decisions budgeting from congress. such decisions are best made by congress, not the administration. it requires members to choose between convening -- between cap competing demands. it is only in the congress, not the administration, were people and their representatives come together to resolve their differences. to the extent budgeting requires that to happen, budgeting should occur in congress, not the administration. the practice inhibits congress from fulfilling responsibilities to tax and spend under the constitution. it makes it harder for citizens and members to evaluate decisions in real time, and is emblematic of dysfunction in the budget process. it reflects deference to the executive instead of dealing with the conflict that rises. members instead defer to the executive to make those decisions, which by definition is not budgeting. it also makes it difficult to rein in an executive members believe has violated the law. i thank the gentleman. the chair now recognizes mr. wiseman for his testimony. >> thank

every congress is at fault for not addressing it. as we move forward as a country, the sooner we address it, the easier it is to do. you have to look at mandatory spending. you have to look at entitlement programs. there is no other way to resolve it. in 1965, 2 thirds of the budget was discretionary spending. that is appropriated on an annual basis. if there is no appropriation, the program goes away. congress establishes eligible requirements for mandatory spending and those programs simply continue on autopilot. now, a snapshot of the budget, 2/3 is mandatory spending and 1/3 is discretionary. and you canntinue eliminate the entire defense budget and not resolve the problem right now. it is that great, unless you are willing to go into mandatory spending. as soon as we go in and make minor adjustments, then the greater the impact is. steve: when will congress and the president stopped kicking the can down the road? the president said in his first term he does not want to deal with entitlement or mandatory spending. what is his sec

of congress represent over 700,000 people today. we have handled tens of thousands of what we call constituent cases. these are typically cases where people have not had the experience they should have in dealing with federal agencies. and when we can get them a benefit that a deserve and we the process orte reduce the interference of the bureaucracy, that gives us immense satisfaction. that is the satisfaction of being in congress from the perspective of back home. the other side is the satisfaction coming from being a part of legislation or introducing a deflation that becomes law and feeling like you are done something to help everyone in the country as far as laws go. and the two laws that i worked on that probably got the most attention was a few years ago the american -- act. i spent six years. people think laws get passed quickly but only 5% of the bills introduced become laws. one out of 22 start with. to start with.0 i worked with pat leahy from vermont. and we worked on that for three congresses and finally got it through.

it really is a congress within a congress. so much of what we focus on is the comings, and the powerful chairmans and what fights they getting into. you don't hear about fights in the proceedingses committee. largely they don't have fights because they control everybody's budget. the carrot stick ratio is good for them. they get a lot of good information. they are not going to be out sharing it as publicly. certainly a lot of their oversight work goes on behind closed doors. but my experience says anyway that when you do have a divided government, at least with one chamber, if you need to hold the executive branch to account, if you need to second check claims they are making on what is happening in a given program or something like that, a clerk can be an incredible sort of information because they can tell you quickly one way or another if it is true or not. that is a place to consider going to and making friends if you haven't already. andy's mention of third party targets is absolutely true. i spend some wonderful years wi

before congress, she served in the michigan state legislature and was also a judge. mrs. mink has represented hawaii in congress since 1965, and was -- also an attorney, she serves on the health education and labor committee and interior committee. before coming to the house of representatives, she served in the hawaii legislature and lectured in business law at the university of hawaii. welcome. in recent years, women in the united states have begun to organize themselves to improve their status in society. what do you think has caused this movement, this women's movement, or women's liberation movement, as it has been called? >> i think one of the things is they are so much better educated. secondly, so many more of them have been forced by economic necessity to go to work. and they have discovered tremendous discriminations against them in work. they have also discovered tremendous discriminations as homemakers. wouldn't you say that was right? >> i would say that's probably true, especially in salsa social security, which you have been a marvelous leader in calling at

