groups for the parks said and i quote, supporters of our national parks across the country are thrilled with this bill. addressing deferred maintenance will go a long way toward protecting historic and national resources at our parks. this bill makes sense. it will help make our national parks even better for the hundreds of millions of visitors every year who take in their beauty and their history. i urge the senate committee on energy and natural resources to approve this bill quickly. i know senator murkowski is a strong supporter of our parks and will be supportive of moving forward as chair of the committee. and i hope the full senate will vote on this legislation soon and vote on it now so that we can move forward quickly. we want to make the second hundred years of our national parks as magnificent and successful as the first hundred years has been. this bill is necessary to be able to do that. and i urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this legislation. thank you, mr. president. i yield back my time. mr. sullivan: mr. president? the presiding officer: the junior senator f

we're dedicated to preserving the legacy of our nation's and v.a.'s veterans legacy program supports v.a. andips between academic institutions and engage students to research veterans story and reach our by teachingeration k-12 students about the sacrifices. there's an interactive website to upload letters, pictures, videos to be shared with the public, and one day able to usel be ceremonies to scan a veteran's headstone. that's the future and i've seen it. tested and it works. continue to improve burial access for their families. or expand open existing v.a. national existing cemeteries while recognizing the to provide burial options to rural and urban veterans. we will new cemeteries over the five years. we appreciate the great support of congress by passing the boundary expansion act signed by the president on may 25th, allowing us to obtain land from the bureau of land management adjacent to our existing cemetery. we're appreciative of other which legislation, expanded the benefit for benefits buried in state and tribal cemeteries. cemeteries in

the termites in the foundation of had nation is our deficit and our debt -- of this nation is our deficit and our debt. and those things too must be done. they're also our priority, just not quite as immediate as restoring military readiness. as bringing in the fire department to put the second floor fire out. and for us, the analogy to the fire department is us getting our job done on time. because there's an immediacy of that. there is that requirement that we take on the lack of military ready innocence this nation. the challenges that that faces. and it's not just coming from this body, ladies and gentlemen. it's coming from secretary james mattis. in january of this year, secretary mattis said this. as hard as the last 16 years have been, no enemy in the field has done more to harm the readiness of the united states military than the combined impact of the budget control act's defense spending cuts and operating under continuing resolutions. those two added together create the situation we find ourselves today. folks, don't think that our adversaries don't look at that and chuckle a

without your wondrous deeds, our nation and planet could not survive. you continue to perform wonders on our behalf, rescuing us from ourselves. lord, inspire our lawmakers to acknowledge your sovereignty. teach them your precepts so that they may walk in your truth, experiencing the reverential awe that comes from your presence. provide wisdom and knowledge to our legislative leaders, bringing stability to our land. sovereign god, ruler of all nature, you alone we worship for you keep us on the path of wisdom. we pray in your merciful name. amen. the president pro tempore: please join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance to our flag. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. the presiding officer: under the leadership -- under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved. mr. mcconnell: madam president? the presiding officer: majority leader. mr. mcconnell: i'd like to begin this morning by remembering two heroes

symbolse memorials are a of our nation's commitment to preserving democracy. i will never forget visiting these incredible monuments to the brave men who made the ultimate sacrifice for our great nation. one experience that resonates with me personally is a visit to the graves of three of my tennessee brothers, robert tester, glenn tester and james tester, who lost their lives during world war ii. perished inrothers three separate countries during the war, but at the request of their family they were buried side-by-side at the american cemetery. and these young men came from a family of nine children and grew up in new victory, tennessee, in washington county where i live. seeing that they were laid to rest reminded me of the sacrifices made to secure the i'mre of our country, and forever grateful to their patriotism. as i looked over their headstones, and i have pictures of them, i remembered these men were more than just soldiers. the were meant that left comfort of their homes and tragically never returned. i couldn't help thinking about what their mother an

