lamar alexander chaired a hearing which ran about two hours a the senate committee on education and pensions welcome torder. today we are holding ourrth and will hear from the health and human service secretary he's the only witness said hneeds a few extra minutes to explain the blueprint and he's welcome to do that. any senator will have five minutes to ask questions. the secretar secretary must leat noon, so i'm going to be a little strict on the five-minute limit and that senators ask their questions with two seconds remaining i will ask the senate to provide the answer in writing so every senator can have a chance to ask questions. may 11resident tmp announced a blueprint to reduce the cost americans pay for their prescription drugs and today we are pleased to hear from secretary azar

and now you have lamar alexander saying to the president in front of the president, hey, you -- if yougoguing, which was what he was saying because nixon going to china means you go against, obviously, what people think of your hard-line position. if you stop demagoguing you've got a chance to put together an immigration fix that could be bipartisan and transcendent. that's important we're hearing from more and more republicans on the hill over the past week that they want the president to step up. >> i'm glad you're back on set today, joe, because this is your day. how many times have you been on set or me sitting in that chair in washington and you ask us when are the republicans going to step up, heidi? yesterday and throughout this week we've seen a number of them. we saw 12 of them sign a letter saying that, that the president can change this and he has to do it with lamar am sand lexander, murkowski, then the follow-up was lamar alexander at the white house trying to appeal to him on his own terms in the way you need to talk to trump. that hey, here's the positive, here's the car

lamar alexander, r-tn:>"we dont know what anything costs and as a result costs go through the roof."a proposal from the food and drug administration to force drug companies to include the price in their advertising. "and you think about that before you go to your doctor and say you want some of that." "a recent report by a senate committee found that prices on some of the most popular brand name drugs increased by 50 percent from 2012 to 2017. "he says making the price clear will bring costs down. "we're not quite sure whether drug manufacturers would fight the idea and if so whether that would win." leigh purvis is a drug policy expert with a-a- r-p. she says some argue that forcing drug companies to list prices is an unconstitutional violation of free speech. there are also questions about the impact."if people start hearing that this drug costs 10- thousand dollar a month at some point that might actually become normalized and that's not something that we want." the proposals are p

lamar alexander said this is a big mistake. calling tariffs higher taxes on american consumers. this is dominant. make america great again and should not mean make america at 1929 again. he argued when it comes to tariffs the u.s. should hit china, not our allies. he was not overly concerned about this. >> this has been on the discussion for quite a long time. is a very small percentage of the respective economy. a fraction of 1%. >> at the white house, fox news. >>> the nasdaq fell 20 point. >> trump pardoned -- he had been treated very unfairly. her trump also hinted that he is considering a pardon for martha stewart and a former illinois governor. he is serving a 14 year prison sentence on corruption charges and for trying to sell the senate seat vacated by barack obama. when he became president in 2008. >>> things are changing around. getting warm. certainly memorial day was a warm one. tuesday was pretty warm. wednesday not to bed. today. kind of on the mild side as well. e start to warm up from here as high pressure brings itself back into play. this will bring temperature

lamar alexander suggesting the president he is the guy who could solve the immigration issue because he does have those hardline immigration credentials, a president who could bring people together and solve this problem legislatively. that's the big fix lawmakers are talking about, so elusive and the president pitched there a little bit by the fellow republicans on the idea of doing a big immigration fix and talking today about the narrower executive order. not sure what it will say or what the terms of the executive order will be and something to allow those families to be kept together on the southern border even as the president says they push for legislation up on capitol hill, scott. >> let's remember, as well, this comes a day after the president appeared to double down during his speech in front of the nfib yesterday. you heard a reporter's question thrown out there. >> i just lost audio here. can't hear you. >> i'll let ammon go and heard the president addressing the national federation of independent businesses appearing to double down on the issue. a reporter's question th

lamar alexander in the senate is right.resident could stop this thing in an hour, you know, with one phone call. and clearly he doesn't want to do that. he wants to play a political game that ultimately is going to, you know, massively hurt the party he's allegedly for. >> and you think he digs in more before a breaking point or a tipping point? >> i think he's a toddler. push and he throws a tantrum. he wanted to talk today about mark sanford and take some victory lap over a primary. it's infantile. i think he does not understand what's happening here or he doesn't care. you've got people like lewandowsky who is on pence's payroll out mocking these people. i mean this is not only tone deaf. this is morally deficient, and a price will be paid. it's still america. >> thank you, my friend, for coming by. >> oh, thank you. >> we always appreciate it. someday we'll talk about something hopeful. >> i'd like that. >> more of our coverage when we come back right. ahh... summer is coming. and it's time to get outside. pack in even

