as one of the most respected members and kindest members, with widespread affection from her colleagues and that's what everyone in public life should strive for. our coast alwart for and led the charge against offshore drilling but the part that i will miss, she is my living bridge when i was a student at u.c. santa barbara and she is a graduate of the same university and my fellow alumni and everybody is so proud of her and extra special because by eld a seat in congress walter capps who was one of my

greatest professors. finally, it's tough to say good-bye to our great friend, mike honda who has represented the bay area on the appropriations committee and made sure that congress has invested in our bay region, the extension of bart is one of many examples of mike's great work. he served in three decades from the school board to the board of supervisors to the california a see himbly and here in congress. and mike's very special service draws on his life experience, he is a champion on civil rights and equality and has been our north star here in congress. lgbt gone to bat for the community and anyone who has been disadvantaged and who needs

a champion. mike is my neighbor here in washington. i will miss running into him and prius eing that toyota and will miss his warm smile and friendship. but i do know that friendship will continue. so, mr. speaker and my colleagues, thank you for the time to lend my voice of appreciation and gratitude to these great, great champions for california and our country. we wish them well. ms. lofgren: we had a number of other members who had planned to be here but because of the hour, there is a conflict event. they will be adding their voices to the record. let me just close by saying our

delegation, really all the congress and the public are going to miss the distinguished capps, of sam farr, lois oretta sanchez, mike honda and they made their mark that will be forgotten. we are sad to see them go. we have fresh faces who are very distinguished and will headache their mark because we are just passing through this people's house in an effort to serve our country as best we can. certainly these members have served their public and we are honored to have served with them and with that, i yield back the balance of our time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman yields back. under the speaker's announced policy of january 6, 2015, the

chair recognizes the gentleman rom arkansas, mr. hill, for 30 minutes. mr. hill: i appreciate the opportunity to address the people's house this evening. last night i talked about my initial reflection of having been a freshman spending my first term in the united states house of representatives. and last evening i talked at length about the growth of the administrative state, the expansion of executive power to the detriment of the first branch, the legislative branch. i traced those changes from my previous service on capitol hill workingol hill as a and for president bush 41 during his four years in the presidency. tonight, i want to turn and

continue that discussion with our american people, mr. speaker, and talk about how the cabinet agencies, since i worked for president bush, worked in cabinet affairs, coordinated economic policy during the last two years of his presidency from the white house staff, i want to talk about the cabinet agencies and how in my view they have become unmanageable. you can see the critical need r spending and personnel reform. ne may assume that change is and yet reform flounders, whether it was at the pentagon under rumsfeld or the veterans affairs department under the current administration. i watched the v.a. for the past two years. secretary mcdonald's laws has

changed and malfeasance and incompetence persist. the "washington post" published a shocking report that pentagon officials buried evidence of 125 billion in bureaucratic waste during 2015. for that horrific activity, they were the recipient of this month's golden fleece award by my office. to make it worse, they made the effort, according to "the post" of hiding this effort knowing it would be difficult for the congress to come together and cut their budget. clearly that is a problem with an unmanageable cabinet agency. i have seen this firsthand right in little rock, my hometown, where the center of the c-10

program is, where america's airlift, where the department of air force officials planned for years the transfer aircraft from the air force base in mississippi to little rock air rce base, basing it as a cost-saving initiative along with changes with $192 million across the five-year plan. and yet congress prevented this commonsense plan initiative. so these efforts that make them unmanageable come both from the executive and from the legislative. looking at the veterans affairs department, some 360,000 employees, up 140,000 in the past decade alone. about 2/3 of the members are

civilian employees are a part of the american federation of government employees and serve in the employees international union. and these v.a. employees are subject to the protections of the merit system protection board. while there are many hard working and dedicated v.a. employees in the health care and benefits and many, many union members fight for high standards and fight for high quality, the facts are stubborn things and remain that the v.a. has serious quality, ethics that are hurting veterans and hurting the reputation of the federal government. just this this congress alone under congressman miller, the chairman of the veterans affairs committee, we have seen reforms

bad gn in spending, fire actors, stop paying official time to do union work and we have seen, though, people not fired, even though people have died in v.a. health care. we have seen a $300 million hospital complex be $1 billion over budget. not possible in my view in the private sector. so there's no doubt that our cabinet agencies need reform. we talk about regulatory reform and executive overreach reform, but we must have work rule reform in our agency. the other thing i want to talk about before i talk about solutions is just spending overall to fund the obligations

of our federal government. you know, every month i receive numerous letters about the $1.1 trillion in annual spending that congress typically approves each year. and when done properly, this annual spending is done by 12 appropriation bills and six appropriation bills in the senate. they are conferenced together and presented to the president for his veto or approval. the problem is that this very typical, very constitutional program that's been applied for 240 years about how to authorize and appropriate funds to appropriate our government is no longer typically happening. this is congress' most fundamental obligation under article one. a 16-word long, no money shall be drawn from the treasury but

in consequence by the treasury made by law. this is our job and the last time that all the appropriation bills were passed individually and enacted into law before october 1 of a new fiscal year was 1994. my, that's a terrible track record. this isn't a president obama issue or president bush issue. this is an issue of the congress itself. and now you know why after 20 years i have seen so many things change and not for the better coming back to washington to represent the people of central arkansas. what happens without such a process of appropriations bills is what we will be voting on this week, a continuing simply freezes spending and extends forward to a date certain or as an alternative to that kind of

continuing resolution an omnibus spending bill where everything is rolled into one and these massive bills are reflecting the work hopefully of our house and senate contest. by they contain items that are parachuted into the bill at the end of the negotiations between the house and the senate and produce fireworks on both sides of the political spectrum. the irony of that $1.1 trillion of typical annual spending approved by this body is that it composes $600 billion, 50% that goes to our national defense women s to our men and in uniform, 80% goes to the men and women in uniform and everything else we considered in government, highway finance and

ourway initiatives, help to army corps of engineers. but what shocks the people of arkansas is why i appreciate their correspondence and emails about the $1.1 trillion, so-called domestic discretionary spending. i remain frustrated that congress' lack of action on the other $3.5 trillion that this government spends it's in the mandatory portion of the portion. it's not subject to annual appropriation. thank you for your mail and suggestions about how we can reform spending at the pentagon or spending in our national forests, but $. trillion is in mandatory spending which is in medicare, medicare for the

elderly and interest on our national debt. and they're based on eligibility. yet many of us remain concerned about the size of our annual deficit, the total size of our national debt, particularly when you consider the size of the national debt to our total economy. we currently have about $19 trillion in outstanding debt of the united states. with about $6 trillion of that owed to foreign investors outside the u.s., principally in japan and china, and this debt as a percentage of our g.d.p., this $19 trillion, is about 100% of g.d.p. back in my 20's, when i worked for a senator from texas on the senate banking committee, debt to g.d.p. was about 30%. when i worked for president bush 41, as a member of his white house staff for economic policy, our debt was about 50%

or 60% of g.d.p. now you know why after 20 years i remain so concerned. because it's now doubled. there's a lot of economic research that tells us about the dampening impact on our national growth rates if we have national debt at these kinds of levels. it saps capital alternatives to the private sector that can bring faster growth and clearly, since the great recession of 2008, we've had low growth, well below what i believe should be the growth rate of this great economy. and like-wise, we're at a time of low interest rate. interest rates are likely to rise and while we're paying a modest amount of interest on had been to-be trillion today, as interest rates gradually increase over the next few months and years,

interest will move from about $220 billion to $830 billion, mr. speaker. over the next 10 years. surpassing what we spend as a nation on our national defense. so there's no doubt the federal government has grown too big and too complex and interferes too greatly. we must get our fiscal house in order. and, mr. speaker, eliminating waste, fraud will not do it. raising taxes won't do it. i'm always reminded by members of the opposition that insist that we can only balance our budget raising taxes. winston churchill's favorite quote about taxes, we contend for a nation that tried to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift it himself by the handle. it's not going to do it, mr. speaker. this problem is too large and

requires reform and it requires this congress to reform in the out years and put us on the right track. former joint chief of staff chairman michael mullin said in 2010, six years ago, mr. speaker, that the biggest national security problem facing the united states was the size of our national debt. so let me talk now, mr. speaker, about potential solutions that this congress has to adopt, working with our president-elect in the coming days and the coming years and the early months of the trump administration. first, congress heal thyself. we must reassert our article 1 powers. the power of the purse. the power of the proper appropriations process. we don't need someone to impose that, we need to impose it on ourselves. we need to remind the american people to contact us, to return us, help us return to regular

order. return to the appropriations process. we need all 12 of those bills passed and stop depending on continuing resolutions like we will this week. this is something i think that's fundamental. let's talk about some of the reforms to that budget process tonight. in this congress, i was proud to support the biannual budgeting and enhanced oversight act which was introduced by reid ribble of wisconsin. if this passes, it will help our government fix our broken system by establishing a two-year biannual budget cycle. i think this would provide federal agencies with the kind of planning capability that would make them much more effective, we could identify cost savings, and no doubt in the important infrastructure area and long-term systems issues that we have, particularly in the pentagon, this would be a large advantage. after reflecting on this, i support abolishing our budget

committee process. put in place in 1974. a way to rein in the executive was the intent of the budget act of 1974, to help punish richard nixon. but i believe that if we abolish the budget committee, we can allow our authorizing committees to serve both in authorizing and appropriating funk, we can eliminate redundancies and we can look inward in how we can eliminate unnecessary procedures in congress that waste time. in turn, our appropriations committee would oversee the budget resolutions, making sure that congress spends no more than what we've approved in a budget resolution. and that we can review individual ceilings for appropriating money for those government functions that don't require an authorization. i also support the idea of properly directing the congressional budget office to account for or score, in their

terminology, for long-term investments as budget impacts versus just current-year spending. these ideas are not revolutionary. they're well known. but we are stuck in the past, mr. speaker, we must reform ourselves starting with this budget and appropriations process. in fact, these ideas are as old as my boss' suggestion, john tower, 4-year veteran of the senate, served on the -- 24-year veteran of the senate, served on the budget armed forces committee, these are the ideas upon his retirement in 1984 as to how the make the congress more effective. the congressional budget office relies on a set of government statistics, including g.d.p. growth , inflation and tax receipt. it takes into account dynamic scoring. but these things need to be done more in my view in a more proper way to better calculate the costs of legislation and the benefits for comet. for example, -- the economy.

