mr. barr: mr. speaker, i move to suspend the rules and pass the bill h.r. 2740, the rabbi michoel ber weissmandl congressional gold medal act of 2017. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title. the clerk: h.r. 2740, a bill to to posthumously award a congressional gold medal to rabbi michoel ber weissmandl in recognition of his acts of valor during world war ii. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from kentucky, mr. barr, and the gentlewoman from new york, ms. velazquez, each will control 20 minutes. the chair now recognizes the gentleman from kentucky. mr. barr: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and tend their remarks and include extraneous material on this bill. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. barr are -- mr. barr: i rise today in support of h.r. 2740, the rabbi michoel ber weissmandl congressional gold medal act of 2017, introduced on april 25, 2017, by our colleague, representativ

mr. mast: i yield back. mr. arrington thank mr. mast. mr. arrington: i recognize chairman roe for five minutes. mr. roe: they named this long-term solution, right. that is appropriate. it's going to take a long time to get the solution. let me put this in real terms. young soldier with a two-year-old, probably not three figures in a bank account. not four, but probably not three with a shift looking for the g.i. bill to help him when he went back to school. and that was me. and i got the money on time. i got a check every month from the v.a. not a single hiccup. 19 5. and today with all this technology and millions and millions and millions of dollars spent, amazon has by june -- august of this year, because i know a company in my district makes them, a billion articles to people and i think most of it exactly right. that's the frustration i have. that we have spent this money and time and can't get a paycheck out to somebody. and i know you brought up is something i want to follow along. how many claims have you gotten right? as of right no

mr. bishop? mr. bishop: mr. chief justice, and may it please the court, congress amended the endangered species act in 1978 to narrow the concept of critical habitat, and it did that in response to this court's decision in hill and an early regulation that allowed critical habitat designation for population expansion beyond a species' present habitat. in the provision that requires designation of critical habitat, section 4, congress limited the service's power to designate to any habitat of such species which is then considered to be critical habitat. in section 3(5)(c), congress commanded that critical habitat shall not include the entire area which can be occupied by a species. and those limitations show that congress intended that areas that can be occupied by a species -- that is, its habitat -- mark the outer bounds, the outer bounds of critical habitat, and it would be justice kagan: mr. bishop, may -- may i offer you a hypothetical just to understand the scope of your argument, which is a bit unclear to

mr. ryan: i usually do this every november, december. i'll see if i can get away with it but i'm not sure i'll be allowed to do that. >> ok. p on capitol hill right now. the incoming speaker to be, nancy pelosi is battling an ideological flank in her caucus, she's not sure she'll get 218 votes, sound familiar? mr. ryan: i saw her last night, we did a churchill thing together, it was winston churchill's 144th birthday. i congratulated heren the caucus vote and offered my condolences. it does sound familiar. it's a function of politics today. >> do you think it is the -- the democrats will go through the similar growing pains of being in the majority, the same way john boehner and yourself for eight years seemed to constantly have this -- mr. ryan: yes, i do. i do. i'm not going to get into speculating floor votes and things like that but already you can see, the reason i am speaker is because my predecessor, john boehner, went through all of that. i ended up being the consensus person beca

mr. yockelson: after the fighting had ended, graves registration service teams, which were usually led by a chaplain, would go to the temporary burial sites, which were near where the soldiers fell, and the bodies were exhumed. they would look if the dog tag was there -- two dog tags were issued to american troops -- and then the bodies were either placed in a permanent cemetery or they were placed in coffins and brought to the ports for shipment back home. about 70% of american families elected to have their loved ones returned home at government expense. the other roughly 30% were left eventually for burial in permanent cemeteries now maintained by the american battle monuments commission. mr. moizan: americans were led to keep permanent cemeteries in france. the americans would keep one for each big battle, basically, in france. mr. yockelson: it was a gruesome task for the grs teams because by now, many of the bodies had decomposed and were difficult to identify because of the decompo

mr. james and mr. shaw because of their relationship with the software and infrastructure because of their relationship with it. mr. takano: he's the guy where the buck stops, johnson why he's not here. an i.t. debacle uric send the project managers but don't send the person for whom the major responsibility lies. during a modernization board meeting last friday, the education and services team was asked if there was anything that could have been done differently to have prevented this from happening. and the answer was no. that answer implies that v.a. does not believe they made any mistakes or did anything wrong. i don't know how v.a. could represent that in that meeting when so many student veterans have been harmed so severely by these failures so i'd like to ask you today, if you were to start this process again, what would you have done differently? beyond not telling the committee that you could have gotten this done by a certain deadline? mr. lawrence: a couple of things , sir. at the moderniza

