mr. chairman, i'm going to be very brief because mr. doyle told it all and there's nothing else i can really add to it, but i do not understand why with all the threats to our industry in america, with all the dumping that comes out from china especially, this is an opportunity for this congress with a new president elect, no matter how you might feel about this president, he did make this statement, we are going to rebuild america and we're going to rebuild this country with american products and as mike said, the american worker has a right to know what his future is. so i hope that this committee will give us a chance with this amendment to get it to the floor of the house and let all the members on the house floor make a statement for the american worker. so thank you for giving me just a few seconds to speak. thank you very much. >> mr. jones, thank you very much. i will take the first question. mr. jones, i'd like to personally thank you for your service to this great nation, to the men and women of the marine corps at camp lejeun

mr. chairman. i want to associate myself with your words of appreciation for the breadth that this bill took. thank you very much. gentle woman from new york. >> thank you, mr. chairman, and thank you, gentlemen. good work. i'm particularly happy with the work you've done on the great lakes, the restoration,... -- before i get any further, i really want to say i hope we can make in order the buy american bill. we not sure what you has for such a short duration and maybe there is some reason we have to hear about. i would like to see it made permanent and if we could put that in order it also concerned a little bit about california mostly because we hear from so many of our constituents. as long as i have been on this committee, we have dealt with california water. am i right? my best recommendation is more water. i don't see anyway we can manufacture water. hat takes up an inordinate amount of time. i appreciate you got a problem. i sure wish they could settle t in sacramento. the coal ash rules, i

mr. chairman and thanks to our chairman for being here. chairman upton cliegss on curio -- congratulations on cures. it's a big dealaged we're all proud that that has gone all the way down to the president's desk. i am grateful for the bill. there's one portion that catches my mind, bishop, i guess it's title iv which is other provisions that follows your section, but it is out west. that deals with the gold king mines bill recovery, section 5004. i went out to silverton, colorado and witnessed what the devastation that was brought about by the environmental protection agencies when they lifted the roof or the bulwark off of the gulf king mind and allows all that water to -- all that water to discharge into the cement creek and the animus river. i got up in the mountains to see what it looked like. that was a disaster caused by the epa. they had no business doing that. i'm glad this will help off set the costs. i'm grateful for the protection of the tax dare dollar. i guess my concern is we're not offsetting those funds from the operationa

mr. chairman, i'm going to be very brief because mr.here's nothing else i can really add to it, but i do not understand why with all the threats to our industry in america, with all the dumping that comes out from china especially, this is an opportunity for this congress with a new president elect, no matter how you might feel about this president, he did make this statement, we are going to rebuild america and we're going to rebuild this country with american products and as mike said, the american worker has a right to know what his future is. so i hope that this committee will give us a chance with this amendment to get it to the floor of the house and let all the members on the house floor make a statement for the american worker. so thank you for giving me just a few seconds to speak. thank you very much. >> mr. jones, thank you very much. i will take the first question. mr. jones, i'd like to personally thank you for your service to this great nation, to the men and women of the marine corps at camp lejeune, north carolina. day i

mr. chairman. >> chair recognizes you for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. mr. werkheiser, thank you for being here to answer pressing questions. obviously, it's disturbing to all of us, you as well. i'm sure you've communicated that. when you've got decades of falsified manipulated data, we all recognize it's inexcusable, phenomenal to me something like that can take place for so long and either not be checked or be overlooked, whichever the case was. it's inexcusable. then we find as you mentioned, 2008 when a new scientist was brought in, he immediately begins doing the same thing. and earlier, in fact, this year receives a 30-year service award. it sounds like a resume enhancer to come in and be involved in data manipulation. but the fact that it was intentional, the fact that it was continuous is very difficult to wrap my mind around. i'm sure others feel the same way. let's go to this second chemist, the new chemist that came in. we already had from 1996 to 2008 a long period of manipulated data. we finally have a new chemist come in and in 2014 discover t

mr. chairman. mr. werkheiser, one thing that still troubles me is something in the response in the letter that you sent to chairman gohmert, it says here that we have been unable to determine either the rationale for the data manipulation or any consistent calculations that the analyst used in performing those data manipulations. is that still being investigated or that your final say on it? >> so the analyst has been adjustment to the data, even though it's clear that it has not. so i don't think any further questioning of that person is going to yield anything different than that. the investigation of was there a pattern, is there a consistent, as to what, how that manipulation happened, the extent to what it was and the reasons for it is still under investigation, since we've been able to identify some of that through notebooks and those type of things. some of that information we're trying to recreate what exactly happened. >> so there is still investigation going on to try to determine the rational

