van hollen. senator van hollen: aye. senator harris: aye. senator corker: unless somebody an explain why [inaudible] the clerk: mr. commarme. ens no. the clerk: mr. chairman, there are 11 nays and 12 yeas. senator enzi: the amendment fails on a tie vote. senator sanders: please repeat that vote. the clerk: there are 12 yeas and 11 nays. senator enzi: the amendment is agreed to. next one is sanders number 25. does anyone seek recognition in pposition? the proponent. >> colleagues, how often do you get a chance to vote not one but two of the president's top priorities? priorities i heard so many individuals on both sides of the aisle fight for. that is to quit sending our bs overseas and to invest in infrastructure here in america. two for one. ell of a deal. senator enzi: the time has expired. for reasons i stated earlier i oppose the amendment. the question is on the amendment. is there a request for a roll call vote? lerk will call the roll. >> no! the clerk: mr. crapo. senator crapo: -- [laughter] the clerk: mr. crapo. mr. graham. senator

senator cantwell and van hollen's amendment, by contrast, is crystal clear. no elimination of state and local. i hope my republican friends won't vote to raise taxes on so many of their middle-class residents. now, finally, every morning i hear my friend, the majority leader, and the chairman of the finance committee talk about the need for tax reform because the middle class is stuck in a rut. the economy isn't working the way it should for american families. now i agree with that assessment. we need to do more to grow the economy, create jobs, raise wages, put money in the pockets of average americans. but when you hear the details of the plan they have to solve those problems, your head spins. lower the tax rate on big corporations in the top 1%, repeal the estate tax which only goes to estates of over $5 million, and eliminate critical middle-class tax breaks like state and local deductibility. in what world does that deliver middle-class tax relief or solve the problems we're talking about? it's the same game they played with health care. complain about

i think senator van hollen for his leadership on this issue. >> any opposition? we talk about this as something we should be looking at as a nation. what it will do is put pressure on every governor and every legislative body in a state to reform the tax structure because the federal government no longer is going to allow writing off the excessively high taxes at the state level. it would do something that i think needs to be done. if blood shed light on parts of the country that seem to have no limit in terms of taxation of the citizens. we are quite frankly tired of subsidizing states that have normally a high cost of living and we are helping foot the bill so we woulbills we would like t. this amendment does put a point of order against something that the finance committee can do and so it isn't within our jurisdiction, it is within bea bears. on the successful amendment this is very straightforward. this bill is all about tax reform and enabling tax reform to move through the senate. so if that is the case and the other thing that i heard today in various rep

senator van hollen: this is a separate issue that was raised. if there is information that causes me damage -- that causes me damage -- sue and beyou can member of a class. what we are talking about with arbitration is where the -- is purchasing a product from one of the bureaus, like a credit monitoring products, for example. : we saw in hollen the case of equifax that as a condition of getting protection from damaging information that at the fox -- that the equifax breach caused some people are hard to really push their rights. they are expected to sign something -- and there are other equifax products where there is a relationship where they are insisting on mandatory arbitration. isn't that the case? they justified they have lots of products -- mr. smith: product sold to consumers -- isn't itan hollen: right to say that they have to go to mandatory arbitration? given the we think statute called the credit repair organizations act that there are special risks for monitoring products that have stacked the deck against the company. i canr van h

senator van hollen. >> thank you. thank you for offering this amendment.my friend senator toomey said the number one objective of this reform effort was to quote lower the burden on middle-class families. that's what this amendment is all about. this just says as we go through this tax reform process let's not raise taxes on middle income families. there have been estimates out there already that suggest the proposal that's been put forward could raise taxes on as many as one third of middle income families. we know if you are low-income senior around 10% tax bracket you are actually going to be paying more in taxes because the increase in the standard deduction does not offset the different deductions that seniors have over age 65 so is written it increases taxes on low income seniors. let's not do that. let's vote for this amendment. >> the side-by-side is being offered. senator kennedy. >> thank you mr. chairman. i agree with a lot of my colleagues said. i want to offer a more aggressive proposal in my side-by-side amendment. rather than just saying we

