to tell a little bit about the candidates. nick right, representative joe rahal, the democrat in this contest currently serving his 19th term in the house having first been elected to the position in 1976. he is the ranking member of the house transportation and infrastructure committee which has jurisdiction over highways, railways, airports, bus lines, pipelines as well as the economic element administration. the appalachian regional commission, army corps of engineers, and fema. congress, election to nick rahall was a businessman who served as a staff aide for robert c byrd. yes three children and three grandchildren. evan left is state senator jenkins, the republican candidate. native.gton mr. jenkins has served in the west virginia legislature for two decades. he was first elected to the house of delegates and in 1994 to represent rain counties. he served three terms in the body. and 2002, he was elected to the state senate, where he is now serving his third term. his committee assignments and the state senate include education, and roll bills, judiciary, military, and natural re

. everbefore they were involved in running ads for the prosperity.r nick rahall took money from the cokes. don blankenship doesn't like me. against me in a number of my campaigns. one contribution back in race.ar 2000 in another we've gone 14 years since then. and he's worked against me, and support me. >> okay. thank you. >> we'll go on to our next question. has to do with health reform. the affordable care act has been the subject of much debate since it was passed in 2010 and be now, a year after its implementation. far, about eight million people have been enrolled through the program. the is your position on affordable care act? should it be repealed, and if so, would you propose something place? if you believe it should be kept in force, do you think there should be some adjustments in program? senator jenkins, you're first. >> well, my day job is in the health care industry. i'm passionate about care. up every day, working to try to bring accessible, virginiae care to west yans. that's what i do for a living and it's a passion of mine. the wrong recipe. our health care system is broken.

, police control that. thank you. on my right is new rahal, the democratic candidate. is serving his 19th term in the house. he was elected to the position first in 1976. before his election to congress, nick rahall was a businessman who served as a staff aide for robert c byrd. yes three children and three grandchildren. evan left is state senator jenkins, the republican candidate. native.gton mr. jenkins has served in the west virginia legislature for two decades. he was first elected to the house of delegates and in 1994 to represent rain counties. he served three terms in the body. and 2002, he was elected to the state senate, where he is now serving his third term. his committee assignments and the state senate include education, and roll bills, judiciary, military, and natural resources. in addition to serving on the legislature, mr. jenkins is executive director of the west virginia state medical association. it is a physician-based organization focused on public health issues. mr. jenkins and his wife elizabeth have three children. next i would like to talk a little bit about the

sides of the aisle and with the leadership from chairman shuster, ranking member rahall, that our proposal to fully utilize our harbor maintenance trust fund and to allow ports to use these funds for expanded uses is included in this final water bill. when we pass this bipartisan measure, it's a victory not just for the ports of long beach and los angeles, but for all our ports, our ports in savannah and all those in this nation. when our ports are strong, mr. speaker, our nation is strong. thank you. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman yields back. for what purpose does the gentleman from kansas seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. >> mr. speaker, i rise today to join the chorus drawing attention to the appalling situation with the department of veterans' affairs. mr. yoder: we've learned of the death of 40 veterans due to drawn out wait time in arizona. even worse is the coverup to not allow scrutiny of these tragedies. this may be the tip of the iceberg. these men and women offer their

a little bit about the candidates. on my right is nick joe rahal, the democratic candidate. he is serving his 19th term in the house. he was elected to the position first in 1976. he is the ranking member of the house transportation and infrastructure committee, which has jurisdiction over highways, railways, airports, seaports, and bus lines, as well as the economic development them astray should, coast guard, army corps of engineers, and federal emergency management agency. before his election to congress, nick rahall was a businessman who served as a staff aide for robert c byrd. he is married and has three children and three grandchildren. on my left is state senator evan jenkins, the republican candidate. a huntington native. mr. jenkins has served in the west virginia legislature for two decades. he was first elected to the house of delegates in 1994 to represent cavill and wayne counties. he served three terms in the body. and 2002, he was elected to the state senate, where he is now serving his third term. his committee assignments and the state senate include education, a

west virginia's third congressional district, nick rahal is facing evan jenkins we will show you their debate in just a moment. first, here are some of the ads airing in the race. >> on fixed income, it's punishing. carbon tax, skyhigh electric rates. he cut benefits for seniors home health care. forcing some into nursing homes. cashing in for himself. nick rahall is not for us. the choices evan jenkins. trusted on to keep our costs down. jenkins, west virginia, not obama. i am evan jenkins. i approve this message. >> and when evan jenkins voted against raising the statement among wage he abandon west virginians and sided with his new york billionaire financial backers. they oppose raising the minimum wage. they want to privatize medicare. that anyonebelieves willing to work hard should be paid a decent wage. medicare should never be privatized. nick rahall put west virginia's first. i am nick rahall. i approve this message. >> i am evan jenkins and i approve this message. >> for generations, coal cap alights on. here and across america. then, nick rahall pulled the switch. rahal

