manchin: mr. president, first of all i want to say to my colleagues, senator markey from massachusetts and senator blumenthal from connecticut, this doesn't have a partisan home. this is not a democrat or republican issue. this is -- this is an epidemic that's devastating our entire country. it doesn't matter whether you come from afluency or social economically challenged, rich or poor, it makes no difference. what side of the track you're on makes no difference. this is something that hits us all. if you're just thinking if you're talking to your community's law enforcement, they will tell you 80% of all crimes are drug related. look at the costs, look at the economy, look at the devastation to the lives it's taking. we're expected to confirm the president's nominee for commissioner to the f.d.a., dr. robert califf. let me say about our president, president barack obama. i think he has taken this seriously, he has come to the state of west virginia. i'm very appreciative of that. he has seen fir

one of the things that i know has troubled senator markey, senator manchin, myself as well, last year the f.d.a. approved oxycontin for use by children as young as 11. and when they did that, they did not have the advisory committee or use an advisory committee before taking that step. and so i would say i certainly appreciate, because i've had the opportunity to sit down with secretary burwell on this issue and learn more about the f.d.a.'s action plan that is issued. but unfortunately, i believe the agency has to go further than it's going. and the example that i would say is that the issuance of the recommendations for the children as young as 11 with oxycontin, without an advisory committee on something so important seems, to me, just doesn't pass the commonsense test. so i would ask the f.d.a., let's stay that. let's make sure that we have an advisory committee look at this issue carefully, and then reissue it. because to me it seems important that we have that guidance and the careful, thoughtful approach of the advisory committee. you know, what troubles me, of course, is we ho

then we'll have governor earl ray tomlin to introduce senator joe manchin. then we'll call on vice chair governor terry mcauliffe from virginia to introduce senator mark warner. and then i'll come back and introduce the former governor of idaho, former senator and member of the cabinet, dirk kempthorn. so, bill? >> being the governor of your home state is a great honor and a great privilege, and one of the things that makes my job wonderful is to have our senior senator be someone who was a governor himself. so i never have to call to washington to explain the state's perspective on something because lamar alexander probably knows that state's -- our state's perspective on it better than i do. he has been an incredible advocate for the states' role in our government, and i think he has been one of the architects of, i think, one with of the most significant pieces of legislation to happen in the last decade. so it gives me great privilege to introduce my friend, my mentor, my very first political boss and the senior senator -- not senior citizen -- [laughter

joe manchin from west virginia says this is not enough. and we will see more. >> that's all the time we have for our roundtable. thank you so much for joining us on newsmakers this week. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> every election cycle will remind us how important it is for citizens to be informed. >> to me, c-span is a home for political junkies and a way to track the government as it happens. >> i think it's a great way for us to stay informed. >> there are a lot of c-span fans on the hill. my colleagues, i saw you an c-span. >> there's so much more that c-span does to make sure people outside the beltway know what's going on inside it.

manchin: i would like to speak on the nomination of the food and drug administration, dr. robert califf. the presiding officer: without objection, the senator is recognized. mr. manchin: i believe that the f.d.a. needs new leadership and a new focus and a new culture. dr. califf's post involvement in the pharmaceutical industry shows he will not be this person. he will not have the impact or leadership, capabilities that the nation needs to stem the tide of the opioid crisis that we have all over this country. my state and yours have been ravaged by this. i would like to put things in context. he's been there for over a year. a good man. i am not speaking about his ability, his honesty, his integrity, his education, and his background and all the good work he's done. but he's been there for a year, and for the past 20 years dr. califf basically comes from the institutional research, from education. and with that, his support has come from the pharmaceutical industries, those that are putting opioids on the market. i just felt it would be hard, human nature-wise, for him to

coal r&d program at the department of energy based on yet another bipartisan proposal from senator manchinapito and portman. and in the context of our broader bill, and only in the context of the broader bill, we also agreed to reauthorize and reform the land and water conservation funding. what we came away with was a good, timely bipartisan measure that has a very real chance of being the first energy bill to be signed into law in over eight years. it's a measure that will help america produce more energy. it will help americans save money. and it will help ensure that the energy can be transported from where it is produced to where it is needed. it will bolster our nation's status as the best innovator in the world, something that we should all aim to support. it will boost our economy, especially our manufacturers. and it will cement our status as a global energy super power. and as i said, it does all this without raising taxes, without imposing any new mandates and without adding to the federal deficit. and i think because of all of that, that's why you've seen the good, strong suppo

health carempare costs, and how it has been climbing up as a joe manchin with the core cpe, you can seeline of health care, which lacked behind the core, has starting to turn off. that is what the fed wants to say. joe: absolutely. it is incredible that for so long we talked about how health care is spiraling higher, but inflation is one of the more muted categories. that rising starts to see it explains why in part the fed with so far away from its 2% target. because start to turn, maybe they will get to their target sooner. scarlet: the latest reading was for 1.7%. it is not that far. joe: especially we see some turnaround and other stuff. scarlet: just a stones throw away from 2%. in terms of data, we have seen inflation, especially last week's data, showing that prices are starting to rise. inflation expectation has been pretty muted. people are still very much driven by oil prices and where they are headed. joe: if you look at market-based measures of where inflation is expected to go, it is very almost noflation -- inflation, and it is a measure largely to run by oil and by oil ha

