why don't members of congress nominate the librarian of congress since it's a congress thing? dr.ayden: i believe that started with lincoln and it would be a position that the president would nominate similar to a supreme court justice, it was that type of position. you still have to be confirmed by the senate and i went through that process. david: you interviewed with president obama and he said do you want to be librarian of congress, and i guess you said you were interested. dr. hayden: i was concerned about what i could bring to the position because i had been so involved with public libraries, public access, all of that, but i never thought of actually being part of the library of congress because of what the perception was, that it was mainly for scholars. what president obama asked me was, he started it out with telling me that he had seen the contents of abraham lincoln's pockets the night he was assassinated. he had seen the first draft of the gettysburg address at the library of congress. he said i think that's because of my position. he said, what could you do with you

congress can steamroll. congress can do what it wants to do, but it buy in. it needs to feel like it's voice has been heard, whatever outcomes they put out there. i think that in that particular situation where the speaker was not really negotiating with his of congress in an effective way it did not create the buy-in needed for the bill to continue despite opposition. >> it did not take a lot of challenging or high quality challenging. there was no buy-in to start. >> right. republicans were already frustrated by how things were going. they were like, i can't stand this and this guy will not be speaker. they were saying this while he was negotiating a bill for them. that is part of it. we are in an unknown right now. we have ever had someone this sort of power and influence this closely connected to government itself. so, we will see. but i am kind of of the opinion congress can and will do the things it wants to do and it is mostly in the business of doing popular things. having a couple tweets here and there are both derailed out. but it really does depend

in the 119th congress. that stay of theouse of representatives. -- that is day one of the house of representatives. there you can see the order of what you will see when they gavel in the 119th congress. let's go to margarita in florida, democratic caller. we are taking a handful of calls, margarita, before we get to the house. go ahead. caller: yes. regarding the 119th congress, i would like them to leave social security and medicare alone. i worked for 50 years. that was a trust i paid into. it is easy for them to fix the problem because all they have to do is raise the cap of social security. that is all they have to do. because, no matter how much you make, you are entitled to social security. you are entitled to medicare at age 55. leave us alone. i do believe if the 119th congress does anything to negatively affect social security and medicare that in two years, a lot of republicans in office now will be kicked out because those that are 65 and older i believe are the largest voting group. >> margarit

congress saying, okay, mr. president, you can do what you want and we will for some reason like never repeal, like never review them and leave them on the books for decades and decades for military action as -- as the executive branch sees fits. that's a problem. we should fix that problem. we should repeal and replace, repeal for and not replace many of the aumf on the books especially 2001 after 911 that basically says anyone with any affiliation whatsoever so al-qaeda is hereby subject to u.s. military attack. we should get rid of those things because a lot has changed in the years but that isn't going to happen sort of via executive order. that needs to happen through the congress. so i think those are some of the big themes, in addition to get into like the specific executive orders that i wrote about, one of them was i already talked about 13303 and its related executive orders about the iraq national stabilization emergency, the other one, this is one of the better for and straightforward ones on foreign

[applause] >> congression

please, congress consider that. >> host: the 119th congress gets underway at noon eastern time.efore they do that, the 118th congress will gavel in, gaveled back out. stay here on c-span, c-span.org or our free video mobile apps, c-span now throughout the day for coverage of today's opening day of the one hundred nineteenth congress. patricia, chandler, arizona come a democratic caller, let's hear from you, what's your message to these lawmakers? >> i would like to see them get rid of -- 450,000 americans, they need to shut that down, it's affecting me and a lot of people. i have people following me everywhere. they need to shut that down. people coming into this country illegally. it is happening over 450,000 americans. shut down the visa 700 to act. >> patricia's fox in arizona. she said democratic caller, that is her message to lawmakers in washington. back to pedro with more on how today will unfold. >> is the day of events plan for the house of representatives as they start the 119th congress. it starts with the call of order to the chamber by the clerk, followed by the pra

