by working with the congress. i think under presidents nixon and eisenhower they passed about 60% to 75% of their legislation. this year mr. ford will not pass more than 26% of all the legislative proposals he puts forward. this is government by stalemate, and we've seen almost a complete breakdown in the proper relationship between the president, who represents this country, and the congress, who collectively also represent this country. we've had republican presidents before who've tried to run against a democratic congress. and i don't think it's the congress is mr. ford's opponent; but if if if he insists that that i be responsible for the democratic congress, of which i'm have not been a part, then i think it's only fair that he be responsible for the nixon administration in its entirety, of which he was a part. that, i think, is a good balance. but the point is, that that a president ought to lead this country. mr. ford, so far as i know, except for avoiding another watergate, has not accomplished one single

by working with the congress. i think under presidents for-- nixon and eisenhower they passed about 60 to 75 percent of their legislation. this year mr. ford will not pass more than 26 percent of all the legislative proposals he puts forward. this is government by stalemate, and we've seen almost a complete breakdown in the proper relationship between the president, who represents this country, and the congress, who collectively also represent this country. we've had republican presidents before who've tried to run against a democratic congress. and i don't think it's the congress is mr. ford's opponent; but if if -- if he insists that that i be responsible for the democratic congress, of which i'm -- have not been a part, then i think it's only fair that he be responsible for the nixon administration in its entirety, of which he was a part. that, i think, is a good balance. but the point is, that -- that a president ought to lead this country. mr. ford, so far as i know, except for avoiding another watergate, has

it's the next congress will probably be the first billion dollar congress. in the history of the united states. i don't think the american people are getting their money's worth from the majority party that run this congress. we in addition see that in the last 4 years the number of employees hired by the congress has gone up substantially. much more than the gross national product. much more than any other increase throughout our society. congress is hiring people by the drones. and the cost as a result has gone up. and i don't see any improvements in the performance of the congress under the present leadership. so it seems to me instead of the anti washington feeling being aimed at everybody in washington. it seems to me that the focus should be where the problem is. which is the congress of the united states and particularly the majority in the congress. they spend too much money on themselves they have too many employees. there's some question about their morality. it seems to me that in this election. the focus should not be on the executive branch. but

that has some big implications for changing the face of congress over the course of the next decade. just sixthere were african-american serving in congress. all in the house. numbermid-1970's, that has grown to 18 members. time, it is an increasingly diverse lot. we get our first african-american woman. more specifically to the voting votersact which protects in districts where they have a hard time registering previously because of local laws and state laws and disenfranchisement. we have the first southern members elected since reconstruction. as the numbers of african americans in congress increase, one thing that this allows the core group to do is to create an issues caucus. in 1971, we have the formation of the congressional black caucus. dozenp of roughly a members at that point. it is able to exercise some awer as a voting block and as n organization that educates members on issues that are important to the black community nationally. the black caucus becomes involved very early on in things like opposing apartheid in south africa, building momentum to pass a federal holiday

the we talked with two capitol hill reporters about what they will be working on a congress is worried about what to do andco joining us with rollcall he's the senior senator staff writer joining us. returning congress has one main aiaim, no shutdown. the company? >> guest: we have until the end of the month to pass a continuing resolution to the federal government.contin it's how the resolutions should last. the obama administration. the odds are that the senate democrats will win on that because there are several that agree. if the administration does something with regulation or something that happens after it is one last chance for republicans to put a stan stamp. the administration. said? >> would you agree as far as what this said? stomach absolutely. and particularly because you have retiring lawmakers and the democrat from maryland in the senate over in the house. they are the chairman of the appropriations committee in the republican from eastern bordersr of kentucky. they have these priorities they want to get done before the end of the year but if you are a conservative acti

