president saying that right now -- if there is someone who is being dangerous -- we used to be able to put people involuntarily into mental institutions. but that a lot of those institutions have closed and that there is not a middle ground between leaving that whole -- at home and in jail. i think that in the past congress has passed more money for mental health assistance and they would like to see that le

heidi heitkamp of north dakota gave me, several years ago when we were negotiating a bill, a talking stick. it's beautifully beaded and i used it to control the debate in the room because as you can imagine, when you have 20-25 senators sitting around an office, each thinks that he or she should be the first to speak, and there's a lot of crosstalk. and i wanted to make sure that in addition to everybody getting an opportunity to speak, everybody listen to one another so i would pass this stick around. believe it or not it worked. we are not using it right now, we used it for all the shutdown meetings, and it did help to ensure that everyone had a chance to speak and to be heard. >> so you got other senators to obey? >> well, i don't know whether it was so unexpected that i would pull out this stick, but people were very respectful of each other's views. >> you talked a lot personally to president trump during the health care debate. what is president trump like behind the scenes? >> he tends to be very gracious, and he tends to listen. he will say, well, that sounds reasonable. now,

there's a bipartisan bill now in the senate between cornyn and heitkamp, senator cornyn and senator heitkamp, that probably could pass the senate, and i think -- neil: move on this to say we have of to offer more than prayers and all was a significant development, wasn't it? >> yeah. and the students rallying and keeping this issue kind of vibrant -- >> right. >> some of the boycotts against companies has also sort of drawn the -- neil: these companies that are distancing themselves from the nra. >> that had somehow offered discount toss the nra like united airlines saying we're not going to do that anymore. neil: right, right. >> there's sill some fairly difficult trade-offs that are being asked for. so, yes, there's an effort to raise the age limit for when you can buy some of these weapons, but the trade-off is, hey, we want one state's permission for open-carry to a apply to all of -- >> across space. >> which is, one, going to run afoul of states' rights issues, and the other is going to run afoul of those who don't like the notion of open-carry to begin with. so this remains a loggerhe

senator heitkamp. >> thank you, mr. chairman, and thank you, secretary come for coming. a couple follow one points. obviously, no one wants to put the financial institutions in jeopardy or in any way limit the ability of the economy to thrive. i think it's critically important that we make the public understand that we simply went in the bill from designating automatically to basically allowing the regulators to designate some entity as a sifi. we haven't abandoned that process and so i want to make that point. also want to make another point. i think it's fascinating when people hear sightsee the of statistics but the don't want to take all of cbo. it's called cherry picking. cherry picked the statistic that most make sure argument whether it's world liquid have 1.9% projected growth when the growth has been over 2% for a prolonged period of time. so i want to talk a little bit about cbo projections. the lovefest that we're having here needs to have little discussion about cbo forecasts on deficit, which as you know moody's has recently issued a report on what they thin

i would like to thank my colleague, senator heitkamp, flake, heinrich, toomey, baldwin, king, nelson, mansion, and kaine for their cosponsorship of this bipartisan bill. i particularly want to recognize the leadership of senator heinrich, who has joined me on the floor this evening as we introduce the bill and explain it to our colleagues. mr. president, often referred to as no fly no buy, this bill represents one of the sensible steps that we can take to reform our nation's gun laws to better protect our people. our bill is based on a simple principle. if you are considered to be too dangerous to board an airplane, then you are too dangerous to buy a firearm. our legislation would grant the attorney general the authority to block the purchase of a gun by a person who was on either the no-fly or the selectee list. remarkably, mr. president, current law does not prohibit a person known or suspected of engaging in terrorism from walking into a gun shop and buying a firearm. the no-fly list and the selectee list are the narrowest subsets of all of the government's terrorist watch lists.

to use it to unseat vulnerable democrats like the republican congressman hoping to replace heidi heitkamp>> i supported tax cuts that are wildly popular in proving to be very, very favorable to the economy, two jobs creation. she of course voted against those. >> today the rnc announced that in january they raised $12.4 million, 134.9 million under all the party is breaking fund-raising records and mention their pro-growth agenda. josh on what it means for republicans come november. >> republicans have gotten their own voters excited. people are seeing tax cuts, the party is more united in the base is more willing to go out and show up to support republican candidates across the ballot. it doesn't mean republicans are going to have a great night in november of 2018, but it means a big advantage that democrats had throughout much of 2017 has dissipated. >> democrats say the problem with the republican tax plan is that the lower tax rate is for individuals. that is temporary and it expires in 2025. the 15% cut to the corporate tax rate is permanent. we've heard many democrats say this is a