the rule of law is our nations powdered itch. it is the cornerstone of our freedom. it is what guarantees equal justice and the senate, now has a chance to protect this glorious heritage by sending judge brent kavanaugh, to the united states supreme court. yearsudge the podium is -- yours. [applause] >> mr. president, thank you. process, i have witnessed firsthand, your appreciation for the vital role of the american judiciary. has ever consulted more widely or talked with more people from more backgrounds to seek input about a supreme court nomination. mr. president, i am grateful to you and i am humbled by a confidence in me. reagans ago, president nominated anthony kennedy to the supreme court. the framers established the constitution is designed to secure the blessings of liberty. justice kennedy devoted his career to securing liberty. i am deeply honored to be nominated to fill his seat on the supreme court. [applause] >> i am an only child. when people ask what it is like to be an only child, i say it depends on who your parents are. i was lucky. my mom was a t

the heart of our nation beats in our citizens and the destiny of our nation is found in our two hands[cheers and applause] president trump: we all share the same home. we all salute the same great american flag. [cheers and applause] president trump: and we are all made by the same almighty god. [cheers and applause] president trump: i will never stop fighting for you because i know you are the ones that are rebuilding our nation. you are the ones reclaiming our dreams, and yes, you are the ones who are making america great again. thank you. god bless you. and god bless the united states of america. thank you, everybody. [cheers and applause] ♪ >> join "washington journal" this morning live from baltimore, maryland as we spotlight the opioid epidemic. during the program we look at how city and state agencies wrk with rezz accidents addicted to opioids. the challenges large cities face on dealing with opioid abuse. the command center executive directer on efforts the state is making to counter opioid abuse. watch "washington journal" spotlight this morning starting t 7:00 a.m. eastern

you can just say that it's in our national security interest. again, we may move to autos, as i understand it, and again, i have no idea how the making of automobiles by others is a national security threat to our nation. the president doesn't have to lay anything out using 232. we're trying to change that. so the second thing i'd like for you is there is no strategy. none whatsoever. and i think what's sad is there are people around this nation that are hurting, farmers are losing money as they harvest right now. the price is down and people lose money. and many of them, unfortunately, have faith that there is a plan. that there's a strategy. i know senators have been up there to meet with him a zillion times. i've not heard a single senator come back with any earthly idea, any earthly idea. cannot articulate a sentence as to why we're doing this. so with the rest of the questions to the extent you can disabuse us and inform people across our country that are patiently waiting that there is a plan. i happen to believe there absolutely is no plan

the heart of our nation beats in our citizens and the destiny of our nation is found in our two handsheers and applause] president trump: we all share the same home. we all salute the same great american flag. [cheers and applause] president trump: and we are all made by the same almighty god. [cheers and applause] president trump: i will never stop fighting for you because i know you are the ones that are rebuilding our nation. you are the ones reclaiming our dreams, and yes, you are the ones who are making america great again. thank you. god bless you. and god bless the united states of america. thank you, everybody. [cheers and applause] ♪ "afterwords," sean spicer discusses his book. he is interviewed by michael steele. >> we are both reagan conservatives. was it a little bit of a dance every once in a while? how did you do it? >> with respect to the president himself, look, there's no question. he is not traditional. he connects to people in a way that most politicians never have. and he talks very bluntly in his own style. but i don't think he would have won the presidency, the

the heart of our nation beats in our citizens and the destiny of our nation is found in our two hands[cheers and applause] president trump: we all share the same home. we all salute the same great american flag. [cheers and applause] president trump: and we are all made by the same almighty god. [cheers and applause] president trump: i will never stop fighting for you because i know you are the ones that are rebuilding our nation. you are the ones reclaiming our dreams, and yes, you are the ones who are making america great again. thank you. god bless you. and god bless the united states of america. thank you, everybody. [cheers and applause] ♪ click supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh continues to meet with senators on capitol hill. follow the confirmation process on c-span leading up to the senate confirmation hearings and the vote. watch live on c-span. watch any time on www.c-span.org , or listen with the free c-span radio app. olson and other tax officials testify about irs oversight, revenue collection, and taxpayer services. senator rob portman of ohio cheers this finance sub

