conaway: yes. mr. mcgovern: ok. who will we direct them to? mr. conaway: the chair. mr. mcgovern: ok. mr. conaway: mrs. hartzler, speak on the amendment, five minutes? mrs. hartzler: thank you, mr. chairman, for including my amendment in the en bloc package package today. broadband is a component to our 21st century economy, affecting virtually every aspect of american life. it's unfortunate that rural communities are all too often left behind from the promise and prosperity of this modern technology. this digital divide is quite evident in my home state of missouri. according to the f.c.c.'s 2018 broadband deployment report, less than half of rural missourians can access broadband internet while nearly all of urban missourians have access to this essential technology. without broadband access, rural communities have difficulty attracting new businesses which provide economic development. students lack technological resources, negatively impacting their educational opportunities and disadvantage them in comparison to those in towns and cities. rural hospitals cannot acce

so i want to commend chairman conaway for his work. this was a critical component of our better way agenda that we're excited about executing. lastly, not that anyone needs reminding. we are five days away from tax day. this year when you submit your tax returns, you are saying goodbye to that old tax code for good. in its place you will have a new tax code with lower rates and nearly double standard deduction and expanded child tax credit. you're saying goodbye to a lot of hassle too as nearly nine out of 10 americans will be able to file their taxes on a simple and straightforward way. this, of course, is on top of all of the benefits that americans have seen from tax reform through bonuses, raises, higher 401-k matches. as i said yesterday, this law is working and it will make this country stronger and much more prosperous for years to come. questions. reporter: thank you, good morning. speaker ryan: good morning. reporter: the president seems to be going back and forth what the objective and what strategy might be deployed in syria

especially since george conaway is a long-time lawyer in the republican party, very smart lawyer.mously wrote a successful appeal to the supreme court that was instrumental in the paula jones case -- >> and wasn't he in consideration, at least, for the position in the department of justice under this administration? >> yeah. he was someone you would want to have on tv talking about a locality of these legal issues because he knows a lot, has been around a lot. his comments on twitter were worth discussing, and obviously he has taken a public role. what i thought was a little unusual was when kellyanne then said, is cnn going to play this game? to me it almost sounded like a threat. well, you're talking about a spouse, so maybe i should talk about your spouse. i think that is a real misunderstanding of what the difference is between a public official who is on the government payroll and this sort of territory that comes along with that versus private citizens, journalists, who are trying to keep a check on those in powerful positions. and i really was a little surprised that she so

conaway. mr. conaway: thank you for allowing me to talk this evening. today we introdiced h.r. 2, which is the agriculture and nutrition act of 2018. h.r. 1 was the tax bill. leadership, the speak for the particular, believe this issue is important enough that he gai us that rare opportunity to have a single digit bill number. my colleagues will join us tonight at the microphone, we'll talk about more of the details. but three years ago, we began this quest to reform snap. we wanned to start with basically as blank a sheet of paper as we could gettle we didn't want to be constrained by spending or are resources we wanted to find the best policy we could get to so we would know our guide pests. we did that, had it scored, comes in at a budget neutral position, our commitment to the broader conference was. we got that accomplished with snap and the rest of the title as well. we did six listening sessions around the country this past year. 300-plus good citizens stepped to the microphones to speak to members of congress about what was on their heart, what

anna wiernicki: it took three years and 114 hearings, but chairman of the house ag committee mike conaways the 2018 farm bill is ready. mike conaway: a great deal of excitement that we are finally seeing this occur.anna wiernicki: but democrats say they aren't excited, they're angry. and it's not over farm policymassachusetts congressman jim mcgovern says the new farm bill also changes the rules for the government food assistance program known as snap.jim mcgovernu.s. congressman, d-massachusetts take cg @ 0:26-0:31the reckless republican proposals in this bill cuts snap benefits by over 20 billion dollars.anna wiernicki (stand up)@annaewiernickitake cg @ 0:32-0:41the bill says if you're between the ages of 18 and 59 years old and are able to work, you must do so in order to qualify for snap-what used to be called food stamps. anna wiernicki: texas republican congressman jodey arrington says this is designed as an incentive to get people out of the welfare system altogether.jodey arringtonu.s. congressman, r-texastake cg @ 0:47-0:55this does not kick them off of the welfare rolls, it does