xt will be van hollen number three. mr. van hollen: thank you, mr. chairman. again, we've heard that the two top priorities for tax reform are, number one, to provide middle class families with some relief. and number two, to make our tax code as competitive as possible. eliminating the estate tax for the richest families in the country accomplishes neither of those goals. i just want to give people a sense, i don't know if we have the chart up there, about what this does. but only two out of 1,000 estates, two in 1,000 estate, people who are paying estate, only two currently pay any egstate tax and that's because for individuals, estate tax doesn't kick in until $5.6 million and for couples it's around d 11 million. any estate below those levels is entirely exempt. you don't pay a penny in estate tax. and yet this budget and the tax proposal would propose increasing the debt by $240 billion over 10 years, or cutting medicare and medicaid. i heard the chairman say we don't have enough revenue for those things. well, if you take away $240 billion for two out of

joining me, senator chris van hollen, chair of the democratic campaign committee and, yes, the senator8 mid-term campaign on the senate side. senator van holland, good to see you, sir. >> chuck, great to see you. >> i believe you're not a co-sponsor on the alexander/murray. double checking's you're not. any reason you're not and does that signal any lack of support for the bill? >> it does not signal until lack of support for the bill. i'm fully supportive of the bipartisan effort and wish we could vote on it right now. they decided to proceed bringing an equal number of democratic and republican co-sponsors on, as you know it's called noah's ark. you know, two by two. so as more republican co-sponsors get on you'll see more democratic co-sponsors get on. i'm looking forward to being a co-sponsor. >> that's interesting that you put it that way, because that actually leads to my next question. is there too much democratic enthusiasm for this bill for it to pass? meaning in our pugilistic polarized view of the world where everything has to be an uneasy piece, that if it looks one side is

senator van hollen? >> thank you. mr. chairman and my comments were very much along the lines of my colleague senator king and i appreciate your statement. i would just point out that this s.con resolution says it's for the fiscal year 2018, we're now three days in the fiscal year so clearly this has nothing to do with setting up our overall budget for fiscal we're 2018. i was pleased to hear that senator toomey and senator corker just recognized and admitted the fact this is all about setting up a fast track process for a tax plan, ability to try to ram through a tax plan with 51 votes which is very disappointing given all the talk in recent weeks from folks on both sides of the aisle about getting back to the regular order, having a transparent process. i also would argue strongly that process is going to impact the substance of this because if you're truly going to have a bipartisan process, obviously it will take a different shape. 1986 was the last time we saw truly bipartisan successful tax reform and that was done

van hollen: thank you, mr. president. and i agree with my colleague from georgia that we need to simplify our tax code. we need real tax reform. we've seen a lot of junk built up in the tax code over many years, put there by special interests who seek special deals for themselves, deals that are not enjoyed by the american public. we should do tax reform. what we should not do is increase our national debt and our national deficits. and we all noi that -- know thae budget plan that passed this senate and just recently passed the house has written right into it an increase in the national debt of $1.5 trillion over the next ten years. in other words, it's engineered right into that bill. so i hope our colleagues who really do care about reducing our national debt will make sure that as we discuss this tax proposal, that we not increase our national debt. we should of course eliminate unnecessary and wasteful expenditures, but we should not have a tax proposal that increases our debt by $1.5 trillion and possibly more. and

van hollen: thank you, mr. president. i want to start by commending the senator from new mexico for his leadership on many issues but today for being here on the floor to protect this vital, beautiful american treasure, the arctic national wildlife refuge. thank you, senator. i want to talk about the budget as well, because i hope everyone across the country will really pay attention to the debate we're having here in the senate both over the next couple of days and over the coming weeks and months. because there's no doubt that if you look at the budget that's going to come to the floor of this senate, it is stacked overwhelmingly in favor of the wealthiest americans and powerful special interests, and the benefits that will go to the folks at the very top are paid for in one way or another by everyone and everything else. i want to be very clear, i think we need to reform our tax code. we need to simplify our tax code. we need to reduce the tax burden on middle-class families throughout the country. and we should do tha