gentleman from president, mr. shuster, mr. rahall, mr. camp and mr. levin each will control 15 minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from pennsylvania, mr. shuster. mr. shuster: i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the entleman will suspend. house will come to order. members -- members will remove their conversations from the floor. the gentleman from pennsylvania may continue. the house is not in order. members will take their conversations off the house floor. the gentleman from pennsylvania may continue. mr. shuster: thank you, mr. speaker. h.r. 5021, the highway and transportation funding act of 2014 extends federal surface transportation programs and ensures the solvency of the highway trust fund through may of 2015. h.r. 5021 is a clean extension of the surface transportation programs and continues the map 21 reforms. we have an immediate critical need to address the solvency of the trust fund and extend the current surface transportation law this bill does that in a responsible way, with policies that have all previously received stro

virginia, mr. rahall, will each ontrol 30 minutes. the house will be in order. take the conversations off the floor. the chair recognizes the gentleman from pennsylvania. mr. shuster: thank you, mr. chairman. i'd like to yield two minutes to the congressman from florida, mr. southerland, who is the original sponsor of h.r. 5078, the waters of the united states regulatory overreach act, i think it is a thoughtful legislation and i yield the gentleman two minutes. the chair: the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. mr. southerland: thank you, mr. chairman. i appreciates the efforts of you and ranking member rahall which has enhanced this bipartisan piece of legislation. i'd also like to thank subcommittee chairman gibbs for giving this issue an urgent attention that it deserves. for more than 40 years, america's waters have been made cleaner and safer by a balanced regulatory partnership between the states and the federal government. the basis for this partnership was a commonsense understanding that not all waters are subject to federal jurisdiction. and that the states must have the p

in west virginia e nick rahall has been in office for decades. suggestions from evan jenkins leading the race thanks to a barrage of attacks linking rahall to president obama. >> congressman nick rahall. >> rahall helped obama pocketing millions of dollars in return. rahall took bribes trading cash for votes. nick rahall is not for us any more. >> and rahall sitting next to nancy pelosi, that is poison. mark udall is again focusing on the single issue he has highlighted the most, women's rights. in his latest add he attacks cory gardner for supporting anti-abortion legislation and then denying it. >> gardner's denials failed the independent fact check. >> in a less charitable interpretation is that you're not telling us the truth. >> whether it's your rights, freedom in his own words colorado cannot trust the real cory gardner. >> and greg orman is trying to hang on to what appears to be a slight lead against pat roberts. roberts is getting help from a pac run by kentucky libertarian center rand paul. >> pat roberts was one of the few true conservative senators who stood with rand pa

for control of congress. stay in touch and engaged, like us on facebook. democrat nick rahal has represented west virginia. the rothenberg political report reads this contest a tossup. up next on c-span, a debate between the congressman and his republican challenger state senator evan jenkins. [applause] >> so much for that instruction. ok. our opening statements and questions, please try to control that. ok? thank you. first, i would like to tell you a little bit about our candidates. on my right, nick rahal, the democratic candidate in this contest. his 19thrently serving term in congress, the representative first being elected in 1976. he is the ranking member of the transportation and infrastructure committee, which has jurisdiction over highways, airways, it airports, seaports, pipelines. as well as the appalachian regional commission, the army corps of engineers, and the federal management agency. before his election to congress, he was a businessman and served as a staff member for the late senator robert byrd. he has three children and three grandchildren. my left, state

from west virginia is recognized. mr. rahall: i yield myself such time as i may consume. mr. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. rahall: the passage of this bill today is absolutely necessary to keep our surface transportation programs up and running. in less than a month the highway trust fund will go belly up and force feed our states passioned -- rationed payment nares transportation and infrastructure investments. this would starve our national economy, put states in a desperate situation and cost jobs. congress must act now to avert this unnecessary crisis. the bill under consideration today would help states get through the remainder of the construction season and provide time for congress to come together and pass a long-term surface transportation law so we don't find ourselveses in this crisis mode again. but this needs to happen sooner rather than later. because this bill leave ours highway, transit, and safety programs on auto pilot, while the driverless car may be the wave of the future, it's no way to run our transportation programs. i know the

jenkins for congress contributions are from individuals. only 32% are from individuals for nick rahall. in state versus out of state, 61% of my contributions are from in state. only 28% of his are from in state. we want to talk about who's owned, look at the facts. and read the law. >> first of all, never passed a law of two pages. i don't know what you are reading from. some type of summary printed up after the fact. i read that budget. i have it on my desk. no where is carbon mentioned it. it is a tax on billionaires and protects the social safety net for our working families in this country. that's what that budget was all about. let's get back to campaign finance. i believe all this dark money that is flooded our state should be disclosed. we have to do it in our personal campaigns. the p.a.c. funding that i have, 'm proud from the umwa, from business leaders. dentists, cyclists. it ties fully disclosed. that's what my support is all about. and i don't back away. i have a pledge that i put out there and signed, but unfortunately, my opponent doesn't want his dark money disclosed from w