for example, c.b.o. doesn't currently include interest payments on debt when scoring new legislation. as previously mentioned, this interest will grow exponentially in the coming years and new spending programs and spending reforms in my view ought to be calculated and taken -- take into account the agency costs, the carrying costs, on our national debt. another recommended reform to the c.b.o. from our house budget committee would be to eliminate build-in -- built-in discretionary inflation, removing the automatic extensions of expiring programs and removing the current assumption that entitlement payments will continue at current levels, even when their trust funds are predicted to be insolvent. these practices currently used by c.b.o. result in automatic plus-ups for the baseline budget. and these reforms in my view will remove the current bias to ever hire spending levels -- higher spending levels. we ought to consider what we do in the private sector, mr.

speaker, zero-base budgeting, to assess what is really needed and not needed in our federal agency. what a great idea for mr. trump's incoming new director of the office of management and budget. interior department. let's go to zero-base -- zero base budgeting. let's have you justify to the chief financial officer in the interior department every program and then come to congress with your recommendation ever what we really should be doing -- recommendation of what we really should be doing at interior or any other bureau or cabinet agency of the government. house and senate bills have been introduce a radio -- introduced on this issue. representative duncan of tennessee, senator thune in south carolina. would, i think, bring a lot of common sense, they would say, if private enterprises are performing activities duplicated by an arm of the federal government, that they have the opportunity to compete for that work. and that federal agencies

unnecessarily handling -- or handling in-house, and therefore give better value to our taxpayer. i.t. investment. information technology. a critical function in all of our private sector life. and yet g.a.o., the government accountability office, found that 75% of technology budget for the federal government goes to just hanging up and figuring aging technology. rather than mods earn eyes ising and going in -- modernizing and ghg a different direction on i.t. -- diagnose in -- going in a different direction on i.t. they're actually still using floppy disks at the pentagon and maintaining 1970's-era computer platforms. look, that stuff ought to be in the smithsonian. not at the pentagon. the report notes that is the social security systems that are used to determine our eligibility and our benefits are more than 30 years old and are based on computer language. mr. speaker, i used cobalt

computer language when i was in college. almost 40 years ago. we need that kind of reform in order to be competitive and provide services to our constituents and safe cyber-ready protections. we've already witnessed the office of personnel management losing people's identities, creating identity theft right in the middle of a federal computer system. that's supposed to be the best. our chairman of the house oversight committee, jason chaffetz, has expressed his support for modernizing our government's aging systems, calling it a vital part of infrastructure that we need in order to have a fully functional government. i couldn't agree more. we don't need to shortchange these agencies when it comes to delivering a safe cyberprotected i.t. infrastructure.

let's talk now more about last -- last night i talked about the administrative state, the growth of regulation, the cost of regulation, exceeding that of all the revenues of the tax system, let's talk about what we can do to rein in regulatory costs. the house passed the separation of powers restoration act in 2016, which would amend the administrative procedures act to require the courts to decide all de novo relevant questions of law, including the interpretation of the constitutional statutory provisions and rules. this bill would eliminate the chevron deference, which in my view is blocking common sense being used and direction of this people's house and the senate over our regulatory body. not a new topic, mr. speaker. james madison in federalist 51 discussed the need of each branch of government to guard against overreach by another. and he ise stated, when an overreach occurs, ambition must

be to counteract ambition. that's what we want to do in this had house, mr. speaker -- in this house, mr. speaker. we have passed the reins act. regulations from the executive in need of scrutiny act. the reins act. which passed this house overwhelmingly. the thing that any major rule like the ones i described last night that cost the economy more than $100 million would require coming back to congress for approval. that will put the people's presentatives here representatives here in charge of the administrative state and not the other way around. i referenced a few minutes ago "the washington post" story about uncovering $125 billion of hidden-away, misdirected spending at the pentagon, that i awarded this month's golden fleece award. i brought back to the golden fleece from the 1970's, it was created by senator william proxmire of wisconsin, and it's

that kind of thing that i think calls attention to egregious behavior by the executive and allows us to have policy changes here. i commend former senator tomko burn and his successor -- tomorrow coburn and his successor for the same kind of work. finally, mr. speaker, i want to turn to the subject of the community empowerment initiative, something that i've spent a lot of time on in my district in little rock. and i had file ways to find a better way to enhance the lives of american citizens and get them out of poverty and the skills they need to succeed in our economy. this is the big challenge before the incoming trump administration in this congress. it's important that people have a vested interest in their community and have a sense of community engagement about how

we do about how i talked about last night that people closest to the problems solve those problems and not be dependent on one size fits all challenges here. and so, mr. speaker. it's an honor to be re-elected constituents. i'm humbled to aaffirm on january 3. every thursday morning we assemble for the house prayer breakfast and i feel the prayers around my country and we in that group pray for all of our families and pray for our men and women around our world protecting our liberties and freedoms and i pray for each of the families in my district that they have the health and prosperity and the ability to pursue happiness under our great constitution. on behalf of my family, i wish

all of the people of the 2nd congressional district of arkansas a blessed christmas season and god bless our troops overseas and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. for what purpose does the gentleman from arkansas rise? mr. hill: i ask unanimous consent that all members have five legislative days to include extraneous remarks on the special order. i ask unanimous consent that the house stand adjourned. i make a motion to adjourn. the speaker pro tempore: the question is on the motion to adjourn. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. the ayes have it. the motion is adopted members will debate on a bill

that includes funding for this lead, michigan water system. floor, the appropriations at their april. >> with a midnight deadline approaching, congress is set to take up continuing resolutions, expanding funding until april 28. why is congress facing another government shutdown deadline? cannothouse and senate seem to get those 12 appropriation bills done in a timely way. they got one of them done before the fiscal year started october 1, which is the first time in years they got one done before the start of the fiscal year. the other is will remain on hold -- others will remain on hold,

but in the end, even though they have some written, the incoming team warned them not to proceed. they wanted to put it together to close out the fiscal year. now they will leave things open until next year with a new administration can have more of a say on spending priorities. >> let's talk about key details in the bill and to some of the writers. how does it fund government agencies, considering they are still under budget caps previously agreed to? >> they have the discretionary cap number from the bipartisan budget deal, which is $1.07 trillion, that is part of the deal that the former speaker made with the white house, to ensure that there would not be a shutdown. that they would have a couple of years in terms of what the discretionary spending level would be.

so they are using that as a guide and that is what they used for the first cr they wrote and passed in september and this is a continuation of building on that. when all is said and done, this plan calls for the government to be funded for the first seven months of of the fiscal year. that is causing concern with appropriators, who compared these two autopilot and they really do not believe that the department of defense in particular, should be operating under cr's especially with so many operations going on overseas. flint,et's talk about michigan. this bill will provide funding for water system. how much is included in the bill and why is it in the cr? >> there are two things going on, but this should be carrying $170 million in appropriations to help plant deal with -- flint

deal with the water crisis. and another bill is coming act,gh, this is a water the water bill as they call it has authorization for the flint money. as a republican leaders want to the crse passed, provides the real money. and for flint to get the mike mulvaney both pills -- flit to be assured of the mike mulvaney both bills to pass. isst: james madison -- matt has been chosen for defense secretary, can you explain the waiver issue? says a person would have to be out of the military where 70 7 yearsefore taking --

before being considered for the post. in the cr, they are looking at legislative language to provide a waiver for the 7-year-old. democrats today say they do not usedthat the cr is being to change the law, but this would really be debated in congress and given careful consideration. some of them say they still do not really object to him getting the waiver and that signals that it will not be a big stumbling block for the cr. :o there is fundingst: -- host there is funding for security for the president-elect. can you explain what is in the bill? >> it is less than what new york city has requested. the ranking member of the appreciate -- appropriations committee says it will not help new york city as much as it will inp address what is going on

the city right now and the extra law enforcement and resources being used. yet that in itself does not seem to be a stumbling block either. there are things, for example, the senator from west virginia is very angry that only a very short extension of benefits is in the cr. he had been talking with republicans about extending thatctions to make sure they and their widows would receive benefits for a number of years. benefits wouldth only be extended for the duration of the cr. today he was threatening to withhold consent to allow the cr to go forward until they could negotiate a better deal. he was talking about offering an extension until next week, maybe

next monday or tuesday to give more time to negotiate these and other things. host: any other provisions you at?looking they have beeny frozen out of the negotiations, even though they have been negotiating the other spending bills together all year long. the one thing the white house has gotten into this cr, maybe not at the levels they wanted, but they got extra money for the defense department and the state department to conduct overseas operations in iraq and afghanistan. now the entire amount requested from president obama, but it does come close. and another thing is disaster assistance, that is something the white house is pushing for louisiana and other states. in the end, it looks like the cr will give about $4 billion in extra funding.

those states affected by flooding, enclosing -- including louisiana, and others that will worship i'm hurricane -- were hit by hurricane matthew. it is a good installment for what they need. host: well the white house continue with resolutions? >> we do not know yet. we have not really the definitive statements from the white house press room about that, they are evaluating it and senate democrats are evaluating it and they say they will have a special caucus, because there are a number of democrats who are unhappy with the provisions. maybe we will not know until tomorrow what the democrats will do. host: nancy writes about appropriations for bloomberg dna, thinking for being with us. elect donald trump

added to his cabinet picks. it is reported that he has elected scott pruitt to lead the vpa. they say he has been a key architect against the climate change policies of obama, actions that fit with the president-elect's comments. and the president-elect has elected john kelly to have the department of homeland security, making them the third retired general and the incoming cabinet. also today, president-elect --nt picked linda mcmahon cmahon thelead -- m business administration. transition team senior adviser kellyanne conway commented on the picks earlier tonight. >> we had a meeting.

