alex: richard blumenthal -- alix: richard blumenthal will be coming to us, we will be discussing it comingxt. ♪ welcome back to the bloomberg market day. i'm alix steel. let's go straight to your top headlines this afternoon. or the first time since 1960, great britain's installation below zero.llen belowion is so far targets. it is under pressure to raise the benchmark interest rate. and a weaker second quarter predicted. were moreer-share than forecast. they are expected to fall at least four cents sure. texas may towns in not ban fracking. abbottcan governor greg signed the bill, saying that he was protecting private property rights from "the heavy hands of regulation." that was a quote. and the summer of 2015 could be a busy one for travelers. aaa, the most in 10 years.ravel that includes trips by car, air, train, and bus for the 21st through the 25th. and those are your top headlines. out pointing to a shrinking u.s. housing market. also painted a promising picture, delivering another strong quarter. so, what does this say about the health of the u.s. housing market? we are joined by

. >>> i want to bring in connecticut senator richard blumenthal what a pleasure to see you. >> great you. >> your reaction first to this horrible tragedy. >> my reaction first, my thoughts and prayers go to the families of the injured and the unfortunate fatalities but also absolute horror and outrage that this absolutely avoidable tragedy could have been prevented by sufficient investment, and i've long advocated more investment. we spend a pittance of what's necessary. this route is the busiest in the country, vital to the economy, every state along it including most prominently new york and connecticut and the failure to invest in safety and reliability undermines the confidence and trust in the public in riding the rails, using it for freight, as well as commuting. so my hope is that like the bridgeport derailment, like all of the tragedies we've seen this will build momentum for more investment. >> senator, i'm wondering why there hasn't been investment on this. as you said, this is the busiest rail area in the country. it's certainly, you know it's used by tens of thousands of

for instance, in one of the exchanges senator richard blumenthal sends clinton an e-mail about libyacabinet politics. clinton responds by simply writing, quote, very useful. blumenthal replies, quote, post election we'd like to have you over for dinner. bill can come too, if he's in town, whatever works. >>> the white house and congress are at odds over how to fight back against isis. republicans were outraged today after the president reportedly said he didn't think we losing the fight against the islamic terrorist group. that's after militants took over two major cities in iraq and syria this week. some republicans are now calling for u.s. forces on the ground. >> we are engaging in combat at that point. i don't think there's any way that you avoid that. i don't want to mislead the american people. >> right now, congress is debating whether to continue the nsa's authority to catch terrorists through phone records. they have ten days to take a vote. >>> new information tonight about the man who landed a gyrocopter outside the u.s. capitol last month. douglas hughes pleaded not guilt

democrats were senators ron wyden, martin heinrich, joe manchin, chris coons, maria cantwell, richard blumenthal and jon tester post of the house approved a measure last week that calls for ending the bulk collection of telephone records i requiring the nsa to make specific requests to phone companies for user's data rather than vacuuming up all of the records at once. but republican leaders in the senate say they want to keep the ball spying, federal appeals court ruled the ball collection of phone records is illegal. california has declared a state of emergency for santa barbara county after a ruptured pipeline leaked oil into the pacific ocean. the estimated spill size has grown five-fold to up to 105,000 gallons. a coast guard spokesperson said the oil slick from the spill has also expanded to 9 miles. >> we have basically, two miles from shore, a slick that is possibly 3.7 miles long that goes along the shoreline heading east. and northeast, we have a slick offshore that is 5.3 miles. so a slick totaling about nine miles in length. in addition, we are actively on the beaches and we have the

senator richard blumenthal thank you for being with us this morning. i appreciate it. i'll be right back. why pause a spontaneous moment to take a pill? or stop to find a bathroom? cialis for daily use, is approved to treat both erectile dysfunction and the urinary symptoms of bph, like needing to go frequently, day or night. tell your doctor about all your medical conditions and medicines, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain as it may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. do not drink alcohol in excess. side effects may include headache, upset stomach, delayed backache or muscle ache. to avoid long-term injury, get medical help right away for an erection lasting more than four hours. if you have any sudden decrease or loss in hearing or vision or any symptoms of an allergic reaction stop taking cialis and get medical help right away. ask your doctor about cialis for daily use and a free 30-tablet trial. ♪ ♪ when you're living with diabetes steady is exciting. only glucerna has carbsteady clinically

