the time for congress to act is now, senator collins said before this congress adjourns. the bipartisan bill produced by senator collins and myself and colleagues. the presidential transition improvement act of 2022. i am thankful for senator collins and her leadership throughout the process and for the valuable input from all my colleagues on both sides of the aisle. i think it is worthwhile mentioning them because they have worked so hard. senator romney, senator murkowski, senator capito, senator young, senator graham, senator king and all of the cosponsors. i will be among the first to acknowledge that the bill is not perfect but represents many months of hard work and compromise and would serve as a tremendous improvement over the current eca. the bill addresses what the bipartisan group identified as the most concerning problems with the eca. it ambiguously clarifies the vice president is prohibited -- i repeat that it clarifies the vice president is prohibited from interfering with electoral votes. it raises the objection threshold by 20%. 87 house members from one

the time for congress to act is now, senator collins said before this congress adjourns. the bipartisan bill produced by senator collins and myself and colleagues. the presidential transition improvement act of 2022. i am thankful for senator collins and her leadership throughout the process and for the valuable input from all my colleagues on both sides of the aisle. i think it is worthwhile mentioning them because they have worked so hard. senator romney, senator murkowski, senator capito, senator young, senator graham, senator king and all of the cosponsors. i will be among the first to acknowledge that the bill is not perfect but represents many months of hard work and compromise and would serve as a tremendous improvement over the current eca. the bill addresses what the bipartisan group identified as the most concerning problems with the eca. it ambiguously clarifies the vice president is prohibited -- i repeat that it clarifies the vice president is prohibited from interfering with electoral votes. it raises the objection threshold by 20%. 87 house members from one

spectrum policy is complex and congress has a role to play in shaping it. i would urge my colleagues to support a short-term extension of auction authority. this would allow the fcc to continue its important work while we work with stakeholders to develop more comprehensive legislation, laying out a long-term pipeline of frequencies for auction. i would also hope to work on legislative efforts to improve the coordination between federal agents these, an -- nctia, and the fcc. >> thank you for your thoughtfulness in this arena as well, mr. wicker. next, we will hear from ranking member of the subcommittee, our republican whip, for his opening statement. mr. thune? >> thank you, chairman lujan, for holding what i think is a timely hearing. the ability to conduct spectrum options expire. the last time this committee held any hearings related to spectrum management was july 2020, when i was serving as chairman of the subcommittee. while i have been disappointed in the lack of progress on this issue, i hope moving forward, we can work collaboratively. spectrum i

now he had good friends and allies in congress, but he was not generally liked by members of congress. the conservative wing of the republican party who thought he was too much of a progressive. well, as he progresses in the republican party, the so-called rhinos of the day of la follette and norris of nebraska and, they were called by one of the conservative senators, sons of the wild --, because they were so cantankerous and not club able. they work in harmony and they held the kind of, the balance of power in the senate and. many of them hated hoover, whom they thought was of insufficient progressive. and one historian once said of hoover that he was too progressive for the concern over this and too conservative for the radicals. so he kind of fell in between. so i think trump ford was did come to be disliked the way that hoover came to be disliked. trump rather run. ford did not have the same weight to bear in personal terms. hoover it was personalized for hoover, you know, there were in this country, some of you have heard these are unemployed people, living in shantytowns on, th

when it was passed by congress it still needed to be signed by the president even though it said congress has the power to do it. and so similarly state legislatures passing election laws have always send those bills to their governor under their state constitutions for signatures. >> yes. >> so the independent state legislature doctrine would suddenly announce that more than two centuries of state election laws are somehow unconstitutional or at least went through an unnecessary step being signed by the governor and operating under state veto requirements and so on. >> this theory, if it were embraced would nullify hundreds of election laws that it been in place for many years and in some cases centuries. as my colleagues have reflected, state constitutions were adopted around the time of the ratification of the constitution that themselves constrain state legislatures. everyone understood at the time that state legislatures are creatures of their own constitution and are constrained by them including gubernatorial veto and judicial review. >> but there are some places in the constitutio