aarp, our country's leading voice for those over 50, has cautioned chairman conaway and republicans in congress that it is particularly difficult for individuals over 50 to find consistent work. in a letter to our committee, aarp senior vice president for government affairs, joyce rogers, said this bill, and i quote, increase food insecurity and likely have negative consequences on health, end quote. mr. speaker, this is damage -- this damaging mandatory work proposal doesn't just impact older americans, it extends to other groups as well. for example, under this bill thousands of veterans will lose access to snap benefits if they can't find work or job training program. veterans, mr. speaker, men and women who have put their lives on the line for us. the least we can do, the very least is ensure that they have access to modest food benefits when they fall upon hard times. among the other vulnerable adults who will be subjected to mandatory work requirements are teenagers just aging out of foster care. people with underlying mental health issues. chronically homeless individuals. and e

house agriculture committee chair mike conaway wrote benefits are responsible, but equally important is helping the same people climb back out of poverty. consumer advocates say many low income americans could work and this could lead to losing crucial assistance. this is the latest on tightening government assistance. president trump reviewed welfare work rules reviews this week. >>> secretary of state nominee mike pompeo has been asked what he would do if president trump fired robert mueller. >> would you resign your post as secretary of state in order to demonstration we are a nation of laws, not of men? >> you will hear pompeo's response next. >>> and helping thousands victimized by ponzi schemer bernie madoff. >>> cia director mike pompeo fati facing an uphill battle in the confirmation hearing. two democrats have signalled they are prepared to vote against his nomination. that combined with rand paul already in opposition. pompeo may not have support to win recommendation from the committee. listen to the questions posed him about the russia probe. >> did he ask you to do anyth

. >> it was news to congressman mike conaway. the trump campaign met with a russian informant, but to him, not significant news. nothing she had to say was important enough for republicans had. long list of people they say the committee should have spoken to but didn't and she was on it. so was reince priebus. their list runs 30 names. including a phone call that don jr. made prior to the meeting. >> we found out during the investigation that donald trump used a blocked number during the campaign. we asked to subpoena the phone records to match up did donald trump receive a call the same time don junior was making the call. they refused. that tells you a lot about the fundamental unseriousness, the head in the sand the gop took. >> keeping them honest, the approach the republican took comes in with little criticism. committee chair devin nunes who has you know has been accused of carrying water for the administration and exposed doing it in one occasion. what he said was damaging information. just days later, it turned out the wh

. >> i want to read something from congressman conaway who is overseeing this investigation and get reaction disappointed with the overzealous rejections by the intelligence county, my team and i will challenge the unnecessary rejections with the hopes of releasing more of the report in the upcoming months. he was very disappointed he promised the american people something much more transparent than what they were able to issue today. >> i saw the report and there is a tremendous number of rejections all over the place. i would like to know more about that. the connection is troubling. i'm hoping the senate intelligence committee which is acting in a bipartisan manner will continue to run this town with robert mueller and i would say i hope we speed to a conclusion on this but more injurious than continuing this investigation would be not answering these very important questions. >> the intelligence committee does not make the decision about what is rejected or not. this is a systemic problem across every department and agency. 5 too much is rejected. if members of congress on both sides wan

. >> congressman mike conaway says he wasn't aware of this new information about veselnitskaya, but that it does matter. let me play his response. >> is it troubling that she was a russian informant and had a meeting with senior-level trump campaign officials in 2016? >> no, because there's no evidence she acted on that. >> does that require any further investigation from the committee? >> not from my perspective. >> no further investigation needed? >> well, there you go. he establishes why this is a fake investigation. you could give all sorts of information to the republican house intelligence committee, and they wouldn't act on it. they had the view that there was no collusion. of course, they're going to do a report that shows there's no collusion because they weren't looking for it, and they were actually trying to ignore evidence of collusion and really just now pursue the leads they needed to. >> everybody is pointing fingers at each other. republican report is 253 pages. the democrats have a 98-page rebuttal. there was this ridiculous number of redaxs as part of that. here's one