we should put it through congress. it's a great example of what you can do through an executive order that has massive implications. again, it was mostly under the radar. when i bring it up to folks, they tend to not know about it. that's why we shouldn't be doing this through eo. on that note of defense, eric? >> great. hi. i'm under the weather. apologies if my voice breaks. trying to figure that out. when alex began this process, i was excited. executive orders were something i hadn't done much work on before. in the foreign policy space, there's all kinds of fodder for libertarians to be mad, for overreach, concentrating certain powers, loss of congressional oversight over u.s. foreign policy in warmaking and things of that nature so i thought cool, i will find some interesting eo's. i opened the spreadsheet you sent. holy cow, 14,000 of these. second thought, i started reading through the, i feel like foreign policy eo's unfortunately like the health care issues and the environmental and energy, there is not much,

it's congress over party. congressman timmons, tell us about the ways you've been able to find a consensus and the forms you're most proud of and there's a list of a hundred and some are big and some are small but all of them are important. mr. timmons: i've been on the committee 3 1/2 years and what i think is most important is time, the calendar, the schedule, floor votes. we don't have enough time in congress and any 10 minutes we can get here or there adds up and is exponential. incentive structures. and i don't need to tell the foreign members oftentimes the incentive structures in congress aren't designed to facilitate the best results. last is relationship building. we don't do enough. we need to be more intentional about building relationships because again, we have to engage in policymaking with one another. if you don't know the person you're more inclined to be mean with them and tell them their idea is stupid and then you warrant to agree with them and if archedded them in their previous encounter

. ♪ i look back on the 118th congress.gressional reporters and researchers reflected on the unprecedented speaker election. effort to move judges through the senate bipartisan legislation the impact of cable news and social media. they make enterprise institute hosted this event. >> alright i will gavel us in here this morning. welcome to the american enterprise institute. my name is philip i am a senior fellow here in the department that studies social, cultural constitutional studies. the bigger picture on american politics and our political culture, and what ails them. welcome to everyone who trudged through the snow to join us in person. welcome to those of you watching on a live stream or c-span. we are here today to talk about the will be gone one 18th congress. will be gone defined by as one, and a deplorable state, synonyms dilapidated, derelict, godforsaken ramshackle run down. two, built with their deeply affected by woe synonyms sad, lamentable. that is my big take away for the one 18th. as a troubled congress i

to this congress?avid, democrat. caller: historic narrow margin the democrats, minority, have a chance to influence legislation. unity is important. i have concerns as a centrist who became a democrat preceding the 2016 election. i am still a centrist and have concerns over the squad and their allies in the house that sometimes make it difficult for democrats in other areas of the country like iowa. i would like to have them and others in the party of that persuasion to hold down the rhetoric. if we don't, i am afraid four years from now, we will be listening to a president elect jd vance. host: what do you mean hold down the rhetoric? which rhetoric? caller: we have heard from various members of the squad. when they start spouting something very left of center, it turns off the people, particularly in the upper midwest. specifically, i remember when representative omar said defund the police prior to one of the elections. specifically i can point to certain congressional districts in the upper midwest

it was a troubled congress in very many ways and it was also a wild ride and textbook authors on congress to make serious revisions because it offended a lot of assumptions about how congress does its work. we will relive some of the drama and in the second hour we will turn to the 119th that will be and think about whether it has good prospects for being somewhat more productive. i'm going to launch into a bit of a discussion here to start us off but before that i want to introduce my two coal panelists for the first panel to have a discussion with. first kathleen mcmanus the otheran politicos newsletter covering congress as an institution operations and live in the capitol complex before joining politico in july 20 she's been close to a decade covering congress at "congressional quarterly" roll call investigating stories about how congress funds itself the congressional workplace capital security and the oddities of the legislative branch for. is one of l the most thoughtful capitol hill reporters about the process that goes into making laws and how things happen and i think she has a g