they would use the word congress now. we think of congress right as like, you know these people from one country they get together and they have kind of like a parliament. no, no, no, no. that wasn't the original meaning of congress. so congress was a meeting of separate states separate nations separate countries. so like the congress of west failure which ended the wars of the reformation was a of independent nation states. so that for example when george washington great here of the american revolution. when he retired well retire the first time this guy retired a lot of times they can't pulling him back poor fella. when he retired the first time he went to it was richmond, virginia and they gave him a big banquet and they said we want to thank you. for your great sacrifices in heroism on behalf of your country. meaning, virginia and on behalf of the empire meaning this united states thing conglomeration thing. and even thomas jefferson when he wrote about virginia, he always said my country was virginia. so the us and

i worked at the library congress. i worked for a prison library. i'm current a big data scientist and librarian in the government and i volunteer in other endeavor. so i've had a colorful library background and i think it's fair to say that amid the different libraries. i think there's is a kinship and as far as they're very they're varied and their differences they offer collaboration information simulation, there's data and information sharing. there's the need for learning education myriad of things and yet what is compelling to me is that there's this because of this big data and information explosion, and of course the knowledge exploration. i'm wondering what you might have to offer in the way of understanding for how libraries can work more cohesively to kind of spread awareness and to motivate those who are who are kinship and and determined to kind of stay on the computer and not visit their local community libraries where that information and that collaboration can really be embraced and and unified in a way that doesn't diminish our valu

ithink it is important _ congress, she says. ithink it is important to _ congress, she says. ithink it is important to remind - congress, she says. ithink it is important to remind some | congress, she says. i think it- is important to remind some and inform _ is important to remind some and inform others of how we are here — inform others of how we are here 43 _ inform others of how we are here. 43 years ago with the taiwanese relations act, america _ taiwanese relations act, america made a bedrock promise to always — america made a bedrock promise to always stand with taiwan. and — to always stand with taiwan. and on— to always stand with taiwan. and on the strong foundation, we have — and on the strong foundation, we have built a thriving partnership, grounded in our shared — partnership, grounded in our shared values of self—government and self—determination, focused on our mutual security in the region— our mutual security in the region and across the world, committed to the economic ties that power prosperity for all of our — that power prosperity fo

because it is not done until congress says it is done. congress is the last check. not the courts, not the ballot boxes, congress. which is why jamie raskin one of the members of the january 6 committee objected to a republican president of one time. why, because he wanted to prevent a republican for being president. which is why the chairman of this committee bennie thompson objected once because he wanted to prevent a republican from being every member of the presidency. the system is built for objections, the system is built not to rubberstamp otherwise why and by congress at all. why congress voted on anything. why is congress certifying on anything because it's not over until congress says it is over. when people say trump was trying to reverse an election it is not over until congress says it is over. would actually have situations like this one. when it was over until congress made the final decision and we had other situations like that. so he's not trying to stop lawmakers from certifying bidens wing quote unquote. conspiracy to defraud the united states. t

too many times in congress we take our role and we've given it away. you brought up, as he talked about declaring war. some time to think about that. we also control the purse strings. we can stop or start when anytime that we sort of let that go to other agencies. impeachment is one that we can't let become part of popular fodder. we need to be added . and what we saw in this point to take an action against the president needs to be, needs to be delivered, thoughtful, investigated and doesn't be simply because we don't like you. they gave me no reason over the course of this and hearings and everything to say namely because we just don't like you, donald trump are we don't like your style, your tweets, or you are so when it brought up the impeachment, they had this abuse apart. a reporter asked me and andd they put that into because they didn't have anything to charge with but every member of the party could now go here's what it don't like about donald trump and that's the abuse of power. i didn't like the we talked of immigrants or the way talk to o

it's congress over party. congressman timmons, tell us about the ways you've been able to find a consensus and the forms you're most proud of and there's a list of a hundred and some are big and some are small but all of them are important. mr. timmons: i've been on the committee 3 1/2 years and what i think is most important is time, the calendar, the schedule, floor votes. we don't have enough time in congress and any 10 minutes we can get here or there adds up and is exponential. incentive structures. and i don't need to tell the foreign members oftentimes the incentive structures in congress aren't designed to facilitate the best results. last is relationship building. we don't do enough. we need to be more intentional about building relationships because again, we have to engage in policymaking with one another. if you don't know the person you're more inclined to be mean with them and tell them their idea is stupid and then you warrant to agree with them and if archedded them in their previous encounter