, democratic incumbent nick rahall has been in politics for decades. >> congressman nick rahall. >> he pocketed millions of dollars because rahall took bribes trading cash for votes. nick rahall is not for us any more. >> and rahall standing next to nancy pelosi, that's harsh. >>> mark udall is focusing on the single issue he has highlighted the most, women's rights. in his latest add the attacks cory gardner for supporting anti-abortion legislation and then denying it. >> his denials failed the independent fact check. >> you're not telling us the truth. >> colorado just can't trust the cory gardner. >> greg orman is hanging on to a tight lead. >> pat roberts was one of the true conservative who is stand with rand paul and said stop sending taxpayer's money where radicals storm our embassies, burn our flags and kill our diplomats. in fact, where paul suggests that bruce braley remain in a dead heat. more outside groups are pouring money into the campaign. here is the latest from the national education ocean. >> joni ernst is working to take money from public schools and give them to pr

to figure out what to do, nick rahall said, i want to give the president of the doubt. we need leadership. our country is not respected around the world. we are a johnny-come-lately -- [laughter] >> it seems like to every crisis. i fully support air strikes in iraq. i fully support air strikes in syria. but i also want to make sure that all of the arab communities steps up to the plate and put their boots on the ground, put their men and women, like we do, on the line. i'm telling you, this isis stuff just shows how much our lack of leadership has led to a much more dangerous world we live in. >> thank you. congressman rahall? >> isis is a threat to america's national security. it must be taken seriously and no joking around here with this heinous group. it's vital that we cut the head of the snake off. president obama is conducting air raids as we speak to hit at the head of the snake. the command and control centers in iraq and in syria. i support those strikes. i voted for a limited authorization, not for these strikes, but a limited authorization to arm the moderate syrian

, congressman nick rahal from west virginia, a democrat there. we have time for a few comments. long foris too unemployment benefits. on joy in pennsylvania -- andre in pennsylvania. caller: good morning, i appreciate your program. america is a diverse platform of different types of experiences. i have been out here, i am a professional. i have encountered many different aspects. having said that, when it comes to our government. they speak about entitlements. thetlements are "we people." the government has no money of their own, all the money they utilize comes from our taxes. which means we are entitled. people, when they hit hard times, they should be entitled so they can get back on their feet. as has been spoken many times, i do not want to be unemployed, i do not believe those who want to work want to be unemployed. i was listening to your program earlier with one of the senators. what do you want to do? starve people to death? it is unbelievable, that is what i have to say. host: andre from pennsylvania. city, new jersey on our line for democrats. our last caller on this subject. ca

gentleman from west virginia rise? mr. rahall: mr. speaker, i have a motion at the dess can . the speaker pro tempore: is the gentleman opposed to the bill? mr. rahall: mr. speaker, i am opposed to the bill. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman qualifies. the clerk will report the motion. the clerk: mr. rahall of west virginia moves to recommit the bill, h.r. 1459, to the committee on natural resources with instructions to report the same back to the house for the with the following amendment. at the end of the bill, add the following new section. section 3, providing a wage increase for america's workers. this act shall not take effect until the hourly wage for the lowest 10 percent aisle of all workers for all codes reported by the labor of bureau statistics under the occupational employment statistics survey is no less than $10.10 an hour. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from west virginia is recognized for five minutes. mr. rahall: thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, this is the final amendment to the bill. it will not kill the bill or send it back to committee. if t

trying to nationalize the race around obama. >> obama care. $700 billion of medicare cuts. nick rahal voted with obama for all of it. now obama says. >> i'm not on the ballad this fall. but make no mistake those policies are on the ballad. >> a vote for nick rahal is a vote for the obama agenda. >> that's a west virginia congressman. do you think that's an effective ad? >> yes. very effective. because obama has always been more popular than his policies. >> personally. >> yes. but that's been falling of late. now they're not too far apart. for him to talk about his policies this way i think it has democratic strategists cringing. >> well his approval nationally is at 40%. usually when it gets down there, a party gets nervous. in a lot of the states he's below 35% in places like arkansas. i think the democrats are extremely nervous. their base is depressed. they're back on their heels. unless they can produce turnout they have no chance. >> this reminds me of what happened to republicans in 2006 with george w. bush. they couldn't win and had no choice but to run away. when they did, it