met with the mayor of chicago, -- a iseen meeting with meeting with a lot of people from the other side of the aisle and others who are just giving advice and counsel. another full day of meetings and phone calls. kellyare hearing about getting a provision, can you tell us about the progress on that? on that.ot comment i know that they had a very productive and exciting meeting recently it obviously general kelly is qualified for the job. >>-- >> what do have to say about that? some say he does not believe in climate change. : general pruitt has

a good record in oklahoma and if there were a number of qualified candidates for that position that the president-elect interviewed. we look for to the confirmation hearing. thank you. tower, stopping by trump the chicago marriott former chief of staff to president obama, rahm emanuel. he spoke with reporters after meeting with president-elect trump. mr. emanuel: everybody good this morning? i'm really good. i had a calls ago with the president-elect and a good discussion. he said, when you are in new york, i want to have a meeting. so i had a meeting with him and

his chief of staff and his senior adviser. one of them about white house operations, how to make it work. second, we also discussed immigration. i deliver to the president-elect and his senior chief of staff, a letter signed by 14 mayors together from across the immigrantsout our and that they were working hard toward the american dream. i believe that our students will, those are people who want to join the armed forces and they gave names, addresses, where they are, they are trying to achieve the american dream. no-fault of there is that their parents in here. and i presented him with a letter signed by 14 mayors from across the country, different cities from all parts of the country, that we are clear that these are dreamers seeking the

american dream and we should embrace them, rather than do a bait and switch. and we talked about what it means to be a century city and -- sanctuary city, and how we should secure the people who are here, like my grandfather that came to as grande sent a is the mayor of this study, which is a testament to the strength of the values and the ideals of connecticut. in addition, we talked about transportation, investing in infrastructure, job creation and economic opportunity. i talked about specific ideas about how to make resources go farther, things we're doing in the city of chicago. on roads, rails, or runways, it impacts the city economically. in addition, we talk about our gains in education in the city of chicago.

we now have been growing in our high school graduation at a pace of about a third of an increase. 52%, up to 73%. the eighth graders lead the country in math, and fourth graders are third in the united states in leading gains in urban systems. we are also one of only three school district in the entire u.s., who the fourth and eighth graders math and reading went up. i touch about the community college systems, which the world ranked as one of the best career programs. -- each school is aligned with a major industry. those schools are bringing industries in. they work on a click -- curriculum. if you get a b average, community college is free. in the 21st century, when you earn what you learn, we have to make sure more and more people

a job, butce not at a career. i talked about the scholarships, the reinvention of the community college system as a driver of the economic engine, and that is why chicago three years in real has been the number one city for corporate relocations for years -- for four years in a row. a very good meeting with the president-elect, his incoming chief of staff his incoming senior adviser. i was clear about what -- where i stood and other mayors stood on immigrants, that we welcome them because they are striving for the american dream, and also how to make key investments in the talent, training, as well as transportation to drive economic growth. >> did he seem perceptive on the immigration focus? >> we will continue to bring you

updates from trump tower tomorrow here on c-span, online rg, and our facebook page. in the house, members came to the floor to mark the 75th anniversary of the japanese attack on pearl harbor that brought the u.s. into the second world war. years ago,ker, 75 the imperial forces of japan attacked pearl harbor and other bases in hawaii. this unforgivable act thrust our country into the war in the pacific. on this day, 2403 americans died. 1177 of them on the arizona. 1178 were wounded. today, to honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice, there will be services here in bc, throughout the -- in washington dc, breath a nation, and

particularly at pearl harbor. this is where pearl harbor is, the symbol of world war ii and the attack. that is the uss arizona memorial. designed by alfred previous, it was controversial one first unveiled, because people could not understand the significance of it. looked like a squash milk carton, but when you really understood what went behind it, it made all the sense. the middle part that looks like it's sagging represented the defeat of december 7. however, the two proud, strong sides represented the victory of that our country faced. now, think about it all. there's a portion of it that has an open, you have been there, it's opened to the ocean. that's where leis like this were thrown into to honor those who were buried below. in addition there is a wall that named all those who perished,

but there is another wall, and this is very significant, it is those who survived the attack but choose to return to be buried with their colleagues. and the navy diver who takes them, their ashes down, and puts them on the u.s.s. arizona. there are seven large windows on one side representing december 7. and there are 21 windows all together representing a 21-gun salute. mr. prius when he designed it said he wanted the memorial to be everything to anybody as they looked at it, but most importantly, he wanted it to be serene. ou have to ask yourself why. what little we know about him is like the japanese americans, he was detained because he was austrian. in hawaii there were internment camps, not only of japanese americans, but of germans, of

american decent, as well as italians and mr. prius was one of them. world war ii created the greatest generation of all time and we must never forget them. we must honor them, but we must always remember that ultimate sacrifice which they made. they made it for all of us. so we would appreciate and enjoy civil liberties because remember in february of the following year is when president roosevelt signed executive order 9066 which put into internment camps japanese americans whose only crime was that they were japanese americans. this group fought to fight. they fought to prove their loyalty to this country. let us not forget them, the filipino world war ii veterans who also served, and everyone who served in world war ii.

let us not forget why they served and why they did that ultimate sacrifice. it was so that we would be the greatest country on this earth and we would provide people with civil liberties. let us not as we move forward forget that. let us not forget what it means to be a country which welcomes all and has protected the civil liberties. so as we look and hear about things like the muslim registry or building walls, think what those brave men of the greatest generation really think they fought for that? is that what they want this country to become? i contend that they do not. so on this day, mr. speaker, as we honor those who safe that ultimate sacrifice, let us not forget why we are the greatest country on the face of this earth. and why they are the i seek

recognition? without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized. ms. gabbard: thank you, mr. speaker. my heart is in hawaii today. at almost this exact time on this very day 75 years ago, the first bombs were dropped in the attack on pearl harbor. more than 2,400 people perished on that fateful day that will forever live in infamy. we remember our brothers and sisters who paid the ultimate price and those who answered to serve in the months and years that followed, including our two former senators, inouye and akaka, and the more than 320,000 who gave their lives in that war. we remember the japanese americans whose lives were forever changed when after the attack on pearl harbor were thrown into internment camps and the brave people who in spite of these atrocities volunteered to serve, go for regiment.

may we never forget what happened at pearl harbor, the lessons learned and the sacrifices without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. higgins: mr. speaker, today marks the 75th anniversary of the tragic attacks on pearl harbor. it's a day we reflect and remember over 2,400 americans whose lives we lost that morning. today, i especially remember army corporal earl wickette, a south buffalo native, who was stationed at pearl harbor on the day of the attacks. he went on to fight on behalf of our nation for over four years. following his tour, he returned home to western new york, raised a family and continued to serve his community as a buffalo firefighter. unfortunately, mr. wict is no longer with us -- wickette, is flonger with us, passing away -- is no longer with us, passing away a few years ago. i join all americans to remember those who paid the ultimate price at pearl harbor and those who sought and

protected our freedom here and around the world. without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. lamalfa: thank you, mr. speaker. i do rise today on the 0th anniversary of the attack of -- 70th anniversary of the attack of pearl harbor to remember. also, in particular, the recognition of one of the survivors we still have with us, david edward callahan, a great northern california veteran who put his life on the line to serve in the united states in the navy at a time when the world was on fire. less than four months after he reported to the u.s. naval training station at san diego the age of mr. callahan would be soon to be standing aboard the u.s.s. new orleans when the first drone was heard that morning. for six years he would fight the japanese in almost every major battle of the pacific war as a combat swimmer which later

became known as the naval seals where he was awarded a purple heart. on behalf of the first district of california, we want to show our gratitude to mr. callahan. his service didn't end there as well. later the pacific nuclear proving grounds, he used his diving skills there to see how that would work in the nuclear testing that was going on at that time. he's never stopped serving. he's never been less than an inspiration for all of us. he will be taking part in for what purpose does the gentlewoman is recognized. without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. ms. johnson: thank you very much, mr. speaker. today marks the 75th anniversary of the attack on pearl hashon. it -- pearl harbor. it was a defining moment in america's history and the day of infamy. this deon straighted the resolve of the american people

and the armed forces. it is a day we honor those who gave their lives in the defense of this country, but also honor those who have saved lives of others during this tragedy. petty officer doris "dori" miller from my hometown of waco, was one such individual who went above and beyond the call of duty in defense of this country and fizz americans. he's widely recognized as a hero after the attack on pearl harbor for his remarkable courage when his ship, the u.s.s. west virginia, came under attack by the japanese. in the face of imminent danger, he assisted his ship's commander who was mortally wounded to safety. he then reportedly manned a .50 caliber anti-aircraft machine gun to shoot down at least three of the 29 japanese planes that went down that day.

mr. speaker, ever since i've been a member of congress, i have worked time and time again to get dore miller awarded the -- dory miller awarded the congressional medal of honor. yet, he's left with the honorable navy cross. it's time we honor the unheard sacrifices of our men and women in uniform an >> beginning at 8 a.m. eastern, the national archives reads from u.s. navy deadlocks, describing events on ships that were under attack on pearl harbor, followed by the burial of john h lindsay at arlington national cemetery, one of the 429 casualties aboard the uss oklahoma. his remains were recently identified. tour the pearl harbor

attack site on the island of osu with -- oahu. then, franklin d. roosevelt speech to congress asking for a declaration of war, followed by ceremony ativersary pearl harbor cohosted by the national park service and the u.s. navy. from 11:00 to 1 p.m., we are taking your calls and tweets live. author of a book discussing the pacific war and attack on pearl harbor, through the u.s. victory over the japanese at the battle of midway. travers,e have paul the author of an early -- oral history to pearl harbor, giving a behind the scene of the japanese attack with more than 200 interviews with veterans. at 1:00, the pearl harbor he said it -- 75th anniversary from the national world war ii memorial in washington dc with

remarks from senator john mccain. saturday on american history tv on c-span3. >> congress is set to take up a bill authorizing water infrastructure projects. hill, yourthe article, congress strikes deal on water bill with flint aid focuses on money authorized in the legislation for flint, michigan to fix the contaminated water system. what were the major differences between house and senate on funding for flint, and who wear the lawmakers that made the deal come together? >> we sought to separate versions of the water bill passed. the house version contained $170 million in authorizations for the lead contaminated community of flint here at the senate side had actually appropriated and fully paid for $220 million for communities all over the country facing a similar drinking water crisis. some of the leaders we have seen someoneissue include

from michigan, working directly with house leadership to craft an amendment. on the senate side, weekly debbie seven and peter is working aggressively on the issue. you mentioned dan on the house side and michigan's democratic senators. where they pleased with the end product? >> they wanted a higher number. the number we ended up getting was $170 million. the other sticking point is that it is only an authorization, as opposed to an appropriation, with the goal of the appropriation being on the continuing resolution, which is set to be vote on this week.the issue here is that in order to spend the money, it needs to be bill.ized on the water it is important both of these pieces of legislation passed, in order to actually deliver the aid to flint. >> this will also includes language regarding the , with the drought

state's two senators taking opposite sides on the issue. your article focuses on the difference. what's going on here? >> senator boxer has come out and said she will fight this to not- tooth and now and allow the drought language to be included. it was included at the last minute. it provides drought relief to central and southern california. it is something kevin mccarthy has been pushing for. democrat,gue, also a senator feinstein, said i'm going to support this, it's not perfect, it's better than nothing. she worries if it does not pass this year, that republicans under the trump administration will push something even more harmful to the environment. >> what is the white house saying about the bill? we have not seen the official statement of administrative policy as of 4:30 today. but we did hear josh earnest,