manchin: i ask to speak as if in morning business. the presiding officer: the senate is in morning business. mr. manchin: first of all, let me say to my colleague from ohio, senator portman, who is a dear friend, that you're right, it's nonpartisan. this has no home. this has affected every american family one way or another. there's not a person i know in my state or in the good state of ohio, i'm sure, that they don't have a family member, immediate family, extended family or close friend that hasn't been affected by legal prescription drug abuse. and we're looking at a whole cultural change that is going on. i'm here to share letters with you. senator portman, i'm sure you're getting the same letters. i would encourage all of my colleagues to read a letter, just one letter a week of a family whose lives have been changed. they have either lost a husband, they have lost a childhood, they have lost a dear family member, they have destroyed their family life as they knew it. can't get a job. first time offense, a felony. and they're o

let's ask senator joe manchin. who joins us from charleston, west virginia.ays on some level. senator, what's your thoughts heading into this primary? always good to see you. where a socialist is leading by double digits? >> well, brian, it's good to be with you always. first of all we come out of iowa. iowa is a completely state than new hampshire and the south will be different than new hampshire is. you're going to see changes here. i support hillary because i have a comfort level. i can sit down. i can work with her. we don't always agree but the bottom line is she's very pragmatic. she wants to find solutions and she's easy to work with. i trust her. i can work with her. i feel good about that. bernie's a good man. bernie's' very good man. he's true to his beliefs, brian. the only thing i'm concerned about bernie is the treasury department would not have enough paper to print all the money that would be needed to pay for the programs and that would be a concern of mine. >> it would be a concern, i think. no one's really drilled down on that. his message

there for 25 years. ,as virginia -- west virginia suppose a democrat which is really republican, joe manchins protecting the people who poison the water. right now i am scared of my water so i will have to test it. governor snyder should be in jail. he bought special water for his state offices knowing that the water was poisoned. they did not treat the water but the citizens did so they should gather around his house and evict him. some caller said he went to the bahamas. too bad the people in flint cannot go to the bahamas to get away from the water. host: mary ellen in maryland this morning. our last call in this first segment. up next we will be joined by fergus cullen, former chair of the republican party in new hampshire. he is a john kasich supporter this time around and the author of a new book on the history of the new hampshire primary. later we will be joined by james pindell, a reporter with the boston globe. he will join us from the granite state to give us the latest ahead of this tuesday primary voting. new hampshire secretary of state bill gardner spoke about how the state is

we will go with you, governor thorne, first, then maybe senator manchin and senator warner and senator alexander. >> my compliments to you for pushing this issue. when 9/11 hit, the terrorist attack on american soil, the role that governors played was incredible. we were the first tsas. governors called out the national guard and put them in the airports. we didn't know what was going to take place. and so governors were front and center in that effort. if you have katrina, governors are the ones that delivered. i can tell you, i could show you the charts of how many c-130s by the federal government flew versus the c-130s of the national guard, the air guard. it's like 80%. when i called kathleen blanco, when i called rick perry, when i called haley barbour that were being hit by katrina and i said what can i do for you, he said you won't believe this. we're out of fuel. our first responders do not have fuel. i said is it so critical that it is worthy of a convoy from idaho to mississippi? he said without question. i said then please, at some point in the future, make sure the paperwor

manchin: we lost 600 americans. 600 west virginians, i'm sorry, to opiates last year alone. but our state's not unique. every day in our country 51 americans die from opiate abuse and since 1999, we lost almost 200,000 -- think about that -- 200,000 americans to prescription drug opioid abuse. that's larger than any city we have in the state of west virginia. this bill is an important first step. first of all, it will authorize 77.9 million in grant funding for prevention and recovery efforts. it would expand prevention and educational efforts, particularly aimed at teens, parents and other caretakers and aging populations to prevent the abuse of opiates and heroin and to promote treatment and recovery. it will expand the availability of natural lax jone to first responders to help in the reversal of overdoses to save lives. it will expand disposal sites for unwanted prescription medications to keep them out of the hands of our children and adolescence. it will launch an evidence-based opiate and heroin treatment and intervention program to expand best practices throughout t

among others, we agreed to an amendment from senator capito and senator manchin to study the feasibility of an ethane storage and distribution hub here in this country. i think that's a real possibility as a result of the shale gas revolution. so we moved through 11. 11 is a good number, but honestly, i had hoped that we would have been able to process more amendments last week. so what we're going to do this week -- and i'm just putting everybody on notice -- we're going to redouble our efforts. i want to move forward and process even more over these next couple days. our staffs have been extraordinarily busy over this weekend, as have i and as has senator cantwell, my ranking member, kind of going through all of the amendments that have been offered to the bill, determining which ones we can clear, which ones we need to bring up for a vote, which may not be offered at all, and we are moving right along, and that's good, and we need to keep moving right along because we know that time on the floor is not unlimited. where we -- as important as the energy bill is and as important as moder

also with me, chris kofinis, democratic strategist and former chief of staff for senator joe manchin. you have some interesting data coming out. i think we all expected, of course, bernie sanders to do very well among young people. we kept hearing if they showed up, he would do well. if the turnout was high. all of those things were correct. we go back to hillary clinton's speech that was highly praised about all of the millions of cracks in the glass ceiling for women. i think people are wondering about her relationship with female voters, democratic and independent, who i think many believe would not fall in line but certainly see the appeal of her candidacy. >> well, you know, tamron, it's interesting you say that, because when i was at a caucus last night in the 33rd and 34th districts right here in des moines, iowa, i actually heard hillary clinton supporters saying we think that there's some resistance to having a woman as the nominee. in fact, an african-american senior citizen told me that. there is a possibility that hillary clinton is running into some sexism within the demo