there's a lot of coal in central appalachia that enables a certain amount of consumption. obviously, consumption is good people need food and medicine and other things but there's also a pretty good argument that for a host of reasons it causes malinvestment in the region and, consequently, you have lower productivity growth, lower innovation and a economy that's much less diversified and much less dynamic. i'm wondering when i hear about the history -- when i think about and read about the history of appalachia and the resource curse, i'm struck by some -- by the idea that you could make a similar argument about the reserve currency status of the united states dollar americans have enjoyed one of the greatest privileges of the international economy for the last decades, the strong dollar which acts as the world's reserve currency now, this is obviously great for american purchasing power. we enjoy cheaper imports americans when they travel abroad benefit from lower costs. but it does come at a cost to american producers i think in some ways you can argue that the reserve

there's a lot of coal in appalachia that enables a certain amount of consumption. consumption is good. there's a good argument that for a host of reasons it causes mall investment in the region and consequently you have lower productivity growth, lower innovation in a economy that is much less diversified and dynamic. when i hear about the history -- when i think about and hear about the history of appalachia in the research course, i am struck by the idea that you can make a similar argument about the reserve currency status of the united states dollar. one of the greatest privileges of the economy for the last decades is strong dollar. this has been great for american purchasing power. we enjoy cheaper imports. americans when they travel abroad benefit from lower costs. it comes at a cost to american producers. you could argue that the reserve currency status is a massive subsidy to american consumers about a massive tax on american producers. i know the strong dollar is a sacred cow of the washington consensus. when i survey the washington economy and i see usel

and i knew that going in because my book, "dope sick" it charged the begins of the crisis in a appalachia. it ends with the death of a young woman i had been following 2 1/2 years. she was initially prescribed opioids at an urgent care center, two 30-day prescriptions for a simple case of bronchitis. she was 24 years old, a waitress and had a baby and she was arrested and i called it dope sick because at the end of their journey they are not doing it to get lie but not -- not to get lie but to is excruciating hangover. as she was not welcome at home, as she was doing sex work on the streets and getting exactly the wrong kind of treatment ultimately her grandfather a retired account attendant at i.b.m. takes money out of his retirement, the family sends her to an be a continue tphepbs only place and when she bombs out she is homeless and doing sex work on the streets of las vegas which was a lot different than roanoke, virginia. she was brutally murrayed on christmas eve of 2017 her body found in a dumpster. that is how she died with her mother saying goodbye at a funeral home to her batte

, in urban america, rural america, suburb an america, heartland america, small town america and appalachia and the house democratic caucus represents the gorgeous mosaic of the american people across the land. but there are 213 members of the house democratic caucus and we wanted to lean in with precision and lean in with intention nationality in helping to make sure from a regional perspective that the american people benefit from our legislative accomplishments and that is one of the chief objectives of the regional leadership council under the leadership of steny hoyer who has worked hard for decades on the make it in america agenda. reporter: how about your leadership with speaker mccarthy? [indiscernible] how does that benefit democrats? and then talk about the debt ceiling. have you had any conversations with the white house -- [indiscernible] mr. jeffries: speaker mcmccarthyy and myself have agreed to disagree strongly on a whole host of issues but try not to be disagreeable on behalf of the institution and the country and i look forward to proceed in that regard. one of the areas w

there's a lot of coal in central appalachia that enables a certain amount of consumption, obviously,onsumption is good, people need food and medicine and other things. there's also a pretty good argument that for a host of reasons, it causes vestments in the region and consequently, we have lower productivity, growth, lower innovation, and an economy that is much less diversified and much less dynamic. i am wondering when i hear about the history, what i think about and read about the history of appalachia and the resource curse, i am struck by some of the, i the idea that you can make a similar arguments about the reserve currency status of the united states dollar. americans have enjoyed one of the greatest privileges of the international economy for the last nearly eight decades, a strong dollar that acts, of, course as the world reserve currency. you know that better than i do. now, this is obviously been great for american purchasing power. we enjoy cheaper imports, americans, when they travel abroad, benefit from lower costs. but it does come at a cost to american producers. i

jd grew up in appalachia, grew up in working-class environments in rough working class environments, a marine who went to ya law schoolle. i will tell you there is a long history of making fun of yale university. for a long time, we did it together and i try to make fun of yale on a regular basis so we are continuing that trend. as you guys all know, jd wrote a "new york times" number one best seller "hillbilly elegy," which is a fantastic book. it is actually -- it is probably the best explanation -- >> you can find them on amazon. you can put them together. >> i was not hawking. >> let's extend the clock a little bit. we are running low on time. >> way jd did so powerfully -- i am going to go on. he described the pathologies that have been just hammering working men and women in this country. not even working men and women, people who are not working and whether the opioid crisis and addiction, the destruction of manufacturing jobs, the loss of father's at home raising kids, it is a powerful explanation of the damage that has been done. it is a really clarion call. i've got to tell