congressman kevin cramer has told friends he has reversed course and challenge democratic senator heidi heitkamp she's running in a state where president trump won with 63% of the vote back in 2016. it had seemed that heitkampp avoided a top-tier challenger when cramer announced he would not run last month and tennessee's bob corker is weighing whether he can seek a third term in the senate despite announcing his retirement. "the new york times" reporting corker's allies believe he will have to win president trump's support referring to the white house as adult day care. do you think he will get the support of the president? corker continued to duck questions about it. take a listen. >> senator, are you reconsidering running for re-election? >> i don't have anything to talk about today. thank you. >> that's not a no. >> not a no. >> i know. >> meanwhile the senate campaign of marsha blackburn dismissed establishment republicans who fear she can't win to hold corker's seat. a spokesperson said anyone with concerns about her chances, quote, is just a plain sexist pig. >> wow. democrats have flippe

senators portman and hatch were joined by heitkamp and manchin for serious reforms to the epa, but to enact reforms to the epa let alone reforms to substantive laws like the clear air act will require sustained legislative dialogue and bipartisanship. president trump's use of the bully pull pill make this long-term bipartisan dialogue more likely to succeed or less? president trump did not create our political divisions but he is exacerbating them through his singular use of the bully pulpit. where teddy roosevelt coined the phrase bully pulpit to describe his use of the white house as a pulpit for preaching his agenda, president trump's pronouncements are serving much different ends to much different effect. this is regrettable as a matter of constitutional principle, but it's also counterproductive as a matter of his administration's own agenda. the better approach is one exemplified by the president whose birthday we mark today. george washington stressed that, quote, the foundation of our national policy will be laid in the pure and principles of private morality and the precede e

i want to acknowledge him and senators casey and manchin, baldwin, and heitkamp who worked so long and pensions. the budget deal also includes long-awa long-awaited disaster relief for texas, louisiana, florida, the western states, puerto rico, and the u.s. virgin islands. many of these places are still taking their first steps on the long march to recovery. much of puerto rico and the virgin islands remains damaged and in the dark. this recovery aid could not have come a moment too soon. senator nelson worked very hard for both florida and puerto rico relief, as did so many others in this chamber. i'd also like to thank our ranking member on the appropriations committee, senator leahy, who worked so diligently with his staff and his ranking members on these issues, as well as senator murray, who's been our beacon on health issues where we've made real progress today. the budget deal is a win for the american people. it will also do so much good for our military and for so many middle-class americans. and finally consign the arbitrary and pointless sequester caps to the ash heap of his

and republican suslins and heidi heitkamp lead a bipartisan group of nine senators, pushing to bar people on terror watch lists from buying guns. in recent days, president trump has spoken about a range of ideas. they incluengthening background checks, banning bump , raising the purchase a for some rifles to 21, and arming teachers inchools. the white house said it will have more specific policy announcemeter this week. it's still unclear if anything can pass, but senate democratic ip dick durbin said the country is at a "tipping point." >> there are proposals that americans broadly support, let's do something. the n.r.a. doesn't support them but are they the ones who write law? >> desjardins: meanwhile, in floreveral emotional hours at the state house, as a committee voted to raise the minimum age to buy rifles from 18 to 21, and install a three- day waiting period for gun purchases. republicans voted down democratic amendments to ban assault weapons and require mental health screening to purchase a gun. today, attorney general jeff ns says they believe the have the authority to ban thos

acknowledge him and senators casey and stab now, manchin, klobuchar, baldwin, mccaskill, donnelly and heitkampong and hard on pensions. the budget deal also includes long awaited disaster relief for texas, louisiana, florida, the western states, puerto rico, and the u.s. virgin islands. many of these places are still taking their first steps on the long march to recovery. much of puerto rico and virgin islands remains damaged and in the dark. this recovery aid could not have come a moment too soon. senator nelson worked very hard for both florida and puerto rico relief as so did some others in this chamber. i would also like to thank our ranking member on the appropriations committee senator leahy who worked so dill gently with his staff and his ranking members on these issues. as well as senator murray who has been our beacon on health issues where we have made real progress today. the budget deal is a win for the american people. it will also do so much good for our military and for so many middle class americans. and finally, consign the arbitrary and pointless sequester caps to the ash hea

if heidi heitkamp wants to -- this is not a winning issue in a rural state. but if you look at places where a general election is going to be fought for president and where frankly the house is going to rest, yes, there are some potentially rural districts and connor la connor lamb is a good example but this is won and lost in the suburbs, i'm preaching to the choir here. but this issue is completely different in those areas. >> kasie hunt, enjoy cpac. it is always to me something every reporter should experience at least once. >> they've banned costumes, chuck. it is much different. we have a president in the white house and we have to all button down. >> it is better when it is conserve-a-con. and i want to talk about this divide in the democratic part yif. joining me is john hickenlooper of colorado. and you are in town so welcome. >> glad to be back. >> you are the epitome of a democrat that has been straddling the fence between gun culture and gun control and colorado is -- it is a state that epitomizes the clash of these two cultures. can you bridge thi