time you gis rahal are. >> yes. at this point we hope your turkey has been thawed in cold water or in the refrigerator and you want to cook it to the proper temperature. that should be cooking the white meat to 165 or 170 and the turkey thigh should register -- excuse me -- 185. >> i understand you've probably been doing a lot of talking in the last couple of days for sure. what questions are asked most often? >> yes, we do. the number one question is thawing. people don't realize how long it takes to thaw a turkey. if your turkey is not thawing this morning, you can put it in a cold water bath, still in the original wrapper and you can start to cook from froze i don't know. if you're cooking the turkey from frozen, the two thengs that are really important would be a thermometer to get if to the right temperature and a flexible serving schedule. >> i know this question pretty subjective. simply put the bread on a flat rack in an open shallow pan. that would be kicking it at a temperature of 3:25. we feel cooking it low and slow gives you the best product at butterball. >> my dad li

seek recognition? mr. rahall: mr. speaker, i have a motion at the desk. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the motion. the clerk: mr. rahall of west virginia moves that the managers on the part of the house at the conference on the disagreeing votes of the two houses of the house amendment to the senate amendment to the bill h.r. 3230, an act to improve the access of veterans to medical services from the department of veterans affairs, and for other purposes, be instructed to, one, receive from disagreement with section 203 of the senate amendment relating to the use of unobligated amounts to hire additional health care providers with the veterans health administration. and two, receive from the house amendment and concur in the in all other instances. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to clause 7-b of rule 22, the gentleman from west virginia, mr. rahall, and the gentleman from texas, mr. flores, each will control 30 minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from west virginia. mr. rahall: thank you, mr. speaker. i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker p

-- evaporating country for democrats. nick rahal has been there since has in therel since 1976. the margins have been getting smaller because president is woefully unpopular in this district. he is running against a democrat turned republican state senator who is a much stronger opponent than the last two that rahall has faced. are the onlyahall chess pieces in a much larger war between the parties. this race has seen more outside spending than any house race in the country. ads justion worth of through the end of september in southern west virginia, something like $60 for every person in the district. situation where democrats could really lose a seat that they felt for many decades. host: let's go to bill in pennsylvania. caller: thanks for taking my call. i was wondering if there is any pushback at all in the first session of congress, when the republicans voted against the time and a half a for comp time. some people really rely on that premium. it helps us stay in the middle class. republicans just overwhelmingly voted to end the time and half pay for comp time. i was wondering if that

, mr. rahall, will control -- will each control 20 minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from california. mr. hunter: thank you, mr. speaker. i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on h.r. 5769. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. hunter: thank you, mr. speaker. i yield myself such time as i may consume. h.r. 5769, the howard coble coast guard and maritime transportation act of 2014, re-authorizes funding for the coast guard through 2015 at levels that are fiscally responsible and will reverse the misguided cuts proposed by the current administration. the president purr posed to slash the acquisition budget by 20%, reduce members by 1,300, undermine readiness by cutting program hours by aircraft and jeopardize the success of the search and rescue mission by taking fixed wing aircraft crews off alert status. the president's budget request will only worsen the coast guard's growing gaps in mission performance, increase acquisition delays, drive up the cost of new asset

ranking members rahall and garamendi for their efforts and chairman shuster for his leadership. i'd also like to thank the committee staff whose depths of knowledge on the coast guard and maritime issues are unfathomable and lieutenant commander steven west, my coast guard fellow, that was our reality check in this committee by giving us great advice when we needed it. finally, i want to take a minute to point out that this bill will be the last coast guard authorization bill that will benefit from the advice and support of the only member of congress with service in the coast guard. our colleague and friend, howard coble. howard is a korean war veteran with five years of act of duty in the coast guard and another 18 years in the coast guard reserve. he is a founder of the congressional coast guard caucus as well as an active member and former chairman of our subcommittee. throughout his career in congress, howard has been a tireless advocate for the men and women of the coast guard. him for im and commend his service to our nation and his contributions to this and past coast guard

health and safety of the people, number one. host: we're talking with congressman nick rahall, a democrat of west virginia, he's here to answer your questions and take your comments. our phone lines are open. democrats -- 20 -585-3880. republicans 202-585-3881. independents, 202-585-3882. if you're outside the u.s., it's 202-585-3883. also want to note that our c-span bus is kicking off its big 12 conference tour at west virginia university this morning over the next month, the bus will visit all 10 schools during its visits. and over the next five minutes we'll have 10 students participating in the program with the congressman. they're joining us from the mountain layer, the student union on campus. we'll get to them in a second. first we'll go to joyce in charleston, west virginia, on the phone for democrats. joyce, good morning. caller: hi, representative rahall. guest: good morning, joyce. caller: 11:30 last night, i kept on until i got it all done because, boy, it was -- this has really been an ordeal. but the larger issue i think is, you know, for a long time, i mean, i bel

