the senate also has are remarkable powers that the house does not have. and those are the powers of advise and consent. all nominations, all treaties are only handled by the united states senate. back in the early days and the days when the senate was just getting started, they were trying to figure out what this meant. now, the consent part we understand. the consent is a majority of the senate have to vote for a nomination, and two-thirds have to vote for a treaty. that's spelled out. but what does the advice part mean? they have never figured out the advice part of the advice and consent provision. the first congress said to george washington, well, we would like you to come here to -- in person to give us all your nominations and all of your treaties, and then we can give you advice about them. and washington thought it over and he said, well, that's far too many nominations. i would be down there all the time. so why don't i just send you the nominations, but i'll come in person with the treaties. and they said, well, that's fair. and so in august of

senators are expected to be generalis generalists. house members are sort of limited to their committee work where they can file amendments. senators can usually file amendments on pretty much anything, and get involved in any particular issue. and today, the u.s. senate is probably the most powerful upper house, although the house and senate don't refer to each other as the upper and lower house. they refer to each other as the other body. but in the usual parliamentary sense, the upper house is the house of lords. and in almost every western democracy, which is most of them are parliamentary systems, the prime minister is in the house of commons. and it's the former prime minister who is in the house of lords. and that's where former politicians go to read the newspaper, essentially. the upper house usually do not have the kinds of powers that the house of commons have. we were at a history conference in prague last year, and the senate in prague has a very unusual function in that when the house in prague passes a law, it goes to the sen

senate. in the house, the latest budget failed by a vote of 414-0. not a single member was willing to support the president's budget proposal. in this senate, we haven't passed a budget in more than a thousand days and the budget we're discussing today isn't likely to come to the senate floor for debate until at least after the election. once again we're passing the buck because the majority leader doesn't want his caucus to have to make politically tough votes. i understand that. none of us like to make tough votes. by avoiding votes, he's been avoiding solutions. problems aren't getting solved, and this hurts members more than making some tough votes. at a time when the national debt breaks down to more than 49,000 for every person in wyoming and across the country, there's no justification for business as usual. we cannot wait until it's politically expedient to do what must be done. we cannot keep talking about the problems, promising solution and then shying away from the discussions and votes. citizens across the country are weighing in. their a

nx we have senator pat toomey, who again carried over his opposition to earmarks from the house to the senate and again as the republican sponsor of the earmark elimination act. >> thank you, tom. and i also want to congratulate you and cagw as well as my colleagues who were standing here today who've been champions in this battle. i think it's fair to say that seldom do we have this much progress on such a challenging issue in washington as we've had in dramatically reducing the volume and the cost of earmarks. 98% reduction is really serious progress. and i think we ought to celebrate that. but of course the previous speakers are exactly right. that celebration can't allow us to overlook the fact that our work is not done. there is every effort under way to resume this process, as we've heard, and it's absolutely true that the problem of earmarks goes well beyond the several hundred billion dollars in earmarks that have been identifies in recent years but it actually is the grease that skids the path for bloated spending of all kinds. so i do think that a permanent ban is necessary.

the senate and house have come froconferred. the senate will go first. it's imperative that the senate be able to move forward and get those 60 votes in order for us to know that at the end of the effort, there will be a bill going to the president. we are waiting on san francisccr schumer. he is a smart person. they are trying to gain consensus around issues. once the senate moves forward, the house is ready to move forward as well. we do not have one built. what we have is every conceivable idea that has ever been given to us fleshed out and turned over and written and rewritten. the congresswoman has been working with several bipartisan colleagues did we consider it imperative to have bipartisan support on immigration reform. it dela elays people's fears abt being voted out of office. i cannot talk about how important this issue is to our country now, our economy, and the future character of this nation. with all seriousness we approach this. i have to say that humor helps in dealing with some of the stresses and disappointments. it is with all seriou

senator graham suggests we proceed with the witnesses. next up congressman john conyers. the house sponsor of the end racial profiling act. ranking member of the house judiciary committee. serving in the house of representatives since 1965, john conyers is the second-longest serving member. i think second to another member from michigan, if i'm not mistaken. congressman conyers testified at both previous senate hearings on racial profiling in 2000 and 2001. congressman, we are honored to have you here as a witness and the floor is yours. >> thank you, mr. chairman. and to your colleague, who is another former house member if i remember correctly, and senator ben cardin, as well. all of you are working in the backdrop of a huge discussion that has been going on for quite some time. when i came to the congress and asked to go on the judiciary committee in the house, and that was granted, emmanuel seller was then the chairman who did such landmark work in the civil rights act of 1964. and then we followed up with the voter rights act of 1965. and from that time on, a group of scholars

