of europe. well, thomas hart benton who served both in the house and senate wrote a rebut tal, and said, you know, most of those senators used to serve in the house of representatives. they're not a different class of people. it's just that there is a different ethos in the senate than there is in the house. the big, boisterous house of representatives has always been a lot more tumultuous, which is what the -- and turbulent, the word henry clay used. the senate has always been a bit more is he date in its debates. i think, quite frankly, if he came back and sat in the galleries today, he would have very much the same impressions of the two bodies and he would be just as wrong today as he was back then. the senate in the -- back in those days, it was different from the way it is today in that it had no standing committees. of all the committees were ad hoc committees. they were created to deal with a particular issue and then went out of business as soon as they were finished with. and senators could be elected to committees drop on and off committees pretty regularly. that meant you really for the most part were not accruing a lot of expertise in any particular is

of senator mcconnell. so senator mcconnell has a room that would house once the entire house of representatives. the house was a lot smaller in those days. but the house was the dynamic engine of the federal government. it was the place everybody was watching, and, in fact, that was where the press went to pay attention to what was going on. the senate was so far in the background, that for its first six years, the senate met entirely in secret session. it had no public gallery, it kept the doors closed. it didn't see any reason to let the public in. the senators were going to be legislated by state legislatures. they felt if they had a gallery, they might speak to the gallery, rather than to each other. and they could work as sort of a my he is, quiet advisory council to the president. ask that was phone. of course, the newspapers really houmded them, saying this is a democracy and the people have a right to know what their legislators are doing. the house, where everyone was going to run for re-election in two years, they opened their doors on -- immediately. so they wanted everyone to see what

>> i do think there is a great attempt within the republican conference of the house of representatives to stop barack obama. but i do not think the performance of the house, that you can draw a line from the color of the president picks again. there are elements of the tea party that have erisa's component. i do think that. i have met a lot of people in the tea party. i do not believe all of them are the proponents of them are racist. but is there an element to that? i would say the content we have seen for president obama cannot be attributed to anything other than that. >> if not his race, what is the content based upon? as much as king ridge and clinton did not get along, they got stuff done together? what is this contempt based upon, if not race? >> let us recall, kravis, 0 -- tavis, when bill clinton was president, all the slick willie stuff said about him, accusing him of being involved in a friend's suicide. i think what is different is not so much the difference in skin color. i think it is the difference in the political climate, where people are whipped up into more of a fren

matthew wasniewski, who is the historian of the united states house of representatives appointed in october of 2010. he had served as the historian and deputy chief of the house clerk's office of history and preservation. he's the editor in chief of "women in congress" and directs many excellent programs in preservation of records and the publication of historical documents and information pertaining to the house of representatives. and also i might note on a personal note that prior to coming to the house of representatives, he worked at the u.s. capitol historical society. so it's a great pleasure to have matt on the program. so without further ado, dr. magness. >> thank you. i'm here to talk about john willis menard. he is something of a familiar name for those who know a bit about the history of african-american representation in the united states house of representatives. his main claim to fame is that he was the first african-american elected to the house of representatives, but he was denied a seat in 1869. we'll get into a bit of the reasons behind that. but i'm here to talk about s

this is the house of representatives, currently has most of you ensure in this room know, statuary hall. there is one good thing to say about the house of representatives. it was generally regarded and still is regarded today as an absolutely beautiful room. there was one really bad thing to say about the house of representatives and that is no one could hear anything. as you see here, the ceiling is curved and away the room is structured, somebody is standing in the well here could be giving a speech in somebody out here could feel see that person perfectly. someone appear couldn't see a perfect thing. it was all white noise. it was total divebomb in the house was known for that and demand for that for some time. i'm one of the stars of the house of representatives in 1850 was a tiny, tiny congressman from georgia, alexander stephens who later became vice president of the confederacy. his most prominent real estate, even though he weighed less than 100 pounds, he had a voice that could cut through the atmosphere in the house like a phaser. so he could be heard by everybody. so the powe

possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u.s. house of representatives.] the chair: the yeas are 412, the nays are zero. the amendment is adopted. the unfinished business is request for a recorded vote on amendment number 6 printed in house report 112-454 by the gentleman from arizona, mr. quayle, on which further proceedings were postponed and the ayes prevailed by voice vote. the clerk will redesignate the amendment. the clerk: amendment number 6 printed in house report 112-454 offered by mr. quayle of arizona. the chair: a request for a recorded vote will rise and be counted. a recorded vote is ordered. members will record their votes by electronic device. this is a two-minute vote. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for politi

i'll conclude here with a picture of menard's arrival in the united states house of representatives in 1869. it was an international media event of an african-american arriving on the floor of the house. this was taken out of frank leslie's newspaper. weekly harper also covered it and london "times" covered it. his international stock contributed to the media event around this. the last and final remarkable thing about menard's life is, when he arrived in congress in 1869, he was only 30 years old. he accomplished this entire career of being a leader within the united states abolition movement, one of the instigators, participant, a captive and victim of the morant bay rebellion, and the first african-american elected to congress by the age of 30. with that, i'll turn it over to matthew who will speak about his congressional career. [ applause ] >> mr. davis, if you would stay just for one moment. so i am not matt. i am rod ross. and i want to thank both clayton mckendra, a board member here, as well as congressman for coming. arkansas's loss has been illinois's gain for both of them.

house of the u.s. house of representatives is saying in no uncertain terms that the unreasonable searches and seizures prohibited by the fourth amendment those are in fact allowed when it comes to the internet despite such a large show of support in the form of votes though there were plenty of critics of the bill as well but this bill had a privacy policy it would read you have no privacy the reality is the sister represents a massive government overreach in the name of security i know it's twenty twelve but it sure feels like a foreign news host if you value liberty to privacy and the constitution then you will vote no on cispa could the government use personal information to spy on americans you know so what's next for says if i am for this country a system becomes law let's go to journalist david seaman host of the d.l. so now david we should mention. next this has to the senate next and the president has said he plans to veto it but what do you think the chances of this or some form of this becoming the law of the land. well it already passed the house so it's a major threat it stands a major pos

three-fifths you get more voting clout in the house of representatives and that's the constitution. not in the house of representatives. where else could you get credit? the electoral college. yes, they didn't believe in democracy and thought republics were different. baloney. i gave you arguments that it they were far more democratic than we've been taught and they believe in direct election of governors and direct election of the members of the house of representatives there is a balance between big and small zats. the big state guy always wins. we have three small state presidents, bill clinton, zachary taylor and franklin pierce. that's it. virginia is the biggest state and for 32 of the first 36 years it's virginian and massachusetts is the second or third biggest state depending on how you count anded adamses. they dominate. it's not big state, small state. it's house versus senate. it's slavery, stupid, as james carville would say. that's what it's most about. before you have political parties to know if you're from massachusetts who is good from virginia and vice versa but on

in the electoral college, so it went to the house of representatives, where clay came in fourth in that election, which meant according to the 12th amendment that he would not be one of the ones that would be brought before the house. only the top three would be brought before the house. he was convinced and i think he might have been correct that if he'd made it into the top three, he could have used his influence as speaker to get himself elected, but now he became a king maker because he wasn't in the election, but he was still speaker, a very powerful speaker, and he did use his influence to have john quincy adams elected. >> you mentioned ghent. where is ghent? >> in belgium. >> treaty of ghent. we hear about it all the time. what is it? >> it ends the war of 1812. and it's an interesting arrangement because it is established on the concept of the status quo antebellum, meaning everything as it was before the war. no territory changed hands. there was no -- there was no resolution of any of the ostensible causes of the war which were free trade sailors' rights, neutral rights for a