chairman on behalf of myself and senator sanders and senator van hollen, this would restore the $1 trillion in cuts to medicaid that is in this budget proposal and it would do that by reducing the tax breaks for the top 1% of the wealthiest in america. thy truth of the matter is that the majority of seniors in michigan get their nursing home care through medicaid. children, families all impacted with no way that any common sense will tell you that cutting a trillion dollars out of medicaid is not a cut. we know that's a cut. it's certainly has been proposed in other ways. twice coming before this body in terms of gutting the healthcare system twice. it is been voted against or opposed by the majority of members and it's surprising to me that it shows up again in this budget resolution, so i urge a guest vote to protect seniors and nursing home and children and families that count on medicaid. >> for reasons i stated earlier, i oppose the amendment. does the senator won a roll call? >> yes, please. >> clerk will call the role. [roll call vote] [roll call vote] [roll call vote] [roll call vot

then maryland senator chris van hollen will join us to talk taxes, healthcare and e th equifax hearingsy tuned, you're watching "squawk box" on cnbc >>> welcome back russian president vladimir putin is speaking this morning as part of russia energy week. he follows the president of venezuela who made news earlier today, too michelle caruso-cabrera joining us now she has more on all of this. >> good morning. vladimir putin has just started speaking right now we have a live picture of that we're monitoring it. if he makes news, we'll bring that to you. nicolas maduro, the leader of venezuela spoke earlier. he said that the debt they owe to russia may have to be restructured at the same time he also said that they will pay all of its debt how do you put those two together the second one probably referring to the outstanding debt of bondholders that trade around the world and among a lot of hedge funds, which is high yielding, even as they face desperate times in venezuela the government continued to pay it we'll likely see movement in those bonds later today. what makes the issue with russ

senator chris van hollen of maryland, joe, what in the world? the flip-flop has been brought to a whole new level with this president. does he even know what he's saying do you think? >> maybe it's because i suppose i have to suddenly admit, chris, i'm a former lawyer and also foreman politician. what the president actually said, he was keeping his options opened. this was let's just say the head leans on this flip-flop were a lot worse than the realities of it. i actually see in there senator, some positive operating rooms, he said positive things about the senators. it was positive about the bipartisan project and actually was talking responsibly in the rose garden in the beginning of the day talking about we need a year or two to make sure people don't get hurt while the overall process is reviewed. i'm not so discouraged by those words. what about you? >> well, he has been all over the map on this although, his most recent comment suggests that maybe he'll come on board. the problem is president has is he made these misleading tweets, saying

boost with a $25 million grant annoyanced at green belt today by senators ben cardin and chris van hollen. it will be used to improve teacher recruitment, placement and retension as the 40 high need schools in the county. >> we know that we need to do better in professional development. this allows for funds for teachers, and educational professionals to get of experience, the type of help, the type of sharing of information. so they can excel in their profession. nancy: the grant is one of the largest ever awarded to prince george's county schools. michelle: all right. in the weather center now with meteorologist steve rudin. this feels like a case of weather whiplash. yesterday was in the 80's. steve: it was humid and sticky. we knew a cold front was coming. strong cold front overnight to this morning and it ripped through. now it feels like autumn around here. it's sweater weather. michelle: it is. i have long sleeves on. steve: you need it. this is at chesapeake beach, maryland. birds taking flight. clouds in the front are moving off to the east. good sign that we are going to clear t

clock saving lives and trying to deal of people trying to find out about their loved ones but mason van hollen as the ceo -- is a the office hospital but the first thing i want to ask is your reaction to this event. >> it's really sad for us what has happened in our community. it's been a tough night. but i tell you we have a great team here at our hospital but the silver lining is our response from nurses, doctors and first responders. >> reporter: you had 100 for patients. all but four are still doing okay. four didn't make it. what is the impact of that sort of thing when you had such a mass casualty situation on your facility? >> i think throughout the evening being able to see the patients that were able to be survive -- that were able to survive and be cared for were cared for and lived. we did have some patients that did not make it on the way in but again it was just inspirational how our team responded. we train for these type of things. we are a level i, center so we are continuing to get patients from other hospitals as they need to progress in your care or need certain specialties.