coal miners sick with black lung, rahall slashed benefits and he's lying to hide it. it's time. turn the lights out on nick rahall. >> hello, i'm joe mansion. we hear a lot about politics, but none worse than the lies about nick rahall. he's a straight shooter and works with me every day to fight the obama administration's war on coal. don't let anyone mislead you. knicks. >> aapprove this message because i'll never let anyone change our way of life. >> recent polls have listed this race as a toss-up. see the debate at 9:00 eastern, then at 10:00, another house debate for the open seat in utah's fourth district. see mia love and doug owens debate for seven-term congressman jim mathson's seat. >>> be part of cspan's campaign 2014 coverage. follow us on twitter and like us on facebook to get schedules, previews from our politics team. cspan is bringinging you over 100 senate, house and governor debates and you can instantly share your reactions to what the candida candidates are saying. the battle for control of congress. stay in touch and engaged by follows us on twitter and like us o

, the gentleman from pennsylvania, mr. shuster, and the gentleman from west virginia, mr. rahall, each will control 30 minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from pennsylvania. mr. shuster: madam speaker, i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous materials on this motion. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. shuster: madam speaker, i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from pennsylvania is recognized for such time as he may consume. mr. shuster: thank you, madam speaker. we have an immediate critical need to address the solvency of the trust fund and extend the current surface transportation law. if congress fails to act, thousands of transportation projects and hundreds of thousands of jobs across the country will be at risk. two weeks ago the house acted and passed h.r. 5021, the highway, transportation funding act of 2014. this important legislation extends federal surface transportation programs, ensures the insolvency of the highway tr

rahall -- at the very of the debate, i heard from both sides that president obama's approval rating in nick rahall's district was 27%. if he were to come and play golf there, they would hate him less, and it might have made it easier for nick rahall to be there. mandate saying he had a to do that. but if there have had been some kind of outreach just a little beenif president obama had the first president in 60 years to say, as is a great golf course, it would have brought a little pride to the state. that was my observation. i do not think that race was ever winnable. i think it would have made it less hard. -- there is country seething at president obama. when iowa -- we saw what was happening with bruce braley. it was not just that he was not doing well. it is that the seats below him are going down. i talked to democratic operatives and said, bruce braley is the most disliked man in democratic politics right now. and the person said, no, it is president obama. he created an environment that made it that much further. i think a lot of people made tactical mistakes. i think there

nick rahall, you should know this -- new york billionaires pay for those ads attacking him and they're not true. he's not against coal. he saved my job and 500 others when he stopped washington from closing the mine. >> amy walter, is that the best they got or is it smart in the sense the koch brothers may be throwing a lot of money in, they may be angry at democrats, but they're not on the ballot. a strategist said nobody knew about bain capital but we made bain capital an issue in 2012. romney was on the ballot. >> i think the koch brothers right now are a stand-in for republican candidates that don't exist. a lot of these places they don't have an opponent yet so this is the best can you get to make that popular argument. bag to the point that this is not a national election but a regional election? the fact is in 2012 the obama campaign could make the economy and romney and bain capital and the middle class the issue because romney was the opponent in every single state. it is not going to be the case in these individual -- this is a regional campaign instead. i think what

more difficult part of the world to conduct a search like this. >> >> that's a rahal challenging area. there's a ridge out by that area. it's very remote and the weather there is really challenging. like they called off the search for tomorrow. s they just going to be a problem throughout this whole operation. it's going to be a challenge to overcome. but when there's rough days, there's calm days. you have to optimize those days. >> any idea how long this search will take? it took two years on the air france flight. >> i think it's going to take a long time to sort through all the information as it comes in. once we find the surface debris and start the search, it's going to be a big effort, a huge effort. >> and i did ask him a couple of times would he put a time frame on it. just not willing to go there at this stage. >> of course you have to shrink a search design. >> of course, it all depends on finding debris. >> but fen that's difficult because it's moving. it's difficult to to actually target it. i want to look at the search zone weather because, as we said, they've put on hol