barter, an historically white theater in a white town has made a commitment to tell stories of black appalachiaywrights. >> how di i henry brown escape slavy? >> a transporter man was part of this year's festival, written by russell nichols who joined as actors gathered for the first rehearsal of the play. >> donovan and geo are going to enter from house right. >> it tells a story of henry brown who shipped himself from virginia to freedom from slavery. he says things were different then 10 years ago when he came here from florida. >> it was difficult at first to try to find my place, especially back when i first started. it was not a lot of people who looked like me were about in the community, and especially at the theater. >> jackson and others are trying to change that through full-length pla, including one in the appalachian playwrights festival. and community events focusing on black stories. >> my dream for us at the theater is that -- no one would be shocked to see a black person in the audience and no one will be stuck, including other black people. i want to create a space for people

good job in the communities where they're manufacturing plastics, such as texas, louisiana and appalachia. transport is part of the picture here and i think the tragedy in east palestine reminds us all we've got to look for alternatives to plastics. >> that's not going to happen overnight, especially with people's reliance on plastics, especially to keep food fresh. do you disagree? >> i disagree. there's metal, glass, cardboard that all could be made from resicycled material and could b more easily recycled, unlike plastic, which only has a 5 to 6% recyclable rate. the huge amount of toxic chemicals used to make plastic -- and remember, vinyl chloride was declared a human carcinogen in 1974. that's why we need the epa to ban it. >> what is stopping companies, manufacturers from using the alternatives available right now? >> plastic is really cheap, so a lot of companies will keep using it. second, there's a real lack of political will in congress, at the epa, in the biden administration to really prompt this shift. some companies are doing it on their own, but not nearly as many as we ne

the republican party has now become the party of insurrectionist appalachia apologia. -- recently metf ashley babbitt, the insurrectionist who was shot and killed by police as rioters tried to break into the speakers lobby on january 6th. mccarthy is not alone. as cbs news notes in its report, other house republicans have also taken meetings with january 6th supporters and relatives of defendants. congresswoman marjorie taylor greene said there was a possibility some defendants relatives could be called as witnesses at an upcoming hearing of the house oversight committee. in other words, justice for january 6th rioters could soon be part of the official republican legislative agenda. it follows speaker mccarthy's decision to give exclusive access to over 40,000 hours of capitol hill january 6th surveillance footage to fox host tucker carlson, who was has downplayed the attack and air documentary, patriot purge, suggesting the whole thing was a false flag operation. house republicans have also declared their intention to provide that footage to january 6th defendants to help them in th

historically white theater in a mostly white town, has also made a commitment to telling stories of black appalachia playwrights. >> how did i, henry brown, escape the savagery of slavery? jeffrey: "the transported man" was part of this year's appalachian festival. written by russell nichols, who joined remotely as actors gathered for their first rehearsal of the play. >> they will enter from house right. jeffrey: it tells the story of henry "box" brown, who shipped himself from slavery in virginia to freedom in pennsylvania. terrance jackson, a longtime barter actor who lives in the community, now oversees the theater's black stories, black voices initiative, begun in 2022. he says things were different when he first came here 10 years ago from his native florida. >> it was definitely difficult at first to try to find my place. you know, pecially back when i first started. it was not a lot of people who looked like me were about in the community and especially at the theater. jeffrey: jackson and others here are trying to change that through full-length plays, including at least one in the appalach

to start the center for economic and development community in the african-american community of appalachias, sean, get a big round of applause. [applause] i mean literally, whatever money you have, i don't care what it is, put it into real. doesn't matter what is, whatever money you got. you will get a return on that money like you can't imagine. that's all there is to it. imagine these numbers. imagine, last year travelers in west virginia spent $5 billion, $5 billion. and guides saying come to west virginia. there is so much goodness going on in our parks. i could go on forever and ever in a day. we spent $150 million upgrading our parks and you can't get a place in our parks because they are sold out. they make the world just see how good we really are. remember back in the beginning i told you about image. it is so, so important, literally we know how good we are, but the world didn't know but they absolutely know now. they are getting. talk a second about roads. imagine this in 2022, we did 15, 470 miles of work. think about that. in the last four years, we did 364, 500 miles of work

darkest colors on the map represent the greatest number of deaths per 100,000 with graham zero being appalachia, west virginia in particular. i will talk to a medical professional from there as well. throughout the hour we will talking about how we will address this publicly -- behind you see there from the substance abuse and mental care services administration. 162 health, one 862 health. someone to talk to, a resource to john perhaps. certainly not the only one. we will talk about the government's response and this person, cindy lindsey graham and a health executive. but just about everyone here has been victimized by the crisis in their own ways. those stories we hope will be at the heart of the hour ahead. with me here tonight is aaron rockwell, two years ago, his son died. he was a college freshman. she is here with her son hayden who joins us. also april is with us. they're 21 year old son jordan died the day after father's day three years ago. in the audience is rick, logan's dad and jada martin as well. jordan's sister. thank you all, thanks for being with us. we really appreciate it.

