Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 20240622

2027488002. You can send an email at cspan. Org. Front page of the wall street times and New York Times obama begins a 60 day campaign to win over skeptics at home and abroad. And Washington Post, obama says nuclear deal scathes off war. President there are two alternatives. Either the issue of Nuclear Weapons are resolved diplomatically through negotiations or its resolved through force through war. Those are the options. Now, youll hear some critics say, we could have negotiated a better deal. What does that mean . I think the suggestion among a lot of the critics that a better deal and acceptable deal would be one in which iran has no Nuclear Capacity peaceful or otherwise. The problem with that position is that there is nobody who thinks that iran would or could ever accept that and the International Community does not take the view that iran cant have a Peaceful Nuclear program. They agree with us that iran cannot have a Nuclear Weapon. Host the New York Times says the president used an eastern formal east room conference to begin an aggressive effort and top advisors of the next 60 days to combat critics in both parties and sell the iran deal to members of congress, public and allies. He sent joe biden to capitol hill. And the newspaper reporting the Vice President will be back up on capitol hill today talking to Senate Democrats. John in jacksonville, florida. What do you make of the president defending this deal . Caller i actually agree with the president making this deal a couple of years ago or id say ten years ago it may have been a bad deal. After these two wars in afghanistan and iraq, the United States position has become weakened. When we took Sadaam Hussein out, they took their own proxy to give america some type of influence through that region. So now iran is the strongest and we have to make a deal and thats exactly what the president has done, hes making a deal. His hand was forced and this was nothing he can do about it because iran has run the region. Host what are you looking for in the future . What are your concerns if any . Caller i dont have any concerns. I really believe that the iranians can be trusted. After all they havent invaded anybodys country and done the same thing the United States has done for years fighting in proxy wars. I think we have no other choice but to trust them i hope that everything will be fine. But its the middle east of the you never know. Host robert, an independent, what are your thoughts . Caller yes. First of all i believe that it is all of this involvement and everybody in the world and around the world about this deal. First of all nobody has more strength than the iranians have and theyre so concerned and theyre so scared that theyre going to going and you know what . They have the bomb. Israel has the bomb. What is done about it . Nothing. Everybody else talking about this. Whats really going to explode about the deal. The republicans will not stop until we go and bomb iran back to ashes back to ancient times. Another civilization like lebanon and syria. That is my comment. All of this should stop and the people of the United States wake up. Host all right, robert. Bob, good morning. Caller good morning, greta. Im calling because i grew up in the fifties and the sixties and i recall the air raid sirens going off and i remember the tensions of the cuban crisis, and this is certainly not a time for political insertions here you know. I am a republican. I do not agree with the president very often, and i dont particularly agree with him right now, however, i do pray that what we are doing is the right thing. However it turns out we have to be america. This is an political thing. And im really kind of sorry that we started off having democrats and republicans on this. This is american. We really have to get this one right. I never want to go through what i went through and the fear of when i grew up. Host bob, are you hopeful . Caller of course im hopeful. Im scared too. I remember how terrifying it was to hear those air raid sirens going off and i remember being in grade school and remembering when the ships were approaching each other and it was a very, very scary thing to think that missiles were aimed at us. When i walked home i was wondering where the fallout shelters were at. And so many people have come to our country since then weve doubled or more in our population and they dont realize what kind of terror it is when youre facing nuclear destruction. Host speaking of history, let me ask you this, the column in the Washington Post, in rig begans footsteps is what he said. Obamas iran strategy parallels the gippers bat on gorbachev. He says when president Ronald Reagan met gorbachev he whispered, i bet the hard lineers in both our countries are bleeding when we shake hands. Regular reagan had a point. It left many of his conservative friends aghast. Reagan had accelerated the moral disarmament of the west by elevating Wishful Thinking to the political philosophy. There is no way of knowing if this will deal to a dramatic transformation in iran. Reagans bet paid off. Obama is making a comparable wager. Bob, would you agree . Caller i would agree. I was just thinking people dont realize how grateful i am of all of these years that we have had of the peace and the lack of this anxiety that occurs during the period, and if we put together something now that can tone down the energy that is starting to build it and i can start to build inside of me. Yes, i do agree. I do hope that we can come to some kind of agreement that will dissipate and have another 40 years of lessening of the anxiety, but i do fear of what was instilled of me when i was young. Thats where im at. Thank you. Host the wall street turnl they disagree. They write. Obamas false iran choice, there was a better alternative to his deal. He never pursued it. Mr. Obama knows theres always been an alternative