producing states like congressman rahal from west virginia are very unhappy with this proposal. how bag political issue is this potentially in the mid-term elections? >> well, it's like the keystone pipeline, timer. again, the people from the senators running in alaska and in louisiana were not happy with putting off if keystone pipeline decision. because they want it. they're an energy producing state. it makes their re-election more difficult. i think this has some of the same issues in west virginia. we will probably see the senators from west virginia switch from democrat for the republican and that doesn't help the case there. i think it just makes it more complex and i certainly think that they would have preferred if this had to come out now, push off the date when comments could come through until after the election. right now, we were supposed to wind this up before the election. >> in a word or two, any chance this does become law? >> does it become law? there is going to be a lot of challenges, for instance the clean air act allows the administration to go at power plants

holidays. >> yeah, a rahal. they had to come in to work on thanksgiving. it incredible to think thursday morning people can start their christmas and holiday shopping. the lines began forming in the wee hours this morning. i counted at least 60 people in lien by the time the door opened at 6:00 a.m. the first customer told me he gotor around midnight employees say they had to work on thanksgiving or risk losing l j jobi don't think ho howing a fro. >> it should be a m. i think they should have the choice. >> it said basically we're have to work for thanksgiving or we're going to get fired. >> kmart says this sfchl railroad retailers claim it up to customers to decide whether they want to shop today on thanksgiving. ifpuchl that's some stores are resisting the urge to earn and are staying closed on this holiday. >> all tho if a they p and there are quite a few. sport prchlt m. >> all lance are northward interstate 880 in hayward are stul clothes krn kplm zpchlt i think a sig alart was cip at this verting trash off windon >> look spn spchlt. officer blocked part prp frmt the cars

address, those issues have been postponed. we saw a rahal having lost his race. i broke my teeth on that committee when i came to the congress. not to belabor the earmarks issue but that bill has been part of the surface transportation which has been a hard bill to crack without the issue of earmarks or directed funding in the bill like that. that is a perfect example of a serious piece of legislation that is overdue for bipartisan participation. >> complete abdication of leadership by everybody in washington on the infrastructure question. we have known since we wrote the bill in 2005 that you have to have more money. there are only a couple of ways you get more money, you tax important barrels of oil. raise the gas tax. the president has been awol, the congress has been awol and no one wants to take the mantle. i'm telling you -- as a republican, transcontinental railroad, interstate highway system, the republicans are known for building america. we should be ashamed of ourselves. >> i wondered what the panel thought harry reid's approach is going to be in his new job as minority

pretty red state. ,> congressman rahal representing one of the most republican districts. evan jenkins, the republicans really feel like -- they have always tried to go after rahal, but never had a good candidate against him. there was heavy republican spending earlier in the spring. the congressman's numbers started to crater. now it is kind of bouncing around a little bit. democrats have been emboldened by this race. they feel like they pushed back on specific elements of the affordable care act and they feel emboldened by it. can use thatey blueprint in districts across the country. tossup, whypublican is he in trouble? it is a competitive district. the former democratic nominee and speaker of the house, a tremendous fundraiser, i think it will be a great race. what surprised me was that coming into the race, mike cotton, the congressman, his numbers are surprisingly strong. as romanoff starts to spend more money and make his case, we will see it tighten a little bit. very competitive gubernatorial election there. in the sixth district it is one of the battleground districts of a ba

start to dry up in august, but congress is deadlocked over what to do. democrat nick rahall has represented west virginia's third congressional district for 38 years. >> i got first $50 million for route ten. this is where you have loaded school buses playing chicken with coal trucks in winding section, a disaster waiting to happen. that seniority does not automatically transfer to a new guy. i've been able to get these monies i mentioned earlier for transportation projects in southern west virginia regardless of which party controls the house of representatives, regardless of which party controls the white house. >> reporter: he wants to keep the program funded but does not support raising the federal gas tax and has not been specific about a solution. for decades, longtime senator robert byrd made sure west virginia got its share and then some. delivering billions in earmarks to the state where several roads bear his name but the. but the political tide has changed. where democrats once ran without challenge, rahall is now viewed as one of the year's most vulnerable incumbents

ranking member rahall island about how to do my job from watching that. chairman gibbs with whom we worked closely on the water resources and environment subcommittee i have enjoyed my service, cherished my time on this committee and i wish you the best in my future. thank you, mr. chairman. >> i have been on this committee my entire tenure in congress. the chairman of the subcommittee, you will then in resources, nick came to my district for interesting hearing but i tell the story the day after election day, i will miss nick a lot. jim doyle who has been with nick almost the whole time, i have stories about jim too in the days when we used to earmarks which we would bring back and how we promoted them. kim, it might n , it might not, your district and transportation investments are important to the american people. thank you for that great work and i look forward to working with you, mr. chairman. >> thank you. to all of our departing members we wish you well. just had an incredible run. in my short tenure as chairman, ranking member, we all remember working with mr. transportation, we d

