[applause] secretary zinke it, let me stay with you. had philosophy and this country, it started with teddy roosevelt. the obama administration turned that into a land of no uses. they used the designation of wilderness and national monuments as a weapon to actually hose off a lot of our public lands to use by the people. bit about thee philosophy of yourself, and this administration. >> public lands belong to the people, and not special interests. [applause] a story about teddy roosevelt. teddy roosevelt, for a lot of reasons really pushed this country on what we have today, a legacy of republic land. everybody loves our parks, we like to go down there and make sure we are great stewards. roosevelt went up to yosemite and met a gentleman by the name of john meer. he spent a lot of time putting flowers in roosevelt pockets. ride, at on a wonderful ride you cannot replicate because it is too much dead and dying timber. roosevelt comes back to guy named and hires a pinchot. he offered the american conservation ethic, best science, best pr

yet secretary zinke seems deaf to our voices. i guess the only voice that is really relevant is that of a republican governor. that, mr. president, is about as nakedly political as it gets around washington. a big gift for the oil and gas companies but one that poses an enormous danger to the economies and environment of local committees along our coast. finally, the decision doesn't make sense in terms of energy policy. our country is more energy secure now than ever. international energy agency reports that within ten years the united states will move from being a net importer of oil to a net exporter. so this scheme, this scheme of secretary zinke to expand offshore drilling is going to benefit. let's acknowledge that. a handful of big oil interests, and then leave hardworking fishing families and coastal business owners to pick up the bill. that is not how we do things on our west coast. the lasting economic uncertainty and ultimate environmental degradation is not worth it. and today on behalf of the people of oregon, i urge

[applause] .ecretary zinke secretary zinke: why is energy important?mentally, know it is a better than the u.s.. we have a regulatory framework that ensures accountability and no one does it better than the united states. if you want to see how to not produce energy, i invite you to go to the middle east or africa, where the problems are. they are not in the united states. secondly, economically. we talk about the tax bill and does everyone like the tax bill the donald trump -- [applause] zinke: as good as the tax bill is, when america pulls up to a pump and they feel their car up, every time they fill out , to previous a administration, it was two dollars, four hours, six dollars, $100 to fill your car. american energy has delivered now it is $60. it's $40 you have in your pocket , when you feel about a pump station the would not have. so the american economy is run on made in america energy, and it should be. thirdly, i spent 23 years in the seals and morally, i never want your kids to ever see what i have seen. ever. and a lot of it is -- fracking h

>> well, i'm on the stage with brian zinke. we're going to talk about energy independence and the total change in the world energy wise. 15 years ago the united states was dependent on a lot of countries that didn't necessarily -- weren't necessarily our best friends. let's put it that way. today the united states produces more oil and gas than any other nation in the world. our ability to geopolitically affect the world with energy is one of the things we are going to talk about. the federal lands and opening up those federal lands of which ryan zinke and the department of interior have oversight will be part of that conversation. we're also going to talk about some interesting things that we do that people might not think our agencies would be involved with. for instance, the department det of energy stands up an office of veterans healthcare. y'all know my interest in veterans back through the years. and we're going to be able to use our national labs, looking at some very nontraditional ways to address veterans' health in a

[applaus [applause] >> secretary zinke., why is energy important to us? one, environmentally, nobody does it better than the u.s. we have a regulatory frame work that ensures accountability. no one does it better than the united states. now, if you want to see how not to produce energy, i invite you to go to the middle east or africa. that's where the problems are. they're not in the united states. [applause] >> secondly, economically. you know, we talk about the tax bill and does everyone like the tax bill that donald trump -- [applaus [applause] >> well, as good as the tax bill is, when america pulls up to a pump and they fill their car up every time they fill up, under the previous administration it was $2. $4, $6, $100 to fill a car. american energy has delivered now it's $60. and it's $40 you have in your pocket every american who would fill up to a pump station that you wouldn't have. so, america economy is run on made america energy and it should be. thirdly -- [applause] >> you know, i spent 23 years in the seals an

eastern with rick , and, ryan zinke congressman mark meadows. we will bring you those comments live on c-span two. and we will join president trump as he addresses the attendees along with kellyanne conway, linda mcmahon and occupied. you can join our live coverage starting at 10:00 a.m. eastern on c-span.

