in the congress, congress is not necessarily work on facts. their work based on hard party politics. how can you change that so when we can deal with tracks the kendis solution? >> was that to you? >> we have this problem. yup. okay. but in easy thing to do. you will often get hard truths, choose from a perspective of the party's spin on something, but there is data available for the american people that gets to the real facts of things. today -- kendis of it here is being live stream then there is so much information available the part of all of us on the states have committed to is providing the american people with the truth, not the party's spin. let's get the american people to get the real facts, the circumstances going on so that we together, u.s. can begin to actually solve the problems on the basis of data that is accurate and understandable so that we can fix things. it is possible to do. you are correct. >> anybody else want to jump in? >> that is one of the principals, the idea of the financial. we all have differences of opinion a

but for congress as a whole to work together. we heard about it everywhere. what i talked about, how do you make that map, how as a new member can you play part. before i'm sworn i will i will reach out to every new member of congress whether they be democrat or they be republican. vo #4 >> with that bipartisanship, also comes some friendly ribbing. >> i've met several of the republican spouses and i jokingly said to a woman, she, her husband represents upstate new york, and the wife and i had a very nice conversation and i jokingly said, gees you sm moreike democratic spous you're a lot of fun. and her husband heard me saying this, i said, yeah, she is like a democrat, she spends like a democrat. i said, okay, we're getting into stereotypes here, but the point is, we're people. >> bustos hopes being part of the most diverse caucus will allow her to do just that. >> you saw the number of women there, you saw the number of latinos and african americans and asians, it's great. it's such a great reflection of america and a great ref

i need congress to do their part. i need congress to take up these initiatives because we've come to far to turn back now. congress is the one with the approval rating. they have a 14% approval rating according to the wall street journal, the poll taken january 12th through the 15th. it seems that the president is playing his cards right, but to confirm that and talk about it we brought someone who is in the chamber listening to the president. also watched marco rubio watched him take a sip and we have chris moody senior writer, thank you for joining us. >> thanks for having me. >> michael: i want to get your take on the speech. you've seen a lot of them. you've traveled with other candidates now a lot. what did you think of the tactic that the president used hast night? >> well, it was an old fashioned state of the union speech where they put out a long liberal wish list. he proposed a lot of big ideas as you said, quite a few of them are not going to pass congress, particularly he talked about raising the minimum wa

but for congress as a whole to work together. we heard about it everywhere. what i talked about, how do you make that map, how as a new member can you play part. before i'm sworn i will i will reach out to every new member of congress whether they be democrat or they be republican. vo #4 >> with that bipartisanship, also comes some friendly ribbing. >> i've met several of the republican spouses and i jokingly said to a woman, she, her husband represents upstate new york, and the wife and i had a very nice conversation and i jokingly said, gees you seem more like a democratic spouse, you're a lot of fun. and her husband heard me saying this, i said, yeah, she is like a democrat, she spends like a democrat. i said, okay, we're getting into stereotypes here, but the point is, we're people. >> bustos hopes being part of the most diverse caucus will allow her to do just that. >> you saw the number of women there, you saw the number of latinos and african americans and asians, it's great. it's such a great reflection of america and a g

>> good afternoon and welcome to the library of congress. i'm john cole director of the center for the book and the library of congress which is the reading and a book promotion on dhaka library and we are very pleased to be cosponsoring this program with the libraries photographs division. the center for the book was created in 77 to help the library of congress stimulate books and reading of literacy of the libraries and we are a private public partnership with the library of congress paying our salaries but indeed we have raised private money from the beginning to help support our array of programs and projects. there are centers for the books now in every state and i know that we have a broad audience today and i challenge you to look up and learn about the center for the book in your state for the reading in the libraries. .. >> not only to raise young readers but celebrate reading in always. one of the ways the celebrate is stocks such as this with our readers and beyond series to show off books, new books published based on resources