reporters on air force one that they are also very concerned they did language, but not go as far as saying they would issue a veto threat. some ofus more about the water projects that are in the bill. how many are they? who would build these infrastructure projects, what type of projects do they consist of? >> these are army corps of engineers projects. there are nearly 30 of them, amounting to nearly $12 billion in authorizations. it is a wide range, from ports, dams, infrastructure, water related improvement across the country. this is something the water bill is done every two years. leaders are very happy to get access to this. >> what kind of a construction companies would be involved in this? wouldese large companies, it go out to smaller construction outfits? >> it's all over the board right now. democrats have been pushing for the buyion, called

american amendment, that would require all projects for the drinking water fund to be american-made u.s. steel and iron, but that was stripped from the final package released. >> melanie writes for the help you choose on twitter -- she writes for the hill. she is on twitter. thank you very much for joining us. >> abigail fillmore was the first first lady to work outside the home, teaching at a private school. maybe eisenhower's hairstyle and love of pink created fashion sensations. that was marketed as a color, and stores sold quick to women eager to replicate her style. jacqueline kennedy was responsible for the creation of the white house historical association, and nancy reagan, as a young asterisk, soccer name mistakenly on the blacklist of suspected communists sympathizers in the late 1940's. she appealed to the screen

actors guild had ronald reagan for help and later became his wife.these stories and more are featured in "first ladies: presidential historians on the lives of 45 iconic american women." ift book makes a great g for the holidays, with a look every firstes of lady, stories and how their legacies resonate today. share the stories of america's first lease for the holidays. first ladies in paperback, published by public affairs, available at your favorite bookseller and also as an e-book. next, we hear from former house speaker newt gingrich, and senator john mccain earlier tonight at the jack kemp foundation dinner in washington dc. >> are these microphones working? yes. it is a pleasure to see everyone here tonight. ahead of time, i spoke to senator mccain, and i said i am

looking forward to this conversation. speaker, and he said it will be amusing. we will see if they live up to the billing. coming out of world war ii, understood its role to be that of leader of the free world. we had a purposeful national security strategy to that end, and it chartered a central role for advancing freedom throughout the world. ever since, the call for has beenleadership echoed on both sides of the aisle from our leaders. however, what constitutes american leadership has often been a matter of dispute. where to draw the lines between advancing our values and principles, and

advancing what is seen as national interest, has been a long-standing debate in foreign-policy circles. certainly, presidents clinton and bush both argued that spreading american values itself was essential to our interests . i think one would search in vain for any statements by president obama to the contrary. there is a growing belief in many corners that trying to promote and advance our values costs, in worth the all cases, to advance democracy. it may not be worth the cost in all cases. let's start with that. where do you come down on that issue? senator, please. all,or mccain: first of thank you. i would like to thank the kemp foundation and families. haleytulations to nikki

for the singular honor and her new position. and her suite at the waldorf astoria in manhattan. was remindedon, i of the story of the two inmates and the talent in the state prison -- childline in the state prison. yesterday, i thought -- saw the president of the united states give a speech. basically not only denying the failures of the last eight years , but extolling the failures. inking at a map of the world

2009, and look at a map of today. you'll see al qaeda, you will see bloodshed, you'll see millions of refugees. you will see tensions, and a andl lack of belief confidence in the united states of america. i would argue that this president probably has the greatest challenge since the beginning, since december 8, by the way, at the wonderful service at the memorial, they quoted franklin delano roosevelt and his statement. what the last eight years have proven simply is, without american leadership, things go bad. when you leave from behind, somebody else tries to lead from the front. -- therere looking at

was a person back in roman times who was an opponent of the , and said that they made the desert and called it peace. in aleppo as we speak, they are making a desert. later, they are making a desert. sooner or later, the russians and assure al-assad, and the and iranian revolutionary guard, will stop after they have slaughtered 20,000 more people. nobody seems to give a damn. that is what the tragedy of all this is. finally, there was a time when mussolini invaded ethiopia, and nobody cared. there was a time when the spanish civil war, thanks to hitler's and mussolini, they installed a fascist government, and nobody cared.

then there was czechoslovakia, where chamberlain uttered the famous words, we are not going to send our young men to a place where they's week a language we do not know -- where they speak a language we do not know. this president will have the greatest national security challenges in the last 70 years. so far, i think you would agree, i'm very pleased with election -- national security team he seems to be assembling. >> first, thank you to the kemp foundation. i think that the appointment of the nominations of dr. ben carson may give us the greatest opportunity since jack kemp to really make a breakthrough in trying to help inner-city americans. think he will do so.

[applause] imagine a better time for the foundation to be meeting and thinking about its opportunities to provide unique help to millions of americans, who really need to break out of the cultural and bureaucratic prisons that they are trapped in. the question is important. i am probably to some extent a heretic on this topic. first of all, even during world war ii, when we were far and away the most powerful country in the world by the end of the war, we were about 50% of the world's gdp in 1946, because everybody bond each other. we were the only place. even then, we were recognized with very severe limitations on power. we did not try to take out franco in spain. we did not -- we were very

cautious about the soviets. not that they represented american values, but that we were advocating a way of life, we were prepared to defend it with far more sophistication than anything you could get away with today. if you try today to influence the french and italian elections the way we did in the late 1940's, it would be utterly hopeless. it would all be in the washington post and the new york times, and wikileaks. there would be congressional hearings, and at least 600 lawyers would point out it was illegal. but back then, we did a lot of things in a lot of ways, and we had a very real sense of our own limitations. there are parts of the world that are hard. i would suggest to you for example, if you have 4000 people shot and 700 people killed in southside chicago in the last year, that is a very hard

problem. before we get too certain about the things we are going to project -- i come out of a very old-fashioned, conservative view that you ought to be cautious of all you do. the thing that is infuriating is that they were quite careful about disrupting everything, without putting anything in its place. i think it is very important to understand that. if you are going to undertake a project, you need to make sure you are capable of getting it done. notion in the middle east for example, has led to a chaos, weather in libya, or somalia, or yemen, or syria, or a rock -- iraq. it is astonishing that the united states has been as feckless leet led as it has been with barack obama, and he and his team could be as out of touch with reality as they are.

my first advice to the new president will be, be a little cautious about what you think you know. the senators were very generous i cannot imagine a more cautious, sophisticated professional than general mattis. he understands the region and the limitations of american power and he understands, you know, this is not an area that you engage in lightly. he understands our greatest enemy in the region is iran. and to go back to reagan from one second. reagan had a clear sense of hierarchy. one of the reasons he did not get deeply involved in taking on the iranians, even though they were behind the bombing of american marines in lebanon was that it was not his goal. he had one major foreign-policy goal, the defeat of the soviet union, and he stayed focus on the goal.

and in 1991, the world changed in the soviet union disappeared. we desperately need to really rethink our strategies in the world. we underestimate how hard it is. let me say briefly, just on the list, north korea, china, russia, pakistan, iran and islamic th the supremacists. the new president will face all six simultaneously, and that is a very daunting challenge for us as a country. on if i could pick up something you said. the soviet union dissolved 25 years ago this month and it is inspiring to me that we are sitting in this hall because this in 1949 is where the 12 original members of nato met, invited here by president truman and assigned that accord, which

saw through the cold war. and when the soviet union dissolved and all the states declared their independence, we americans were of the view that , well, this is a time of change in history. and we have looked then at russia is perhaps being no longer counted amonst the list o f our adversaries. that did not last as long since we had putin come to power, since these of the invasion of georgia and annexation of crimea and invasions into ukraine and current activities in syria. i would add, from my own background, a real escalation in russian espionage, both in europe and here in the u.s. thesewe we have reservations that have also led to some real questions about u.s. leadership and where we

stand with respect to containing russian extension is him. -- russian extensionism. there is a good part of the are a little worried that the incoming u.s. president plans to cut deals with putin to their detriment. now, i do not believe that, but perceptions are important and i am wondering what we to reaffirm our commitment to nato and our allies. toi will toss it to john clean up after me. don't all want to go out and reassure anybody. i want to go out and reassure anybody. i don't know what president-elect trump is going to do. i don't know if president-elect trump knows what he is going to do. i don't mean that in a shallow way. he is a very smart man.

he defeated 16 people for the republican nomination and john and i can both tell you, this is not the easiest thing to do. he defeated the elite news media and hillary clinton simultaneously. so, to assume this is some wrong, but hes has not been through the process of planning. with the people he is surrounding himself with, i feel pretty good. i think mickey will be a tremendous ambassador and is a great choice. [applause] as preparedattis is as anybody in modern times to be secretary of defense and he will be an extra nine knowledgeable person of the world and of the middle east. -- an extraordinarily knowledgeable person of the world and of the middle east. trump is going to call putin

a mench,look, you are so am i. iis last guy was nuts, but would like to work something out. but remember, if you really want to play competitively, i have the bigger economy, the bigger military, the greater capability, and so, if you are going to tell general mattis, we russians for the it while, i can do that and your aircraft carrier will leave the mediterranean because he cannot possibly sustain it. now, i do not want to do that because we should be able to work together. but, i don't think he's going to ever -- every time i have talked to trump, he never operates from weakness.

and i suspect he would like to find a way to have a healthy relationship with putin than obama. frankly, i would like to have a healthier relationship with putin than obama. you do not go to a kgb agent and say, hi, i'm really weak and stupid, please take advantage of me. shocked because he begged him to do it and you could not resist. so, your turn, josh. >> what do you think about that? >> a tough act to follow. before i go further, could i say, i forgot two of my role models have been this individual and jack kennedy. theave been for years in wilderness and minority. these two individuals were some of the prime reasons why we became the majority in

the united states house of representatives. jack campbell goes into a room at the republican conference and usually people do not pay much attention. when jack stood up to speak, we all listened. we knew he had a vision for america that is, thanks to this institute and foundation, is alive and well today. that is why i am honored to be here. [applause] there is an old line about ignoring the lessons of history and then you are doomed to repeat them. the lessons in history when ronald reagan came to office with a clear statement of strength, it was not an accident that the same day he was ed the hostages came home. the messages need to be sent to vladimir putin that his aggression and his attempts to divide up the ukraine, which he's done, his attempts to

overthrow the freely elected governments of the baltic hises, frankly, and attempts to assassinate the prime minister of the this little country called montenegrin, putin is asking with while thild abandonment. runnt to amend that mafia gas station masquerading as a country. he is playing his cards in the most incredibly clever fashion, where he is now a major influence in the middle east, which they have not been since 1973. there is no doubt what his ambitions are. was a poll ine sweden.