>> when the congress comes back in january they will have the youngest and most diverse. watch it live starting on january 3rd. >> current government funding is set to expire on friday at midnight. congress and the president need to reach an agreement to keep the government funded. the speeches from the senate floor where senators spoke about the potential government shutdo shutdown. >> earlier this month, congress sent the president another continuing resolution to allow more time to resolve a partisan impasse that has us on the brink of a government shutdown once again. yes, continuing resolution allows agencies to continue to spend money without knowing how much they actually get to spend. the current episode is yet another example of the breakdown of what should be the basic nuts and bolts of governing, keeping the government open and funded. in other words, they've been spending money since last october without knowing how much money they get to spend. so i come to the floor today to talk about the need to reform our broken budget and appropriations process and layou

it really is a congress within a congress. and so much of what we focus on is cummings and ogr and some of the big authorizing committees and the powerful chairman there and what questions they are going to be asking and what fights they are going to get into. you don't hear about fights in the appropriations committee because largely they don't have fights because they control everybody's budgets. so the carrot stick ratio is very, very good for them. they get a lot of good information. they are not going to be out, i think, sharing it as publicly, and certainly a lot of their oversight work, goes on behind closed doors. but my experience says, anyway, that when you do have something with government with one chamber, if you need to hold the executive branch to account, if you need to second-check claims that they're making on what is happening in a given program or something like that, the clerks can be incredibly useful sources of information because they can tell you quickly one way or another if it is true or not. that is

career and time in congress. this is about 40 minutes. teve: congressman coffman, for those retiring yours is not voluntary, what happened the election? in 2012 they dramatically changed my district to essentially get rid of me at that time. john mccain had carried the district by eight points in 2008 to an area that barack obama carried by eight points in 2008. what was extraordinary about it, was the diversity of the district was extraordinary. it was blue but it was stunning in terms of its -- 20% is foreign-born. three large immigrant communities dominate, aurora, colorado. it is over half the population were the minorities are the majority. i was able to decisively win it in really a wave election. it is a stork when you have a new president who comes to office, particularly with a house and the senate. midterm election is going to be ugly. the president's tone made it very tough in the state of colorado. i think there were losses at every level. steve: in your campaign and in congress you have expressed your displeasure with donald

versus congress. lopez, it seems to me he carved out a little more of a where heve position said more clearly than rehnquist, we are not interested in questioning the new deal, but what we see here is a clear involvement of the federal ofernment in a matter traditional state concern. he makes lopez a little more about federalism within the commerce clause. say, i was taken aback by the realization that the concurrence was almost as long as the lopez majority opinion. i can't really quite reconciled his approach in lopez with what happens in the affordable care act case. questions about accountability. i think that is an important topic. the first one is, it didn't seem to play a big world in that one case where justice kennedy homemadeat the use of marijuana that was legal under state law could be regulated by congress. in that case, presenting accountability, i think, more than any other case, except for maybe term limits because the federal government was prohibiting something the state government p

so, in the coming congress and irrespective of what happens, i believe that members of congress will be looking at implementation of the fisa amendments, reauthorization act of 2018, and will also be looking at the cloud act very closely. glen mentioned, in speaking about the cloud act, that he thought that it was kind of a waste of time. i think he said something like too time intensive and basically -- but we agree. i mean, the cloud act requires that there be agreements executed between the united states and perhaps individual nations with respect to exchange of data for law enforcement purposes, directly from companies outside of the tradition mlat process or letters process, and so while we agree that it is going to be time and labor intensive, after this huge lobbing push by all of these different elements, congress passed it, did our part, and now, quite frankly, it's on the executive branch, and so we'll be closely monitoring that implementation, but also with respect to fisa, it's the gift that keeps on giving. the sunsets. sunsets -- legislative sunsets are the gift that ke

the most senior member of congress called the dean of the house was a man no longer serving in congress named john dingell, a democrat from michigan. i remember walking onto the house floor. i saw him sitting on the front row. with hands on a cane. and i thought -- he has a lot of wisdom. he has accumulated a lot of knowledge. i sat next to him. and i said -- john come you have been here longer than anyone else, 36, 38 years, what lessons have you learned during your time in congress? and i was bracing myself and looking forward to a 10-mid -- 10 or 15 minute lecture. i was looking forward to that. and he turns and looks at me and says -- lamar, i have only learned one thing. oh my goodness, almost four decades and only one thing. and he had a smile. and he said -- things are never as bad as they seem. and i have never forgotten that and i have had reason to apply that lots of times and i would apply it today. i would say to republicans even though they are thinking that things are about as that is they can get, john dingell -- i meant to say his name. he said things are never as bad as

guest: what members of congress themselves have said about intent. host: we are talking with our guests. we have divided the lines differently. enrolled in the aca? (202)-748-8000. all others, (202)-748-8001. what is the worst case scenario going forward? lawsuit, this injects uncertainty into the aca individual market. is it still law? so on. having said that, it is important to think about the timing. argued, it sounded like the judge would issue a quick decision. that was not the case. midterm elections came, no decision, argued, it sounded like the open enrollment, no decision. the decision only came at the end of open enrollment for the majority of states. for most states, it is unlikely to have any effects. i will be looking at the seven states that still have open enrollment going on. we learned last year, as the trump administration, sabotaged what was going on, we had individual strong numbers for enrollment. we might have the old adage proved true, any publicity is good publicity. guest: the fact that the ruling coincided with the last nigh

