>>ifill: senator roger wicker of mississippi, senator jeff merkley from oregon about.about. >> richard cord ray was confirmed to head the consumer protection bureau. >> brown: now to the volatile situation in egypt. after a week of relative peace in the country, violent clashes returned last night. ray suarez reports. >>suarez: supporters of out offed president mohamed morsi poured into cairo streets last night calling for his return to power. they marched into will of the capital's busiest brings ans that's where tensions boiled over. proof from pbs's front line, demonstrators burned tires and blocked the roadway.

senator jeff merkley from oregon. great to see you. >> thank you.is great to be here. >> bill: i thought i was the progressives' best kept secret. happy to have you take the title. so particularly, senator on the filibuster, you've been leading the charge for a long time now. that this is -- the abuse of the filibuster is getting in the way of good legislation. good nominations. and it looks like we may get some action on it today. >> been very involved in it with my partner tom udall. basically, we are -- the frustration level has just grown so high. we have pa really sis on all -- paralysis on all fronts, on nominees, executive nominees. this morning, harry reid is going to go to the floor and speak to a piece of that. the executive nominations. and say this is intolerable. we had a deal in january. in which mitch mcconnell promised to return to the norms and traditions of the u.s. senate regarding nominations. that hasn't materialized. and now we need to be much bolder in addressing this because the u.s. senate, a minority of the u.s. senate is p

joining me now, senator jeff merkley, democrat from oregon. senator sherrod brown, democrat from ohio. senator brown, i want to twin with you. this can all take on a grounds hog day quality. republicans are blocking nominees and people say, well both sides do it and when it was a republican president, democrats blocked nominees. there's something qualitatively different about blocking nominees not because you have an objection to the nominee, but because of the agency they're actually nominated to head, you don't like that. >> yeah. first of all, mitch mcconnell's the only person i know who thinks washington is works just fine and he likes the way it's working. take the point you just made. the consumer financial bureau was set up by dodd/frank under the law. this is the first time in senates history, ever, that one political party has blocked someone's confirmation because they don't like the agency. actually it's the second time. the first time was when they did this with cordray a couple years ago. they don't object to him. they want to ema

we talk with senators jeff merkley and roger wicker about the deal that averted a showdown over the filibuster rules. >> brown: ray suarez updates the latest turmoil in egypt, where new clashes between islamists and police left seven dead and more than 200 injured. >> ifill: fred de sam lazaro has the story of a school that's transforming the lives of children, who come from parts of india largely cut off from the wider world. >> the 18,000 students have two things in common. they come from india's so-called tribal communities and they're extremely poor. >> brown: and we close with a conversation about race, culture and identity in the wake of the "not guilty" verdict for george zimmerman, charged in the killing of teenager trayvon martin. >> ifill: that's all ahead on tonight's newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> and the william and flora hewlett foundation, working to solve social and environmental problems at home and around the world. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutio

we talk with senators jeff merkley and roger wicker about the deal that averted a showdown over the filibuster rules. >> brown: ray suarez updates the latest turmoil in egypt, where new clashes between islamists and police left seven dead and more than 200 injured. >> ifill: fred de sam lazaro has the story of a school that's transforming the l

we talk with senators jeff merkley and roger wicker about the deal that averted a showdown over the filibuster rules.

jealousanel are been and jeff merkley. this is about one hour and 20 minutes. >> we do not want to wait even a minute here, so we're going to get get going. my name is john walsh, i am editor at large at salon.com, n msnbc clinical analyst. one of the thing that is so fun about being here is we can be really honest with each other and talk about how the going, how's it working, what is working, what is not working up each other's spirits in case anybody is feeling the solution. i did a really fun book panel yesterday. i guess i found it a little bit negative about our current political climate. this wonderful woman stood up and said that's why when that stuber member that we did some amazing things in 2012. you guys to remember that we did some amazing things in a 2012. you are talking as though we lost. and i was like wow, you are right, we won. we won. why does it not feel that way sometimes? so this is a panel that really looks at maybe why it doesn't feel that way, and what we need to change. we know that we made these