-- republican house and the democratic senate. >> it is hard to break the democratic house because they don't do a lot. that is because they made a strategy that with 23 democratic senators at risk in the election that they should not vote on a lot of things. it might be the same things. this is the third year they will not vote a budget. i will not break down because there is not a lot left to grade. in the republican house, you have two issues. they have passed 30 pieces of legislation that attempts to address economic issues knowing it would be hard to get anything done in the democratic senate. at the same time, there have been some internecine debates within the house and ee progress should be made in resolving those points so that when we had the issue i described of the post-election excitement, they will work closely together. i will give both houses a strong vote of appreciation for what they did on the trade bills and a number of other issues that were in the nation's interests. >> can you tell us about the chamber's involvement in the general elections? how will you be involv

senator benjamin cardin and a number of house members will testify on the first panel. the police chief for palo alto, california, and the executive director of the aclup senator dick durbin chairing the hearing. >> america's promise of equal justice under the law, protecting all americans from the scourge of racial profiling. racial profiling is not new. at the dawn of our republic roving bands of white men known as slave patrols subjected freed men and slaves to detentions and brutal violence. during the great depression, many american citizens of hispanic dissent were deforred to mexico under the mexican repatriation and during world war ii, tens of thousands of innocent japanese americans held up, confined in interment camps. 12 years ago, in march 2000, the subcommittee held the senate's first ever hearing on racial profiling. it was convened by then-senator john ashcroft, who would be appointed attorney general by president george w. bush. and in february 2001, in his first joint address to congress, president george w. bush said that racial profiling is, quote, wr

i repeat the house republicans did a budget and voted on it. senate and house democrats chastised them for the budget. senator toomey has a budget that balances in eight years that he's ready to vote on. here we are today without a voteable plan from the senate democrats. it's too bad. i'm ready to put in the work necessary to pass the budget. unfortunately, it doesn't look like we have the opportunity to do that work today. i hope we do in the near future. thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you, senator. senator crepo is recognized for a statement. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. i want to say at the outset that i appreciate you bringing forward a proposal, a co comprehensive proposal, and seeking the to put into play a process that will help us to get where we need to get in the country. i appreciated the hundreds and hundredses of hours that you and i and the group of six, now eight, have put into trying to find the bipartisan pass to get guard to move the country into a fiscal position. we face a crisis today that is the biggest crisis we hav

prince george's county senator is considered the swing vote on the committee. according to his colleague, the house is holding up legislation he sponsored to pressure him into voting for the wind energy bill. he has amendments he was planning to offer better now on the senate floor. he rose time and time again asking for the same thing. " i do have amendments of like to have considered. >> the senator denied his holding house bills hostage to send a message she will not be pressured into ago. he seemed reluctant to talk about it. the suspect the house is holding up your bills to force a vote on your part for the governors when bill? >> no, why would you ask that? >> senator muse ask for so many that a house member jokingly said to cut him off. >> you are holding onto a lot of house bills because you are taking the stand he will not be pushed around. >> let me see what works out. we have a number of bills i am concerned with. i am a man named -- i am amending some of those. >> the pilot created a buzz in the chamber. some of the legislation was put off until the end of the session. -- the pile up cr

next we have senator pat toomey who again carried over his opposition to earmarks from the house to the senate and again, is the republican sponsor of the earmark elimination act. >> thank you, tom. i also want to congratulate you and cagw as well as my colleagues standing here today who have been champions in this battle. i think it's fair to say seldom do we have this much progress on such a

the findings of this study will be submitted to is the senate and house agriculture committees. and the senate and house agriculture appropriations subcommittees within six months after the establishment of the act. i think it's a good direction to go. madam chair i respectfully request that the chair and ranking member accept the amendment. >> senator roberts. >> madam chairman, i support this amendment. i thank my friend and colleague senator johanns who comes from a -- he comes at this issue from a very unique perspective having been secretary. but this has been an issue the same i can say for senator baucus for a number of years. i would simply remember the usda to study the organization. we obviously want to work with the secretary and the position would oversee the multitude of international trading functions that will currently spread across several agencies within the department. that's the problem. we have a long standing challenge at the department. we have several agencies in the department with some international aspects or responsibility that we're too thin at the to