>> no. >> will the fbi provide congress all of the 302s? >> all of the 302s, you have one set you've been provided already. the rest are coming through the foia process. >> wait. foia process. you mean i have to fill out a foia request. >> you can. not necessary. >> when -- here's the problem. you hand picked the 302s to give to us, my understanding of discussion with staff. i appreciate your ack bellcessibility. -- accessibility. this a tough hearing, and but the reality is, you should give us all the 302s. >> let me say this. i think that the director made principle decisions about what to say to congress when he was here and what to provide to congress. >> wait. where do i find that? we let everybody in government decide based on their own individual principles, that'stht what -- see, it is trust but verify is how it works. you don't get to decide what i get to see. i get to see it all. i was elected by some 800,000 people to come to congress and seek classified information. i was elected by my colleagues here to be the chairman of this

the congress failed to do it, and we intend to do it. ms. frederick: mr. trewhitt, a very brief question for president ford. mr. trewhitt: mr. president, if you get the accounting of missing in action you want from north vietnam or from vietnam, i'm sorry, now would you then be prepared to reopen negotiations for restoration of relations with that country? mr. ford: let me restate our policy. as long as vietnam, north vietnam, does not give us a full and complete accounting of our missing in action, i will never go along with the admission of vietnam to the united nations. if they do give us a bona fide, complete accounting of the 800 mia's, then i believe that the united states should begin negotiations for the admission of vietnam to the united nations. but not until they have given us the full accounting of our mia's. ms. frederick: governor carter. mr. carter: one of the most embarrassing failures of the ford administration, and one that touches specifically on human rights, is his refusal to appoint a presidential commission to go to vietnam, to go to

the harm caused. it is time for congress to end this abuse. the stop settlement slush funds act of 2016 bars mandatory donation terms in d.o.j. settlement. it is a bipartisan bill. it makes clear that payments to provide restitution for actual harm directly caused, including harm to the environment, are permitted. do not be fooled by opponents' scare tactics. they claim that the legislation could prohibit conduct, remedies used in settlements covering workplace discrimination, harassment and consumer privacy. the bill does not preclude such remedies. nothing bars d.o.j. from requiring a defendant to implement workplace training and monitoring programs. the ban on payments merely ensures the defendant remains responsible for performing these remedies itself and is not required to outsource such sums for the work to third parties who might be friendly with a given administration. this bill addresses an institutional issue. that is one reason similar language passed the house last year by voice vote. i thank all of the bill's co-sponsors, and i ur

the wars or whatever. so, in 1973, i decided to run for congress. in texas, at that time, we had three republican congressmen in the whole state. so it was still a very democratic state. i decided to run, thinking, trying to figure out how to run as an independent. i had an independent streak in me even at that time. that wasn't very easy to do p but then the republican party heard that i was thinking about doing it. it was that watergate year, because it would have been 1974, the first election. so they encouraged me a whole lot to run. politics sometimes is a fluke, because i did run and didn't do well but then the incumbent re-signed. i was in a position of a special election and i was elected in 1976 for the first time. i went through that several times. i had three different introductions to a congress. in 1976, when i was first elected, i remember being in washington and being invited to be on a radio show and it had to do with foreign policy. of course, i had firm opinions but i think i've worked that issue a lot more since then. i was on a sh

as he pointed out, we came to the congress in the same year. his experience has been different from mine. mine has been in the executive branch. his has been in the legislative branch. i would say that the people now have the opportunity to evaluate his as against mine and i think both he and i are going to abide by whatever the people decide. mr. smith: senator kennedy. mr. kennedy: well, i'll just say that the question is of experience and the question also is what our judgment is of the , future, and what our goals are for the united states, and what ability we have to implement those goals. abraham lincoln came to the presidency in 1860 after a rather little-known session in the house of representatives and after being defeated for the senate in 58 and was a distinguished president. there's no certain road to the presidency. there are no guarantees that uh if you take one road or another that you will be a successful president. i have been in the congress for 14 years. i have voted in the last eight years. the vice president the question re

what the heck is congress prohibiting? mr. strickling: they prohibited us from a legacy responsibility. let me ask you this, senator. what is the responsibility you referred to? the only responsibility we have is not based on any statutory obligations. let me finish, senator. if i may finish -- senator cruz: you may answer my question. mr. strickling: i am telling you the responsibility we have to privatize the domain name system. senator cruz: i understand you have a political mandate to do that. let me be very clear. disagree with the policy judgment of the congress of the united states as reflected by federal law, you are entitled to disagree. here is what you are not entitled to do, sir. i want to speak for a moment to the employees that work for you. to the government employees at the ntia and apartment of commerce. these legal prohibitions haven't passed by congress and signed by the president. if your political superiors instructed to proceed with this transition, to spend your time, to spend one penny of government mone

