mr. casey: thank you. i ask consent to speak as if in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. casey: thank you. madam president, i rise tonight to talk about some of the issues we're facing tonight as we approach a deadline tonight. i really wanted to start with one observation about where we are and where we could be in the next couple of days. some of the debate is focused on simply what could happen at midnight were there to be a shutdown of the federal government, but there is another alternative, of course, and that's -- well, two, really. either to have an agreement that would carry forward before the deadline. that's, in my judgment, less likely to happen. i don't think anyone believes that will happen, necessarily. but the other option, of course, is to have a number of days ahead of us, an agreed upon three days, four days, whatever the leadership and the two sides can agree to to continue negotiations, because of course we have a range of issues. sometimes we haven't talke

mr. casey: thank you, mr. president. i rise to speak as well about the issue of pensionings, as many of -- pensions, as many of my colleagues have been speaking about tonight. i want to outline a series of what i believe to be promises that the senate and the house must keep with large segments of the american people. last year at this time we were in a long debate which had transpired over months and the main issue there was health care for retired coal miners and their families. this was a promise made to coal miners across the family, thousands of them across the country, thousands just in pennsylvania alone who were promised that they would have health care in their retirement. that promise went unfulfilled despite the fact that we got a bill through the senate finance committee, as we were instructed to do to follow so-called regular order, have a hearing, have a vote, get it through the committee. but it was held up month after month after month, really from the fall of 2016 until april -- april of 2017. so that pr

mr. casey: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from pennsylvania. mr. casey: i want to thank the senior senator from michigan for her words today, but more importantly for her advocacy for so many years, and maybe especially in the last year on the children's health insurance program and all of the great work that she has done. this is a program which has been bipartisan for a generation. i speak from the vantage point of pennsylvania. it's been bipartisan in my home state for even longer than the federal program. in pennsylvania, the program passed in 1992 became law in 1993, and so for longer than the federal program which many people know started in 1997. it has personal connections to me. my father was the person who signed -- i should say the governor who signed the legislation into law in 1993. and since that time, every republican and democratic governor and for the most part the legislature of both parties has supported it, which is the case or has been the case here. it's only lately that chip has become contentious. the tragic irony here -- or

mr. casey: thank you, mr. president. i rise tonight to talk about another matter that is before us in the days ahead. it should be before us. it should have been done many months ago. in fact, if you want to count it by days, it should have been done about 100 days ago, as we've heard, and that's the children's health insurance program, known by the acronym chip. most americans know what the chip program is. it's a program that was -- became federal law about 20 years ago, a little more than 20 years ago to provide an opportunity for health care for those families between -- those who are -- whose incomes are a little bit too high maybe to be enrolled in medicaid or have children enrolled in medicaid and those who have their children's health care paid for by their employer. you get a lot of families, a lot of middle-class families or families near middle income caught between and didn't have opportunities for health care. so chip was passed. it was bipartisan and for the most part all these years now decades later remai

mr. casey: i'd also ask just in the context of adults, and i know we're running low on time, if you have an individual that relies upon a disability service provider, someone who needs a wheelchair, durable medical equipment, will those individuals continue to get those services? mr. azar: again, any type of reform that's the situation we have to look at to make sure we're still able to deliver for those individuals. chairman, i know we're running low on time but i'll try to come back in the second round. thank you. mr. portman: thank you, mr. chairman. i have had the pleasure of getting to know alex azar in his previous roles in government. in fact, when he worked in the bush administration at hhs, i got to see him in action. i can tell you from personal experience, he knows his way around the department. he's got a lot of integrity, a lot of friends and allies here on the hill from those days on the jobs. in fact, you would not know it today by some of the comments made here today but he's ,

mr. casey? >> so getting some clarification, yes, this is the vote that's happening now. mitch mcconnell and chuck schumer will speak afterwards, everyone stand by, will the government shut down, we'll find out momentarily. >> mr. coons? mr. corker? mr. cornen? >> aye. >> ms. cortese-masto? mr. cotton? mr. crepo? mr. cruz? >> aye. >> mr. danes. >> as we -- as a vote, we'll continue our conversation. sorry, david, to interrupt you, did you finish your thought? >> it's not a problem. don, look, i think the bottom line is that once you get this close to a shutdown, into a government shutdown, it's no longer about the policies that brought you to the brink, it's about who blinks first, whoever blinks first ends up weaker in the next round of negotiations, that is governing all of the decisions both democrats and republicans as well as president trump are making as we go forward. >> molly, i want to bring you in here, and get what you think of this conversation, here we are at the once again, really at the 11th hour, this really is at the 11th hour for this, and we're voting on

