dean heller, lisa murkowski of alaska, susan collins, dean coats, dan portman of ohio.house, he said many things off camera. "one month ago i personally told the white house another extension of unemployment benefits should not only be paid for, but include something to help put people back to work. to date the president has offered no such plan. if he does, i'll be happy to discuss it, but right now the house is going to remain focused on growing the economy and giving america's unemployed the independence of only finding a good job." clearly, there will be a fight in the house of representatives. let's talk about this a little bit. we await for the president. let's bring in our agenda panel for today, kelly goff, columnist for "the daily beast," lee fong, contributing writer for "the nation," and cheryl, i'll start with you. you were going to sort of pay attention to the republicans voting here and we saw six voted for it. what did you think of what you saw in terms of the unemployment rates of the senators who voted for and against this? >> it was a pretty unpredicta

susan collins of maine, who has voted for multiple extensions in the past and lisa mer cow ski who said she would be open for extension. tonight, we asked all four senators to join us so they could tell the people of their states on where they stand on letding their unemployment benefits disappear. two of them said no. two did not respond. now, when you ask republicans how they could possibly not vote for an extension, they start to voice concerns. around 6 pntd 5 billion for the extension being voted on on monday. republicans are saying they want to off set to pay. rob portman told us we are -- so we don't add to our debt. senator doesn't mean the sit is falling or that the cost could be off set by ending the program, subsidize wealthy fa farmers. or to illustrate visually, here's the difference between the current budget and the budget with the emergency unemployment benefits. it's hard to make out. but in human terms, that difference looks like this. >> devastating. >> overwhelming emotions as they wake up without unemployment insurance benefits today. >> how do i feed my four childr

susan collins, christy -- olympia snowe. >> you naming one bill on abortion that democrats have proposedevery bill on abortion is coming out of the republican party. >> because you're scared to death to say fetal pain. you're scare to death to say that -- >> republican party is scared to death of this issue. >> we're talking about governor huckabee said to governor cuomo, a sitting governor told 45% of his state you're not welcome here. >> can we move on from that because be have some other ground to carry. republicans don't want to just talk about abortion. i'll prove it right now. democrats most reliable voting blocker, one of them has typically been millennials and now they are going to be the biggest generation in history and they are leaving obama for the center. they are not impressed with big government. nair not into obama care. they're not into the nsa spying program. shouldn't democrats be worried about bleeding this very important voting bloc, and what are they going to do about it? >> it's exaggeration to say that millennials are desserting obama. they polls on this show with

obviously, we've seen women like senators kelly aot and susan collins really make their mark in the senatew, i think that there really is a divide in the republican party, perhaps, with which approach to follow. and i that i there are just two different approaches and yes earlier we saw the radio host former governor and presidential conditioned date mike huckabee. >> yes, we did. thank you. you have a great weekend. >> you, too. >> coming up, bill karins and brian shactman will be here for first buzz and we'll tell you about a bizarre proposal and famous movie scenes reenacted. we have the adorable shots for you. ♪ [ male announcer ] eeny, meeny, miny, go. ♪ ♪ more adventures await in the new seven-passenger lexus gx. lease the 2014 gx 460 for $499 a month for 27 months. see your lexus dealer. for $499 a month for 27 months. if ...hey breathing's hard... know the feeling? copd includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis. spiriva is a once-daily inhaled copd maintenance treatment that helps open my obstructed airways for a full 24 hours. spiriva helps me breathe easier. spiriva handihaler ti

. >> reporter: president is pushing it hard, working phoness like susan collins on the fence on this're not clear whether later this hour they will have enough votes to advance the extension of the unemployment benefits. it ran out for the year during the holidays for long-term unemployed. the reason the president is pushing so hard it is part of a broader push ahead of the state. union address to talk about income inequality. republicans say it is about class warfare. it is politics. the president trying to frame the midterm elections and put republicans on defense, saying they're mean and not extending unemployment benefits. the president's economic advisor, gene sperling said it is one way to take the politics off the table. take a listen. >> if anybody suggest that is somehow we want to fight for the minimum wage or extending emergency unemployment for political reasons, as opposed to it being the right thing to do, well i have a really good solution. let's get them done right now in a bipartisan way. then everybody can share credit doing something the right thing for the america

