. >> ifill: political editor lisa desjardins is at the capitol where lawmakers are preparing for the president's address. lisa, you're up on the hill. you have been talking to people. we just heard mitch mcconnell said he hoped the president would step up and we also heard the president issue two veto threats today. what is the mood up there? >> i have to say there's a palpable lack of excitement for such an important occasion. i love these. this is a fascinating and important part of american government. but there's a sense here of not only gridlock but incredible divide. from both democrats and republicans on and off the record, they all say no matter what the president proposes, it may be interesting you may agree or disagree, they don't think his proposals will go far, and that's led to a sense of low expectations and low excitement tonight, i have to say. >> ifill: let's talk about the expectations of the white house where they're determinedly upbeat about this, talking about closing the gap for the middle class. is that resonating on capitol hill? >> absolutely. of all the thing

lisa desjardins we thank you. >> sure. >> woodruff: if you feel like you're hearing a lot about droneswell, that's because interest in them is picking up by the day. last night, we showed you how they're being used to further protect the cultural heritage in peru. in the u.s., they're starting to be used for all kinds of purposes. and while the prospect of ever- more drones may be concerning to some$ uhe question is rapidly becoming: are they safe-- and how should they be regulated? science correspondent miles o'brien has our report. >> the sky may be big and blue but it s getting more crowded every day as makers of small unmanned aerial vehicles or drones test their limits. >> the thing is very fast. it can fly about 70 miles an hour. >> oh jeez. >> the man at the controls is michael shaboon. he works for a company that is growing faster than he can flick a joystick. china-based dji innovations. the market leader in the personal drone industry. >> we've gone from 50 employees to 3000 employees. in just under three years, so the industry is booming. >> americans are likely to spend 130

and, newshour political editor lisa desjardins at the capitol. domenico, let's start with you. what are folks at the white house saying their priorities were for this meeting and for going forward? >> well, they're really hoping that they can find some area that's common ground. they said president obama brought up some things, like you mentioned. cyber security was one thing on the table. tax reform is always something that kind of gets dangled that some of us are kind of skeptical of. we listened to mitch mcconnell talk about we don't want to let an upcoming election get in the way. we just got through an election, but they're already talking about another election coming up. they do think there are some things they can(wnrk on, but the white house has already issued five veto threats on some item, the keystone pipeline an item in the affordable care act that they find to be unacceptable. they say that's republicans not wanting to compromise because they pushed through some of these, what they called recycled they knew the president would be against. >> ifill: lee centennial

to capitol hill to our political editor lisa desjardins. >> thank you for joining me. what tid you think of the speech? >> i paid attention to the foreign policy aspect of it. >> rank and number? yes, that's true and gravely disappointed in the section about iran. he says that he's negotiating this really tough deal. he is not. number two, on the issue of cuba, my native homeland, i'm greatly disappointed because he pointed out alan gross, we're glad mr. gross is home but i'm glad speaker boehner had great pro democracy advocates for cuba as his guests. all he did was give away the store to the castro regime. it's shameful. >> i know you believe his cuba policy -- >> very weak. domestic policy, he talked about middle class economy, he says millions of jobs have been great and says change needs to be to happen to help the middle class including changes in the tax code. what about hiss argument the economy has not improved and we need to raise taxes on the wealthy. >> what the president is saying is let's punish folks who are creating jobs, who are the folks out there ma