if it goes to the house senate conference, as it will, could it pass? and could it pass the floor of the senate? it only lost by a couple of votes the last time. peter, this is big news. >> i think the dynamic is changing, and i think the momentum is behind keystone because it's a big bipartisan win. democrats and republicans came together in overwhelming numbers today. so it's not perceived as a partisan issue. to your point earlier, the senate seems to be moving on this. and look, here is what is driving this. gas within a half mile of my house in suburban chicago is $4.25 a gallon. and what we've seen up until now is an administration that has largely been making an energy policy based on a narrow fringe of the base of the democratic party, and it's my hope that the president recognizes that that's a failure, reject it, and embrace keystone and move on. it would be terribly disappointing to people who are crushed under this if the president vetoes it. >> this is all very promising. i'm hearing almost bipartisanship from you gentlemen. thank you for t

there are many members of the senate and the house that need to feel the heat and see the light. there are some of those that need to see the door. these earmarking processes caused more people to go to jail than anything else. i congratulate citizens against government waste and their fight to end this earmarking process and let's go back to constitutional limited government. it's got to be the american citizens demanding constitutional limited government as our founding fathers meant it for us to shrink the size of government, for us to go forward so that we are financially viable as a country. so it's going to be absolutely critical for the american people to demand a stop to the earmarking process, to pass the toomey/flake bill as well as stop the outrageous spending that's going on in washington. so i congratulate the citizens against government waste. i congratulate tom and the hard work he's done since 1991. keep up the great work, tom. >> thank you, congressman. and thank you all for joining us today and before we take questions i want to point out and thank shawn kennedy

but the house and senate are stuck on their own positions, and that is a problem. this may push decision making. house and senate budget conferees are at a log jam. each dyke -- each side standing firm. both sides already agree on one thing. it needs to be done now to help balance this year's budget. >> i think the county does not like it, and i totally understand that. but they are prepared to do it. they can make the adjustments, and they will. we should just go about the business of getting it done. >> the house version phases in the shift over three years. local jurisdictions would pick up 30 -- 50% of the cost of burster, 75% sun the second, and 100% the third year -- 50% of the cost the first year, 75% the second para >> either we will pay for it at the state level or at the county level. this is an opportunity or a plan to begin sharing that. >> the senate did it differently. its plan faces in the cost over four years. local jurisdictions would pick up 25% on the first, 50% the next, seven by present and the third year, and all of it in the fourth. a restorat

the election, is the united states senate as important to them in effect as the white house? because then they control all nominations, they krcontrol all legislation if they have the united states senate. >> i think the view is if you win one, you win the other. realistically in 2012, there's no end where the democrats say lose the white house, white house, but pick up the house, at this point, all realistic scenarios are that the democrat also hang on in a squeaker to the presidency, probably hang on to the senate, but not the house. >> but they could win the white house and lose the senate and that's a disaster for the president. >> yeah, absolutely. and i think you're absolutely right about how important the senate is, and we don't always focus on it because partially we are so frustrated with the senate. >> and bob kerry's going to be here in and we're going to talk about that. >> robert draper and crystal ball, thank you very much. >>> you knew this one was coming, fox news is completely outraged that president obama appeared on late night with jimmy fallon. that republi

dealing with right now. >> there is a house gop bill that you like almost everything in it and there is a big exception. given what happened this week in the senate, did you prefer that approach? >> here is what i like. i think there are good things about the bills. in the house bill, that is really -- they do not cover the pre funding issue. if you take the language from the senate and were able to get that emerged in congress, that results the short term for us. it leaves the door open for us to also continued to whittle away at those long-term liabilities by negotiating at the great health-care plan with our employees that provide better coverage and also allows us to address some accounting issues and it also allows us to eventually address medicare. that said, you can go from six to five days. if you have delivery door-to- door. we continue to deliver packages. the surcharge will not be a racist -- are regis. >> can i ask about the retiree health benefits because this has been something that has been a very complex issue in something that the unions have been outspoken on th. you have to refund 100% -- pre- fund 100%. you have two payments c

