except for this one weird tactic xavier becerra talked about today.he discharge position is weird enough and rare enough as a tactic that some people think it is a myth, but i know it is true because i have seen "legally blond 2." >> i just don't think i'm cut out for this. >> elle, we have a plan. two words for you. discharge petition. >> with a couple hundred signatures, we can spring the bill from committee straight to the house floor for a vote. >> i don't know. that sounds really complicated. >> you've come farther than any of us while maintaining your balance and sparkle. we never sparkle. >> none of us ever thought one person could make a difference until you came along. >> well, if i remember correctly, isn't that, like, 218 signatures? >> it's not that hard. >> yeah. yeah. i guess i know women with more shoes than that. wait, that's me. >> elle, it's time to finish what you started. >> and i don't mean to spoil it in case you haven't seen it, but it works. it works for reese witherspoon in that movie. bruiser's bill is the bill they do it on.

host: and we are back with congressman xavier becerra, democrat from california, also the chairman of democratic congress come us it's on the ways and means committee as well. what is the list of to-do items for the democratic party in 2014? guest: we would like to give most americans are raised. it is time for americans with the lowest to note that they will stay out of poverty even if they were coupled his job. some 20 worked a full day's job. some 25,000 americans working should get a raise in the minimum wage. host: is it politically possible? absolutely, virtually every democrat, if not every democrat, will support an increase in the minimum wage in the house. there were 75 republicans the last time we raise the wage who voted for it, and half of those are still in the house. 33, 34 republicans who voted for a minimum-wage wage increase the last time who are still here. we hope that they continue to be consistent with the previous vote. host: house democratic leadership pushing the issue by filing a discharge petition. for those outside of washington, explained his elementary too

joining us now, congressman xavier becerra, chairman of the house democratic caucus.floated this idea of the discharge petition last week at the house retreat. congressman becerra, thanks for being with us. >> rachel, good to be with you. >> let me ask you if this turn toward something, as radical and ambitious as a discharge petition, the kind of direct action we're seeing with multiple arrests all over the country including faith leaders at the white house today? is this a sign of hope something could happen or a sign of desperation? >> not only is it a sign of hope, rachel, as you said, it's a sign of a movement. this is not going to stop. elections do have consequences. while we elected in 2012 a president who is ready to do immigration reform, ready to raise the minimum wage, we also saw the country elect a republican house. even though democrats got over 1 million votes more throughout the 435 congressional districts than did republicans, republicans retained the house and as a result these elections have consequences. we need to have a movement to show the reca

i thank xavier becerra for this opportunity to introduce to you the leader of the free world, more importantly, our friend, president barack obama. [applause] >> thank you. thank you, guys. thank you, everybody. everybody sit down. thank you. thank you, everybody. sit down. it is good to see you. thank you for the wonderful introduction. let me be the first to say happy valentine's day to our fearless leader nancy pelosi. [applause] paul will hopefully get you more than just a thank-you. to steny, jim, javier, steve israel who was doing a great job under the circumstances. it is great to see you. we just saw each other at the white house recently. i'm not going to give a long speech here. i want to spend most of my time answering some more questions. let me just make a couple of observations since we saw each other. first of all, i stated in our state of the union that the single most important thing we have to do, not just as a party, but as a country, is make sure there is opportunity for every single person, that we are focused every single day in this town or in washington on making sure t

. >> xavier becerra chairman of the democratic caucus joined by the leadership team., a great session. tonight we are going to hear from dr. kim the chairman of the world bank and tomorrow we have the president of the united states and we have to stay tuned because since the vice president was not able to arrive today for the luncheon keynote address we are waiting to hear word of there may be opportunity for the president as well. generally speaking our members are not just thrilled that we have this opportunity to really drill deep into these issues that are so important to americans but that we are going to the heart of the issues that we think americans care about. how do you know of an economy that works for all its? how do you know those ladders of opportunity to ask how do you guarantee economic security so that everyone has a chance? that is what we have been discussing and we have had wonderful speakers who have helped us hone in on how we do that best and we still have several dynamic speakers to go including of course the president of the united states. we

and later, xavier becerra, chairman of the democratic caucus, discuss the house democratic agenda. and it 9:15, nbc news correspondent terry smith talks about his documentary looking at the marijuana industry in colorado. ♪ host: good morning. up on capitol hill today, federal reserve chairman chan -- janet yellen will be appearing before the senate banking committee to talk about the u.s. economic outlook for the year. we will have coverage on c-span3 at 10:00 a.m. eastern time. in your morning papers this morning, under the threat of a national boycott, jan brewer vetoed the religious freedom bill, saying it could divide arizona in ways we could

meantime this morning, republican senator mike leigh and xavier becerra faced off on the decision delayingshameless act, a shameless power grab that is designed to help the president and his political party achieve a particular outcome in a partisan election. >> if this were against the competition, someone would have been sued by now and the president would have had to stop. >> today on "meet the press," mitt romney talked about hillary clinton's potential presidential run. >> well, i don't think bill clinton is as relevant as hillary clinton if hillary clinton decides to run for president. i think her record is what will be judged upon, not the record of her husband. >> let's bring in lynn sweet and beth fewy. how relevant is former president bill clinton to a hillary clinton 2016 presidential run? >> well, it's relevant because no matter what mitt romney says, there are political forces out there that might use it, like senator rand paul. but if someone like him goes too far, he risks people putting the jacket that his father wears on him, and if he has to be responsible for everything

sunday,", "fox news with mike lee and xavier becerra, chairman of the house democratic caucus.ollowingthe union," at 3 p.m., with john mccain and austen goolsbee. at 4 p.m., "face the nation," with former republican senator jim demint, now president of the heritage foundation, and north carolina republican patrick worry. the network tv talk shows are on c-span radio and brought to you as a public service by the networks and c-span. "meet the is at noon. press," followed at 2:00 by state of the union, and at 4 p.m. eastern time, "face the nation." you can listen to them all on c-span radio here in the acrosston, d c area, and the country find us on channel 100 20. you can download our free app for your smart phone or listen online. us onyou can also follow twitter and on c-span radio. thank you, nancy callow. a look at a plan that is getting a lot of attention in detroit. life in the shadow of the marathon plant. detroiters, wildlife, pollution, sharing a home. there was this editorial from two years ago. "no need to panic. from 16ing out scientists in this op-ed a couple of iss