mr. lowenthal: thank you. mr. zamot, i want to change the topic a little bit and talk bout the trash incinerator project. ould you tell us right now prior to the hurricanes, was there any issues in puerto rico about a coal ash problem and what to do with the coal ash and where it was being stored? mr. zamot: sir, that's an issue that government of puerto rico is currently addressing and the board was not involved. mr. lowenthal: so you do not know whether there any problems with coal ash? does anyone know has there been any problem with coal ash? they were able to utilize the existing kind of landfills to do coal -- to get rid of some of this toxic coal ash? ms. jaresko: i am aware of the problem. i am aware also of the environmental protesters and the issued they raised. mr. lowenthal: so there was a problem before all this about coal ash. o now we will increase the toxic coal ash. where -- if there were not landfills before to deal with the coal ash, how -- by increasing that problem, how do we deal with it? how

mr. cohen: thank you, sir. mr. attorney general, first i noted you went to the 50th anniversary of the selma, alabama march. commend you for that. you were a sponsor of the gold medal for the folks that marched. having done that, i would like to ask you what have you done as attorney general to see to it that fringes and others who have been discriminated for years in voting have more access to the ballot box? mr. sessions: we will absolutely, resolutely defend the right of all americans to vote. including our african-american brothers and sisters. it cannot -- never be suggested that people are blocked from voting. we have got a number -- done a number of things in the department of justice -- mr. cohen: let me ask you this, mr. attorney general. it's a fact, there have been studies that show that votor i.d. is more discriminatory in its effect on african-americans and latinos than anything else. will you stop defending voter i.d. law cases? mr. sessions: no. the supreme court has approved voter i.d. if properly do

david: you are now both former presidents. mr. clinton: nobody plays a song when you walk into a room anymore. [laughter] mr. bush: i did not bring the coffee. david: what do you say to each other? mr. bush: generally, when does this program start and when is it going to end? [laughter] mr. clinton: he'll say to me give shorter answers. david: what was the biggest surprise the first day you are in the oval office? mr. clinton: it really surprised me how easily i could be turned into a two-dimensional cartoon. mr. bush: in walks my dad, i said, "welcome, mr. president." and he said, "thank you, mr. president." >> would you fix your tie, please? david: people wouldn't recognize me if my tie was fixed. i will leave it this way. alright. ♪ david: i don't consider myself a journalist. nobody else would consider myself a journalist. i began to take on the life of being an interviewer, even though i have a day job. how do you define leadership? what is it that makes somebody tick? ♪ david: i'd like to start by acknowledging the presence o

mr. massie: thank you, mr. sopko, for your work in this capacity and i appreciate your matter of fact answers. can you give us the total tab so far for afghan reconstruction since we started in roughly 2012? -- sopko: mr. massie: if you want to round it off to the nearest billion? mr. sopko: it's $120.7 billion for reconstruction and that's through september 30, 2017. but that doesn't include the $7.42 billion that's in the pipeline. that means it's been authorized, appropriated but not yet spent. mr. massie: so the last time you were here 18 months ago it was $113 billion roughly and now we're up to $120 billion and you say there's $7.4 billion in the pipeline. the reason i ask that question is, it stands in contrast to something we heard our president say that we were fighting terrorism, we're not nation building in afghanistan. sounds like another $7.4 billion in the pipeline might go to nation building. i noticed in our own budget we're not cutting the money for, quote, nation building. something else that's

mr. cohen: thank you, sir. mr. attorney general, first i noted you went to the 50th anniversary of the selma, alabama, march. i commend you for that. you were a sponsor of the gold medal for the folks that marched. having done that, i would like to ask you what have you done as attorney general to see to it that fringes and others who have been discriminated for years in voting have more access to the ballot box? mr. sessions: we will absolutely, resolutely defend the right of all americans to vote. including our african-american brothers and sisters. it cannot -- never be suggested that people are blocked from voting. we have done a number of things in the department of justice -- mr. cohen: let me ask you this, mr. attorney general. it's a fact, there have been studies that show that voter i.d. is more discriminatory in its effect on african-americans and latinos than anything else. will you stop defending voter i.d. law cases? mr. sessions: no.will you stop e id law cases? the supreme court has approved photo id.