joining us now, senator lamar alexander and senator ted anks for being here. senator cruz, w did you think a surveyor poll is necessary? is the an agree what you want to >> well, i think the last 1 1/2 years, we accomplished a tremendous amount, coming together in congress and the president, we passed historic tax cuts that are benefitting jobs all over the country. we're seeing regulatory reform as job-killing regulations are reduced, we're confirming dges. we need to keep working forward. lamar and i are trying to bring republicans together and get 50 ther on the same page to keep winning major later victories each and everys the seven months we have remaining to keep standing up for the men and women that elected us. >> dana: senator alexander, i understand some of the items on the priority list are things like taking another stab at repealing and replacing obamacare. a second round of tax cuts or making the tax cuts permanent. reigning in the consumer financial protection bureau, mulvaney, defunding plawa under parenthood. work requirements for federal wel

. >> donna: one bob corker, orrin hatch, lamar alexander, john mccain, susan collins, ben sasse, i have whole list. >> greg: you don't think -- all the ones doing the outrage signaling all over twitter. i won't mention the politicians. they are outrage signaling and they are so solemn about it. they hate it, which we all do. the second part, what do you do about it? silence. >> dana: did numbers -- the numbers she listed, they are supporting the cruz bill. >> donna: i want to go back to what you said at the top of the show. american slavery and the holocaust. they were evil events. while people often use this to describe the pain or describe the degradation, dehumanization, these were absolutely evil events. what people are saying now is that they think that this compares to that. i try to tell people don't do it. don't go there. but at the same time, we have to call this an outrageous act because these kids are being abused. separated from their families. you have children. you are a father. >> jesse: in most cases if someone comes across with a minor, they are only separated for a day

senators ted cruz and lamar alexander join me in a few minutes to share what they have learned of a surveytheir own republican colleagues about priorities this year. plus, i'll ask the new limainted -- new newly minted opponent who is going to take on bob menendez. and president trump grants clemency for a drug offender. we'll explain what it's about on the "the daily briefing." >> harris: get to 2018 super tuesday. mini one. primary results in the eight states from last night. republicans and democrats both avoided disaster in california and democratic women dominated two house races in iowa. and republican who disavowed president trump in 2016 was forced into a runoff after she failed to secure a majority of votes. bring in now power panel. there is a lot of power. rnc spokesperson kayleigh mcenany. d.c. vicehair michael blake. a member o the new york state assembly. great to s you both. michael, i'm going to go to you first. you say this was a big night for women. >> phenomenal night when you think about what happened on last night. it showed around the country that the power and the im

tennessee senator lamar alexander chaired the hearing which ran about two hours.

matter our tariffs and our senator bob corker, and i live in tennessee, our senator bob corker and lamar alexander has pointed out that these tariffs will disproportionately hurt voters in trump country. we have volkswagen plant in chattanooga, tennessee, a mercedes-benz plant in alabama and bmw in south carolina, electrolux, sweden appliance manufacturer, has a giant plant in tennessee. they were planning a $250 million reinvestment into that plant. go back to march. trump announces steel tariffs on a thursday. electrolux comes out on friday, let than 24 hours later, saying we're putting on hold this $250 million investment. i mean, this is not just policy hurting the american people. forget about the fact that these tariffs and this economic policy could be a disaster for the global economy. it's a disaster for the economy of trump country, trump voters. >> why do they buy into the narrative then? >> well, that's the mystery, isn't it? i mean, it's -- it's a cultiocc personality. >> doesn't make sense. >> there was always the argument to be made republican voters especially in rural areas are vo

lamar alexander said it was a very big mistake. everyone from paul ryan to the koch brothers have come out in opposition to the tariffs. the editorial board went as far as to say mr. trump is treating united states allies worse than he treats adversaries like russia and china. now, why would he do that? the editorial also says president trump risks undermining the united states economy. although you wouldn't know it by today's job number. this morning, the labor department is reporting the economy added 223,000 jobs in may, far more than expected. unemployment fell to 3.8%. and black african-american unemployment at its lowest level since the labor department started tracking it in 1972. those are some good numbers. bottom line, the economy may be the best thing the president has going for him. here's my question. why risk blowing it up, sir? amman jabers, washington correspondent. brendan greely, the editor of the economic research note. all we know so far. and bob torricelli, a former democratic senator from new jersey. amman, le