our guest tonight author robert draper has written a book on the house of representatives called-- this is the real title-- "do not ask what good we do." ( laughter ) like the no exit of house of representatives of books. but tonight, we begin overseas where australian rupert murdoch, known as yahoo, finds himself still in a spot of trouble in great britain, simply because several of his newspapers hacked the phones of celebrityes, politicians, a 13-year-old murder victim and the relatives of some killed in action british soldiers and allegedly bribed scotland yard detectives to help with the cover-up. i could go on but i know many of you are probably eating in the next 24 hours. ( laughter ) but, of course, mr. murdoch has already answered for those crimes against decency last july. >> you said that ultimately you are responsible for the whole fiasco. >> no. >> jon: okay! well, that's a wrap, people! clear the chamber the house of common. i said good day. come on, murdoch! if you're not responsible, who is responsible? >> you have rnot responsible? who is responsible? >> the people tha

the clerk: the honorable the speaker, house of representatives, sir, this is to notify you formally, pursuant to rule 8 of the rules of the house of representatives, that i have been served with a subpoena issued by the 362nd judicial district court in denton, texas, testify in a criminal case. after consultation with the office of general counsel, i have determined that compliance with the subpoena is consistent with the precedence and privileges of the house. signed, sincerely, eric with, director, district office of congressman michael c. burgess. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the united states house of representatives stands adjourned until noon tomorrow for can you talk about what the transition for the mission will look like? what do you expect for the spring fighting session -- season. to mark the expected people to hold the gains made in the south? -- do you expect to be able to hold the gains made in the south? >> insurgency in the self -- south is the greatest threat to the government of afghanistan. if it should strengthen, that will provide a greater threat,

possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u.s. house of representatives.] the speaker pro tempore: on this vote the yeas are 243, the nays are 180. the previous question is ordered. the question is on the adoption of the resolution. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. the ayes have it. the resolution is adopted. >> i request a recorded vote. the speaker pro tempore: a recorded vote is requested. all those in favor of taking this vote by the yeas and nays will rise and remain standing until counted. members will record their votes by electronic device. this will be a five-minute vote. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u.s. house of representatives.] the spea

a plan from a democratic president and that he stood on his side of the aisle in the house of representatives and there on the other side of the aisle stood up another freshman member of the house of representatives, jack kennedy, and nixon said, when the chips are down in this country we try to stand up together and that's been the great tradition and it was proud of the vote. as i recall, i called richard nixon for all of the flaws of that generation and for all of nixon's enormous flaws as president. there were parts of that legacy that should be remembered in a positive way as well as the things that we all bowed and wondered how did we ever get there. how did the tragedy ever unfold? >> let me ask you, do you recall president clinton's response to the message about nafta? >> well, i think it was then that he may have told me about russia. i can't remember the exact sequencing, but it's very important that president clinton took his advice and did exactly what he said. i thought that was one of the bravest moments of president nixon's. he took on his own -- and he got bashed for it, but a

ago and people say, i am now the senate majority leader, and i am now the speaker of the house of representatives, and you have a long -- of the state. you have long term evolution of party. and we are not an etch a sketch party, that was an unfortunate comment. we are broadly conservative party. we do not have to be severely conservative but we also need something else that is really hard to do in american politics. we need a new generation of breakthroughs. this country is in trouble. the industrial world is in trouble and you look at spain with 22 percent unemployment. greek could suffer a third decline not standard of living. and there are huge problems around the world. >> what are the key elements? >>guest: one is an american independent energy policy to make sure no future president abouts to a saudi king and bring several million jobs home by producing more oil here in the united states. second, a social security saving account, back in 1983 the last time we tried to fix social security if we adopted the model of chile with a personal account there would be $16 trillion savings. today. th