mr. chairman. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i think you touched on this directing my question to general kadavy, did i pronounce your name correctly? kadavy? it was one way or the other and i picked the wrong way. but you discussed in your initial -- in your opening comments that you have not seen this concern widespread across the country. it's limited to california. i'm from florida and reached out to our national guard as soon as i heard of this to just see where they thought that they were with any challenges with bonus recoupment with our national guard and we have about 12,000 in florida. i just want to confirm that you don't see any of these concerns in florida that have come to the attention of those here regarding california? >> well, specifically related to the fraud, we have given no guidance to any other state, district, or the territory of -- district of columbia or any territories to do any audits or inspections. as i said, through gems we always have ongoing recoupments for generally those that don't meet the ter

mr. chairman. as i said in my hoping comments, most of the comments, virtually all of the comments are based on the mathematical curiosity that the electoral college and popular vote may not agree. if you are counting electoral votes and that's what you count, like in the world series you can get outscored and still win. we heard a lot about the swing states. if -- one thing about a swing state is it assumes that you have in the bag enough to get close to 270 and so you are going to spend your time on the last couple of states. just like if a president is trying to get a bill passed, when you get close to 218 in the house, a handful of members get all the attention. 51 senators, you get up to 46, 47, those last few senators will get all the attention. but that assumes that you have in the bag enough to get you close. and again, in the electoral college, you have to have -- you have to be able to carry states that amount to on a weighted basis 270 electoral votes, half of the country. if you do not

mr. chairman. i am pleased to join this forum on the electoral college in the future of american democracy and to hear from our distinguished panelists. i believe we must move away from the electoral college as it currently operates system guarantees the winner of the popular vote actually becomes the president of the united states. it shouldn't really be considered a radical idea. this is a matter of crucial importance to our democracy. and the good news, it's considered elementary in every other democratic country in the world. only here is it novel. the good news is that there are practical steps we can all take in our own states that could reform the electoral college and make a real difference in how the president is selected. as you know, the popular vote different from the electoral college vote in just three times in the 19th century. the last time then was in 1888. the electoral college did not differ from the popular vote again until 2000. 112 years when it didn't make a difference. so we

mr. chairman. i would like to welcome witnesses today. i regret we have to have the hearing to discuss a major pay issue that impacts 17,000 soldiers in one state, from my home state of california. if not for the l.a. times article in october, congress wouldn't know the extent of the issue. nor would the issue have been elevated to the department of defense. our understanding after this was first brought to our attention in 2010, is that a process was in place to adjudicate the issue but six years long we're trying to fix it. numerous investigations, audits, and briefings informed us of how we got to this point. my focus today is to ensure that through the legislation just passed by the house last week as part of the 2017 ndaa, an update from the dod that we guarantee that those who should keep their bonuses do so and that the systems and controls are in place to prevent an incident of this magnitude from happening again. while it is important that we perform oversight of the process moving forward

mr. chairman. mr. werkheiser, one thing that still troubles me is something in the response in the letter that you sent to chairman gohmert. it says that we have been unable to determine either the rationale for the data manipulation or any consistent calculations that the analyst used in performing those data manipulations. is that still being investigated, or is that your final say on it? >> so, the analyst in question has been consistent in his responses, that he viewed that he was doing an appropriate adjustment to the data, even though it's clear that it has not. so i don't think any further questioning of that person is going to yield anything different than that. the investigation of was there a pattern, is there a consistent, as to what, how that manipulation happened, the extent to what it was and the reasons for it is still under investigation, since we've been able to identify some of that through notebooks and those type of things. some of that information we're trying to recreate what exact

mr. chairman, ranking committee matter and mr. chairman, i also want to thank you for your years of dedicated service. my name is raymond jackson and i'm the second vice president of atu local 63 nine. today i'm here to give insight into the safe track program of the challenges that are facing the washington metropolitan area transit authority in the near distant future. when safe track was first introduced local 689 was hopeful that it would mark a departure from the culture and all practices at ramada. as things things progress will now concerned that ramada's failure to talk with our union and with the employees on the ground will be of fatal law. we will have work worked to find a better way to get the work done without disrupting the lives of so many riders in this region. we all have family members who ride the system daily and most of us ride the system as well. we know the frustration was safe track firsthand. unfortunately, the reality of safe track that it is a necessity at this point, fork had been done over the past 20