spmplet there any chance for that to be ratified in the next congress? mr. mcconnell: let's be honest about the political environment. hillary clinton is against t.p.p., donald trump is against t.p.p., and bernie sanders is against t.p.p. i believe if it were brought up, it would be defeated this year anyway. leading to the obvious question if you're interested in america being in the trading business in it uture , in what way is advantageous to have the trade agreement go down? but here's the facts. t.p.a., trade promotion authority, passed almost entirely with republicans is still there the next congress. the mechanism by which you can submit an agreement and get a vote is still in place. nd t.h.h. -- t.p.p. is still out there. so i would hope that whoever is elected president, we can get back into having a serious discussion about the benefits to america of being in the trading business. america has been a great trading country going back to the founding of the country. but right now, it's politically toxic and i don't think the congress is ready to tackle

-- the third rail in congress. they won't touch it. certain taxpayers over the next five years, $400 billion. it's a big program. let's imagine, i know you all have imagination. that's why you're here. that congress the limited the mortgage interest deduction -- you get your? that's all. imagine i'm over there. [laughter] it eliminated the deduction budget authorized housing and urban development to issue $400 billion of checks, tax-free, to all the people that would've gotten the deduction in exactly the same amount of the tax savings to they end up in same position. the government is out 400 billion. imagined in monday morning, and i'm the chair of the house ways and means committee, something i always wanted to be. and i'm going to tell you how proud we are for the dissolution of that $400 billion. and down the middle their will be the bottom half of all taxpayers. i apologize, but you on the right, you on the top half of all taxpayers, and the five of you including mr. freeman, you included, you are in the top 5

i have been in the congress for fourteen years. i have voted in the last uh eight years uh and the vice president was uh presiding over the senate and meeting his other responsibilities. i have met decisions over 800 times on matters which affect not only the domestic security of the u.s. but as a member of the senate foreign relations committee. the question really is, which candidate and which party can meet the problems that the united states is going to face in the 1960's? moderator: the next question to senator kennedy from mr. novins. >> senator kennedy, in connection with these problems of the future that you speak of, and the program that you enunciated earlier in your direct talk, you call for expanding some of the welfare programs for schools, for teacher salaries, medical care, and so forth; but you also call for reducing the federal debt. and i'm wondering how you, if you're president in january, would go about paying the bill for all this. does this mean that you? senator kennedy: i didn't indicate. i did not advocate r

he said, i'm the president of the united states. congress writes the laws. my job as president is to enforce the laws, and the job of the judiciary is to interpret the laws. i don't think you could put it more concisely than that in a matter of two or three sentences. i think the president did a good job of describing that to the -- describing that to the students there, but within about 10 days he decided that he would reverse all of that and all of a sudden he had the power to grant an executive amnesty, an unconstitutional executive amnesty, mr. speaker. i see that the gentleman, dr. burgess, from the rules committee has arrived and hence i've been so busily complimenting the rules -- since i've been so busily complimenting the rules committee, i'd be happy to yield. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from texas seek recognition? mr. burgess: i send to the desk two privileged report prs from the committee on rules for filing under the rules. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the titles. the clerk: report to accompany

>> guest: the congressional research service, the library of congress is like the special forces of thelibrary. they are analysts, librarians, specialists in different areas that prepare research, nonpartisan research and analysis for members of congress to inform their work. and the reports are available by request from a particular member. if you know someone is working on something, i heard different aspects of how much information and when information should be ready or available to the public so that is an area that is still being looked at because private businesses that go into forming a report. c-span: the congressional research service, i need a report on the b-52 bomber. what is your personal instinct, should that be in the public domain? >> guest: i am not sure. i will be in the weeds with some of these aspects and a complex issue in terms of what was it prepared for. what is it informing? working with congress on it because it will be a congressional decision to find out how members are looking at congressional research service provides for them and already been in contact w