i've introduced legislation with congressman lieu, with senator van hollen and others to ensure that we have a debate in congress, that congress has to vote and that donald trump cannot start a nuclear war if we have not been attacked by another country. >> what about a -- what about conventional war? if the u.s. doesn't use nuclear weapons but uses conventional bombers to try to get the job done, would a vote be necessary for a conventional strike? >> i would urge very strongly that what we're seeing since the vote on the afghan war where the congress has abdicated its responsibility to cast the votes on the expansion of our military effort in the middle east. i would say even looking back to the korean war, as it began, where there was no vote by the united states congress. it is time for the congress to reclaim its war fighting authority that is built into the united states congress. we should vote in either instance, but for sure we should be voting on whether or not donald trump uses nuclear weapons first when we have not been attacked. that could lead to catastrophic consequenc

a number of other questions, and i will take to the one that is obvious to me and that senator van hollen hit on this morning. if you recognize that it would be inappropriate to subject consumers who have been wronged as result of the breach to force arbitration, why is it that you think it is appropriate to subject anyone who claims to have been wronged by your company into force arbitration? are you suggesting every other consumer who may have been cheated or mistreated by equifax is not worthy of the same access to justice, as those who have been harmed by this breach? mr. smith: senator, the arbitration clause is in a series of products we offer to consumers where consumers have options. if they do not like the clause, they have the ability to go summer else. it was never our intent -- somewhere else. it was there our intent -- senator flake: something that they click on? how long was the terms of service document? mr. smith: i do not know. en: i cannot go to court? would a human being he will do that? is that my question? if i gave you the terms or the questions for signing onto the

senator van hollen of kentucky was the only republican to vote against the measure, which kickstart republicanfforts on tax reform. president trump says the vote is the first step delivering massive tax cuts for americans. next week, the house plans to take up the senate approved budget plan. as always, live coverage of the house here on c-span and the senate on c-span 2. take a look at the first prototypes of president trump's boardwalk. -- border wall. , the to permit a home and begin testing which designs will prevent illegal immigrants from entering the united states. there are six companies who are building the prototype. contractors have until october 26 to complete their designs before testing begins. tonight i'm a we will bring you a panel discussion on recent supreme court rulings involving freedom of speech. that will be live starting at 5:00 p.m. eastern here on c-span. later, federal reserve chairman chair janet yellen will speak at the national economists club dinner. she met with president trump yesterday about her possible reappointment as fed chair. live coverage of her remarks

frustration from younger democrats in the house, some of whom have run for the senate like chris van hollenthers who've run for governor because you can't become a leader in the house on the democratic side or a ranking member, top democrat chairman unless somebody above you retires or dies. so that's where the frustration is. and as elana said, all top three leaders are all in their 70s. i look to joe crowley and at the end of last year democrats were urging him to challenge pelosi, which he didn't do because he's a pelosi ally. >> what about pelosi's working with the president, they're talking about the debt ceiling. schumer and pelosi got him to agree with them on that. there's also funding to the hurricane relief funding bill that they helped get passed. is the feeling now is the time to talk about this when it seems like they are at least starting to get something done despite their minority in both the house and senate? >> well, i mean, look at linda sanchez. she's both a leader and member of the hispanic congressional caucus not exactly pleased with the immigration deal these democra

chief legal officer was the -- >> we'll take you across the hill back to wells fargo where chris van hollen has started the questioning. >> npr radio story, did you have a chance to hear that radio? >> i didn't, senator i listen to npr, but i didn't hear that. >> i would encourage you to do that, because one of my constituents came out to go to work one morning, his name was michael pfeiffer, heading out in february to his job in maryland at a company that builds guitars, he walked to the place where he parked his car, it wasn't there he called the police, said he was livid, said he thought someone stole his car. turns out it wasn't a car thief at all it was wells fargo's repossessors he was faber gasted because his insurance was current. he went to wells fargo, the folks at the local branch said this is nuts, you're covered it took them, the employees of wells fargo, over two and a half hours just to connect to folks in another branch. my question is very simple if it takes the employees of wells fargo two and a half hours to get in touch with others, it takes individuals having to fight t