morgan was just fine over four hundred million dollars for rigging those markets well senator jeff merkley democrat of oregon says every minute of the potential for problems that occurred when enron was both supplying electricity and running electricity trading markets don't all like this like how many times does the same crime have to happen before they say let's stop it let's introduce a go to jail do not leave for the next three rounds or the next three lifetimes right and just skilling was one of the architects of enron's crimes is going to be let out of jail early presumably he'll get a job at j.p. morgan so there was j.p. morgan's attempt you know to attitude toward commodities is what the n.s.a. kind of approach through data facebook and data they want to control like a huge vacuum all the data all the information to manipulate it knowing the three hundred sixty degree full spectrum dominance of all the data so jamie diamond wants to say oh let's just control every single commodity trade out there in the world take a little piece little rent seeking well the exiting this market now

senator jeff merkley from oregon.ator sheldon whitehouse from rhode island leading the pack saying now's the time. let's change the filibuster. we can get 51 votes, we can get 51 democrats. let's do it. we thought it was going to happen. instead, even tom daschle former senate majority leader, wrote an op-ed in "the washington post" saying at least if we're not going to get rid of the filibuster, then let's make them filibuster. let's have a real filibuster. make them stand up there and actually talk and talk and talk until they have to run out to the bathroom or something and everybody has to lay out their cots and people have to stay there and listen. but instead, harry reid made a deal. he made a deal with mitch mcconnell and mitch mcconnell promised okay, if you don't change the filibuster rules, we agree we will not abuse the filibuster. we will only use it for those occasions where you and i both agree this is a big deal. okay. guess what? republicans lied. totally lied. nothing has changed. they still use it to

jeff merkley and ron wyden voted present. we'll see what that means in the coming days.e can't survive on 11.25. that was the cry across the country. workers in seven cities walked off of the job at fast-food outlets. it was the latest of a series of one-day strikes that have spread across the country in recent months. $7.25, is roughly $109, rent is 70, gas is 30, and i'm at a deficit. >> michael: on friday president obama told the "new york times" that he wants lawmakers focused on, quote, how are we increasing middle class incomes and middle class wages? if we are not talking about that, we are talking about the wrong thing. for now it looks like he is talking to himself. back with us now, bill press and jason johnson. bill, even obama is talking about middle class wages, not working class, $7.25 wages. will these protests change the conversation in washington? >> i think they will. these are some of the most exploited workers in this country, first of all not all of them are making minimum wage. those that are making minimum wage are still only pulling down $15,000 a

oregon senator jeff merkley talked about the filibuster and gridlock in the senate at this year's net roots nation conference. here are a part of his remarks. >> get rid of the filibuster on the motion to proceed to the floor, straight up and down vote, are you for it or not russian mark right now there is no conference committee on the budget even though the senate passed a budget and the house passed the budget because these is filibustering the conference committee. how can anyone object to the house and senate getting together and trying to reconcile the differences between the two bills? but that is how dysfunctional the senate has become as a result of those who wanted to be dysfunctional. this is a keep he's. if you are very powerful and you have dozens or hundreds of law yours and you had huge amounts to own a does super packs and campaigns, you can way past the supermajority over time. but if you are fighting for progressive conference, for fairness, for the 99% instead of the one percent, then the one percent use the senate to block the opportunity to have a full debate and

we know this is happening, a sort of odd bedfellow coalition in the senate including democrat jeff merkley and republican mike lee are pushing to declassify the rulings. according to my colleague, greg sergeant at the "washington post," democratic senator chuck schumer of new york is now also lending his support to the proposal and the top democrat in the house, nancy pelosi, said she supports a similar piece of legislation over in her chamber. so that's something. that would be better. it would at least let us know what this court is doing. but is this really the way it should work? this secret court thing? is this really the way we want to run our democracy? joining us now is eliza goitein, co-director of the liberty and national security program at nyu school. eliza, thank you so much for being here tonight. >> thanks for having me. >> so right now when the government goes before this court, they have an incredible win record. it is the tiniest fraction of the thousands of cases they bring before them that are rejected. that's before you get into rewriting the laws. what do we take from

jealousanel are been and jeff merkley. this is about one hour and 20 minutes.

