mr. rooney. mr. ryan: i think that's a great way to approach the transitional assistance program is to get people in. to me it doesn't sound complex at all. it sounds very straightforward. i think that's the way we need to go. we appreciate your leadership on this. until my estimation a couple major issues. some which have been brought up here on the issues of opiates and on the issues of posttraumatic stress. we have -- still have 20, 21, 22 suicides today. we have clearly some budget issues that we need to deal with in the long term. and we have to figure out how we can provide care to these veterans who are coming back or have been back for 30 or 40 years. we have talked about the little bit at our breakfast last week. i have seen personally over the last 15 years of my career here complementary programs that are affects in evable improving the health and well-being of veterans who have been suffering for a long, long time. i have sat at the washington, d.c. v.a. in a mindful based stress reductio

mr. rooney and mr. deutch and working with our members of the judiciary committee for moving this legislation forward. we ask our veterans to lay their lives on the line so that we can enjoy freedom. which is at the heart of this great country. we owe them much. surely we can and should repay our gratitude whenever we can. protecting their veterans' benefits is one way of expressing our appreciation and it is the right and just thing to do. for these reasons, i urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this legislation and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back the balance of her time. the gentleman from california. mr. issa: thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, our nation's veterans have sacrificed. they've given us so much. they've protected us. in his second inaugural address, president lincoln reminded us of ur solemn duty to care for him who shall have borne in battle and for his widow and for his orphan. by doing this today, we keep that promise

mr. rooney called an end to the probe before hicks testified, and as other republican members of the committeeave said publicly, they are under enormous pressure to shut down our investigation. i certainly agree as i mentioned earlier i don't think hope hicks' testimony should have been leaked. unfortunate unfortunately, he made the problem worse by talking about it in great detail, but nonetheless, there's an effort to shut down the investigation to use any pretext they can. they don't want, frankly, to follow evidence where it leads as they committed to do, and that's a grave disservice to the public. we have many witnesses to bring in and bring back in who like hope hicks, like steve bannon, refuse the to answer broad categories of questions, and there are large categories of documents we need. there's phone records, for example, around the trump tower meeting that would shed light on whether son talked to father and father talked to son or other people communicated and who was in the know about that meeting that we ought to get. there are records from twitter, communications between people

mr. rooney came forward and said it was unfair to even ask the question, i believe that the public needs to know the context which is it is a completely fair question to ask somebody has your boss ever asked you to lie. if you have to take two time-outs to device and come up with an answer, then we already know the answer. i wanted to know whether donald trump has asked her to lie, whether she has observed him asking others to lie and also whether any other principals on the campaign like donald trump jr. or ivanka or paul manafort, steve bannon, michael flynn, jared kushner have asked her to lie. she refused to answer each time. >> i just want to make clear rooney's characterization was accurate. you asked directly if they asked her to lie. she just refused to answer is what happened. >> any individual who has not been forth coming in the russia investigation who has made an assertion that's been proved false, asked her if one of those individuals asked her to lie. she refused to answer for each individual. if the answer was no, i think she would have plainly said no. >> that's a fair p

mr. rooney, but on the speaker of the house for letting them do this, complicit as anyone in stalling thisestigation and, frankly, obstructing it. >> the white house has not implemented the sanctions that congress overwhelmingly passed against russia for election interference, do you think that that is relevant to the russian investigation? >> it's extraordinary that no one in the white house -- no one in the majority, in the house and senate, hasn't spoken out about this. in any other law passed overwhelmingly that the executive branch says we're not going to enforce this is beyond comprehension. the fact of the matter is the white house has said, and the president has said, there's nothing to this, but he certainly is acting when he does this, when he doesn't implement this law, like the russians have something on him. >> congressman, thank you so much for the time, appreciate it, sir. >> thank you. >>> did the attorney general just double dog dare president trump to fire him? how much more can trump's feud with sessions escalate? that's next. to severe crohn's disease. then i realized s

