virginia democrat nick rahall joins us.ant to start with a chemical spill that has impacted thousands of people in west virginia and downriver. today's headline, the first zone ok to flush. people are turning on their water again. what is the latest on the after -- effort to address the chemical spill? address thee i latest, let me begin by theending the state on response. the state that information together immediately after the spill was confirmed, and got the information to the feds and fema responded immediately with a disaster declaration. fema officials were in the state within 12 hours after that federal declaration after midnight, last thursday, i believe it was. the government has set up an interagency task force. they are doing their job in a very effective way to make sure this is safe. the latest, and of course, all of our concern is for the health and safety of our people. that is paramount. the latest is there is a slow these of water to 300,000-some residents that have been effected. it is in a three-phase pr

we're talking with congressman nick rahall. he's the ranking member of the house transportation and infrastructure committee. and congressman from the third district in west virginia. call is coming in from berkley springs on our line for republicans. caller, good morning. caller: i'm going to ask you two questions. what do you think about the obama administration using the i.r.s. to silence the tea party? and the next one is, the ethics committee in congress, isn't that just for show? i mean, you were brought up before the ethics committee for a real estate transaction where you seemed to make a couple million dollars real quick. i would like to know, what do you think about all this going on? guest: first, i think you ought to show your facts on your latter statement, that was a gross misstatement, i call it outright false. if you can prove differently, please come to me with the facts. i know of no such transaction or no such investigation of myself by the ethics committee. so that, maybe you have me confused with somebody e

has beenan nick rahall a very strong voice from west virginia for management of that situation. at the moment that has not come under our jurisdiction. if there is some way we can help we'll will work with the agencies to do that type of that -- but cleaning up type of spill is generally under the jurisdiction of the epa. perhaps my administration might become involved. host: you also sit on the defense appropriations subcommittee. when he has been restored for the anna gone into this approach -- money has been restored for the pentagon in this appropriations bill. including abillion, billion dollars, $90 billion for contingency operations, which is our war efforts in the war on terrorism. bill. a difficult a congressman from new jersey, just a phenomenal talent, has the responsibility for the lead in the house on that, and archivist man from indiana -- a bipartisan team that works very, .ery well we had to give confidence to the markets in until as well as all .ontractors, subcontractors can you imagine, whether you are talking about contracting for m-1 tanks or the provision o

hold two hearings next month on the west virginia chemical spill, and coming out of the house, nick rahallas asked the house reservation and infrastructure committee to hold a meeting. they're working on scheduling a hearing in the coming weeks, so if you want to hear more on that, and you can watch shows on c-span as well when they happen. and arnold'sean bill, west virginia on our line for independents. you are on with angela logomasini and rena steinzor. caller: good morning, how are y'all today? host: good. caller: i was watching earlier, and icy word john boehner was -- i see where john boehner was speaking out about regulations. he and david vetter and others made their nations around $600,000 by the owner of a friedman industries, so i thought you might you know, maybe that had something to do with that. i wonder how that plays into the oversight of the chemical plants. forests, i guess the big of see as a bailout. and my main question is how are the masses supposed to be effecting change without hundreds of thousands of dollars? thank you. guest: i agree with the caller that it is

west virginia representative rahal on the nick chemical leak in west virginia. by answering questions posed one of our viewers. how many doctors are needed to implement the health care law? plus your e-mails, phone calls, and tweets on "washington journal." 7 a.m. on c-span. the house budget committee, paul ryan, was also at the brookings institutes social mobility sub -- summit. he spoke about the war on poverty and why he believes it failed. this is 30 minutes. mobility including community resources like churches and volunteer groups. we have a long day of discussions, started this ,orning with senator joe brandt and now we are talking about thertunity and poverty in united states. in our relentless attempts to be nonpartisan or bipartisan we began today with the democrats have german paul ryan of the budget committee. here is something that might surprise you. knowledge counts for a lot in congress. paul ryan's career illustrates this claim. he was a former congressional staffer and we all know they are necessarily brilliant. second upon arriving in congress