and she actually ran for this seat in congress in 1980. and my father served on our executive council. he was mayor of the city of concord and he ran for governor when i was growing up as well. >> annie custer was literally raised on new hampshire politics. and helped out in many political campaigns during her teenage years. after graduating from dartmouth and georgetown law school she worked on presidential campaigns for john kerry in 2004 and president obama in 2008. in 2010, kuster ran for office herself. >> a very good time to get involved in the political process myself. so i ran in 2010 and only lost by 3,000 votes in a big republican wave. it made all the sense in the world to run again. >> kuster is a part of the new hampshire matriarchy. she represents her state along with another congresswoman, two female senators and governor maggie hassan. >> we have a long tradition of women working in new hampshire. i also think that the electorate has a great deal of respect for women. we were very fortunate with senator jean shaheen, who wa

during the 113th congress. campaign managers for the 2014 election are being hired. if you want to be part of that process, and i still have a resume to dust, i would encourage you to rapidly dust. we are moving to our second panel, which is about the interest groups which are going to influence the direction of legislative activity in the congress during the 113th congress. for my new colleagues on this panel, one of the analytical frameworks we use at georgetown law is what i call lp4. i means -- analyze things in terms of five aspects. look at an issue at the intersection of law and policy. l is law. the first p is process, which produces the law. the next p is policy. policy drives the process, which produces the law. the next p is politics. sometimes that is tough to disaggregate from policy. if we define politics as the acquisition, maintenance, and use of power, that is distinct from the substantial policy issues. the final p is personality. individuals matter, some individual personalities, especially s

that's what congress didn't want. it's actually ironic that people are saying it's better to have costly litigation that lasts years than to have an administrative process in which a jurisdiction can simply submit the documentation to the department of justice and get preclearance. >> woodruff: she's talking about what congress intended when it twhroe law. >> i know, but what congress said when it wrote this law that this was supposed to be a temporary provision that would only last five years. we've now renewed it for a fourth time. it will last until 2031 and an important issue we haven't discussed is the triggering formula. the jurisdictions that are covered today are covered based on registration of turnout data in the 1964, 196 and 1972 elections. if you updated it they would no longer be covered. >> woodruff: what about this out of date point? >> we're talking about reauthorization. in 2006 congress looked at the jurisdictions to determine what is happening in those just tk +*eubss now. that's the 15,000 pages o

congress met. but washington went in person to the congress, went to the senate chamber and delivered a speech that had a series of recommendations. relatively short speech but in those days before there were standing committees, they used to cut the state of the union message up in paragraphs and create committees to address each one of the issues that the president suggested. but washington and john adams, vice president who became president followed that practice, so they created this idea that from time to time, an annual message. and for years, it was known as the annual message and didn't become known as the state of the union message until the 1940's. in 1948, there was a hollywood movie called "state of the union" and that cemented the idea that the annual message was state of the union message. adams went in person to congress. jefferson didn't enjoy public speaking. he gave only two public speeches while he was president. his first nugral address and second inaugural address. he liked to

i am proud to say that during the time i served in congress, i did witness a lot of what congress did at its best. despite the partisan differences, there was a bipartisan group of leaders in the congress, tip o'neill, bob michael, howard baker, bob dole, george mitchell, and so many others, who worked at that time with the republican administration to enact bold, budget compromises. we sat together in budget meetings, put everything at the table, and we ultimately found compromise. it is that spirit of leadership and cooperation that ultimately led to a balanced budget and a surplus. ultimately, we all have a responsibility to hold our elected leaders accountable and to fight for the kind of country that we want to have. we must never forget that our democracy has survived because it was born in the principle of public service. preamble of the constitution of thee the people," united states, in order to establish a more perfect union, in order to establish justice -- ordain the constitution of the united states." i have always remembered i had the opportunity to live the american dre

congress. they're not making relationships. >> it is a lot easier to go on the attack. >> the whole system is fundamentally constructed around division. >> that is how you raise money. >> people get that washington is broken and they have to come here and do something about it. >> i became a senator because i wanted to fix things. i take an oath of office for all the people. when you get to be my age, you're going to regret things about your life. i regret not reaching out and trying to make a difference. i regret not supporting in getting involved. i regret not helping the people that were trying to solve problems and letting the partisans carry this stage. don't feel that way. you don't want to have that regret. the final thought i will share with you is the most profound observation i have ever encountered about change and about dealing with changed circumstances. we are in new circumstances. congress has not always been the way it is today. we have had great problems in this country but it

