. >> joining me right now is north carolina republican congresswoman renee ellmers, a member of the house and energy commerce committee which is overseeing hearings on capitol hill into the federal health care website. congresswoman, it's great to have you with me. you had your chance to speak to the contractors last week and we have kathleen sebelius in the hot seat this week. what are the first questions that you want to ask of the secretary? >> well, what i'd like to know from the secretary is, number one, why did she repeatedly over time tell us that by october 1st, that website was going to be ready to go, that every american would be able to come on. i also want to understand who did what when. who was calling the shots? why was this process interrupted? you know, things like the shop and browse portion were turned off. there are so many questions. but now i'd also like to know from kathleen sebelius how am i going to respond. i am getting thousands of requests from -- reaching out to my office telling me that their health care premiums are going up and that their health care plan t

we're talking about congresswoman renee ellmers and congressman charlie dent. 90% folks.iscussion has been there would be something done about obama care in your negotiations, your strategy and tactics over the debt ceiling and the continuing resolution. here it is. do you folks at this point think you really need to do much? i mean, this is, as speaker boehner said, it's a train wreck and the train wreck keeps getting worse by the day. why do anything at this point? >> well, you know, it is failing. it should be a huge and total and complete embarrassment to the obama administration. if we hadn't ended up in the shutdown situation, this would be the complete total focus of the media and the shutdown overshadowed that. it is a complete failure. it is not the promises that were made. these promises have been broken. we were told in energy and commerce, in all our subcommittees, october 1st, for sure, these exchanges would be up and running, from kathleen sebelius on down through the agencies. we are going to have to get answers for this. this is over $600 million worth of

that's why we had renee ellmers on. but the fact of the matter is, the sequester, which has become the baseline, which republicans hated but now embrace, is a baseline that mandates cut. let's keep in mind, the number of sequester, the reason the house couldn't pass a appropriations bill on transportation was that their own caucus couldn't carry the votes to do it. >> i want to get back to the point of whether or not it's fair to blame the republicans for what's happening with the nih. basically what we're hearing from the republicans is basically, you know, we were stuck on traffic, we wanted to drive our car on a busy sidewalk. it's not our fault that people got hit. that's basically the point. the idea that the republicans are using this as a negotiation of legislation that has already been litigated and incredibly irresponsible and reckless. it is equivalent to driving your car on a busy sidewalk and saying, like, you know, my intention was no to hit people. well, the fact of the matter is, any person who knows bett

he's a master sculpture in an unusual medium, toothpicks and ellmers glue.ng more than 105,000 toothpicks, he created this 9-foot high love letter to his hometown, san francisco. the stools of his trade -- the tools of his trade are less sophisticated. >> i used this calculator for figuring out how many things will fit into an area. >> reporter: nail clippers serve as toothpick trimmers. his natural talent has elevated this low-tech art form, but he credits high-tech for much of his success. >> i got on the internet and went viral. >> reporter: in 1974 he created a few san francisco landmarks out of toothpicks. this is now on display -- at a museum, attracting crowds, especially when they realize it's not just a sculpture. what's next for him? >> a self-portrait of myself doing what i invented maybe, the ping pong ball rolling through myself. >> reporter: turning ordinary objects into something extraordinary! >> that is cool. >>> another fall day around the day. let's take a look at how the rest of the weekend is shaping up. >> let's get you ready for tomorr

representative renee ellmers, a republican from north carolina, had her family's ar-15 military-styleult rifle stolen from her garage last week. why was it so easy to steal, you ask? because the garage was unlocked, and the deadly weapon was leaning against a gun safe. not in it. a spokesperson for representative ellmers points out that the congresswoman is big on gun safety, and wants to get to the bottom of this herself. but fear not, the stolen rifle has now been added to a national database used to track firearms. if only it had been registered beforehand, perhaps the thief would have thought twice before stealing it. but either way, as congress continues to lack the courage to act, they'll continue to bear some responsibility for every gun that ends up in the wrong hands. >>> coming up, the itch republicans just cannot stop scratching. perhaps it's this master of the anti virus can provide some soothing relief. >> people ask me, did you really sleep with ten 17-year-old girls and you're a 67-year-old man and i go yep, i did. ♪ why can't we be friends why can't we be friends ♪ the