of concessions because many have suggested it. Its called coercive diplomacy if he had tried it. Take the sanctions regime which finally started to get tough. By 2013 iran had an official inflation rate of some 35 and currency was falling and dollars reserves were estimated to be down to 20 million. He resist those and only took credit for them. Mr. Obama still resist calls to put maximum pressure on iran. As for his full choice of war and diplomacy the truth is war becomes less likely when diplomacy is accompanied by the credible threat of war. He insisted that war was the only bad alternative to his diplomacy. He erased his only red line. Zack, your thoughts. Caller good morning. Ive only heard a little bit about the deal. I havent read the whole document. I dont know if its really available for me. Im kind of concerned about it, i dont know if there is an alternative to, after the five year and eight year part of the deal where they can start to take up arms and they can start to beef up their Missile Defense and missile capabilities without necessarily pursuing Nuclear Weapons, they can beef up their defenses to prepare when the deal is over and start to develop the Nuclear Weapon and be more capable of defending themselves and bring up the amount of money they do have to sponsor terrorism and net netanyahu has a contrast to obama. They should start to beef up their defenses. Host let me share with you because he took on almost all the arguments in his one hour News Conference with reporters. When the reporters then asked about a certain argument he brought it up himself. Heres what he had to say about what happens after the ten years. President lets assume that the deal holds for ten years iran doesnt cheat. Now at the end of ten years, some of the restrictions have been lifted, although remember, others have stayed in place for 15 years. For example they still have to keep their stockpiles at a minimal level for 15 years. The inspections dont go away. Those are still in place. 15, 20 years from now. Their commitment under the nonproliferation treaty does not go away. Thats still in place. The Additional Protocol that they have to sign up for under this deal which requires a more extensive inspection and verification mechanism, that stays in place. So theres no scenario in which a u. S. President is not in a stronger position 12, 13, 15 years from now if fact iran decided they wanted to get a Nuclear Weapon. Host defending this iran deal. Were getting your thoughts on this this morning. Frank, an independent, good morning. Caller thank you for cspan. Yeah, i support the agreement. I have a lot of concerns and theyve all been voiced, the 24 day notification, the not anywhere any time but whenever, but on balance i agree with fundally what the president just said. Were in a stronger position. If you take today or take six months ago, for example, if you remember the discussions that revolved around iran and estimates were three months six months, one year from achieving a Nuclear Weapon. Today theyre now 15 years or more. If iran complies at the end of the period. This agreement is not just a oneoff deal that says once its over everyone keeps their finger crossed. The United States still has a position that iran is not going to achieve a Nuclear Weapon. If they seem to be bent in ten years or 15 years or 20 years on achieving that and the rest of the world still wants them not to, we will be taking other measures. So i think on balance several of these concerns on balance we are better off today. If iran cheats iran is pushing today for Nuclear Weapon well have more insight. This deal makes us stronger in that respect. It doesnt take away any capabilities that we have today. It just adds to them. So i think buying the 10 or 15 years or more makes all the sense in the world. It has to be remembered that this is really more like an arms control or arms limitation agreement and not a general peace treaty so well still be opposing them on other front. In fact well still have sanctions on them for other reasons. So there is still a lot of work to do and we still have to be weary and they are not our friends. But it does make sense to chip away at their capabilities and trying to bring them into this family of nations, et cetera et cetera. Host frank is an independent in alabama. Want to hear from republicans as well. This is what republican Lawmakers Said during and after the News Conference. Representative bradley burn who sits on Armed Services committee. One of my top concernses it ends the u. N. Arms embargo. And Mitch Mcconnell remember, it was supposed to be the point of the talks in the first place. This iran deal will not come close, he says. And then sara marco rubio, republican of florida, he says critics have no plan how to handle the platt differently plan differently. Thank i will give them a choice. Change your behavior, or face the economy. They defended this nuclear deal. Were getting your thoughts on it. Jesse in sacramento, california, a democrat. Hi, jesse. Caller how you doing . Hakem host good morning. Caller all i have to say, when do we become so scared and so paranoid about what other people did. Its easy for people to stand up and say, i listen to whats his name golden boy talk about rubio and they talk about what they would do, well do this. They have never been to war. Ive been to vietnam. You dont know what war is like. I ran with one of the largest standing armies in the world. What are we going to do . Turn it into a parking lot. Iran has more young people, people who want to be free. They want to be able to use their computer without being scared and they want the same things they want. You have these idiots and religious who are suppressing the country. What are we going to do . Walk in there and kill everybody . These golden boys coming up theyre not going to do jack. One of the worst things we did that made us a weaker country was president bush and all his