[applause] mr. meacham: thank you. mr. president, welcome to texas. mr. obama: it is good to be back in houston. congratulations on the texas victory yesterday. mr. meacham: they beat the titans so no, sir, we don't want that. tennesseans say, if it weren't for us, you would be part of spain. made that joke to george bush when he was governor and he said, that's funny, asshole. mr. baker: if it weren't for us, you wouldn't be saying y'all. mr. meacham: president reagan used to say that when he was in hollywood, he would get a call to come to dinner and speak and perform and reagan would say, but i don't sing or dance. the organizer would say, we know, but you can introduce someone who can. my job is to introduce to people who can. i wanted to start with secretary baker, and thank him for the remarkable institute. more important -- [applause] mr. meacham: the half-century of service to america and to the world. mr. baker: thank you. [applause] mr. meacham: it is -- as someone who spends most of his time thinking about the past and talking to dead people, i

mr. macarthur: mr. kim: someone asked me about medicare for all, and i said that i supported the vision and goal of having everyone in this country have health care. i specifically said i did not support that legislation and i thought there were problems with it, those are the exact words that i was using. my opponent continuously uses it and twist it out of proportion. mr. macarthur: perhaps if you did not speak in generalities all the time and actually gave specific proposals for solving things, you would make the audience to think you were with them. it was obvious. you said he supported -- you obviously listened to it recently, again. andy, it is on my website, people can listen to it for themselves. the whole context of the answers on your website. not just parts of it. moderator: is it an edited portion? mr. macarthur: i will make sure it is all there. moderator: let us move on. this question is for both of you. the president signed legislation aimed at curbing the opiod crisis, yet new jersey is

mr. chair. >> chairman grassley, ranking member leahy and senate colleagues, thanks for being here on a cold, wet monday morning to allow me to voice my support for louisiana native james contain who has been nominated to be united states district judge for the western district of louisiana. he has the callifications and qualifications required and joined by his wife angie who he'll be celebrating 25 years of marriage. has two daughters, mr. cain attended mcneese state university on a full basketball scholarship and i think is the most interesting thing about mr. cain, he was roommates with future nba star joe dumars. after getting his degree in economics and finance from mcneese he went on to attend lieu cool in baton rouge where he graduated cum laude. mr. cain has had an outstanding legal career. he clerked for the honorable judge henry in the louisiana third circuit court of appeals and received valuable experience in the d.a.'s office of the beauregard parish and admitted to the fift

mr. burgess: mr. speaker, i move the house suspend the rules and pass the bill h.r. 6753, as amended. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: h.r. 6753, a bill to amend title 11 of the social security act to direct the secretary of health and human services to establish a public-private partnership for purposes of identifying health . re waste, fraud, and abuse the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from texas, mr. burgess, and the gentlewoman from illinois, ms. kelly, each will control 20 minutes. the chair now recognizes the gentleman from texas. mr. burgess: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and xtend their remarks and insert extraneous materials into the record on the bill. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. burgess: and i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. burgess: thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speake

mr. lamont? mr. lamont: i just think it is a good discussion to be having here, because it tells you sort of a little bit about the role of government and sort of how we think about it and how we treat the family and how we treat individual rights. so i'm proud to be able to take that discussion a step further. i want to talk to folks in the religious community. i want to talk to folks in the faith community. i think there is a lot i can learn, but i think you know where my instincts are on this. anne: i. thank you so much. -- all right. thank you so much. next question, mr. delong starting with mr. stefanowski. >> thank you. earlier this evening, mr. stefanowski, you touched on unfunded mandates on municipal governments. to date, there are currently over 1400 unfunded mandates on towns and cities. what i would like to know is, first off, would you support any new unfunded mandates for municipalities, and secondly, are there specific, unfunded mandates you would either be willing to eliminate or fund

mr. gerhardt: i've been thinking about it a lot. for other projects, i kept running into presidents who had done things that were interesting, and i thought about the forgotten presidents before i began the book. it occurred to me they might have something in problem. that they were forgotten but also significant in some way. so i began thinking about it years prior to 2013 but i assembled different chapters about different presidents. i thought about who was forgotten for the purposes of the book. so i had to do surveys and talk with people to make the determination. once i settled on a group of people to talk about, i thought about what they might have in common and what we could learn from them. brian: what kind of reaction did you get from somebody out there who is a big fan of one of the presidents and they did not think they belonged in the book? mr. gerhardt: the reactions i got were less about who was in there and more about who should have been in there. some people thought james