minutes to the gentleman from west virginia, my good friend, mr. rahall. the chair: the gentleman from west virginia is recognized for three minutes. mr. rahall: i thank my dear colleague from new jersey for ielding me the time. mr. chairman, i do rise in support of end the legislation. and to my good friend, the chairman of the committee, doc hastings, i commend for bringing this bill to the floor of the house. as he knows, i was -- i'm the only member left in this body that served on the original conference committee that wrote h.r. 2, which was enacted as a surface mining control and reclamation act of 1977. otherwise known as smcra. due fat nature of my congressional district -- due to the nature of my congressional district, i am very familiar with smcra and what it requires. this law has numerous performance standards governing the coal surface mining and reclamation process. these standards govern everything from the handling of excess oil to the period for successful revengetation prior to bond releels. one fundamental aspect of the performance standards is that area be reclaim

. one thing that's going to make for a more interesting parade are the showers coming in and rahal we're expecting some you'll see a lot of fans screaming and holding on to their coats and hats. along with the rain we're going to get a little bit more wind. it will be now watch this, we're starring out in the 60s just about everywhere. we're going to sticks a cool. ooh, certainly's happening out here. hmm. maybe we'll find out. we want to investigate after all. i'm going to slow i guess they wanted to give you an indication of how much. itwe have all lanes now cleareds a they've opened all the cash lanes, this is ready threat all the focus is going to start being on san franciscos a we approach the new broadcast our padi don't know and christina will be on the floats. woo -- i do have to call a very serious incident, someone has been killed downtown san jose at santa clara and second. it also disrupts the bus service for the area. a live look at the golden gate bridge shows you no problem. rain coming from the north so we'll track that as well. >> thanks so much. >> win continue is

earlier, but you even have a democrat like nick rahal, he's pretty popular in the state but republicans in their strategy see him as vulnerable, again, because he voted for the carbon tax, and so anybody who has taken these positions on the democratic side now, what the republicans want to do is emphasize to voters you don't know your own candidate. you may think he's a nice guy but he voted for the carbon tax opening the door. >> last thing on the president's coattails and lack of them, the latest polls, the "wall street journal"/nbc poll just out this week, the approval now down to 41%, as you see the comparison from 61% in april 2009, and then our poll, fox poll, down to 38%, the lowest it's been in the fox news poll from 42% in february. judge, it's hard to overstate, you know, how perhaps in some of these states how toxic president obama is for some of these candidates. >> you're right. gone are the days when the incumbent president would swoop in and get 75,000 people on a couple of street corners in philadelphia or raise a ton of money for democratic candidates in an off-year ele

what they always say. >> some democrats are pushing back. nick rahall says "i will oppose this rule as it will adversely affect coal miners and coal mining communities throughout west virginia. i'm joined by the sear aierra c executive director. i go back to 2009 when harry reid was not willing to move it forward in the democratic-controlled senate. the administration said if you want to run against this plan, feel free to do so. from where you stand, what does it say so many democrats are in fact running away from this idea? >> we're seeing actually a lot of democrats come out and support it. a lot has changed in five years. what we've seen since 2009 is that the price of solar has dropped by about 60% and the price of wind energy has dropped by about 40% and millions of americans all across the country are seeing the effects of run away climate chang. so we think the politics of this has changed in part because the economics of clean energy has changed so much. >> one thing if you look at this announcement from 30,000 feet up is that, all right, the president and the democrats could

adopt it. again, i thank mr. rigell, mr. barrow, mr. rahall and mr. ribble for introducing this bipartisan resolution, and i urge my colleagues to adopt it. mr. speaker, i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from california reserves his time. the chair recognizes the gentleman from washington, mr. smith. mr. smith: thank you, mr. speaker. i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for as much time as he wishes. mr. smith: there are two issues important to this piece of legislation. the first, the chairman mentioned, and that is the legality of this. however, he's wrong in the idea in saying that this is, you know, clear on its face and there's no debate. there's actually considerable debate as to whether or not the president's actions were legal. the president and the secretary of defense have stated unequivocally that they believe they acted within the law. this is actually an issue that comes up repeatedly between the legislative and the executive branch. it's been coming up for a couple hu