senate passed the bill and beat a deadline. you have negotiated with congressional lawmakers discussing or postponement of closures. i am wondering what happens may 15 if the house does not act? we are losing $25 million of the day. time is of the essence. that was some of our concern about what came out of the senate bill. we think there are good things. we appreciate the hard work. some of the time elements are concerned because when you lose $25 million per day, they add up quickly. from our perspective, we are looking for action in the house. we hope the house introduces a bill and we have to get through the house and into a conference before the final bill. they're a lot of things to do. our data of the 15th is not a tight date. it is not a shutdown date. the idea of the network changes we will go very slow and methodically. we have to make sure our customers are ok. we have to be careful from an employer's standpoint that we find landing spots for them. we will take a timeout in the fall. we will not do anything for the month of october, november, december because you have got our heaviest mail volume time. we will have political mail. we also have the hol

my life i must say representatives is one your you have called intertwined in every regulatory senate house the legislation today directing president days with mr resampled humphreys are paid one hundred thirty six million dollars for his products twenty dollars a barrel dollars number one for tennessee. and there she is. we call it our new neighbor neighbor nine o seven. we are innocent. state situation where we on the surface and someone else on some mineral rights and what happens in colorado and i think in most western states is the mineral rights. are dominant the law and literally extraction goes back hundreds of years that says the mineral daughter has a right to extract that mineral and to a certain extent can extract it and impact the surface without compensation. we have seventy acres here and i can't convince them that they need to drill somewhere besides two hundred feet from our house. policy has been to drill drill drill drill some war era very strong industry but they've got a tremendous amount of political influence and an awful lot of money. as a civil servant i spoke out.

ever lived in my life representatives is the one your you have called interplay for every regular senate house of the legislation so they directing the president this is good news and great present world countries are paid one thirty six billion dollars for your trouble one hundred twenty dollars a barrel no it was not the sole comfortable seats but there she is. we call in our new neighbor neighbor nine o seven. we are in a spy. the state situation where we are on the surface and someone else owns the mineral rights and what happens in colorado and i think in most western states is the mineral rights. are gone and the law on mineral extraction goes back hundreds of years that says the mineral older guy has a right to extract that mineral and to a certain extent can extract it any impact the surface without compensation. we have seventy acres there and i can't convince them that they need to drill some more sides two hundred feet from our. policy has been to drill drill drill drill drill war era very strong industry they've got a tremendous amount of political influence and an awful lot of mon

power of the men all have, we have to take over their offices, we have to run for the fucking senate, house of representatives. [ applause ] >> and i say that word all the time, i hope no one is offended. and you've got to do it in the states, too, where so much of this. we have to do it otherwise 25 years from now, i will not be here, i promise, we're going to be saying the same thing. >> thank you. that is a great note to end on. we need to flood the ticket and hopefully everyone will consider running for office or helping support an excellent woman for public office. thank you and we're on to our next concluding session. >> do i have a peg yorkin for senate campaign? >> thank you. >>> all this week in prime time on cspan 3, american history events. tonight, beginning at 8:00 eastern, orange county, virginia james madison's montpelier. at 8:30, old sturbridge village, visit a living history museum depicting early life from 1790-1840. at 9:00, inaugural gowns and white house china. learn more about the influential role of first ladies in presidential administrations. >>> this weekend marks

previously, she served in the florida house of representatives from 1999 to 2002. and the florida senate from 2003 to 2010. congresswoman wilson, thank you for joining us today, and proceed. >> thank you. to represent miami where trayvon is from, he was murdered in sanford. thank you. thank you, chairman durbin, ranking member graham and senator bloomen that and other members of the subcommittee. i thank you for inviting me to testify today on the issue of racial profiling. last week, after 45 days, an arrest was finally made in the shooting death of my constituent, trayvon martin. trayvon was a 17-year-old boy, walking home from a store. he was unarmed and sfrply walking with skittles and iced tea. he went skiing in the winter and horseback riding in the summer. his brother and best friend is a senior at florida international university of miami. a middle class family, but that didn't matter. he was still profiled, followed, chased and murdered. this case has captured international attention and will go down in history as a textbook example of racial profiling. his murder affected me pe