sure enough, florida promptly got a public promise from secretary zinke that its coastlines would be spared. i'm sure florida's coastline is beautiful. in fact, i visited florida's coastline and i can tell you it's beautiful. but guess what? so is delaware's. we deserve to be able to protect our coastline just as much as floridians do. so i invite secretary zinke to once again come to delaware but to instead see the coastline and see these fragile resources and see what they have to offer. for wildlife, for conservation, for fishing, for hunting, and for tourism. secretary zinke promising to exempt florida is the trump administration deciding which states have to deal with oil and gas drilling based purely on partisan political consideration. i think the state of our coastal communities and local economies shouldn't be auctioned off to the highest bidder or shouldn't be subject to partisan politics. instead, they should be able to be protected based on science and based on the views of coastal communities. so i'm here today to voice my profound disappointment in this plate ant neglec

> the conservative political action conference continues at secretaryeastern with perry, secretary zinke he. and here on c-span, we will join president trump when he addresses the conference along with kellyanne conway. can join our live coverage starting at 10:00 a.m. eastern on c-span. >> texas senator ted cruz addressed the conference. he addresses legislation he cosponsored that he says would reduce gun violence. he also offered advice for expanding free speech on college campuses. this is 20 minutes.

eastern with secretary perry, interior secretary ryan zinke he, and representative mark meadows.c-span, we will bring addressestrump as he attendees with kellyanne conway and fcc chair ajit pai. you can join live coverage starting at 10:00 a.m. addresses attendees with kellyanne conway eastern on c-span. >> c-span's washington journal, live every day eastern on c-span. >> c-span's washington journal, live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. friday morning, eastern the goldwater institute discusses right to try medication that would allow terminally ill patients to obtain experimental drugs not approved by the fda. reform and about tax drug availability. vice president of the national education association on the recent school shootings and president trump's proposal to arm school staff as a way to prevent school shootings. washington journal live 7:00 a.m. eastern friday morning. join the discussion. the nation's governors are in washington dc this weekend, and friday, ohio governor john kasich, john hickenlooper the 'n washington dc this weekend, and bill walk

trterior secretary ryan zinke, and e.p.a. adminator scott pruitt are all under investigation by their department's internal watchdogs. last year, health and humanrv es secretary tom price quit after his use of privateas planeseported. for the pbs newshour, i'm john yang. >> woodruff: we explore these violations further now with: reporter lisa rein of the "washington post," and kathleen clark, a professor of law at u washingtversity in st. louis, who works on issues of government ethics. and weelcome both of you to the program. lisa rein, you're the reporter here. i'm going to start with you. so what secretary shulkin is saying, he called it the "thread ofias" in this report. it doesn't appear to baccurate or objective? how do we know what the inspector general found is accurate? >> well, secretary shulkin has pushed back very, very hd against this report. he's hired a team of lawyers. he's hir a p.r. firm, which is pretty unusual. he -- some things he ds not deny. for example, his chief of staff, who the inspector general sai

zinke, price when he was around, pruitt.ng security details in excess of their needs. >> veteran affairs secretary. >> taking a plane down to watch the eclipse. now we have this. there is something a little entitled about it. it's hard to know what's going on in their heads. it feels as if there's a failure to distinguish between the taxpayer resources and their own personal lives and needs. >> eugene, does this fit with sort of drain the swamp campaign slogan for trump world? >> hardly. $31,000 for a furniture suite, obviously we could do better at ikea. there are reports there was substantially more money spent. in a sense, it's not so much the money as the fact that ben carson, who i know and who i'm sure you know as a brilliant neurosurgeon, is the secretary of housing. he has no experience in housing. i think it reflects what his concerns were coming into the office, which seem to have been more his sort of comfort. sure, maybe the office needed to be freshened up. but he is in charge of housing. that's really the funda

this morning, secretary kerry -- secretary harry and secretary zinke.nd they mention the regulatory burden that small businesses can face. that is what we call in the swamp red tape. what is it like outside of the swamp, as a small business owner, to have to navigate the that can sometimes not just constrict inability to expand, and hire more people and franchise, but is really just a pain to go through? you hire someone to go through a stack of paperwork. how can businesses make sure it remains easy to deal with taxes in addition to keeping them low? >> for every moment that an entrepreneur, a business owner is spending in compliance, the paperwork is opportunity cost they are not devoting that time to growing and running their business. again, what i am told -- and i come with actual hard facts, evidence, because i have been out talking to small business owners all over the country. what they have told me is it is such a relief to have some of these burdens off. tell me, what regulations specifically have been good? they cannot point to one. it is sud