and you invited mrs. obama. mrs. bush: that was one of the things he had done through the bush library, and the first lady's initiative. who do with first ladies not have the sort of platform that american first ladies have. we work with them to give them we work with them to give them the chance to build that platform. they can work on issues that their husbands are not working on. the first thing we did was in -- an africa first ladies conference. we worked with them and our staffs worked with their staffs. leaders, the both husband and the wife working, you can do twice as month. the first ladies conference that we hosted in africa and michelle obama was there. it was better than that. i had the great honor of being the person to interview the two of them together. i got the call saying can you be in tanzania next week? i said no. my husband said, why not? so off i went. there was the two of them, and it was such an important symbol for the first ladies of africa. cokie: in many cases they would never -- they said

mr. mccarthy: mr. speaker, i send to the desk a resolution and ask unanimous consent for its immediate consideration. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the resolution. the clerk: house resolution 1164. resolution providing for the printing of a revised edition of the rules and manual of the house of representatives for the 116th congress. the speaker pro tempore: is there objection to the consideration of the resolution? without objection, the resolution is agreed to and the motion to reconsider is laid pon the table. for what purpose does the gentleman from pennsylvania seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent the committee on transportation and infrastructure discharge from further consideration s. 2377 and ask for immediate consideration in the house. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of he bill. the clerk: senate 2377. an act to designate the federal building and united states courthouse in dayton, ohio, as the walter h. rice federal

mr. ryan: yeah. i lost count. mr. kane: you literally lost count? mr. ryan: yeah. mr. kane: in the moment you took the speaker's gavel, i think you guys were at 247. mr. ryan: yeah, i think that's right. mr. kane: and you're passing off the conference to mccarthy and it is 201 or 208. mr. ryan: that's right. that's right. mr. kane: how much of that blame falls on you? mr. ryan: i am not -- i thought you were going to ask me a different question. [laughter] mr. kane: you assumed it was going to be trump? ok well then answer both. [speaking simultaneously] mr. ryan: historically it's a 32-seat loss, somewhere around there. i think that was part of the problem. if you look at the crunch of the numbers, it's a few things. first of all, suburban voters, that's the number one liability we experienced. pennsylvania redistricting, and california just defies logic to me. we we had a lot of wins that , night. we were only down 26 seats the night of the election. and three weeks later we lost basically every contested california race. this, this election system they have i can't

ken ken mr. speaker, on monday -- mr. kennedy: mr. speaker, on monday general motors went to bed with a record $3.2 billion in profit last quarter alone. its shareholders went to bed with a 5% surge in stock prices. plus, $10.6 billion the company has spent on buybacks since 2015. meanwhile, 14,000 g.m. workers spent a sleepless night wondering if their jobs and livelihoods would still be there for them the next morning. there is no better snapshot of our country's current toxic brand of capitalism. where we are operating in a system that demands that workers labor harder and harder to meet basic human needs, but refuses to share even a slice of the success that they helped create. for those of us in this chamber this morning, it's about more than one company and one balance sheet. it is about 50 years of giving the private sector explicit permission to cast workers aside. it's about an economy that has become the an thigget sis of what our country -- antithesis of what our country stands for. equity, decency, justice. and hard work.

mr. lewis: i was there because i wanted to know about his grandfather. i wanted personal detail, family lore. i wanted anything that he had never said before about the memory of his grandfather. it was a good luncheon. it was a good luncheon. i got to know a great deal about wendell willkie the second. you want to see how far the chestnut has fallen from the tree. brian: how did you get there in the first place ? mr. lewis: i was a chair professor in the history department at nyu. i thought that would be a congenial place to get together. my first attempt did not pan out. he had a conflict and i figured, busy as he is, we may not get together. i tried again and succeeded. the choice of the locale was a good one, i think. our synergy, i can describe it as such -- brian: why do you care about him in the first place? mr. lewis: a long time ago, i was writing another book and unrelated, i came across a letter from wendell willkie to one of the persona in the book i was writing. it was walter