mr. chairman, i think my time is about up. i will give the rest of it back. >> senator casey? >> thank you, mr. chairman. i wanted to start with the reference that i made earlier to the train derailment in philadelphia as an example of good preparation. part of that has its origin in the fact that it happened in an urban area, where you have not just the resources but you have hospitals and health care infrastructure which is close by way of distance as well as by way of coordination. i represent a state that has st rural counties out of a total of 67 counties. we have small towns and rural areas where you don't have the institutional capacity necessarily and in the event of an emergency, that could be exacerbated by distance and other challenges, so when you have this type of gap or potential gap where some communities may be particularly vulnerable i'd start with dr. cad lek and go to dr. red d, how do those programs attempt to close the gap and preparedness among states and regions? >> thank you, sir for the question. i think the point is is that the way we are structuring right now we're trying to bu

casey. >> thank you, mr. chairman. mr. sam quinones, thank you for your testimony and i would like to start with some of the realities in a state like pennsylvania. we have had last year, 4624 overdose deaths. that is up 37 percent from the prior 2015. and rural areas are higher. almost 10 percentage points higher byway percentage. of an increase. and that is overdose deaths overall. obviously love that being driven by the opioid crisis epidemic really. what i see and i miss some of the testimony going back and forth between hearings but what i see in pennsylvania is a tremendous resource. when we went across pennsylvania last year, especially this last summer, we would have meetings with county officials. often in small rural counties. small-town counties where you have a group of people coming together. the mayor of a small town in the police chief in the corner. and any medical professionals that treatment professionals. all around the table meeting all the time every week. because of the dead bodies that keep coming in

mr. wilson for coming down and for your work. >> if everybody could be a little quiet, we're still working through our agenda. we're presenting on item number 12. >> hello. good afternoon. my name is casey hildreth. >> mr. hildreth. >> your title. >> i am a senior planner with the mta livable street section. thank you today for your time and consideration of modifications to the upper market safety project. the upper market safety project is a multifaceted multiphased commitment to safety along the upper market corridor from castro to octavia boulevard. the first set of changes and improvements were approved by this board in 2015, many of which were approved for full civil changes a part of our packet that came before this board in may of 2017. the bulk are pedestrian safety measures as well as changes to turn restrictions and bike lane improvements. so one of the key aspects that was approved back in may was a two block stretch of parking protected bike way between octavia and cannon. at the time, we thought we'd put together a sufficient package of parking changes to accompany the bike way, but there was some ongoing concern raised by the fire department around how they could access t

casey. >> thank you, mr. chairman. mr. quinones, thank you for your testimony and for your work on these issues. >> my pleasure. >> i wanted to start with some of the realities that at least i see in a state like pennsylvania. we have had last year, the last count, 2016, 4,624 overdose deaths. that's up 30%. >> sorry. >> up 37% from the prior year, 2015. in rural areas, higher. almost 10 percentage points higher by way of percentage. of an increase. and that's overdose deaths overall. obviously, a lot of that being driven by the opioid crisis, epidemic, really. >> mm-hmm. >> what i see, and i missed some of your testimony going back and forth between hearings. but what i see in pennsylvania is a tremendous resource gap. when we went across -- when i went across pennsylvania the last year, especially this past summer, we would have meetings with county officials, often in small rural counties, small town counties, where you have a kind of an ad hoc group of people coming together. a mayor of a small town and the police chie

mr. chairman, with that i yield the balance of my time. >> senator casey. >> mr. chairman, thank you very much. i want to reiterate what senator stabenow said earlier about your service. we commender work that you've done in the children's health insurance program. i hope we can get that done in the next couple of days by the 19th. we're grateful for that. mr. azar, thank you for putting your self forward for service with the federal government. it's good to see your family. you and i have common state roots, scranton and johnstown. but despite those commonalities, we have a lot of disagreements on health care policy. i wanted to explore that first and foremost, appreciate the time you spent in our office going back a couple weeks ago when you were coming before the health education labor pensions committee, a committee of which i'm a member. at that time we talked a good bit about health care policy, in particular medicaid, which is a program that i think many americans appreciated over many years but probably never more so or with greater urgency than this year,