the president wants congress to do with wanting congress wants the president to do it they want and they have to cooperate to get along. last host: week to cover the president's visit to leesburg, virginia where house democrats were caucusing. how much does the president consults with democratic leaders? guest: the president has not consulted very heavily with house democrats because they are the minority in their chamber. they are not as important as the senate democrats were they control the senate. nancy pelosi has made a play to become more integral to the discussion lately and has made some progress in that regard. host: this is from twitter -- our next caller is from florida, good morning. caller: entitlements and what we will do in the next four years for trimming the budget is the question. the valley between republicans and democrats and across the country from california to new jersey, the rich versus the port -- what are we going to do to talk this out? there is so much of a spread between california and let's say florida or anywhere else. as far as the democrats and republica

>> yes, something does have to get done if not this congress then the next congress. the demographics as you point out are too stark. the hispanic coplation is growing too fast for the country not to do something. as matt point out, republicans are in a pickle on this. the base of their party does not want to see republicans being very weak on immigration. >> let me bring in peter giago. >> good morning. >> you obviously have a big interest in this. do you think the white house should push for with this plan or back off and let congress take the lead? >> i think most people don't really care where the idea comes from. i think they want action. they want something to happen. they're tired of the prolonged conversations and frankly anything that starts a spark that gets people moving in the right direction i think is a good thing. >> you have heard republicans like marco rubio significant this plan would make the problem worse and a big issue for the gop is they don't see that it addresses border security. is something missing here? >> i think border security, you know,

we want to work with congress to do the right thing. right now, the opportunity exists from our estimate to make the changes on our own and if there's an argument about it, that's ok. we have six or seven weeks to change the language so when the next c.r. or the appropriation bill is done, our language is out of it and we continue on with the responsible course of action that we are proposing. yes. >> "wall street journal." what will your reaction be if the next appropriation bill there is language that says we bar you from making this change? what will your reaction be? >> part of my job is to make a very clear and consist argument in front of congress and in front of the administration that we're doing the right thing and with our business plan, we think we have done that. we have a $20 billion gap that needs to get resolved. this needs to get resolved from a legislative stand point. if you think about it, we are on the look for $5.5 billion funding bill for the future of retiree health benefits. those things need to be resolved. we w

unfortunately, congress didn't compromise. they haven't come together and done their jobs and so, as a consequence, we have got these automatic brutal spending cuts that are poised to happen next friday. >> president obama, moments ago, flanked by real people. first responders and others urging congress to stop to force the cuts known as the sequester. let's get the dig on how the cuts would impact americans and our economy if they go into effect next friday, march 1st. joining me to look at the potential impact the gaming of this "the washington post" columnist and msnbc columnist ezra klein. we showed the president earlier this hour and flanked by first responders. quite an optic at the white house. how is the sequester going to effect everyday americans? the point the president was trying to make here about the cuts? >> let's back up and say what it is. it's about a trillion dollars of spending cuts over ten years. the spending cuts done in a very dumb way. they are spread automatically in the exact same proportion across m

in recent years when he served in the congress and now as the secretary of transportation. he knows full well the role that senator boxer played and he was a member in congress of the transportation committee and the consensus she is building in the senate on this is quite remarkable so i am honored to be here with senator feinstein and our colleagues and share in this for san francisco and what you see here mr. secretary is consent. our great mayor lee -- he is the consensus maestro and brings people together and he said "listen, listen" and we act upon the consensus of our community. it's about consensus. it's about community. it's about here comes the bus and now we can get on it, but it's also about all the things the mayor said. it's about the quality of our air. again sitting comfortably in other projects in california that secretary lahood hood worked so hard on. the two senators were instrumental in making better and we in the house urged passage for the high speed rail in the central valley, whether it's mass transit, rail, high speed rail and terminal and presidio

nothing solid as we all know has come out of congress just yet. in your estimation how slowly are things supposed to move? for all of us should we expect things to be faster? >> well, of course i think we should expect things to be faster. the only way that will happen if the american people continue to do what they have been doing since newtown and before which is calling a member of congress and writing their member of congress and making sure they know this is a front burner issue for them and as long as 33 americans are muired with guns every day none of us is moving fast enough. >> we're seeing movement on the right, at least shifting in positions. senator john mccain was asked if he supports universal background checks this weekend on "meet the press." i want to play for everybody his answer. >> senator coburn and senator mann shon and others working on a package i think most of us will be able to support. applaud their efforts and obviously we want to do everything we can to prevent gun from falling into the hands of people who are mentally