ellmers: thank you to my mrs. ellmers: thank you to my distinguished colleague from kansas. thank you for yielding time to discuss the situation at hand right now. you know, -- pull that back a little bit. right now, we're faced with this government shutdown. right now, millions of americans are thinking to themselves, what on erlt is happening in -- on earth is happening in washington. there's a shutdown, this is implementation of obamacare exchanges that took place starting yesterday. you know, the interesting thing is, 47 states are receiving frequent error messages on the website. in my home state of north arolina, the obama navigator were grounded and the computer system was shutdown. americans across this country are faced with error messages. on both exchanges run by the state and those run by the federal government. day one, day two, failure of obamacare. so despite three years of time, countless dollars, countless administration officials testifying, hearing after hearing after hearing in the energy and commerce committee, in the ways and means committee, that every

ellmers, for five minutes. mrs. ellmers: thank you. i ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mrs. ellmers: thank you, mr. speaker. i rise today to share with this body and the american people a great injustice. a few moments ago one of my colleagues from texas, from across the aisle, spoke of this as well. so as you can see there are many times that we all can come together and agree upon certain items and move the american people forward in a better way. however this particular situation is unthinkable. a great injustice is being done to our service members and their families. we learned last night that five brave american service members were killed over the weekend in afghanistan while selflessly protecting our country. normally, mr. speaker, the loved ones of these fallen warriors receive assistance in the form of benefits to help them make those final arrangements for burial and other necessary preparations. yet as a direct result of the political gridlock here in washing

republican members of congress that have differing views on the senate plan, joining us as renee ellmers of the house committee on energy and commerce and the republican women's policy committee and member of the appropriations committee as well as ethics committee. we thank you both for being here. this has been a tough day. congresswoman, let me begin with you. what do you expect to be the consequences of the deal and will house approve of that? >> it will get passed. of course i will not be in favor to vote for it because it simply does not have in it what i have promised my constituents that i would vote for if we raise the debt ceiling. the reforms and spending cuts were not there. i really wanted to relate the obamacare individual mandate and it was not fair. so this is the issue and i do believe that it will pass. it has been up-and-down, it has been a tough time for us. but i think actually this is a learning time for us and we can all come together and move forward. because we have to fight for the american people. lou: congressman, do you support the deal tonight? >> yes, i wil

quote, an unsecured ar-15 rifle was reported stolen from represent ellmer's home.rely it was locked up, right? wrong. the gun had been left leaning up against a gun locker in an unlocked garage. now the gun belonged to her son and the congresswoman wasn't home at the time, but instances like this prove we need stricter gun laws, right? >> guns in the hands of criminals are a problem. and until we address those issues, and until we address the issues that lead to crime in our society, then we're going to continue to have this problem. >> folks, a gun in the hand of a criminal is definitely a problem. but so is leaving an assault rifle unlocked in the garage. life could be hectic. as a working mom of two young boys angie's list saves me a lot of time. after reading all the reviews i know i'm making the right choice. online or on the phone, we help you hire right the first time. with honest reviews on over 720 local services. keeping up with these two is more than a full time job, and i don't have time for unreliable companies. angie's list definitely saves me time an

ellmers, for five minutes. mrs. ellmers: thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, i rise today to speak about the failures taking place with the launch of the obamacare exchange through the healthcare.gov. since october 1, this website has been plagued with delays, errors, and fundamental flaws in the website design. this prompted "usa today" to call it an inexcusable mess and nightmare. in addition to the technological failure, the website leaves americans opened to exposure of privacy information. buried in the source code of healthcare.gov a paragraph reads, you have no reasonable expectation of privacy regarding any data stored on this information system. at any time the government ramon tore, intercept, search, and seize any data stored on this information system. any data stored on this information system may be disclosed or used for any lawful government purpose. consumer reports states, it's not worth of hassle. at least not for now. stay away from healthcare.gov for at least another month, if you can. this is not reassuring for americans entering