he has a lot of pressure from the newer members like senator warren, jeff merkley and others to makenges which a lot of democrats have been looking for over the last four years. you knows once he gets his hackles up, harry reid doesn't sort of calm down very easily. so it's going to be a tough place to find any kind of a deal. >> the only, the only word that we have heard thus far since this meeting just wrapped a moment ago is that harry reid is just saying there's been no breakthrough, which presumably means full steam ahead, i'm getting rid of the rules. if he does change the rules, if 51 democrats vote to change the rules tomorrow so they can't filibuster presidential nominees anymore, is that something that could be reversed as easily as it could be done? would this start sort of a snowball where all the rules start changing frequently now? >> well, that depends. you know, in the '70s they changed the rules sort of this on basis, and it outraged people and outraged senators enough that they actually went in and essentially erased the history out of the congressional record. and

senator jeff merkley was in studio last week. senator sheldon whitehouse. the ones who have been pushing for this. they were sure that this time, they were going to get it. >> that's the thing about the senate. every time is this time, we're going to get it. they came up to the brink. both sides kept their card in their pocket. reid also said hey i'm not taking this nuclear option off the table. mcconnell, if you want to come to me and block something again we might be back in the same situation. it is now a lever that reid has successfully used to force the votes he wants. >> bill: we were talking a little bit earlier in the program that -- see if you share my reading of this. is that there is a lesson to be learned here for the democrats. which is hang in and play tough! because they did here. and they brought it right to the very brink and mitch mcconnell did blink. >> absolutely. >> bill: as "the huffington post" says this morning, he might have been mitch slapped and he may not be very popular in his caucus this morning but i'm getting back to i think

naacp president ben jealous, the greenpeace executive director bill radford, and oregon senator jeff merkleythat begins at noon eastern on c-span. >> next, a discussion about the future of the republican party and then some of the challenges women face in political campaigns and in office. after that, a chance to find out how recent campaigns were affected by candidate statements caught on tape. needs a strong partner, and honest partner more than the american president, in whatd and cocooned harry truman called "the great white prison." that is what i concluded after five years and hundreds of interviews through those presidents with raid spouses who were willing to speak hard truths, those presidents have a distinct advantage. let me give you an example. had pat nixon been able to cut through her husband's paranoia, watergate might have been avoided. but she had long since given up on that i the time they reach the white house. they were living virtually separate lives as you will see in my per trail of this saddest of all presidential couples. "i do not give my husband , "ice," pat nixon

but we have senator jeff merkley, who is an -- [applause] -- amazing hero in many ways, including coming back to be honest panel for us. and to share his perspective on senate rules reform. so i'm going to let them go in order and start with ben.he will tell you why he is here and what he wants to talk about. >> well, for small, good afternoon.-- first of all, good afternoon. it is great to be here with all these great folks of this panel your concerns, fired up, pushing money out of politics, and about making sure that if a senator wants a bill, they've got to put on their depends undergarments and go down there and do it the old-fashioned way. look, we are at a crossroads in our country. it is not as bleak as many say it is. is simply whether or not the future is going to come faster that many people think is possible, or whether it will come in slowly koch brothers wanted to. our country is rapidly approaching a day when we will be the great plurality that we have always been destined to be. we will be a plurality of pluralities. we will be a country that has no authorities. we will b

some of you were here yesterday morning when senator jeff merkley from oregon was in studio.s been leading the charge among "the young turks" in the senate to bring about some change to the filibuster rules. he originally attempted to do that last january. but harry reid instead made a deal with republicans. republicans have reneged on the deal. they lied when they said they were not going to abuse the filibuster and use it to block each and every appointee just for the hell of it. harry reid has finally had enough and yesterday he gave a little talk on the floor of the senate where he announced what's going to happen is that early next week, he's going to call for a vote on presidential nominees -- nominees by president obama to positions in the executive branch, about a half-dozen of them. they're going to call for a vote. if the republicans use a filibuster to block them, he will change the rules to end the use of the filibuster and the possibility of using a filibuster for executive nominations. senator reid pointing out how republicans have abused this rule. >> not a sin