you have congressman kevin cramer of north dakota who said he was not going to challenge heidi heitkampit looks like he may actually do that. do you think this is a sign that republicans are getting more optimistic about their chances come november? >> either that or that they are more pessimistic about the possibilities of some of the other -- >> of those specific candidates. >> that's certainly what senator corker has alluded to in terms of why he's reconsidering. these statehouse races are always imperfect special election harbingers for what's going to happen in the future that contend to be somewhat parochial and deal with issues that are really specific to one state. but the aggregate, certainly, does seem like it's moving in that direction. >> can you go back to what we talk about when he talk about corker and cramer maybe not considering runs. the corker one is interesting. marshal blackburn is a candidate who is potentially running for that seat. she's not a nobody, right? she's not somebody who is a nobody in the house right now. she's obviously been a voice inside the republi

. >> meanwhile, in north dakota, congressman kevin cramer agreed to take on heidi heitkamp, and is expectedo officially announce his bid tonight, leaving republicans without a great candidate and a state that president trump won by 36 points. but it appears they got cramer to change his mind after getting, shall we say, plenty of phone calls from both mitch mcconnell and a lot of folks inside north dakota. we'll see what kind of difference he makes there. we'll be right back with more "mtp daily" in 60 seconds. ♪ when you have something you love, you want to protect it. at legalzoom, our network of attorneys can help you every step of the way. with an estate plan including wills or a living trust that grows along with you and your family. legalzoom. where life meets legal. customer service!d. ma'am. this isn't a computer... wait. you're real? with discover card, you can talk to a real person in the u.s., like me, anytime. wow. this is a recording. really? no, i'm kidding. 100% u.s.-based customer service. here to help, not to sell. >>> russia, russia and trump! convinced people about this h

acknowledge him and senators casey and stabenow, manchin, klobuchar, baldwin, mccaskill, donnelly and heitkamp, who worked so long and hard on pensions. the budget deal also includes long-awaited disaster relief for texas, louisiana, florida, the western states, puerto rico, and the u.s. virgin islands. many of these places are still taking their first steps in the long march to recovery. much of puerto rico and the virgin islands remains damaged and in the dark. this recovery aid could not have come a moment too soon. senator nelson worked very hard for both florida and puerto rico relief, as did so many others in this chamber. i'd also like to thank our ranking member on the appropriations committee, senator leahy, who worked so diligently with his staff and his ranking members on these issues, as well as senator murray, who's been our beacon on health issues where we've made real progress today. the budget deal is a win for the american people. it will also do so much good for our military and for so many middle-class americans. and finally, sign the arbitrary and pointless sequester caps t

so many senators like senators heitkamp and baldwin. so many senators like mccaskill and donnelly, like senator hassan, have been talking about the opioid crisis for a long time, and their hard work has now produced the dollars that will give the treatment that so many who are addicted need and the infrastructure to prevent these bad drugs, particularly fentanyl from coming into this country. mr. president, my guess to the state of the -- guest to the state of the union was stephanie keenan from put new hampshire county. she was a brave veteran. the veteran got hooked on opioids after ptsd. he waited six months for his first appointment at the v.a. died of an overdose two weeks before he could get treatment. stephanie keenan has been fighting for this. she is a brave, strong woman who is lighting a candle. she was my guest at the state of the union. she is a happy woman this morning because all her hard work after her son's passing is coming to fruition. and of course, there is much more in this proposal, so much we can all be proud of

heidi heitkamp. dakota, aied north big win. 75% of exports to north dakota go to canada and mexico. that could have a constructive effect on things going forward. >> and on the politics, normally, the way the u.s. government is perceived in canada and mexico is this group in congress that are caught up in domestic politics and say all sorts of negative things about mexicans and canadians because they bring up disputes there e about.arf then you have the president who is the head of state who takes , who saysiew them this i canadians are great friends. we saw that over obama and bush and so far. now we have a president who is unusual in that he is a combatant in the arena. he is willing to say tough things about canada or mexico. there's no one in the american body politic to say the things you have to say that we have friends and allies, that there are things that endured. -- that endure. that has turn politics off. >> thank you come and before we move on, does the congress communicate well with its colleagues in canada and mexico? could that play a factor in the negotiations? >> on