mr. johnson. mr. johnson was located outside the terminal in the smoking area. mr. johnson fits the description of the person who had been walking in and out of traffic on the roadway. officer serrano approached mr. johnson and asked him if he was traveling, and mr. johnson replied yes. officer serrano then asked which airline he was flying and mr. john did not answer. mr. john then stood up and walked into terminal one, baggage claim area. the baggage claim area was filled with approximately 50 people waiting for their luggage. in addition, there were numerous people waiting for the arrival of their loved ones and airport workers onto their breaks and/or heading to their work sites. as mr. johnson walked away from officer serrano, officer serrano told mr. johnson that he just wanted to help him. mr. johnson continued to remain silent and attempted to avoid officer serrano by attempting to walk away from him. officer serrano followed mr. johnson on his patrol segway and continued speaking

mrs. madison would wear bright colors and instead of wearing a crown, she came up with the idea of wearing a turbine. in fact, that became her trademark. and just so you would never fail to know where she was in the crowded rooms, she would often wear long birds of paradise feathers in the turban. but in fact almost all of her portraits i think except two certainly painted while she was first lady are all painted with her turbine. and as to the fact that she wore these low-cut dresses that were a little bit scandalous, it is really kind of extraordinary when you think of the fact she had been a quaker and had been raised as a quaker and used to being all covered up and wearing gray and dark colors. in fact at one reception she encountered a friend, a gentleman who also once had been in the -- from the same meeting house that she and her family had attended in philadelphia and he had left and she looked at him and said, brother, where is thy broad brim, meaning his hat and he looked at her

mr. leahy: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. leahy: i ask consent that the call of the quorum be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. leahy: mr. president, this friday, november 30, at noon, vermonters will be gathering to see a large crane carefully hoist a carved statue of the god he is of agriculture atop the newly gilded dome of the vermont statehouse in montpelier. i was born in montpelier, and i am proud of this because it is going to be a great moment for our state, for everyone involved in the project which has captured not only the attention of vermonters but those who have been following the project from great distances with the help of social media. the new version of this statue replaces the original statue that was removed last april after too many severe vermont weather took a toll on the wood figure. since that time, vermont artists jerry williams and chris miller have been hard at work creating the new siris. they chiseled th

mr. hern: mr. speaker, mr. speaker, members of this esteemed body, it is my honor to represent the citizens of oklahoma's first congressional district. i want to first thank my wife, tammy, of 25 years, who i would not be here today without her. my oldest son, kelby, is here with his wife, dana. and my youngest son, caden, is here. i also want to thank my colleagues from oklahoma who have gone above and beyond in welcoming me to this body. congressman lucas, congressman cole, congressman russell, congressman mullin. i can't thank you enough. the most recent advice they gave me was to keep this very brief. so brief i will be. i have lived the american dream. growing up without running water, to now serving my great country and fellow oklahomans in congress. now we as a body need to work together to make sure that that dream can be achieved by so many generations to come. so let's get to work. thank you. the speaker: the house will be n order. the gentleman from pennsylvania is recognized for one minute. >> thank

mr. lewis: i was there because i wanted to know about his grandfather. i wanted personal detail, family lore. i wanted anything that he had never said before about the memory of his grandfather. it was a good luncheon. i got to know a great deal about wendell willkie the second. you would not see how far the chess not has fallen from the tree. >> how did you get there in the >> i was a yucca chair professor in the history department at nyu. athought that would be congenial place to get together. did not panempt out. i figured,nflict and busy as he is, we may not get together. i tried again and succeeded. the choice of the locale was a good. , i can describe it as such -- brian: why do you care about him in the first place? ago, iis: a long time was writing another book and unrelated, i came across a letter from wendell willkie to one of the persona in the book i was writing. it was walter white. it was wendell citing he had had the most restorative and gracious evening with walter and his

mr. schumer: now, mr. president, this weekend president trump will head to argentina for the g-20 summit where he is expected to meet with president xi of china to discuss our trade relationship. i have opposed the president on most things -- that's hardly a secret -- but we actually agree on the issue of china. in fact, i agree more with president trump's views on china than i did with either president bush or obama. and i've been supportive of the administration's aggressive course of action on china. china must be made to understand we are dead serious about changing its behavior on trade. to allow foreign companies to compete in its markets, to end illegal dumping of cheap goods into our markets, and most importantly to end the abusive practice of technology transfers and trade espionage that threatens our intellectual property and know-how. for these things don't just threaten our intellectual property in abstract concept. they threaten good-paying jobs, millions of them, and wealth -- billions and tr

