mr. jefferies, for five minutes. mr. jefferies: mr. speaker i rise today in full support of president barack obama's fiscal year 2016 budget. it is a budget that is firmly rooted in middle class economics. designed to benefit working families and middle income americans. it is a budget that will facilitate access to quality, affordable childcare. and dramatically expand prekindergarten education. in a way that will allow the children of middle class americans to get off to a faster start in life. president obama's budget with the full support of house democrats will also address wage stagnation. it is designed to put more income, more money in the pockets of middle class americans and those who aspire to be part of the middle class. and address the fact that since the early 1970's productivity of the american worker has increased consistently. yet middle class wages have remained stagnant. that's a systematic problem that president obama, leader pelosi, and house democrats are determined to address. on behalf of the middle class. presi

mr. jefferies: i thank the distinguished gentlelady from new york. we are here today to do a single job. and that should be to fund fully the department of homeland security. anything else is an abdication of our responsibility. anything else is an act of legislative malpractice simply because of the inability of my friends on the other side of the aisle to satisfy the theirs of the extreme right wing -- thirst of the extreme right wing base of the party. so we are playing political games at a time when the safety and security of the american people is being threatened. and i know that all too well because earlier this week the f.b.i. uncovered a plot in brooklyn, in the communities that i represent, where individuals sought to impart bombs, the coney island neighborhood that i represent. and yet we are here playing games. government by crisis. this of course is nothing new. fiscal cliff. sequestration. 16-day government shutdown in october of 2013. a flirtation with defaulting on our debt. and now we want to shut down the department of homeland secu

jeffery, thank you very much indeed. we do have to move along now thank you very much indeed. mr. fahmy should be released and then focus on the 16,000 people who have been arrested simply for political protest and their languishing in egyptian prisons. >> thank you. >> a ceasefire has been announced for eastern ukraine. leaders from russia, ukraine france and germany have been holding talks in minsk. the ceasefire is due to start in three days from now and heavy weapons are due to be withdrawn. rory challands reports from minsk. >> vladimir putin described it as not the best night of his life. presumably the other leaders agree. more than 15 hours of wrangling trying to reach a breakthrough on ukraine. the waiting journalists had many hopes of an announcement dashed, then well into thursday morning it came. >> the first thing it's a ceasefire from the 15th of february secondly, position and that i believe the most important, very important it's a withdrawal of heavy weapons. >> these have been incredibly touch negotiations, going in, the germans were down beat about chances of su

mr. deutche laterer when he joins the committee in his opening statement. in the interim we're pleased to be joined by a distinguished group of experts. ambassador james jeffery visit visiting on middle east policy and previously served as am ambassador to iraq and albania. dr. rick brennan a senior scientist at the rand corporation and prior to joining rand served as a senior advisor to the u.s. military in iraq for five years. dr. dafna rand is the leon pennetta fellow and of security and previously she served on the staff of the national security council. she was a professional staff member on the select committee on intelligence as well. we welcome them all and without objection the witness's full prepared statement will be made part of the record and the members here will have five legislative calendar days to submit statements and any ex extraneous material for the record. ambassador, if we could start with you an ask you to summarize your remarks in five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman, mr. sherman, members of the committee. first of all, i think it's very important to note what we're doing today, as you said, considering an authorization for the u

mr. deutsche later when he joins the committee for his opening statement. but in the interim this morning we are pleased to be joined by a distinguished group of experts. ambassador james jeffery is a visiting fellow at the washington institute for near east policy and he previously served as ambassador to iraq, turkey, and to albania. dr. rick brennan is the senior political scientists at the rand corporation and prior to joining rand he served as a senior adviser to the military in iraq for five years. dr. daffna rand is the lee on panetta fellow in studies at the center for new american studies. she served on the staff of the national security council. she was a professional staff member on the senate select committee on intelligence as well. and we welcome them all. and without objection the witness' full prepared statement will be made part of the record and the members here will have five legislative days to submit statements and questions and any extraneous material for the record. so ambassador jeffery if we could start with you and ask you to sum rise your remarks in five minutes. thank you, sir. >> members of the committee, first it is very important to note what we