the library of congress is our national treasure, and with dr. hayden at the helm, i know it is in excellent hands. congratulations. [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the chief justice of the united states, the honorable john roberts, to administer the oath of office. please also welcome dr. hayden's mother, mrs. colleen hayden. [applause] >> please raise your right hand and repeat after me. i, carla hayden, do solemnly swear. >> i, carla hayden, do solemnly swear -- >> that i will support and defend the constitution of the united states. >> that i will support and defend the constitution of the united states. >> against all enemies, foreign and domestic. >> against all enemies, foreign and domestic. >> that i will bear true faith and allegiance to the same. >> that i will bear true faith and allegiance to the same. >> that i take this obligation freely -- >> that i take this obligation freely -- >> without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion. >> without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion. >> and that i will wel

any congress can change the rules for the next congress is the next congress. think they are just feeding the beast with that kind of conversation. but if they want to come in and say that we are going to punish you for having a demonstration about gun violence prevention led by an all-american icon, john lewis, bring it on. pelosihat was nancy talking about the prospect of punishment for lawmakers who staged that sit in. we have tom calling in from sarasota, florida on the democratic line. what do you think congress should be focusing on? caller: they should focus on passing the mosquito -- the zika virus. , they areo understand going to say, are you republican ? you think the mosquitoes are going to ask, are you democrat? mosquitoes are going to bite you whether you are black or white, republican. we need to pass this law. host: you are calling from florida. i imagine you are concerned about the virus spreading. go ahead. caller: yes, exactly. it is all around the world. people travel. airplanes. here. start it is like a cancer. you think it is going to stay i

carla hayden was sworn in as the librarian of congress. she is the first woman and african-american to hold the position. >> thomas jefferson sold most of his library to congress. the british burned the original library of congress when they invaded washington the year before. a later fire destroyed most of jefferson's books we still have some of them. they make up the heart of the library we have here today. jefferson as you know was a very unique man. others arranged books alphabetically or by size. he divided his library into three sections that corresponded with the three manufacturmanufas of -- main faculities. a long way of saying she is a pro. she knows what she is doing. second, she understands the need bring the library into the digital age. we have millions of documents that almost nobody knows a thing about. it would be a shame if they were lost. it is that third quality, imagination that is important. we think of america as this great land of promise. a place where people from all walks of life with can get their start but the p

for untold years he has been a editor at the multi-model congress relating to the history of the first congress to meet under the constitution. in addition to welcoming all of you, i would like to acknowledge peter, who is your next wednesday to tell us about how artists interpret history for the canvas. hopefully we will see many of you, if not all of you next wednesday. kenneth will talk to us about the vision of the west as a motivator in the american revolution. the expanded concept of revolution through the hamiltonian revolution into the early congresses. it is an invitation to think of the west not just as a place where people could invest certificates after the war make quick money. but as a way of giving scope to the aspirations of the american revolution. not a turning away from, but turning towards something. in this case it's turning towards a vision of the u.s. that reaches transcontinentally. i am glad you are here for this. i am happy to welcome ken bowling. [applause] kenneth: thank you chuck. i am going to use the word "vast" many times today. first time to describe th

sometimes sadly the right here in the halls of congress. in my short three months here i've seen attempted infringements on the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, ninth and 10th amendments. hat's hard to believe. just this past summer we had members of congress obstructing the people's work here. sitting on the house. an agenda that seeks to deprive us of the very rights our founding fathers sought to preserve with the constitution and the bill of rights. anyone can do a plane reading of the constitution and see the right to keep and bear arms is named right there, to be applied at the individual level. the rest of the bill of rights is almost certainly talking about -- is certainly talking about rights at the individual level and the second amendment's no exception. justice scalia wrote in the heller decision, nowhere else in the constitution does it a right attributed to the people refer to anything other than an individual right. the people refers to all members of the political community, not an unspecified subset. we start ther

from the start i directed irs staff to cooperate with congress and recover lost information wherever possible and i testified to the best of my knowledge. but the truth is, we did not succeed in preserving all of the information requested and some of my testimony later proved mistaken. i regret both of those failings. i can also tell you that with the benefit of hindsight even closer communication with congress would have been advisable. but my commitment is and always has been to tell you and all committees of the congress the truth and to address issues head-on. i accept that it is up to you to judge my overall record, but i believe that impeachment would be imprommer, it would create disincentives for many people to serve and slow reform and progress at the irs. again, i appreciate the opportunity to be here and look forward to answering your questions. >> thank you, commissioner, we will proceed under the five-minute rule with questions and i will begin by recognizing myself. the report of investigation by the treasury inspector general for tax administration concluded in 2015 rep