you can just say it is in our national security interests. we may move to autos as i understand it. again, i have no idea how the making of automobiles by others is a national security threat to our nation. the president doesn't have to lay anything out using 232, we are trying to change that, so the second thing i would like for you to disabuse me of anyways is there is a strategy. none whatsoever. i think what is sad is there are people around this nation that are hurting -- farmers are losing money as they harvest right now. some of that has got to go across the scales of the title harvest and if the prices down, they absolutely lose money. haveof them unfortunately faith that there is a plan. but there's a strategy. i know senators have been up there to meet with him is billion times. i have not heard a single senator come back with any any earthly -- idea. cannot articulate a sentence as to why we are doing this. with the rest of the questions, to the extent that you can disabuse us and informed people across our country that are patiently waiting that there actually is a plan.

when you plan the victory party before you finish your homework and keep sharing best of our nation's and the world's values, our brain power, our innovation. and our heart with people. a vaccine is an amazing thing. it's better than even the best treatment or cure. because it proo serves the normal childhood and a normal life from the very beginning. how many stories like mine never had to be written because the international community took action? how many families never had to give a second thought to their children's first pair of walking shoes. weren't given any reason to market as a particularly special occasion. so on behalf, my by-words are,

the interior bill continues funding for other programs that manage our national resources. and cultural heritage. like the national park service, the national endowment for the arts and humanity the chemical safety board and the smithsonian institution. beyond these important investments, the bill right sizes regulatory programs to ensure the government is working to support american families and their communities. this also includes addressing emplt p.a.'s regulatory agenda, supporting the administration's proposal to reshape its work force. this will enabling the agency to focus on its core duties while reducing unnecessary spending. the second bill in this package also works to reduce waste across government, the financial services appropriation bill authored by representative graves of georgia totals $23.4 billion which like the interior bill is equal to fiscal year 2018 levels. this bill prioritizes effective programs that improve our national security and expands economic opportunity while finding efficiencies government-wide and while stopping harmful overregulation.

every day for our nation's defense. and we as congress ought to do all we can to support them. i think it's a moral imperative to ensure that our sons and daughters, that our brothers and sisters, who we ask to risk their family, risk their very lives, i think we should at a minimum make sure they have the tools and resources necessary to be safe and successful. but recently, because of our continued reliance on temporary funding measures known as c.r.'s or continuing resolutions, and the budget uncertainty and disruption those create, that's hurt the air force's readiness and our combat capabilities. we have failed, it's hard to believe, for almost 10 years in a row, to fund our military on time. temporary spending measures coupled with continual defense cuts, i think about $200 billion over the last decade, often delayed procurement of important assets. every contract whether it's to buy a plane, repair a plane, fuel a plane, arm a plane, is adversely affected by this funding start and stop. but i think we could put it another way. this broken funding process, budgeted appropr

these are the front lines to provide the services to the people of our nation. and they do it at great sacrifice. it's not easy, as we all know, to serve in the public today. and there's been an all-out assault by the trump administration on our federal workforce. they're not only hurting our federal workforce, they're hurting our country. the pay freezes, the hiring freezes, the proposed cuts to benefits, all of that says to those who want to serve their nation in public service that maybe this is not the right field for you. and we're seeing a hollowing out of our federal workforce. it's becoming older. let me just point out that when you look at the federal workforce in maryland, it looks like the demographics of the state of maryland. that's not true for all federal employers. the gender is basically 50-50. we have almost -- well, about 40% of the -- over 40% of the workforce are minority. it is, as senator brown pointed out, a much larger percentage of veterans are in our federal workforce than the general workforce. yes, they are providing services to our v

president, our nation really is at a pivotal moment. we have a court that in 5-4 decision and 5-4 decision and 5-4 decision has proceed to weigh in on behalf of the powerful against the people, against the workers of america, against the consumers of america, against the women of america, health care rights in america, and now we have the possibility of a nominee being considered who wants to make the president of the united states above the law, not subject -- not subject to investigation, not subject to the possibility of indictment, not subject to the courts saying that a law is constitutional or unconstitutional. perhaps appropriate to a king in a kingdom, but not to a democratic republic, not to a we the people constitution. so that is why we absolutely should not proceed to consider this nominee until the president is cleared of the investigation for conspiring, for collaborating with an enemy of the united states of america. and it's absolutely why if that cloud is clear, we should still be dramatically concerned about the viewpo