senator casey. >> mr. chairman, thank you. i want to continue on the topic of children. g, in the last observation, we were able to put together a new national advisory committee. i appreciate your work and testimony today. the only question i have for you ofwhat our areas preparedness planning go where you see the greatest need for more intention to the needs of children? i know you have answered different parts of this but maybe my wrapup would be there. dr. krug: in all facets -- and we have made tremendous progress which has contributed to that direction. from a health care perspective, and that is a narrow perspective because the whole process is bigger than health care -- the health-care industries primarily put together to take care of .omebody like me somebody not a child -- is somebody with underlying medical problems towards the end of and the point is that with the exception of the facilities and their smaller number that specializes in kids, the rest of the system does not. there is nothing wrong with it -- that is how it works on a day-to-day basis. , everyo

casey. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you mr. quinones for your test money and work on these issues. >> my pleasure. >> wanted to start with the realities that i see in the state like pennsylvania where we've had last year the last 164,624 over those deaths and that's up 37% from the prior year of 2015. in rural areas it is higher almost 10% higher in ways a percentage of an increase and that is overdose death overall. obviously a lot of that is being driven by the opioid crisis epidemic really. what i see and i missed some of your test money going back and fortetween hearings but what i see ipennsyania is a tremendous resource gap. when we went across when i went across pennsylvania the last year especially this past summer we would have meetings with county officials often in small rural counties, small-town counties where you have an ad hoc group of people coming together. you have a mayor of a small town and the police chief and the coroner in the medical professionals, treatment professionals, all around the table meeting al

a former palestinian negotiator‘s accused mr trump of leading the region towards chaos. caseyted to present this year's best actress category. the actor has been accused of sexual harassment by female crew members on previous films, claims he denies. now on bbc news, thursday in parliament.

a former palestinian negotiator‘s accused mr trump of leading the region towards chaos. caseyffleck says he won't attend this year's oscars. he was expected to present this year's best actress category. the actor has been accused of sexual harassment by female crew members on previous films, claims he denies. now on bbc news, thursday in parliament. the. houthis thursday in parliament. a former labour minister talks about her battle with a brain tumour and wa nts to her battle with a brain tumour and wants to tackle cancer. 50 that we can live well together with cancer, not just dying of can live well together with cancer, notjust dying of it. the defence secretary announces a new review of the armed forces and faces calls for more spending. can we make sure we do not repeat the nonsense when people say you can modernise. and the government is told to do more tothe revolving door of former ministers and civil servants moving into lucrative jobs in the private sector. if nothing is done by government, it risks further undermining trust in politics. first, there was a prolonged

a former palestinian negotiator‘s accused mr trump of leading the region towards chaos. caseyar's best actress category. the actor has been accused of sexual harassment by female crew members on previous films — claims he denies. now on bbc news, panorama. segregation in blackburn is increasing. we're here to stay, there's no point in running. they live in their areas and we live in our areas. isolation, segregation, division. never the twain shall meet. we've been here for generations, this is our country. all we want is our country back. fear of the unknown is probably our biggest element. 0k, why are you here? we need to move away from this stone age mentality. we have a divided country. 20, 30 years, something's going to happen. they'll take over eventually.

senator casey. >> mr. chairman, thank you very much. i do want to add my words of commendation to you and to the ranking member for the work you did to get this legislation passed. it is hard to believe that it's a year. and i know we have a ways to go with regard to implementation. but in a place and in an institution where there aren't many days where you have not just bipartisanship, but a bipartisanship that undergirds a substantial public policy of this importance, it's especially great to be able to celebrate this passage and to continue to work together. dr. gottlieb, i wanted to start with you on a question regarding 503b come pounders. while we have primarily been focused in the hearing on getting new drugs to patients, i'm also concerned about maintaining the supply of drugs already in the market. we know that since hurricane maria hit puerto rico, i've heard from pennsylvania hospitals regarding shortage of iv fluid and amino acids for injection, a critical product for patients who must receive nutrients intravenously. and wh