susan collins started the group and it was half republicans, including kelly ayotte and lisa mikulskiand jeanne shaheen and myself, and senator heitkamp. we worked together and helped to lead the group and made a big difference. i think those friendships and that trust that we have is genuine. we get together for dinner every other month. the last event was at my house. we had in minnesota potluck dinner spent what was the hot dish? >> chicken. the one before that was in a mikulski and her husband actually fixed fish salmon and froze it and send it to her. >> wow. >> we allow the men to be hunter gatherers. [laughter] >> great. i'd like to ask all three congresswomen here, have you seen this spirit that the senator is talking about? we haven't heard about it translating to the house as much. hasn't been an effort to translate to the other chamber? what kind of partnerships are being formed? >> we certainly are having it in the freshman class. i'm a new member of the wanted 13th district in the st. louis area, and we just had a great dinner this weekend with a freshmen members from the

against it when it goes to final passage and stuff because, like you said, you know, you mitt get susan collins. you have dean heller, but that only gives you 57 and gets you short of 60, but maybe the political pressure will be so intense on them that you find a couple more moderates and get it through. that puts more pressure on house republicans, they don't feel a ton of pressure on this like democrats kind of expected they might when they punted on this back in december. >> when the labor department came out with the estimate that this policy decision was going to cost the economy 240,000 jobs and then the economists at jpmorgan came out with their assessment that this would retard economic growth by almost half a percentage point for the half quarter, i thought those were kind of slam dunk political bombshells, really, to mix bad metaphors. once you're talking about jobs in those numbers, retarding economic growth at that level. that it ends up being the sort of thing that does pressure republicans. is there anything that explains why factors like that wouldn't be effective right now? >> r

and i can confirm the president has been working the phones and calling republican senators like susan collins who have been sitting on the fence, whether to support this. the white house believes he was persuasive. there's more work be to done if you take a step back, we saw this kind of battleline for the mid-term elections becoming more clear. what the president's approach and democrats approach will be, we're standing up for the middle class. he appeared at the white house with people who had been long-term unemployed and said republicans want to add strings to the legislation and says hair not helping these people. here's his case. >> i think the american people are really looking four in 2014 is just a little bit of stability. let's just do the common sense thing. let's do what is right. we're going to have to see action, though, on the part of congress. >> the strings that republicans want to add is they basically say there should be some budget offsets to pay for these benefits. about $6 billion. the white house insists there shouldn't be offsets bass they call it an emergency situatio

i think susan collins said she might entertain it from maine. we'll see. i hope they do. look, the reality is there's 2.9 americans looking for work for every one job available to them. these people don't have employment, we're going to pay for it one way or the other. they're going to get on welfare or have food stamps. >> have we created a whole new problem here, david? how long have we been extending the unemployment benefits? i'm by no means saying people who are looking for a job out there don't deserve it. i feel for them for not being able to find a job. question is, have we created another entitlement program? and for political purposes, are politicians just going to go along with this because they want to be re-elected? >> first, let's put aside the false argument that the right doesn't care about the unemployed and the left cares more. this is not a right or left issue. this is americans who need jobs. i feel for them. but we've created a de facto employment. we have empirical data tracking it over decades that shows what happens when you're out of the work forc

ultimately six republicans, including senator rob portman of ohio, senator susan collins of maine, and four others did vote along with all the democrats who were voting to advance this. but it still has a long way to go. at least two more probably senate votes. some of the republicans who voted for this procedural vote said that they would need offsetting spending cuts to pay for the extension, which cost us three months, about $6 billion, before they would vote for final passage or potentially final cloture vote which would require 60 votes as well. >> in terms of this bipartisan bill, the president called this a bipartisan bill, pointing out dean heller's support of it, where will his allegiances fall when the vote comes later this week likely? >> where will the president's? >> where will senator heller's allegiances fall? >> yes. he's in support. this bill as of right now is unpaid for. he was the first republican to get onboard with senator jack reid -- jack reed of rhode island on an extension. the unemployment rate in nevada is still very high and probably one reason for his supp