otherwise why invite congress at all why is congress voted on anything. why is congress certifying on anything and it's not over until congress says it's over. when people say trump was trying to reverse an election. it is not over until congress has it's over. we had situations like this with jefferson where it was not over until congress made the final decision and we had other situations like that. he's not trying to stop lawmakers from certifying bidens wing conspiracy to defraud the united states there is a nasty criminal statute that said agreement of a lawful by his deceitful and dishonest means and they point out pressuring vice president pence to reject the electoral results are generally six. i just toldd you members of congress have objected to electors. the vice president of the united states is the president of the senate so senators like barbara boxer can object the president of the senate who is also the vice president, he can't object here is the dirty little secret that you're not hearing from the legal analyst, the media, anybody now you

why not congress's own and they did tremendously. well this regiment was authorized a thousand men so much bigger than the common continental infantry regiment, but it was authorized a thousand and by this spring of 77. it was hitting close to 900 men had enlisted in this regiment now did they all stay? absolutely not see it in the record some of these guys joined up put the caucade in their cap. got their bounty money and headed off. so we've got that they don't all stay but it was tremendously successful recruiting under congress's own unfortunately. regiment also didn't always get along well with others it got a rather infirmal reputation in what it was doing and congress came back and said you're not supposed to be calling it congress's own. um, so what's it supposed to be called back to second canadian? no, that's not doing recruiting. they tended to keep going which was rather traditional by hazen's name. so it was hazen's regiment for much of this war, but i also noted in some of the rosters that the captains in this regiment

he served in congress. he needed to get priorities -- if he needed to get priorities through congress, he would know how to do that. under donald trump, the task was containing the boss. responding to his tweets and other broadsides. and donald trump did not really care about how washington worked. he wanted to blow up everything and get things done his way. and what he ended up realizing, or maybe he did not realize it, but if you want to change washington you have to operate within the system first to do that. we saw so many examples, whether it was his efforts to build a border wall. or his efforts to crack down on illegal immigration, things like that. he never understood how to work with congress in those respects. i remember when chuck schumer and him were negotiating over a potential -- in can the government shutdown and chuck schumer put on the table $25 billion to build a border wall if donald trump would allow dreamers already in the u.s., for them to have legal status. and donald trump said no. a

that is congress's job. congress has not been able to do that because our national interests do call for certain levels of immigration and it should be legal immigration. there are no lines for people to get into to come to the united states unless you have a family member in the united states already or you have access to a very small number, about 40,000 a year, of high skilled visas for purposes of employment. so, until we put an immigration system into place which has got to be done by congress, we are not going to be able to be in a position where we are in charge as a country of deciding who ought to come that actually serves our national interests. our national interests do have to do with productivity and are -- and with our labor markets and with maintaining a competitive edge in technology and in other aspects of our economy. but, we are not taking advantage of the resource that immigration or our immigration history actually represents for us as a country. why won't congress deal with this? it has

andrew: i think it is mainly played out in congress. but i do think it is an animating factor for some, as i mentioned for some on the right, who think that, again in the vein of josh hawley, that we should be involved in this conflict at all. why are we sending $40 billion to ukraine when our country has so many problems at home, right? you could say that about any issue we spend money on overseas. i i think many people would agree with that. what republicans let mitch mcconnell argue -- like mitch mcconnell argue, that this is an investment with a down payment to make sure that there's no land war throughout europe. because over time that would be much more costly to the united states. and also, another reason why it is important to spend the money now is because, you know, there are some awful chain reactions right now in the energy markets from russia's war in ukraine. obviously we already cut off russian oil, most nations have already done that. and that will open up a of supply chain issues. that is why we saw gas prices so high,

