senator van hollen: service contract employees have not received back pay. we just went through a record-long shutdown. lila johnson was locked out of work. and didn't get paid for 35 days. the bills kept coming in. and we are talking about low and middle-wage workers, people who provide janitor services, people who provide security guards, these are people who are living paycheck to paycheck and really struggling. i think there is growing support. we now have a bipartisan support for this measure. let's put it this way. i haven't heard of any opposition yet, but we will push this very hard and i thought it was very important to bring lila johnson to the capitol to highlight the plight for individuals like her. >> what was the situation for her. >> she is at the department of agriculture and provides janitorial services and because the department was closed, she was furloughed from her job and that meant she went without a paycheck. she is helping to raise and support two grandchildren. and obviously that has made it very, very difficult for her and for so m

van hollen: there is a lot of people who can't right now. you reported a record delinquent see right in the last quarter. the last thing i would say, i am going to keep after you and your colleagues on this faster payments issue. it makes no sense to me that theco, south africa, soon entire european union will have immediate ability to clear payments while we don't. checked on friday one clear until the middle of next week. millions of americans are paying more in terms of late fees and payday loan interest rates, loan shark rates, because of that. i hope you will give the same attention to that issue as you are giving to some of the other issues you discussed this morning. >> senator perdue. you, mr.ue: thank chairman, for being here and for your commitment. i have two questions for you. i am always amazed at the economic experts on this committee and the revisionist the use of history -- views of history. let me throw some facts out. this recovery is real. we are 100 basis points more than the last administration after two years. the cbo s

chairman crapo: senator van hollen. senator van hollen: thank you, mr. chairman. chairman powell, thank you for your service. i want to focus for a moment on the impact of the tax bill, the tax bill that cut the -- passed about a year ago. especially taking a look at the banking industry. i think in no other sector is it clearer as to what a huge giveaway this tax cut was to big financial interests. i don't know if you saw the bloomberg analysis that was conducted earlier this month. they looked at the 23 u.s. banks that the federal reserve says are most important to our economy. and concluded that those 23 banks got a $21 billion tax break windfall. did you see that analysis? chairman powell: i don't know that i did. senator van hollen: would you be surprised to learn that they used much of that windfall for a major stock buyback? chairman powell: i honestly don't know. first of all i know that the ax cut reduced taxes for big companies that are very rofitable. senator van hollen: a lot were used for stock buybacks that helped a lot of executives. during that sam

chris van hollen. >> i'm bringing a maryland er. she's been a contract employee at the department of agriculture for about 20 years. she provides janitorial services. she's a wonderful person. i'm bringing her to highlight the fact that in this government shutdown that we just went through, while we have been able to provide backpay to federal employees, you have lots of service contract employees like lilac who have been left out in the cold. i'm proposing legislation as part of the agreement to keep the government open that would make sure that people like ms. johnson get backpay. >> in previous shutdowns, have contract workers not received back pay?

senator van hollen: i'm bringing a

van hollen: i do.rump has, president elevated the north korean leader , kim jong-un, on the world stage. he met with him as an equal on the international stage, and yet, we have seen no concessions at all. it appears the dprk did not even bring their nuclear negotiating team to hunt noise, which you would -- to hanoi, which you would do if you were serious about the goal of the nuclear relation -- denuclearization. the north koreans are playing with president trump. this was amateur hour from our president. the north koreans are exploiting that. they also got our president to say he agrees with the north korean leader. the north korean leader could not have possibly known about the gross human rights violations that led to the death a man. isaine: a lot of attention turning to china and the administration focus as well. you have been involved in some of the issues going on with zte. how do you feel about the administration's approach not only to the china trade deal but how it is dealing with some of t

steve: our conversation with chris van hollen. two presidents never delivered a state of the union address. william henry harrison and james garfield. most,e who delivered the franklin d roosevelt. the president will be talking a lot about jobs and the economy. the stock market and focusing on aids research and the potential of medication that could treat aids patients and potentially a cure from the fda. that could be more news coming from the speech. democrats will be talking about the inequality in the u.s. economy, the trump economy. this from senator chuck schumer earlier today. >> we all know president trump will say tonight that the state of our union is strong, but the american people know the truth. on the economy, health care, foreign policy, it's abundantly clear that the trump administration has been filling the middle class in this country. what is the state of the trump economy? failing the middle class. what's the state of the trump health-care system? filling american families. what's the state of the trump adminis

apologized but there are growing calls tonight for her to resign including from maryland senator chris van hollen. tracee wilkinss is gathering new reaction for usto ght. >> her views are of years past. we're moving rward. >> reporter: today the prince george's county executive spoke> out. er opinions don't mean anything. a woman who represents peopley 100 miles a from prince george's county. we know who we are. >> reporter: she admitted and apologized for using the n' word when referring to a legislative district in prince george's county. also brook says her racist comment requires more than an apology. >> i think anybody would agree that a person who goes to work and espouses the views she did should be fired. >> i'm deeply apologetic. i made a mistake, and i'm trying to repent for that. >> reporter: today in a brief interview with ouraltimore sister station she apologized again for her commes. she's also apologize today to the leader of the maryland black caucus. the speaker of the house is calling for her to take sensitivity train [strip lasanti of her position. underscores an apology and pr

chris van hollen invited lila johnson from hagerstown. she's one of the ones who won get any back pay for the hours she lost during the shutdown. >> you may remember a woman confronting the former senator jeff flake. ana maria has been invited by freshman new york congresswoman, alexandria ocasio-cortez. the first lady has invited a sixth grader from delaware. his name is joshua trump. joshua's been bullied at school because of his last name. one of the first ladies initiative has been to stop ly cyberbg. stay with news4 for comprehensive coverage before and after the state of the union and the democratic response. doreen gentzler and stt macfarla will be live at the capitol tonight and we have an updated list of road closures in our nbc washington heapp. >>> state of the union address comes just as the president faces new allegations that his inaugural committee missnt tens o millions of dollars in donations. the u.s. attorney's office in the southern district of new york issueden a sub for documents from the committee last night. there

i want to thank senator van hollen for taking the time to work with this legislation here with his colleagues. i really appreciate it and i hope that it will be passed for the government not to be shut down again and for the contractors to get paid. we work hard and we don't make that much, but whatever we make, that takes care of our family. i think we deserve to get paid. all the contractors. you have a lot of contractors in these buildings. they should get paid like the federal workers are going to get their pay. we should get our pay, too. >> talk to me about the legislation that you are aiming to get passed so that people like lyla can get paid. >> well, i teamed up with my colleagues like tina smith and others. we are determined to make sure that people like ms. johnson are not left out in the cold. we did the right thing for federal employees. they'll get back pay. people who are locked out of work because they were service contract employees, their bills kept coming in like everybody else's. we are trying to get this included in whatever legislation we have to keep the government open

. >> senator van hollen. >> thank you, mr. chairman chairman powell, thank you for your service i want to focus for a moment on the impact of the tax bill, the tax bill that passed about a year ago, especially taking a look at the banking industry because i think in no other sector is it clearer as to what a huge give away this tax cut was to big financial interests i don't know if you saw the bloomberg analysis that was conducted earlier this month they looked at the 23 u.s. banks that the federal reserve says are most important to our economy and concluded that those 23 banks got a $21 billion tax break windfall did you see that analysis? >> i don't know that i did >> would you be surprised to learn that they use much of that windfall for a major stock buy back >> i honestly don't know i know the tax cut reduced taxes for big companies that were very profitable >> they did. and it was $21 billion windfall. a lot of it used for stock buy backs that helped a lot of the executives what's interesting is during that same period o