mr. morrisey: thank you. sen. manchin: thank you. >> senator manchin, we had a horrible tragedy last week in pittsburgh. 11 people murdered at the synagogue. the week before, a man sent pipe bombs to leading democrats, which is prompted debate about the political rhetoric in this country. this campaign has been acrimonious. each of you have called each other a liar at times. advertisements on behalf of each of you have said some very vicious things. rabbi jeffrey meyers at the memorial service in do you believe the overall tone of the public debate in this country contributes to violence and, if so, would you be willing to tone it down in the final days of the campaign and call on your supporters to be more respectful? sen. manchin: first of all, my prayers and condolences to all the families who lost loved ones and the people that were targeted in the bombing mailing. it is awful. who are we as a people, who are we as west virginians and who are we as americans? it does not set a good ex

mr. cartwright: clean air? >> democrats. mr. cartwright: who sticks up for labor rights in this country? >> democrats. mr. cartwright: who got the kids out of the mines? >> democrats. mr. cartwright: who invented workplace safety? >> democrats. mr. cartwright: how about social security? >> democrats. mr. cartwright: cost-of-living increases? >> democrats. mr. cartwright: how about keeping medicare from turning into some kind of coupon program? >> democrats. mr. cartwright: and expanding medicaid some of people can be covered, who? >> democrats. mr. cartwright: that's right, it is the democrats, that's who. [applause] say smile ift: i you are a democrat because we did these things for this country. we stuck up for all of these things. who stuck up for civil rights in this country? >> democrats. mr. cartwright: and voting rights? >> democrats. mr. cartwright: the right for our lgbt friends? we were the ones who did that when the needle moves. who moves the needle? >> democrats. mr. cartwright: be proud of yourselves and realize as

mr. levin, how should the u.s. deal with this migrant caravan, and what do you propose be done about immigration? mr. levin: i would like to thank kusi for this debate. it is a crisis, what is happening right now. we need to get back to bipartisan solutions. we had the late, great senator mccain and senator kennedy years ago had a bipartisan bill to advance conference of immigration reform, and we had the gang of eight. more recently, the policies of this administration have not been successful, draconian policies like family situation, and yet we still have those who are desperate for safety trying to flee latin american countries. we have got to secure the border. there are better and cheaper ways to do it than what the -- then with the president's wall, which i believe is a monument to his ego. remember, during the campaign he said mexico would pay for the wall, not american taxpayers. we need to work toward bipartisan reform. this is very personal to me, my grandparents on my mom's si

mr. coons: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from delaware. mr. coons: madam president, i am proud to join the senator from new jersey and delaware in calling for a bill crafted to protect our institutions and the rule of law in our country and not just right now but for future congresses and dpims as well. -- administrations as well. today we will be asking our colleagues to give the special counsel independence and integrity act the consideration on the floor it deserves. this bill will do something powerful. it would codify department of justice regulations that prevent the removal of a special counsel without good cause. independence is required to ensure a special counsel can do his or her job and find the facts. our bipartisan bill would put this restriction in statute and give the special counsel a clear legal remedy. if removed without cause, the special counsel would have a ten-day period to take the case to a three-judge panel for expedited consideration. if th

mr. cornyn: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority whip. mr. cornyn: i understand we're not in a quorum call. is that correct? the presiding officer: that is correct. mr. cornyn: mr. president, i have four requests for committees to meet during today's session of the senate. these have been approved by both the majority and minority leaders. the presiding officer: duly noted. mr. cornyn: mr. president, as i country to the nation's capital from home back in austin, texas, so we can finish our work out before the end of the year, i wanted to relay some of the wisdom that i heard from working families and texans back home about their verdict on what we have done so far this year and actually even last year. i stopped by a couple of food banks, one in north texas and one in el paso, ahead of this year's upcoming holiday season, this is when they have the greatest demand on food from people who need -- either supplement their diet or depend on food banks to provide them their bisk -- basic sus

mr. vitiello: i do. mr. sischner: yes. senator johnson: mr. vitiello, i appreciate in your testimony you eye heighted that i.c.e. identified and rescued more than 850 children, 300 victims of human trafficking. you made 11,000 arrests of known and suspected gang members. including 2,000 linked to ms-13, removed nearly 16,000 gang members. that's an incredibly important part of your testimony i wanted to highlight. i think you are also aware, because the committee let you know and i think you have a copy of the letter sent by a number of unit officials for the national i.c.e. counsel, i just want to give you -- i.c.e. council, i just want to give-on-opportunity to quickly respond to really that live. mr. vitiello: i am aware of the letter. if confirmed as director i will have a contractal obligation to work with i.c.e. counsel on all matters that affect employees. i spent a quite a bit of time since i've been there since june meeting with employees. i had several town halls. san antonio, haring dharlingen, very interested in what is driving mor