mr. chairman. pleased to join this forum on electoral college and to hear from our distinguished panelists. i believe we must move away from the electoral college as it currently oarptsing to assist that guarantee that winner of the popular vote actually becomes the president of the united states. that shouldn't really be considered radical idea. this is a matter of crew cial importance to the democracy an good news it is considered elementary in every other democratic country in the world only here is it thofl. the good news is that there are practical steps to take in our steps to make a real difference and how the president is selected. as you know popular vote winner differed from electoral college vote winner three tiles in the 19th century. but last time then was in 1888. electoral college did not differ from popular vote again until 2000. 112 years when it did make a difference so we as a nation got complaisant and figured it was irrelevant an didn't matter. but in the year 200016 years ago v

mr. chairman. i want to thank you, too. it's been a very interesting and i think productive session of congress and it has been a personal pleasure to be able to serve with you as the chairman and myself as the ranking member. i also want to wish everyone a merry christmas and a happy hanukkah, which actually happened to fall at the same time. then to the business of the morning. when i first heard we would be having a hearing on mixed martial arts i was surprised. fan.fess, i am not an mma i have had to learn a little more about mma in preparation for the hearing. i don't think it is going to be my new hobby. however, you don't have to be an needan to recognize the for greater negotiating power and a stronger protections for mma fighters. our colleague, congressman mullen, used to be an mma fighter. i chatted with him yesterday. i also met with other mma fighters in my office. the lack of leverage they have within their contract negotiations is frankly, pretty shocking. and that comes through when you look at the difference

mr. chairman.overnor snyder, i'd like to ask you some simple questions, and i remind you that you are under oath today. first, i think you said this in your testimony, but you do admit here today before this committee that you and your administration failed the people of flint. governor snyder: i have made that clear in terms of my state of the state address -- >> your own task force found that your own department of environmental quality was "primarily responsible for the crisis in flint." do you also admit that here today? governor snyder: yes. i took actions immediately based on the recommendations. >> your task force found that your officials at mdeq did not implement corrosion control, which "led directly to the contamination of the flint water system." do you admit that here today? governor snyder: uhm, the lack of corrosion control has led to this issue. >> and you admit that it was your officials at mdeq that did not implement corrosion control, which led to that, right? governor snyder: th

mr. chairman. let me thank you very much for bringing this montenegro nato session treaty today. i want to acknowledge the distinguished ambassador present in our committee room and thank him for his availability to our committee. it was clear this small country has made significant contributions to the alliance efforts around the world and made the necessary internal reforms to address governance rule of law and corruption. this progress appears all the more remarkable for the fact montenegro has been subject to a wave of anti-nato and anti-western propaganda emanating from russia. i congratulate the manner which the country has responded. i am very happy that we are making it clear russia does not have veto over get situations of nato alliance. i strongly urge my colleagues to support the session. >> any other member wish to speak? i'm going to go back and forth. >> not to repeat, certainly want to thank the chairman and ranking member for support of this resolution. montenegro made great strides

mr. chairman. i'll start with the -- the cases that were prosecuted by either the feds or in some cases, some district attorneys took up the fraud cases. that was 44 soldiers in total, of those of 26 were prosecuted and found guilty and convicted. there is another 15 or so that are -- that are pending, prosecution is still ongoing and then the remainder of the cases were either dismissed, which is just a handful, i think it's only four that were dismissed or were acquitted. then on our side, within the military, we have two options. we can do you do ucmj action which can include up -- up to including courts martial or administer action. we initiated courts martial's on seven personnel. it was six officers and one on enlisted soldier. those cases were dismissed by the military judge either for lack of jurisdiction or for lack of evidence. but we did go after 61 people on both on the receiving side, so people that we had evidence that had committed fraud but didn't rise to the threshold that one of c

mr. chairman. ms. bresch, i want to go back to the $50 profit number that you are given us today. last year, the price was about $460 per a two-pack. is that right? ms. bresch: yes. all right, so let us go to your chart. the numbers, the documents you gave us are totally deficient in terms of trying to figure out how much you are charging people and how much it costs you, just so you know, and i know we have some outstanding document request for your company, so i hope you can comply with those as soon as possible to help the committee with its work. rep. lynch: you can just go off your chart their. $401 one year. that was 2014? $530 in 2015. and then a whopping $608 this , year so far. so, how much money were you making per epipen back in 2014 then, when you were charging $400 ms. bresch: so, sir -- rep. lynch: please, not another chart. ms. bresch: i'm just saying that the $235 -- rep. lynch: i'm not talking about that. i'm talking about the top price. i'm talking about the overall price. ms. bre