. >> the zink rhett service and the nypd teaming to up finds out who mailed envelope with what proud torrealba donald trump, jr. she opened it at her mother's apartment, she is okay, the powder not dangerous however there was a letter with threat of political nature. cbs news learned the letter was postmarked in boston. >> the senate now debating immigration reform plan republicans anadem can't expected to add amendments before it is over. president trump is propose ago path to citizenship for undocumented immigrant in exchange for tighter border security. democrat want to keep the diversity visa program. they also oppose cut to family migration. it will take 60 vote for the finish product to clear the senate. >> starting today you can see the portraits of barack obama and michelle obama at the smithsonian port rat galley. the 44th president and the first lady that for the unveiling, the president chose artist while i for his painting, the first african-american artist to paint a presidential portrait for the gallery, former president calls the painting of his likeness, quote, pretty

secretary chow and secretary zinke and administrator ross, thank you for joining us. i a greatly appreciate. we are here to discuss the critical need to address the crumbling infrastructure, and one understands and the people in room understands better than most that probably hopefully better than anybody that the problem with the states have and the local leaders have with funding the infrastructure is horrendous, and we will build, and we will maintain, and the vast majority of americas want to see us take care of the infrastructure, and trucking companies are complaining that they used to take trucks from los angeles to new york and there was no damage, and now they bring them from los angeles to new york and there is tremendous damage to their trucks. because our road s as are in ba shape, and we are going to get the roads in great shape, and very important. we are going to the make the infrastructure modernized and we are really way behind schedule and way behind other countries. we led the way for many, many year, and then, the number of decades ago, it slowed d

conservative political action conference continues with energy secretary rick perry, interior secretary ryan zinkee, and congressman mark meadows. you will bring you the remarks live on c-span2. we will join president trump as he addresses the attendees along with kellyanne conway. coverageoin our live starting at 10:00 eastern on c-span. >> c-span's washington journal, live every day policy issues that impact you. coming up friday morning, the goldwater institute's starling coleman. then heartland institute president and ceo talks about tax reform. and vice president of the national education association on the recent school shooting and president trump's proposal to arm teachers and school staff as a way to prevent mass shootings. be sure to watch c-span's washington journal live at 7:00 friday morning. join the discussion. friday ohio governor john kasich, colorado governor john hickenlooper, and alaska governor will unveil their bipartisan plan for improving the nation's health care system. you can watch the news conference live starting at 10:00 eastern on c-span2. nearly 20 years, in depth o

eastern with rick , and, ryan zinke congressman mark meadows. we will bring you those comments live on c-span two. and we will join president trump as he addresses the attendees along with kellyanne conway, linda mcmahon and occupied. you can join our live coverage starting at 10:00 a.m. eastern on c-span. in this panel from cpac, a discussion about free speech on college campuses and strategies for giving conservatives a greater voice. speakers include the chair from the college of -- the college republican committee. this is 30 minutes. hello, cpac. really nice to be in a place where i am not being protested. how about you? >> wonderfully tolerant people. we probably should have run out to -- walked out to rocket ma'am. title of ourhe session today. we are going to talk about college campuses and the problems we see and the offensive things that groups are doing on campus. charlie, tell us about yourself. >> i am charlie kirk. this is my fifth cpac. i am the founder of turning point usa. wide studenton activist movement focused on the idea of