73% of the swedish people believe they should consider joining nato because vladimir prisoputin scared the hell out of them in the arctic. i spoke with a group of baltic leaders today. they want to know if they can depend on the united states of america, or do they have to accommodate thes? these little countries were part of the soviet empire for 50 years. so, what we need, and i think, and i believe that the people around president-elect trump have that kind of inner strength. it is not just mattis who is our hero. but if he takes petraeus or mitt romney, or john bowden, it would shake of the state department in a way that is long overdue, my dear friends.

[applause] isgeneral kelly, there nobody who knows more about our own hemisphere. scourgeay, there is a called manufactured mexican heroin that is an epidemic in the northeast and midwest of this country. i am sorry to tell you the distribution point is phoenix, arizona. he is assembling a team that i believe could be listened to. life is full of anecdotes. as you know, president-elect trump during the campaign said he would do waterboarding and worse. just the other day, he asked the general mattis and general mattis said, i can do much better with a pack of cigarettes and a sixpack of beer. take generalght mattis' word for it because it is obvious he respects him. the message has got to be sent that the united states of america is not interested in conflict. ronald reagan was not interested

in conflict, but the lessons of history show that you have to show a steadfast, strong position, which then your potential adversary does not want to run the risk. but if your adversary, or adversaries, and my best example, and i will stop with this -- honestly, it wakes me up. here is two american vessels, manned by american sailors put on their knees with their hands clasped behind their neck in the most gross violation of international law by the iranians, and what does our secretary of state do? he waits for the return and thanks the iranians. my friend took a picture of the american sailors on their knees. that was everywhere in the middle east and do not think it does not have an impact.

if these people think we are weak, they will take advantage. i believe it is time that the note states returned to the days -- i think it is that the united states return to the days of old and my hero and role model ronald reagan. he won the cold war without firing a shot, in the words of margaret thatcher. >> we will take you back live to this kemp foundation dinner in washington. we were told from south carolina governor nikki haley, speaking tonight. she was recently chosen by president-elect trump to be the u.s. representative at the united nations. live coverage now on c-span. >> bob took dad around the country when he was secretary and what we do at the foundation is encourage politicians to get in their communities. go to the places where people know the answers. joseph's,lks about

because there are a bunch of justice'oseph's out there. if we go talk to the people who are doing the change in communitie, that is where the solutions come from. in d.c.modis a joseph he is a return to citizen and is investing in young peoples' lives. scott said, hey, jimmy, i want to meet some young people in d.c. who are trying to overcome a lot of challenges because i have overcome a lot of challenges and it want to hear from him. this was just in the last spring. tim as welcome to them to the capital, hosted, i think 12 senators and congressmen who sat around for an hour listening to them. tim cares. and young people, they care what he knows.

his constituents care what he knows. i am more than thrilled to be able to welcome to the stage one of our great, young leaders for the american idea. senator tim scott. [applause] >> good evening. wow. in washingtonay dc. good evening! if you are from south carolina, he would realize that when governor haley stands up and says, it is a great day in south carolina, everybody says, it is a great day in south carolina! d.c.,ct that we are in nobody thinks it is that great of a day in d.c., but i have the privilege of introducing my governor and one of the greatest

leaders in america to you. i thought about some things that would be funny to say and if you know my humor, he would realize it is best for me not to sing or tell jokes. think, governor, about the wenzhou breath that would be funny that you would not find funny. i'm a gamecock fan. any gamecock fans in here? [laughter] >> i can tell by the silence there is only one. she does not want to be identified as a gamecock fan either. 6-6 is not much to celebrate. our governor went to clemson. i think she is personally responsible for the success of the clemson tigers going off to the blackouts. woo, woo! good deal. i see we are not in south carolina, at all. [applause] >> yeah. my pastor has told me, i have the right to be wrong.

is is wonderful. in front of all you nice people. governor, our started working at 13 years old, keeping the books in her family business. she learned very quickly the importance of hard work. one of the reasons why i know this, she is a person who deserves the award tonight, because she embodies leadership. the only is she a clemson she ate -- not only is clemson graduate, but when you think about the success in south carolina, think about this. 46 counties and during her tenure we have had over 82,000 jobs created in all 46 counties in south carolina. that is amazing. [applause] reasonsis one of the why it is always a great day in south carolina. jobshink about some of the

that have been created and expanded under her leadership. the bmw's of the world, a $1.2 billion expansion. the michelins of the world. the mercedes-benzs of the world. the boeings of the world, over 8000 jobs and a still climbing. volvo, the first plant in the country, south carolina. there is a reason my south carolina per capita is the number two growing state in the country. it is called good leadership. but many of us would focus on so many of the positive things we have seen happen under her leadership and that is truly good leadership, but i think perhaps, the most important form of leadership we see, when times are hard. when everybody is running in the opposite direction. you see, south carolina has had man-made and natural disasters.

i think about, less than two years ago, the flood. the 1000 year flood. flooding in south carolina, not on the coast, but in the middle of the state. our governor rose to the occasion and lead our state through a very dramatic situation. hurricane this year, matthew comes through the middle of our state. again, parts of the state most impacted were not the coastal parts of the state. she stood up, rolled her sleeves , whond led the people were disillusioned, and did not know where to turn, we watched her positive, powerful leadership keep our state moving in the right direction. but if those two were not enough, as governor, she led the

charge to remove the confederate battle flag from the capital . [applause] >> i will tell you that when the decision was made to take on that fight, not that many people were clapping in south carolina. she had the vision to know that sometimes, you do the right thing, even when it is not popular. let's givegger -- her time to clap, sitting there by herself. god bless you, m'am. there is no doubt that the trigger for the removal of the confederate flag was an incident that no governor, no person,

should have to live through. we are all familiar with the -- the at the emmanuel mother emmanuel ame church. governor haley, who showed tremendous leadership as our governor, did something that i thought was far more important during those funerals because i was there with through almost every funeral. and she was there. but she was not just there as a governor. she was there as a mother. she was there as someone who held hands with a state and people that were broken. if you ever want to know what leadership looks like, don't look at her record as a jobs creator. don't even pay too much attention to the response to

natural disasters. look specifically at the crisis of mother emmanuel and her response as a human being, as a mother, as a governor, but most importantly, as a bridge to a better future. south carolina remains south carolina strong because of the leadership of our governor. it is no question that when president elect trump saw the resume and watched on national and international tv the leadership of governor haley, he next her to be our ambassador to the united nations. please help me welcome, our governor, my governor, nikki haley. [applause]

>> thank you very much. thank you. this is just a surreal night on a lot of different levels. i have to tell you first of all, when i heard about this award, i thought, really? it is just one of those that i could not even comprehend or imagine. and minutes ago, and you have to understand, as the wife of a combat veteran, to even hear john mccain talk about you is like, overwhelming because we can't ever thank you enough for your service and i am forever i n your debt. [applause] and i do not know where newt is, or if he is still here, but i have to tell you, when he was running for president a few years back, that will go down as

one of the best dinners that michael and i had, with him and his wife calista. the man is a great dinner companion because he can talk and talk and talk. but it is really cool things that he talks about. i want to thank him. and then, i've got to tell you, as we planned for this speech, i saw that i thanked tim. i did not know it was tim scott. i thought it was somebody named tim it was going to introduce me. now, i look back at that and it made it that much more special because i will tell you, when you are a governor and you are elected to lead you make a lot of decisions. some decisions you go back and say, i wonder if that was right? i will tell you, one of the best decisions i ever made was appointing tim scott. [applause]

>> so, thank you so much tim for that great introduction. and thank you to joanne k emp, and the entire family, and the kemp foundation. i am honored you would choose to give me this leadership award. it means more to me than i could ever truly express. never methat he nevei jack kemp. in anticipation of tonight, a came across this quote. there is a kind of victory in good work, no matter how humble. my mother, as tim said, it we start doing the books for our family business when i was just 13. believe me, i know those words have meaning. a beyond what secretary kemp said, and when i look at what he stood for in his life, and what he did, i'm in awe.

in pro football, in congress, in the executive branch, as a national leader of the conservative movement, his accomplishments go far beyond a ny words. but it's not just his competence tha accomplishments that stand out. what is no significant is his compassion. the compassion he has always shown to those who have been left behind in our country and the courage he showed in going against the grain of republican thinking when our party was wrong. jack kemp was often referred to as a bleeding heart conservative. i love that because it is important to be conservative, since our way of thinking isn't the right way for our country. [applause] >> but it is also important to have heart for people who might

not always share in our experiences or prospective. some in our party still miss that. jack kemp never did. as we begin this new era of united republican governance we cannot afford to miss it now. we have an incredible opportunity in front of us to remind america that our approach will deliver freedom and opportunities to all citizens, regardless of race, gender, or where they were born and raised. that is what drew me to the republican party, and what drew my parents to america. my parents left a wealthy lifestyle in india with just eight dollars to come to america to start over. why would they do that? 1969, theyn in understood that no amount of money or lifestyle could compare

to the opportunities we have in america. only here can you be anything you want to be, if you are just willing to work hard. only here do the circumstances of your birth not define your future. only here is anything truly possible. that is jack kemp's republican party. that is my republican party. and that, at its core, is the american ideal. i'm not an academic or a philosopher. i'm a wife. i'm a mother. and the governor of a state who took a chance on me more than six years ago. i have spent every single day since then working to prove to the people of south carolina that they made the right decision. to me, that means making sure every self carolinian has the same opportunities i have. the opportunities that allowed an indian american girl from a tiny, rural town in south

carolina to one day grow up to be governor. when i took office six years ago, south carolina was struggling. jobs were scarce. economic insight he was real. real,conomic anxiety was and the american dream felt out of reach for too many. i remember not where to start and then i came across a quote from governor karen campbell. yournor campbell said, if can get a person a job, you can take care of a family. well, governors do not create jobs. we can do a lot to makes her that when a business wants to grow it can. we got to work. we cut business taxes. we passed tort reforms. we want our regulatory boards clean. i replaced the chairman of our largest and most bureaucratic permitting board with the president of a construction company and look at us now. we build plans of going.