mr. rooney: thank you, mr. speaker. thank you chairwoman foxx, for bringing forward the save local businesses act. over six million employees, 650,000 employers, creates over $1 trillion of construction every year. building a project involves the complex web of subcontractors, vendors and consultants all working together in a spirit of teamwork to accomplish a difficult task. i've been in this business for 40 years. the general contractor has absolutely necessary has to put in control terms in its subcontracts and purchase orders to make sure their subcontractors and vendors execute the work safely, on schedule and in coordination with the other trades on the project. lastly, they have to follow all the fitness for duty provisions to make sure they pass drug tests and dealing with smoking and health safety issues and stuff like this and this runs nto this browning-ferris standards. you can't have the argument made to you that all these subs and vendors are now part of a common enterprise. now myself and my employees are

mr. nunes: thank you, mr. chairman. first let me congratulate you and all of the tax team for putting this bill together in this manager's amendment. there's a reason why we haven't done this in nearly 40 years. it's difficult. and this committee has worked on it for many, many years. had many, many hearings. i know american people are frustrated because every year we say we're going fix the tax code and yet we never fix the tax code. this is as close to fixing the tax code as we can possibly get. this is going to simplify the tax code for nearly every american. probably 2/3 if not more of americans will no longer -- will be able fill out their taxes on a single piece of paper. that will be simplification. all americans will get a tax cut. but most importantly, it's about jobs and job creation. and that's really what is at the heart of this bill. what it does is it gets the government out of picking winners and losers. so for too long in this country , small business people, farmers and others, and any type of business,

thank you. mr. sessions: thank you for your service. >> between 1956 and 1971 the fbi ran a counterintelligence program initiated by hoover. they mainly targeted civil rights leaders and it is understood that this was an abuse of surveillance power. i would like to ask to enter this report into the record, which is black identity extremist likely motivated to target law enforcement officers. i believe you said you were not familiar with this report. mr. sessions: i have not read it. >> so you are somewhat familiar with it. who and your department had the power to order a report like this? mr. sessions: i'm not sure how the report got ordered. i am not sure i directed it. >> so you have not necessarily read the report and you're familiar with the term black identity extremist? can you tell me what the term means to you? do you believe there is a movement of african-americans that identify them as lack identity extremist, and what does that movement do? mr. sessions: i be interested to see the conclusi

you see, mr. speaker, can you not hide the truth from the sick, the elderly, disabled for whom this bill may mean life or death. you cannot hide the truth from the middle class, working, and immigrant families who need every penny to make ends meet. you cannot hide the truth from teachers who try to lend a helping hand to students who truggle to get an education. and i for one refuse to hide the truth about this bill's attack on the separation of church and state. mr. speaker, as we have been our constitutional duty and sacrifice our moral authority, i fear that history will not be kind to any of us. in another time and of another period, members of congress came together in a bipartisan fashion. they met, debated, and passed a tax bill that served the best interests of all people not just the select few. they put their time, they did it right. and we should be doing it right. today the record must reflect the truth. h.r. 1 steals from our veterans, seniors, children, and for generations yet unborn

mr. reed: thank you, mr. chairman. mr. chairman, as we close this debate out, i want to say thank you to you and your staff for all of the hard work and for mr. barthold for his work. mr. chairman, i've been sitting here all week with this stack of papers. i'm glad to be able to do my part today to say this will be a thing of history when we're done here in the house of representatives as the senate and get this signed to the president's desk. and to be replaced with a simpler, fairer, tax code that is going to deliver $1,606 to the typical family in my district of western new york. mr. chairman, as the youngest of 12, whose father passed away when i was 2, who was raised by a single mother, $1,606 is a heck of a lot of money. and that is money these people have earned. and by doing the work we have done here, and i hope to work with my colleagues across the aisle as we go through this process to the finish line and we can do better for those individuals back home, we're giving direct relief to them. and thank you for the o