of our guest, marwan muasher is available online. thank you for joining us on c-span. >>> the house in session today, the house of representatives passing bay vote of 235 to 173 a proposal put forth by the house republican lead eric cantor that would cut taxes on small businesses, cutting them by as much as 20%. for the second day in a row the house ignored the veto threat from the president in passing the bill mostly along party line vote. yesterday the house approved that transportation legislation which also mandated the approval of the controversial excel keystone pipeline. in today's votes republican overcoming democratic objections that the tax cuts are not paid for and would add $46 bill thrown the budget deficit in just one year. the bill did get the support of 18 democrats, ten republicans voting against the measure. here's more from the floor of the house and the chair of the house ways and means committee, dave camp. >> i rise today in support of hr-9. this legislation will allow businesses with fewer than 500 employees to take a 20% tax deduction. small businesses are the engine of job creation and while we pursue comprehens

the house of representatives voted down the bush program and the stock market dropped 700 points at the end of september of 2008. the republican caucus in the senate was organized, and the vice president came to talk to us. you know, cheney, the liberal, well, he said if you don't pass this package, we are in turn george w. bush into a moderate herbert hoover, and the majority of republicans voted for coming including bob benet, and it was the end of bob dennett's career. but when president obama was elected shortly thereafter as the first legislative initiative certainly the republican caucus, jim demint, the senator from south carolina was heard to say we are going to turn this into obama's waterloo. the republican leader said the republican senate agenda is to defeat obama. this was three years and 11 months before the 2012 election, and nobody in the republican caucus except for columbia snow, susan collins and arlen specter would talk to the democrats without the bill. i had been a child during a the 1930 depression, and i didn't want to see another depression. my father who was a

beginning, "we the people," and i'm delighted to have my colleague, former member of the house of representatives, mike castle, join me as david characterized it, mike and i are members of the 30-year club which is not too easy to come by. takes awhile to get to that kind of seniority. this book, "life among the cannibals," was designed to come out in the midst of this election season to try to acquaint the american people with why washington is what it is today, and that is gridlocked and dysfunctional, so that if the electorat is properly motivated, now is the time to do something about it, and the title with the cannibals is by deliberation for motivation and for accuracy because that is what is happening. it is really cannibals devouring senators and representatives, and i'll be very specific. starting with bob bennet, senator from utah for 18 years, 93% conservative rating, wasn't pure enough to be re-nominated by the republican party in 2010. mike castle in delaware was defeated in a republican primary by a tea party candidate who had defend herself on television after being called a witch,

you saw what happened in the house of representatives. you have a partisan budget that the house has passed. it's not going to pass the senate. it's not advancing the process of moving the forward with a game plane for fy 14 and beyond. so i really wanted to applaud the chairman for his actions. i think it's the right way to move forward. i would be the first to acknowledge that it's a long shot, if we can get this done before the elections. this at least gives us a chance to try to come together and do something that most people think we can't get done. i think the chairman has given us the best possible ability to accomplish those results. i applaud him for the work. we're going to miss your charts. when you're no longer chairman of the committee. we're not going to miss the bad jokes. and the friendly banter. i want to say how much i appreciate your efforts to bring the a budget to the senate floor and how much i sympathize with your dilemma. even though as an acknowledged budget expert on capitol hill, there are not many of them. you u

house sponsor of the end racial profiling act. ranking member of the house judiciary committee. serving in the house of representatives since 1965, john conyers is the second-longest serving member. i think second to another member from michigan, if i'm not mistaken. congressman conyers testified at both previous senate hearings on racial profiling in 2000 and 2001. congressman, we are honored to have you here as a witness and the floor is yours. >> thank you, mr. chairman. and to your colleague, who is another former house member if i remember correctly, and senator ben cardin, as well. all of you are working in the backdrop of a huge discussion that has been going on for quite some time. when i came to the congress and asked to go on the judiciary committee in the house, and that was granted, emmanuel seller was then the chairman who did such landmark work in the civil rights act of 1964. and then we followed up with the voter rights act of 1965. and from that time on, a group of scholars, activists organizations, civil rights people, and americans of good will have all began examining what brings us here today, and