their sole purpose was to sow seeds of discord throughout our nation. we have to guess that they did so because they knew having a covert influence campaign would havein effect on our -- an effect on our election. russia's attack was no less than voter suppression. paidtarters, russia actors for ads on social media in rubles and often blatantly stated where their location would be, second-guessing the intelligence agency's report that pressure is -- is no less than ignorant and woefully disrespectful of the fact that these men and women of these intelligence agencies put their lives on the line to protect our democracy. for the leader of our nation to to throwt their word, them under the bus, was unconscionable. when trump undermined our intelligence agencies, when he undermines our court and free press, he playing into the hands of a dictator. he is failing generations of fled, andwho fought, and in alabama for free fair elections. the time for congress and republicans that lead it to act. that means protecting democracy by passing legislation to secure

the efforts of these women, our predecessors, led to the establishment of the national park on the maryland riverfront. since then, the unwavering vigilance of the ladies and our partners in preservation of all the more than one million visitors annually visit mount vernon and first sit on the mansion's plaza, to find inspiration in the same remarkable view that george washington cherished. today, on behalf of the entire ladies association, we simply, but earnestly, ask for your help in support of our mission. directly across the potomac in a rural conservation zone, the energy is moving full speed to locate a natural gas compression station that threatens to forevermore blemish mount vernon's historic and pristine view. we need your help. we need your help in seeking to have them relocate their station to a more suitable industrialized spot. a move, if achieved, a move, when achieved that will become a testament to the spirit of cooperation and restraint. values that were so dearly held by george washington. thank you for being here today. i would now like to introduce mount vernon's presi

speaker, by passing h.r. 200, the house can support our nation's fisher mebmen, our american consumers, -- fishermen, our american consumers, overall the american economy. so i urge my colleagues to join me in supporting house resolution 965 and the underlying bill and i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from alabama reserves. the gentleman from colorado is recognized. mr. polis: i thank the gentleman for yielding me the customary 30 minutes. i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. polis: mr. speaker, i rise in opposition to the rule for h.r. 200, the strengthening fishing communities and increasing flexibility in fisheries management act. it should be better called the empier oceans act. h.r. -- emptyier oceans act. h.r. 200 rolls back science, conservation efforts, destroying jobs, and will hurt our fisheries and fish stocks. it undermines successful sustainable fishery management that was put in place by the magnusson-stevens fishery conservation and management act and that's why so man

he is respected throughout the country as one of the most, one of our nation's leading jurists. sadly, however, we don't live sometimes in a rational world, at least not when it comes to the supreme court. we saw this last year. my democratic colleagues attacked justice gorsuch as unfit and unqualified. they said he had not cited often enough the right sort of causes, that he would not do enough to protect the, quote, little guy, unquote, when deciding cases. democrats' objection at root was that they did not think that neil gorsuch would rule the way they wanted. they did not think that he would reach liberal enough outcomes. of course they couldn't say that directly as they would have given the whole game away and shown that their opposition was really just about politics. which is exactly what it was. so they latched on to a couple of cases, blew them entirely out of proportion, and misrepresented what then judge gorsuch had actually said. they asked him questions about cases likely to come before the supreme court that he nor any other nominee could answer without violating

little guidance from our nation's government at the highest levels. mr. chairman, this amendment helps to begin to consolidate and concentrate our response to foreign efforts to influence our political processes and elections with one center -- drawing expertise across all relevant sectors of our government. if anything, our adversaries have grown more confident in their ability to sway our elections and sew discord and dysfunction at every level of our society. our urgency lies in one simple truth -- our democracy stands tall when our elections stand secure. i urge my colleagues to support this amendment because those who put ballot boxes in our crosshairs do not ascribe to one political party to the other. thank you, mr. chairman. i reserve the balance of my time. the chair: the gentleman reserves his time. who seeks time? mr. nunes: mr. chairman, i claim time in opposition to the amendment though i am not opposed. the chair: the gentleman from alifornia, mr. nunes, is recognized. mr. nunes: i reserve. the chair: the gentleman from massachusetts. mr.

