and now joining us on "the communicators" is representative zoe lofgren, democrat of california, who represents several of the big technology companies in her california district. want to talk to her about some pieces of legislation that she's working on. and i want to start with a topic that seems to be gaining a little bit of steam, and that's cell phone unblocking. >> guest: yes. >> host: what are you working on? >> guest: well, i have the cell phone unlocking bill that, basically, amends section 12 to 01 of the digital millennium copyright act that allows, weirdly enough, the registrar of copyrights to control technology relative to alleged copyright. i think most americans were really surprised when the library decided that they couldn't unlock the cell phone that they owned without going to their carrier. that's really not, it's not right, it doesn't respect property rights and, in fact, there's really no copyright involved. it's just a way for monopolies to exert their monopoly control in, after somebody has purchased a piece of equipment. if they want to enforce their contrac

lofgren. ms. lofgren: as my friend and colleague, representative swalwell, pointed out, the government shutdown is causing serious damage to our country. the shutdown is putting americans out of work and hurting the economy. not only the jobs of federal employees but the thousands of small businesses who provide fwoods an services to the government and government employee whors not spending money that they no longer are getting in paychecks. this harm is being felt across the country by millions of people, the closures impact thousands of people. we know the small business administration is not lending to the tune of $1 billion a month. federal business statistics are not being released, leaving us essentially flying behind when it comes to how the economy is doing, army corps of engineer projects halted, consumer product safety commission not reviewing products to keep us safe. v.a. not being able to decide claims from veterans. we saw the horrifying news earlier this week that death benefits for

mike lofgren, long time congressional aide, including six years on the senate budget committee.ark patterson, you worked in the majority leader's office. you know everything about how this stuff works. what, what is the staff doing backstage the c-span cameras are never going to find while their bosses are posturing the staffs know on both side we have got to fix this? >> the staffs are freaking out, lawrence. >> yes, there is that. first. >> you and i have worked on debt loan increases in our time. on this one i have never been more concerned that we are going to go off the tracks. but what i think and hope the republican staff are doing -- i help they're coming up with clever ways to impose restrictions on the congress in the federal budget process through budget resolution process that they can use to point to and say we did something here. having done that we will pass the debt limit. that is not a concession by the president. >> what is an example? >> they can impose new rules that have more teeth about the way the budget process works. the requirements that the conferences

. >> joining me, economist bruce bartlett and michael lofgren, i don't know if this comes from theirdamentalist religious outlook for whether it's just good fund-raising for them among their base, but they are no longer a normal political party. they are an insurrectionist party that is bringing down the government. >> okay. no longer a normal political party. i have heard a lot of commentators say this. i want to play devil as advocate >> i would say newt gingrich's speakership was a weigh station on i way to where we are now. but the gop as it exists now is kind of a frankenstein monster created by the twin shocks of 9/11 and the financial meltdown in 2008. because 9/11 sort released a lot of unpleasant things in the american id, a kind of absolutism of good versus evil, a kind of totalitarian outlook. we've seen this with the nsa. and then the 2008 crash was similar to the great depression in many countries. we were lucky. we had fdr. many countries went violently to the right. >> yeah. the twin traumas of those two crises is part of what i think forms the legacy of the breakdown

it is a bipartisan bill, introduced by zoe lofgren and representative sensen brrvetion. proposals currently being considered by the house, we think there's strong support in the senate. there's a piece of aaron's law that was actually in a separate bill that was passed by the senate a couple of years ago by the senate judiciary committee. so the bill is i think fairly modest. it frankly doesn't go as far as i would like but it would make a huge step forward in terms of bringing the law into kind of what ordinary people would think ought to be illegal and not. and most importantly will really take the penalty scheme and make it a little less crazy. one of the problems that people have is that the law is really disproportionate in its penalties. >> you know i cannot help but think about the edward snowden disclosures and what that's taught us about the nsa and the kind of gathering there is. and i look at this sort of legislation and i wonder are we looking at the wrong side of the ledger? >> in what way? >> well, just in this, in this environment where the checks and bala

one bill introduced by zoe lofgren of california. >> aaron was arrested in january of 2011 but he was dieted on four and then they under it to 13 felony accounts. >> schwartz was charged under the cfaa for using an unauthorized computer downloading unauthorized articles. the government alleged he intented to distribute the articles to the public. >> then they upped the number of counts he was indicted on. he could have been in jail since until he was 76. the last time i saw aaron was the wednesday before he died on that friday. i got an instant message from terin. she said i'm really worried about aaron which was something she didn't usually say. >> later that evening, ben's phone rang. >> i got the call from her like 7:06. it was like the world fell apart. >> aaron are schwartz's suicide which many attribute to government prosecution, rocked the online community and created pressure on members of congress. >> we still need to pass aaron's law to stop this from happening. right now if this ends leer, you know, the system beat aaron in a way. we need to change the system now. >> for no

