i love finding out whawr doing at the n.i.h. >> a lot of stuff, man. >> stephen: you are the directoral institutes of health. you led the government effort to map the human genome. >> right. >> stephen: tuesday president obama announced the brain initiative. >> yeah. >> stephen: why would you want to map the human brain? am i right? is this about mind control? >> how did i know you were going to go there? actually it's about this amazing stur, the human brain. >> stephen: i thought it was a nerf football for a second. >> it's not a real brain just to be clear. it is in these three pounds of material the most complicated biological structure in the universe. >> stephen: are they all rainbow flags? >> no, this is just a teaching model. >> stephen: just didn't know if it was a gi marriage thing. good head. this is in many ways the essence of what it means to be human. we're very much determined -- >> stephen: absolutely not. we're not determined. not me, my gut. you know the gut has more nerve endings in it than the brain does. did you know that? >> it has a lot but there are 76 billion

i'm francis collins director of the national institutes of health, n.i.h. and i am proud to have the honor of welcoming you here to the east room of the white house for a very special scientific announcement by the president. investing in bio medical research is one of the wisest choices we can make as a nation. the united states has long been at the forefront of one medical breakthrough after another helping to save lives, improve people's health, and grow the economy. moving forward, we as a country are extraordinarily fortunate to have a leader who places such a high value on science to unlock the mysteries of disease and discover new ways of overcoming them. but now we stand at the edge of another frontier in bio medicine and bio logical research which the president will describe in a moment. some may ask, how we can afford in investing in bold new research during difficult budgetary times. but the reality is we can't afford not to. the worst thing we could do in challenging economic times is to stifle innovative thinking and asking people in this room t

n.i.h. is certainly the big player. there are many others as well. >> brown: does n.i.h. control -- make those decisions about where the money is going to go or not going to go? >> yes. n.i.h. has a competitive peer review process so a number of experts look at each proposal and rate them based on scientific merit. and so it does come down to n.i.h. how many grants are going to be funded, what kinds of grants, what subject areas. what's not up to them is the amount of funding they have to distribute. that comes down to congress. >> brown: the argument out there-- and we've heard it on the program many times-- is that spending is out of control, that everybody has to take a cut, has to tighten their belt. this area as well as many other areas across the board in government. what's the response been to that in the scientific community. >> there's a couple responses. for one thing, in the past few years federal r&d has already declined by about 10%. we peake at about $155 billion in 2010. we're down about -- before sequestration we were down 10% from that high watermark. so w

the beltway looks good so far in maryland. 355 has wrapped up road work just about on 355 near n.i.h.to you. >> thank you. we continue to monitor rising tensions in north korea as the no. celebrates the birthday of its founder. the u.s. and other countries are watching to see if north korea will launch a missile. >> john gonzalez as the latest. >> secretary of state john kerry heads home today after a three days in south korea, china, and japan. the goal of the trip was to insure commitments from these countries to keep north korea from pursuing its nuclear goals. he said the action has wide reaching consequences. in addition to keeping north korea from creating nuclear weapons, he holds the neighboring countries will get that nation back to the negotiating table. last month, north korea scrapped the truce that ended the korean war and declared it was notifying the joint agreement on the denuclearization of the korean peninsula. no. commission officials released a statement calling done. 's speech empty words without any content. s nuclear missile programs threatens not only its neigh

i was in the n.i.h., the national institutes of health, not too long ago. the research they do is critically important to our country's future. it's not only the fact that they are discovering the answers to dread diseases or ways to keep people healthy, they're working on dexg a universal flu vaccine so you don't have to get bun every year. think how many lives that could save. it's also the basic research we need in order to create the jobs in the bioscience areas, the tech areas. this is about creating jobs in our community. and now they're going to give out less grants as a result of sequestration even though the day -- today they're only approving one out of every seven worthwhile grant applications. we certainly didn't intend that through sequestration. or i can talk about new transit starts. we have some very exciting programs in baltimore and washington and maryland. a purple line to provide transit between the washington suburban counties in maryland. we have a transit programs in baltimore, we have the corridor cities along the 270 corridor, we ha