when our president calls puerto ricans lazy and expensive to help, it hurts our nation. when he calls mexicans rapists and murders or call refugees fleeing violence with their children illegal immigrants or cause transgender soldiers a threat to our country and says people on both sides of a racist rally where a woman was killed are the same, maybe they're reflecting back the fear and misunderstanding of the voters he wants to mobilize. all of the lying, the hostility, the racism is clearly taking a toll on our country. i just hope that we are all as was. as mrs. irasari whether you're wearing a pussy hat, a hajab, a black lives matter t-shirt, i hope we are all more willing than officer connor to take action when someone is trying to bully someone else and i hope most americans, and i know most americans are not like one who is both inflicted with fear and ignorance and probably a substance abuse problem, but the video shows we have to step up to homophobia, and stand up for what america is really all about. please, let's do it all together. if you see hate, stand up and

speaker, i rise this morning to speak about our national parks, our parks, our recreational opportunities. i grew up in california's san joaquin valley where we're blessed with some of the nation's most beautiful lands. like many, i spent my youth exploring local fresno recreational areas, and the california state parks. my family and i many times visited kings canyon national park, and one of the crowned jewels of all national parks, yosemite valley. seen in this striking photograph. a famous writer, historian and environmentalist once called our national parks perhaps the best idea we ever had. absolutely american, absolutely democratic. they reflect us at our best, rather than our worst. july is parks and recreation month and i urge everyone across this great country to visit our parks and recreational areas. mr. costa: it's great for our families and for all of us. sharing something that reflects america at our best. but let us also remember that wildfires are a regular threat to our parks during this season. fires are sadly burning as we speak today, near yosemite national park, and

agency, this president is now targeting our nation's third branch of government, our treasured court system. we cannot let president trump destroy yet another institution of american democracy. the importance of a fair and nonpartisan court system cannot be overestimated. it is our supreme court, after all, that decided brown vs. the board of education. the case that ended segregation in america's schools. it was our courts that struck down voter suppression laws like poll taxes, that freed, allowed lots and lots of african-americans in my home state of alabama to vote. it was the supreme court that protected the work of the free press and our nation's newspapers when president nixon attempted to silence them. and it was our supreme court which struck down discriminatory state laws prohibiting interracial and gay marriage. those court decisions were the products of judges and justices in our judicial system who put our constitution and the law first. irrespective of the pressure they faced from politicians and from presidents. you know, mr. speaker, the opposite can be true as well.

and we need to up our game as a nation. i don't know how any of us can go to our constituents in november and say that we answered dan coats' call if we do nothing. so i would hope that senator mcconnell and senator schumer could find a way to come up with a common agenda maybe starting with the rubio-van hollen bill to see if there's common ground to deal with a common problem. i would ask president trump not to look backward but to look forward. i have no doubt that you won the election, mr. president, in 2016. the russians did indeed as clinton you did but what they're up to now can jeopardize our democracy. and we're just a stone's throw away from them changing vote totals. senator -- senator rubio knows this better than i because he is on the intelligence committee, but they are already infiltrateing voter registration files. it would not be much of a leap to have some votes flip through cyber attacks. so we have a chance in the coming days, working together, not against each other, to find solutions to this problem. i'

the second bill, the financial services bill, helps make our nation a safer place to live and helps our economy grow. the bill also targets resources to programs that will boost economic growth and opportunity, particularly for america's small business people as well as protect consumers and investors. in addition, the financial services bill helps enforce our laws, providing necessary funding to support the federal court system, stopping financial and cyber crime and fighting the opioid epidemic. funding these federal programs is a responsibility given to congress by our founding fathers as part of the constitution. mr. speaker, our committee has exercised the power of the purse through robust debate over the past two days and now it is time to move forward with this legislation. passage of this legislation will put us one step closer to completing all of our appropriations bills as we promised in a timely fashion. these are solid bills that are worthy of your support. i urge my colleagues to reject the motion to recommit and journaln's washington live everyday with news and policy iss