. >> republican congressman renee ellmers said i need my paycheck, that's the bottom line.nderstand that there may be some other members who are deferring their paychecks and ike that's admirable. i'm not in that position. i want to bring in political analyst and grio.com contributor zerlina maxwell and chris wilson. good morning. >> good morning. >> here's the current salary for rank and file members of the house, $174,000 per year. that's about $3300 a week. when you've got 800,000 workers who are furloughed because congress can't pass a budget, should they get paid? >> no, they should not get paid. these furloughed workers are making the average american salary so they cannot go without paychecks. the idea that republicans in the house that forced this government to shut down and are taking home paychecks during the shutdown, that is ridiculous. i think most americans would agree they should give the money back. >> "the new york times" calls it, chris, phony self denial. almost half of the 535 members of congress are millionaires. their median net worth, $966,000. almost

. >> joining me right now is north carolina republican congresswoman renee ellmers, a member of the housech is overseeing hearings on capitol hill into the federal health care website. congresswoman, it's great to have you with me. you had your chance to speak to the contractors last week and we have kathleen sebelius in the hot seat this week. what are the first questions that you want to ask of the secretary? >> well, what i'd like to know from the secretary is, number one, why did she repeatedly over time tell us that by october 1st, that website was going to be ready to go, that every american would be able to come

ellmers: and that gets to the greater point. the gentleman points out, this objective, when president obama put it forward, i go back to the summer of 2009. i was not in any position ever considering running for office. working at a -- working as a nurse with my husband in his general surgery practice, ying to take care of the patients back home, and when we were learning about what the president was proposing, we said, you know what? we just can't simply sit back and watch this happen to us. we have to speak out. because there were many in our medical community who said, you know, this is wrong. this is wrong. we know that there are reforms that are needed. we know that we have so much to fix in health care. but this approach, this government takeover of health care, is only going to lead to socialized medicine. we know that. and that's not a winning health care system. not when you have the best health care system in the world . so we did. we started speaking out. we got out on the road, we talked to people, we explained to th

ellmers: thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, i have the distinct honor and privilege to represent fort bragg in my district, and i found out yesterday evening that despite passing funding to keep our military paid and to keep our military civilians paid, there have been over 7,000 fort bragg civilian employees furloughed. now, i find this very interesting there again because the president signed this very bill into law monday, and here we have a situation where i have needless, needless suffering happening in my district. i'd like to ask unanimous consent to submit a letter from chairman buck mckeeon, chairman of the house armed -- buck mckeon, chairman of the house rmed services committee, quote, the text is not limited to pay to civilians who were previously categorized as exceptional or essential for the department of defense operations in the event of a government shutdown. we passed h.r. 3210, the pay our military act, sponsored by my colleague, mike coffman from colorado. mr. speaker, i submit the rest of my time.

she is wealthy, married to a doctor, this is renee ellmers.he has since decided that she can do without her paycheck. peoplee these congress doing? what about all of the people in that are doing without a paycheck? you have not seen congress give up their paychecks. i don't think the news is emphasizing this enough, there is some little child that i cannot get treatment from the national institute of health and is going to die because our government is shut down. i am sick of the tea party. they are not able to negotiate with people. it is embarrassing. my family was originally from canada. i have never seen anything like this. on the worldssing markets, it makes us look like our style of government does not work. conservatives,e they are more worried about abortions and all sorts of ridiculous stuff -- all sorts of ridiculous stuff. between from joe were mirrors -- -- a tweet from joe ramirez -- iron patriot says -- just an update on the fellow that came to washington to cut the grass, the man from south carolina -- on saturday afternoon, --