goofs, cheney, all of them lying to the American Public about Sadaam Hussein. That was a fabrication. Host you said you served in vietnam. As you know, secretary of state john kerry did as well. He brought this up during the close of the negotiations. The Washington Post writes about it about how they came to this deal. For 17 days diplomats tried to make a deal. At the end of the piece this morning, by Karen Deyoung wrote this, at 10 30 john kerry was meeting in a suite with the Russian Foreign minister and Foreign Policy chief when they were joined by the iran foreign minister. Staff members were asked to leave the room. A half hour later the diplomats said they resolved all issues. A ban on Missile Technology would last for eight years and u. N. Resolution would continue for at least a decade. By 11 15 he spoke to obama. When all the ministers gathered at the end secretary of state spoke about going to vietnam at the age of 22 and coming home that no young person should ever have to go through that experience unless nations exhausted all possibilities. The diplomats began to applaud. Jesse . Caller maam. Well, maam, all i know is this, we when did we become so afraid . Whatever you do, ive been to desert storm, desert shield, i was working for the army in a civilian capacity. Those people have a different idea. They dont think like we think but theyre people. And a lot of times they have younger people that want freedom. Theyre just along for the ride. They cant do anything about it. We just cant go storming in there, you know. If you look at the graves in arlington you and see all those people that die for what they did because they destabilized the area talk about Saddam Hussein, a lot of things have a domino effect. At least he kept things under control. Host ill leave it there. Jim, youre on the air. Caller this is just more delusional behavior by the Obama Administration. The whole middle east thing, the problem is we have to get rid of the bathists who are the people who are hooked up in syria with Saddam Hussein and withe have the fundamentalists in iran. Theyre not going to be deal honestily honestily honestily. These guys are still going to build a bomb and theyre going to lie. Theyre islamic fundamentalists. This is a house of cards and the emperor has no clothes and were going to have a war because of this. Host your sentiments was echoed by the speaker of the house. The spoke phapbz for the speaker said in defending the deal showed himself to be hopelessly disconnected from reality. Addressing his countrys parliament a few hours before the president spoke left open the possibility of military action against iran. Little more background for you about these negotiations from the Washington Post. They write this, during yesterdays News Conference obama seemed to relish the idea of taking on the critics. Obama was briefed on the progress of the negotiations with iran as often as twice a day and amassed a detailed knowledge of the 109 page agreement and additional 47 page of annexes. He drew on that knowledge to answer criticisms that the deal didnt last long enough and wouldnt prevent the iranians to covertly produce a Nuclear Weapons and didnt go far enough. He seemed eager to address every question saying have we exhausted all the iran questions here . Im enjoying this iran debate. Go ahead. Go ahead. Danielle, an independent, hi, daniel. Caller im calling to support the president and the other power nations that drafted this deal. I think my concern is as an american citizen that the g. O. P. , the Republican Party supported netanyahu. I dont think it would matter what the deal was. And i think what they also dont understand is that this was not only americans this was also crafted by other nations. So it doesnt matter what theyre going to do, the republicans talk about war. President bush was the republican for eight years. Did he go to war . He did not go to war. And iran had the same problem since that time when he was the president. Why didnt they go to war . It doesnt matter what theyre going to do, it doesnt matter they would not have supported the president. They rather support netanyahu than support the president. Host heres the New York Times this morning. U. S. Offers to help israel to bolster defenses yet iran deal leaves ally uneasy. New york times reporting that the United States has promised israel that it would bolster its defense. Some suggested one way to placate israel is how much security assist tense will offer them in coming years. Being negotiated before it expires in 2018. The current agreement which went into effect in 2009 provides for 3 billion a year most of which is used by israel used for hardware. In talks that started long before the Iran Nuclear Deal began to take shape israel requested between 2. 4 billion and 2. 5 billion in ten years. Thats in the New York Times. Some other quick headlines as we continue to get your thoughts on president obama defending the Iran Nuclear Deal. Front page of the journal. Police misconduct is soaring. The price has surged even before the current waves of scrutiny faced over at a time ticks. The ten cities paid out 247 million in Police Misconduct is up 48 from 2010. And then front pain of the Financial Times this morning with the caption Federal Reserve woman is signalling that the fed is set to raise rates this year as the economy strengthens strengthens. She struck a positive tone which we covered. And she said that some are speculating its likely in september the Federal Reserve chair woman and the Federal Reserve will be raising interest rates. The fed chair will be back up on capitol hill today this afternoon, 2 30 eastern time and well have coverage of that on cspan3 if youre interested in watching that. Well be talking with the Senate Banking committee about the economy. Speaking of the economy in greece. Obgz okays 100 billion lifetime. Receives a life line from creditors. But comes from a cost and the sale of most