. >> joining me, economist bruce bartlett and michael lofgren, former white house staffer and the authorf "party is over." mike, being a hill veteran and seeing a whole bunch of continuing resolution fights, budget fights, conference committee, are we dealing with normal politics or have we crossed into a different kind? >> no, this is not the 80s. this is something new. the party that i joined was the party of lincoln, the party of theodore roosevelt. the party of eisenhower. she's were patriots all. they were for one nation, indivisible. we have an insurrectionist, neoconfederate party that seems dedicated to all kinds of apocalyptic outcomes. i don't know if this comes from their fundamentalist religious outlook for whether it's just good fund-raising for them among their base, but they are no longer a normal political party. they are an insurrectionist party that is bringing down the government. >> okay. no longer a normal political party. i have heard a lot of commentators say this. i want to play devil as advocate and check my own biasses here, bruce. we had more shutdowns between

joining me now, democratic congresswoman, joe ezoe lofgren california. senator ted cruz says he would not rule out the threat of shutting down the government once again in the future. do you think more moderate republican colleagues of yours in the house would ever let that happen again? >> well, i certainly hope not. the remaining moderates did not want this shutdown, but i didn't observe that they were able to stop it. so i really think it's up to the republican leadership in the house not to go down such a reckless and disastrous course again. >> we heard the president there come out yesterday saying he wants congress to move on immigration reform and it looks like that really does rest on the house and you're on what used to be the house gang of eight to come up with a bill. three republicans have since dropped out so you're a group of five. where does the gang stand right now, especially with the president mentioning yesterday by name the bipartisan senate bill that exists. is the onus now on you? >> well, we've drafted a bill but as you know the re

the legislation introduced by representatives ted poe and so lofgren that requires law enforcement to get judicial approval before deploying drones and explicitly forbidden the arming of these machines to discuss this report i was joined earlier by any step on a bench she's the director of the domestic surveillance project at epic and i first asked her if these new domestic drone programs revelations really aren't all that surprising. we've known that that the f.b.i. has drones we know that they've been using them it actually was reported earlier this year there is an instant now about where we're a little boy was kidnapped and the f.b.i. flew drones over the bunker where he was being held to get a better view on it i don't think anybody really would object to their use to help rescue kidnapped children it's more of when they can be used on a legit maybe wrongdoers or just members of the general public without a warrant without any legal process in order to collect information and really just clock surveillance so did anything new come out from this report we know they reiterated some

lofgren. ms. lofgren: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent that the house bring up the senate amendment to h.j.res. 59, to open the government, to go to conference on a budget so that we end this republican shutdown and stop holding the economy hostage. the speaker pro tempore: as the chair previously advised, that request cannot be entertained absent appropriate clearance. the gentleman from virginia. mr. moran: i yield for the purpose of a unanimous consent request to the gentlelady from california, ms. brownley. ms. brownley: mr. speaker, please, our country is asking, i'm asking unanimous consent that the house bring up the senate amendment to house joint resolution 59 to open our government and go to conference on a budget so that we will end this republican government shutdown now and get our government back to work for the american people. the speaker pro tempore: as the chair previously advised, that request cannot be entertained absent appropriate clearance. the gentleman from virginia. mr. moran: mr.

. >> that's like lofgren spent decades as a staffer in the senate and house for republicans talking about the modern incarnation of the party. i'm back. and joining us is heidi moore, u.s. finance and economics editor for "the guardian." heidi we have been talking about the moment as a constitutional crisis, a party, a minority party attempting to use their leverage to rule from the minority. you think this is nothing as apocalyptic as that. just basically run of the mill, gridlock you get. >> yes this is crazy pants. the kind of crazy pants and insanity that our country was designed to invite. we really don't have a minority running congress. you don't have even a minority running the house right now. they just seem to have the upper hand temporarily. nothing has been decided. the question a lot of people in america have is why bring the constitution into it? why is this just not people who can't do their jobs? >> yeah. a good question. >> with all due respect. >> congressman, please. >> with all due respect that is simply wrong. it is unprecedented. you don't see the democrats in the se

. >> rejectionism, economist bruce bartley, former staffer mike lofgren. >> we sent producers out in field today to find out how people were doing. a report is coming up. when does your work end? does it end after you've expanded your business? after your company's gone public? and the capital's been invested? or when your company's bought another? is it over after you've given back? you never stop achieving. that's why, at barclays, our ambition is to always realize yours. ladies... kitchen counselor. it's likely your detergent. cascade platinum's triple cleaning formula delivers brilliant shine finish gel can't beat. it even helps keep your dishwasher sparkling. cascade platinum is cascade's best. >>> this is footage from march 23rd, 2010 as president obama signed the patient protection and affordable care act. it's the law we now canned obama care. it's become a visual shorthand for obama care, especially for people like news the television news business when you want people to stand you're talking about obama care, that video is an easy choice. this is nbc news on the night the b

>> i think zoe lofgren hit it on the market. there are conversations that if you were to hear them would be you to conclude there is bipartisan support for getting this done and i think just as we see with this situation with the shutdown of government we all have to figure out how to get to the point we feel comfortable. in the case of the republican leadership john boehner and the republican leaders in the house have to figure out a way to navigate this to bring along a sufficient number of republicans and keeps sufficient number of democrats to make this bipartisan. there is a tipping point. it becomes very difficult politically to sell the bill if it goes too far in one direction and the difficulty when you are in leadership is you have to figure out how to navigate this for your own party that you got elected to the speaker as a result of the that the same time you are speaker for the entire body so you have to reach across the aisle to the other side so i think the speaker has the toughest task of all of us. he has to figu

lofgren. is a leader of the democrats when it comes to immigration.she was the chair and is currently the ranking member of the immigration subcommittee so that i'll immigration issues flow through her committee. but it's not her title but rather her compassion, her expertise, the quality of the staff she surrounds herself with that makes are absolutely indispensable when it comes to immigration reform. thank you for joining us. [applause] >> and finally, we will hear from john yarmuth of kentucky. at the beginning of this congress, democratic leader, nancy pelosi, in consultation with top your becerra, suggested to the group that was forming that john must join us. they were really smart in taking him. he's white, he's from the middle of the country, but most importantly he knows how to get things done across party lines on difficult issues, like immigration. he was indispensable to the democratic leader in our party on health care. he's of reform journalist and newspaper publisher. but the reform into there. ends there. so he knows a thing or two ab