. >> jeff merkley and tom udal havel suggested that and we can look at that in the future. we have traditions here in the senate. maybe sometime in the distant future, we can take a look at that merkley annual have spent on tour hours and hours working on this. remember, i want to say this -- this is not me marching down the road on desperate my caucus is supportive of me because that is where they want to go to change this rule. >> i want to say as a ucla bruins, i appreciate your remarks. we have time for two more questions. right there, there is a microphone coming to you. >> mitch mcconnell has made clear the recess appointments is what is most concerned with and you have votes to start votescordray. and a circumstances you can see to delay that? >> talks on what? what?on they have a proposal, bring it to me but otherwise, we will vote for it if they have a proposal, bring it to make it the easiest to wait to do with this is to simply get rid of these filibusters'. logically, why would they hold up? this is one of the most interesting things -- they created these recess

jeff merkley, says, larry summers for fed chair that is disconcerting is something he tweeted out. still at the white house when it comes to larry summers, because of the white house's familiarity with summers is an asset. >> he is a well-known quantity. he worked as the chair of the national economic council in the obama white house. they know him well. they don't know janet yellen very well. she keep as low profile. she's very well-known to people at the fed and in the academic community but she is much more of an unknown quantity to the obama administration. >> though still the concerns about summers for a number about democrats, they think he is too cozy with wall street. he is too in favor of deregulation and they're continuing this push on capitol hill against him this is something that will play out over the fall according to the white house's likely timeline. if you look how much time they do have, the current fed chair ben bernanke, his term ends at the end of jjnuary 2014. back to you. ashley: got a little ways to go yet. rich, thanks so much. appreciate it. >> yeah. trac

. >> senator jeff merkley, i recently spoke with him at an event and he said, look, we need to put in place what we would be comfortable with if we were in the minority. harry reid is not someone who really wants to go out and change the rules. i think he pushed for this narrow reform, sort of like alan was saying, because i think many senators were saying the president should choose his own cabinet. a majority -- the president's party should be able to approve his cabinet nominees. lifetime nominees to judicial spots, i think more people are a little bit hesitant to change the rules. many pro-choice democrats, for example, are worried republicans could therefore get a lot of judges in place who would roll back roe v. wade, abortion rights, and i think for legislation that's where a lot more senators, a lot more people who have been in the senate, but even newer senators look at that and say, if we were in the minority this might not be a good idea. background checks could have gone through, so could the legislation that was much more expansive to gun advocates. so i think there's jus

this begins with senator jeff merkley of oregon. >> i thought we'd just make a couple of comments regarding the activities of this chamber a few minutes ago. we voted 71 votes in favor of closing debate on the nomination of richard cordray as director of the consumer financial protection bureau, the cfpb. now, the cfpb is vested with the responsibility of protecting consumers from predatory financial practices. now, we all discovered in the runup to the great recession just how important this protection is. of we had many, many crazy predatory practices on credit cards, we had, we had fees that came out of nowhere and shifting time periods from month to month in terms of when the payments were due and even shifting destinations of where the credit card payments got mailed to all so fees could be racked up on unsuspecting consumers. and certainly we found out in mortgages how important financial protection is. because we had starting from 2003 forward a booming industry in predatory teaser rate mortgages where the mortgages were 4% for two years, and then they were changed after two years to

democratic senator jeff merkley of oregon spoke on the senate floor about the proposed rules change. see i've been listening carefully to the debate that has been taking place here on the floor and the esteemed minority leader had a couple of phrases that he used many number of times. one of those was that this debate is about whether to break the rules in order to change the rules and the second phrase also involving it was repeatedly to say to the majority leader that you have or can your word. those are very powerful words. my mother always told me that people start saying things like that it's because they are lost for a real argument. i found them disturbing. i found both of these phrases disturbing. and i find them disturbing because they are so at odds with what this conversation is really about. we are here in the midst of a constitutional crisis. our constitution was set up with a balance of powers between the three coequal branches for checks and balances. never in their wildest dreams did the crafters of our constitution envisioned that a majority that is the minority excu