and actually, susan collins, my colleague from maine had a kind of addendum to the report where she identifiedle that she thought should be held accountable based on her work on the homeland security committee. so i think that's part of it. but let me sort of tie benghazi to what you were talking to mike rogers about, about the telephone data. you know, we're pretty good in washington at monday morning quarterbacking. and certainly on benghazi, that's what we have been doing for about a year. ask yourself this question, the president or the congress suspends a program of collection of intelligence that could prevent a terrorist attack and an atomic bomb blows up in miami, you bet there would be a lot of discussion about, you know, would that program have helped? who turned it off? who decided not to do it and all that kind of thing. i think what we're all struggling with, the president and two intelligence committees, the congress and our country, is calibrating risk versus privacy. there are terrorist threats, people do want to kill us. and yet, we have this thing of the fourth amendment, whi

then there was dan coats of indiana, susan collins of maine, lisa murkowski of alaska and rob portman of ohio. with senator portman's totally unexpected vote for unemployment insurance, that was enough to break the republican party's filibuster on the bill, so the unemployment extension looks like it is going to pass the senate. they got enough republican votes to break the filibuster and nobody saw that coming. nobody saw that coming. nobody saw that coming. marco rubio who's been talking about poverty and giving his big speech on it tomorrow, he voted no. rand paul, talking about poverty, voted no. mike lee voted no. mitch mcconnell who's been talking about poverty, of course, no, he voted no. enough other republicans voted yes that it happened and that legitimately was a surprise. and once it passes the senate, that will mean it goes to the republican-controlled house where it would be, again, a legitimate surprise if the republicans in the house even allowed a vote on it. but one surprise means maybe there can be another. you know, the problem created by this cutoff of benefits is

susan collins and lisa murkowski and ohio senator rob portman and new hampshire kelly ayotte. and dean heller who cou-sponsord the bill. before the senate vote, minority leader mitch mcconnell tried to hold unemployment assistance hostage to a one year delay of the individual mandate. as with all things related to congressional rpz, things remain hilariously and irresponsibly unpredictable. another vote must take place before a final vote on the bill which is possibly later this week. then the legislation will travel down the rabbit hole to the lower chamber where speaker boehner said it will face resistance. in a statement he said one month ago i personally told the white house that another extension of temporary emergency unemployment benefits should not only be paid for but include something to help put people back to work. to date the president offered no such plan. if he does i'll be happy to discuss it. right now the house will remain focused on growing the economy and giving the unemployed the independence that only comes from finding a good job. joining any now is squa

she will be the first woman to be a part of the republican state of the union response since susan collins14 years ago. and kathy mcmorris rodgers will be the first republican woman to be trusted to do it alone without a man sitting next to her since 1995. when that honor went to then new jersey governor christine todd whitman. now, for the past four years, the republican party has also made the strategic puzzling decision to give not one but two responses to president obama's state of the union addresses. for the past four years, there has been the official republican party response and also a competing republican tea party response that's true against this year as well. it will be kathy mcmorris rodgers doing the republican response and republican senator mike lee doing the republican tea party response. wait, there is more. politico now reports that for rand paul is also going to give a republican state of the union response this year. so for those of you keeping score at home. we are up to three republican responses by actual elected republican officials currently serve washington to t

have the list in front of me that were the ones we were expecting to vote with the democrats, susan collins, dean heller, lisa murkows kichlt i and kelly ayotte. >> and who am i missing? >> dan coats and rob portman. >> how likely are they to vote yes on the actual bill? this is just a procedure. >> we are not sure how likely they are. once you get to the actual bill, you will need a simple majority, not to get too far into the weeds here. maybe another 60-vote threshold to get off of the bill. unclear if this ultimately will pass the senate. it looks a lot more likely now that you have not just one but two republicans, two extra republicans. six republicans voting with democrats. >> i want to bring in rana to weigh in on this as well. you are the cnn global economists. talk to me about the impact of this. republicans will say this is costly. this is not chump change. $6.4 billion. they want offsets, a way to pay for it. democrats talk about it being critical to the economy. these benefits go into the economy. people need it to live. is it as simple as that? >> in some ways, it is unemploym