, west virginia's three in what is becoming a pretty red state. ,> congressman rahal representing one of the most republican districts. evan jenkins, the republicans really feel like -- they have always tried to go after rahal, but never had a good candidate against him. there was heavy republican spending earlier in the spring. the congressman's numbers started to crater. now it is kind of bouncing around a little bit. democrats have been emboldened by this race. they feel like they pushed back on specific elements of the affordable care act and they feel emboldened by it. can use thatey blueprint in districts across the country. tossup, whypublican is he in trouble? it is a competitive district. the former democratic nominee and speaker of the house, a tremendous fundraiser, i think it will be a great race. what surprised me was that coming into the race, mike cotton, the congressman, his numbers are surprisingly strong. as romanoff starts to spend more money and make his case, we will see it tighten a little bit. very competitive gubernatorial election there. in the sixth district

stop stone from killing his little sister. stone did one tour in iraq and rahalli. but the big message he is dangerous and carrying knives and handguns and still on the loose at this hour. >> he attempted to carjack someone? do we know how that person is? >> reporter: that is a bit of a distance from where his home is located and that may not be related. the da did not confirm or deny that. >> rick, a community on alert and so scared today. thank you. >> police say the taliban gun men stormed a school and killed 141 people, 132 of those victims were children. this unthinkable attack unfolded in a northeastern city. the gunman went from room to room shooting the children one by one. the white house released a statement and saying by targeting students and teachers in this attack that terrorist showed their depravity. we stand with the people of pakistan, and reityalate the commitment of pakistan -- united states to support the government of pakistan. >> and the democrats got one controversial nominee confirmed and mercy will be the next general of the united states. and doug joined us l

debate between congressman steve king and jim mowrer. at 9:00, congress and nick rahal and -- congressman nick rahall and -- friday night, new hampshire senate debate between senator jeanne shaheen and former senator scott brown. at 9:00, senator jeff merkley and monica wehby. at 10:00, the louisiana fifth district debate. c-span campaign 2014 -- more than 100 debates for the control of congress. >> and now to the rhode island governors debate in providence. the state treasurer, gina ,eminder -- gina raimondo running against the providence mayor, allan fung. this is courtesy of w pri tv -- of wpri tv. it's about an hour. >> the following is a special presentation. eyewitness news and the providence journal bring you live coverage. campaign 2014, the gubernatorial debate. >> live from the providence performing arts center, a televised debate among the candidates for rhode island governor. >> good evening, i'm tim white. we are exactly two weeks from election day, when voters are going to decide who they want to lead the state as their next governor. we will help you identify

our technology. >> in west virginia, democratic representative nick rahall won his race. he'll face evan jenkins in the fall and former maryland senator alex mooney aligned himself with tea party groups, he won his primary. finally, there was an election yesterday to pick the next mayor of new jersey's largest city, newark's most expensive election ever, ras baraka will become the next mayor. he won 54 of the vote. baraka, who suffered on city council has been a critic. >> the republicans are in the best shape in decades in virginia to break a 23-cycle losing streak and win that contest. joining me who believes that cycle will continue, natalie tennant. good morning and congratulations on your nomination. >> thank you. it is an honor to be nominated by twest virginia. >> as you know weeks had a tragedy in one of our coal mines late wednesday night and two of our coal miners were killed in a tragic accident or tragic situation. just like we're hearing around the country and around the world in those coal miners, we know that heart break all too well. that's why i'm running, to protec

sand rah rahal. is that buster posey? >> matt cane. >> thank you. prying to see who some of these other players are in the suvs. it hard to tell. >> and they're getting the most -- it not a hard thing to do. it not super packed out here. that looks like it may have been traffic -- where's madbum? >> we asked larry baer and he made it a lot of those people have been up all night as well, not just the players but the fans. >> reporter: well, it's an adren little party. and have it end the way the fans wanted to. i lot of these numbers are i can't waiting for this moment. they're getting to experience this, getting their first quarter of "the chronicle." it has the "dynasty" headline. larry baer didn't want to use that word but the chronicle has no problem using it. but he's probably right, here you have. >> we see these guys performing at the peak of their performance. all of a should herey. >> reporter: let's talk to tom. >> a think a lot of them are just, frankly, tired. keep in mind it was a seven-game series and the last two games were a workout to say the least. >> reporter: go

coal. we avert similar messages from the governor, congressman rahal, -- ray hall. why should we believe that you will be successful as a new person in washington were members of your own party have not been successful question mark >> i did have that commercial and it got some attention from a lot of folks. that is what it was meant to do. whether the president believes it or not, coal is still 40% of electricity in this country in more than 90% here in west virginia. i have been endorsed by the united mine workers of america, the coal miners. they trust me to help savevirgi. their jobs. they know i have a plan to save their jobs and that is what i have done. i have challenge the president to invest to have retrofitting our coal fire power plants. that is why the coal miners have endorsed me. they know that i will stand up for their health, safety, and their pensions. they know the congresswoman capito was the only member of the west virginia delegation to vote against the safety act. she voted to cut my new specters -- mine inspectors. they know i will stand up to the epa just