this begins with senator jeff merkley of oregon. >> we would like to make a couple of comments regarding the activity of this chamber we are talking about the nomination of richard as the cfpb it is vested with the responsibility of predatory financial practices. we all discovered in the run-up to the great recession just how important is protectionist the credit card payments where they got mail to, also sees could be locked up on unsuspecting consumers. certainly we found out how important financial protection is. the mortgages were 4% and they were changed up to 9%. now, you'd think most would-be homeowners would look at that and say, that is not exactly a good deal. but here's what happened. they went to a mortgage broker in the mortgage broker said that i am your financial advisor will roar all and you are sorting through and finding the best deal for you. so the first-time homebuyers trusted their mortgage brokers and unbeknownst to the new homeowner, those brokers were being paid kickbacks called steering payments and special bonuses outside the framework of the deal in order to s

but we have senator jeff merkley who is an amazing -- [applause] >> hero. hero in many ways including coming back to the on this panel for and to share his perspective on senegal's reform. some going to let them go in order and start with benjamin annual told us why he simply wants to talk about. >> welcome for so good afternoon. it is great. it is great to be here with all these, which is only folks on this panel, concern, fired up about spending and extending our voting rights, pushing money out of politics. and about making sure that the sender wants to filibuster a bill that got to put on depends undergarments and go down there and do it the old-fashioned way. look, we are at a crossroads in our country. it is not as bleak as many say it is. it is simply whether or not the future is going to come faster than many people think is possible or what it will come as slowly as the koch brothers would like to see it come. the future will come. our country is rapidly approaching a day when we we the great plurality that we've always been destined to be. we will

senator jeff merkley from oregon who has been in studio here. senator woodhouse from rhode island. right? whitehouse. sheldon whitehouse. some of the young turks here are pushing for a filibuster reform. if they did it, it would blow things up. >> it would be a big deal. absolutely. we'll see if reid tries again to tell people to come up with a deal. to get this done. mcconnell would argue that they have not been obstructionists. that they've let certain -- the large percentage of the president's nominees get through and that this is unnecessary. >> bill: the thing about these appointments if i jump in, there's really nothing controversial about any one of these people. richard cordray you know, he was attorney general or something. >> republicans just don't like the -- >> bill: they don't like the agency. >> yeah. >> bill: they don't want a consumer protection -- the protection bureau. they voted against it. we still got it. what they're doing is they'rer were preventing anybody from being the head of it. they don't like e.p.a. because they're afraid e.p.a. is going to crack down

first of all, tom udall, and after he completes his remarks, jeff merkley. >> thank you very much. great to be here with you, and have you as a partner, working side-by-side. first of all, let me tell you about last night, because i think that set the stage for what we saw happen here. senator reid, or as we call him, leader reid, played a true leader role in that meeting last night. it was structured in such a way it was just senator to senator. senator reid was tough and resolute, and he stood up and said, remember. about every half-hour, he said, remember, we are going to vote tomorrow. what flowed out of that meeting is the result we have today. and i am proud of that result, and i think it really moves us forward. these agencies can now do their jobs. they play very important roles for the american people. and i think it is a good day when we have very well-qualified people take over in agencies, and be able to do their job. my father, who senator reid had the opportunity to get to know they had a great visit before he died. he used to always tell me that one of the most impor

. >> jeff merkley and tom udall have suggested that, and that's something we can look at in the future. it's harder to implement than people think. but remember, we have deep traditions here in the senate, and maybe sometime in the distant future we can take a look at that. merkley and udall have spent untoward hours and hours working on this. i i admire what they've done. and remember, i want to say this, young man, to everybody here: this is not me marching down the road on this. my caucus is supportive of me because that's where they want to go to change this rule. >> i just also want to say as a ucla bruin, i appreciate your remarks. we have time for two more questions. and right there. there's a, there's a mic coming to you. >> laura -- [inaudible] with bloomberg news. mcconnell has made clear that the recess appointments are what he's most concerned about, and you have the vote set up to start with cordray with a procedural vote tomorrow. are there any circumstances you would see delaying that? maybe to have additional talks? how ironclad is tomorrow? >> talks on what? talks on w