some of these republicans, dan coats of indiana, susan collins and others, i saw them in the hallwayay, asking what do you think of this deal in the works. and they said we don't know anything about it. they feel iced out and they feel that they wanted the ability to offer amendments, which sounds like maybe it's not that important. but it is, and has become much more of an issue for republicans who are in the minority who feel like they don't have a chance to do that often enough. that's why things are sort oh of a bit of a mess right now. but the republicans who want to get this done, they insist are going to work on it through the weekend and hope they might have some kind of deal by monday. >> because some of these republicans said we do want to debate this, but we kind of want to put our stamp on it. we want to make some of our changes. and now they don't feel like they have their input there. you're hearing from a lot of republicans that are accusing democrats, they're accusing the white house of kind of not really actually -- this is pretty cynical stuff. not wanting this to s

alaska's lisa murkowski and maine's susan collins. joining me now, richard wolff, executive editor of msnbc.com and author of the new book "the message: the reselling of president obama." and jared bernstein, a senior fellow at the center on budget and policy priorities, an msnbc contributor. richard, so the republican with the highest unemployment rate in the senate is on board for this. >> what a coincidence. >> big surprise. but the next one down, i believe, is mark kirk in illinois, which has awn employment rate that's above the 7% national average. he's not on board yet. and probably there's a very high unemployment rate in mississippi with two republican senators. it would seem that that's where you would try to get your support for this. >> right. and it's not surprising that the president's going to go out tomorrow and apply a lot of public pressure on these republicans. whenever you get the president out there with real people behind him, in this case people who are looking for unemployment benefits, to try and put pressure o

i think he comed susan collins, mark kirk, but on the other side, you have the heritage and club for growth telling republicans they've got to vote against this. what's it looking like, will the votes be there, at least for this preliminary vote coming up in 20 minutes or so? >> i think it's still unclear, and i think the tension point right now for that narrow band of republicans who are considering voting for this but have not yet committed is whether it's going to be paid for, and that's a big battle within the capital, because even though unemployment benefits have not been paid for in the past, both ways, but in recent years, they've often tried to find offsets and that creates a precedent the democrats are not comfortable with. unemployment benefits extending them, funding them, or believed to be, you know, emergency spendings, particularly the emergency benefits these are considered and the idea of making this about how to pay for it could really hamstring the water in the future when they want to up benefits and extend them, and it just creates a, you know, real battle within

colleague, kasie hunt in washington, d.c., is three republicans, dean helle helle, lisa murkowski, and susan collins of maine. all three saying they'll society for cloture. you have to get two more votes. are you going to get it? >> i think we're going to get it. senator reid in part called their bluff tonight. they said, hey, wait a second, we don't have all our senators here, give us until tomorrow morning, not expecting senator reid was going to agree with them. we put off the vote until 10:00 a.m. the hope is between now and then we'll be able to get two, three more republicans come across the line. this is just awful policy. and even worse politics for these guys. i don't know why they want the next two, three weeks to be all about the republicans turning their backs on the long-term unemployed. that's horrible for them and horrible for those folks. >> i could not agree with you more. in fact, i am baffled by the fact we are once again, it seems, watching the republican party be led into a fight it cannot win by certain elements of their coalition. her tamg action which is going to score the vo

luke listed, other members who may vote for this, not that maine has high unemployment but that susan collinsone of the more moderate republicans. that's where this the extension is going to come from. moderate republicans in the senate and some talk in the house if there are $6 billion of offsets, you might see a vote where a combination of republicans and democrats pass these benefits. not likely but possible. less about where unemployment is highest and more about how bad republicans think this vote will be if they block unemployment benefits from being extended. >> perry, that gets the question i was going to ask. i believe senator rand paul had a proposal of sure, let's extend unemployment benefits but they have to be paid for but without saying how they would be paid for. so can you give us an idea of what these offsets might be that would make it possible for republicans to vote in favor of extending unemployment benefits? >> i can't, jonathan, for a reason. there's a bit of a game here. the white house asked today what would offsets be, they wouldn't say. republicans won't really say