, yes, this is a power that congress has. and, yet, as i see it, those seven criteria ought to be considered and considered carefully. and i'm aware of no legal analysis indicating that the conclusion of the bureau of indian affairs in 2009 was inadequate or flawed. for that reason, i object. the presiding officer: objection is heard. mr. daines: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from montana. mr. daines: i greatly respect my friend and my colleague from utah's objection, but i do feel the need to point out that the little shell tribe meets all the necessary qualifications for recognition, including, including a long history predating 1940. let me enumerate. little shell is the only tribe in the country that has funds held in trust by the department of interior, yet lacks federal recognition. the little shell tribe, they are the only tribe that has had a favorable determination by the department of interior and it was reversed by a bureaucrat with zero negative comments. that decision, however, was remanded by

in congress two weeks is a very long time. there's still a lot of time for them to negotiate on that point. dale's in portland, oregon. republican. good morning. good morning. are there any statistics that evidence how much the government saves when there's a federal shutdown for two weeks for example? guest: i have heard it both ways. i have heard there are times when the government ends up spending more and ends up spending less. theink it depends on how administration actually has a lot of leeway in how a shutdown actually unction and they choose how the agencies are going to run. the other thing is that in all of the previous shutdowns those workers who did work got back pay when congress did created new bill. there wasthe bill something that would say that they got the back pay. host: how likely would it be for that to not be included in a real? -- reopening? guest: anything is possible in washington today. there's a lot of representatives of federal workers who would not want to see that and would fight against that. if

i always thought i wanted to run for congress or work for a member of congress. is that the best way to effect change? or if there's one or two issues i'm particularly passionate about, can you get more done from the outside. the his questiquestion of gridl big question. this will surprise no one, there's a tremendous amount of interest in 2020 and what the field -- the other party's field looks like. if i had to kind of summarize it down to a couple of main points, it's there is a much greater interest on the big picture and on substance and less -- at least less of a stated interest in the tit for tat. i think sometimes people say what they're interested in, but then -- like you can't look away. you know what? we all struggleu with it. >> do you miss the daily knife fight? >> well, i'm here. >> you're back. your knives are sharp, ready for tomorrow? >> my knife is my pen, thank you, chris. >> i'll have a couple of questions and then we'll turn it out to the folks in the audience. this is to any of you. how do you think the trump's relationship with the press is

members of congress have to honor it. it's a one-year ban on lobbying their former colleague after they leave congress and in the senate is a two-year ban. that's meaningful because the longer you have to wait before you can lobby your former colleagues, the more stale your contacts, your expertise growth so it is a meaningful sacrifice from our perspective and an important time. for them to not be trading on those contacts and expertise. >> but they find ways around that, don't they. >> they do, and principally they asked not as registered active lobbyists, but as senior advisors, strategic advisors, i like to say they're kind of the generals calmly leaving the troop from the rear, dictating what is done on behalf of clients. some of them act as rainmakers so they are attracting the big corporate clients and other people do the work of contracting members and leading the charge. >> is there anything specific you would propose to deal with this? >> the first thing we always proposes that people get smart and get savvy abo

it is not yet in front of congress. so the president reached a deal signed it at the g20 and argentina. obviously the fight in congress is going to be a long one and it has not even really started. what is called the implementing bill has not been written by the administration. all the changes in u.s. law that need to be made democrats and republicans both still want to weigh in on. turns out some of the democrats that have been closely involved in the negotiations with the administration are calling for a reopening of the agreement. host: explain that. when this gets to the floor are their chances to amend it if there are parts of it members of congress do not like or is this an up or down vote on what the trump administration is negotiating? guest: on the negotiate -- on the agreement it is an up or down vote on everything that has been negotiated. if they reopen the agreement or make changes to the actual deal that is still in flux. and the agreement is done what the members of congress will vote on is the so-called