state assets. You can see underneath the caption there the protestors about 15,000 people outside of that capital while the parliament was voting there. Up on capitol hill yesterday, the house voted to extend funding for the highway bill. Not a long Term Solution though. Again, for about the says about 30 times over 30 Times Congress did a short Term Solution. This one for five months. It will expire again as we get closer to december. Thats on the house side. The senate has yet to decide what its going to do on this. On health care, take a look on this, the head of obamas healthcare rollout will start lobbying for insurers. The theyve chosen on wednesday to be the top lobbyist. On healthcare from u. S. A. Today. They say the case is closed on obamacare and gay marriage. They say theyll be more focused on battle against the Islamic State terror group rather than the heltsz care law and gay marriage. Not true when the poll talks to just republicans when it comes to the healthcare law. Back to our topic. President obama taking over an hour to talk to reporters in the east room of the white house yesterday on this iran deal. Isaac and elizabeth, new jersey what do you think . Caller good morning. Im calling to support the president. I believe hes doing the best for the country by keeping us out of another unnecessary war. Also i heard this guy talk this morning about the bathists. If it wasnt for george bush getting rid of them we wouldnt have the problem we had with icye isis today. I believe the money being released to iranians will help to go fight isis also. I believe the israelis are our friends. Host john in arlington, virginia, your thoughts. Caller i support what theyre doing. I mean, the fact is that its not the president by himself. He has the support of the europeans, the russians, the chinese the whole bunch of them and its a way to hopefully keep things on an even keel. I think its important to say too that people got to hear this even though they may not like to. The iranians claim they dont want to build a bomb. Thats what they say and you dont have to believe them people know that anyway. The other thing is that, even netanyahu said yesterday, the iranians are not only out to get their way in the middle east but to conquer the world. Maybe he was tired or something but this is from the a country who has 150 Nuclear Weapons is not too good for trying to get people together over there. I think they should get together a little more and this creates an opportunity to calm things down and for to us Pay Attention to the real bad guys which are isis over there. Host all right, john. Jack, in california, an independent. Jack, good morning. Welcome to the conversation. Caller good morning. Thank you for having me on. Yeah, i mean wow look the this conversation. The point is its not a good deal because we already know that theyre trying to create a Nuclear Warhead and been to north korea talk about the Nuclear Warhead technology and all that kind of stuff. And the money, its all about the money, the sanctions. Look at iran today. Iran today is, what, its the 7th largest economy and had a huge military footprint yet thats under extreme sanctions, i mean strangling sanctions. Can you imagine when billions of dollars come flooding in there. I have to ask, who benefits . Why the big push . Its funny that they put on this big show its either this or war. It hasnt been war the whole time. Where do we get this thing its either an agreement or war . Thats just a red herring, just an excuse to come up with some kind of agreement. Meanwhile someone gets to invest in iran make a lot of money. And netanyahu has a very good point. Iran wants to kill israel. Whats crazy is were talking to iran when just about april of this year they were all chanting, death to america. All the americans that are sitting here talking about lets support all this stuff, how do you feel about that . I have to ask. Host all right. Jack, the point about money you brought that up the president addressed that. This winfall that ire ran will get. 150 billion of their money that is frozen because of these sanctions. Heres how he responded. President i think its a mistake to characterize our belief that they will just spend it on Daycare Centers and roads and paying down debt. We think that they have to do some of that because rouhani was elected on the premises of the Economic Situation inside of iran. That economy has tanked since we imposed sanctions. The notion that theyll turn it over to the force runs contrary to all the intelligence weve seen and the commitments that the iranian government has made. Do we think that with the sanctions coming down that iran will have some addition in al resources towards military and for some of the activities in the region that are a threat to us and a threat to our allies . I think that is a likelihood that theyve got some additional resources. Do i think its a game changer for them . No. Host president obama talking about the money that iran will get. The Washington Post this morning in reaction to what the president had to say yesterday about hostages, they say that now after this iran deal has been done, its time to free the Washington Post reporter release of the reporter should follow the nuclear cord is what the Washington Post editorial says. The president was asked by White House Correspondent major garret about the hostages. Heres the question and how the president responded. Are there four americans, three held on trumped charges and one whereabouts unknown. Can you tell the country, sir why you are content with all the fanfare around this deal to believe this and last week the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff said under no circumstances should there be any relief for iran in terms of ballistic missiles. It was many believe you left the joint chiefs of staff high out to dry. Will you comment . President i give you credit how you crafted those statements. The