mr. chairman. mr. stephenson, i'll start with your initial question about the prices for consumers, and i know you focused on the last deal with directv and what it come out of that. just to be clear, this acquisition, do you believe that it's going to lower prices for customers for directv, broadband services and mobile services, you want to take each one. >> i can and intend to represent to you by virtue of innovation with time warner and going head to head against the cable providers, with new products and new capabilities that we will bring the consumer better priced options than what they have today. to take each one of those apart, i find difficult, because the consumer has gotten to a place where they're not pro curing each one of those independently. that's the reason why we're pricing at&t right now. think of what we're trying to do, we're going against a cable provider to compete. you buy tv service from a cable provider today, you spend $50 to $100 per month regardless of how much you watch,

mr. chairman. yield my time to the gentleman, mr. messier. >> thank you, mr. chairman. will try and get three things then. the first two follow under the category there is good news but. there is goodness in terms of the intelligence budget because the 9/11 commission recommendrecommend ed that these the aggregate number be disclosed. so it is disclosed in the executive ranch in this case does a better job than the legislative branch. they disclosed their request for the budget. the situation we had last week as you had 400 dirty five members of congress, probably less than 80 new what was in the budget that they all voted for it. they can find out within a two years from now. the 2015 number i can tell you is on the website. we still don't disclosed the aggregate number for intelligence appropriation until a year after it's been voted on. so that will be the good news disclosed. the bad news is most of congress is voting on it to see within it. my colleague from michigan and i get to see within it. some of this is lack of attention on our part. mr. desantis appropriate

mr. speaker, i rise to enter into a colloquy with chairman rogers. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman is recognized. mrs. lowey: mr. chairman, section 170-b of the continuing resolution creates a contingency fund which could make available an additional $200 million after march 1. can you clarify if the additional funds in section 170-b will be available for obligation for three fiscal years, the same period of time as fiscal year 2017 funds appropriated to carry out the same purpose? mr. rogers: will the gentlelady yield? rs. lowey: i'm happy to yield. mr. rogers: the answer is yes. mrs. lowey: thank you, mr. chairman. i yield. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady reserves. the gentleman from kentucky. mr. rogers: mr. speaker, i yield three minutes to the gentleman from west virginia, mr. mckinley. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from west virginia is recognized for three minutes. mr. kinzinger: for the purpose of a -- mr. mckinley: for the purpose of a colloquy. thank you, mr. chairman, for discussing this short-term health care prov

mr. chairman. thank you for your indulgence. much, mr. chairman. first of all, i want to say that i want to go on record as saying i agree with mr. grothman in saying i'm astounded by the amount of spending that's being done on this, this $16 billion estimate and over $100 billion in the last ten years. i think we lose sight up here of how much a billion dollars actually is. but having said that, i had two other meetings so i unfortunately didn't get to hear your testimony. i apologize if you have gone into some of this earlier. but mr. blanton, in skimming over some of this testimony, i was fascinated by your report about the moynahan commission and that we went through all of this 20 years ago, basically. and also, i think the thing that impressed me the most was, i mean, there seems to be general agreement here today that there is a real problem of over classification. but i saw where mr. mcdaniel, who was president reagan's national security adviser, said that only 10% of what's being classified probably really needed to be

mr. chairman. i am pleased to join this forum on the electoral college in the future of american democracy and to hear from our distinguished panelists. i believe we must move away from the electoral college as it currently operates system guarantees the winner of the popular vote actually becomes the president of the united states. it shouldn't really be considered a radical idea. this is a matter of crucial importance to our democracy. and the good news, it's considered elementary in every other democratic country in the world. only here is it novel. the good news is that there are practical steps we can all take in our own states that could reform the electoral college and make a real difference in how the president is selected. as you know, the popular vote different from the electoral college vote in just three times in the 19th century. the last time then was in 1888. the electoral college did not differ from the popular vote again until 2000. 112 years when it didn't make a difference. so we