house of delegates voted to approve it. the first tax is used to fund a bay restoration account and a new sep tech system can be installed, passed after the senate accepts the house's changes. the bill create as four-tiered system limiting subdivisions using septic systems. >>> the house and senate hopes the governor sign as bill that bears the name of a teen who went missing in december twn. phylicia's bill ensures that law enforcement will coordinate with other jurisdictions, post case information and reach out to volunteer groups when a child goes missing. delegate carter authored the bill and it raises the age of immediate police action of missing children from 14 to 17 and is designed to help search for kids of all races and ages in those first few crucial hours. >> openly it will -- openly it -- hopefully it will bring more attention. >> carter says she believes this is the first missing child's bill to be named after a my north. the delegate has not spoken with the governor directly but anticipates he will sign it. >>> federal prosecutors have charged an indiana man on sexploitation. richard finkbiner was arrested on friday after sexually

that bill has little chance of senate, house this demonstrates havehoice voters will later this year. maryland and d.c. voters will decide on several other races today. in maryland, and card and faces e from eight democrats and 10 republicans. the most closely watched race is the republican congressman .oscoe bartlett is running for an 11th term. several highly contested democratic primaries for the d.c. council seats as well. we will have live team coverage on news channel 8 and "politico.com. and a wrap up on abc 7 news at 11:00 tonight a deputy police chief in facing county and allegations made in the indictment of the county executive john leopold. said it is the department -- thee biggest department's biggest black eye in 30 years. he ordered police to keep a on political opponents. >> we are hearing from the woman claims she bought them winning mega millions tickets a store in baltimore county. she has not turned over the officials sotery far. e carter has exactly what the woman said. -even have a ticket? >> that is the question. she will not answer. wilson calls all this confus

we hope that we have the majority of the senate and the house that are prepared to move forward and then all the last fifteen states to take this issue up. >> do you think this is what we need in the er florida. >> i do not. i think we are protected under the civil righal a acts of 1964 and numerous federal staatestes. i think that sometimes there are unintended consequences of e this and people forget this this would prohibite kind of gender segregation that sometimes we want, for the boy ndaoual a, girl scouts, single x education. i think everyone at this table are sometimes beneficial. >> you're righ ta that's really what sto01ed it. and by 1982, people were able to conjure up just those %snds of things. but let me say why i think this is coming up. why would they be talking about ledgeivation that these republican legislators and some in the house and senate, comes up with an amendment that says you can not -- an employer any time he wants to for no reason, can deny health benefial a if it offends his conscious. he had in mind cont acception. heuented beyond that. they had done it it

earlier this year the senate did pass a long-term $109 billion transportation bill. the house, instead passed another short-term bill last week. i spoke recently with transportation secretary ray la hood who said politics are getting in the way of thousands of jobs. >> the senate by tarts san bill is a jobs bill. the house should pass that bill sent to the press to the president, he will sign t this is not the time to have another extension. >> the current extension goes through september 30th. the house approved a short-term bill. president obama said he will veto any bill which approves that pipeline. the different bills in the house and senate mean both houses will have to come up with a compromise. secretary la hood is not optimistic mike and andrea? >> there is new research claiming there is some sort of bias. an article in pediatrics finds positive results in inhibitors are likely to be published. the drugs are used to treat repetitive behaviors, the authors found there are several unpublished studies which didn't show a significant benefit. the author of all trials shou

that is dependent on the election of the president and the house and the senate and house and the senate, the double barrel part of this is what are your thoughts about where are they going to go in terms of republican house in congress and the democratic senate which is tenuous in terms of numbers and could turn over in this election. what influence will that have even if obama is reelected on what the future of health care is going to be? >> my sense is the supreme court following the conventional wisdom will strike down the affordable health care act. my own legal judgment is it is constitutional under congressional authority under article 1 of the commerce clause the way it has been interpreted. there have been many programs. social security and medicare and medicaid and others which serve as precedents. but you have a very ideological core. this is essentially the court that elected george bush overbore 5-4 and the ideological -- came down with citizens united. kennedy is a swing votes. i studied kennedy closely sins i participated in his confirmation in 1988. kennedy has a pension

last and most importantly, the house and senate are working to find a last-minute compromise on next fiscal year's budget. it's $35 billion with a roughly 60 million gap to be hammered out. >> we're asking and working with the house and senate to strike an agreement to find the common ground and to teach the comp miss and get a budget done to get out of here. >> reporter: if they can't get it done, they will have to come back in special session to work on the budget and that hasn't happened in annapolis, brian, in 20 years. >>> other measures to highlight from the session, looking like governor o'malley's proposed gas tax won't pass. the lawmakers pass legislation altering child support laws so prisoners would no longer be required to pay child support payments while incarcerated. a measure passed that has exempt competitions like fantasy football preventing betting and wagering, and maryland was the eighth state to legalize same-state marriage in march. the lawmakers have a midnight deadline. you can get the fullest of what passed and what didn't on www.myfoxdc.com. >>> another bill