i am embarrassed for the congress of the united states. i'm proud of the effort that's been done here and i'm proud of the people and members of congress that have stood up to finally fix this broken system, enough's enough. i'm proud of senator enzi over -- and senator inwho have over in the senate trying to advance the same types of reforms there. but i'm embarrassed for the congress of the united states. i'm embarrassed for our leadership. i'm embarrassed because we haven't been able to do what's right, even though the majority of us agree that this is better than what we have. this is a step forward. i want to tell you, mr. speaker, what i'm more than embarrassed about. i'm disappointed. because the only people in the country that can fix this is the congress of the united states. 1974 when the budget act was put in place, the congress of the united states has failed to pass its budget and its appropriations bills required y law every single year for 42 years. they've not been able to do it on time, even once. some people would argue t

the program. and conservative congresses starve the programs. so the food labeling, the food safety laws are reasonably good. they could be enforced with great vigor, going back to the 1958 food additives amendment. but the fda doesn't have the staff and it doesn't have the guts to enforce the laws with vigor, to regulate salt or sugar or we have asked for warning labels on soda pop because soda pop causes heart disease and diabetes and obesity. but fda is in a bit of a pickle because if it does anything brave, congress would crack down and through appropriations writers, stop it from taking one action or another. and they just don't have the staff to do many of these things. so the fda inspects with the meat inspection acts, the ufda inspects a chicken soup plant factory every single day of the year. even though it's sterilized, the soup is sterilized, it's not going to harm anybody. a food processing facility that does not have meat or poultry like a vegetable soup factory, gets visited every five or ten years. so the fda just doesn't have the

the v.a. regardless of political changes in congress and in the white house. heinstead of precluding president from replacing an undersecretary for health, congress and v.a. must find ways to make the position so attractive to executives with experience running successful health care systems. that is why we were pleased when dr. shelton accepted the nomination. he is not the typical person who has occupied that role. he is the first noncareer v.a. employee to be confirmed as undersecretary for health since dr. ken kaiser, who led the largest and most successful health care transformation in the v.a. history. ensures and v.a. must that the position of undersecretary for health attracts more candidates like ,r. kaiser and dr. shelton noncareer v.a. employees who seek to protect the status quo. the vfw also supports most of the commission recommendation. we agree that waving budgetary rules and improving the v.a. enhanced use will enable the v.a. to expand access. however, the vfw cannot support a skip process. congress who has failed to remove these properties. t

i would meet with the leaders of the congress, with all the newly elected members of the congress and as many others with whom i could meet between the time of the election and the inauguration, and we would present a jobs program. then we would present a plan to control health care costs and phase in health care coverage for all americans. until we control health care costs, we're not going to control the deficit. it is the number one culprit. but first we must have an aggressive jobs program. i live in a state where manufacturing job growth has far outpaced the nation in the last few years, where we have created more private sector jobs since mr. bush has been president than have been created in the entire rest of the country, where mr. bush's labor secretary said job growth has been enormous. we've done it in arkansas. give me a chance to create these kind of jobs in america. we can do it. i know we can. lehrer: president bush, one minute. bush: we've got the plan announced for what we can do for small business. i've already put forward things that'll get this country working fast,

at the end he mentioned term limits for congress. that's been a topic of conversation over many years. i know in the presidential race donald trump has been making noise about term limits for members of congress. fair response as a reason that s that it would never have beenvem the same will say we have term limit they are called elections. there's a whole lot of incumbents who've been around ao long time and that makes it difficult for someone out of a job. >> host: you are on congo head. >> guest: why are they treating social security like their own piggy bank? they stole 150 billion last month from social security. hispanic social security is one of those difficult spaces where it is difficult for lawmakers to think about spending money in the future when it's funded in the current. you see changes in the programs. sometimes it's easier to. i don't think they like doing it but it's the way they go most of the time. >> host: we had pictured a breakfast that i attended a few months back which i think c-span aired a. he's one of these