you heard lamar alexander say this could be like nixon to china, that the president has that kind of cachet on this issue. so you've got members of congress now trying to cover for this decision that they all wanted to see happen done at the executive level and done today. >> jacob sober rauf is here with me as well and jacob soboroff has probably spent more time along the border, more time than any other correspondent at nbc news over the past few years. one of the things that this executive order does not do as we just heard from pete williams, it doesn't resolve the issue of children who've already been separated from their parents. what happens to those children? >> reporter: where are they going to go? yesterday we learned from a former head of ice that they could be permanently separate separated from their parents if their parents have already been deported by ice. and we learned that there are a hundred hhs shelters across the country where the kids that come out of this processing center here, the biggest one, and then other ones along border end up going to in 17 different

lamar alexander chaired a hearing which ran about two hours a the senate committee on education and pensions welcome torder. today we are holding ourrth and will hear from the health and human service secretary he's the only witness said hneeds a few extra minutes to explain the blueprint and he's welcome to do that. any senator will have five minutes to ask questions. the secretar secretary must leat noon, so i'm going to be a little strict on the five-minute limit and that senators ask their questions with two seconds remaining i will ask the senate to provide the answer in writing so every senator can have a chance to ask questions. may 11resident tmp announced a blueprint to reduce the cost americans pay for their prescription drugs and today we are pleased to hear from secretary azar to help us understand that a blueprint. the administration can do and what legislation might be necessary to help. hearing the secretary talk about farm issues is helpful i think because of his background as a family farmer and most of us think the bacround in business and service and the bush administratio

affordable care act, when we have a fix, truly a democrat-republican fix, bipartisan, led by lamar alexander, our senator from tennessee; patty murray, our senator from the state of washington. this is a shame. and when i say this is a tough place, especially when you have solutions to fixing problems that challenge all of us, that's all we're asking for, mr. president. please be considerate of these people. please do not throw caution to the wind, throw the baby out with the bath water, and 800,000 west virginians who would lose their insurance. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from pennsylvania. mr. toomey: mr. preside, i rise this afternoon to address the national defense authorization bill that is under consideration. we'll be probably wrapping it up this week. first i want to address an amendment that senator c and iave filed. it is an amendment that is related to the topic at hand, which is our security, because it is an amendment that would restore to congress the authority to have the final word on the deploymen

tennessee senator lamar alexander chaired the hearing which ran about two hours. >>> please come to order. today we're holding our fourth hearing in this congress on drug pricing and we will hear from health and services secretary alex azar on president trump's blueprint to reduce the cost of prescription drugs. this is the first hearing on the administration's blueprint. senator murray and i will each have an opening statement. then i will introduce the secretary, welcome him. i encourage him to take the time he needs. he's the only witness today so if he needs a few extra minutes to explain the blueprint, he is welcome to do that. each senator will have five minutes to ask questions. the secretary must leave at noon, so i'm going to be a little strict on the five minute limit. and if senators ask their question with two seconds remaining, i'll ask the secretary to provide the answer in writing so every senator can have a chance to ask questions. on may 11, president trump announced a comprehensive blueprint to reduce the cost americans pay for their prescription drugs. and today we're p

lamar alexander i ask unanimous consent that there being two minutes equal little divided prior to the vote. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. lee: mr. president? the presiding officer: senator from utah. mr. lee: it is not unusual to have policy in an appropriations bill. it happens with some regulatory. it happened in the corresponding house appropriations measure. what we're talking about here is some of the worst kind of law making that occurs here in the swamp, occurs here in washington, d.c. congress sets forth a very broad, vague standard and an executive branch agency figures out the rest, sometimes with disastrous consequences. in 2015, the e.p.a. and the u.s. army corporation came up with a clean water rule also known as the waters of the united states rule, one that effectively, dramatically expanded the jurisdiction of the federal government over land in the united states. in some instances saying that if a plot of land is wet some of the time, some of the year during any particular year, you can be subject to massive fines totaling millions