house after that. he's after that his career's in the senate where, of course, the house is remarkable because of the speakership and the role that he took in shaping that. and the senate is remarkable because he assumed what in essence was the majority leader's role before there was any formal label for that post. >> jean heidler when you look at this picture, henry lucretia clay in your book, what do you see? >> well, i see a sad woman because by that point in her life she was very sad. she had lost all of her daughters, all six of her daughters, by that point. and never really recovered. her oldest son was in an insane asylum where he would die after her death, so -- and one of the things we do try to do with the book is bring lucretia to life, no one's ever really tried to do that. as far as henry clay's picture in that particular what most people assume is their 50th wedding anniversary picture, is -- he, too, has a sadness about him. sort of a resignation, i think. >> one of the things you noticed in these pictures and you see it a lot in those years, there's not anybody smiling. >> yeah. >> why is that? >

i would think that members of the house or senate would like that, that they couldn't have their name mentioned without these restrictions for the entire -- that's half a house term and 1/6 of a senate term and the 1/6 of the senate term you're runing for election. i think i'm out of time. >> if i might add one other observation, there's no limiting principle to this. why couldn't it be both years? why couldn't it be at all times? i don't see any limiting principles here. >> mr. udall. >> have they ran ads were donors were not disclosed until after the primary? if so, wasn't that a problem and how do we deal with it? >> i think it was a big problem in this election. the iowa caucuses, new hampshire and south carolina primary were all run and over with before we had the first disclosures of the super packs of who their funders were. that was because the way the law currently functions in an off election year pack only discloses semi-and newlyly and at the end of the year. so all of the money raised in the last six months of 2011 there was no disclosure of the donors until january 31st.

house of representatives. i think this november they will get control of the senate and the white house. and then they will have a mandate to do a positive agenda. and i think the american people will be supportive of it. so you have to bring public opinion along. and i think that's what we see unfolding now, reaching a new consensus. >> now in your online magazine, you a new interview you conducted with former president george w. bush. and here is the -- here is the first page of that interview. some of you may gag, but on taxes, trade, and much else, bush 43 has it right is the headline. i want to start with the "some of you may gag" part. why did you include that in there? >> well, president bush, he would be the first to tell you, still has suffered reputation, especially what happened in 2007/2008. he has always been a controversial figure going back to his election in 2000. so i was just serving it up and saying put aside your personal feelings on some of these issues. he has some very useful and helpful things to say. >> and what about the taxes, the tax cuts of 2001, 2002, 2003?

senate? >> no. >> or in the house? >> no. >> has anyone called you and said go easy on this? >> no. >> has anyone called you, mr. tangherlini, senator or house member, and said go easy on this? >> uh, no. >> well, i want that clear. because we've got a chairman over in the house, who is saying that one of the senators is trying to stop this investigation. and that's an outrage. so i'm going to read in our close what the inspector general said. there's a glimmer of good news. the oversight system worked. my office aggressively investigated, audited, interv w interviewed and issued a report. no one stopped us from writing a report and making it public. and the whole ugly event is now laid bare for all to see. sunlight is said to be the best of disin fefectant. how true. so let it be clear, there is no senator or member of congress that is doing anything other than trying to get to the bottom of this. the two of you and, i have to say, miss britta, you're the good guys, the heroes in this. we should never forget that. we stand with you, and we will be with you every inch of the w

at least on the senate and house side. there are many things that immigration advocates were not able to get done. i moved here for many of the reasons that i think we're all here in san francisco. we're a city of compehensive immigration refoimmigrants. we know that san francisco was built on the backs of immigrant labor. we also know that for the past 10 years on so, it has been fairly dark nationwide for our immigrant community. we've had a new record number of rates belief had a tremendous backlog of applications of legal immigrants that are trying to become citizens. there have been countless stories of constitutional and civil rights violated of many of our family members and friends. i used to be an immigrant rights attorney. i can tell you firsthand that i would visit the ins detention center and see individuals who had been beaten by ice agents. this conversation cannot be more timely and more important with the new administration and a new recognition and importance of building an immigrants rights movement. hope