co-sponsored dean heller of nevada will join us in ten minutes along with maine's susan collins, and new hampshire's kelly ayotte. others are open to extension but are looking to offset the benefits with spending cuts. the white house says the president wants the bill attachd with no strings attached. he will speak later this morning at the white house. don't be surprised if he uses that as an opportunity to chastise the gop on this vote. >>> on the 50th anniversary of president johnson's war on poverty, republicans are trying to respond to obama's challenge. tomorrow, florida senator marco rubio and eric cantor will both give speeches on poverty. rand paul has put his emphasis on the poor. sharing his thoughts on thursday. rubio previewed his speech. >> isn't it time to declare big government's war on poverty a failure? what our nation needs say real agenda that helps people acquire the skills they need, to lift themselves out of poverty and to pursue the american dream. >> nbc news senior political editor mark myrrh is here with this morning's "first read." this is a fascinating is

susan collins and mark t the rier, republicans and democrats pair off for this as a show of bipartisanship that lasts exactly an hour, the length of the speech, most speeches most years. >> the cabinet enters on their order of succession. i believe we caught a glimpse of elliot engel at the end of the road there. he has his seat. >> i have to say that we are seeing some new faces. there are new members of the president's cabinet, we are seeing new faces, maybe their first ones, i think sally jewel. >> yes, exactly. >> perez behind the secretary of labor there. >> in some ways, this is a new team coming in this year. >> and that's natural for a second term. had strong relationship with the president, that sends a good shall, i think. >> one has been the focus of the ire of the republican party has been kathleen sebelius of health and human services. what has been the problem, the most difficult problem the president has had to deal with the last year. >> i think in many ways, it has, because health care's his signature issue. it will be interesting tonight, john, how he talks about health c

the phone yesterday to the president and talked to so-called moderate republicans like senator susan collins. senator collins said if you want my vote for unemployment extension, can you at least put in a job training program to put an end to this? and there's still other people saying and charles krauthammer with a great idea of other things we can do in terms of extending the three months. but instead of just giving people three months of pay, say i'll give you this, but in turn end it. listen. >> so i think what the republicans ought to do is to recognize that it's becoming an entitlement and they would oppose that. on the other hand, it is still tough times and unemployment is relatively high. and if we were to count the people who quit looking, it would be 11%. so i think what they ought to do is to say we'll accept the short term, the three months, but only if you build into the bill an unwinding of this so it has an ending, so we all understand it isn't an entitlement, it is a way to help people temporarily. that would be a good solution. >> the comments there are wise and i think cha

susan collins from maine. and senator debbie stabenow from michigan. obviously, senator menendez was our leader on the democratic side, and we would not be where we are today without his leadership and without the commitment of senator harry reid, who from nevada but recognizes that he has a flooding problem as well, that this is not just a coastal issue that stood up early to tell us if we can build a strong coalition, if we can build 60-plus, he would help us to get to a point where we could actually have a debate on amendments, vote them up and down, and then move this bill with the strongest vote possible to the house of representatives, where i'm proud to say there are 131 cosponsors on this bill. and that number is growing every day because as people hear about what's happening, understand, get notices from their insurance companies, which by the way are taking 30% of every policy off the top and assuming virtually no risk, which is an issue we have to address. it's not addressed in this bill. but as people understand that they are going to be cl

vote or two short of ultimately six republicans including senator rob portman of ohio, senator susan collins of maine, and four others did a vote along with all of the democrats voting to advance this. it still has a long way to go. at least two more senate votes and some of the republicans who voted for this procedural vote said that they would need offsetting spending cuts to pay for these cost of about three months before they would vote for the final passage or potentially the final cloture vote which would involve 60 as well. >> the president called this a bipartisan bill pointing out dean heller's support. where will his allegiances fall when the vote comes later this week likely? >> where will the president's? >> senator heller's allegiances. >> this bill as of right now is unpaid for. first republican to get on board was senator jack reed of rhode island on a three- month extension. the unemployment rate in nevada is so high and that was one reason for his support. senatethrough both the and house, speaker john boehner has already said it needs to be paid for. right now, over the nex