for more, let's bring in bloomberg news senior editor van hollen from our washington bureau.ut thetle bit backdrop for this latest move. the relations between the u.s. and turkey have been worsening, even as president trump and present her to one originally embraced one another. >> there is a long standing turkish grievance related to the coup that took place in turkey last year. turkey believes that was instigated by a preacher based in the united states. may have been trying to get amex and i did -- expedited. there is no move on that, that's the immediate trigger. i think underlined that, like most things in the middle east, it relates to the syrian civil war, where the americans and turks began on the same side, but it looks like they are on opposing sides. joe: we saw the turkish lira really get clobbered with -- when this news came out. without commenting on why the currencies do what they do, it looks like investors read into this event something deeper. this tells us something profound about the state of u.s. turkish relations. what does it say about where we are? det

i want to thank my colleague senator van hollen for the great work he's done on this and mr. chairman, think i've come in 30 seconds short. >> thank you, senator toomey. senator reed. >> thank you very much. i was, i'm tempted to commend the chairman and ranking member for the best statements they've ever given. so forgive me. secretary thornton, in the past, we have used the five-party or mechanism with south korea, japan, russia, china and the united states. and at this point, it seems that a lot of the diplomacy is one off. you're going to china, talk to them. someone presumably is talking to the russians, efforts. why don't we if we're serious about this convene the five-party talks and show not only strength but concerted effort? >> yeah, thank you. we are convening -- we don't have that specific mechanism invoked but we're doing a lot in the u.n. security council. we're doing a lot with various multilateral partners and we had a very strong statement out of ashjian at the recent ministerial in october in manila. we have gotten a lot of different actors to step up and he

. >> senator van hollen. >> i was listening to your response about forced arbitration. who knows what is in customers interest, wells fargo or your customer? >> frequently the customer, that is why it is important from my perspective to get it right so that we don't -- >> your customer knows best, why do you deny them the ability to go to court? why do you require customers to go to mandatory arbitration? >> we don't do that for all product and services. >> if your customer knows best? >> many -- >> a simple question. if your customer knows best why do you deny them the opportunity to go to court? what you require arbitration? >> most independent studies including the one done by the cfpb two years ago indicate it is better for the customer -- >> if the customer makes -- a customer brings the case, right? so if a customer decides it is in his or her best interest, forget studies, we know what the consumer financial protection bureau recommended, that we get rid of forest arbitration. you said to senator tester you would not apply forced arbitration with respect to fake

chris van hollen of .aryland in the 8:00 our this is bloomberg. ♪ taylor: this is "bloomberg surveillancess flash. wall street confidence in the leadership of united airlines has been shaken by an earning call. -- falling pricing power. into thee stock turned worst laws for united shares in eight years and analysts say investors are asking about possible management change. the world's largest hedge fund is accusing barclays of manipulating copper prices. medicaid management says the millionst at least $850 on the london metals exchange. barclays denies the allegations. that is your bloomberg business flash. .rancine: thank you so much u.k. prime minister theresa may has spoken at a press conference at the eu summit in brussels. she says british is with then touching distance of a deal. nejra cehic was at the press conference. she also asked the prime minister about jeremy corbyn and whether she was uneasy that he was there. had the tone changed when you talk to various leaders? nejra: theresa may said the tone and changed. she talked about citizens rights and cooperation but the big quest