we're trying to make sure -- richard and i have -- senator blumenthal and i have one underlying principle. we're going to make veterans choice work. it's not an option that it might work. if it doesn't work we'll think of something else. we're going to make it work. how it works will take the best ideas and input and your organization's report is one of those that will help us as is each of your organizations to tell us. this is a process and an evolution as we go through but one thing is for sure. we're not just hoping it's going to be over one day. we're going to make it happen one way or another. >> thank you. >> chairman isakson, ranking member blumenthal, on behalf of the dav and our 1.2 million members, all of whom were wounded, injured, or made ill from war time service, thank you for the opportunity to testify on temporary choice program. while it is too early to reach conclusions about this program, we are beginning to see some lessons. as of last week, almost 54,000 choice authorizations have been made and 43,000 appointments have been scheduled. by comparison, about 6 million a

isakson: thank you, senator blumenthal and let me echo everything that richards and point out a couple of things. originally in our first hearing , the v.a. testified told us on the 40-mile world in terms of distance driven versus growth line that was going to expand the number of people out of bowl -- eligible for v.a. choice. it would cost more money. now that we have talked about the care you need and that definition which we are working on one of the estimates is that it will cost more money than we planned. we understand that to go from point a which was the disaster in phoenix that lead to other problems to where we want to go it's going to take time and it's going to take money and it's going to take ordination. -- coordination. which is where the coordination word comes from. there are savings and coordination want to accept a few principles. principle one is that it views the private sector well and veterans like it and some alternative to make the system markets not a substitute. in certain cases it's an alternative venue or saving the v.a. money and getting the private secto

we're trying to make sure -- richard and i have -- senator blumenthal and i have one underlying principle. we're going to make veterans choice work. it's not an option that it might work. if it doesn't work we'll think of something else. we're going to make it work. how it works will take the best ideas and input and your organization's report is one of those that will help us as is each of your organizations to tell us. this is a process and an evolution as we go through but one thing is for sure. we're not just hoping it's going to be over one day. we're going to make it happen one way or another. >> thank you. >> children isaacson ranking member blumenthal on behalf of the dav and our 1.2 million members, all of whom were wounded, injured, or made ill from war time service thank you for the opportunity to testify on temporary choice program. while it is too early to reach conclusions about this program, we are beginning to see some lessons. as of last week, almost 54000 choice authorizations have been made and 43,000 appointments have been scheduled. by comparison, about 6 million appo

. >> thank you senator blumenthal and let me echo everything that richards and point out a couple of things. originally in our first hearing the va testified told us on the 40-mile world in terms of distance driven versus growth line that was going to expand the number of people out of bowl bull for va choice. it would cost more money. now that we have talked about the care you need and that definition which we are working on one of the estimates is that it will cost more money than we planned. we understand that to go from point a which was the disaster in phoenix that lead to other problems to where we want to go it's going to take time and it's going to take money and it's going to take ordination. which is where the coordination word comes from. there are savings and coordination want to accept a few principles. principle one is that it views the private sector well and veterans like it and some alternative to make the system markets not a substitute. in certain cases it's an alternative venue or saving the va money and getting the private sector investment in getting better heal

blumenthal. let me just echo everything richard said. origin originally in our first hearing, the va people that testified told us in terms of distance driven versus flying, that was going to expand the number of people being eligible for va choice. it was going to cost more money. then we talked about the care you need and that definition which we're working on one of the estimates is it's going to cost more money than we planned. we understand that to go from point a, which was a disaster in phoenix that led to the problems that caused veteran's choice to where we want to go is going to take time and money and it's going to take coordination. where it comes from. there are savings in coordination. once you accept a few principles. if you use the private sector well, an alternative to make the veteran system work it's not a substitute, but an alternative. when you save the va money this cost, you're getting the private sector investment and getting better health care. i'm willing to look at -- we just did a budget in the congress, it's