zinke helping out parts of the coast is a good thing.re you happy with the way cabinet government has turned out on capitol hill? >> yeah. and he empowers the secretaries as well. he really doesn't micromanage what they want to do, who they want to hire. and he lets them govern. i think that the cabinet is something that, you know, personally i'm very proud of. i played a part in that. >> yeah. >> and i thought if you look at the people that he's put in place from top to bottom, it is really the cream of the crop. >> any doubt in your mind he is running for reelection? >> of course he's going to run. >> any doubt that mike pence will be his colleague on the ticket? >> i have no doubt about that. look, you see the approval numbers are coming back up. by the way, i a little lways re people of his approval numbers. on election day it was 37 and he won. now he is in the low 40s to mid-40s. i think some had him even higher than that. the point is in december he was at 32. one had him at 42. and ra rathmussen had him at 40. the economy will be

energy secretary rick perry, interior secretary ryan zinke and congressman mark meadows -- chair of the conservative freedom caucus -- will be live here on c-span2 at 8:35 a.m. eastern. a little later our cpac coverage moves to c-span for president trump's comments. we'll also hear from kellyanne conway, linda mcmahon and fcc chair ajit pai. that's scheduled to get underway live friday at just after 10 a.m. eastern on our companion network, c-span. >> today former government officials talked about the impact of hospital mergers and the cost of health care. the insurance market and consumers. hosted by the alliance for health policy, this is an hour and 15 minutes. >> great, thank you so much, bill. and good morning, everybody. thank you for joining us here today for another breakfast. my name is sarah dash, and i am president and ceo of the alliance for health py.

energy secretary rick perry, interior secretary ryan zinke and congressman mark meadows will be among the speakers. live coverage gets underway at 8:35 a.m. eastern on c-span2. >>> and later in the morning, president donald trump will speak at cpac. other speakers include kellyanne conway, linda mcmahon and the head of the fcc chair. that's live at 10:05 a.m. eastern on c-span. >>> join us saturday at 9:30 a.m. eastern on "american history tv" on c-span3 at the american civil war museum in richmond, virginia, for live coverage of the civil war's impact on americans. speakers include peter carmichael, director at gettysburg college civil war institute, james robertson, author of "the untold civil war." jane schultz, author of "women the at the front" and amy morrell taylor the author of "the divided family in civil war america." from the georgetown university law center. guest speaker thomas west talks about hiss book, "the political theory of the american founding." >> in a republican form of government, namely based on consent elections, virtue is needed more than in any other form o

energy secretary rick perry, interior secretary ryan zinke and congressman mark meadows will be among the speakers. live coverage gets underway at 8:35 a.m. eastern on c-span2. >>> and later in the morning, president donald trump will speak at cpac. other speakers include kellyanne conway, linda mcmahon and the head of the fcc chair. that's live at 10:05 a.m. eastern on c-span. >>> join us saturday at 9:30 a.m. eastern on "american history tv" on c-span3 at the american civil war museum in richmond, virginia, for live coverage of the civil war's impact on americans. speakers include peter carmichael, director at gettysburg college civil war institute, james robertson, author of "the untold civil war." jane schultz, author of "women the at the front" and amy morrell taylor the author of "the divided family in civil war america." from the georgetown university law center. guest speaker thomas west talks about hiss book, "the political theory of the american founding." >> in a republican form of government, namely based on consent elections, virtue is needed more than in any other form o

and cocoa also contains minerals such as calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium and zinkers, so try to limit your daily treat to 1 ounce or about 150 calories. i use herpecin l.re, it penetrates deep to treat. it soothes, moisturizes, and creates an spf 30 barrier, to protect against flare-ups caused by the sun. herpecin l. >>> the las vegas shooter had anti-anxiety drugs in his system. paddock's autopsy shows he died from a self-inflicted gun shoshd to the head. >> 58 died, almost 500 were injured and police found paddock dead inside his hotel room. authorities haven't released a motive, but he was known as a gambler who visited las vegas freblg frequently. >>> israel says a fighter jet has crashed after coming under massive anti-aircraft fire. israel admitted its forces launched attacks on iranian targets. >> and ben wedeman is live from beirut. ben, walk us through what we know happened this morning. >> reporter: what we are hearing from israeli officials is that early in the morning, an iranian-madrone entered israeli air space that was shot down by an israeli helicop