believe their entire 55 member caucus will support the legislation, -- senate democrats believe that susan collins of maine and lucy makowski of alaska will support the legislation. say that aoes on to handful of census republicans have yet to announce their positions, leaving a possibility that democrats could find the requisite 60 votes. bonus happening in about an hour from now on the senate floor. .ou can see it live on c-span2 of theony was part soviet union until it became an independent country in 1991. ia was part of the soviet union. from the center for strategic and international studies, this is an hour. >> good morning, ladies and gentlemen. thank you for making it over to see sis. i direct the international security program. i'm not have a connolly, who is listed after program. heather was trapped in florida, of all places, by canceled flights yesterday. the good news is she ended up in a place with the warmest weather in the u.s.. the bad news is there are no flights going there, so she couldn't get out. leisure ofdistinct introducing the minister of defense of the republic of estoni

susan collins of maine, who is running for re-election. thing to me about this vote, carol, is that it tells us a little bit about the choices as we head into 2014. you see the democrats reembracing the sort of populous mantle that worked really well for them in the presidential race. remember, the president talking about i understand the middle class voters believe that he really understood and cared about their problems, more than mitt romney did. i think what you see for republicans is that they are at the proverbal fork in the road. they can either vote no, which many will do, or they can say and some are starting to talk about this, what kind of an agenda can we have for the people in this economy who have been left behind. that is different from the democrats. instead of just saying no, how do we help people get out of poverty in our own way and that hearkens back to the sort of old days of jack camp, republican, a mentor to someone like paul ryan, who has been talking about poverty an awful lot these days. i think you are going to s

susan collins of maine says she'll vote to advance it in opes that her fellow republicans will offer changes to offset the costs. follow that vote on c-span 2. at 10:45, senate democrats will the jobless ng on benefitsish issue. for you here on c-span. president obama will comment on unemployment te on benefits. john boehner said house republicans won't take up the unless the additional cost is offset. we'll have the president's comments live at 11:40. as comments after that well. army chief of staff genere at the national press club talking about the future of the army. efore taking his current position, he was commanding general for the u.s. campaign in iraq. comments ge of his begin at 1:00 eastern. 2:30 eastern, we bring you live judiciarys the senate subcommittee looks into the plight of syrian refugees according to the u.n. high on refugees. this is the worst refugee crisis genocide in ndan 1994. that's live at 2:30 p.m. eastern. woman be adequately prepared for the duties of first lady? >> yes. i think you can. a governor ore of the vice the wife of president or if your mother

gop senators susan collins, kelly a ayote, rob portman, dan coates, joined dean heller vote with democrats. they objected to the $6.4 billion cost of the three month extension is not offset with spending cuts. senate minority leader mitch mcconnell said his party could accept extending benefits that go to people that exhausted state benefits only if they were paid for. many would like to see them extended without adding to the national debt, mr. mcconnell said on the senate floor. you can read the story at thehill.com. senators return from the party lunch as the two 15 eastern. we have live coverage on c-span2. we have set up a facebook page related to the senate work on unemployment benefits. go to facebook .com/cspan. before the vote, senate leaders came to the floor to talk about the pending vote. >> mr. president, over the past several days, we have seen a number of stories about how democrats plan to spend the year gearing up for november elections by making an issue out of economic hardships faced by americans. in other words, instead of working on reforms that would actually help pe

dan coats, rob port mast endean heller, susan collins -- all six voted yes.uires another senate vote, plus approval by the hours. >>> and an arizona man has been busted allegedly trying to smuggle a woman into the country in -- you see this picture? it's a suitcase. customs and border protection officers at the port of nogales say they found the thai national hidden underneath clothing after zipping open the suitcase. the man was traveling from mexico to the u.s. and now faces human smuggling charges. >>> a trucker says this crash happened because of the officer who reported this video, had his blue rights flashing. the trucker says the lights diverted his attention just as the traffic was slowing down. by the time he recovered, auld he could do is swerve, at least that's what the driver was saying. >>> and america's most recognizable skier will not be hitting the slopes next month at the winter olympics. lindsey vonn says her injured knee is too unstable to compete. she tore a ligament 11 months ago and aggravated the injury when she crashed in november. she