in february we traveled to west virginia to hear from people in appalachia. republicans on the house committee on ways and means are determined to hear directly from taxpayers. from business owners. from farmers. from manufacturers. from energy producers. about how we can ensure that we can get past all the hardships and all the hurdles. we want to ensure that everyone can succeed. the message that we've heard as a committee from the american people, it's been very clear. americans have had enough. in our commitment to america, house republicans promise to work toward creating an economy that is strong. one of the most effective ways that we can do that is to rein in the out of control spending and get our government's fiscal house in order. we've got to find sensible, reasonable and responsible solutions to addressing our nation's economic and debt crisis. as it stands now, we're leaving our children, our grandchildren, and the next generation with the bill and forcing them to live with potentially higher taxes and less opportunities unless we can do somethi

president brought me is lensky has met with the you, an atomic energy agency chief rafael grossi ins. appalachia proceeds due to visit the nuclear plant on wednesday to assess 1st hand the safety and security situation at the facility. the plant has been under russian control since the invasion returning now to our top story and the protest in israel joining us now is ahmed has him who is in televi for his. i'm a tell us about what's been happening in the last few hours in terms of the protests and also the political do ah, fall if we are talking about the protest as if it can see here, behind me, thousands and thousands of protesters and this main square and tel aviv that's was the place for every saturdays processed here. it's we are expecting also a one big protest or at 8 pm local time. they are expecting more than a $150000.00 people to gather on this square, to keep the pressure on, on the prime minister in the studio and the coalition, the governing coalition here in israel, which is now in disarray, so to speak. what we have latest now that they're come talks among the coalition, only th

the part of our country where the entire economy, think about parts of appalachia, where they have beenendent on energy and mining. those parts of the country have been left behind as we move to cheaper energy. think about your stereotype of a west virginia coal town. it is tragic, it hurts for those people. we owe those people the dignity, the same dignity we owe any other american. if you are a member of congress representing those energy extracted regions of the country, you may not be pushing hard to get cheaper, energy onto the grid because it only accelerates the demise of that system. opportunities for collaboration are, number one, collaboration between those districts where there is no conflict between the national interest and the interest of your constituents. there are a lot of republicans who represent wind heavy parts of iowa and kansas and texas. and they are benefiting from this. we saw the announcement that there is a big easy manufacturing industry going into georgia. -- marjorie taylor greene's district in georgia. to recognize the folks being left behind this transit

two are in west virginia right on the board of virginia and appalachia, virginia. to -- one of the rural health clinic -- they serve about 370,000 virginians. the ftc eased in our virginia health care center is about 2800 of t's. the work that they do, i see it every day is truly. tremendous i want to start with you on the fourth question hours in treat in your testimony -- you talked about indiana. the fqhc's that aren't doing their own grow your own program to train medical assistance. medical assistance work in a variety of health care settings, providing both clinical administrative tasks. they are critical members of the medical team. when i support the delivery of high quality care. from 2011 to 2021 the number of medical assistance employed in the u.s. grew from nearly 540,000 to over 75,000. reflecting the growth of this occupation is part of primary care teams. like other frontline workers, medical systems reported a lot of burnout and stressed. during covid, about 29% of them intended to leave their jobs within the last two years, by their own reporting.

in rural parts of the country, like where i represent in appalachia -- you're very familiar with that area -- it's a real problem when families have to choose between putting gas in their car or groceries on the table. it's a real challenge when they have to choose between paying their heated bill or buying clothes for their kids to go to school. this is what h.r. 1 begins to address for the american people. mr. chair, i'm proud to yield one minute to my friend and colleague from south carolina, mr. fry. the chair: the gentleman is recognized. mr. fry: thank you, mr. speaker. i rise in strong support of h.r. 1, the lower energy cost act. from the minute that president biden took office, he waged a war against american energy production and the independence that we previously held. the biden administration canceled the keystone x.l. pipeline on day one, imposed a $6 billion tax on natural gas, and promised $27 billion to special interest climate groups and severely limited our fracking capabilities. these are just a few of the examples on why our energy prices are up 40% since the pres