their sole purpose was to sew swords of discord, discord throughout our nation. we have to guess that they did so because they knew that having a covert influence campaign would have an effect on our election. we know that russia specifically targeted minority voters in an attempt to sew discord in the american public and encourage minority voters to stay at home. yes, russia's attack was no less than voter suppression. the evidence supporting these facts is overwhelming. for starters, russia actors paid for their ads on social media in rubles and often bilaterally stated where their location would be in russia second guessing the intelligence agencies reports that russia is responsible for interfering in our elections by this president is no less than ignorant and woefully disrespectful of the fact that these men and women of the intelligence agencies put their life on the line day in and day out to protect our democracy and for the leader of our nation to go against their word, to throw them under the bus, if you will, was unconscionable. in this case, the attac

the three main goals to our strategic plan are to build a culture of preparedness, ready the nation for catastrophic disasters and reduce the complexity of fema. these three goals are overarching. they're not applied to a specific hazard or specific cause. they're how we react and how we stabilize our country in the event something bad may happen. as part of the initiative to ready the nation for catastrophic disasters, we are emphasizing stabilization of critical lifelines and coordination across critical infrastructure sectors. this is a new terminology in emergency management as we've always focused on state and local and continue to focus on state and local we have to broaden our horizon and bring more people under our tent. lifelines provide indispensable services that enable the continuous operation of critical business and government functions and if not properly restored, they risk level and safety and also can risk national economic security. solutions is to stabilize lifelines as we found out in 2017 did not fit in a single construct like our existing emergency support functio

first of all, change our national doctrine and revising our national response framework.e players at the table so the resources and personnel we have we can better utilize by including the private sector in what we do daily, in our deliberate planning and our operational planning, by incorporating our critical infrastructure nodes and cross sector planning with those. if a problem hits, we do not hit one bucket. we task organize around the clock. we are making hiring in critical areas, we are hiring in logistics. we had issues with the last logistics in the commonwealth of puerto rico. we will have teams that get on the ground anywhere, not just in the commonwealth and help with logistics. in texas, robust capabilities on that end from the state and local side of things. the other thing we have to do is if you look to the left or right, our best emergency managers do not wear fema shirts. they are our state and local partners. , the emergencym management assistance compact from state emergency management. i've assisted states and i brought in states. when we talk about a

this seeks the critical ball aps in our nation's farmers. you do not need a clean water act permit to dredge material associated with normal farm imming or agricultural activities. is goes to an accomplished ongoing foferte try praying. does e of a new body or he exemption no longer employ. what this means farmers can plant their seed and har cease their crops without having to approve their approval. if a farmer wants to use the exemption to a development. the rancher couldn't use to plow under a wet lapped and frofert drainage.rove section 40 is an absolute exemption that happen to be an agricultural ranching or frofertry lands. this is change and where where the impacts have never been explored. this is almost 40 years of implementation by alimb nation to accomplish ongoing farm imming practices and loss in the thousands of acres. mr. chairman, we shouldn't be using the appropriations bill to chage federal policy related to the protection of our nation's rivers and streams. no hearings or vegs on this impath has ever been heard. he congre

how secure is our national grid right now? are you worried about any interruption by foreign enemies? an overhead,e have in some cases 60 years old. it is a good news, bad news. there is no single point of failure, by and large. but with that said, we live in a really new world. 10 years ago, you wind up is sitting on the stage having a conversation with someone about a cyber attack on our technological grid. today, we know that is a possibility. probably in the last 72 hours about the russians. penetrating into a u.s. power company control panel. that is a true story. they did. we are working diligently. our national labs are very involved with both the defensive and offensive ways of dealing with this. -- i worry about power,ng able to deliver not just a single event. not just a hack of a power station. we buy a large comfortably handle -- by in large comfortably handle -- we get pinged millions of times oa day, as do all the other control systems. what i worry about is making sure that we have a diverse portfolio of energy.