i ran into several of them in the hallway, dan coats of indiana, susan collins of maine saying, whatout this deal? they said, we don't know anything about it. they were not happy that harry reid just dealt with one republican, his counterpart from nevada, dean heller, and nobody else. it wasn't so much about the process. it was also about the substance. many of them felt that what they were discussing wasn't going to fly with them for various reasons. i just got an e-mail from an aide saying, any update? the response was, still a mess. they are all hoping they can use the weekend to try to calm things down and work on some kind of package that would extend those long-term emergency unemployment benefits, which is what most democrats want to do. even some republicans. also, help find a way somewhere in the budget to pay for it. depending on how long they extend it for, it could be up to maybe $18 billion they are going to have to find in the budget. i want to show you one quick important statistic, carol up on the screen if we have it. 37.7%. this is the number, the percentage of peop

so we started working with joe lieberman and susan collins. we realized maybe if it works with the house, a lot of things are talking about here we could increase the leverage of a subcommittee. then we say, over at gao they come up with the high risk list. it's a to-do list for us to do to reduce wasteful spending. we started partnering with the folks at gao and that was helpful. we got ourselves a new woman last year, to be omb director and they put together a good management team, who is now the deputy for management. they have a management initiative agenda for the administration. so why do we partner with them as well? with other people who will follow dr. coburn and i at the witness table, citizens against government waste, who really care about this compassionate about how do we eliminate wasteful spending. they key is to find that 80% of stuff the we agree on, all of us. then we increased the leverage of the subcommittee our committee and get real things done to make the kind of progress, the stuff we put in the legislation that dr. co

was the gentlelady from washington state, senator murray, and the gentlelady from maine, senator susan collins. they worked on a bipartisan basis on transportation -- that's what the committee funds -- and on housing. now it's housing that is primarily related to meeting compelling human need. it also has the money for community development block grants. going back to the days when i referred to you as mr. mayor, now mr. president, the presiding officer, we know city council barb and former mayor cory booker, what local community block grant means in our communities. in my state, community development block grant money is key to local government solving local problems without a one-size-fits-all from washington. what i like about the community development block grant money, its criteria for funding is it has to deal with blight, it has to deal with unemployment, it has to meet compelling human need. and whatever they do, it also usually results in good-paying jobs in construction. but it's not decided by washington. thou shalt build such and such under such and such washington rules. it's deci

so we started working with joe lieberman and susan collins. we realize maybe if we work with the house on a bunch of this legislation, we could increase the leverage of a little subcommittee. then we said, over at gao every two years they come up with her high risk list. it's a to-do list for us, ways to reduce wasteful spending. we started meeting with jean ichiro, partner with this folks, and that was hopeful. we got ourselves a new -- the president nominated a wonderful woman last year to be omb director. they put together a good management team that includes beth colbert is now the deputy for management. they have a management initiative agenda for the administration. why don't we partner with them as well? you've of the people who will follow dr. coburn and i at the witness table, citizens against government waste who really care about this, our passion about how do we eliminate wasteful spending. they key is to find that 80% of stuff we agree on, all of us and then we increased the leverage of the subcommittee or committee and get real t

the republicans have -- what is interesting is that olympia snowe in maine, susan collins, maine, both moderate, mainstream republicans, or george rate image from ohio, leaving the senate, when they told the line, it was amazing, they often did not agree with the policies but they were convinced that they had to show party loyalty. the parties of their have become almost tribal in their differences and the chasm that divides them. it is very difficult to get legislation through. there are so many different wickets to get through. bob dole was talking about -- if he knows he can control the wicket, i am the majority leader in the senate, we can get business done. bob dole was a very pragmatic, very effective senate leader. host: baton rouge, louisiana, robert. caller: i had a question for mr. smith. how will government policy be changed with big money from both parties? will it take more supreme court appointments to overturn citizens united and the money to speech decisions? another quick comment, that's scary statistic that the top 400 people in the world have more than the bottom bil