the constitution gives congress the power to legislate but in order to do that, congress needs information on what topics it can legislate on, what needs to be legislated about. congress gets that information through investigations. at any given time, congress can be investigating for example if a law is being implemented as it was intended to or the cause of a disaster. it gathers information and uses that information to create new law. one of our goals for this exhibit was for americans to be able to get a better understanding of the things that happen here in the capitol, things done by their representatives in congress. so because investigations are one of those things that congress does so regularly, we wanted to highlight that. and we wanted to show historical examples of congress investigating so that visitors can use that example to better understand what's going on right here in this building in the capitol. so there are four main reasons why congress investigates. one is fact finding. investigations can reveal the facts of things that happen and clarify what happened and why. ano

to this congress? david, democrat. caller: historic narrow margin the democrats, minority, have a chance to influence legislation. unity is important. i have concerns as a centrist who became a democrat preceding the 2016 election. i am still a centrist and have concerns over the squad and their allies in the house that sometimes make it difficult for democrats in other areas of the country like iowa. i would like to have them and others in the party of that persuasion to hold down the rhetoric. if we don't, i am afraid four years from now, we will be listening to a president elect jd vance. host: what do you mean hold down the rhetoric? which rhetoric? caller: we have heard from various members of the squad. when they start spouting something very left of center, it turns off the people, particularly in the upper midwest. specifically, i remember when representative omar said defund the police prior to one of the elections. specifically i can point to certain congressional districts in the upper midwe

it's the congress that's that that authorizes the spending of not one dime can be spent unless congress appropriates the money for that activity. so congress has to have a role in foreign policy and in defense, and yet we've had president after president resisting congress's efforts to insert itself into decision making and to resist giving a full accounting and, being fully cooperative with oversight efforts. so you know that the iran-contra scandal and the investigations that followed were really a dramatic laying out of this conflict. and it's rare that public gets such a window into these machinations and these conflicts. did the public share the media's obsession with the iran contra affair? well, certainly for a while in the summer of 1987, i can just be personally, i was i was a college student and i had been been backpacking through europe and having, you know, pretty good time explore in a place i'd never been before. and i came back home in in june of 87, and these hearings were beginning. and i was like a lot of other people just wrapped, you know, with with these hearings an

how we elect how big congress is. any of that kind of stuff? we hear some chatter but we here at dissatisfaction. is any that going to break through? >> my observation is that people when they're less interested in changing the rules they want under the old rules they happen to get through change the system for the d better. with there are for expanding the house of representatives. don't think there's a gop appetite the reform this energy is certainly being caught up in the doge. i would have to say whether or be a goodgoing to expression of those energies is an entirely other question. the doge even as it became a department, which i doubt it will does not have any authority. it cannot do a whole lot of anything if you worried about federal spending you should realize more than half of the budget goes to entitlements which is kind of on autopilot a big chunk of change goes paying on the debt. how do you make those things more efficient? that is no easy question. is going to require pushing a statute through congress

even after congress. sometimes you think the opportunities are right now, but there are going to be opportunities after congress to influence and make a difference for people in your community and beyond. >> what would you say kept you here for 20 years and allowed you to approach the job and balance your life at home and your responsibilities here? what has been one of the factors that has helped you do all that? rep. mcmorris rodgers: certainly i have had an amazingly supportive husband. brian, we got married in my second term. then having three kids, he has carried the load at home. he is retired from the navy and has often said that being home with three kids day in and day out is harder than anything he did in the navy. so his support has made a huge difference. also, my faith is very important to me. and i am grateful. after 20 years, i have actually grown stronger in my faith. spending more time in prayer and really seeking what god would have for me each day has played a very important role in kee

conference in congress. but as we saw, i well to fight to get this headline about a record the number of rules. because historically passing a rule is not news. maybe a similar failed -- singular failed rule is, we saw that whether nancy pelosi wasas speaker, to say that we have reached a neww threshold that is a flex this is members saying, you don't -- can't cross us, we won't let this place operate. >> can you talk about the substitute for moving through rules. something called suspension of the rules. that means we'll speed along to passing a bill after 40 minutes of debate, and we'll need two-thirds of members voting in the affirmative, that sounding all right, bipartisan what is -- why is that not a completely sufficient way for the house to operate. >> it sounds so good. you are so right. and it requires bipartisanship. that also sounds great. i think that what is does is makes members feel they have been robbed of input and influence. you know, with terminology, if you go through rules there can beo