what this congress doing? taking a break for presidents day. >> congress gets off one week for every federal holiday, a august.n a government watchdogs say government is not getting the job done. david walker has launched the no deal no break campaign. no deal to address the fiscal challenges. no break for members of congress. >> it is time to focus full-time on trying to defuse our ticking time bomb. >> democrats blame republicans. republicans blame democrats. >> we have met the problem and it is us. >> congressional scholars say we're all to blame. >> they should say, why aren't you back in washington doing the people's work? >> members of congress say they need to take care of constituent business back home. congress needed to act by march 27 to keep the country operating and they have to deal with the debt ceiling by mid may. george lettis, wbal-tv 11 news. >> people looking to finish the work started by john leopold. john hammond is one of the candidates. he explained his change of heart. >> it has been a

113th congress. someone who is now in his fifth term from texas, a democrat, congressman green. how did the speech rank with the states of the -- other addresses? >> let me thank c-span for doing a great job. i felt compelled to say it. this is a great speech that the president gave. it expressed value. he talked about how education will help us train people for the jobs that are available so they can take advantage of opportunities available. he values our friendships with our allies. he talked about how we will defend israel. he values the notion that children should receive a good start. we want to make sure that head start therefore our children. he values social security, medicare, medicaid. we have to protect him. he values the notion that our troops can do a job and we can bring them home. we do not have to have internal wars. he wants our troops home. the way he values jobs was indicated by him talking about infrastructure. we can have bridges and roads repaired. do that in the united states

as a member of congress. we know that in 2006, the house reauthorized the voting rights act 390 to 33 the senate 98-0. it's pretty bipartisan. given the way things are on capitol hill these days, where do you land in terms of optimism and the voting rights act? >> we don't have any choice but to be optimistic and reach out to people in a bipartisan way and say look, all americans should be able to vote. the vote should be something all americans get and political parties should contend with voters to win them to their side, not eliminate them from the opportunity to vote. i don't want to predict doom and gloom. i want to say the supreme court is going to look at the 15,000 pages congress generated in all the hearings that it had and say look, i guess the democratic body is in the best position to make a decision here. if we end up having to deal with it over here in congress, i'm looking forward to working with republican friends to do the right thing. >> congressman, let me open it up to our panel for a mome

and she actually ran for this seat in congress in 1980. and my father served on our executive council. he wasayor of e city of concord and he ran for governor when i was growing up as well. >> annie custer was literally raised on new hampshire politics. and helped out in many political campaigns during her teenage years. after graduating from dartmouth and georgetown law school she worked on presidential campaigns for john kerry in 2004 and president obama in 2008. in 2010, kuster ran for office herself. >> a very good time to get involved in the political process myself. so i ran in 2010 and on lo by 3,000 votes in a big republican wave. it made all the sense in the world to run again. >> kuster is a part of the new hampshire matriarchy. she represents her state along with another congresswoman, two female senators and governor maggie hassan. >> we have a long tradition of women working in new hampshire. i also think that the electorate has a great deal of respect for women. we were very fortunate with senator jean shaheen, who was our fi

do you think the president is expecting too much from congress? he is asking for these things, expecting executive action. is he expecting too much and what will the executive action going to be? >> i'm not sure what he can do by check action. i think he was aiming over the heads of congress to the people saying this is what i want to do and these guys in front of of me and the very sleepy guy behind me won't do it. these are things that are the living definition of died in committee. they really are. he's not going to get a minimum wage hike out of this republican house. the purpose of the speech is that this is the stuff that by the way, as the leader of my party, which will continue to carry on thify for these things, this is what we want to do for you and captain get a vote on them. on the executive action, the courts have left it open for the e.p.a. to regulate carbon as a pollutant. that's the big hammer that republican conspiracy theories are all circulating around now. he can order that, i assume. there are things he can do. everything he