notion that im content when americans are languishing in iranian jails, major thats nonsense. And you should know better. Ive met with the families of crafted those some of those folks. Nobodys content. And we are working diligently to try to get them out. Now, if the question is why we did not tie the negotiations to their release, think about the logic that that creates. Suddenly iran realizes you know what, maybe we can get additional concessions out of the americans by holding these individuals. Makes it much more difficult for us to walk away if iran somehow thinks that a nuclear deal is dependant in some fashion. If we hadnt walked away from the nuclear deal wed still be pushing them just as hard to get these folks out. Thats why the issues are not connected but we are working every day to try to get them out. We wont stop until theyre out and rejoined with their families. Host president obama defending his eye rain nuclear deal. Nick in el paso, texas, republican. Go ahead. Caller good morning, greta. Host good morning. Caller i think the deal is bad. Its bad. Its a bad deal, greta. I think its a bad deal because this president obama sold out america and the free world. This means american soldiers will have to fight some day in the future in the middle east after the time frame thats put in there. This ensures that our americans will die and this ensures that turkey, egypt, saudi arabia, jordan, all get Nuclear Weapons. Now here was a man back in college who marched against Nuclear Weapons when he was in college. He was for for the nuclear face and here he is spreading Nuclear Weapons in the most unstable region of the world, the middle east, where countries like turkey egypt saudi arabia and jordan getting weapons from pakistan and maybe north korea and russia. There will be more blood spilled in the future. Host lloyd in brooklyn. Democrat lloyd, what do you think . Caller i support the president on this initiative. Look, if iran really wanted to possess a Nuclear Weapon, they could have just purchased one from china just like pakistan did when they didnt have a deliverable Nuclear Weapon. This whole fury about what israel thinks, israel has Nuclear Weapons. They never signed off on a non proliferation agreement. Even before the Nuclear Talks began, they asked for 4. 5 billion a year for additional defense funds. Theyve been squeezing the United States forever and a day. The cold war is over. It is time for the United States and the five permanent nations of the u. N. Security counsel to take a different direction as far as war. These people who talk about were guarantee a war if we allow capitulate to the iranians. If the alternative right now is war, there is no other alternative. It is only war. Host lloyd. Mark kirk republican for illinois who is up for reelocation in 2016 says this, who has consistently spoken out against the deal told a local Radio Station on tuesday he believes 10s of thousands of people in the middle east will lose their lives because of this decision by Barack Hussein obama. Thats the senate from illinois had to say. Zoey in highland park, an independent, youre on the air. Caller hi. I would say i support the deal and this has a lot of people worried about National Security both in the United States and israel. And i think a great way to address National Security concerns is also look around and help lower levels of global poverty because lower levels of global poverty helps with National Security because countries with more to lose has less likely to have terrorism and go to war with the United States. Host okay, zoey. Front page of the New York Times also has a lengthy piece about these negotiations and how they came together. Clearing hurdles withstandoff shouts and compromise. The front page of the New York Times with talking about the ban on conventional weapons and ballistic missiles. In these talks iran wanted the ban lifted indefinitely and the u. S. Wanted it to stay permanently. A five year ban and the sale of conventional weapons and eight year ban on ballistic missiles. Any lifting of the ban would bound to inflame many in congress for fears of empowering iran would mix with politics. He called president obama and taking they agreed it was not losing what they saw is the best chance to roll back Irans Nuclear program simply because there was a wristicrisk that iran would be able to acquire far less dangerous weapons is what the New York Times says. Its a lengthy piece inside the New York Times this morning. And then theres also this from the reliable source in the Washington Post this morning. For kerry, a toast with a 1776 link. It says on the way back from Vienna Energy secretary would toast the accomplishment with something a bit stronger than lemonade. They had a fine bottle of madera wine. How did they wine up with such a symbolic . Heres the back story. During the iranian negotiations, they made a quick side trip for portugal to receive an honor. The grand cross of prince harry. Before his return u. S. Ambassador to portugal gave him a special bottle of madera. He instructed the secretary to open it only after he and carery sealed the deal with the iranians. So that in the papers this morning. Back story for you if youre considered in these negotiations. Lets hear from richard a republican. Good morning. Go ahead. Caller yes good morning. I think john kerry should stop crying when hes negotiating and he should stop toasting. This deal is a disaster. Its a complete disaster. I agree with marco rubio. You dont go crying when youre dealing with some cut throats like the iranians. Theyre exporting terrorism all around the world and weapons to north korea and the technology. Obama should not be in foreign affairs. He should get somebody else to do that for him. Did you see how russia liked it . Theyll sell a lot of weapons to iran. Russia loves this. Host thats in the papers. Putin was able to exercise his will despite efforts by the west to ostracize