so if congress had ahead, that's nice, we're going to have the congress party u.s.a.t h to competely divest from any internationals that it has do you think that would have been absolutely fine? so if the answer is yes, it uld have been like this case or if the answer is no, why is n like this case? >> i guess i would need w more information about how the international oation is able toniate control over the affiliate and if it has to gather data from an affiliate in a way that was going to jeopardize our nation's serity. >> let's put the data collection of this ase which seems not very pertinent to my 19 50's an log but you know, we were very concerd out the kind of speech that the communist parrot was in the quiet and it turns out that that content was pretty wellcrted some place else. i think iit was specific hi concerned about the content that would trigger scrutiny under the first amendment. tn i think you've just content-based rationale.aause we think that this foreign government going to manipulate content in a way that will - concerns us and may very well affe

to members of congress. now it is more subtle with campaign donations and the like. and concerns about using insider information and legislators using that to trade stocks. so try to get to a fully trustworthy congress is something we keep pursuing but it is not easy. as for the discussion around january 6, 2021, it does not feel to me like democrats or republicans are for the most part in a place where they can have a super conversation about it even four years later the emotions are still raw. narratives are conflicting. hopefully we will get to a point where we can have an honest conversation at some point. host: gregory is next out of massachusetts, democrat. caller: my biggest concern about the certification -- he brought up a point about 2016 in alabama. one member had concerns about interference and i want to say i feel 90% of republicans have not taken the information about the recent trial of alexander smirnov and i suggest all of them who believe democrats are lying look up those facts. and also i

i like i like congress. i like studying congress. one of the things that makes congress so interesting is that it's it's traditionally not a parliament that is that you can get these distinctive members of congress from out of the way places. i did a biography of ernest greening was a democratic senator from alaska. a very left wing senator. you don't think of alaska as a particularly left wing state, strong critic of the vietnam war in the 1960s. and as we moved into this, this the current kind of politics that we have now, we've we've sort of lost that aspect of american political life. this next one, it's a little bit of a doozy. and i don't think that we're going to have time to totally answer it. but maybe you can give us a sneak peek into maybe where to look up resources for it. what is the history of the us capitol police origins mission future it's cetera. is it's this actually. it's relatively easy to find one of the great things about all of these federal agencies is that they have they have offices of historians. so you ca

i want when a new congress sets up the rules, i want the old congress to set up the rules before they know who's actually going to be in charge. i think that there are opportune cities for us to have a more humane schedule. i would put my foot down in terms of people in i don't know how you do this by rules, but have people who are hired just to be political flacks and not do actual policy work. but part of that can come from the top. having legislative leadership in both parties taking a firmer line about performance and individual members of congress not supporting people for leadership positions who are not providing the leadership that we think need to happen. and easy for, you know, a geezer who's got one foot out the door to pontificate because i know this is hard and i know the politics are serious and the stakes are high, particularly in a time of trump. but i think. i think there's more we could do to humanize it. and i think there is more work that rank and file members can do to enforce norms that are more civilized with such razor thin majorities and the quest for power by

speaker, today we begin a new session of congress. americans want us to address the high cost of live, help them buy a home of their own and keep social security and medicare alive. it's a new year, the republicans' rules package is the same hold. same old division, same old dysfunction and disregard for working families from the last two years. this rule automatically puts on the floor republicans' top legislative priorities. not a single one of their legislative priorities addresses the cost of living. not a single one allows amendments to make the bill better or more bipartisan. republicans seem afraid of debate and amendments. i think it's because they're afraid that the more debate their bill, the more americans will hear that republicans keep siding with the billionaire bros rather than standing with working families. vote no on the rules package and vote yes for working families and women's health care. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady reserve -- the gentleman reserves this gentlelady from minnesota. mrs. fischbach: i yi