mr. chairman. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i think you touched on this, direct my question to general kadavy. that i pronounce your name correctly? one way or the other. i picked the wrong way. you discuss in your opening comments that you have not seen why this concern widespread across the country. it's limited to california. i am from florida and reached out to our national guard as soon as i heard of this to just see where they thought where they were with any challenges with bonus recruitment with our national guard and we have about 12,000 in florida. just want to confirm that you don't see any of these concerns in florida that have come to the attention of those here regarding california? >> specifically related to the fraud, we have given no guidance to any other state, district or the territory, or district of columbia or any other territories to do any audits or any inspections. as i said through gims we always have ongoing recruitments for generally those that don't meet the term of their enlistment. specifically i

part of being named chairman and ceo mr. bewkes served from -- chairman of the entertainment group to 2005. before joining the corporate management of time warner, mr. bewkes served as chairman and ceo of hbo and as president of ncoo of hbo. mr. bewkes serves on the boards of yale university and new york city and on the odd advisory board for the creative coalition. also a member of the business council. mr. bewkes has a ba from yale and mba from stafford. mark cuban an entrepreneur and investor, the owner of the dallas mavericks, landmark theaters and magnolia pictures and the chairman of the hdtv cable network, he is one of the main shark investors in shark tank. in 18959 mr. cuban and todd wagger started audio net, combining newt to all interests in indiana hoosier basketball and webcasting. with a singer server aweow net became broadcast.com. and then it grew too 330 employees and 13.5 million $in revenue for the second quarter. in 1999 broadcast.com was wired buy i by yahoo. general kim elman is the president and ceo of

mr. chairman. i'm a little confused about something, this basic premise that hbo, for example, attracts its talent because, because it has the widest possible distribution. no, i don't think that's why talent went to hbo. i think talent went to hbo, as i remember, because it was a very high quality and it was exclusive. so it's the opposite. in other words, that when "the sopranos" was on you had to pay to get "the sopranos" and everybody wanted to see "the sopranos," so this idea, which is this basic premise that everybody went to hbo because we guaranteed everybody would see you ain't true. so i just don't get that. now, mr. bewkes, you were recently quoted in the "new york times" articling to my concerns how a combined at&t/time warner could prioritize its own content and restrict other distributors access to it, you quickly dismissed those fears saying, engaging in such behavior would not be in the company's best interests and "it would be like selling toothpaste and not putting it in dwayne ree

mr. chairman, if i may? >> senator markey. >> thanks, mr. chairman. yeah, senator rubio and i introduced this resolution. this is the public health crisis in the united states. and we join with senator shaheen you know, on this resolution calling for its passage. fentanyl, just to give you an idea of how bad this is right now. we're going to have 2,000 people die in massachusetts from opioid overdose this year. of them, 1,500 will have fentanyl in their blood system. 75%. now massachusetts is 2% of america's population. so if you multiply that by 50 and this epidemic was hitting the whole country at the rate it's hitting massachusetts, the rate it's hitting new hampshire, the rate it's hitting florida and several other states but not the country, that would be 100,000 deaths of which 75,000 would come from fentanyl. so what we're trying to do with this resolution is to get ahead of this storm. this classified hurricane which is already on shore in certain states, but it's ready to hit. and what it does is it calls for our government to work much more

mr. chairman. i want to thank you, too. it's been a very interesting and i think productive session of congress and it has been a personal pleasure to be able to serve with you as the chairman and myself as the ranking member. i want to wish everyone a happy -- merry christmas and a happy hanukkah, which happened to fall on the same -- at the same time. then to the business of the morning. when first heard that we would be having a hearing on mixed martial arts, i was surprised. i confess, i am not an mma fan. aren't you shocked? i have had to learn a little more about mma in preparation for the hearing. and i don't think that it's going to be my new hobby. however, you don't have to be an mma fan to recognize the need for greater negotiating power and stronger protections for mma fighters. our colleague congressman mullen used to be an mma fighter. i chatted with him about his sport. yesterday, i met with other mma fighters in my office. the lack of leverage that they have in their contract negotiations is frankly pretty sh

mr. chairman i'd like this entered into the record. >> without objection, so ordered. >> thank you, mr. chairman. it's a certification form where mylan has actually said that the school hereby certify that it will not in the next 12 months purchase any products that are competitive to epipen autoinjectors. you actually put into practice forcing schools and you're so concerned about these kids that you are limiting the schools' ability to buy pens from someone else. so you're saying we'll sell it to you for $100. if you want it for the $100 price you need to sign this and say you can't buy this from anybody else. don't answer, i'm not asking your question. that's what you've done here. >> i disagree with that. they did not have to buy our pens. >> if they wanted to get this price. >> if they wanted a heavily discounted price, yes, they bought epipens. >> heavily discounted price is $112.10 which is where it was before you jacked up the price to $600. so it's not a discounted price. it's discounted because you raised the price and you say you want it at the old price before we jacked it up