i urge this congress to pass the rest. but -- tonight i'll layout additional proposals that are fully paid for and fully consistent with the budget frame work both parties agreed to just 18 months ago. let me repeat, nothing i'm proposing tonight should increase our deficit by a single dime. it is not a bigger government we need, but a smarter government that sets priorities and investors in broad-based growth. [applause]. that's what we should be looking for. our first priority is making america a magnet for new jobs and manufacturing. after shipping jobs more more than ten years, our manufacturers added about 5,000 jobs over the past three. caterpillar is bringing jobs back from japan. ford is bringing jobs back from mexico and this year, apple will start making mac's in america again. [applaus [applause]. there are things we can do right now to accelerate this trend. last year we created our first manufacturing innovation institute in youngstown, ohio. a once shuttered warehouse is now a state of the art lab where worke

if you do, congress will listen. if you stand up and speak out, congress will listen. and together, we will unleash our true potential and we'll remind the world why it is the united states builds the greatest ships on earth and is the greatest nation on earth. thank you. god bless you. god bless the united states of america. >> all right. president wrapping up his speech in newport news. i want to bring in john king out of washington and jessica yellin. a couple things that struck me. first, john, two things he said that he has offered to reform medicare. do we know if it's significant or substantial, those kinds of offers, first in. >> the president's referring to past proposals he says is still on the table if republicans come to the table and say let's have that bigger conversation those a fact. the president has in the past had proposals on the table with republicans. they're saying we went through the fiscal cliff, look agent $85 billion, if you want to stop this before friday, show us you can do this with all spending cuts and not tax revenues and then they'll g

i urge this congress to pass the rest. (applause) but tonight i'll lay out additional proposals that are fully paid for and fully consistent with the budget framework both parties agreed to just 18 months ago. let me repeat: nothing i'm proposing tonight should increase our deficit by a single dime. it is not a bigger government we need but a smarter government that sets priorities and invests in broad-based growth. (applause) that's what we should be looking for. our first priority is making america a magnet for new jobs and manufacturing. after shedding jobs for more than ten years, our manufacturers have added about 500,000 jobs over the past three. cat pillar is bringing jobs back from japan. ford is bringing jobs back from mexico. and this year apple will start making macs in america again. (applause) there are things we can do right now to accelerate this trend. last year, we created our first manufacturing innovation institute in youngtown, ohio. a once shuttered warehouse is now a state-of-the-art lab where new wor

does congress understand technology? >> guest: some members. people like darryl issa who are profusely efficient and area. he built his a tech company and made hundreds of millions of dollars. aces like the population as a whole but understanding the technology and how to use it is different than understanding its applications and understanding government policies that will encourage innovation and encourage efficiencies versus policies and disparate intellectual policy rights. congress coming down one way or the other could have a huge effect on discouraging innovation. tax policies can encourage or discourage innovation. our immigration policy right now where someone comes over and gives a ph.d. in the kick them out of the country and make them go to their own country where they compete against this doesn't make since when the people who know the way the world works. congress could do a lot and you don't have to be efficient on your iphone or black very to understand the application to touch policy and what makes it work and what doesn't make

not those extra 300 congress wants us to buy. >> congress really must want to protect america. >> it's a jobs program in their eyes. >> no, not a jobs program it's a defense program. >> we need enough tanks to fight whatever the next conflict is. >> in addition we have 3,000 tanks sitting in a boneyard near reno, nevada. >> when are we going to send more? >> why would you send more tanks to reno, nevada? >> has nevada been attacked? >> to my knowledge, nevada has never been attacked. >> boom. what more do you want? why 300 more tanks including the active duty tanks ant 3,000 sitting in the diseaseert? >> the risk of having less tanks is having less tanks. >> well that's a (bleep). >> well, i'm not a west point graduate and i'm not particularly trained in such matters. i have a general knowledge of military issues and affairs. >> he may not be a west point graduate but he does know this: >> you never know what kind of war you are going to fight until you have to fight it. >> who will we be fighting in the future? we'll talk about hypothetical situations. >> the entire continent of afric