senator heidi heitkamp that is being held against her. the big issue the democrats should talk about the economy. their perception of tax cuts don't match up with reality. polls showing momentum in favor of tax cut bill, even among democrats. now that they see tax cuts in their paychecks and see benefits, the market stumbled and back on solid ground. people generally feel good about the economy. when you oppose a bill that your constituents are happy about there is a little bit of trouble. neil: responding to improving economy that those tax cuts are making possible, right? >> that is an economic worry. if you're upset about the fed, you yell at the fed, not the republicans. gop is not pushing up -- neil: they're lookings at, i got a tax cut. now i know it is more expensive for me to borrow. do they sort that out who to blame? >> i don't think they blame the gop. we had long debate about the tax cuts. gop won that. you would think the democrats would back off. but nancy pelosi saying going from crumbs to armageddon. if you voted for tax c

to senatoro back heitkamp's questions returning the pension bill and the ranking member's bill that is pending. for's an important bill people in my state and i think we can agree there is a looming crisis in that. i appreciate your answer about looking forward to working with you, but i would like to start that process now. if you could,, give me your ideas, give me your thoughts. you have looked at the bill, what about the bill is ok? are there other things that we need to be looking at to try to solve the crisis? sec. mnuchin: first of all, thank you. i would be more than happy to come meet with you. again, this is a significant problem. i don't believe there is a simple solution. it is complicated. i would be happy to go through in aspects, but it is something i look forward to working with senator brown and the chairman and figure out what are the various different solutions. we have a lot of resources at treasury. one of the things we look at is restructurings. we have very prescribed formulas of what we can and can't do. i am aware of the problem that exists. would any knowledge

. >> that is something that senator heitkamp and i have worked on a lot. we're still committed to work on it. if there are specific legislative requests you have for that, we need to know so we can help that process. there are 120 different hiring authorities that are sitting out there, a complicated mess to be able to go through the process. if there are things you see, we're doing our own work, if you see things, we're glad to be able to hear those as well. >> senator lankford, we have a couple. one would be expanded authority to waive polygraphs, for instance, for local law enforcement that currently -- that have been cleared. and we can give you more detail. and also some expanded hiring authorities. right now -- we would like a delegation similar to department of defense. and i can articulate those for you or your staff to be able to do some flexibilities without having to ask permission. >> let me -- i'll stop your time. talk about the polygraphs. in talking to cbp there have been impruchovements there, not rejecting any. >> we went to the fbi to get

charles: another one for you, north dakota congressman kevin challenging heidi heitkamp.g and replacing obamacare with patient-centric plan and she was the deciding vote in not passing the bill in the senate. i supported tax cuts that are wildly popular and proven to be very, very favorable to the economy, to job's creation, she, of course, voted against those. i opposed sanctuary cities, last week she declined. >> these are going to be really interesting races to watch, where, you know, states where president trump won and you have a democrat who is trying to sort of ride the fence a little bit, cramer is interesting, a month ago cramer said it was no way, the president talk today him and said i will call your wife, something happened over the last month and that something, maybe the numbers that we have seen moving because of tax reform. charles: good point. the wild card with tax reform polling so well and people making much more money keeping it and no democrats voted for it. essentially they went with nancy pelosi, the argument against the american public, that's a s

it was a terrible decision by these democrats, manchin and donnelly in indiana and heitkamp in northcrats, because a they chose partisan politics over actually helping people get the economy moving back in their states by supporting these tax cuts. it's a big problem for these guys, stuart. stuart: okay, got it. tim, i'm terribly sorry, i'm short on time this morning. >> no problem. stuart: it's just a huge day, and we're in the middle of it. tim phillips, everyone. there will be more "varney" after this. ♪ ♪ . . . . two,that was awful. why are you so good at this? . . - . . just to help you improve your skills. boom! that's lesson one. education to take your trading to the next level. only with td ameritrade. ...from godaddy! in fact, 68% of people who have built their... ...website using gocentral, did it in under an hour, and you can too. build a better website - in under an hour. with gocentral from godaddy. stuart: not much time left. time for this. my favorite story of the day, jeff bezos founder of amazon, he is now worth, $120 billion. liz, favorite story. liz: people running

i want to defer a couple of my questions at the top of my time here to go back to senator heitkamp's questions concerning the pension bill that ranking member's bill that is pending now which i told him i was going to sign on. that's an important bill for folks in my state. i think we can agree that there is a looming crisis in that i appreciate your answer about looking forward to working with it. but i'd kind of like to start that process now. and if you can, just give me your ideas, give me your thoughts what -- you've looked at the bill. what about the bill is okay, anything. and are there other things that we need to be looking at to try to solve that crisis? >> first of all, thank you. and i'd be more than happy to come meet with you. again, this is a significant problem. i don't believe there is a simple solution. it's complicated. i'd be happy to go through in aspects. but there is something that i look forward to working with senator brown and chairman and figure out what are the various different solutions. so we have a lot of resources at treasury. i think as you know, one