there's only one united states congress. it's not like there was a better one down the street that i could have run. this is the one we have. and you know, for a kid who grew up, you know, moved by bobby kennedy in 1968, for example, and following my uncle, to be able to work at this level, it's a pretty special thing. and you know it's i'd be fooling myself if i didn't acknowledge that. i'll miss that part, too. what will you not miss? i won't miss being away from my family. i won't miss having to get on an airplane twice a week. you know that i won't miss. and then, frankly, this isn't the congress that i was elected to. and it's certainly not the congress that i watched for the 36 years that i was a front row observer to my uncles. service here. i won't miss so much of the anger. and it's kind of it seems like two different things going on at once. i have real friends that i will miss. there are a lot of people here who have abused the legacy of this legislation to a point where it's become an angry place. it's not hard t

we have a lot to do in this congress. border security, extending the tax relief republicans delivered during the trump administration, lifting burdensome and regulations to help american businesses and families flourish. providing for our nation." 's defense in an increasingly unstable world. bringing appropriations bills to the floors for serious deliberation so we make the best possible use of taxpayer dollars. and the list goes on. as president -- i have listened to other speeches discussing the agenda for the coming months. i now find myself in the position of delivering that speech. my republican colleagues have trusted me to lead our party and the senate in the next congress, and i will work every day to be worthy of that trust. my philosophy of leadership comes from my dad. he was a basketball coach and our high school and had very strong opinions about the right way to play. sports, to him, was not about personal glory. it was about elevating the team. he hated ball hocks -- hogs. if someone else was in a better p

we all come to congress with our own priorities. reviolate liesing -- revitalizing manufacturing was one of mine. we are always learning something new for the people we work for, from our constituents. and i am very grateful to advocates in our district who first educated me and that is the p fast. most -- pfas. most americans understand the danger. but back then when we first got started, most members couldn't spell pfas. so i first heard from constituents by casting kathy and tony about the water quality issues in escota and urging faster cleanup surrounding the work smith air force base and i established with brian fitzpatrick, the first congressional pfas task force which broke democrats and republicans to more urgently address a real public health threat and to ensure that those exposed, especially our servicemembers have access to the health care they deserve. and timely, after years of advocacy, we have made progress. this year, the pieden administration announced the first drinking water standard for pfas and certain chemica

previous congress, many said they supported the bipartisan bill. what is your response or will you work with democrats? >> it was bipartisan. >> 170 voted against it politics ahead of principal and we will find out where we stand on this right intention of doing bipartisan work in the congress. i was heartened leader jeffries opening remarks, he noted the border and of the things. i can't just the mere going to get the opportunity take actions. we welcome with open arms to self problems and we will be looking for that. happy new year. ♪♪ >> president jimmy carter's 39th president of the united states in the nation's longest lived leader passed away last month at the age of 100 joints he said for live coverage of the funeral. history continues to washington d.c. where he will fly and say at the rotunda. the public will have a chance to honor him body remains in state at the u.s. capitol. the national funeral service will take place at washington national cathedral followed by his final resting ceremony georgia. on the c-span that were, susie and net

this is an act of congress. this is the sums unitel action by the executive branch but this action filled between the executive ancoress where congress took action to close up the drupal. executive try to force divestiture of tiktok under the tied up in litigation aboutot those authority. so congrme in and provided additional authority based on a with respect to the data harm, this court to displaced theor deadline carcass that with a nding actually there is potential for spec probl. >> do you think we have the authority to issue administrative state've done in other cases, or do you think january 20 ddle prohibits us from doing that? >> i don't this court has a formal basis to issue an administrative state if the poce that was necessary to assist in the courts below consideration. i would defer to the court and whether it has sufficienti to resolve the case but we are here riches of it the case at it -- here ready to submit the case today, and i think it is in the intef congress were international study to reso