the dedpefense attorneys get it all. congress should get it all. >> now miss maloney for five minutes. >> well, thank you mr. chairman. i'm going to reserve my questions to the closed session. but i would like to clear up some misconceptions. i would say that the campaign season is upon us. and the accusations and the charges and the attacks are almost out of control. i just spent, i won't get into it. but any way, for several weeks, the chairman has been appearing on national television, saying that the reason that he cannot see these e-mails is because the fbi produced to congress because they are such a highly sensitive classified high level. and for example, he stated that these materials were, and i would like to put his quote in the record, so secure and sensitive that even i as the chairman of the oversight committee did not have the proper clearance to see it. but in fact, as i understand it, mr. herring, chairman chavitz has not been able to view these documents, the reason he hasn't been able to see them, is because the

the purse is basically gone. we had eric holder held in contempt from congress. we had a committee recommend criminal charges against lois lerner herself. and last week bryan pagliano refused simply to show up. and the justice department isn't doing anything. so our bag of tricks is getting kind of shallow. and impeachment is in there. and i think one of the reasons we're pulling it out is that the justice department and the obama administration are failing to cooperate with congress. the justice department rather than being the people's lawyer are turning out to be the administration lawyers. and you may be the victim of this. i mean, don't -- how well -- do you have any suggestions on how we should get more cooperation from people before this committee, the oversight committee and the rest of congress? >> well, whatever the oversight committee is doing, they take -- they have noted on their website or at least it was until recently on their website 20 executives in the government that they thought should be removed or leave. they had big pictures and big red xs

the congress left town ahead of the november election.is the front page of "usa today" this morning, "obama suffers first veto defeat, is " is the headline. override the obama veto of 9/11 bill, the lead story of many papers this morning. just to give you a sense of what this means now doctors law has been enacted over the president's veto and the objections of the white house. "the new york times" noting this morning that immediately it alters the legal [indiscernible] they could pay for any judgment obtained by the september 11 families and they have warned -- and saw the officials have warned that they will need to sell up hundreds of billion's of dollars in holdings to avoid an outcome. the override comes at an already frighted moments in america's relations with the kingdom of saudi arabia. the saudi government has denied that it had any part in the september 11 attacks and the commission investigating the plot found "no evidence that the saudi government as an institution or individually funded al qaeda for that attack ," from the n

subcommitteewill considers rule changes for the 115th congress. s included allowing delegates from u.s. territories to vote on the house floor in some cases. this is just under two hours. >> the early bird gets the worm for you. nice work. good morning, i would like to call this subcommittee to order. welcome to the subcommittee on rules and organization of the house. big fan of opening statements. i came you to listen to our witnesses. so i will be very brief in my opening statement and then turn it over to the ranking member, missed slaughter. -- ms. slaughter. the first hearing we had was in april on rule 21. willoday's hearing encompass the entirety of the rules package for the next congress. it is a real opportunity for us withar from members recommendations on how to for the house.es a set of proposals that would change the rules of the house, with regard to procedural motions, printing requirements for bill analysis, committee witness disclosures, subpoena authority, ethics training, etc. i am excited to hear from our members about their pro

that is the bill that passed the congress. gerald ford vetoed it. his chief of staff was a guy named donald rumsfeld who cosigned the bill. it is hard to figure out exactly if we had gotten all the ford library documents. he clearly wanted to sign it. buchanan wanted him to sign it. but all the agencies, a lawyer named antonin scalia. they wanted him to sign it. this would be bad for you guys. lobby.show it to the inside the administration, there was a guy named donald rumsfeld and a guy named cheney. we do have notes of two meetings they held with president ford in the 10 days before he vetoed the bill. and the meetings were all about probable leaks or stuff in the press. he puts rumsfeld and type -- in charge of a type of plumbers group. this is what was on the top of ford's head. even though when he took office, he vows to, you know, the dark line of the past, what richard nixon did, we are going to have an open administration. he will have english lessons in the toaster for the residents. they were open. but then they vetoed the bill. unfortunate