when president obama visited a family in northern virginia to prod congress to act. his republican opponent complained about the strategy saying the president is more focused on talk than on action. this was senate minority leader mitch mcconnell two weeks ago. >> well, i'd suggest that one thing the american people don't want is a permanent campaign. the that's the last thing the american people are looking for is a permanent campaign. they want us to work together on solutions to our problems and deficits and debt are right at the top of the list. so i'd like to suggest this morning that the president rethink the adversarial tone he's adopted in recent weeks. >> brown: but the white house is pressing ahead. today's event took place at the same time a top republican-- house majority leader eric cantor-- was giving his own major policy speech. and a far greater audience beckons as the president addresses americans next week in his annual state of the union address. we have more on president obama's campaign styles issue push and the tools of his command from amy walt

so congress, attention, please, make the change. congress of course has done nothing. you wouldn't expect them to. very hard for congress mao to say we're going to include new areas. >> in your purview of campaign finance, congress has done nothing to write new legislation to make the ftc a more viable or relevant institution. >> president obama went through his first term without appointing a single ftc commission. the sister agency has no commissioners serving. at the same time we have a new commission set up to study voting procedures but we have two agencies that are designed to handle these issues that are dormant. >> michael toner, pete williams, thank you, both. >>> up next, the sequester blame game. >>> plus, could 2016 be the year of the governor? bunch of governors in town this weekend. certainly hope so. or gaggle will be here next to kick off the week. >>> but first -- white house soup of the day, monday, plain jane tomato basil. we'll be right back. with the spark miles card from capital one, bjorn earns unlimited rewards for his small business. take these

who killed osama bin laden and nine members of congress. this navy s.e.a.l., who has never revealed his name publicly for obvious reasons was not there to divulge some new previously secret thing about the bin laden raid. he was this to talk about life after the bin laden raid. life after the bin laden raid for him and his family. this washington meeting with nine of the most influential members of the senate and the house, according to reports, was to discuss the difficulty that soldiers, and especially members of the elietz special operations forces have in transitioning to civilian life. last week esquire magazine and the center for investigative reporting ran a lengthy profile of this navy s.e.a.l., allegedly the one that killed bin laden that included a lot of new details about the raid. he shot bin laden twice in the forehead as bin laden stood before him, and shot him once again in the same place after he fell. he says bin laden may have tried to use his wife as a human shield. he was holding her in front of himself or moving her in

when president obama visited a family in northern virginia to prod congress to act. his republican opponent complained about the strategy saying the president is more focused on talk than on action. this was senate minority leader mitch mcconnell two weeks ago. >> well, i'd suggest that one thing the american people don't want is a permanent campaign. the that's the last thing the american people are looking for is a permanent campaign. they want us to work together on solutions to our problems and deficits and debt are right at the top of the list. so i'd like to suggest this morning that the president rethink the adversarial tone he's adopted in recent weeks. >> brown: but the white house is pressing ahead. today's event took place at the same time a top republican-- house majority leader eric cantor-- was giving his own jor policy speech. and a far greater audience beckons as the president addresses americans next week in his annual state of the union address. we have more on president obama's campaign styles issue push and the tools of his command from amy walter

who killed osama bin laden and nine members of congress. this navy s.e.a.l., who has never revealed his name publicly for obvious reasons was not there to divulge some new previously secret thing about the bin laden raid. he was there to talk about life after the bin laden raid, life after the bin laden raid for him and his family. this washington meeting with nine of the most influential members of the senate and the house, according to reports, was to discuss the difficulty that soldiers, and especially members of the elite special operations forces have in transitioning to civilian life. last week "esquire" magazine and the center for investigative reporting ran a lengthy profile of this navy s.e.a.l., allegedly the one that killed bin laden that included a lot of new details about the raid. he shot bin laden twice in the forehead as bin laden stood before him, and shot him once again in the same place after he fell. he says bin laden may have tried to use his wife as a human shield. he was holding her in front of himself or moving her i