. >> senator van hollen? >> your response to senator tester about the issue of forced arbitration. simple question. who knows best what's in a customer's interest, wells fargo or your customer? >> i think that it frequently is the customer, and that's why -- that's why it's very important from my perspective to get it right so that we don't get -- >> if your customer knows best, why do you deny them the ability to go to court? why do you require your customers to go to mandatory arbitration. >> we don't do that for all of our products and services. >> why do you do it for some of them if your customer knows best? >> i think many -- >> it's a simple question, if your customer knows best, why do you require arbitration? >> because, most of the independent studies, including the one that was done by the cfpb two years ago indicate it's better for the customer -- >> if, mr. chairman, if the customer makes the -- the customer brings the case, right? if the customer decides it's in his or her best interest, forget about studies. we know what they recommended, they recommended we get rid

senators ben cardin and chris van hollen announced $25 million grand.than they they anticipated to the prince george's county school system to recruit, retain and train teachers and principals that are new to the school system to basically help them want to stay to improve the education for the children in the classroom but also once they get a hold of these new teachers they say they hire roughly a thousand new teachers a year here in prince george's for the public school system. that they don't want to have to keep doing that hiring thousand new diethers a year they want to retain the breast and brightest so they say that go forward that. $25 million spread over three years. of course, some people are wondering, hey, in the past didn't the prince george's county school system lose federal money. well that was for the head start program, six and a half million dollars because of allegations of misconduct and abuse in the head start program. i had a chance to speak with dro of prince george's county public schools just a short time ago here, and asked h

host: senator chris van hollen of maryland, former member of the house, "as we unite to agree for theives lost in las vegas, let's unite to stop the terrible toll of gun violence in our country." here's something we found on the drudge report. shooting -- you are all going to die. shock morning 45 minutes before attack. a las vegas shooting witness was reportedly warned that everyone at the root 91 music festival was going to die 45 minutes before the attack near the mandalay bay hotel. more than 50 people were killed as they remind us. they say this one woman at the root 91 music event planned an unidentified woman had told her and other concertgoers they were all going to die after pushing their way to the front of the venue. the witness told oakland news that she had been messing with a libyan from a for and telling her that they were all going to die. they escorted her out, but none of us knew it was going to be serious. we have on the line now from north carolina, is it good here gutierrez? caller: something set this guy off. youpress is not telling what set this guy off. i don't

gathering outside the building. 8:00 their this morning, we're going to hear from us senators chris van holleno annou $24 million federal grant much $8 million over the next three years to help recruit, retain and further educate teachers here in the school system. prince george's county schools hires roughly about a thousand new teachers a year and they kind of want to lower that number. they want to keep their bestie hers. so yes, recruit but really this is all about retaining the bestie hers. maybe with some extra money but also with some further education for them. bense to keep some of their b bestteachers here in the school system so then do go on somewhere else and further their careers elsewhere. but i will tell you this $24 million in federal money comes on the heels of the county losing a six and a half million dollars federal grant in the last couple of years. that was money to fund the head start program here in prince george's county. there were allegations of misconduct and abuse in the system. this is program head start program that benefited more than 800 students, more than 80

van hollen: thank you, mr. president. i want to start by thanking my friend and colleague from rhode island for pointing out why we have a jury system, a system of our peers who can listen to all sides of an argument in a fair way and render justice. and what this resolution does is prohibits many consumers around the country from having the choice of going before a jury as part of a group of people who have been wronged. so, mr. president, for months the american people had been hearing stories of how big banks, big financial institutions have engaged in various schemes that harm consumers and cheated consumers out of millions and millions of dollars. the most notorious recently, of course, was the case of wells fargo which opened up a lot of fake accounts, meaning they opened accounts without consumers asking them to open accounts, and then charge those consumers for those accounts. and it's a fact that wells fargo in many cases tried to use forced arbitration to prevent those people who have been wronged from getting a

chris van hollen.he news about manafort underscores the importance of as a nonpartisan independent special counsel. every single member of, should support legislation as to prevet trump from firing mueller. at the white house press briefing yesterday sarah sanders was asked about the possibility of the president hiring more -- firing robert mueller. >> the president said last week there is no intention or plan to make any changes in regards to special counsel. you throughl take some of the other parts of the other parts of that press briefing which mostly focused on this topic as we continue to hear your thoughts. barbara in anderson island, washington. for democrats. go ahead. >> thank you for taking my call. i want to say that it is time we stop calling this collusion and start calling it a conspiracy. all of the americans that were targeted to vote for donald all played a part in this. every republican that voted for this guy. every independent the voted for this guy. every democrat voted for this g