i hope we can address these issues and put forward a budget that truly reflects our nation's values, a nation built by immigrants. i yield back. >> the gentleman yields back and i yield to the gentlelady from texas. >> thank you to the ranking member. everyday americans are an afterthought in this budget. mr. chairman every day brings new examples of the mean-spirited manner in which the current president of france. his zero-tolerance criminalization family separation policy which i have witnessed first time in mcallen and brownsville today this past weekend which he could end immediately if you wish to do so separates a vulnerable frighten children from their mothers and fathers for no legitimate reason as this little one looks and is in the greatest fear probably of his entire life. there is no legitimate purpose to strike fear in the hearts of mothers or strike fear in the hearts of children. the deployment of the trump deportation and other at her no less cruel. when someone shows you who shows you who they are believe them. how else to describe a budget that shamelessly takes awa

the heart of our nation beats in our citizens and the destiny of r nation is found in our two hands. [cheers and applause] president trump: we all share the same home. we all salute the same great american flag. [cheers and applause] president trump: and we are all made by the same almighty god. [cheers and applause] president trump: i will never stop fighting for you because i know you are the ones that are rebuilding our nation. you are the ones reclaiming our dreams, and yes, you are the ones who are making america great again. thank you. god bless you. and god bless the united states of america. thank you, everybody. [cheers and applause] >> that wraps up president trump's comments. we are going live to a conversation on north korea. rlier today, the president participated in a round-table discussion on -- >> and just for a little bit longer watch the room in granite city, illinois, before we go to ur next program. >> i got too big a voice, maybe. thank you all for coming. phaul.chael mc we have a fantastic collection f academics who populate various centers including two who are

it's part of what makes our nation great. mr. lieu: why haven't seen more of these checks and balances in action? mr. gallego: that's a great question. may have they have forgotten to use our power. mr. lieu: we are going to enter into the record article 1 of the constitution. mr. gallego: great idea. so let's start with a new class that we call welcome to congressional oversight 101 or i call it congress for dummies. mr. lieu: congress can actually pass legislation. mr. gallego: isn't that hard? mr. lieu: 218 votes in the house and 51 votes in the senate. mr. gallego: with are the issues that they can pass legislation on? mr. lieu: almost anything and speaker ryan prevents the legislation. we agree that democrats have introduced to keep families together act. that has not gotten a vote and we should have a vote on that bill. in addition, there is numerous pieces of legislation that can make our economy better, help our health care, make sure that we deal with the opioid crisis and investing infrastructure, none of which have gott

any thought what this mission of our nation's border would be secured. >> congressman. as indicated before, i think we need to apply every bed and all resources we have available. our borders are far from secure. recently i had an agent shut down in arizona patrolling the border. i think the border is dangerous. there is still significant work that needs to be done. we have been opiate crisis right now that the country is facing. we all need to look at it from various fronts and challenges that we face as a nation. >> thank you. i want a follow-up question general kelly when he was secretary of homeland security, we had a couple of questions. we had a discussion about what securing the border was about. i remember him saying saying, if something gets to the border, something negative, you have to stop the negative elements. so the question i would go off to any of you, how are we corroborating with our southern and northern neighbors to make sure that this is a regional secure situation as opposed to just the wall, so to speak. >> i'll start off. >> i will tell you first

we are thinking of our nation because in the year ahead, we americans will choose our next president. every adult citizen has a role to play in the making of this decision. we will listen to what the candidates say. we will debate their views, and our own. and in november, we will vote. i will still be president next january, but soon after that, a man or woman leading our current will be the one the american people pick this coming november. as i said, we americans will also be thinking about the future of the world this year. for the same reasons that you will be thinking of it, too. in a few months, general secretary gorbachev and i hope to meet once again, this time in moscow. last month in washington, we signed the intermediate nuclear forces treaty in which we agreed to eliminate an entire class of u.s. and soviet nuclear weapons. it was a history-making step toward reducing the nuclear arms on both sides. but, it was just a beginning. now in geneva, soviet and american representatives are discussing a 50% reduction in strategic nuclear weapons. perhaps we can have a treaty read