congress should not see. i bleeve passionately in the role of congress. i believe passionately in the oversight of the committee. we are founded in 1814. every expenditure and everything we do is supposed to be overseen by us. we can investigate anything and at any time. that's what is different about the united states of america. we're different because we are self-critical. we do go look under the hood. we do hold people accountable. that's why when abraham lincoln joined the united states congress he was on this committee. and he peppered the president because he didn't believe that the mexican american war started as the president said it was. and there's been a rich history of that throughout generations. we can't do that when each of the agencies that you all represent decide that, well, we're just going to show you the relevant information. we're not even going to answer your questions. you can't see those documents. that's the way a banana republic acts not the way the united states of america acts. we expect better. and we expect you to be respons

it's less than appropriated in the future and congress gave $600 million to israel this year for thele defense program and 2018 obama administration is going to guarantee them 500 million. at the end of the day compared to the congress, the administration nickeled and dimed israel and they are telling us, the congress, that we can't appropriate money outside this agreement. >> there's really unusual things about this agreement -- >> beyond unusual. >> people may not know, it was directly negotiated between the white house and israel. >> we're not bound by it. >> you're not saying you're not bound by it. it guarantees them over ten years time there's there letter that israel is signed on to that they'll give back money and basically the obama add mrs is saying, you can't take a penny more if congress gives it to you. >> this is a memorandum between the executive branch and the prime minister of israel, not congress. at the end of the day, obama tried to get israel to be put in a box so that israel wouldn't go to congress and ask for more money. he sort of achieved that goal in violati

i think we are not trying to play hide the ball, we want congress to be able to do its job. what we did in the investigation into how we came to the conclusion and we did that i releasing an investigative summary and the 302's. cummings: thank you. >> when you do not show up at a meeting we request, you lose the opportunity. we're going to recognize the gentleman from south carolina. they -- thedid sender? could you find out? you would agree it would be important if you want to interview the person who sent the cause might information, right? because the recipient thought that see was just the third letter in the alphabet. you might want to note the sender was also clueless in the way he or see viewed information . can you find out whether or not sender of whohe sent all classified information? mr. cummings: certainly. know if thedo you information was known to because fight at the time? can you find out? there are folks wondering how aformation gets from classified source into an e-mail. did your investigation shed any light on how classified on amation could get classified

as he pointed out, we came to the congress in the same year. his experience has been different from mine. mine has been in the executive branch. his has been in the legislative branch. i would say that the people now have the opportunity to evaluate his against mine and i think both he and i are going to abide by whatever the people decide. >> senator kennedy. senator kennedy: well, i say the question is of experience and the question also is what our judgment is of the future and what our goals are for the united states and what ability we have to implement those goals. abraham lincoln came to the presidency in 1860 after a rather little known session in the house of representatives. after being defeated for the senate. there is no certain role for the presidency. there are no guarantees if you take the one road or another you will be a successful president. i have been in the congress for 14 years. i have voted in the last eight years. the vice president was presiding over the senate and meeting his other responsibilities. part of e -- i was

we should have the opportunity to vote and i would say to every member of congress certainly in the house where this will be voted on, you're going to have to go back and face your constituency and if you vote to protect a high-level government official whose lied to congress and has ignored subpoenas and is a loud obstruction of justice on their watch the new have to answer to your constituents for that. i know what i will say to my constituents and that if i was there for them. >> the headlines at the irs commissioner ocommissioner archo stave off impeachment with planned meetings with members on the republican side. do you plan to meet with the commissioner for any potential house floor vote? >> i haven't met with him. he hasn't asked to meet with me but i don't know the relevance of meeting with john koskenin. he's had plenty of opportunities to come on that though and be sworn in and to give testimony under oath about these questions and he's not been willing to do that. so coming up and having a conversation i don't think it's an adequate. >> there could be some government official

