and his advice on capitol hill, an adviser to the most important legislators, paul sarbanes, chris van holland, ted kennedy. in academiacademia, he has a professorship at the university of massachusetts, lowell, but his own background is dartmouth college, university of chicago, london school of economics, very -- obviously some of the most important places in this subject area. we are just thrilled that greg today has decided that he will guide us through this important subject at this terribly important moment. and with that, i turn it over to greg. >> well, thank you very much, peter. i really appreciate your kind comments. and today i want to welcome you to the center for national policy. before i begin, i'd like to thank dan glassman from the cnp staff for helping me organize this event. as all of you know, egypt has been going through a very profound and a very did i feel democratic transition since the fall of president hosni mubarak from power in february of 2011. there are many knowns and many unknowns at this point. what is known is there are two fronts -- excuse me, two top vote-get

john barrasso of wyoming and democratic congressman chris han van holland.ant to put up for our viewers what is currently in effect for health care. children up to the age of 26 may stay on their parents' insurance. children with preexisting conditions and some adults have to have coverage. it bans insurance companies from dropping sick people from their rolls. it eliminates lifetime limits on coverage for the critically ill. and it has drug rebates in it. what happens to those particular very popular elements if the supreme court should say you can't have mandates, you can't force people to buy health insurance? what happens? >> well, let's just take, for example, the current prohibition on denying kids who have preexisting conditions like asthma or diabetes, health care. if the supreme court were to knock down the individual mandate, that whole piece is in jeopardy just like some of these other pieces. now, we don't know exactly what the scope of the supreme court decision will be or, of course, what it will be. but the reality is, those very important pro

the obama administration be worried about the no show list, joining us now from capitol hill chris van holland, a democratic congressman from maryland and a surrogate for the obama campaign. congressman van holland thanks for coming in. i'm sure you heard today steve israel the chairman of the democratic national campaign committee he said to his members, you know what? you don't need to go to the convention. now, i know congressman van holland you said something like this back in 2008. now we are seeing it's becoming like a drive for five. everybody is going that way. what do you take from this? are they trying to get away from obama? >> absolutely not, juan. as you said, when i was the irthat of the democratic congressional campaign committee back in 2008 and 2010, what we advised members, especially those in the toughest elections was to spend time in their districts talking to their constituents. you are not going to find your constituents in charlotte, north carolina and so you should be spending your time back home. this has nothing to do with not going to the convention to send a messag

i'm also joined by chris van holland.fter you predicted that the supreme court would uphold the law, i said to come back and we'll talk about it. we'll give you kudos for that. are you worried at all that the supreme court handed republicans a loss but on the other hand gave them a winning issue? >> no, i'm not, chris. because what the supreme court did was tell the country that this law is constitutional. we heard all of this demogogary and then they said it was a government takeover of health care which they said was the lie of the year and then they said it was unconstitutional. what the supreme court did was add credibility to our argument, that this is a constitutionally sound approach. and we know that americans like the provisions of this law. now it will be important to make sure that we put all of the pieces together going forward. but i think it was a really good day and republicans are now in the strange position where they have become the party of defending that the free riders and the people who are free load

. >> joining me now, democratic congressman chris van holland, good to see you. >> good to see you. >sing this statement. representative pelosi's letter should be addressed to her democratic colleagues running the u.s. senate who are still blo blockading a host of bills passed by the house with bipartisan support. we happy to forward her note to them. congressman, is the problem with the senate? >> the senate's going to be here next week. they're planning to be in session. what leader pelosi is saying is the house should take in session. we shouldn't be going on a break. we shouldn't be taking a vacation until we get this important work done. there are three things that have to be done. one is the transportation authorization bill. this is the funds to invest in our national infrastructure on transportation, expire at the end of this month if we can't get an agreement. now, the senate has a bipartisan agreement. in other words, republicans and democrats in the senate agreed to move forward. we've simply said to speaker boehner, let's vote on that bill. let's have a vote in the house.

and democratic strategist doug thornel former press secretary for chris van holland. welcome.s said in the "washington post" about the eric holder versus the house republicans, quote, holder is playing to lose if the gop will let him. no republican or conservative commentator should even raise it. the public tunes out when something becomes just another partisan squabble. why isn't this more obvious to the gop leaders? you used to work for a gop leader, brad. is this distracting from the economy? >> not at all. and i think you need to step back and look at what we're dealing with here. good politics isn't about payback. but this is about a border security agent who lost his life. and probably lost his life with a gun that was purchased by the united states government. and there are serious questions here. one of the top responsibilities of congress is oversight. and it is their job and their responsibility to get in and look at that. >> you as a democrat, do you like this, doug? are you able to say there's no jobs bill, this is simply a partisan payback issue for 2008? >> well

savings accounts for families with disabilities and among the supporters, democrat representative chris van hollandentative pete sessions who also has a son with down syndrome. good story, thanks, lisa. >>> you're in "the situation room," happening now -- >> the notion that my white house would purposely release classified national security information is offensive. >> an angry president obama comes out swinging for the first time, slamming allegations his administration authorized leaks for personal gain. plus, syrians risking their lives to show u.n. observers the scene of a vicious massacre they say left almost 80 people dead. >>> the nomination for one of the most sensitive government positions now in question over sorted e-mail allegedly with a prominent reporter. we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com >>> a fiery president obama putting anyone on notice. his motives are subject to a swift rebuke from the president. he told the news conference today he has zero tolerance f

yesterday we had one that jumped across immediately and last night, i saw chris van holland on bill o'reilly's williams. >> and he said well, the only reason democrats are jumping is because the gun lobby has everyone very concerned and they're taking an active role in this and they're concerned about their votes. i don't buy that for a second. i think that's diminishing what every congressman or woman is assigned to do. >> right. >> democrats in congress, i want to make sure i'm clear on that. >> there's criminal contempt of congress and there will be civil contempt of congress as well. out there across america, what do you think is going on with what's going on? 38% of you say that regarding this, when asked which best describes the fight in washington over operation fast & furious where brian terry, border patrol agent lost his life, 38% of you feel like it's a cover-up by the white house. about a third of you feel it is a witch hunt by republicans in congress. 12% don't know and about 20% are unsure about what it all means. >> we'll find out what it all means. it's going to be extremely dr

also on the program, republican senator john barasso and democratic congressman chris van holland talk about the health care show. face the nation from cbs completes the line-up airing at 4:00 p.m. eastern. bob schieffer talks with presidential candidate mitt romney and then former vermont governor, democrat howard dean and republican senator lindsay graham. again, five network talk shows reairing as a public service beginning at noon eastern with nbc's "meet the press". 1:00 abc's "this week" at 2:00, fox news sunday. 3:00, state of the union and at 4:00 "face the nation" from cbs. you can listen to them all on c-span radio on 90.1 fm in the washington, d.c. area. nationwide on xm satellite radio. find us at channel 119. listen on your blackberry or go on line to cspanradio.org. host: joining us from new york is the chief washington correspondent for the fox news channel and the author of the book "strong man, john mitchell, nixon and watergate" james rosen. thanks very much for being us on c-span. guest: thanks to you and happy father's day to you and my dad, mike rosen in staten isl