mr. king: thank you, mr. chairman. thank you, general sessions, for your testimony today and service to the country over the years you have been front and center. a number of things i wanted to discuss. one of them is the daca situation. and it seems as i recall made a public statement some time back about the constitutionality of the policy that was implemented by president obama. would you care to reiterate that position today? mr. sessions: well, the president, president obama, indicated multiple times that he felt that daca, he didn't have the power to do daca in the way it was done. and eventually they must have changed their mind and executed this policy to make persons in -- take persons who were in the country unlawfully and give them lawful status, work permits, and even participation in social security. i felt for some time that was not proper. a federal district court in texas so held. and the fifth circuit court of appeals also so held that it was unlawful. so, what happened was we worked on the research but

mr. welch: thank you. mr. chairman, i'm speaking to my chairman, i accept your commitment and your leadership on ensuring children -- insuring children. but i'm speaking to you because i reject the argument that in order to fund the health insurance program that all of us support, we have to compromise health programs that benefit many other people, including in vermont. let me just give an example. the prevention program in vermont, mr. chairman, is really helping people stay well. we had $922,000 that was spent on immunization programs for our kids. we had $377,000 for lead poisoning prevention. lead poisoning is brutal. we had $372,000 for heart disease prevention and control. and we had over $209,000 for diabetes and prevention control. so i acknowledge your commitment. i only have a minute and a half. i'm sorry. i acknowledge the urgency with which your side and our side supports chip. but why is it that if we support it, we don't pay for it and instead of paying for it directly, coming up with ways to eli

mr. wright. >> thank you, mr. chairman. you know, it's fascinating to me that in the face of all this evidence and all these studies that have been done already on this plan, you know, again, let me ask you, in every quintile of income distribution in america, when this plan is taken into account, the tax reduction, the rate reduction, the increase in the standard deduction, the elimination of s.a.l.t. and all these other components of this plan, what is the tax effect on every quintile in the -- of the american taxpayer? >> mr. rice has reported across all our income categories, on average, there's net tax reduction -- >> there's a tax reduction. so, you know, i will toward the end, let me finish and make my point. you know, we continue to say that there's going to be a tax increase, when, in fact, it's not just the joint committee on taxation here, but it's alsowhet just mr. bart hold and the joint committee on taxation here, but it's also the tax foundation, it's also the "washington post" has issued statements saying tha

mr. banks: thank you, mr. speaker. i thank you, most of all, for your hard work as chairman of the house veterans' affairs committee. i am very proud to serve on that committee under your leadership. mr. speaker, because our veterans answer the call and served our country, we in turn must serve them and their families. this commitment extends to assisting them in medical recovery, successfully transitionicsing to the civilian work force -- transitioning to the civilian work force and properly memorializing their lives when they are gone. current law requires memorial headstones for their spouses and children when the remains of the deceased cannot be found. this could occur in a boating or plane accident. the law provides headstones for spouses and was enacted in 1998. public law 109-461 provides headstones for dependent children and was enacted in 2006. both groups are eligible for this benefit as of the date of enactment. however, as has already been said, it's unfortunate these two laws did not go into effect at the

foxx: thank you, mr. allen. mr. desauliner, you are recognized for three minutes. mr. desauliner: thank you, madam chair. thank you for having this hearing. mr. secretary, thank you for your testimony and your tenor here today. it's encouraging. i don't know if you ever attended a funeral of an american worker who lost their life in a workplace incident. i have. i represented for 30 years an area in the bay area that has amongst the geographic and per capita greatest has arduous material facilities, refineries and chemical plants. almost 20 years ago, a constituent of mine lost his life because a fortune 500 company, costco, at that time was appealing over 100 citations issued by cal osha just the week before. two of them, the most concerning that i will always remember, were at the root cause of this independent dent, backup indicators for temperature variations were outside the control room on the unit. mr. glansman this day was unfortunately -- he was sent out to verify they should shut the unit down even though it turned out later under inspection that the written p