a former palestinian negotiator‘s accused mr trump of leading the region towards chaos. and this story is trending on bbc.com. caseyffleck says he won't attend this year's oscars. he won the best actor award last year for manchester by the sea. he was expected to present this year's best actress category, as oscars tradition dictates. the actor has been accused of sexual harassment by female crew members on previous films, claims he denies. that's all from me for now. there's been a sharp rise in the number of serious violent crimes and sex offences recorded by police in england and wales. us president donald trump takes his america first agenda two davos. how will this message be received by the world's global league? in the indian premier league is set to hold its biggest ever player auction. we break down the numbers on the world ‘s biggest sports auction. get‘s friday, everyone. good morning, asia. hello, world. thank you for joining us for another edition of asia business report. starting in davos and donald trump has become the first sitting us president in almost 20 years to attend the world economic forum.

mr. speaker, today i rise to remember the life of sandy casey. sandy had a great impact on the students and families she worked with as a special educate teacher -- education teacher at manhattan beach middle school. she was passionate about her work and committed to continuing her own learning. sandy would take on new projects that came her way and she was devoted to all of her students. sandy attended the route 91 music festival in las vegas with her fiance, chris, and her friend. she is remembered by her community as a fun-loving, free-spirt -- free spirit who was a compassionate and loyal friend. i would like to extend my condolences to sandy casey's family and friends. the whole country grieve with you. mr. speaker, i yield the remaining balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. for what purpose does the gentleman from minnesota seek recognition? mr. paulsen: unanimous consent to address the house for one minute, revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, th

mr. chairman i am going to withhold my comments although what i would like to do is call on senator isakson for one minute just to make some comments and then we will go to senator casey. >> thank you mr. chairman. i wanted to reference some statements made by ranking member senator murray. as chairman of the ethics committee i have gotten her in touch with the appropriate people to deal with the issue. she is forthrightly dealing with it to the best i can determine and i'm working expeditiously to get it done as quickly as possible so she will not have any conflicts of testimony as well and that's her desire as well. >> thank you very much senator burr. grateful for this hearing and grateful to be working with you on this reauthorization and i commend your work on this for many years. they also want to thank the chairman, chairman alexander and ranking member murray for this bipartisan hearing on the nations preparedness and response capabilities in advance of the reauthorization of a pandemic all hazards and response act. i will give you one story, one brief story about how important preparation is. this is a good example of preparedness infrastructure that it suppo

. >> senator kennedy, senator casey, excuse me. >> mr. chairman, thank you very much. i want to reiterate what senator stepanov said earlier about your service and we commend you for your service in the work you've done over many years in the veterans health insurance program ande. i hope we can get that done in the next couple of days and i hope by the 19 but we are grateful for that. mr. azor you for putting yourself forward for your service again in the federal government and it's good to see your family. you and i have common estate roots, scranton in johnstown but despite those commonalities we have a lot of disagreements on healthcare policy and i want to explore that. first and foremost i appreciate the time you spent in her office going back a couple of weeks ago when we're coming for the health education labor pension committee of which i am a member and we talked a good bit about how the policy and in particular medicaid which many americans appreciated over many years but probably never more so or never with greater urgency then these proposals in my judgmen

casey. >> thank you, mr. chairman. mr. sam quinones, thank you for your >> i wanted to start with some ofh the reality is that i see y states like pennsylvania we had last year 4,624 overdose deaths. obviously a lot of that being driven by the opioid crisis epidemic. whaty.at i see is if i missed se of your testimony going back and forth between the hearings if i seemin pennsylvania is a where there was an ad hoc group of people coming together of the mayor of the small town and police chief and the treatment professionals needing overtime to. but i keep hearingng is we need more resources. we are getting our arms around this. they've made some strides as you know. what is your sense of the way the federal government can provide more resources. to watch the task force committees sprout up and county after county. yes, these folks are coming together and there's a bunch of people on the committee recovering addicts, a lot of different folks.lo we can't find the money for the nuts and bolts that make it work like office spac