mr. chairman. i nominate patrick daley thompson to serve as an elector to serve in place of carrie austin. to tolliam a. brant, jr., serve in place of john daly. >> patrick daley thompson has been nominated to serve in place of carrie austin, and william brennan junior to serve in place of john daly. do i have a second? elector taveras has seconded the nomination. are there other nominations? there being none, all those in favor say aye. those who oppose say no. the ayes have it. with those replacements named, we now have 20 electors. the nominations are now open for chair and signatory to these proceedings. >> mr. chairman, it is my privilege to place the name of prekwingle into nomination as chairperson, sherri maccallum, as secretary. >> do i hear a second? >> i second that motion. >> elector shepperton has seconded the nomination. are there other nominations? there being none, those in favor say aye. those oppose say no. and the motiont has been adopted. i would like to turn it over now to chai

mr. chairman. theary 18, 2015 from mayor, last paragraph on the second page, directed to you specifically, and he says there is nothing more important in flint right now than fixing the water problem. do you see that? do admit getting that letter? >> yes. >> the mayor asked you repeatedly to come to flint. you admit today that you did not show up for more than seven months after he asked you. >> i am not familiar. i would have to check my schedule. >> you did not go to flint until october 2015? >> i do not know. >> you admit to seeing headline after headline about health problems, hair loss, rashes, e. coli, bacteria, sewage, legionnaires disease. did you read any of those stories mr. schneider? a number of those stories. we would follow up on them and get reaffirmation from career bureaucrats that the water was safe. that was wrong. you admit that more cases of legionnaires disease were than all the cases in the last five years or more combined? do you admit that? and that's why i provided a table

mr. chairman. mr. speaker, i rise today as we honor the exemplary service of three departing member of this distinguished body. randy forbes, robert hurt and scott rigville served their districts and our nation with honor and distinction and will sorely missed. but i must take a moment and talk about the privilege i have had of serving alongside my frend, randy forbes, on the armed services committee, and on the sea power and projection forcesubcommittee he chairs. over the past few years, as the obama administration has sought to shrink the size of our armed forces, and reduce the number of ships in our navy, it's been randy that has led with a strong, passionate advocacy for our service members and a strong informed depped defender of our navy. article one of the institution states that congress should shal have the power to provide and maintain a navy. no one has fulfilled that task ly honorably or diligent than randy forbes. rapidy, your experience and your insights will be missed in the congress on

mr. chairman, i just had that mr. del toro's report be included in the record. >> without objection, so ordered. well, you just don't get it. you still don't get it. i now recognize the gentleman from virginia. >> mr. chairman, thank you. i get it. we're trying to make sure the blame is shifted here. interesting, for a committee that has practiced alice in wonderland techniques with management, off with your head, so when there's a problem, off with the head, off with the head of the cio, off with the head of the head of the irs, off with the head of lois lerner -- but governor snyder apparently, my friends on the other side of the aisle want to make sure your head is on your shoulders. governor snyder, do you believe in the philosophy of government that says we ought to push responsibility and power to the lowest level we can, as close to the people as we can? gov. snyder: as a general rule, yes. rep. connolly: so in november 2012, the citizens of your state rejected the emergency manager law you abdicated in a refer

mr. chairman, i remember a conversation, the one we had. i also remember the meetings we had to figure out what to do and how we leaned on you. i remember the first meeting that the president-elect and i had with our economic team in chicago a month before the inauguration. we were told that tens of millions of americans owed more on their homes than they were worth and we were told we might need well over $1 trillion to fix the banks. the good news we were told and i remember sitting in the room of about 40 economists. you weren't nair. you were back in new york, i believe. i'm not sure where you were but the economic team we were told, mr. president, we had good news. we are not going to recommend that you call a bank holiday. whoa, what do you mean? that's the good news. it was said in deadly earnest. there were considerations of whether or not they were going to well we call a bank holiday. that's what president roosevelt was told during the great depression. we knew our regulatory system was outdated, designed decades ago and ill-equip