conaway: i thank the gentleman. mr. speaker, i thank you very much. it is an honor to come down here tonight to speak about barbara bush and the bush family. as my colleagues said, i represent midland and odessa. two communities that are linked to the bush legacy through them living in odessa for a while, then moving to midland. george w. bush and i were business partners in the oil business for about five years. and so while i had limited or no direct contact with his mom, i got to see the product of her child rearing by working with him on a daily basis for five years. mrs. bush brought to the table that incredibly terrific blend strong a woman who is but compassionate, loved her family, stunningly protective of her family. but yet steel-willed when she needed to be. didn't suffer fools well. when they were doing things that she didn't like. but did it with grace and dignity and ways that all of us should try to aspire to do it. they do leave a legacy in midland. they still consider -- midland still considers them their first family. we have a museu

if you look at the interview with conaway, should this be a revelation that about veselnitskaya after the investigation is closed. >> we all knew she was a spy when she offered, you know, dirt on hillary clinton through rob goldstone to the trump family and then also in our report you'll see that natalia veselnitskaya also met dana rohrabacher over in russia. it was an unannounced meeting. other parts of the globe, she would just pop up and meet with congressmen rohrabacher. she is a spy. she is competing with sergey kislyak, how hard she was working. should have been obvious. don, i have written legislation that is called a duty to report which says that if you are contacted by an agent of a foreign power, as a candidate or someone on the campaign team you have to tell the fbi. there are so many people who were approached by russians with dirt on hillary clinton or who offered to connect donald trump to vladimir putin and they said nothing. >> okay, so, listen, in this, the republicans did push back on some of the actions taken by the trump campaign saying the trump tower meeting dem

but as mike conaway, the chairman of the committee, told us, he said i don't know if this would havended up any differently had we was done different things during this investigation. >> extraordinary for the house intelligence committee which usually works in a bipartisan way to come up with this disastrous conclusion. thank you very much for that report. >>> joining us now, a member of the house intelligence committee, democratic congressman denny heck of washington state. thank you very much for joining us. >> you're welcome, sir. >> i want to discuss all of the manu report being your committee, the disaster that occurred there. first, let me get your quick reaction to the president of the united states now breaking his silence, formally, publicly, on the record denying that he is considering replacing his attorney general, scott pruitt. he says pruitt is doing a great job, fantastic job where he is. what do you make of that? >> first of all, with respect to stormy daniels, i want to say that the president is, as you suggested earlier in the program, not only acting as his own com

. >> joining me now is congressman jerry conaway, virginia democrat., sir, on this sunday. you heard it. it's never been done before. there's a head line from february 29 of 2012. north koreans agree to freeze nuclear work, u.s. to give aid. is mr. trump giving away too much by holding this meeting? >> well, there's certainly a risk of that. this is an enormous gamble by a very unprepared president who's been all over the lot on the subject of north korea. so this president we know doesn't read. he gets impatient in briefings, and he doesn't have a team in place to deal with korea. we don't have an ambassador in seoul, south korea. we don't have an assistant secretary for the region. we don't have an assistant secretary for arms control and international security. we don't have a secretary of state. and we have a brand new national security adviser who has always fav favored the kinetic option, the military option, when it comes to north korea. other than that, what could go wrong? >> look, the president may not read a lot, but we know he tweets a lot.

. >> so it was news to congressman mike conaway. new to the man who today released a report saying no collusion. the trump campaign met with a russian informant. but to him, not significant news. not worth reopening the probe. in fact, nothing natalia veselnitskaya had to say was important enough for republicans to even invite her to testify in the first place. committee democrats in a dissenting minority report had a long list of people they say the committee should have spoken to but didn't and she was on it. so was reince priebus, stephen miller, senior fbi officials, russia experts. their list runs to more than 30 names which they say is symptomatic of a committee that was not interested in getting the full picture, including a phone call that don junior made prior to the trump tower meeting. >> we sought to find out is that blocked number donald trump's blocked number? we found out during the investigation that donald trump used a blocked number during the campaign. we asked to subpoena the phone records so we could match up, d