w-- we build planes with boeing. tireve five international companies. the first american flatscreen tv, look no further than rural south carolina. for those who said bicycles would never again be made in the united states, we brought back a new jersey bike manufacturer from china and they are now operating in south carolina. [applause] >> most of that did not exist six years ago. more than 82,000 new jobs and $21 billion in investment has been announced in south carolina during that time. we have moved more than 35,000 people off of welfare and put them to work. [applause] unemployment has been cut in

and and more south carolina are working today than ever in the history of our state. i am often asked how we did it, as if there is some secret formula that spurred our transformation. my answer is that like most things in government, it is not as complicated as some people think. it is about common sense and a willingness to get creative and challenge norms, and a belief that all things are possible if you free people to pursue their own dreams. jack kemp understood that better than almost anyone. as vital as job creation is, lifting people up is more than just about finances. it is also about education. that is an area in which our state has lagged behind for many years. we are still behind, but not for very long. more than four years ago i

started a conversation about education in south carolina. i met with principals and teachers, superintendents, university deans, business leaders and clergy. i listened. i learned. and we changed things. we now provide reading coaches in every elementary school in south carolina and we have ended social promotions. we are aggressively promoting rural teachers and changing the districts and incentivizing them to stay. we are investing in technology, getting every south carolina job up to speed in the world as it is today, not as it was three decades ago. and we did it all without raising taxes. [applause] >> we have made immense changes to the way we teach our kids. these changes are happening because of two simple things. a willingness to knowledge a

problem and a willingness to move outside of our comfort zone to find a solution. it was out of the ordinary for republican governor to go to the teachers and superintendents to talk about education reforms. that is usually democrat territory. but those conversations helped me understand where they were coming from. and that helped them began to trust me. that build relationships that allowed us to push these changes through our legislature. d andbody wants to feel har heard and in this nation, everybody deserves it. for too long, the leadership of both political parties have written off large groups of our fellow americans. outreach and honest communication can have enormous positive effects. i have seen it in real policy changes in our state. i've also seen it with a change that goes much deeper. i speak of last year's mother emmanuel shootings, and the

removal of the confederate flag. when i first got word of the shootings i knew this was going to be unbearably painful for our state. nine shooting deaths in a church at bible study. leadingsenator and a figure in the local black ministry, shot to death. we never imagined something so horrifying. the next morning, we capture the killer and it immediately became clear that this was the act of a racist, motivated not by mental illness, but by pure hate. the first thing we needed to do was lift up those families and celebrate the lives of the victims. i decided to attend each funeral. i met the families. i heard their stories. and through it all, i had the privilege to get to know nine amazing souls. after each funeral i would head home and sit down with my two

kids and i would show them the faces on the program. i would introduce them to the person i met that day. eintroduce them to thel, who despite losing her daughter to cancer, was a womanb of love and joy. jesus, at a time, sweet that is all i ask of you. give me the strength to do every day what i have to do. i introduced them to our youngest victim, a 26-year-old budding entrepreneur, anxious open his own barber shop, who on that night, stood in front of his 87-year-old aunt susie and said, you don't have to do this, we mean no harm to you. i introduce them to cynthia, who life motto was to be kinder than necessary. that is now mine.

every opportunity i have i mention the nine we lost and the three survivors, the emmanuel 12. those 12 who took in somebody that night who did not look like them, did not act like them, and did not sound like them. they did not call the police. they did not throw him out. instead, they pulled up a chair and they prayed with him for an hour. i mention him because i do not the families who know their love, compassion, and greatness of these amazing people. i want the whole world to know them as my children and i do. the second thing that needed to happen was removing the confederate flag from our statehouse grounds. there are many wonderful, decent, honorable people in our state who revere that flag. they are not racists. they are the same people who twice elected an african-american u.s. senator

and twice elected an indian american governor. as i said when i announced my intention to bring down the flag, this was a debate that did not need winners and losers. those who revere the flag for reasons of industry and heritage retain every right to do so, but what happened in charleston shed a different light on an issue our state long struggles with. what we saw in the extraordinary reaction to charleston was people of all races coming together. we did not have riots. we had vigils. we did not have violence. we had hugs. the statehouse belongs to all people and it needed to be welcoming to all people. that was not possible with that flag flying. when it came to the removal debate we had legislators who truly listened to each other, who allowed all of us to see each other in a way that does not always happen, with love and grace and compassion.

it's a love we learned form the emmanuel 12. the flag came down and south carolina moved forward. i'd like to thinkt ha that jack kemp would have been proud. i guess you all have heard i am up for a different job now. it's an incredibly challenging time for our country. those here at home and internationally. but it is also an exciting time. we will have a new president. we will have opportunities to put our conservative principles into action. so, when president-elect trump asked me to be his nominee as the ambassador to the united nations, i was honored to accept. i will not get into the details of our international challenges here tonight, but i will say tow wo things. first, jack kemp was a guiding light for us, not just in the areas of economic growth and parliament and the civil rights.

he was a guiding light in foreign affairs as well. with the passage of time it is easy to forget some of the battles that rage three decades ago, that we should all remember that secretary kemp was an outspoken critic of the racist government in south africa. that was often a looming position within the republican party, but he did not shy away from it. history has proven him right. second, i will conclude my remarks tonight with the same sentence i start every speech with when i first ran for governor, as an unknown 38-year-old candidate more than seven years ago. i am the proud daughter of indian immigrants who reminded my brothers, my sister, and me every day how blessed we were to live in this country. that declaration is just as important today as it was back then. i never tried to hide my

background from my fellow self-car south carolinians. immigrantparent's experience to promote what is truly unique about america. on the 75th anniversary of the attack on pro-harbor, it is more important than ever to always are member what unites americans, not what divides us. it also says something about our future. no matter where i go or what i do, those are the values i will proudly promote. i will never run from them. with god's grace and the senate confirmation -- [laughter] >> yeah, i'm really nervous about that, just so you know. i hope to represent our country tol do do my part keep america safe and keep our country the greatest the can of freedom the role has ever known.

-- and keep our country the greatest begt beacon of freedom the world has ever known. thank you so much. [applause] >> how do you all feel? what an opportunity. what a wonderful message. thank you, governor haley, for your work in south carolina. thank you god for providing leaders that care about the truth and the goodness that this country and this world can be a part of. we are grateful that you are here, governor haley. kempry year for the leadership award we try to do

something a little personal. when my father passed away in 2009, my siblings and i went through many of the wonderful awards he had been given at dinners not unlike this. and there were some really nice things, but they were not personal. so, we try to come up with something every year. this year, i do not know if you can see this. governor haley has already seen this. this is a picture of my father, the iron lady margaret thatcher, the prime minister of great britain, and the u.s. ambassador to the united nations, jean her patric hurts patrick. there is an description that all, to jack kemp, wishes, margaret thatcher. fromreads december 7, 2016 the kemp's family private collection.

mom, i would like you to come up and thank everybody. [applause] >> governor haley, thank you so much. i hope you are passing the baton to a lieutenant governor who will -- >> it's henry mcmasters. >> is it? oh my goodness. i was going to say, i hope south carolina will continue to be with good leadership and obviously. >> and mcmaster was my dad's 1988 -- henry mcmaster was my dad's 1988 campaign chairman. so, there is a weird cycle. but yes, mom, i think it is in good hands. >> so, look at this picture. it is a signal that people of substance and common sense really do make a huge difference

in this world. and you are one. and we are so grateful that you are going to be -- [applause] >> you all can sit. we are almost done. i noticed late. the kemp foundation is really privileged to have paul ryan's chief of staff to do some closing remarks. >> i thought it would start with the scariest statement you can make at a kemp function. i am about to make my last

point. for those of us who work for laughing,small group you know that means you are in for 45 minutes of uninterrupted listening pleasure. i would like to go back to a dinner honoring jack in 1988. the speaker was president ronald reagan. and he said, what motivates jack is the cause. and indeed, that is what jack fought for. and that is what the foundation stands for, the cause. in fact, the foundation really is the keeper of the cause. i'm very honored and privileged to work for speaker ryan. to tell you, i have a little fun because having worked for jack and paul, and i think there is nobody else in the country who can say that, i can watch the imprint of jack on

paul. i am not sure that he knows it, but i do. and the thing that was most when het to paul became speaker was that he would lead the republican conference in developing an agenda. an agenda of ideas. an agenda for the country that the republicans could run on because he believes that ideas are the most important thing in politics. that remind you of anybody? i cannot tell you the number of times jack said that to me. but what he was able to do, with his republican colleagues developed an agenda and the cornerstones of that agenda our growth, peace through strength, hope, and opportunity. that's the vision that underlies the agenda we put together. that agenda is one that will be taken by our republican members

in our unified government by the trump administration and house republicans and democrats, to make this country better, to provide opportunities, to provide goals, to provide jobs, to make us strong again. it is the job of this foundation to really hold us to that p romise. we have a duty and responsibility to do these things for the country, but the conscience behind us, the conscience we need is the jack kemp foundation, what they stand for, what you support, what jack stood for. that vision and conscience is something we need on capitol hill. it is the purpose of this foundation, to be one of the leaders in providing the conscience for the people. so, pleaase, i want to thank you

for your help. i would like to introduce mr. polloway. [applause] >> we are at the close of another home run hitter out of the park by the jack kemp foundation. food,gant evening, good and good music. with thought-provoking messages, thank you jimmy, joanne, stacy, scott andrew, and all of the kemp family. and the jack kemp foundation. e honorary, nikki

haley, how could you not love her. we want to do a benediction as this. first, john said, there is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment. the one who fears is not made perfect with love. second timothy says, for god has not given us the spirit of fear, but of love, power, and sound mind. so, as we do the benediction, would you please stand to your feet, please? hate.s greater than love will feed the hungry. love will house the poor. love will teach the uneducated. love builds. love unites. love is not hate.

love is not spiteful. love is not elegant. love is peace, not war. love is not rich. nor is it poor. love is not black, neither is it white. so, i say, let love be the policy. let love be the programs. let love be the representatives. let love be congress. let love be the supreme court. let love be justice. let love be the president. as i speak the benediction of we the people, as the bishop of the lord's church, as an apostle of the kingdom of god, may we love god. may we love our selves, our families, our neighbors abroad and at home. is perfect when it has no

fear. reign in your heart. love will cause the blind to see, the lame to walk, to deaf to hear. and love will cause the deaf to know. heard will carry us into the new year. it will be the belief and guide to a greater america. the enemy cannot stop and block what god intends to do with us. so, as an apostle of the lord jesus christ, i release you to be the agent of the service of love. god bless you and have a wonderful, safe arrival back at home. aamen. put your hands together as we celebrate in the house and give god all the praise for what he is about to do.