mr. rooney's point, look, none of us would like to see this process go the way it has. it's taken too long. largely because of this obstruction. so do i wish we could go quicker? it would go a lot quicker if we weren't facing problems from the white house and from mr. nunes' leadership. >> do you anticipate wanting to recall hope hicks once she departs the white house, which is supposedly happening in just a matter of a few weeks? >> i think we need ms. hicks back, mr. bannon back, mr. lewandoski, mr. sessions, eric prince, they all refuse to answer critical questions. most of them were not under subpoena. so we need help, again, from the speaker of the house, to compel the leadership of this committee to subpoena witnesses, and to press them and to force them. and when they don't answer questions, they're going to have to face contempt proceedings. >> democrat from illinois, congressman mike quigley, thank you so much. appreciate your insight. >>> coming up, asking ivanka -- in an exclusive nbc interview, the first daughter answering for her father about his regard for

mr. rooney, and frankly i think the statements are a copout, he was helping to run the investigation.would conduct the investigation. and they decided very early on that they were not going to be serious about finding out what russia did. they were not going to get to the truth. and that 45s been the fundamental problem. that put us in the position in the minority of either going alloy with what would be a whitewash or standing up and speaking out and we had no choice but to do so. >> congressman rooney alluded to something important as well. in that you haven't responded to. that is, there have been a lot of leaks from your committee. tas ranking democrat, are you responsible for that? >> i haven't leaked anything. i've made it clear that i don't speak to confidential committee matters and certainly don't speak to classified information. i'm very careful about what i say, notwithstanding the attack that is the president makes and are echoed on fox news. and i've been told members of my committee months ago that if i catch he anyone from our side leaking i'm going do ask that they be

mr. rooney: his devotion to florida's citrus and agriculture was real and did everything he could to share his passion with others, especially with young people. each year the florida citrus hall of fame honors the most distinguished leaders who have made significant contributions to the florida citrus industry and there was no one more deserving of a spot on that hall of fame than mr. marvin kahm -- kahn. his passion for florida citrus is unparalleled. florida is a better place because of mr. kahn and it's been an honor to serve him in the house of representatives. thank you, mr. speaker. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. for what purpose does the gentleman from new jersey seek recognition? without objection, the gentleman s recognized for one minute. mr. payne: mr. speaker, colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of death for men and women combined. it is a silent killer because the disease often has no signs or symptoms. each year more than 50,000 americans die from colorect

mr. rooney. >> i forgot. thank you the retiring chairman. dr. shulkin, welcome, thank you. tim ryan and myself served as co-chairs of the military mental health caucus. it's had a few variations of different names but we've tried to hold hearings and have meetings to discuss things that would help returning war fighters and veterans deal with any mental health issues or stigmas that have arrived since, quite frankly, the last war on terror and to try to do something to address the suicide issue that has obviously been a big problem. i want to say we appreciate everything you've tried to do and your willingness to send someone to participate in those briefings that we've had for our members and staff and i recently read a report about the v.a. that raised some concerns about our ability to meet the mental health needs of those post 9/11 veteran veterans. of the post 9/11 veterans, many don't know how to apply for benefits. we don't know if the v.a. offers mental health care benefits all together. how are you working with the department of defense to improve transition assist

mr. rooney. how are you this morning? host: great. caller: i am doing well.ave some concerns about your party in particular. what bothers me most of all is i hear so many legislators from your side of the i'll talk about how they have all these concerns. that is wonderful you have all those concerns. the point is right now that this president is mentally unstable. that is what concerns me. when you look at overseas over in korea, that man is mentally unstable as well. what really bothers me most of all -- not only the situation but the gun situation. you all seem to care more about placing the nra -- pleasing the nra than you do about humanity. let me point something out if i without humanity, we do not have any civilization. weaponry is not something that is important. obviously we have to protect ourselves. if people want to carry a handgun, great. at the same time, people do not need some are automatic weapons. we do not need that at all. that is an infringement on my right as someone who opposes guns. guest: you make some very interesting points. i always