mr. schweikert: thank you, mr. chairman. can you help me just because i was not blessed to be a member of the committee when some of -- some of this was originally drafted, looking at the gentleman from oregon's amendment, could you first walk me through right now what the actual change we're talking about here in the definitions and mechanisms and timing on work in progress? >> there's, mr. schweikert there's two basic changes in h.r. 1. as was noted in the debate, there's a phase down under present law of the value of the production credit, or the value of the investment credit if the taxpayer elects the investment credit in lieu of the -- >> i want to double emphasize, that's current law. >> current law. and the reductions are 20% reduction, 40% in 2018. 60% reduction in 2019. relative to the base proposal that's been in the law for 20-plus years. that -- the value of the credit for projects, the construction of which blins -- begins in those years, the inflation indexes is remove thsmed ecredit itself is indexed, currentl

mr. welch: thank you. mr. chairman, i'm speaking to my chairman, i accept your commitment and your leadership on ensuring children -- insuring children. but i'm speaking to you because i reject the argument that in order to fund the health insurance program that all of us support, we have to compromise health programs that benefit many other people, including in vermont. let me just give an example. the prevention program in vermont, mr. chairman, is really helping people stay well. we had $922,000 that was spent on immunization programs for our kids. we had $377,000 for lead poisoning prevention. lead poisoning is brutal. we had $372,000 for heart disease prevention and control. and we had over $209,000 for diabetes and prevention control. so i acknowledge your commitment. i only have a minute and a half. i'm sorry. i acknowledge the urgency with which your side and our side supports chip. but why is it that if we support it, we don't pay for it and instead of paying for it directly, coming up with ways to eli

mr. welch: thank you. mr. chairman, i'm speaking to my chairman, i accept your commitment and your leadership on ensuring children -- insuring children. but i'm speaking to you because i reject the argument that in order to fund the health insurance program that all of us support, we have to compromise health programs that benefit many other people, including in vermont. let me just give an example. the prevention program in vermont, mr. chairman, is really helping people stay well. we had $922,000 that was spent on immunization programs for our kids. we had $377,000 for lead poisoning prevention. lead poisoning is brutal. we had $372,000 for heart disease prevention and control. and we had over $209,000 for diabetes and prevention control. so i acknowledge your commitment. i only have a minute and a half. i'm sorry. i acknowledge the urgency with which your side and our side supports chip. but why is it that if we support it, we don't pay for it and instead of paying for it directly, coming up with ways to eli

mr. farrakhan: you are a misused population. so when mr. trump talks about fake news, he knows what he's talking about. now, the press, you say you're the fourth estate, i would say you're in a hell of a state -- [laughter] [applause] mr. farrakhan: because you can't say what you really know to be the truth unless it passes the muster of those who are your bosses. >> right. >> that's right. >> whoa! mr. farrakhan: some of the press are assets of the cia. did you hear me? >> yes, sir. they havehan: deceived the american people. -- i mean, donald j. trump is busting up the institutions of a democratic country. my god. >> yes, sir. mr. farrakhan: congress has 10% of the people with congress. the media, the people don't trust the media. so every time he says "fake news," if you study an article 70 years of the cia, the criminal arm of the u.s. government, these are criminals. >> yes, sir. mr. farrakhan: they go into countries, kill presidents -- >> criminals. overthrowhan: governments, create civil war and back away like they did nothing. they'r