mr. chairman, with that i yield the balance of my time. >> senator kennedy-- senator casey, excuse me. >>mr. chairman, thank you very much. i want to reiterate what senator stabenow said about your service, and commend your service what you've done in the health insurance program. hopefully we can get that done in the next couple of days, i hope by the 19th. hope for that. mr. chairman-- thank you for putting yourself forward for the service and your family. you and i have common state roots, despite those we have disagreement on health care policy and i wanted to explore that. first and foremost, appreciate the time you spent in our office going back a couple of weeks ago when you were going after the health labor pensions committee, a committee of which i am a member and we talked a good deal about medicaid, which is a program i think many americans appreciated over many years, but probably never more so or never with greater urgency and this year when there were proposals which, in my judgment, i think and the judgment of a lot of folks who followed health care policy for their whole l

mr. speaker, i'd like to be able to ask senator schumer, senator casey, would you vote to reopen the government today? would it make a difference? if i said please? i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does gentlelady from washington seek recognition? without objection. the gentlelady is recognized. ms. jayapal: here are the facts, the first shutdown in modern history when one party has controlled the house, the senate and the white house. the fifth republican shutdown in 30 years and four continuing resolutions since september. four republicans joined democrats in voting no on the house bill last week because it is not a solution. mr. speaker, this trump shutdown is no way to govern. republicans had plenty of time to pass chip re-authorization but instead they want to use it for hostage taking and have the will to act on the g.o.p. tax scam to benefit corporations and the wealthiest but not on pensions for working families and certainly had no interest in a solution for dreamers, an issue that 87% of the americans agree on and republicans would vote for democrats. there are

senator casey: thank you, mr. chairman. , thank you for your testimony and your work on some of these issues. i want to start with the realities at least i have seen in a state like pennsylvania. we have had 4624 overdose deaths in the last year, up 37% from the prior year. in rural areas, it is almost 10 percentage points higher by way of an increase. that is overdose deaths overall, obviously a lot of that being driven by the opioid crisis. i missed some of your testimony going back and forth between hearings, but what i see in pennsylvania is a tremendous resource gap. when we went across -- when i went across pennsylvania this last year, especially this past summer, we would have meetings inh county officials, often small, rural counties, small-town counties where you have an ad hoc group of people coming together. you have the mayor of a small town, police chief, the coroner, the medical professionals, treatment professionals all around the table all the time meeting every week because the dead bodies keep co

mr. warner. senators voting in the negative. baldwin, blumenthal, booker, brown, cantwell, casey, durbin, feinstein, graham, harris, hasson, heinrich, cane, king, leahey, menendez, murphy, murray, paul, peters, reed, sanders, shots, schumer, shaheen, smith, stab now, van hol lin, warner, warren, whitehouse and widen. mr. lee, no. mr. jones, aye. mr. tesser, no. mr. gill grabrand, no. >> we heard that senator lindsey graham did vote no. at least one republican vote no. we also just heard senator jon tester vote no. a democrat of montana who was one of the senators the republicans thought they were going to be able to get. this vote is clearly going against the republicans. >> to hear lindsey graham voting no as we just did, jon tester voting no immediately after that call of the roll, at this point it doesn't look like there's a possibility for the republicans in this vote. >> no. i think thenlyhance mitch mcconnell has is slim to none and slim left town. you heard bob casey vote no. i only heard four democrats voting yes and with most of the democratic votes in. i think that basically it's clear this is going down to defeat. looks

mr. speaker, i'd like to be able to ask senator schumer, senator casey, would you vote to reopen the government today? would it make a difference? if i said please? i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does gentlelady from washington seek recognition? without objection. the gentlelady is recognized. ms. jayapal: here are the facts, the first shutdown in modern history when one party has controlled the house, the senate and the white house. the fifth republican shutdown in 30 years and four continuing resolutions since september. four republicans joined democrats in voting no on the house bill last week because it is not a solution. mr. speaker, this trump shutdown is no way to govern. republicans had plenty of time to pass chip re-authorization but instead they want to use it for hostage taking and have the will to act on the g.o.p. tax scam to benefit corporations and the wealthiest but not on pensions for working families and certainly had no interest in a solution for dreamers, an issue that 87% of the americans agree on and republicans would vote for democrats. there are