from from now it's hard to say the house of representatives have given in the house of senate has not decided yet. but the situation is quite different from from the last internet. internet act like soap or. so the big industry like google and facebook is seem to be in favor of the so it seems quite likely that the senate will give in and then the act will finally be passed its should should give through the concerns of the president and the house and the most of the parts of the gov the chamber giving in so easily right and the white house has already threatened to veto the bill i do think wealthy some kind of compromise. well there there have been different stories about what the white house says there's been. there's been voices that saying that . obama. will be two of the last saying that obama will not care so much of the. i think it depends very strongly on the question how much awareness we will. be able to create about the bill and how much awareness big groups. like websites and and citizen groups will be able to create in the next weeks i don't think that there is any need f

all right in the best of the rest of the news is the republican majority in the house of representatives in danger speaker of the house john boehner seems to think so in an interview with fox news speaker boehner said this about the republican prospects of holding the house after november i said there's a two in three chance that we win. control of the house. but there's a one of three chance i'll be the loser but i feel myself frank. we've got a big challenge and we've got work to do. a lot of work to do indeed but just what kind of work is the question republicans came to power in the house at the beginning of two thousand and eleven with a mandate to create jobs instead they went to work targeting female contraceptive use that will create zero jobs pushing for a dirty oil pipeline that will create very few jobs in trying to repeal obamacare and push an austerity budget that will lead to massive job losses so might the same voter of morse that's putting republicans like governor scott walker in wisconsin or governor rick snyder of michigan in danger control of the house of representati

and we'll see what happens. >> let me ask you, we've been talking about this issue, the house of representatives will be voting friday on the student loan interest rate issue, the debate continues in the senate. in terms of the calendar, those it's a busy week in washington. what will happen next week? >> next week they are still deciding but primarily right now the progress on legislation has slowed to a crawl because we've gotten no to an the election season. we're seeing land swap bills, a lot of resolution, commemorative coins that will be sold for famous people, things like that. not a lot going on. >> jonathan strong covering this for roll call. live on capitol hill. thank you for being with us on c-span radio. some developments on the campaign front. we heard from republican presidential newt gingrich in which he would turn the page on his campaign. he's going begin suspending his campaign next tuesday. the expected endorsement of mitt romney. meanwhile, there's an article about mitt romney's post- primary plan. but the chair of the republican national committee asked about another develo

house of representatives voted down the bush program and the stock market dropped 700 points at the end of september of 2008. the republican caucus and the senate was organized and vice president cheney came to talk to us. that wild ride liberal, kennedy said a few don't pass this package they are going to turn george w. bush into a modern herbert hoover. a majority of republicans voted including bob bennett. that was the end of bob bennett's career. when president obama was elected shortly thereafter and came up as his first legislative initiative to have a stimulus package suddenly the republican caucus was out. jim dean lind --demint was heard to say we're going to turn this into obama's waterloo. the senate republican leader -- the republican senate agenda is to defeat obama. this was three years and 11 months before the 2012 election. and nobody in the republican caucus except for olympia snowe, susan collins and arlen specter would talk to the democrats about the bill. i had been a child during the 1930 depression and i didn't want to see another depression. my father who was a ru

senate approved its version of the new surface transportation act which needs approval in the house of representatives. the process to a riot at a successor has been difficult and the house of representatives is abandoning its own bill in favor of the efforts at the senate, specifically focusing on the senate version. the current funding expires th march 31st. the key sticking point has been the unwillingness of the republicans to raise the revenue for transportation so we are hopeful that this matter will be resolved and that it will be resolved quickly. as you can probably see in the agenda, we have a presentation on county transportation authority projects in district 1 and 11. this is a follow up to something that i promised earlier and is important for us to do is that here after the county transportation authority level that we have a discussion about different projects that the transportation authority is funding in the various districts and the first presentation will focus on justice one at 11 and next week we hear on districts to and 10. i would like to thank the staff for their work in maki