mr. nelson: yes, i'm here. i couldn't hear you, mr. chairman. thank you. mr. hatch: i'm sorry. i'll have to peek louder. mr. nelson: i want to call up my modification to amendment 189. to nelson amendment one. 40 copies of the modification have been filed with the clerk. the number one goal of this bill should be job growth. and not just growth of low-wage jobs. that's what we need is job growth with real wages. this amendment tries to add balance to the chairman's bill by offsetting the cost of new hires for small business through a new tax credit worth the employer's portion of the payroll taxes. employers could get -- employers could only get the credit if they have less than $15 million in gross receipts and pay an average minimum wage that's at least $1.4 times the applicable minimum wage, which works out to around $10 an hour. the provision expires after three years, so as to stimulate small business job growth. this sort of policy has gotten bipartisan support in the past. it should get it here. and especially if you are in a state of which many members on this committee

mrs. watson coleman: thank you, mr. speakerle. i yield myself -- thank you, mr. speaker. i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized. mrs. watson coleman: thank you, mr. speaker. i'm pleased to join my colleagues in consideration of h.r. 2672, a bill to designate the facility of the united states post office located at 520 carter street in fairview, illinois, as the sergeant douglas j. riney post office. born in georgia in 1990, douglas riney graduated from spoon river valley high school in illinois and married his wife in 2012. the two of them lived in fairview with children leah and james, where douglas proudly volunteered as a firefighter, cheered for the green bay packers and loved spending time outdoors riding his motorcycle, hunting and fishing. douglas served on active duty in the u.s. army, deploying in support for our operation enduring freedom from july, 2014, to february, 2015. and again as part of operation freedom sentinel beginning in june, 2016. he was assigned to the third cavalry regiment, first cavalry

mr. wilson: thank you, mr. speaker. and thank you, chairman mac thornberry for your leadership, the extraordinary controversial issue that should be addressed has been solved with your leadership and will be so meaningful to military families. i am grateful to support h.r. 2810, the national defense authorization act for fiscal year 2018. throughout this past year, as chairman of the readiness subcommittee, we heard testimony from each of the joint chiefs about the critical necessity to address the military's alarming readiness shortfalls across all domains, air, land, sea, cyber and space. sadly, the recent tragic deaths in the indo-pacific showed that readiness has fallen to a dangerous level. we can no longer delay the maintenance and sustainment problems that plague the military and defer critical training and modernization that directly impacts the ability to respond rapidly to emerging threats worldwide. there are numerous important readiness provisions in the bill. i also appreciate my friend, colleague and readin

mr. leahy: thank you, mr. chairman. senator from louisiana, i guess i am not important enough or been here long enough to have somebody tell me how i had to vote but i will rely on his experience that that might happen. senator kennedy: i think they knew i was new and from the south and therefore stupid. senator leahy: obviously you don't mean i thought that way. senator kennedy: not you, of course not. mr. leahy: i am from a small town in vermont. i guess they didn't think -- telling me how to vote. i do fear -- i watched this committee, i've been on this committee for 40 years. i served here for 42 years. eight different presidents. both half a dozen times in the majority. half a dozen times in the inority. independence of this committee. worrying that independence is disappearing. it's becoming a rubber stamp for the president. something i have not seen with republicans or democratic presidents before. we've worrying that independenc. at the request of president trump and circuit court nominees this month alone. that

thank you. mr. s. mr. nunes reserves a point of order. mr. le, levin, you're recognized on the amendment. >> ten years ago tomorrow, the house approved legislation that would plug the carried interest loophole, where people who provide services not on their own money but other people's money pay a capital gains tax instead of an ordinary tax like other people who provide services. it passed november 9, 2007. it was passed three times after that. this bill is the same as the bill that was introduced in 2015. when the manager provided his amendment, and the reason we were so upset was it came out of the blue, and we weren't able to kind of look through the clouds to see what it was all about. and it turned out that the manager's amendment essentially was a fig leaf and later on, we received a score, and it turned out it raised $1.2 billion when the bill that i introduced with many others in 2015, and this bill is the same as that, raised 15.6 beside. $15.6 billion. more and more, this has become kind o