the current process leaves congress in a nearly perpetual quest to develop the past funding bills for the next federal year to avoid offending laughs and yet the sheer size and complexity of the federal budget appropriations process virtually guarantees congress lwill not consider all the the appropriations bills individually each year. in the last 40 years we have exceeded only four times in passing all the appropriations bills on time. let me repeat that in the last 40 years, we have secured only four times in passing all of the appropriations bills on time. our inability to test the appropriations bills on the current schedule has made reliance on continuing resolution they routine part of the process and it comes with a cost. the department of defense has operated under a continuing resolution for an average of 81 days per year. that's almost three months per year since 2001 with a 2001 wasa particularly bad space since 2009 in which we've averaged 134 days per year. that's almost four and a half months of not knowing how much they are going to get to spend it alone planning for t

nothing i breached - - i gave to congress was ever leaked. it's not well known but most leaks of classified information do not come out of congress they come out of the executive branc branch. i never had anything leaked i told congress. >> i agree with that. >>. >> i will throw this question up to the panel it's interesting you mention the review process or appeals to declassify information what struck me immensely and i just want to know how you word explain that to me maybe there would be more empathy? additionally, talking about oversight is the model effective to other parts of the intelligence committee using more oversight cracks. >> but i don't have any insight now. i present those that have been on the panel over the years that many of you know knowing for a long period of time. and bill leonard who i represented of those espionage cases were he was the expert witness my felt they took their job seriously with those classification guides and frankly to mean not what made a difference they didn't have any equities there was something

this seems to be a different congress. the sensitivity to these things seems to be very different from in richard nixon's time. is that true on the democratic side also? is there a lack of reaction to this today? >> for the last two years, lawrence, we've quite frankly felt powerless, and we've had to rely on people on the outside, the people who have gone to the streets, run the protect mueller pro p protests. and with their respect they were able to help us elect 40 people to win the house. so we're not powerless anymore. actually we're in this position now we have to really assert our confidence and tell the american people, it's going to be okay. we can prevent the president's worst instincts now. we can intervene where necessary. we can put a straitjacket where the president wants to pea harmful. and that's going to start by conducting all the investigates where he was given a free pass before. one, to hold him accountable. but two, we've got the presidential election coming up. the same adversary that helped him in 2

how is that going to play out in the new congress? rep. pelosi: i will yield to our freshmen members but just to say the following. whatever they are calling it now -- [indiscernible] the trade agreement formerly known as nafta is a work in progress. we are admiring of the trade representative in an attempt to make sure we are aware what was in it. what wasn't in it is enough reassurances and reinforcements regarding provisions that relate to workers and to the environment. there also has not been a law passed in mexico in terms of wages and working conditions in mexico. when all of that happens, people will make a judgment whether they will be supporting it. this is not something that where -- that we have a piece of paper where we can say yes or no to. any of my colleagues here? >> i think it's fair to say, we want to raise all the boats in -- if we want to raise all the boats in this country, ensure that middle-income americans have more money to spend and businesses in our country have access to foreign markets. absent that, we are all

so to fast-forward to my term in congress, and what happened i actually ran for congress and then spent six years on the board of supervisors than eight years on the state legislature and ran for lieutenant governor of california that lost then for the late congressman but he was not running for reelection i decided to run for congress but 29 years but chapter ten expecting the unexpected catapulted to a whole new level january 2017 when donald trump was sworn in as president of united states right after the inauguration i hosted a reception at the capital mobilizing hundreds of women, many of whom were from my congressional district in the fight to ratify the equal rights amendment and to make women's rights a priority in the 115th congress that commitment of 24 simple words to make it illegal to discriminate against those based on sex was proposed to congress without adoption since 1923. most people are shocked in an interview given by supreme court justice antonin scalia he proposed outrage by saying certainly the constitution did not have discrimination based on sex but whether it p

congress is supposed to be part of that. what i found was that president had been involved in sometimes unnecessary wars over 200 years and that's what our founders wanted to make sure to prevent. they failed. >> one of the things we might not think about, you write about it, to go with james. >> james, in 1840s, he was a liar and a bully, other than that, wonderful president. he did a terrible thing which was, he manufactured an incident on the border, to ship mexicans to attack americans. then he went to congress and said we need a major war against mexico although we down to mexico city. he had an arterial motive that he lied about the congress and is only secretary to try to apply mexico a million square miles of territory. we did for the first time in our history, become a continental nation from the atlantic to the pacific. what he did was open the door to the president, essentially getting involved in the war on the basisas of incidents. the main 1988, let's have a war. it was not by the spanish but by accident. tragi