this is probably one of the most diverse congress is in history. and that is notable considering, diversity in the republican conference has been increasing also in the past 10 years, more women and the republican conference over the last 10 years, trying to catch up to what it looks like in the democratic caucus considering that for a long time and the democratic caucus has been seen as more diverse, more women in that caucus, really notable. and also a huge historic thing to note is that republican senator tim scott of south carolina is now the longest serving black senator ever in congress. he beats out another senator only serve two terms and he has been congratulated his state for keeping them in office and he will continue to serve as a republican senator of south carolina in this next congress. >> daniella diaz of political, thanks for helping us set up the day for the opening of the 119th congress prayed we've been working at the house floor where there are 63 freshman members, 33 democrats and 30 republicans. let's go to the other side of

this is a new congress. the american people need us as their elected representatives in this season, to put down our partisan swords and pick up bipartisan plowshares. it's time for us to come together, not as democrats or republicans, but as americans. to get things done for the people. in that spirit, house democrats will work hard to find bipartisan common ground with our republican colleagues and the incoming administration on any issue, whenever, and wherever possible. in order to make life better for everyday americans. for far too long in this country, the cost of living has gone up, but the sides of the middle class has come down. housing costs are too high. grocery costs are too high. child care costs are too high. insurance costs are too high. utility costs are too high. america is too expensive. there are far too many people in this great country who, for decades, have been struggling to live paycheck-to-paycheck. that is not acceptable in the wealthiest country in the history of the world. we nee

no, it's set by congress and congress is the architect of the other two branches and set at nine a long time now but it's not written in stone from the mountain high but that's what it's got to be. host: you want to talk about f.d.r. and his attempt? guest: it was in political circumstances he wasn't getting the rulings he wanted from a more conservative court so he was threatening a lot to pack the court to make sure a lot of his new deal legislation would go through and wasn't subject to judicial review to stop it and would say all right, you want to test me, i'll get congress and my democratic majorities to make sure you're one of 15 or more seats rather than one of nine. it's nothing new under the sun and this is one of those things, too. host: we'll take two more calls. next is a call from hanford, california, and greg is the caller. caller: thank for you taking my call and happy new year. i'd like your guest to apply his expertise to my question. in my space there was a individual on the presidential ballot foreign born and know it's common in some states. what would be the proper

you are now members of the 119th congress. >> the congress has been sworn in, 300 34 members of the congress speaker of the house elected on one ballot, it took about two hours. that is speaker mike johnson from louisiana. he's been reelected. akeem jeffries is the leader of the democrats. one vote got speaker johnson elected, little dramatic at times, the vote was left open. 216-215 in favor of mike johnson and he needed to 18 to win and one person voted for someone else, that was tom massey out of kentucky. the boat was left open, two people had voted for other members of congress. they and speaker johnson were on the floor, we were able to see that because c-span has cameras there today, and they walked off the floor. according to several sources, they got a phone call from donald trump. ralph gorman in keith self changed their votes and voted for mike johnson and mike johnson became speaker of the house on the first ballot. keith self is a republican from texas and here is what he tweeted afterwards on x. he said my sole focus was advancing the trump agenda, to ensure this i expressed co

pceuring the previous session of congress.c-spa, also at :00 eastern, a conversation with the outgoing cha of the commodity features trading commission. over on c-sn 3, 9:30 eastern, symposium or relationship between russia and china. 1:00 a.m., director of cdc mandy cohen onomtic and public alth threats. lina khan, you can watch vege on c-span now video app or online at c-span.org. great responsibilities fall once again to great democracies. >> this is also a massive victory for democracy and for eedom. ♪ ♪ ♪ president jimmy carter the 39th president of the united states and the nation's longest lived leader passed away last month at the age of 100-6789 join c-span for live coverage of state's funeral. the public will have a chance to honor him wednesday as body remains in state at the u.s. capitol. on thursday the national funeral service will take place in washington national cathedral followed by final resting in carter family home in plains, georgia, watch c-span of live funeral services of former president jimmy carter.