mrs. comstock: thank you, mr. speaker. and thank you, mr. chairman, for your leadership on this important issue. i rise in support of h.r. 630, my legislation to deal with -- to begin to deal with the sexual harassment issue. 30 years ago in 1988, a 34-year-old legislative aide named dorina faced a very lonely fight when she decided to stand up to a powerful congressman, jim bates of california, who repeatedly sexually harassed her and others in his office with questions, comments and actions. such as asking her what type of sex she liked, saying different things that he would imagine. he talked about her breasts. he humped her leg in front of the staff and said vulgar things that are really too unpleasant to talk about in this body. she didn't get a lot of press attention or some of the support that victims get today. she got little support from this body. she went on her journey alone. she received nasty phone calls and even threats. she was warned they would release damaging information about her, but fortunately she prevailed and men and

thank you. mr. christie: thank you very much. thank you for inviting me. [applause] mr. cummings: thank you very much. just one thing. our good colleague from maryland, mr. delaney, has a phrase. that i wish i had invented. he said, the cost of doing nothing is never nothing. and you've given us a blueprint. now we have to act. thank you very much. mr. christie: thank you, sir. appreciate it very much. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2017] mr. gowdy: the committee will come to order. we are pleased to welcome our second panel of witnesses. we have dr. richard, acting director of the office of national drug control policy. dr. wynn, the health commissioner for the baltimore city health department. and dr. alexander, co-director of the center for drug safety and effectiveness in johns hospital kin bloomberg school of public health. all.- welcome to you i'm not going to swear you because i didn't swear the first witness.

thank you for your leadership, mr. smith. i know you will be leaving this body also and i have enjoyed so much the honor of working with you. i will end with that. >>. we will take a break the committee will stand in recess for 10 minutes. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2017] >> the committee will reconvene. the chair recognizes the gentleman from florida, mr. george, for five minutes. general sessions, who do you work for? to you or for the american people are for the president of the united states? mr. sessions: i am a member of themr. sessions: executive branch and i work for the american people. i want to ask you questions about that. on february 14, the president asked fbi director about the flynn investigation and said "i hope you can see your way clear to letting this go." on may 9, the president fired comey. on may 11, he went on television and announced he fired,

mr. thompson: thank you, mr. speaker, and thank you to the chairman and ranking member for your support and kind words. i do rise in support of h.r. 2123, the veterans ehealth telemedicine support act, also known as the vets act. years ago, a constituent approached me to discuss the barriers to care his fellow veterans were experiencing through the v.a. system. as an active duty soldier he told me stories of his friends coming home from the employment and falling through the dracks in the system. they were suffering post-traumatic stress disorder, t.b.i.'s, depression. others had trouble traveling to v.a. medical centers due to injuries sustained in combat. too many of them ended up taking their own lives. i broke my heart to hear the stories of this soldier's friends and comrades not receiving the care they deserved. what made it more difficult was the constituent soldier was my son. after numerous conversations trying to figure out how to help service members when they return home, we determined that expanding a

mr. lance: thank you, mr. speaker. i rise today in strong support of the great work of the energy and commerce committee on the brownfields enhancement economic redevelopment and re-authorization act. thank you, chairman shimkus, for leading another environmental victory to the house floor. the brownfields program has worked and must be re-authorized. over 59,000 sites nationwide and 419 in new jersey have been transformed by remediation and redevelopment. freeing our land and water of harmful chemicals and other hazards. this is a tremendous win for e.p.a. -- environmental protection, and communities who have struggled with contaminated sites. in the district i serve, facilities in dover, phillipsburg, rocks bury, and summerville are slight slighted for revitalization. this has been a winning formula. the brownfields program has already prompted $22 billion in private investment across this nation, and major return on a minimal though important federal investment. i urge a yes vote on this important legislation. i yiel