she came to congress and she was really young and she had never she had never been in congress before and she was elected on this platform of being an outsider by outsiders who believed in being outsiders and so they came into the congress and sort of with a lot of outsider swagger and they were empowered by that. i mean, that was what got her elected and i think there was a a moment where she started to understand that you can't be an outsider forever. like you're just just by virtue of being a member of congress for two years. you're no longer an outsider. you're walking the halls you're eating lunch with people. you're on committees. like it's very hard to maintain that status and and so she had to figure out. um how to this kind of moral line because that is what is her sort of stock and trade right? that's that's her currency. while also being a colleague being a colleague being being a player. and i don't think that's easy for her. i think it's probably more comfortable for her to be an outsider. but you know, she's been reelected now. she has more money than almost any other me

people will come and complain to members of congress and congress members of congress will beat their chests and save those barbarians. i'm going to write them a harshly worded letter and that will teach them as if that were our job and our responsibility just to write parsley worded letters. we created the the piece. and it all started as a result of fdrs court packing effort. you see our constitutional system our experiment in self-government really depends for its legitimacy for its sustainability. for its vitality on the existence of an independent judiciary is anthony's scalia used to say any tinhorn dictator can have a bill of rights, but whether that means anything depends entirely on whether there are protections in place to protect the people and freedom against the dangerous accumulation of power in the hands of the few. without an independent judiciary your rights mean nothing without the independent judiciary the structural protections that are upstream from and the natural condition precedent for all rights and all liberties. can't exist. it is the nature and tendency of

we often talk about whether the hyper partisanship in congress is a congress problem or society problem. probably a little bit of both. one of the biggest challenges is our inability to i guess digest information. you get a lot of information that previously humans would not get because it was weeded out before it got that far. now you have things posted on social media anonymously just by crazy people. how do we grow past the challenges technology interconnectedness are creating? >> i'm happy to speak to that. i think your question gets to the deepest issues we are all facing. the question all of these suggestions relate to, we are facing a crisis of representation of the activity and practice of representation. it is not a crisis of any particular individual making. it is a crisis that at the end of the day has been finally driven all the way home i the invention of social media. i just want to be clear about why and how, and why your committee is so important. we all know the federalist papers, the federalist 10. the argument was the design of the constitution among other things, it'

on july 9th, he sent his proposal up to the congress. this was something he did not need congressional approval for. the way it work is in -- if congress and you can't do this, they were able to go ahead and do it. that is exactly what they did. on december 2nd of 1970, the epa was stood up for the first time. bill ruffle house was admitted as the first administrator of the environmental protection agency. over the fallen several years, we saw quite a flurry of legislation. most most of that continue to form the foundation of environmental law and regulations here in the united states. the clean air act in 1970 -- president nixon had called for clean air legislation. senator musky at his version from maine. he had his version of clean air legislation. there was a history of how that went on. there was a lot of one-upmanship between the white house and senator musky and others on the hill. they were trying to make sure that not only do they have a good bill, it was a bill that always had a little bit more on the side or a little bit more

congress has also developed institutional mechanisms that prevent members of congress from getting better at intelligence oversight. today in the house, there are still term limits for members serving on the house intelligence committee. originally the term limits were designed to prevent members of the committee work -- committee from getting to cozy with the intelligence agencies. they wanted to have a bit of distance. what that has done over time is impede the development of expertise. just when a member of the house committee has learned the acronyms of the 18 agencies, they are required to leave the committee and take another committee assignment instead. the house has tied its own hands at valving expertise in intelligence for a very long time. susan: you also describe a structural, institutional issue, the power of the purse, otherwise budgeting, is separated from oversight. is that a structural change you would recommend addressing? amy: it is. i am not the only one, john mccain wanted to address it. many members of congress have argued that this bifurcation between authorizers on

congress can specify priority. in the last two years, we have had 100 billion spectrum options and none of those have gone to congressional priorities rated i feel pretty strongly that a long-term effect of authority is good but used to be tied to specific bands. >> could you quickly, it's because there is a -- up here by the democrats which could be vote -- a proposal up here by the democrats which could be voted on earlier this week. i know the way spectrum is treated out of the tax which allows it to be that he has over the last. ebay desilets period of years. >> thank you for the question. it is a big deal for our industry. it is currently structured so tax provisions underline everything we are talking about. we are building out 53 twice as fast as we build out 4g and that is to the tune of $60 billion on infrastructure in the last two years. a 15% tax on the $200 billion in spectrum investments will absolutely, when it is retroactive and a surprise, so our build out. it will slow our closing of the digital di