mrs. hill, welcome. chairman colin, ranking member casey, and members of the committee. thank you for this opportunity to testify today. it is an honor to be here. my name is sharon hill, i am 63-year-old and a resident of vanderbilt, pennsylvania, i have two sons, and seven grandchildren. my youngest grandchild was born tuesday to my granddaughter august has joined me today. she is the volunteer with me at many of the senior centers i go to. i am a volunteer with the pennsylvania price program, nationally apprised is known as the state health insurance assistance program, ship. in addition to volunteering, i work cleaning my church, i care for my 89-year-old father, and health care for my 92-year-old neighbor who is blind. i have a disability myself and rely on the support of state and federal programs to remain active and engaged in my community. at a prize volunteer for four years and initially saw an advertisement in the local askingtimes newspaper for volunteers to help people with medicare issues. medicareime, i was on because of a disability and had $67,000 been l

mrs. hill, welcome. >> thank you chairman collins, ranking member casey and members of the committee, thank you so much for this opportunity to testify today. it is a real honor to be here. i am 63-years-old and a resident of vanderbilt pennsylvania. i have two sons and seven grandchildren and my youngest grandchild was born tuesday. my granddaughter has joined me here today. she was a volunteer with me at many of the senior centers i go to. i am a volunteer with the pennsylvania apprised program. nationally it is known as the statstate health insurance assistance program. in addition to volunteering with the apprised program, i worked cleaning my church and i also care for my 89-year-old father and health care m for my 92-year-old neighbor who is blind. i have a disability myself and relying on the support of state and federal programs to remain active and engaged in my community. i've been an apprised volunteer for years and initially saw an ad in the local senior times newspaper asking for volunteers to help people with medicare issues. at that time, i was on medicare due to a disability and had itr

mr. chairman for the extra time. >> as i understand senator casey is one question and then we will wrap it up. you have one,ch too? >> mr. chairman? >> a go-ahead. >> thank you ver y much, mr.r. chairman. mr. azar,, i wanted to ask an additionalai question regarding the approach the administration has taken t with regard to implementing the affordable care act making our health system work, health care system work. it came to my attention at a think the attention of people across the country from a store in politico of the efforts made thero administration to what i would argue the sabotage the affordable care act. i have report coming out the outline some of those actions taken in restricting enrollment is one come , canceling coveragl kinds of efforts undertaken that resulted in us pushing to get a document from health and human services. it took months to get. now we are told that there's a new document that wee referred o in a letter that we said december 21 to the acting secretary. we stayed, and i'm quoting from the letter, hhs has developed a list of hundreds of other actions to sab

mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the immediate consideration .f calendar number 36 the casey brown amendment for a permanent extension of the children's health insurance, a five-year extension of the community health centers program and other expired medicaid, medicare and health centers be agreed to. the bill as amended be considered, read a third time and passed and motions to reconsider be laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate. >> is there objection? >> i agree with the gentleman from new jersey. the chip to fund program, which is why we voted to extend it for six years a couple days ago. they voted against it. i agree that the states are beginning to run out of money and we need to come up with a resolution soon. this looks more like a way to atone for a bad vote that was made a couple days ago on the part of people on the floor today. fund theo go back and government. i care about the veterans that would have been covered by the continued resolution. i care about the military and military families affected by the cr. instead of doing these sorts of mea

mr. houston. >> good afternoon, supervisors, and colleagues. friends from recreation and parks department, you guys really do an amazing job. i'm casey asberry, a resident of the t.l. and the director of the demonstration gardens at u.t. hastings and i'm speaking on behalf of the d6 sustainable open space plan in the rec and department strategic planning. it's being developed in a network of support for increased access to healthy green space and the t.l. and soma where the residents organized in friends of parks groups, including bodecker park and turk and hyde, the fountain at u.n. plaza and d.m.v. and we're looking into the grand jury report and reviewing the rec and parks strategic plan and we need to elevate d6 concerns commensurate with the density of vulnerable people in our district. here we have the highest concentrations of seniors, children, people speaking other languages other than english and formerly incarcerated people, disabled and drug addicted people and it's notable that in general manager ginsburg's talk that the gaps that were identified are none seemed to be in our neighborhoods and yet we know that they are. w