that evidence went to congress, and congress acted accordingly. no, the court signaled today, the conservative majority of the court signaled today that they may get rid of this pillar of civil rights, the most important federal civil rights law that we've got, arguably, they signaled they may get rid of it not because of ed evidence that it is not needed, but just because they don't like the whole idea of it. what good is it any way? civil rights leader and congressman john lewis himself joins us next. or just seem to f, day by day? don't compromise. new vidal sassoon pro series from the original salon genius. starts vibrant, stays vibrant. precision mix formula saturates each strand for 100% gray coverage. hydrablock conditioner helps fight fade out for up to 8 weeks. new vidal sassoon lets you say no to compromise and yes to vibrant color like this. new vidal sassoon pro series salon genius. brilliantly priced. ah. 4g, huh? verizon 4g lte. 700 megahertz spectrum, end-to-end, pure lte build. the most consistent speeds indoors or out. and, obviou

host: does congress have oversight? guest: congress wrote ala. congress has oversight and authorities over every lot it creates. the general services administration has the authority to determine if the choices made by the president in terms of office space and travel, they negotiate all the deals and sign all of the documents. the general services administration is charged with making sure the former presidents act is followed in spirit and law. the numbers we have seen today are made public. the last time there was an examination by the government accountability office was in 2001 when they were looking at travel and office space. host: on twitter, they are referring to the debate over medicare and social security. lee, rockville, maryland, republican caller. go ahead. caller: i am one of your colleagues at the library of congress. i have today off, as you know. the former vice president spiro agnew had problems with the law. he got convicted. he pleaded no contest to taking bribes and other things. what happened to his attention? guest: the vi

does it go back to the congress? and what happens when it's considered by the congress? >> when they passed the 15th amendment it gave congress a huge amount of latitude, if you will, to do whatever they need to do legislatively under that amendment to the constitution. if the court strikes down section 5 and even worse section 2 which applies to the entire country, then the congress would have to go back in and would have to rewrite essentially a brand new voting rights act. and if that's the case, you have a democratic senate not with the fill bust -- without a filibuster proof majority. you have a republican led house. again i go back to what i said before. a congress under republicans in the house and democrats in the senate would have to rewrite the act, it would look starkly different than in 1965. >> do you agree? >> absolutely. and not better at all. >> jimmy williams, jonathan capehart, and congressman elijah cummings. congressman i know you rushed out from a vote to join us. thank you. >> my pleasure. >>> next, a republican congressman who doesn't think sequest

that's what congress didn't want. it's actually ironic that people are saying it's better to have costly litigation that lasts years than to have an administrative process in which a jurisdiction can simply submit the documentation to the department of justice and get preclearance. >> woodruff: she's talking out what congress intended wheit twhe law. >> i know, but what congress said when it wrote this law that this was supposed to be a temporary provision that would only last five years. we've now renewed it for a fourth time. it will last until 2031 and an important issue we haven't discussed is the triggering formula. the jurisdictions that are covered today are covered based on registration of turnout data in the 1964, 196 and 1972 elections. if you updated it they would no longer be covered. >> woodruff: what about this out of date point? >> we're talking about reauthorization. in 2006 congress looked at the jurisdictions to determine what is happening in those just tk +*eubss now. that's the 15,000 pages of test

congress is crippled from making bipartisan, strategic, public policy decisions. this is our greatest institutional weakness and defies simplistic cures. congress today is deeply divided because to each side, the opinions of the other make no sense. and, therefore, cannot be honestly held. interest group politics is still with us. fueled by unprecedented amounts of money, but its overlaid and often dominated by what i can only call world view politics, a clash of values values and convs much deeper than the competition of interest groups in washington. we need a new perspective to visualize congressional polarization. the media and political commentators tiply bemoan the wide gap between right and left. but republicans and democrats speak past each other not because they're too far apart on the left-right spectrum, but because they operate on different planes, higher and lower, by ground confined by evidence and expertise and that's something that has changed significantly in the last 20 years. when i came to congress in 1996, the phrase i kept hearing from the ot

we also report to congress so we send these reports to congress and they helped to put it in their but we have a number of recommendations that are not implemented and the need to be implemented and this is one example that shows how bad it can be if treasury does not implement the recommendations and so i am looking forward to a new secretary of treasury coming in to talk about our unimplemented recommendations and changes that can be made, and we will not give up. we are going to look at 2013 and we are not going to stop because ultimately we are here to protect taxpayers. that is our job. >> host: democrats line. hello. >> caller: hello. how are you. i was calling -- my question was about the t.a.r.p. situation. these people but are being investigated for t.a.r.p., i think these people -- because the american people don't really know who these people are and i think they should be some type of publishment or something so the american people can see this on a monthly basis and kind of get the feeling and a narrowing of who these people are to i think also it might work as a streamlin