him. He backed by china was able to persuade and get the weapons ban lifted for 58 years in these negotiations by siding with iran. Lets hear from scott in new york. An independent caller. Good morning. Caller how you doing today . Hakem doing well, sir. Caller i would like to say first of all with major garret, how that president answered his question by not he did not answer a question. What he the mistake he made was using irritant words. Its how you structure a sentence. That was his out for answering the question. If you notice he didnt answer any part of that question and every part of that question was relevant to the negotiations. But yet he didnt answer any of the questions. Host ill leave it there. Well continue the conversation but i need to roll in some quick headlines about 2016 president ial politics. Ill begin with the coverage of cspans president ial republican forum. They say this, its partnered with a handfulful regional newspapers for nationally televised forum with the republican candidates just days before the fox news channels first scheduled debate. This will take place on august 3rd. The network we invited all 17 g. O. P. President ial hopefuls. So far dr. Ben carson and Chris Christie cruz kasich, Lindsay Graham and george pit tacky has committed to the forum and this is done in conjunction to the New Hampshire leader and will take place in manchester. 7 00 p. M. Eastern time on august 3rd. Money and numbers are out. The Washington Post g. O. P. Shows a pivot to groups backed by the rich elite. Nearly four out of every 5 has gone to independent groups rather than official campaigns. It goes how much money the groups have gotten from small donors versus big donors. If youre interested in that in the Washington Post this morning. Also in the papers shows the Hillary Clintons numbers while she raised a lot, most of that came from large donors and not small ones. And then the Washington Times has here a quote from quote, he cant be bought. He makes his case against campaign finance. He raised very little but he says he has and worth 10 billion and star ledger, Chris Christie, the headline says that the governors are returning the favor to christie. He got the endorsement of Maryland Governor larry hogan and helped raise a record breaking 106 million for the republican governors aowes association association. They went to the polls to reelect a governor. And ted cruz met with donald trump behind closed doors. Texas senator met with the billionaire mogul in new york behind closed doors. Both candidates left it to others what theyre meeting in trumps new york office was about. And then also sad news. Houston chronicle looks like former president george h. W. Bush has injured himself. He fell and hurt his neck and he is in the hospital but doing fine according to reports. Thats in the Houston Chronicle this morning. Well take a short break. When we come back, well continue this conversation about the Iran Nuclear Deal. Well talk with congressman Chris Stewart republican of utah and switching gears and turn to education policy with mark. Well be right back. This weekend on the cspan networks politics, books and american history. A road to the white house coverage features nearly all the president ial candidates and begins friday night in iowa. Were from cedar rapids, iowa. All day saturday starting at 11 00 a. M. Were live at the family leadership summit and sunday evening interviews with two president ial candidates first Lindsay Graham and then john kasich. On book tv saturday morning were live from new york city for the 17th annual harlem book fair with author talks and panels on economics africanamerican identity and race and politics. And sunday night at 10 00, ann kolter says the greatest issue facing the u. S. Is immigration. Saturday afternoon from Florence Harding to michelle obama. And the executive director of the National First ladys library. Little after 9 00 the National Archives of kansas city shows how the u. S. Government used propaganda to persuade citizens to join the military. Get our complete schedule at cspan. Org. Washington journal continues. Host we are back with congressman Chris Stewart. Sits on the intelligence committee. Whats your reaction to this nuclear deal . Like many im very, very concerned and i think we should be concerned. I think it sets a precedent and leads us down a pathway that is very, very discouraging to me. Host why . I think its going to lead to the nuclear million tireization of the middle east. We decided well manage that than precluding them from doing that. It led to so many uncertainty to allies in the region. I hope well be careful in how we look to this and our response. Host the president said the people who support this they were on their way there anyway, that they that iran had the technology and infrastructure for break time of 23 months to get a Nuclear Weapon. Under this deal it now means that the United States and its allies have a year. It will slow them down to a year that break out time. Wouldnt you rather have a year than 2 to 3 months. That assumes a couple of things. Is 2 to 3 months accurate . Do we know that . Hakem you sit on the intelligence committee. You tell us. I think there are reasons to wonder about that. The second thing lets assume it gives them a year. Weve backed off this policy that they wouldnt have Nuclear Capability at all. You know you look at our allies in the region, those who really are closest to it and have the most to lose and you see their response. That should be meaningful. We should understand why they are concerned as we are as well. And i think as i said to the secretary a number of times, i asked him, mr. Secretary, give us an example, give me a single example of where iran has worked in a positive fashion with us or with any of our allies . Because i cant think of one. But i could give you a long list of examples where they worked against our interest and sought to make us