congress has the only authority to wage war has to come from congress. congress needs to take its control back and we need to put a stop to the yemen war. >> how close is congress to getting a bill on the floor to do that? >> i think we're going to do it in the house of representatives. it looks like the senate may actually do it. will we be able to come to an agreement to reign in the current activities of the trump administration in supporting saudi arabia? i think the answer is is yes. i think we will. and i think et we ought to. not just because of the terrible results of the yemen war shs the famine, the tens of thousands of people that have been civilians that have been killed in that war. but also as a very strong message to saudi arabia. would we be able to go to msb and say you're responsible and hold the crown prince accountable? probably not, but we can hold the saudi government accountable. with regard to the trade, it's an ongoing issue. clearly, the various war lords, it's probably folks that we have supported. we use that money to wage the

we have a lame-duck congress. there is a new congress about to take hold. democrats are feeling like they a guild ofhe house, a what accepted a year ago, which would've been the daca population, about 2 million people, was the deal they were willing to support a year ago. now, it is not enough. they want more. so, i think the most likely scenario is that we get a cake. the last dose code times -- there was a times ine in a march -- a kick march. host: republicans, (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents (202) 748-8003 fit -- independents (202) 748-8002. the present announcing the nomination of william bar as attorney general. we got into the william barr nomination and the quality he brings to downtown, can you talk about that? guest: if you imagine how hard it is going to be to confirm somebody to the senate where almost everybody supports the mueller investigation, and a president who is intent on either killing it or not giving any oxygen and wanton attorney general to rein in, that is a very small keyhole to get through. william barr jus

would it be opposed in the next congress? mr. bradley: states have been increasing the minimum wage either through their legislatures or -- but if a state has a higher minimum wage or a locality has a higher minimum wage, that trumps the federal minimum wage. we're saying here in the district of columbia right now, they're far in excess of the federal minimum wage, they have adjusted on their own. i don't think anyone is going to suggest that the right wage is the wage that was set however long ago the federal one was. if we're having a discussion about changing the federal minimum wage, we have to talk about what that does to important groups of workers who are just entering the workforce or who are getting the skills they need. in particular we should be concerned about people getting their first job, particularly those who are coming out of high school without a college degree, be concerned about summer youth employment and what that might do in that regard. we have to talk about the right level. unfortunately, we're having a

remember, congress has the power of the purse. and that is, you know, it's the article 1 institution. it's congress is important and i think we're going to see just how important and just how powerful in the coming months. >> what do you think, gwenn? how do you think that trump/pelosi dynamic? how do you think that's going to look the next two years to the country? >> he's trying to make a vudu doll out of her right now. he hasn't quite said lock her up. i think there's going to be some parallel chant when he goes on these campaign trips, campaign stops. we're going to hear something, another chant is going to somehow or other materialize. he needs that anger to stoke people. that's what he runs on. he really needs that. and without that, without that foyle, he's lost. soles he's going to -- somebody's going to have to be the person and right now it's nancy in the hot seat. >> we talked about this last night a little bit. this is a president for the last two years who has not done what former presidents have done trying to expand

the founders gave more power to congress. abraham lincoln altogether -- that was good preparation for lincoln who had to wage his own war, 13, 14 years, that is the thing i find about lincoln, two things, one was great politician. at the very beginning of the civil war for sumter fell, confederacy fired on beleaguered federal soldiers and they got into a boat and went to new york and i tried to write about these other things, a guy named major robert anderson. lincoln was worried there were rumors anderson had surrendered because he was a secret confederate, lincoln was urged to thank anderson for his service and lincoln didn't do it, thought it might be bad for political for him. anderson in new york, those two, 100,000 people, and his face was on every lamppost and rights to anderson saying i have been meaning to get in touch and anderson comes to the white house, a lovely story and lincoln says do you remember ever seeing me before? anderson said i'm quite sure i never met you before, mister president and lincoln said firs