but what they want to do is cast the participation of the house of representatives aside and just adopt what the senate has brought forward. and i tell you that the house has worked hard. i didn't have the benefit of 6,300 earmarks which my predecessor had to pass a bill. so it's take mean me -- taken me longer and a few days ago we did pass a bill. it wasn't the bill that we passed out of committee, h.r. 7. with all the republican votes but one and we tried to bring to the house. it wasn't the vote we heard in committee for some 18 hours. most of the time consumed not with republican amendments but with democrat amendments. there were 100 democrat amendments. i said we are going to sit there as long as it takes to give everyone an opportunity to participate in this free and open process which we are doing here. today they propose closing down that free and open process. let's just adopt, let the senate toss it over to us. i say, no. i say no for a whole host of reasons. the senate proposal is a proposal that will bankrupt the trust fund. the senate proposal is a path to just building p

well as a prize vote yesterday in the house of representatives by a vote of two hundred forty eight to one hundred sixty eight the house passed the cyber intelligence sharing and protection act or suspect now the law was supposed to be taken today and in addition to passing with flying colors several more amendments were added to the bill for the purpose of this legislation is to expand information sharing capabilities between the federal government and private companies and in addition to allowing the government to access online information for the purposes of national security and cyber security it now also allows the reasons of investigation and prosecution of cyber security crime to be used so any hacking or network disruptions that you might be suspected of and the government can access your information now essentially the u.s. house of representatives is saying in no uncertain terms that unreasonable search and searches and seizures prohibited by the fourth amendment are in fact allowed when it comes to the internet despite such a large show of support in the form of votes there

possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u.s. house of representatives.] the speaker pro tempore: on this vote the yeas are 408. the nays are four with two voting present. 2/3 having responded in the affirmative, the rules are suspended, the bill is passed, and without objection the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. for what purpose does the gentleman from new york rise? >> a couple purposes. first, mr. speaker, i request unanimous consent to remove my name as a co-sponsor of h.r. 3993. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. >> i also ask unanimous consent that when the house adjourns today it adjourn to meet at 9:00 a.m. tomorrow. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. the chair lays before the house a communication. the clerk: the honorable the speaker, house of representatives, sir, this is to notify you formally pursuant to rule 8 of the rules of

today the republican controlled house of representatives approved a new bill from the republican housesentatives majority leader proposing cuts of up to 20 percent for small businesses. republicans say this will help create jobs. democrats call it a giveaway to the rich. they argue the republican bill would benefit wealthy celebrity whose own small businesses. celebrities including oprah and kim. mike is on capitol hill this afternoon. how do the republicans sell this bill? >>reporter: it will probably not go anywhere because the senate democrats are against it and president obama has threatened to veto but the republicans were selling it as helping create jobs noting that small businesses create the vast majority of jobs in the country. here is house majority leader making the case. >> this week when every american filed their tax returns, the other party in the senate voted to store taxes. we should not be taking money out of the hands of those we are counting on to create jobs. we need to let small business owners keep more of their hard-earned money so they can start hiring again.

he was originally elected to the arizona house of representatives in 2000 in the arizona senate in 2008, he also served as the director of arizona's motor vehicle division, the director of the governor's office of highway safety, and is a deputy for 23 years with the maricopa county sheriff's officer. dennis dconcini served as u.s. senator for 19 years from 1977 to 1995, prior to that, he served as people macounty attorney, the chief prosecutor and civil attorney for the county and school district within the tucson border area. currently serves a partner in a law firm with offices in tucson, phoenix, washington, d.c. state senator steve gallardo a member of the arizona state senate, representing district 13. he previously served in the arizona house of representatives from 2003 through 2009, he has served on numerous state and local boards and committees, and is the leading sponsor of the state senate bill, arizona state senate bill that would repeal sb-1070. todd landfried is the executive director of arizona employers for immigration reformer. a grassroots organization comprised of 40