less secure and endangered and killed americans and i just wonder are they a partner we can trust . Because i really dont know that we can. Host the president said though as you know many times hes not trusting, hes going to verify. I want to show you what the president had to say during that hour long News Conference when he was asked about the verification process and how iran could skirt that. Take a look. President for the fact that it may take 24 days to finally get access to the site, the nature of Nuclear Programs and facilities is such this is not something you hide in a closet. This is not something you put on a dolly and wheel off somewhere. By the way, if we identify an undeclared site were suspicious about, were going to be keeping eyes on it. So well be monitoring what the activity is and thats going to be something that will be evidence if we think funny business was going on that we can present to the International Community. Well be monitoring it that entire time. If there is Nuclear Material on that site your High School Physics will remind us, that leaves a trace. Host congressman . There is couple of things side say that. I spent 14 years as a pilot and we dealt with Nuclear Weapons. At that time i was a pilot rep to the stark two and stark three implementation. I helped to verify that. We were trained on a small piece of those treaties. In that experience i remember reflecting thinking if we wanted to cheat on this we could. When the russian inspectors came to the site there are simple things we could to deceive them. At this point years of interests that were aligned we actually had developed some trust in that we would implement the treaties. Going back to what i said earlier, i dont think we have that basis of trust with iran. The second thing i would say is this, lets say that we find them cheating as some of us fear, the next question is, can we respond to that . And the idea of these snap back sanctions i dont believe theres a chance in the world that they snap back. I mean, were already seeing them situations where the russians say were going to sell the antimissile systems with them. I met with a group of Business People with europe and they told me of their interest and how anxious they are to move forward. Once weve gone down that pathway, are we going to be able to pull those business interests back . I dont know that we are. Lets assume that the president is right and identify if theyre cheating, the next thing what do we do about it . And thats where this agreement is weak as well. Host does that hold true for the other side. Once the business agreements begin and iran starts to see what its like to do business outside of its country that it will not want to go back on the deal. Well, no, no. Youll just forgive me for disagreeing with that premise. Ill start with this. Iran knows what its a like to do business with the west. They can measure that. But that hasnt stopped them for a long time now of being one of the worlds great sponsors of terrorism and supporting hez bowl hezbollah and hamas. It makes it impossible to develop those businesses and business interests. I think that they would measure whether those Business Affairs are more important to them than their own Strategic Military interests. Host donald, a democrat. Youre up first. Caller just quickly. I missed that piece. Listen to what the president just said or go back to what he said. Okay lets say they do start give them 24 day notice and they start moving stuff. We have satellites. We can watch them move stuff. So think about this. If they do start moving stuff, we can see where they are moving it from to where theyre moving it from. If they do not live up to the agreement what our response could be, maybe our response could be military and we have an exact place to go to drop bombs. So what does the representative think about that line of thinking . I think youre giving too much credit to the Intelligent Community that air all seeing and all knowing and nothing escapes them. Because the fact is there is much that does. Ill give you an example. North korea. It wasnt that long ago we an agreement with north korea, it was supposed to be verifiable and monitor and know what theyre doing and in fact we didnt. That failed and they developed Nuclear Weapons while they were under much of the same economic embargo and the same embargo on technology that the iranians will be. We failed on that. Look more recently on benghazi. It took place and caught us unaware and took us months to go back and recreate and that was simple. How can we understand you said we will move things with satellite. There are multiple ways to hide that in the sky. There are many things they could do that would deceive us. Host from texas, thomas independent. Caller i think you are more afraid of the isis than anything else. I think it is the price of oil. Thank you. Guest lets remember, i think he assumes im afraid of the price of oil going up, but this will likely cause the price to go down. Because iran will be able to sell their oil and gas on the market. That is not a small amount. They have the number four oil reserves in the world. And the number two gas reserves. So it will have the opposite impact. Oil will not go up. In fact, it could be good for our economy. That is not my interest, my interest is our security. Host what will that due to tensions that already exist between saudi arabia and iran . If they are able to put their oil on the market. You can see the proxy wars that they are fighting in the country. Guest i think that is a concern in saudi arabia. They are in Oil Producing come three country. Host we will go to michigan next. Jesse a democrat. Welcome. Caller thank you, good morning. Yes, this deal is troubling to me. This whole thing about the source we are concerned about every drop of oil to kill all those people. All you, and people calling in here, we have terrorists. People call iran the number one terrorist