mr. chairman. before i recognize, mr. baer, be allowed to participate in the hearing. >> reserving the right to object. just kidding. [laughter] >> without objection. >> if the clock can go back to 45 for me. that was a uc request. >> thank you. >> i appreciate this opportunity once again to discuss safety service and budget challenges faced by the transit system. each time the committee revisits the topic and exercises oversight prerogative we are reminded of the close relationship between functionality and the health of the transit system. it should come as no surprise that a congressional committee passed within efficiency of government in the safety of workforce has vested interest in the success of the system that delivers one-third of the workforce every day. in march when metro announced that it would shut down for 24 hours to conduct emergency inspections, the first question on everyone's mind was how would the federal government's office of perm management accommodate the closure unlike any other transportation s

mr. chairman. mr. mica: thank you, mr. connolly. mr. moe me does. mr. meadows: before i begin, i want to recognize not only the outstanding service that you state ofided the great florida and the congress as a hole but as a personal friendship to me, as a guy who had no idea what went on behind the scenes, you took a young guy from north carolina and invested in me in a way that, quite frankly, i'll never forget. you and pat are dear friends, it's been a difficult year. i want to let you know i sincerely appreciate your friendship, your leadership, your investment, your love and your compassion for the people that you serve. if they knew what i knew, that every day that you were worried about serving them more than serving yourself, i think that they would rise up with a stature and i have to say i have a personal stetchue in my heart of a man that i appreciate so much, and you know in my district, we're the only district in the united states with a place called micahville, so every time i go - mica

mr. chairman, we would all be happy to answer your questions. >> any opening comments? >> no. >> great, thank you, thank you mr. secretary for taking the time to run through the process. one of the questions that i asked general baldwin which he deferred to the second panel, of those 400 who they had recommended being relieved, but lost -- did not seek -- not granted relief. do they have another appeal avenue? >> i don't necessarily track all of general baldwin's numbers, not that they're wrong, but we're trying to go through our own data base, so i can't go through those 400 cases, what i can say is we'll provide an avenue for everybody here. in the cases of those who were convicted of fraud, that will be a narrow avenue, but we'll provide an avenue for everybody. >> and in the cases where they're having wages taken by the irs or maybe they were turned over to a credit agency, where is the rose getting pinned to make sure that the irs stops taking money or that we help get credit ratings restored? >> we believe that has already been taken care of in terms of taking acti

mr. chairman. mr. cummings, members of the committee, appreciate the opportunity to be -- to attend this meeting this morning. the ability to classify national security information is a critical tool of the federal government and its leaders to protect our nation and its citizens however when wrecks will -- recklessly applied it can create needless impediments to transparency that can undermine our form of government and its constitutional system of checks and balances. i've come to the conclusion that on its own the executive branch is both incapable and unwilling to achieve true reform in this area. incapable in that absent external pressure from either the legislative or judiciary branches of our government true reform within the executive branch when the matter involves the equities of multiple agencies can only be achieved with the direct leadership emanating from the white house. over the past 40 years, we've seen only one white house-led attempt at classification reform and that was in the 1990s

mr. chairman. thank you to our witnesses. mr. airman, for a couple of decades now iran has sought to extend its brand of government through terror and intimidation throughout the region. i know that champion of the jcpoa insisted with a hold on iran's nuclear program that we would be able to expand our resources to combat these more conventional threats from iran. and i was looking forward to doing that. but, however, in the past two years since the agreement, we've seen iran test us in a variety of ways. even the production of heavy water in violation of the agreement is an of itself the ability to produce that much heavy water is a precedent for a set of circumstances which gives them access to other developers of their program. yes, once we bought it, now they transferred. but the reality is that it's a violation of the agreement. but beyond that, into more conventional way, there engaged in ballistic missile technology in violation of what was u.s. -- u.n. council resolution. their engagement on terrorism has not stopped. ther

mr. chairman. i am pleased to join this forum on the electoral college in the future of american democracy and to hear from our distinguished panelists. i believe we must move away from the electoral college as it currently operates system guarantees the winner of the popular vote actually becomes the president of the united states. it shouldn't really be considered a radical idea. this is a matter of crucial importance to our democracy. and the good news, it's considered elementary in every other democratic country in the world. only here is it novel. the good news is that there are practical steps we can all take in our own states that could reform the electoral college and make a real difference in how the president is selected. as you know, the popular vote different from the electoral college vote in just three times in the 19th century. the last time then was in 1888. the electoral college did not differ from the popular vote again until 2000. 112 years when it didn't make a difference. so we