the only institution in america chartered by congress to give information about the u.s. constitution on a nonpartisan basis. beautiful. these are congregants at the church of constitution. amen. we are here to inspire ourselves tonight and i'm here to thank you for showing up on this snowy evening to join me in celebrating the launch of my new book on william howard taft. [applause] the snow anecdote, this evening. on the morning of the past in operation, he met with theodore roosevelt and it was so snowy they couldn't get through the streets. she said the storm will soon be over, as soon as i'm out where i can do no further harm to the constitution. taft replied, you are wrong it's my storm. it would be a cold day when i got to be president of the united states. both predictions about the constitutional would pose in his efforts to impose his program by executive orders in the political cost of taft would prove to be correct. we are here tonight to discuss taft's legacy as our most judicial resident and presidential chief justice. i can't think of a better colleague and

andant to take a step back look at congress. how to fix congress? change the rules. details at the hill.com. decades, powerew has been taken away from committees and individual members and transferred to party toders for centralized power ensure all decisions reflect partisan and leadership interest. the result has been a more top-down congress that promotes partisanship and fails to serve the people. congress needs to fix this, and the most correct way of doing so is changing the house and sent rules by better sharing legislative power across the institution. congress can generate innovative thinking, promote greater debate of the issues, enhance the morale of the members, and reduce the hyper partisanship that has been emblematic of congress in recent years. congress, change the rules is the recommendation. what do you think? give us your ideas on how you think congress should be performed or changed if at all. we are sitting down with members of the house and senate, some who lost, others who retired. in who lost after two terms the senate, democratic senator clai

congress is supposed to be part of this. what i found is presidents have been tempted to get involved in sometimes unnecessary wars over 200 years and that is what our founders wanted to prevent and failed. >> host: one of the things we think about and you write about it in "presidents of war," the role of james papal. >> guest: james papal in the 1840s was a liar and scoundrel and did a terrible thing which was he manufactured a counterfeit incident on the texas border to provoke mexicans to attack americans and then went to congress and said we need a major war against mexico all the way down to mexico city. it turns out he had an all tear your motive, he lied to congress, his own secretary, which was to try to apply 1,000,000 mi. of territory so that we americans could for the first time in our history become a continental nation. what polk did was open the door to presidents getting involved in wars on the basis of incidents that didn't happen. taking us to may 18, '98, mckinley said let's have a war against spain. not b

new congress, new leaders. watch it live on c-span, starting january 3. >> a look now at the legislative priorities of the republican study committee. the current chair, representative mark walker, and congressman mike johnson viewed -- mike johnson, talk about the legislative priorities of the committee in working with the democratic majority starting in january. [indiscernible] >> good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. >> good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. please take your seats so we can start the event. we have our friends from c-span and people who are watching this live from all around the country and perhaps all around the

of any congress in the last 20 years. that success could not have happened without a lot of working across the aisle to find common ground. beyond legislation i look forward to continue working with my friend on our shared passion for a more efficient, effective, and accountable government through events like hack-a-thon. mr. hoyer: will the gentleman yield were he goes on? mr. mccarthy: yes, sir. mr. hoyer: i want to join the leader. it is important for the public towns much goes on in which there is agreement. much gos on in this house between staff and members that is a positive and bipartisan result for the american people and for our country. obviously the public sees mostly and the reporters cover, television and print, mostly the confrontation because that is what is newsworthy. headline saying everybody cooperated and got something done is apparently not a very salable, marketable headline. but i want to thank the majority leader and as the roles shift and i become the majority leader, i continue to, intend to wor

he said there was no accident that this power was put in the hands of congress. to be sure, the power of congress has the power to declare war, means more than to state something in the abstract. it is something that has to happen before but american blood and treasure on the line. it is something that should never happen in the absence of kind of dire emergency, some kind of active circumstances where the president must protect the united states of america, it needs to be declared by congress. this is not just a mere formality. it is the only thing that guarantees the government is by the people, for the people. only thing guaranteeing that we will have a debate about the relative merits in question. there are a number of reasons why, in addition to the fact that there are obvious economic expenses associated with it, there are tremendous human costs side,ated with war on the with whom we might be fighting against the side with whom we might be fighting. this conflict in yemen as many examples of the moral perilousness associated with war. we are involved in a c