mr. kleck: there you go. mr. helmke: i eventually got the page number here. on page 177 of the article published in 1995, i think it's the first main one that had your survey. when i write this late at night -- ok, on page 177, 15.7% of the respondents believed that they saved a life with their defensive gun use. and then you said that would calculate to 340,000 to 400,000 saved lives. and then you say it is impossible to know that this is true. mr. kleck: there you go. mr. helmke: well, basically you were saying you could not believe your own numbers. and at the end of your article, what you did is you basically said, i can't believe my respondents. let me just -- you said that even if they're not telling the truth, if only 10% are telling the truth, that would translate to 40,000 saved lives. which is more than the number of gun deaths in a year and you had a long discussion on page 177. mr. kleck: right, which included the follow-up remarks in which you sniffed out of that quote or paraphrase or whatever you c

mr. desantis and mr. rick scott negate whether or not global warming and climate change is actually a real thing. florida voters, they need to know that when i run for governor, i will be a governor who believes in science. we will hold all the polluters, to include big sugar and big ag, but also to include the out-of-control development happening north of lake okeechobee, so we can get some real standards back into this state, and cleanup this blue-green algae that is flowing out of the state of florida. [applause] i will make that commitment. that is consistent with my values. todd: you have a follow-up. is that correct? santosestion for mr. the on the environment -- mr. desantis on the environment. you support the reservoir south of lake okeechobee, which many experts believe will reduce discharges east and west. but it does not do anything to curb pollution going into the lake and the tributaries that end up in the lagoon. and the river. over the past five years, under the scott administration, we hav

>>e mr. speaker it's good -- balanced management of the economy then why did professor alaskaen say there were 14 people in our country living in poverty? reand when she claimed support r her deal, last week, more than 200 chief executives and entrepreneurses described her brexit deal as the worst of all worlds. >> mr. morris order. calm yourself. take some sort of soothing -- if that is required, but above all, calm yourself. jeremy corbyn. >> and mr. speaker a private the deal no need to give -- to negotiators because it's not a good deal. all the prime minister can commit to is we'll be working for frictionless trade. she's gone from guaranteeing frictionless trade to offering friction and less trade. after these -- [laughter] after these botched negotiations mr. speaker the country has no faith in the next stage of even more complex negotiations being concluded in just two years. so, what does the prime minister think is preferable. extending thebe transition with further -- to the europe

mr. tripp? mr. tripp: mr. chief justice, and may it please the court, a criminal alien does not become exempt from mandatory detention by the happenstance that dhs did not arrest them immediately or promptly after they got out of jail or prison. and the best way to illustrate this point is just to look at the statutory text. and the key provision we're talking about here is 1226c2. this is the prohibition against releasing a detained criminal alien. and this is on page 4 of our merits brief. and what it says is that the secretary may release an alien described in paragraph one only if it is for witness protection. and it's undisputed here that the witness protection exception does not apply and that this categorically prohibits the release on bond of anybody who is an alien described in paragraph one. so then the question is, who are those aliens? and in paragraph one -- it's on the prior page, and it just answers that in no uncertain terms. it says, the secretary shall take into custody "any alien who is inad

mr. bolton: i started off as a lawyer. there is nothing better than getting into foreign-policy then to do something else for a long time. for those interested in international affairs, this is a better time than there has ever been before. there did not used to be too much alternative between joining the foreign service at the state department or joining the military and serving overseas. now i think american business is so international that you have a much better opportunity to have a variety of career choices. i think where the government still fails is in not encouraging and allowing movement back and forth between the government and the private sector. i think that this would enhance both the government and the private sector, if there was more movement back and forth, but it is a very hard culture to overcome and not one you can reverse overnight. dealing perspective of with all kinds of international issues, the opportunities today are much broader for younger people. dan: in term