[applause] america is great! ♪ follow the transition of government on c-span as president-elect donald trump selects candidate and the republicans and democrats prepare for the next congress. we will take you to key events as they happen without interruption. watch live on c-span, on-demand at www.c-span.org, or listen on our free c-span radio app. liveashington journal," every day with news and policy issues that impact you. coming up thursday morning, oklahoma republican senator james lankford will join us to discuss the report highlighting unnecessary federal spending.

and the california democratic commitment will look at efforts in the house oversight committee to examine donald trump's financial interests. and the house democrat agenda in the next congress. watch "washington journal," beginning live at 7:00 a.m. eastern on thursday morning. join the discussion. at&t were on capitol hill today to defend the proposed merger between their companies. the senate judiciary subcommittee on antitrust competition policy and consumer rights hearing is about two hours and 45 minutes. >> welcome to the subcommittee

on antitrust competition policy and consumer rights. before we start i would like to think the ranking member in her staff in preparing for this hearing today. i would also like to thank the chairman of the full committee for his support of the hearing. after i and the senators give the opening remarks about this hearing, we will hear from our panel of witnesses and i will introduce those witnesses shortly and then, we will have seven minute question rounds from members of the subcommittee. what some living in might describe as a golden age of television. one tv writer, recently commented that for the first time, i had begun to feel like there might in fact be too much good tv, if that were possible. from "game of thrones" to "house of cards," and so many other

programs across so many television networks and so many different platforms. the quantity and quality of programming content may well be greater today than it ever has been, or could have been predicted. the creativity however, is not limited to content creators. networks and distributors are also innovating to allow consumers new and unprecedented access to their content of choice. no longer are consumers limited to whatever bundle their local cable operator might have put together for them. dish, sony, and directv all offer cable bundles allowing consumers to stream live television over the internet. amongx, amazon, hbo, cbs, others, allow consumers to purchase programming directly. and more innovation is on the

horizon, and coming at us very quickly. as many industry participants expect, 5g wireless technology could provide even more competition to broadband and landline cable, opening up even more possibilities to content creators and distributors. verybrings us to the reason why we are here today, to discuss the proposed acquisition of time warner by at&t. this flourishing marketplace for greater content regardless vibrancy, of the outcome of this proposed acquisition. at&t is the second-largest wireless carrier in the united states and through its directv and uverse subsidiaries, the largest u.s. cable or satellite provider, time warner is the third-largest television network and entertainment

company. in late october, they announced they had reached a deal to purchase time warner for $80 million. it would combine at&t's millions of wireless and pay television subscribers with time warner's media line of, which includes cnn, tnt, hbo, and warner bros. television and film studios. ies claim thisn acquisition will result in significant benefits for consumers. the combined company will provide "stronger competitive alternatives to cable and other video providers" and "better value, more choices, and an enhanced customer experience in over-the-top mobile viewing." additionally, by controlling the customer experience, the combined company says it will be able to innovate its advertising practices and introduced customized or targeted advertising, providing both an

improved customer experience and a significant competitor to digital advertising giants, like google and facebook. this transaction involves no horizontal overlaps. thever, if this fact ended antitrust analysis, this would be a very seinfeldian hearing, a hearing about nothing. although vertical deals raise fewer concerns, such deals nevertheless might still tend to substantially lessen competition. the key analysis takes place of course, down to the clayton act. the principal concern with vertical integration is foreclosure, or denying access of competing firms to suppliers and customers. a key question thus becomes, what will the incentives and opportunities be for the combined firm after the transaction takes place? eal thattics of the d

all sorts -- of the deal have posited that all sorts of abuses will take place in the combination of at&t and time , at&t could create could increase the price of reduce access to time warner content to rival television distributors, thereby not only raising the cost, but by making the directv products look more attractive to consumers. this risk is particularly acute in the online video services market. over the last few years we have seen the development of products like sling and playstation view, which allow customers to watch a live stream of table channels. directv has begun a similar service. at&t's ownership of hbo, cnn, and the other must have television products of time

warner could give directv now a significant competitive advantage over its competitors. at&t's ownership of these channels could also potentially force directv's rivals into a choice of higher prices are limited time warner content. knowing that many customers would migrate to directv if the rebels refused to pay the higher time warner prices they would have to pay in that circumstance. the potential anti-competitive favoritism that the combined firm could the stove on its own products is not limited to price or axes, but extends to the quality of the offerings as well. it is here we get to the siren's song of their rating, where a wireless or broadband is to peter excludes -- wireless or aoadband distributor excludes contributor.

content is free force the drivers and helps them avoid having to pay overage with may exceed the applicable data caps. >> critics say such concerns would only be exacerbated if they could not bring cutting control under its control and ownership. as the letter itself illustrates, in regards to guess merger -- this merger, we have a regulatory framework that is

designed at least to minimize if theto eliminate many of anti-competitive concerns that have been expressed. the issues raised by this deal mostomplicated, and like in a dealanalysis that is this big and this complex, there are necessarily very fact intensive. the analysis should be on maximizing consumer welfare. consumer welfare is in turn maximized when we focus on protecting the competition rather than protecting individual competitors from the competition. the final determination is the competitive impact of the deal, will be made by the department of justice and i believe that we can make a valuable contribution by the questions raised by this

unique and significant transaction. i look forward to hearing from and engaging with our uniquely talented and capable panel of witnesses today, and covering any issues that might come up. senator will now give her statement. >> thank you for holding the important hearing. like you my initial statement here started out with examples of the offerings. i was going to mention game of thrones or as you once called .his hearing game of phones instead, i now have switched to west world to show how flexible i am in this new era in washington. so examples of the content that we're seeing from a variety of sources like hbo west world and the wire, to netflix's house of cards to espn 30 for 30 documentaries, we are seeing the critically acclaimed and popular content coming from a wider range of networks and video

demand services. perhaps more important, we see ,he diverse voices being heard with networks representing different viewpoints and interest. this is been referred to by both of us as the golden age of television. however, it really is actually not quite accurate. increasingly we stream shows on the computers, tablets and mobile phones rather than simply watching them on televisions. consumers are relying on their broadband or wireless connections instead of the cable connections to receive that content. this competition has increased consumer demand for video content which has benefited the content creators. according to the writers guild, there were 305 comedy and drama series during the 2015-2016 inson, compared to 204 2010-2011. grown by over 50% in

the same time. are,ow what the problems because as u.s. senators we hear about them when constituents talk to us on the street or call our offices. cable television continues to be a burden on to many consumers. according to a report released just this morning by consumer confederation, the typical household that's in america now has two cell phones, a land line and a video internet bundle spends $2,700 a year on these services. when you think of a middle class income, that's a chunk of change. we have seen this plot before. like a tired movie, we can predict the ending before it begins. the promise of thriving competition collapses replaced by monopoly power. we saw that in the radio and television and centralized networks and finally in cable with the cable distributers and the local monopolies.

this is the central question of the hearing. will this transaction accelerate , or isruptive forces this one step on the road to a few dominant firms controlling the content and distribution? one school of thought believe that vertical transactions rarely if ever undermine competition. i reject that approach. whether an acquisition will harm factuals depends on investigation and careful analysis, not ideological resumption. the federal communications commission have largely followed this approach in reviewing mergers and acquisitions in this interesting -- industry. in the interest of american consumers, i hope that the new administration continuing that tradition. at&t's acquisition of time

warner combines one of the andd's largest cable including satellite tv and broadband providers with one of the largest media companies. there are three questions we need to look at. increaseacquisition the incentive and ability to suppress competition. various distributors have raised concerns that at&t will raise prices that competitors pay for time warner content or that private contenders have access to that content. independent content providers raised similar concerns. transaction favor some content over independent content? if pursued, such tactics could increase the costs that the intruder start some consumers or undermined the distribution model.

even more troubling, it could stifle diverse viewpoints. independent content providers are responsible for much of the innovation and diversity in programming today. face a topy landscape having to negotiate with large distributors. the second question, will the merger produced benefits? the parties and supporters of the transaction, combining programming and content with video distribution would allow at&t to develop new innovative offerings for consumers, improve content creation come and allow at&t to better compete with facebook and google. i appreciate that at&t just last week launched direct tv now and that allows customers to access direct tv's programming through the internet. those potential benefits have to be examined. i want to be clear, if this transaction is found to be anti-competitive, the need to compete with other companies is not a justification. the solution for less competition is is not even less competition.

finally, if concerns exist, would conditions remedy these problems? in theons have been used comcast nbc universal merger which shares some similarities with this deal. there is however disagreement about the effectiveness of those conditions. further, there is growing skepticism that conditions at attempts to limit a companies conduct can ever work. received an, i statement from consumers union articulating their concerns about the transaction. i move that this statement be included in the record. this is a very important transaction. i'm glad we're taking a close look at it today, and i look forward to hearing from the witnesses. >> thank you. those will be submitted. we will now here opening

statements. chairman grassley? instead of saying at the end i may have questions for the record. after 11:00, and may not be able to be here. mr. chairman for holding this hearing on the biggest transaction of the year, the proposed at&t time warner merger. this deal would combine one of andnation's largest phone wireless providers with a media company that among other things -- hbo, tnt, at warner bros. studios. at&t strengthens its existing come and paidrnet tv business, and also becomes a premier content owner. the justice department and possibly the federal communications commission is going to determine whether to approve or reject the merger and

decide whether or what conditions should be in order for the parties to proceed with a transaction. nonetheless, this committee's oversight responsibilities is an important one where the committee can flesh out potential issues and highlight possible impacts of the merger on the market and consumers. to sayn understatement that this industry is undergoing tremendous change. people are constantly reevaluating what, when, and where, and how they access media and entertainment content. technologies are quickly areving, and platforms converging. companies are improving their technologies so that customers can enjoy at her and faster productivity. innovation is creating more options, and allowing for multiple combinations. the creativity of programming

content and device apps is any anding dissents by every consumer taste, young and old. consumers are becoming increasingly knowledgeable about content offerings, and their data consumption needs. no doubt, this industry is going through a transformation, and a consumers time, and are going to enjoy and are enjoying the ride. we wants to make sure that this revolution in technologies and content continues to thrive and evolve to the benefit of all consumers all over the country, including world communities like mine in iowa -- rural communities like mine in iowa. better quality and prices make for a happy consumer. at&t and time warner say this vertical merger will end their words benefit consumers,

strengthen competition, and encourage innovation and investment. claim that by consolidating assets of the two companies, it will be able to better compete nationwide and meet expectations of consumers. critics of the merger say that this deal will have a negative impact on competition and innovation. there is concern there that a combined at&t time warner will block competitor access to .opular time warner content there is concern that a combined company would give preferential treatment for example favorable channel placement, and zero rating pricing to time warner's premium entertainment programming. then to the disadvantage of other content producers, and particularly small independent producers.