the legion bridge and woodrow wilson bridge. in palmer road work is still place southbound at cedar lane near n.i.h with one lane getting you buy. i will keep an eye on that. 270 off to a quiet start. back to you. >> thank you. 4:53. >> coming up, more trouble for justin bieber. why the singer is catching heat >> monday morning. comedian kevin hart has a situation that is no laughing matter. he was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving after his car in a nearly collided with a tanker truck. he was driving erratically and 90 miles an hour and appeared intoxicated when he was pulled over in early sunday morning in los angeles. he failed a sobriety test and was booked with dui. he's being held all $5,000 bond. >> singer justin bieber had a recent tour in amsterdam of house. frank he wrote in a guest book: "truly inspiring to be able to come here. anne was a great girl. hopefully she would have been a belieber." visitors to the facebook page or outraged by the comments. the museum was happy to have him as a guest and not see anything offensive in his remarks. it's 56 degrees. >> still ahead, giving new meaning to bling >> coming

the administration caved like a lawn chair. they folded on this. it's a scalpel. it's interest group changing. it's not aids patients. it's not cancer patients. it's not n.i.h. search. theyon'tave political action committees, and this was-- and the congress looks bad in the process. the congress-- this passed the senate without a single dissenting vote on either side. and it looked as the congress is going out on recess, that looks-- it looks like a matter of conence. so i just-- i really think that the whole thing is just lousy. >> woodruff: well, does it say, though, anything, david, about the #-r-- what's going to happen to the large erp sequester? does this mean democrats have any more negotiating power than we thought they did? >> maybe a little less than we thought. if the president spent all those months warning it will be terrible, it will be terrible, and then when it comes times timewhen something sort of is terrible, they cave in on that, then the sequester probably doesn't seem that painful to the country. so i think the sequester is here to ay. there will probably be a series of pseudo-fixes or patches bu it's hard to see them getting on any sort

voted against sequestration because i was greatly concerned in 2011 that it was going to lead to the cuts in n.i.h. funding here in massachusetts, education here in massachusetts, clean energy jobs here in massachusetts. i voted no against sequestration because i did not trust the tea party republicans. steve voted yes for sequestration. there are many differences between the two of us. and this debate is really helping to highlight. >> go ahead, sir. >> add a couple things you missed out. ed, you sponsored an amendment to overturn row v. wade in the united states -- roe v. wade in the united states congress. you actually voted for a provision that would deny a victim of rape and incest an opportunity for an abortion. you kind of forgot that part. now, look, i'm happy that you changed your position because those are horrific, who are risk positions. t i just want to be clear, you are promising people you won't do that again. i'm telling the women out there i have never done that and will never do that. >> let him respond. >> thank you. i have voted consistently pro-choice for 30 years in the congr

the significant new investments this budget contains for n.i.h. our commitment to furthering the biomedical research that will create new jobs and advance the cause of cures and medical science. the new investments in health i.t. will help us develop the use of compatible health recognition systems that have huge potential for securing care coordination and public health. even as our pedge oh, budget -- it also helps to reduce the long-term deficits by making sure that programs like medicare are put on stable, fiss trajectory. medicare deprue at an historically low rate of .04% in 2012. thanks to the implementation of the affordable care act that strengthened the system. the president's budget achieved even more savings. frips for instance, the befplg allows more low-income people to get their drugs at the many lower rate. it enabled people to get their prescriptions filled without sacrificing their medical needs. reducing the deficit and putting medicare on sounder financial footing. a budget also reflects our commitment to aggressively reducing w

government in an efficient manner and eliminate low-priority items and put money, like n.i.h., in a priority? we can. the question is, is do we have the will to do that? and what we're hearing from the majority leader is, no, we don't want to cut anything. we'll just take some funny money that doesn't really exist and if we use it, we're going to borrow it, and we'll just pay -- take all the pain away and there won't be any oversight, there won't be any streamlining, there won't be any priorities made in terms of how we spend money. every other american family and business has to make those decisions and we're refusing to do it. and when you ask the president, do you want the flexibility? he says no. he says, i'll veto your bill. if i'll give you the flexibility to put high priorities up here and low priorities down here. that tells me it's all politic political. doesn't have anything to do with the f.a.a. has to do with creating an event so that we won't do the best things in the best long-term interest of the country. so with that, i object, and i would ask for consent that the senate proceed to calend

n.i.h. which is going to be having this grant, they're still looking at pretty big cuts the next year or twoester. dennis: thank you for being with us today. >> you bet. dennis: good day, sir. cheryl: take a look at the auto sector. a lot of big names that you know are soaring. march a strong month posing the biggest figures in five years. dennis: jeff is at a ford dealership in i will toil break down the numbers. >> it is the best single month of auto sales since 2007. i'll tell you, the sun is shining brightly in chicago. these are ford focuses and on the other side, ford escapes and they had their biggest sales month ever for those two vehicles. i want to take a look at all the auto makers if i can. let's put the numbers up. g.h. had a good month. toyota not so much. the economy. it's really driven this. >> it has. we are really, you know, looking forward to all the business that the economy is definitely on the rise, especially here. it's up and we're looking to sell more cars. >> take a look at the breakdowns on the big winners. some of the g.m. brands. cadillac up almost 50% this month