mr. lamont? mr. lamont: i just think it is a good discussion to be having here, because it tells you sort of a little bit about the role of government and sort of how we think about it and how we treat the family and how we treat individual rights. so i'm proud to be able to take that discussion a step further. i want to talk to folks in the religious community. i want to talk to folks in the faith community. i think there is a lot i can learn, but i think you know where my instincts are on this. anne: all right. thank you so much. next question, mr. delong starting with mr. stefanowski. joe: thank you. earlier this evening, mr. stefanowski, you touched on unfunded mandates on municipal governments. to date, there are currently over 1400 unfunded mandates on towns and cities. what i would like to know is, first off, would you support any new unfunded mandates for municipalities, and secondly, are there specific, unfunded mandates you would either be willing to eliminate or fund? mr. stefanowski: i th

nawaz: mr. braun? mr. braun: this is another typical case where the senator tries to have it both ways. when it comes to contraceptive coverage, i think everybody is on board with that, but when it comes to the sanctity of life, you cannot say you are pro-life and have your voting record. i'm the one that is being endorsed by the indiana right to life. susan b. anthony has knocked on 500,000 doors for me. and the national right to life is endorsing me. they give joe an f grade. so i think you got to be clear about not trying to have it both ways. i would never demonize anybody that disagrees with my point of view. i was raised to respect the sanctity of life and i'm proud of that. and i will never disagree or -- or i will never demonize anybody that disagreed with me. it is as simple as that. ms. nawaz: mrs. brenton. ms. brenton: thank you. i have 10 children. so the idea of contraceptives is something that i'm very much interested in. [laughter] ms. brenton: are there days i want that to be retroactive? i

mr. chair. >> chairman grassley, ranking member leahy and senate colleague, thanks for being here on a cold, wet monday americaning american morning to voice my support for james cane who was nominated to be the united states district judge of the western district of louisiana. >> he has the qualifications and experience required and he's joined today by his wife angie with whom he'll be celebrating 25 years of marriage. mr. cane has two daughter, juliana, a junior at the university of texas and a freshman at smu. mr. cane attended lake charles on a full basketball scholarship, where and i think this is the most interesting thing about mr. cane. he was roommates with future nba star joe dumorris. after getting his degree in economics and finance for mcnice he went on to attend law school at southern university law school? baton rouge where he graduated cum laude. mr. cane has had an outstanding legal career and he clerked for the honorable judge henry overton in the louisiana third circui

[laughter] mr. obama: don't brag about it. i'm putting a positive spin on things. then she asks me, what did you do wrong? otherwise, you wouldn't be doing the dishes. [laughter] mr. obama: we all tried to put a positive spin on things, but what we have not seen the way we are seeing right now is politicians just blatantly, repeatedly, badldly, shamelessly lie, just making stuff up. that is what they are doing right now all the time. and by the way, it is not the first time. they do this every election cycle, try to terrify folks, and and the election comes problem suddenly, magically vanishes. you never hear about it again. in 2010, they said bill and i were setting up death panels to kill your grandmother. remember that? in 2014, they said, ebola is going to kill all of us. shut the borders. in 2016, it was hillary's emails. they were all wound up about that. and the mainstream press picked up about that. this is terrible, this is scary. you know they weren't worried about that because if they wer

wilson phillips -- mr. wilson: mr. speaker, as an opponent of the failed iran deal, i'm grateful that president donald trump and his administration remains focus on combating the dangerous conduct of iran. iran's aggression has only increased with the windfall of nearly accessible funds for the iran deal. they have used the funding to upgrade missile technology, forced terrorism worldwide and fueled conflict around the middle east. last week steve mnuchin announced iran had developed an iran-russian network to send oil to syria. this is used to fund terrorist organizations like hezbollah and hamas. the undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence explained, quote, the iranian regime continues to prioritize spending on money to foment terror over supporting its own people. president trump has made correct decisions to impose sanctions on individuals related to this scheme as he continues to fulfill promises made, promises kept. in conclusion, god bless our troops and we will never forget september 11 and the

mrs. bush and cokie roberts. this is 30 minutes. >> we give this award each year. we try to make the award something special and significant to the honoree. we understand that laura ingalls wilder is one of our honoree's favorite authors. laura bush wrote in the hot, arid lands of west texas, i tried to imagine being surrounded by tall pine trees and heavy snow. of course, i identified with the main character, a girl named laura. the 2018 records of achievement award features a handwritten insert by laura ingalls wilder to a typescript draft of her fifth "little house" novel. this insert was added to an early draft attempting to explain how mary, laura's older sister, had become blind in the intervening time period. the books i have not read. [laughter] >> but a lot of people have. this insert is part of the collection of the papers at the herbert hoover presidential library. so, what you have been waiting for now, journalist and historian in her own right, cokie roberts will have a conver