all 13 republican members of the committee signed off on the report while republican mike conaway haseen the face -- the public face of the russia investigation, chairman devin nunes has been calling the shots from behind the scenes. nunes who has served as president trump's congressional toady poisoned the bipartisan nature of the committee when he took his midnight run down to the white house. meanwhile, the senate intelligence committee continues its bipartisan investigation with no end in sight. i'm joined by u.s. congressman joaquin castro of texas, a democrat. also eli stokols, msnbc political analyst. congressman, there's some good members of the committee on the republican side. why are they going along with the toadyism of saying this investigation is over when we get all this new information coming in about moscow connections. why is peter king doing this? he's independent. why are they toadies? >> you make a great point, chris, that personally there are a lot of good people on there, on the other side of the aisle who are republicans, serious legislators. but i think that i

conaway: the ranking member is recognized. mr. peterson: i would like to strike the last word. can do i that? i want to ask a question about title 1. you know, as we work through this, i think you are aware and others that the only reason some of my producers have survived the last three years of low prices is because we had extraordinary yields. and it's saved us. and i've been concerned about what's going to happen going down the road -- >> we want to let you know this hearing continues likely throughout the afternoon. you can follow it on c-span radio on the c-span radio app, online at c-span.org. we expect resume television coverage over on our companion network c-span3 in just a bit. here on c-span, we'll take you live to the house momentarily. they're gaveling in for a couple of i.r.s. and taxpayer related bills. one making improvements and modernizing the i.r.s. another improving cybersecurity and taxpayer identity protection. live coverage from the house floor now on c-span. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2018] [captioning performed by the national c

conaway. >> thank you, mr. chairman. secretary wilson, i have never heard the case for who should be serving in our uniforms better put than the way you said that. i don't know if you noticed, but it got real quiet in here while you were finishing up your statement, and i think it's because your words were reverberating through the minds of everyone in here, so thank you for that statement. and i'm blessed to have been reared and raised by a mom who fit that category. so, thank you for that. secretary spencer, we had four ships wrecks in '17. as a result, vice chief of naval operations and the secretary ordered a review of what was going on. and one of the recommendations was that we take that decision toes putting a boat in harm's way further up the food chain and not allocating resources to combat and command that weren't ready to go there. can you talk to us about where that recommendation is and what's been the reaction among the various folks who were looking at that? >> yes, congressman. just to add a little meat o

, in my opinion, this is an ideological crusade that killed the bill in 2013, and either chairman conaway has chosen not to negotiate or has been told by his leadership not to negotiate on one of the most significant parts of the farm bill. i didn't walk away. we didn't walk away. we were pushed away by an i did lu -- ideological fight i repeatedly warned the chairman not to start. i've been here 20 years. i've never walked away, not as chairman, not as ranking member. now, frank and i had our differences. bob and i had our differences. but we worked on them and we got through them. so, we're for work. there's not a single person in this room or on my side of the committee that doesn't recognize and appreciate the role of work as a pathway out of poverty. you know, none of us disagree with that. but what i can't support is a waste of billions of dollars on a program that is entirely untested. so, before discussions came to a stop, i asked the chairman to sit down with the workforce development people. at that meeting, those people expressed major reservations about the ability of the stat

the conaway bill dedicates more than $7 billion in new federal grants for work programs. in case you didn't know, quality e&t programs were upwards of about $3000 per person per year. what you're proposing is, in fact, inadequate. states will be unable to provide the services expected of them, and by then take on the cost of serving their clients because it's block granted, it is likely states will just take steps to cut them off altogether. let me also remind you that the clear majority of the snapper dispense who can work do work. time and again witnesses at her hearings have testified that among households with the working age adult -- more than 80% work for you before or after receiving s.n.a.p. so what you are doing is punishing working poor for just being poor. simply have a job or sign-up to lift lift someone out of poverty. while most that participants work, it is often low-paying jobs that provide few hours or more times than not your benefits. just ask the employees who work in these very buildings in our cafeterias each day. who earn less than $2000 a month and