ryan zinke wants to open nearly all u.s. coastlines to offshore oil and gas drilling. the u.s.of ocean emergency management as opposed -- proposed seven. between 2020 and 2023. we will be right back after the break. at at&t, we believe in access. the opportunity for everyone to explore a digital world. connecting with the things that matter most. and because nothing keeps us more connected than the internet, we've created access from at&t. california households with at least one resident who receives snap or ssi benefits may qualify for home internet at a discounted rate of $10 a month. no commitment, deposit, or installation fee. visit att.com/accessnow to learn more. >>> we continue to follow developing news we brought you at the beginning of this newscast. including the manhunt that is underway to find those involved in a deadly santa rosa shooting. >> we are learning more about the victim of the deadly bus crash in the city of brooklyn. -- berkeley. that is today on the 4 on 2. >>> facebook and google is setting up rules of dating in the workplace. those company's are allow

scandals overhanging but also rob porter being the last and tom price over his plane travels, secretary zinke had to apologize for plane use. who's in charge? >> ultimately the president is in charge. i have to think back because it fits back into a pattern. if you look back into the new york city skyline, you can't pick out trump buildings in the skyline unless you look carefully because it's dwarfed by other real estate there yet he always makes himself to be an outsized players but his real business is a relatively small business and the people who are close to him are family members. now, notice the family members have all survived and everybody else seems to come and go which was his role in "the apprentice." i hate to say it, it sounds so trite, but the only way i can explain it is the president runs his oval office like a reality show. he tweets like it's a reality show, many of his actions are like a reality show, calling the democrats treasonous is like a reality show. all of these characters -- and they are characters. i would binge watch anthony scaramucci if he had a reality show.

what he says but he's not the only one speaking, we also have energy secretary rick perry and ryan zinkes vice president mike pence who brought the house down taking a shot at one of this crowds favorite targets, nancy pelosi. >> any leader who says that a thousand dollars in the pockets oh of warning families is crumbs is out of thank you very -- toue american people. >> all the media going on and on about what should be done, wayne lapierre breaking silence and here is what he had to say. >> evil walks among us and god help us if we don't hardened our schools and protect our kids. >> to stop a bad guy with a gun, it takes a good guy with a gun. [cheers and applause] >> another big star in a crowd favorite here senator ted cruz who won the straw poll a couple of years ago took the stage and was able to catch up with him in the hallway and have one-on-one with him and ask him about some of this, here is what he had to say. >> the way you prevent mass shoot askings not stripping away the second amendment rights of law abiding citizens, the way you stop mass murderers is you stop violent c

secretary chao, secretary zinke secretary ross, administrator prewitt, i appreciate.e are meeting today to discuss america's crumbling infrastructure. it's one that people in this room understand better than most and hopefully better than everybody that the problem of the states have and local leaders have with funding the infrastructure is horrendous. and we will build. we will maintain and the vast majority of americans want to see us take care of our infrastructure. draghi companies -- trucking companies complained that they used to take trucks from los angeles to new york and it was no damage. now they bring from los angeles to new york and there's tremendous damage to their trucks because our roads are in bad shape and we will get the roads in great shape. very important. we will make our infrastructure modernized and we are really way behind schedule. we are way behind other countries. we have always led the way for many, many years. then a number of decades ago, it slowed down. over the last eight years and 15 years to be honest, it has come to a halt. this mor

to do so by the rival casino operators, which is the plot of the movie happening now and it's ryan zinkeme black hat. the president's son's wedding planner is in charge of the urban and housing develop and the husband of a woman who does party planning for golf courses a handyman got moved into a senior headquarters job at the epa. the president said it should be viewed as treason that democrats didn't clap for him at the state of the union. it's hard to keep up with the kind of thing that would derail any normal presidency for awhile. and this one it's just a day's news. but there is one of these that is life or death and that has given birth to some truly, truly tremendous journalism and that story is next. (avo) if you've been struggling with belly pain and constipation, and you're overwhelmed by everything you've tried-- all those laxatives, daily probiotics, endless fiber-- it could be wearing on you. tell your doctor what you've tried, and how long you've been at it. linzess works differently from laxatives. linzess treats adults with ibs with constipation or chronic constipation.