bush: i strongly support term limits for members of the united states congress. i believe it would return the government closer to the people, in a way that ross perot is talking about. the president's terms are limited to two -- a total of eight years. what's wrong with limiting the terms of members of congress to 12? congress has gotten kind of institutionalized, for 38 years one party has controlled the house of representatives and the result, a sorry little post office that can't -- you know, can't do anything right and a bank that has more overdrafts than all the chase bank and citibank put together. we've got to do something about it and i think you get a certain arrogance -- bureaucratic arrogance -- when people stay there too long. and so i favor -- strongly favor -- term limits. and how to get them passed? send us some people that'll pass the idea. and i think you will, i think the american people want it now. every place i go i talk about it and i think they want it done. actually, you'd have to have some amendments to the constitution because of the way

do we really know what either side would actually do if they're in the majority in the congress and have the white house? and last but not least, i've seen it. leadership. one man or one woman that will face the, you know, the sleepings and arrows vicissitudes of the media saying we'll develop a energy policy in america. we're going to have all of the above. we're going to do it. so, it could change, stuart, on a dime. but it is going to take a person of strength because i have seen it. washington is a tough place, you know. i rode the high road and got knocked down into the valley but best thing about being in the valley you learn when you get back up to, how you can do things better. so it can change. i don't see it right now. i don't see it with mitch mcconnell. i don't see it with nancy pelosi. i do see hope in paul ryan. i don't know what to expect from chuck schumer who will be probably be the senate democratic leader. he is smarter than reid. he is every bit as partisan as harry reid but there is one difference. he is transactional. you can do business. they don't say it that way

and that has contributed to the gridlock in congress we've seen for the past six years. and it is particularly troubling now to see them play poll tiblgs in the middle of a health crisis. >> we should not be playing russian roulette with the health of wem and our babies. >> again, congressman jolly mosquito that carries zika up to washington and threatening to unleash them on congress. >> can you imagine, colleague, the fear and anxiety in this chamber if these one hundred mosquitos were outside the jar and not inside the jar. >> congress has a month to figure this out before they go on another break. >>>coming up. we'll drill into the polls and show you how they shifted in shift in the polls starting with the national numbers. here the race narrowed to within three points. look at numbers here in our state. on average clinton leads currently by little over two points. if you look at libertarian gary johnson he's checking in the nbc poll at 12%. on average he's drawing 8.4%. he's getting close but not quite where he needs to be to get included in the national debates lat

we are running for the congress. her prescription is public financing which is the thing most taxpayers don't want to v. >> candidates, thank you very much for being here. my question is for you mr. faso. it is a long one so i will read slowly. on wend the house committee on skiens based technology held a hearing on whether new york attorney general, eric synder, is improperly disregarding a subpoena sent to his office in july. the materials contain a multi state investigation of whether exon may have misled shareholders about what its scientists were learning about the potential perils of climate change. do you believe the attorney general and others should be compelled to respond to these subpoenas and do you believe the exon probe is viable or as some described a witch-hunt? >> i think it present as challenge on the bases of law or the conflict of laws, if you will. what the power of a house committee to compel via subpoena an independently elected official i think is subject to a law review i have not read or writ

i do think that the fcc was set up by the congress as a separate and independent agency, primarily to insulate it from politics. if it is offered in a way that's not insulated from politics, and i think it calls into question the whole rationale of having the fcc as an independent expert agency, specially if it's not showing any signs of independence. and so i think the chairman of the fcc has been the custodian of the independence, and i think it's incumbent on him to preserve it. i think the institution itself is undefined. >> you have a long history in republican politics, worked for george herbert walker bush and jim baker and all about. how difficult was the choice for you to decide to endorse hillary clinton in the upcoming election? >> guest: well, obviously something i did personally and it doesn't need to do with at&t's. but -- >> is the thing everybody is wondering about. >> guest: you know, i know it surprised the number of people but i would tell you that wasn't a real difficult choice. i have a set of values and beliefs, like most people, that a conservative. i still cons

that help comes from right here in the halls of the senate and the halls of the congress. we can make a difference in america and save a whole generation. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: quorum call: quorum call: mr. mcconnell: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. mcconnell: i ask consent that further proceedings under the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: wowblght. mr. mcconnell: i ask consent that the senate be in a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak up to ten minutes each. officer without objection. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of s. res. 559, submitted earlier today. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: senate resolution 559, designating the week of september 12, 2016, as national direct support professionals recognition week. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding? without objection. mr. mc