we had a chance at the beginning of the congress. we had a chance to make real filibuster reform and we took a pass. >> okay. you make a good point there. let's listen to john mccain talking about immigration. here it is. >> the president, obviously has some thoughts about immigration reform which he drafted and guided his agencies to comment on. if the president proposes legislation, do you think it will fail? >> of course. of course it will. that is why we are working together, republicans and democrats, by the way he had no communications with the congress. i believe we are making progress in a bipartisan basis. >> does this sound like republicans saying no for any of the president's proposals? >> no. >> no. >> my problem with president obama is alex, he does not negotiate with republicans. he doesn't bring the leadership up to talk to him. he doesn't make phone calls. >> does he do that with democrats? >> that is true. the republicans control one chamber of congress. my former boss brought democrats in all the time. we were able

it's a library of congress project involving many parts of the library. it is in its 14th year coming up, and this year it will be held on the national mall september 21st and 22nd. the center for the book also is the administrator of the first young readers center at the library of congress which is located now in the jefferson building. it's the only place that focuses on the reading interests of young readers 16 and under as long as they're accompanied by an adult. and last year we had 40,000 visitors in the young readers center. so you can tell that we are working hard not only to raise young readers, but to celebrate reading in all ways. one of the ways we celebrate is through talks is such as this. this is in our books and beyond or authors series. it's a collaborative effort with other divisions of the library to show off books, new books that have been published based on the resources or the projects of the library of congress. and it's a special treat to be working once again with the prince and photographs division. and i'd also like to hold up

they want congress to be kind. they want congress to be accountable. mr. speaker, the third graders from mrs. gibson's class want congress to make good choices. allowing sequestration to take place is a bad choice. if the third graders can figure it out, i certainly hope we in congress can as well. let's do what they advise. let's be responsible and let's make good choices. i yield back the remainder of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the chair recognizes the gentleman from puerto rico, mr. pierluisi, for five minutes. mr. pierluisi: mr. speaker, today i'm introducing a modified version of bipartisan legislation i introduced last congress. the bill would amend the provision in federal law that applies only to puerto rico and that has harmed thousands of medicare beneficiaries on the island. my legislation would eliminate this problem for future beneficiaries and provide appropriate financial relief to current beneficiaries who have been adversely affected. senator schumer is introducing a companion bill, and i want to thank him

. >> congress returns today to capitol hill. the house comes in at 2 p.m. eastern to take up a small number of bills under suspension of the rules with votes at 6:30. also this week a debate and vote on a measure to require the president to submit a balanced budget to congress. over in the senate, members also come back at 2 eastern for general speeches. then at about 5:30, a vote on the bill to reauthorize the violence against women act, a domestic violence law that expired in 2011. a final vote on that could happen later this week. members of both parties are attending retreat this week. as a result, the senate will be out on tuesday and wednesday, and the house no legislative business on thursday or friday. live coverage of the house on c-span and the senate here on c-span2. >> host: and you're watching "the communicators" on c-span. we are on location in las vegas at ces international 2013 at the las vegas convention center. here's some of our interviews that we did this week. well, now at the ces international show in las vegas we're joined by represen

congress doesn't work like that. this seems to be at least the possible opening engagement of the talks of a deal. i mean, that's the amazing thing about sequester. >> we can't even schedule talks. >> negotiations have broken down. no, negotiations never began. having them break down would actually be a step in the right direction. >> swraent even had -- >> we have seen this movie before where what will happen in the final day or two as they come to some agreement not on any kind of a deal in terms of addressing the underlying issue, but merely a stop gap agreement to extend the march 1st deadline, april 1st and may 1st. that seems to be the scenario that we've seen before here, right? >> the small scenario, yeah. kelly, i was going to say you're on capitol hill. what is the end game here? one of the smart senate leadership aides that have been through this a million times, how do they think this ends? >> well, everyone expects in both parties that it will go into effect and then there's sort of a how much is the sky