mr. pascrell. >> thank you, mr. davis. thank you, mr. chairman. mr. chairman, i want to enter into the record what itemizers in my state since they've been referred to by some of the speakers, itemizers in new jersey average $31,18 in total deductions which include salt, mortgage interest, medical and casualty. these are the latest figures from 2015. who are getting the figures from 2016 which will be even higher. that's the average in deductions. so when you talk about going from 70% to 95%, you've got to take all of these things into consideration. please do that. we're talking about 5,200 family in the united states while i, my constituents are double attached because of what you're going to do in this piece of legislation. that's fairness? then we'll have to change the definition of the word. i yield back. >> does anyone wish to speak on the amendment? i recognize myself to speak on it. before representative noe m's passionate leadership repealing death taxi led this effort for a number of years. i want to address this is idle rich and special int

thank you mr. secretary. >> thank you dr. roe. mr. courtney, you are recognized for three minutes. >> thank you madam chairman. and just to begin because of the short time, mr. secretary i would invite you to come up to eastern connecticut and see a sizing up of apprenticeship programs that has been happening seeded from the u.s. department of labor using fitzgerald act standards custom again applies not only to the shipyard where we are recap talizing the submarine force with the virginia classroom but also the supply chain, the small guy who is again have initial fears about taking on apprenticeship regulations and found actually that the process was very, very flexible and manageable. again, i think you would i think benefit from seeing again a sizing up, dramatic sigz up, 3,000 hires this year as again we move forward to enlarge our undersea fleet. again i have a letter from the eastern connecticut work force board which again has data and statistics about the again tremendous success that's happening with fitzgerald act standards

mrs. obama: they hate you. shonda: yes. d then i come home and my daughter has built a city out of cardboard boxes and it is fine. mrs. obama: it is a drug almost, it is hard to withdraw. it is like how it is with parents. are the days when the phones -- gone are the days when the phones would ring, remember that, in your house? you would pick up and is somebody would say, this is blank and i'm called to speak with melia. and you think, this is the person who is talking to my daughter, boy girl or whatever. , but now, there are friends i do not even know that they have. shonda: yes. mrs. obama: and i am shocked whey they say i'm going over such and such's house. who is that? my good friend. i have never heard that name before. [laughter] mrs. obama: she is one of my best friends. that happens so much. they look at me like i'm crazy. i do not know this little girl. shonda: that happens to me all the time. remember the phone cord in the kitchen -- mrs. obama: we would stretch it out. we had a long one. shonda: your mother coul

mr. smith: thank you, mr. speaker. chairman brady, thank you for the time and for your leadership as we continue our efforts to pass this historic legislation. mr. speaker, after nearly seven years of work in the ways and means committee and more than 31 years since our last true tax reform, many hearings along the way, it is time to pass historic comprehensive tax reform. our current tax code is antiquated, as we know. it's complex and it ignores many of the improvements and competitiveness which have been adopted by every other major economy worldwide. the time for tax reform is now. others have already outlined many of the highlights of this bill, but i think they warrant mentioning again. simplified compliance and rates for individuals and families means more than 95% of americans will be able to file their returns on a postcard. lower rates for small businesses recognize the important role they play as job creators in our economy. a 20% top corporate tax rate and transitioning to a territorial system will ensure ou

i would ask you mr. larson in yielding time whether under this deduction this is something people can use frp glasses, guide dogs, traveling to appointments, lab tests, prosthetic limbs, for substance abuse treatment and particularly, as you know, mr. larson, because this committee refuses to do anything of any type concerning the price gouging that is going on. people like gabby down in lockheart texas that called me concerned about the price she has the pay for insulin, whether they could also use this deduction until we get a committee that is willing to stand up to the pharmaceutical industry and do something like this bill does. >> well of course the gentleman is correct i would point to everybody again to please take a look at whether the aarp has put out and -- >> speak into your microphone. >> whether you are for the status quo, and i would say as it relates to relief for elderly, you bet i am. you bet i am for making sure they get the services that they ne need, services they have been receiving