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ellmers: i thank the gentleman. i rise in support of the research for lifesaving cures act and i am funding of the n.i.h. and -- to help bring life-saving cures to sick americans. the situation here in washington today should not be standing in the way of this important life-saving work. there is no defensible argument against this legislation. n.i.h. has been in the forefront of biomedical discoveries that have revolutionized the field of medicine. these discoveries have laid the foundation for treatments and cures for many diseases, including cancer. and improving the lives of countless americans. the government shutdown is preventing new patients from entering clinical trials. for those patients, it's a matter of life and is death. it is not a matter of politics. about 200 people register at the n.i.h. every week. about 30 of those are children. 10 of which have cancer. we must ensure that medical care is not suspended for these patients, especially those children. they are faced with difficulty. the speaker pro

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ellmers: the hill reported on october 8 from one expert, james turner, software engineer, that he is probably the most broken release i have ever seen. i'm hearing firsthand of the frustrations from my constituents. one constituent said, the program freezes up when i try to enter your tax filing status. you can't get past it. same thing happens when i try to apply over the phone. i have called every day since october 1. all different times of the day, and have gotten nothing but run around. one excuse after the other that their system is down. i called during peak time. i have called during offpeak time. but apparently there are nor on peak hours. if i can't get qualified for a subsidy before january 1, we will have to let our insurance lapse. with that, mr. speaker, i say this is a defective exchange and it's only part of the problem. i yield back the remainder of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from a arizona seek recognition? >> to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection,

ellmers. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you to our panel. this has been a long process and i do appreciate you coming and meeting with the entire committee today and you know, what i'm learning from this situation is i do believe that you all did your best to get this process in order. and i am hearing repeatedly and repeatedly that this -- the bottom line here is c.m.s. is responsible for this failure. and i just -- on bhf of your companies, you have the opportunity to throw them right under the bus as far as i'm concerned. and we will get that information, i'm sure. ms. campbell, i need to know, the american people need to know, how many people are enrolled? how many individuals are now enrolled in health care coverage from the website? >> i'm not able to provide that information. >> you are not able or you do not have that information? >> i don't have it with me. and i'd have to have approval from c.m.s. to provide that information. >> now to that point, one, i'm going to ask you to submit that by 9:00 a.m. tomorrow but i do want to point

ellmers: we are granted the pow over purse strings here in congress so we are right in using that power. the house provide yet another plan to get parts of the government back open again. we provided funding to the n.i.h. which provides essential life-saving treatments and research to families who have received the worst news possible, that their family member, their child, may have pediatric cancer, that needs a cure. i urge the senate and the majority leader harry reid to bring this up for a vote in the senate immediately. we provided funding to the district of columbia, which is part of our stewardship. today we will once again vote to keep the promises to our veterans and we will vote for the funding for national guard and reservists. these are all issues that we all agree on, depending on where you are sitting, republican or democrat, the right thing in this situation is to provide funding and reopen the government. it's time for us to act. thank you, mr. speaker, i yield back the remainder of my time. the speaker: the gentlewoman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentl

ellmers for their leadership on this important issue. i rise today to speak out against domestic violence and to demand that congress act in a bipartisan manner to fight back against this plague on our country. the domestic violence statistic rates in our country are staggering. one out of every threewomen will be the victim of domestic violence in their lifetime. four are murdered by their intimate partner every day in the united states. further, a woman is battered in the united states every 15 seconds. do the math, that's 240 incidents every hour. we as a society have a responsibility to work to protect the most vulnerable among us and must do everything we can to address these unacceptable rates of domestic violence. that is why one of the fers pieces of legislation i co-sponsored as a member of congress was the violence against women re-authorization act. protecting people from violence by their partners should not be a partisan issue. and it was appalling in the last congress that such vital legislation got caught up in this partis