dean hiller of nevada and susan collins of maine, collins is a moderate and hiller comes from nevada,ment tate. the question is will a couple of other senators that have experienced high unemployment in their constituencies jump on. we are watching the vote. it's going to be tight. >> are the white house involved and what do they have to say? >> the white house was making calls yesterday to try to get republicans onboard. the president will have an event this morning in the white house where he'll push to try to get unemployment benefits reinstated. he's also going to be joined by americans who have benefited from them in the past or are upset because they've just run out. that's part of the p.r. push the white house is doing. once again, the republicans are saying we'll talk, but how are you going to pay for it? will democrats come up with numbers? a lot could unfold later today. this first crucial vote will be this morning, even if it passes the senate will have an uphill battle in the house. >> what else might we find on the senate agenda today? >> the big thing is how these spendi

since then, they let susan collins do it, but she had a guy with her. it is an accomplishment for them to have done that. is it also strategic to have moved on those anti-reproductive rights on the day of the state of the union? >> it is an appeal to the republican base. what i would say on contraception issues for in the witek government party, there are vast sections of the republican party, including republican women who don't believe that the federal government should have a say in their contraception issues. >> because they don't want insurance regulation that says you have to cover anything? they are not saying, we don't want blood pressure medication, to be mandated, to be covered, if you work -- >> they don't want to hear politicians talk about limiting access in any way to contraception. they view that at the province of a party that is supposed to be limited government party. this issue is not a winning issue for the republican party. this was a disaster issue in the 2012 election. when you look at the polling data that is out there right now,

mainers signing our petition that spirit is in collins saying it's time to raise the minimum wage it's time. to hear what's going on here in our community susan crowds of posed to raise in the minimum wage will see what she does in terms of her votes but the problem is she's been in congress eighteen years and the minimum wage has completely stagnated income inequality is just rising and people are feeling that washington is not hearing their concerns to knowledge and ten cents is what the minimum wage would be if it was at nine hundred sixty eight levels right in fact it's below what it was frankly i think we need to do better. so so so you know in answer to your question about next steps you know a lot of this is a long game right you know you want a small voice on the radio and your voice is going over the years and we have zero members now we're up to a million elizabeth warren was on it's unknown on the national scene and look where she's come and look how she's changed the conversation it's not a one year thing it's not a one of action cycle thing it's about building power and changing the agenda and the fact that we have gotten this pr

and my colleagues, susan collins, all of the women senators are supportive of this. it is something that will happen, just like the right to vote. but it can be done with a positive effort. we are not mad or down or morose. but we will keep going with a positive attitude that has the mark of women on america. [applause] >> is at the end? can i go one more? >> no. >> okay, that was my last time. .. what are some of those issues that the vatican work done as you said behind the scenes? >> for example when i was there in 2006 we were quietly with the oecg unify the christians in lebanon to make sure the old tripartite coalition of the druze, shiites and christians was kept in place and it worked. it got him elected and stabilize lebanon for a few more years. >> was it important for the u.s. to have an ambassador to the vatican? >> that's one of the main points of the book is to hopefully make the argument that it's very important. the soft power of the oecg perhaps the only sovereign in the world that has the soft power that they have without having the hegemonic agenda

the effort to restore the 40-hour workweek has been led by my colleague, the senator from maine, susan collins, who understands the devastation caused by obamacare. where more than 20 million americans face the loss of up to 25% of their income when they move from 40 hours a week to less than 30 hours a week. i applaud my colleague and others for standing strong and standing tall to make sure that we have a serious debate about the income equality that is caused by obamacare. the effort to restore the 40-hour workweek should be something that we all champion, realizing its massive impact on our economy. madam president, i have lived a family's journey from cotton to congress. i know the sense of empowerment and optimism it provides. once the standard is set in a family like my grandfather said it in our family, once the standard set in a community or a state, the generations to come will set even higher expectations for themselves. because success is created almost anywhere in america today. it happens in studio apartments, at kitchen tables, it happens in garages and classrooms throughout ame