mr. newhouse: thank you, mr. speaker. and thank you, mr. hastings. we have several members that would like to provide input. i'm very proud to be able to yield three minutes to the prime sponsor of the bill in question today, mr. bruce westerman from the great state of arkansas. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from arkansas is recognized for three minutes. mr. westerman: thank you, mr. chairman. let me thank the gentleman from washington state for not only yielding me this time and for his good work on the rules committee, but for his support of my bill, h.r. 2936, the resilient federal forests act. mr. chairman, i would like to speak right now not only as a member of the united states house of representatives, but also as a forester educated at this country's first forestry school. licensed by my home state by exam to practice forestry. and if there's an issue that i understand that comes before this congress, it's our forests. and as i listened to accusations from across the aisle, i trust my colleagues are not intentionally trying to mislea

mr. rice. >> thank you, mr. chairman. you know, we spent yesterday delving into the various groups and publications that have examined this tax proposal and its effect on taxpayers, and it was established over and over again that the joint committee on taxation says taxpayers at every quintile will pay less taxes under this plan, even considering the fact tat the state and local income tax deduction goes away. and not only then, but the tax foundation says that the average family of four will have $1,100 or $1,200 more in their pocket at the end of the year because of this tax plan. even considering the fact that the state and local tax deduction goes away. and not only that, but the tax foundation goes on to say that the average business will have $3,000 more at the end of the year. then you throw in "the washington post." "the washington post" through their examination says taxpayers in every quintile will have a reduction. in fact, they say 93% of taxpayers that make $80,000 or in the bottom three quintiles in the count

senator durbin: thank you, mr. chairman. >> gentlemen, i am very proud that the three companies you're representing here today are american companies. and i think you do enormous good. senator kennedy: but your power sometimes scares me. mr. stretch, how many advertisers does facebook have? mr. stretch: we have approximately five million advertisers on a monthly basis, senator. senator kennedy: did china run ads in the last election cycle that tried to impact our election? mr. stretch: not that i'm aware of, senator. senator kennedy: not that you're aware of. did turk minute stan? mr. stretch: no, senator, not that i am aware of. senator kennedy: how about north korea? mr. stretch: i am not aware of other foreign actors running the same sort of -- senator kennedy: how could you be aware? you got five million advertisers, and you're going to tell me that you're able to trace the origin of all of those advertisements? if i want to hire a lawyer, if i wanted to hire you when you were in private practice -- you have an

mr. hays: read his speeches. you will find he is opposed to things that make us all fearful of communist. he believes the atmosphere of today is very bad. frank: is the general a liberal or conservative? mr. hays: that is hard to tell. i do not use terms liberal or conservative. frank: would you vote under the republican ticket? under the party of mccarthy? >> -- as a lawyer, i would think you'd be attracted to senator taft. mr. hays: i think he is able and honest and i like the way he handles himself in general. he is more of a metal machine and i do not have the same liking of him. frank: as a fighter for human liberty, are you hopeful about the prospects for liberalism in america in 1952? mr. hays: yes. i saw it exists in the 20's. the party of the left is always the target. one day we will have a party more radical than the communists. society is becoming fearful because of names. i have the same hope we will reach the same atmosphere in the future, as turned out after the 1920's. frank: thank you for being with

mr. davis? >> thank you, mr. chairman. i have an amendment that strengthens family -- >> could you success penspend, . mr. davis, you're recognized. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i have an amendment that strengthens families by reinstating the adoption tax credit with refundability permanently restoring the exclusions for employer dependent care and adoption assistant programs and child tax credits to address the rising cost of child care and to benefit more working families. this amendment is fiscally responsible in that it offsets any costs associated with supporting middle class families with the minor increase in the corporate tax rate. the adoption tax credit is a bipartisan credit that helps families offset some the of the costs of adoption, especially with children with special needs. currently the benefit is nonrefundable for up to $13,000 of qualifying adoption expenses per adopted child with the five year carry forward. in 2014, over 73,000 households claimed the adoption tax credit with an average credit of $4,802.