the long haul. i remember i spoke to, back at ohio state where i did n.i.h. undergrad a million -- where i did my undergrad a million years. i had a chance to talk to fraternity brothers from four different states, including your state, madam president, that were there for a weekend conference, leadership conference. i talked to them about leadership. i also talked to them about making tough decisions haoupbd we use our -- and how we use our values to make those tough decisions. i asked those guys from across those eight states, i said how many of you think you'll someday receive a social security check? not one hand went up. i said how many think you might be eligible for medicare when you're 65? not one hand. i want to make sure that they do. not that they need it. i want to make sure our sons, our daughters, our grandsons, our granddaughters, our nieces and nephews, i want to make sure those programs will be there for them. the president gets that. i understand we can't keep going business as usual. we'll run out of money in the medicare trust fund by 2024

n.i.h. and they have joined a consortium to further help develop the red blood cell program. i am very hopeful that the research at the charles c. gates center and i urge support their efforts. mr. speaker, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlelady from texas seek recognition? >> to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentlelady from texas is recognized for one minute. mr. ackson lee: today, speaker, the other body has an opportunity to do what 90% of the american people would like us to do. to be prayerful, to come together, to respond to the horrific siege of gun violence in america. it is important to note that on average, 13 young people from ages 10 to 24 are victims of homicide every day. 82.8% of these youths are killed by a gun. every 30 minutes a child or teenager in america is injured by a gun. every three hours and 15 minutes a child or teenager loses their life with a firearm and in 2010, 28 children under the ages of 5 -- 82 children under the age of 5 lost their lives due to gun. 58

the assault weapons -- said about assault weapons at a recent judiciary committee hearing. quote -- " assault weapons are built into flict violence against humans. their military characteristics are not merely cosmetic in n.i.h these weapons -- nature. these weapons are designed for combat. they are designed to quickly, easily, and efficiently cause lethal wounds to humansen -- quote -- ." and we're not just talking about mass shootings here. for instance, studies suggest large-capacity magazines may be used in up to a quarter of all gun crimes and 41% of police murders. i believe that the assault weapons ban will make our communities safer without unduly interfering with the rights of responsible gun owners. i think the bill strikes an appropriate balance. others disagree and i respect their views, but there are a few arguments that have been advanced against the assault weapons ban that i would like to address here. the first argument we've heard against senator feinstein's bill is that justice department studies have proved that the assault weapons ban was ineffective. during our first hearing, a witness said -- quote -- "independent studies including a study from the clinton justice department proved tha

n.i.h. study found that most mental health services for school-age children were provided in schools, but schools don't always have the expertise to deal with those services. and so we worked with senator frank tone direct the department of -- franken to direct the department of education to direct grants that would link local schools to community-based mental health services. that's also encompassed in this amendment. finally, this title allows for the use of elementary and secondary education act title 1 funds, title 1 money to creator update school crisis management plans. these plans are key to ensuring the safety of all students and school personnel. now, that's title 1. mr. president, the second title of this amendment focuses on programs at the department of health and human services. i worked with my coleagues, senator reid and senator murkowski, to reauthorize the garrett lee smith memorial act which focuses on suicide prevention on college campuses and through grants to the states. the bill authorizes also, in title 2, the mental health awareness training grants, a commonsense idea introduced by senators beg

n.i.h. that's thank support innovative research in my district like at duke university and east alma na university and my mater. we must also support bills like h.r. 595, the veterans education equity act, which was introduced, which i introduced to resolve an inequity in existing law which unintentionally allows more education funds to veterans who are enrolled in private colleges than those in public institutions. the bottom line is, mr. speaker, education must be a priority, we must seize every opportunity to increase support for public education and not decrease it. public education should be off limits to budget cuts. thank you, mr. jeffries, thank you, mr. horsford. i yield back. mr. jeffries: i thank the entleman for his extremely enlightened remarks on this issue. i now recognize a gentlelady who has take then capitol by storm with her intelligence, let me yield to the distinguished gentlelady from ohio, representative beatty. mrs. beatty: thank you, mr. speaker. i would like to thank my freshman class members, mr. jeffries and mr. horsford for leading the congressional plaque caucus' discussion on this critical issue. so i rise today to be an advo