conservative political action conference continues with energy secretary eric, interior secretary, ryan zinke he and congressman mark meadows. we will bring you their remarks live on c-span two. president trump here on c-span as he addresses the attendees along with advisor, kellyanne conway and others. you can join our live coverage starting at 10 a.m. eastern on c-span. ♪ c-span's washington journal, live every day with ms. and policy issues that impact you. coming up friday morning, the goldwater institute's coleman discusses rights to medication which would allow terminally ill patients to obtain experimental drugs. the heartland institute president and the executive order talks about cpac tax reform, climate and energy policy and drug availability.

the interior secretary ryan zinke and congressman mark meadows. will be life here on c-span two at 8305 a little later our coverage moves to c-span for president trump's comments. we will awful -- also hear from kelly and conway. that is scheduled to get underway live on friday. between the relations of china and taiwan.

that is the sort of alarming thing is that from zinke's burke, they were able to get actual campaign events put together by pretending to be americans. again, none of the american side of this was charged. the people described in the indictment probably -- they were just engaging in good faith politics, whether or not i agree with their politics, they were just doing what we're supposed to do in the united states, which is engage in politics. said, theknow, as i guccifer 2.0 figure leaks a bunch of democratic targeting data on the florida races, so that state is want to o watch in those events are ones to watch i think. >> can you talk about the now "l.a. times" report that rick gates, the former aide to trump's presidential campaign is expected to plead guilty and testify against paul manafort? what is the significance of this, potentially? >> it is another cooperating witness. with the internet research's agency indictment on friday, there was not another guilty plea that was announced for a guy who had sold bank accounts that the trolls used to set up paypal accounts. gates, if he

secreta secretary chao, secretary zinke, secretary ross, administrator pruitt, thank you for joining us. i greatly appreciate it. we're here today to discuss the critical need to rebuild america's crumbling infrastructure. one understands, and the people in this room really understand better than most, probably hopefully better than anybody, that the problem the states have and local leaders have with funding the infrastructure is horrendous, and we will build, we will maintain, and the vast majority of americans want to see us take care of our infrastructure. trucking companies are complaining that they used to the take trucks from los angeles to new york, and there was no damage. now they bring from los angeles to new york and there's tremendous damage to their trucks because our roads are in bad shape, and we're going to get the roads in great shape. very important. we're going to make our infrastructure modernized and we're really way behind schedule. we're way behind other countries. we always led the way for many, many years. then a number of decades ago, it slowed down. over t

the interior secretary ryan zinke and congressman mark meadows. will be life here on c-span two at 8305 a little later our coverage moves to c-span for president trump's comments. we will awful -- also hear from kelly and conway. that is scheduled to get underway live on friday. between the relations of china and taiwan. from the hudson institute this is an hour and 20 minutes. a special welcome to those of you who are watching online into the viewers on c-span. i am seth cropsey. the senior fellow here at hudson. welcome to our conference on china's recent actions that aim to establish their own order in the taiwan strait. as you will hear in greater detail from our panel this morning china unilaterally changed the status quo in the first week of this year. the changes were made despite agreements between taiwan. and then again in 2015. these provided for mutual consultation to any change in aviation rates. this violation is part of a larger broader pattern of chinese provocation. for example the chinese aircraft carrier goes through the taiwan s

administration over to what i call the three stooges of the fossil fuel industry -- pruitt, perry, and zinke -- the senate sat on its hands. the recent interview with british journalist pierce morgan shows trump willing to make a scientific fool of himself on the question of climate change. to please the general managers pulling the strings of his administration, the koch brothers. this record puts them all way out of line, way out of line with most americans. overwhelming numbers of younger americans demand climate action and plan to hold politicians who stand in its way accountable. faith groups, universities, state and local governments, and businesses have stepped up their climate leadership. businesses hear from their customers and know the american people want action. but, if corporate america is serious about climate action in washington, corporate america needs to explain why the big business lobby groups in this town, the u.s. chamber of commerce, the american petroleum institute, the national association of manufacturers, stand so resolutely in the way of climate action. these thre