mr. richardson resigned from a burmese investigation into violence in rakhine state, calling it a whitewash. he was particularly critical of ms. suu kyi, saying she lacked moral leadership. casey affleck, who won best actor oscar last year for "manchester by the sea," says he won't attend this year's ceremony. he was due to present best actress category. the actor has been accused of sexual harassment by female crewmembers on previous films, claims he denies. scientists have identified the remains of the earliest known modern humans to have left africa. a fossilized jawbone found in a cave in northern israel indicates that they left africa thousands of years earlier than previously thought. the discovery has upended modern theories of human evolution. our science correspondent pallab ghosh has the details. pallab: in the distant past, the first of our kind evolved in africa. our ancestors then left the continent and spread across the globe. when and how that happened is one of the biggest questions in human evolution. this fragment of a jawbone has shattered the current theory. it has rewritten the story of how we emerged on this planet. the jawbone was discovered along with s

casey hunt. >> how did this happen? >> what? >> the deal. how did you get here? mr. flake: three days of talking, i guess.ally, friday what we started with was basically what we ended with but just a firmer commitment then we had initially. >> did you promise to hold mcconnell's feet to the fire on this? mr. flake: well, we did talk to democrats and we feel we have a commitment and i did go back to the leader's office and said stronger language would be up fall and he did give stronger language on the floor today, particularly about the fairness of the process. you know, in terms of picking a bill and how the motion to proceed would work. that was convincing to the democrats. >> do trust mitch mcconnell? mr. flake: i do feel that a command like this today with such fanfare for what will happen three weeks from now, i think we can count on it. >> compromises back? mr. flake: i hope so. we had these meetings in mcconnell's office with a growing number of people and it was very good to see. it will be nice to see actually if we have a process on the center or the we have done had for long time really sense,

mr. president, i ask unanimous consent of the senate perceive to be immediate consideration of calendar number 36, hr-1301, that the senator-- excuse me that the stabenow, casey, brown amendment as providing for the permanent extension of the children's health insurance program, a five-year extension of the community health centers program, extensions of other expired medicaid, medicare standards be agreed to. the bill as amended be considered, read a third time and passed and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate. >> is there objection? >> mr. president. >> senator from north carolina. >> reserve the right to object. i agree with the gentleman from new jersey, we wanted to fund the chip program, which is exactly why we voted to try and extend it for six years, just a couple of days ago. the gentleman voted against it. i agree with him that the states are beginning to run out of money and that we need to come up with reauthorization soon, but this looks more like a way to atone for a bad vote that was just made a couple of days ago on the part of people on the floor today. what we need to do i

mr. chairman. >> i knew there would be a question somewhere in that. >> thank you chairman burr and ranking member casey. this discussion today is important and timely and to focus the sobering fact that we have experienced at least one health emergency every year in the five years that i have been serving on this committee from ebola to zika two hurricanes this year. i was serving previously in the house of representatives during the 2009 h1n1 pandemic and also in 2004 when we saw a dangerous shortage of influenza vaccines due in part to our insufficient domestic production capability. we are also in the middle of a particularly severe in deadly seasonal flu year so i wanted to focus specifically on readiness for a pandemic flu outbreak. i am concerned with the lack of sustained and predictable funding for the pandemic vaccine stock pile and i'm committed to working with my colleagues to advance a specific authorization for pandemic flu activity. mr. macgregor and your testimony i was troubled that are pandemic flu stock pile doesn't match the current strain of influenza and is full of expired vaccine

meanwhile jeff flake with msnbc casey hunt not backing down from his criticism of the president. previewing a speech in recent days calling mr. trump an enemy of the people. >> it was popularized by stalin as well, the enemy of the people. >> reporter: president trump's going to spend this day in florida. no public events scheduled this martin luther king holiday. just five days until a government shutdown unless lawmakers can come up with a spending bill. >> peter, thank you. >> breaking overnight, north and south korea have resumed what have already been historic talks between the two rivals. and this latest round could lead to history being made in the olympics. hey, bill. >> reporter: good morning, hoda. a second run of talks today narrowly focused on music. one of four north korean delegates is the leader of an all female pop band. wildly popular in north korea, and they discussed possible concerts during the olympics by that band. problem is they're all members of the north korean military, and they sing songs in praise of kim jong-un. so i'm not sure how well that will go down here. they did agree that a north korean