there is also a concern about at&t time warner's ability to leverage their assets to negotiate better licensing priceements or raise the of the content to the detriment of other distributors. there is concerned about -- concern about the companies to control bullying tactics to dictate rates and terms to other networks. there is concern that this acquisition will concentrate too much power into one conglomerate , resulting in higher prices and fewer programming options for consumers. there is also concerned about the merger's application for a free and diverse media. iis is something that recently experienced because on weekends when i am at the farm, i watch channel 349 on direct tv. i found out that it was not there anymore. i asked why. thought what is going on is an

unfair contract negotiation. these are all serious concerns which should be scrutinized carefully by antitrust regulators tasked with reviewing this transaction. , some warnedime that we should be careful about how the at&t time warner deal should be examined because of the dynamic nature of the industry and the complexity of and fast-paced innovation and changing consumer wants and demands. they question whether the current merger analysis methods are well suited to tackle this transaction, and urge caution when determining the competitive of facts of the mergers between interconnectedex platforms. secondly, they suggest that they may need to redefine the market power and reassess how to analyze it in a fast shifting industry with multisited platforms.

with tech giants like google, facebook, amazon, netflix and others changing the way consumers access content, it is as oneate to ask whether scholar said what looks straightforwardly anti-competitive in the old industrial merger models might not be so simple in the merger of modern media platforms. certainly the at&t time warner deal more hard -- warrants scrutiny because it raises all of these complex issues and concerns. we want to ensure that the proposed merger does not allow an unfair advantage over competitors or facilitate anti-competitive practices with anti-competitive effects. we also need to be thoughtful in forward looking analysis of the market that takes into account the complexities to have modern connected content and telecom platform and relationships.

ultimately, we want to ensure that the competition thrives in this critical market, and we do not stifle innovation or deter emergence of cutting-edge technologies that consumers demand. ultimately, we want to ensure that policies do not lead to , andr costs, fewer choices worse services for consumers. i look forward to our discussion today. >> thank you mr. chairman, i am glad that the senator lee and them are having the hearing. i resist the temptation to go through the list of which shows i like the most and which things i use the most. i see too many people i know in the audience and i'm afraid i will make some happy or unhappy depending on what i include or leave out.

i think it is on important hearing. -- whether you support or oppose it -- you have almost $85.5 billion merger could dramatically transform our nations telecommute should -- telecommunications and media industry. this kind of massive consolidation of distribution and content raises serious questions. does it do for competition or consumer choice or privacy ,cross the media, or pay-tv wireless, broadband industries? we have to look at that carefully. million americans dependent at&t for their wireless and to

that access. lester they acquired directv satellite service. and now they want to acquire time warner's content. these raise the question of to act at&t could begin as a biased gatekeeper for its own affiliated content services. we know from the questions raised about the decision, customers use data to view directv on the phones. anti-competitive and anti-consumer actions by internet gatekeepers can be prevented under the fcc 2015 open internet rules which established clear and enforceable lines and prohibitions on blocking and disturbing -- discriminating against content on the internet. , onemeans an open platform

that fosters innovation and free speech. strong net neutrality rules help mitigate concerns about post-merger, and at&t's ability to harm competitors and consumers. rules whichutrality i believe currently protect consumers appear to be under serious threat by the incoming administration. the president-elect is an openly opposed to net a chalabi. he has named three staunch net neutrality opposers as his fcc transition. i think any weakening of these rules are going to cause serious harm to consumers. and harm that would only be exacerbated by further mergers in the industry. that is not limited to this transaction.

impacts all americans who rely on the free exchange of ideas .nd information on their end as chairman, i'm going to submit .uestions for the record i have some involving appropriations at the moment. i'm very concerned about this, i know you are. >> thank you senator leahy. your question and those submitted will be submitted without objection. we're now going to turn to our witnesses. i'm going to introduce them and then we will swear them in and hear from the witnesses. we will start from the left and move to the right. randall stephenson is the ceo of at&t. he was named to his current position in 2007. since then, at&t has invested to be a global leader in providing

integrated communication services to businesses and consumers. hang on. i've got to make sure that i don't mess yours up with someone else. video entertainment, high speed internet to ip network services and the internet of things. mr. stephenson began the career with southwestern bell's telephone company in 1992 in oklahoma. he served as the company vice president and chief financial officer from 2001 to 2004 and from 2004 to 2007 was the chief operating officer. he was appointed to the board of directors in 2005. he is a member of the board of directors at boeing, a member of the pga tour policy board and a national president of boy scouts of america. he received the bs in accounting from the university of central oklahoma and the masters from -- masters of accountancy from the university of oklahoma. jeffrey bewkes is the ceo of

time warner and elected in 2009 having served on the board since 2007. he was elected ceo of the company in 2008. part of a named chairman and ceo, he served as the president and coo from 2006 to december of 2007, and as chairman of the entertainment and network group from july 2002 to december 2005. for time warner, he served as chairman and ceo of hbo, and as president and coo of hbo. he serves on the board of new york university -- is her from the board of a university and for the partnership for new york city. he has a ba from yale and an mba from stanford mark cuban is an entrepreneur and investor. he is the owner of the dallas

mavericks, magnolia pictures. he is also one of the main shark investors on the reality series shark tank. fellow indiana university alums combined their mutual interest. with a single server and isdn line, they became broadcast.com in 1998. by 1999, it had grown to 330 employees and $13.5 million in revenue for the second order. in 1999, broadcast.com was acquired by yahoo by $5.7 billion in yahoo! stock. previously he served as director of the internet freedom and human rights project at the new american foundation. departmentunsel and

justice antitrust division. before joining the department of justice, he served as vice president for federal and international affairs at consumers union. he has also served as chief counsel and staff director for a subcommittee of the judiciary committee and a legislative director for the consumer federation of america. he began his career as a consumer advocate and staff attorney for public citizen's congress watch. he is a graduate of brown university. does he received the forstmann fellowship. he was also a fulbright fellow. atserves as a senior fellow the cell can flat iron center for law, technology and entrepreneurship at the university of colorado, and is senior associate with global partners digital. a filmmaker philanthropist and author living in emily hills california. she is the president and chief

creative officer of a television network focusing on film, fashion, and international style. writer, director, and award-winning author, had a philanthropist heard she works as a writer, producer, and director. her latest film footsteps to butte on showtime -- debuted on showtime. works on the board of trustees for the children's institute international and is a chairperson of abc love, adoption brings children love. before we began i would like to swear in the witnesses. stand up for his right hand from us where the testimony were going to provide to the test my will be the truth the whole truth that nothing but the truth? up stephenson, you will be first. you may begin.

you can push the button until it turns red. we can hear you better. >> the rest of the members of the community, i appreciate the opportunity to talk about the benefits and combining at&t with the world class content of warner bros., hbo and turner. for your constituents we believe , that the benefits are straightforward and substantial. they will get more choices and lower priced options. that means more nationwide competition with the cable companies and each of your respective states. what this merger is not about is consolidation either in the media or telecom. at&t is a communications company. we distribute content and time warner is a media and entertainment company and they create content. this is a classic vertical merger. competitortes no from any market. in fact it increases

competition, particularly against the cable companies. our intent is to disrupt the existing pay model and we want to get the most content to the most people at the lowest prices and we want consumers to pay for the content once and then watch it anywhere at anytime. every episode and every season on whatever device they choose. but disrupting entrenched business models is hard and generally takes bold steps. in combining scale distribution with scaled content creation is such a step. it will allow us to accelerate innovation and without exception, when one company accelerates, everybody accelerates innovation. faster innovation in content delivery will naturally accelerate deployment of five g mobile networks with greater than one gigabyte speeds. we have seen this before. it's important to recall that we launch the world's first iphone on a 2 g network.

as demand for the iphone and more bandwidth exploded, the u.s. mobile industry accelerated the deployment of 3g and then 4g mobile networks, and this drove to multibillion dollar network upgrades in the course of five years. we are about to experience this again. direct tv now and other planned innovations with time warner are 5g services that are effectively going to be launched on 4g networks. with thee witnessed iphone, we expect 5g deployments to accelerate. and not just for 18 c, but across the industry, creating more competitors for cable. this is exactly what we believe that the consumers want. new, lower priced options, and the power to decide themselves. a good example has been referenced in the earlier comments and that's the new direct tv now product that we launched last week. this is 100 channels starting at $35 streamed to any device.

the customer has no contract requirement, no credit check, no installation, no set top box and the price includes the data chargers for mobile at&t customers. during the first week of the market, the uptake of this service has exceeded all expectations. as predicted, the industry has already begun to respond. just after we announced the product, cbs added the nfl to the all access streaming at no cost. animation by one invariably baguettes innovation by all. -- innovation by one begets innovation by all. i have talked a lot about what will change because of this merger, and i'm going quickly talk about what will not change. at&t will continue to be a leading investor in america. we have invested more in the united states than any other company each of the past five years. you should expect that to continue. we will continue to do our part in keeping america the global

leader in two specific areas -- innovation and appointment of advanced communication networks, and creating content people want to watch. we will encourage and support independent journalism and will not with hold the content to disadvantage someone else. time warner was built on a platform of broad distribution of its content into every home, and it would be illogical for us to change that. finally you should expect at&t to continue to do what we have always done and that's distributing a wide array of diverse high quality content across all of our platforms. conclusion, this merger is going to drive investment, it will drive innovation in industry that is baking for both of those. so mr. chairman, i thank you for the opportunity and look forward to the questions. >> mr. bewkes. >> thank you.

members of the subcommittee, thank you for inviting me. i'm chairman and ceo of time warner inc. ivory should the opportunity to talk to you this morning about why a combination makes sense not only for time warner, but is also good for consumers. combining time warner's video content with at&t's just fusion will accelerate the developmental and delivery of the next generation of video services, providing consumers with greater choice, and importantly, better and portability -- better affordability. let me tell you briefly about time warner. since 2009, we haven't focused on producing and disturbing neo-content, film, and video games at the wholesale level across a wide range of outlets. we do this through three divisions, warner bros., home box office and turner broadcast. we do not own any cable , satellite, telephone, broad