administration is more open to either privatizing the public lands, and the guy that he has appointed zinke i believe is his name as the secretary of the interior is not an advocate for the privatization of public lands, so it seems that it is not on the table. there might be more openness to this working landscape to the recognizing that you can have economic uses of land and environmental protection at the same time. that they don't have to be oppositional. that said, the new administration does not seem to be particularly supportive of the environmental concerns at all. so that is where it is a wild card i think at this point in terms of how to affect management on the ground, and another interesting factor that is unique to the park service and more current day park service rather than the history of the park service is that it is that each individual park is kr created by a separate act of congress, and they are not sort of, and there is no blanket auth authority over all of them. there is some guidelines that the park service has as the national policy, but each individual superintend

some of these bigger this morning, energy secretary rick perry interior secretary zinke ryan zinke hed representative ryan meadows. we will continue with cpac tomorrow as well him of the annual conference taking place in washington. the national section of "the new line, "the has this atf is on the verge of a crisis. the agency which has not grown significantly since its founding is about to confront a staffing shortage and is set to lose its tobacco and alcohol enforcement authorities. president trump has yet to nominate a director to oversee the agency commode has been without permanent leadership for eight of the past 12 years. the white house is pushing the atf to the forefront of its fight against violent crime. response to the mass shooting at a florida high school last week, mr. trump, who promised to fight violent criminal gangs and illegal guns, two of the atf key missions, announced he would be relying on the bureau to regulate so-called bump stocks. it is all but politically impossible for mr. trump, who counts the powerful gun lobby among his most ardent supporters, to str

but at the cabinet level, whether it's in secretary zinke of the interior, secretary ciao who was in fargo for the drone focus event. secretary purdue who was helpful in working with commissioner goring and i on the drought relief. epa director pruitt who has taken the lead in helping roll back the waters of the usa, which was going to be detrimental to virtually every farmer in north dakota. at the cabinet level interaction, lots of things happening that are great, pro-energy, pro agriculture, pro north dakota. and it's been, in talking to, i've had a chance to meet 40-plus other governors from both parties doesn't matter which party they're in. they say they've never had more access to cabinet people. they've had more access in the last 12 months to cabinets leaders than they have in the previous eight years. cabinet leaders are the ones that make it happen for states like us. so, you know, i would say focus that signal. there's a lot of other stuff that goes on in d.c. that's noise and that gets the headlines. the signal is we've got cabinet leaders that are helping to make our st

service meaning ess maintenance and 17% cut to the department of interior erall while giving secretary zinke free reign to drill. they will hike entrance fees to working families and threatening access that drive tourists. while generatings hundreds of millions of dollars. underfunding our parks puts our national parks at risk. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition? >> request yalk -- unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. americans with disabilities act has played an important roll. it is taken advantage of by dishonest attorneys who file lawsuits against small businesses in order to get a quick pay day. a business pays expensive settlement fees for unintended or technical violations and vague interpretations of the a.d.a. this has risen dramatically. a.d.a. costs have increased by 182%. this goes beyond that many years previously. this practice violates the spirit of the law and hurts small businesses. one example, a mini market in my district went through a renovation and put a nice r

the national park service, i toured the ever blydes with -- everglades with secretary zinke. it is money that will include repairs for the destroyed facilities by the national park service. funding for the -- under the department of transportation, $140 million for florida that includes $8 million for f.a.a. facilities, a hundred million just for florida for the federal highway administration, $27 million for florida transit administration. and finally under fema, the disaster relief fund is fully funded to meet the unmet needs. this money will ensure that fema has the resources needed to assistance disaster survivors as well as to repair and restore damage infrastructure in florida and in puerto rico. i just hope that we can get support for this. i know that i saw the senator from texas here a few moments ago. i imagine he may speak to that at some point if not today, texas also suffered terribly, virgin islands suffered, california has had the fires. but i would say that it took longer than we wanted to. but i think the people of florida should be very pleased with the disa

we have secretary zinke. we have secretary ross and we have a plan that will fix the crumbling infrastructure and we look forward to getting to work. >> thank you, elaine. scott pruitt, could you talk about the environment and how we maintain a perfect, clean, better than ever environment at same time go quickly. >> mr. president, as the mayor just said from vicksburg, you said washington will now be a partner. i think he hit on an area that is very important. that is water infrastructure. when you think about safe drinking water in this country, small towns, counties across it country need investment with respect to their water treatment facilities this is major part of the package. i want to echo what governor bryant said earlier. we are looking at epa end of 2017 we will process every permit up and down in six months. that combined with changes we're making with the legislation to have outside time period of two years, racedally going to transperform how we see investment in this package. your leadership i