mr. speaker: mr. mark halper. mr. harper: may i welcome what my right honorable friend said about armistice day? that will be welcomed by the 1st battalion, the rifles, who are based in my constituency. >> here. halper: the prime minister will know that the tax burden is approaching a 50-year high and that we do not help families with the cost of living by raising their taxes, so i am really pleased that we kept our promise to cut taxes for 32 million people. as the economy grows, can i ask my right honorable friend to make sure that we continue to cut taxes and to spend money on our priorities in a balanced way that works for everyone in our country? mr. speaker: i thank my right honorable friend and say to them is absolutely right. the budget did cut taxes for 32 million people, and the rise in the personal allowance will leave a basic rate taxpayer over £1200 better off next year than in 2010. helping people with the cost of living, it is not just about those income tax cuts. the rise in the national living wage n

mr. johnson: i would. mr. walz: you have to get everyone covered with insurance if you are going to do this. secondly, minnesota has led on both senators. this is an issue that was my focus in congress on veterans mental health. on thethat when we get front end of things, especially on these programs, if we do it smartly, we end up saving money. the issues in schools, we knew that we for can get it early, on the first treated when a trauma happens and we have customers inside, we end up seeing good outcomes. this conversation about the role of government and what we should be doing is being much smarter. because if issues of mental health care are not taken care of, you spend more on criminal justice in the back end. we saw these best practices with the clay haunt suicide prevention act of them that that was working in committee for the ship, and it works. moderator: we would break things up right now. lightning round, a series of quick yes or no answers and we will be ruthless and cutting you off. johnson, if

mr. levin: mr. speaker, i send to the desk a resolution and ask unanimous consent for its immediate consideration in the house. the speaker: the clerk will report the title of the resolution. the clerk: house resolution 1161, resolution to directing the speaker to administer the oath of office to the representative elect from the 13th congressional district of michigan. the speaker: is there objection to the consideration of the resolution? without objection, the resolution is agreed to, and the motion to reconsider is laid upon the table. will representative elect jones and members of the michigan delegation please present hemselves in the well. and the representative elect will please raise her right hand. do you solemnly swear that you will support and defend the constitution of the united states against all enemies, foreign and domestic, that you will bear true faith and allegiance to the same, that you take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, and that yo

>> mr. president, if i may ask one other question, are you worried -- >> that's enough. >> mr. president -- >> that's enough. >> the other folks -- pardon me, ma'am, i'm -- >> mr. president. >> that's enough. >> mr. president, i had one other question if i may ask on the russia investigation. are you concerned that you may -- >> i'm not concerned about anything with the russia investigation because it's a hoax. >> are you -- >> that's enough. put down the mike. >> mr. president, are you worried about indictments coming down in this investigation? >> mr. president -- >> i tell you what, cnn should be ashamed of itself having you working for them. you are a rude, terrible person.

mr. edwards: yes, it is, but if you remember the parliament address, something about looking back, if you want to talk about the right kind of europe for the future, he said, it must be a europe that looks backwards to western civilization. that includes the romans, the greeks, the jews, antiquity as far back as we possibly can. i think we learn lessons from that and i think we can learn lessons from that by looking to poland. the role of a transparent being is a very much apparent. if we look to hungary, if we look to the czech republic as you said earlier, mr. president, you said there is a very real religious, i won't say fervor , but presence there in the czech republic and i think elsewhere, as well. if you look at these five conditions, these five lessons, some are weaker, some are stronger. but they do exist and they will come about with the right leadership. i think that's key. that's the most important thing. you must have the right leaders to make these come about. mr. o'sulliva

mr. leahy: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the call of the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. leahy: mr. president, i ask consent that my remarks begin at this moment and not at minute or so ago. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. leahy: mr. president, we have -- we all know we have a constitutional obligation as u.s. senators to provide advice and consent to a president's nominee. it's not advice and rubber stamp. it's advice and informed consent. i do my best to scrutinize each nominee on the merits regardless of party, decide whether they deserve a lifetime appointment to a federal bench. and during my 44 years in the senate, i've actually voted for more republican-nominated judges than almost all but one or two republican senators in this body today. the simple fact, though, if you you've that standard, you must give informed consent, you run into a situation with thomas farr. given mr. farr's track record of working to systematica