congress. the courts, campaigns and more. plus, analysis for the world of politics with our informative podcast. c-span now is available at the apple store and google play. download it for free today. c-span now, your front row seat for washington anytime, anywhere. ♪ >> doug, it is so good to be with you. and i have theha honor of talkig to you about your new book the clock and the calendar. >> i am excited about it. glad you're here as well but. >> i am too, it is an honor. we worked together for

i think we can all owe a debt of thanks to the congress to the members of congress who work together in such a collegial bipartisan way to get this legislation passed as well as the president nixon who's leadership and who's enacting of all these bills signing of all these bills has made a huge difference in the quality of our environment over the past 50 years, and i hope that as people look at that decade. they see it as as an example of how on on issues that you know, maybe you don't agree on everything you still get something done. so with that i'm happy to take any questions, but i think sam first we wanted to go through photos. yes, so i was gonna say, you know, and thank you for that. fantastic presentation bob. this is really been you know fascinating and i have questions. i'm sure members of our audience have questions too that they're excited to pose, but i wanted to take a minute while we're all still here, you know, we mentioned at the top that you're a curator for exhibits at the nixon foundation, and i know that you and i have discussed you curated and exhibit on presid

those who consider them their ideological successors to ensure that congress. could act if states failed to protect people in respect of their civil rights. well, one of the great virtues of the book is the way you one of the great parts of the book as we go into the post-enactment statutory history of the klan act reinforcement act, and these are all pieces of legislation by which congress tried to take this new thing, the 14th amendment, and enact legislation to create the justice department just the same time with the project of being able to protect newly freed people against the kums klux kln and other forms of white racial and political violence against republicans and against them, against newly freed black people. so that's a wonderful part of the book. i think the reason why it struck me is i imagined that the equal protection extending the equal protection clause opposed an interesting challenge for the effort to protect individual liberty, a challenge like the following lines. you didn't want to say a a soe people who haveut done this befe say, that

if a law is worth keeping, congress can pass it again. translated, your social security every five years will be eliminated unless it's voted back into existence. and it's your money. you paid for it. you paid for it. but i'm not joking. think about this. think about what they're doing and all it's all there in black and white. he wants to require congress to vote on the future of social security every five years. so every five years congress will vote to change, cut, reduce or entirely eliminate social security. how does that make you feel? do you want to put your social security in the hands of ted cruz and marjorie taylor greene? but it's not just social security. senator scott wants everything in the federal budget voted out of existence. that includes medicare, veterans benefits and everything else. and then along comes senator ron johnson of wisconsin. this is their plan. he thinks five years is too long. i'm not joking. you think i'm making this up? he wants to put social security and medicare on the chopping block every single yea

what is your recommendation to your fellow republicans in congress, who may be in congress next year in terms of how you deliver on what they believe the american people want, but how you also function in a political reality where democrats are still likely to have filibuster power in the senate to block house passed bills and with are president joe biden is still going to be in the white house with a veto pen? >> well, the reality is, is that the senate doesn't even necessarily have to talk about what the house is talking about. that's what's so broken about washington d.c. i talk about this quite a bit in my book that was released this week, called not my first rodeo, but it talks about the dysfunction in washington d.c. and when i did serve in congress, the first couple of years, there, we did have barack obama in the white house and we learn how to figure out a way to get some things passed, a lot of what we wanted to do as republicans in the house did not get passed, but it was a check and balance to the system and what i believe, the republicans in the house and the senate need

forward to as a member of congress outside of d.c. working to build power here in florida, insuring that we're keeping our majority, getting good democrats elected up and down the ballot, so we can work together to provide for the american people and folks here in our state. >> i am sure i don't need to tell you, this afternoon, president biden announced the federal government is going to forgive $10,000 in student loan debt for those who make less than $125,000 a year. the naacp is saying that's not enough. the leaders wrote, quote, black americans have been disproportionately devastated by student loan debt. canceling $10,000 of debt is like pouring a bucket of water on a forest fire. it makes a mere dent in the problem. what do you think about what the president did today? >> i think it's a great step forward, but i completely understand what many advocates and naacp are saying. more has to be done, but as an organizer, i really see this opportunity as a way to change hearts and minds to bring more people in the fold, to fight to c