its lobbying campaign has paid off as two of trump's fossil fuel stooges, interior secretary ryan zinke and e.p.a. administrator scott pruitt are busily trying to dismantle these raoults. luckily they're not very bright about it and courts keep upending their schemes. let's look at the lobbying. big oil money provides much of a.p.i.'s power here in the halls of congress. a.p.i. has spent over $100 million, over $100 million lobbying the federal government. and apparently it's lobbying those against the wishes as stated by its biggest client, the four oil majors. and if you look, there's a big bump-up in 2009 and here through 2016. the obama years, when they wanted to go in and stop all kinds of progress on climate change. we all know in this building, we all know perfectly well that a.p.i. is not here lobbying for a price on carbon. we know perfectly well that if a republican were to say i'm for a price on carbon or sign on to a bill, they'd probably get a visit from a.p.i. saying, whoa, not so fast there, partner. we know perfectly well that they're not here in this building lobbying f

[applause] ryan zinke: i can tell you, jobs matter. look back a year ago what we have today, the wealth that has been generated through this president, the wealth that the generated from energy, the wealth that is generated from our tax plan, and standby. because i think we're just getting started. i think you are too. [applause] >> secretary perry, we are about of time. i would be remiss i didn't ask you another question. president trump -- >> [inaudible] >> and a time that donald trump comes -- that was not scripted. we were at the teleprompter and 90% of that was just from his heart. that's a great thing about this president. was a great speech. year, taxes are lower, up economy is not, -- is [indiscernible] in our district, i wish everything will american can spend some time with the president. when you do, you see how much he cares about this great country, our military, our law enforcement, hard-working people, he genuinely -- you can see them. i think everyone here got to see some of that. >> conservatives have a lot of reasons

i know ryan zinke well. i talked to him.t report comes out that will be reflected. people got spun up. stuart, i try to get the to the facts. that is old journalism to me. any gas or oil three miles off the coast of oregon or 3 moo miles. stuart: you started off as a journalist. >> i got a journalism degree from university of oregon and was in radio for 20 years. stuart: you have a great voice. >> my colleagues say i have a face for radio. they're not nice. stuart: makeup is a wonderful thing. thank you very much for joining us. >> thanks, stuart. stuart: you study, lazy and distracted drivers are more dangerous than we thought. question, does that make the case for self-driving cars? more "varney" after this. ♪ how do you win at business? stay at la quinta. where we're changing with stylish make-overs. then at your next meeting, set your seat height to its maximum level. bravo, tall meeting man. start winning today. book now at lq.com start winning today. retail. under pressure like never before. and its connected technolog

i look forward to working with secretary zinke and the department of interior to achieve this goal. mr. president, i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: quorum call: mr. brown: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from ohio. mr. brown: i ask unanimous consent to dispense with the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. brown: thank you, mr. president. i would like to speak for up to three minutes, as if in morning business, mr. president. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. brown: thank you. earlier today, i talked to a server that worked in a restaurant in northeast ohio, in trumbull county northeast of youngstown. she is as concerned as i am about a proposal from the u.s. department of labor that pretty much legalizes wage theft. we know that in this country right now, that servers -- and they can be or tipped workers, they can be the person that pushes the wheelchair in the airport. i spoke to somebody the other day that drove one of those airport carts at the cleveland airport.

conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> today energy secretary rick perry, interior secretary ryan zinke of guardsmen mark meadows be among the speakers at the annual conservative political action conference. live coverage at 8:35 a.m. eastern here on c-span2. >> monday on c-span's landmark cases we will look at the supreme court case macola versus maryland, case has solidified the federal government's ability to take actions not expliyan ren against legitimate use of this power. explore this case in high courts ruling with university of virginia social law professor. for background on each case order a copy of the landmark cases companion book, a fatal freight dollars 955 for shipping and handling at c-span.org/landmark cases. for an additional resource there's a a link on our websitt national constitution center is international constitution -- interactional. amnesty