and no congress should concede its authority to a previous congress, which is basically what we've done. i just want to point out, and i want to introduce the president's press release on the improper payment into the nation recover radioact. so ordered. it has to be one of the highest priorities we have. you have to start somewhere, $141 billion a year for ten years, that's $1.4 trillion. when we get into some of the other issues we are talking about here, the $421 billion in fines and fees and other things, mr. waller in, you were asked earlier what your recommendations would be on that. i would suggest that the bill that i introduced, the agency accountability ability, would go a long way in addressing that issues because it would suggest all of these fines all non-appropriated revenues go to the treasury and then to the department where they originated. not one bi-- they need to be constitutionally appropriated and constitutional oversight needs to be exercised. what are your comments on that? >> i think your legislation is a great first place to start. in fact, it is the only piece

what do you see coming up in the next congress? >> ben, you set this up nicely because you were talking about looking at the house democratic agenda as a template for what democrats who are running for the white house in 2020 might view as their policy portfolio. top policy priorities that i am tracking already, and looking at into the next congress is what house democrats are calling their hr one, their top priority which is a collection of ethics reforms, lobbying reforms, campaign finance. it is a big overhaul, anticorruption, good government type package. area where you will see that dynamic of intraparty conflict among democrats. people on the more progressive side want something bold and visionary. on. would like to go full maybe, farther than more moderate people want to go. in any event, that is something already on the agenda for the 116th congress. it is something that could affect all kinds of policy areas. democrats, for house in addition to their oversight agenda, keep the pressure on the white house, and against corru

the american people expect so much more of us in this congress. sadly, the republican leadership and this president are attempting 11th hour shenanigans to get a wall that voters across this country clearly, definitely rejected when they sent a new majority to congress and, frankly, they can't get here fast enough. the american people deserve better. i urge my colleagues to vote no. i thank you and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman yields back. the gentlewoman from new york reserves. the gentleman from new jersey is recognized. mr. frelinghuysen: mr. chairman, i'm pleased to yield two minutes to the gentleman from georgia, mr. buddy carter. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from georgia is recognized for two minutes. mr. carter: i thank the gentleman for yielding. mr. speaker, i rise today to discuss the importance of any funding bill, including funding for the border wall, as well as funding for our communities and farmers who have been hit hard by natural disasters. for those of us representing rural communities, we kno

there was congress bashing, congress bashing poems, congress bashing songs, play. i didn't expect that and that was really fascinating to see how and why people were making fun of congress and what it meant and what they were poking fun at. the other thing that sort of factually i knew this was the case but seeing it intrigued me, is the familiarity, the amount of familiarity that americans had with what was going on in congress. there was a magazine that came out in the 1850's called "vanity fair," a humor magazine, that came out right at the time when fighting is at its peak. the first issue has a picture on the cover of congressmen throwing things at each other. in the book, i refer to it as congressional fights quarterly. the only way you would understand the humor of it is if you knew what the congressmen were saying to each other on a detailed level. they would have humor stories that would pull a sentence or two from debate and i could look at it and be like he's making fun of this guy. the fact that the public was that familiar with that level of congressio

we think tariffs ought to save a few extraordinary circumstances be implemented by congress and the congress ought to have some fairly strict guidelines for how they approach tariffs, which are taxes. as to whether that can be added to the usmca i suspect there are procedural difficulties they might have there. we have a deal, it's a good deal. we need to get it approved. we need to begin taking the steps to get it approved starting with removing the tariffs. >> more broadly next year, how do you work with democrats in the house, what are you expecting they can can actually get done? in particular, changes to the tax law, which there are a lot of talk about that. how do you persuade democrats to go along with that? >> step back for a second. i think there is a lot we can can work with democrats on. there are a lot of areas of agreement. infrastructure i think is a key opportunity. immigration, bringing both sides together and dealing with a sensible immigration policy. i mentioned within of the big dangers to sustained economic growth is work force. there is a lot of really interesting ideas

congress has been a dead zone. it has been wasting $5 billion, which is its budget, and increasing congressional secrecy , restrictive rules of progressive members, and putting more and more power in the hands of the top leaders, stripping former committee chairs of the ability to decide for themselves what kind of hearings. how do we get auto safety in 1960? it was hearings in congress that aroused the people, led to the recall of cars, pushed lyndon .ohnson to support it almost all of the changes in our country start at the federal statewith congress or legislatures. and people say, oh, we have got to go to court. but the court relies on statutory rights that are invoked. oh, we have to change the epa and get it going. but if it doesn't have an adequate budget, if it doesn't have adequate authority, what kind of quality of staff are going to stay there? it goes back to congress. 535 people. amy: ralph, your book "to the is subtitled "how bush and obama paved the way for the trump presidency and why it isn't too l