look, we need a congress tal th. we know that young folks in this country are going through new challenges, and i think it's important to have that perspective at the table. but let's be clear and honest about it too. i didn't run to be the first gen z member of congressg because o issues in my district because i see what folks are going through in orlando and all across florida. and i'm dedicated to fighting for people to live their best lives, to not worry about whether or not they're going to have a next meal, to not worry about picking between rent and medicine. these are real issues people are going through right now. and, you know, my age gives me a different perspective, but we need different perspectives in congress it can really work for everybody. >> you're saying people want to appeal to younger voters. suddenly they think you might be too young to lead. it's always a funny thing when they do these notions. but i do want to ask you about one of the things you've talked about in terms of what's very importa

i want to also thank members of congress who made this possible to ensure the united states lives up to our promises. and to those who give to our country, we will always -- and people who are with us today. walter. where are you? there you are. [applause] pres. biden: [indiscernible] [applause] pres. biden: brian thacker. [applause] pres. biden: thank you for being here to help us recognize these newest honorees. i would like to also note last week we lost a giant in his community. herschel williams passed away, the last medal of honor recipient of world war ii. honored by president truman for the battle of iwo jima, he will be laid to rest of the capital. his passing is a reminder of what so many have sacrificed to support liberty and democracy for our nation and the world. it is my great honor to ask for the citations be read as we awarded the medal of honors to kaneshiro, specialist five dennis well, specialist five dennis and fuji -- dennis fujii and john duffy. thank you all and may god protect our troops. [applause] >> john kaneshiro, accepting on behalf of his father staff se

congress is the problem. changing the debt ceiling isn't going to make [indiscernible] works. >> mr. mulvaney, congress is now facing another debt limit discussion within the next year or so and perhaps sooner if more of the $7.5 trillion in new spending the house democrats have passed becomes law. as you know, the debt limit has often [no audio] rain in deficit spending. given that the 2011 s&p downgrade was a result of the markets having the confidence that washington would curb its appetite to spend, and since we are facing a new debt limit crisis end of this year, when that next conversation over the debt limit occurs, what specifically do you think that congress should consider as part of these potential debt limit increase, apart from just abolishing the that limit, like democrats are proposing. could congress put back caps on spending that put into law real spending restraint? >> mr. chairman, my gut -- caps would be great, but we did that in 2011 and then all congress did every two years was raise the

uh -- passed by congress such as emtla are in any way invalid. it's quite the opposite, the supreme court left it to the people's representatives. emtala was a decision made by the congress of the united states, the supremacy clause as a -- is a decision made in the constitution of the united states. federal law invalidates state laws that are in direct contradiction. this has really nothing to do with anything that the supreme court said, and certainly nothing to do with going around the supreme court. >> thank you all. >> thank you. >> appreciate it. ♪ announcer: c-span now free mobile app. keep up with floor proceedings from the u.s. congress, white house events, campaigns and more from the world of politics all at your fingertips. you can also stay current with the latest episodes of washington journal and find scheduling information for c-span's tv networks and c-span radio, plus a variety of compelling podcasts. c-span now is available in the apple store and google play. download it free today. c-span now, your front row seat to washingto

that it was time for him to move on from congress. congresswoman cheney is running to keep receiving wyoming tonight, where polls just closed at the top of the hour. we are still waiting for results to come in but in recent polling, her opponent has cheney beat by almost 30 points. the odds are not in liz cheney's favor heading into tonight's vote tally, and if there is one person in american politics who knows and understands what it is like to be in liz cheney's position, then it is my next guest. joining now is illinois congressman and member of the january six committee, adam kinzinger. thank you mr. kinzinger thank you for being with us tonight. i would begin to say that i wish we were meeting under better circumstances given where the polls have been trending in terms of cheney's fate. i'll ask you as one of the few people who's been going through this with her as members of the same party, what has it been like being on the committee with liz cheney? has there been camaraderie, gallows humor, what is that relationship been like