of criminal justice reform, when i have kofrss with senator cornyn and senator scott with rand paul mike leen go through, you know at least ten plus senators on the republican side who talked to me about this issue or cornyn, lee and paul put bills in. i'm hopeful, even with a republican majority, legislation can be done. we agree on the urgency tr tax reform to stop where you have corporations inverting or keeping jobs over seas. i would agree there's still work we can do on education in this country. we would agree there are things we can do with the apprenticeship program. the key for me in this minority role is to search for common ground, not bicker in a partisan way or play defense, but where can we come together. >> senator scott, there are a lot of americans, particularly african-americans who are concerned about what the future holds for them with the republicans now controlling both houses in washington. anything you want to say or can say about their fears and the agenda to come? >> l0gcertainly. give folks real reason to be hopeful about where the agenda of the republican party i

there are good legislatures, people like rand paul, people like mike lee.r cornyn, senator scott. even senator ted cruz and i talked about this and believe we should be doing things. it's the idea time should come. newt gingrich, norcross. fiscal conservatives can change things. that's one of my things. >> i want to ask senator scott to come back and join us for the rest of the hour. i want to start the conversation with the three of us on whether or not you think america has the will to do that with all that we have seen dividing this country around the shooting deaths of eric garner and michael brown and all we saw come out of that and howdy vid divided the country was. we'll do that in a second when we ask senator scott to join us. glad you are with us. >> thank you. >>> we are talking about criminal justice reform. give me your best argument why you think the country is interested in advancing on criminal justice given the fallout we have across america. >> it's already being done. that's the exciting thing. you have states like georgia who have gun ref

we'll have rand paul, mike lee lots of folks on the agenda.please join me in thanking our panelists for their time. and thank you all for being here! [applause] >> congress returns tomorrow at 2 o'clock eastern time. the house considering a resolution condemning the recent terror attacks in paris. no votes are scheduled since members will be attending president obama's state of the union address before a joint gathering. on c-span 2, the senate returns at 10 a.m. eastern to continue debate on the keystone xl pipeline bill. votes on amendments will likely take place liter in the afternoon -- later in the afternoon. >> mr. speaker, the president of the united states! [applause] >> despite our hardships, our union is strong. we do not give up. we do not quit. if because of our -- it's because of our people that our future is hopeful. our journey goes forward. and the state of our union is getting stronger. we've come too far to turn back now. we have cleared away the rubble of crisis. and we can say with renewed confidence that the state of our u

they will hear from mike lee and rand paul. live coverage starting at 1:00 p.m. eastern on c-span3. >> "washington journal" is next. we look at the day's news, including president obama's meeting with congressional leaders. the house is in this morning. they will work on changes to financial regulations and homeland security department funding. white house coverage on c-span. coming up this hour, congressman bill flores will join us to talk about the gop agenda and the president's upcoming state of the union speech. peter welch discusses his party's legislative priorities. u.s. national security concerns in the wake of the terrorist attacks. later kathy kiely of the sunlight foundation on the effect of lobbying restrictions. you can join the conversation on facebook and twitter. host: good morning, everyone, and welcome to the "washington journal," on this tuesday, january 13. president obama will gather with congressional leaders to discuss the legislative agenda. the conversation comes at the senate yesterday agreed to move toward on debate over the keystone xl

speakers including senators rand paul of kentucky in mike lee of utah will talk about conservative policyplans for education, national security and other issues. live coverage at 1:00 p.m. eastern on c-span3. >> the thing that really needs to happen is going back to what the incoming majority said, that they need to get back to regular order. if they go back and pass the 13 bills that it takes to fund the government then everybody can see who voted and who put what amendment up and then send it to the president and let him pass it or veto it. >> i hope it's a more mature and responsible congress that we will see emerging in the next two years. i think emblematic of this situation of an irresponsible congress we can see that reflected in this john boehner challenge today. it's time for both parties to put aside the bitter partisan battles and get on to the task that they are constitutionally required to do and that is to govern, to legislate and i think what the american people said the november of both parties is its time to see that finally start to happen. >> i think come i don't know t

earmarks and brought change to washington in the face of marco rubio and pat toomey cruz, mike lee and rand paule is now the president of the heritage foundation and i'm pleased to introduce the real person that has come to washington, jim demint. >> thank you very much. thank you, mike. thank all of you for being here. happy new year to everyone. and it is great to have so many join us. heritage heritage staffers from the hill, leaders from other organizations and thousands of heritage members joining us online and our friends and the media, for our second annual conservative policy summit hosted by heritage action. last year's summit had 73 members of the media joining us including fox, cspan, cnn, abc, over 19,000 people watched our live stream on our website and we expect eesk -- even more this year. i'll be returning this afternoon to introduce senator cruz and tomorrow to introduce senator rand paul so i hope to see all of you back here again. at heritage we see ourselves as representatives for freedom freedom-minded americans. a vocal constitutional conscious to the federal government. a

eastern time and you will hear from senators rand paul republican of kentucky, and mike lee, republican of utah today at that conservative summit. joining us now on the set is republican from texas, bill flores, who is the chair of the republican study committee, the conservative group in the house. how many members do you have and what is your responsibility as chairman of this group? guest: we have north of 150 members, the largest and most effective caucus in congress. my role as the chair is to listen to the input of all the members of the rsc and try to channel that into a conservative action plan that we can use to push the house leadership to enact conservative policies for the betterment of hard-working american families. host: what is your relationship like with of leadership team in the house, and how often are you letting them know this is the pulse of the conservative wing of our party? guest: well, let me bring you -- give you my background first. i spent 30 years in business and my views in terms of dealing with anyone else to try to go in and establish a working relations