organization. What about israel, what about what they do to the palestinians, that is terrorism. Who. Host the connection is not that great. Jesse wants to think that the israel palestinian issue is terrorism. That is his opinion. Guest i think it is absurd comparison. Look at last summer. Just one year ago. From gaza they were raining thousands of missiles onto israeli civilians. Not military sites, civilians. Look at the history that we have with them. Give me any comparison between terrorist activities with israel. If they want to destroy and wipe an entire people off the earth that is one of these palestinians and terrorist organizations are saying. They are saying we want to destroy israel. They are same we do not want them to exist. Is there any comparison to what israel has said, which is that we will work with you, and we will coexist. They just want to protect themselves. It is hard for me to respond to that. Host troy in michigan. Laura a republican. Caller good morning. Mr. Stewart i do not know if youre familiar with the history of iran, but the United States helped overthrow a duly elected president. We installed the shop shaa. So terrible that the irani and people themselves overthrew him and put the ayatollah in. In regards to israel and the palestinians. The palestinians have little rock its that they attach onto something and they have no idea how many of them will get there, or well or they will land. Now do not forget the United States has helped to build a huge shield. When those rockets, come across to israel, the children run into basements. They have shelters prepared for them. When israel goes over to the palestinians in gaza, they go over his bombs and planes, they decimate the buildings. The people have no place to go. And of course, while we are talking about this, netanyahu is busy building new settlements when there was a law instituted saying no new settlements. So please do not be so biased, i say lets give this a chance. I have never, as a republican, x probably, never met anyone in our party that ever agrees with anything that the president does. I have to give the president credit. He has really achieved a great deal. Host i will leave it there. Lets let the congressman response. Guest im glad you mentioned you are next republican. I think you and i may need to agree to disagree on a few things. But one example to your last point, something i agree with the president on. That is the epa. And trade issues. We worked with him vigorously over the past few weeks to set that agenda. There have been some others. On the other hand, i cannot take issues like National Security, were i feel like we are endangering the lives of our civilians and allies. Saying that we will trust the president blindly. Because over the past five or six years we have not been given a lot of reason to trust him on international affairs. I thinks we could list a couple of examples of that. I have to come back to the comment about rockets coming out of gaza. Lets be clear on this, the fact that their rockets are inaccurate does not relieve them of the responsibility that they are using civilian targets. Theyre using civilian, human shields to protect their armies. Or some of their weapons caches for examples. I do not think there is a moral equivalence to those two approaches at all. Host serving his second term in congress, represents the Second District of utah. The emerging threats subcommittee of that panel, as well as the appropriations committee. 14 years as a pilot in the air force. Flu rescue helicopters as well as rescue helicopters. As well as the record for the fastest nonstop flight around the world. John from pennsylvania, democrat on the air. Caller thank you for having me. Im a democrat. And like the woman before, i am now or republican because all high seen this president do is ruin the democratic party. There is nothing he has done that he has said he will do. He was going to tax the rich, and he did not. Then you could keep your insurance and your doctor if you wanted to. There is no reason to believe that what he says in this agreement that he will stick to. Ok, he is out there to ruin the United States. He doesnt like the United States, he does not like catholics or christians. He wants muslims to become a superpower like us. And like china. And like russia. So that, when they want to do something, they can do it, because now they have the power to do what they want. Host john what is your evidence . What is your evidence that he does only christians are catholics . Caller hes not doing nothing against isis, is more concerned about the Confederate Flag in the isis flag. Host we will leave it there. You want to respond to what he said . Guest i appreciate him a little bit. Just like i agree to disagree with the other caller. Just because he is a republican means that i will think somethings he says our act inaccurate. I do not think the president hates our country, i do not think he doesnt want to protect it. I dont think he has anything against christians are catholics. I do question his judgment on the best way to protect us. I think we have evidence over the past four years, it is not in his dna to engage in this part of the world. In the same way that i think i would. And how would protect us. The second thing, this is such an important part of his legacy. He thinks this deal with iran will be the most important thing he does an international affairs. That is one of the things that concerns us. But for a while now, we have watched him appear so desperate to engage with this agreement. To make it a reality, to make it successful. When you are reeling to do that when you show desperate negotiations, the iranians are smart. I think they have taken advantage of that. They have pulled concessions from this administration that many of us thought were impossible to agree to. Yet, here we are. Now we have to decide if this is good or not. Host congress has 60 days to review it. What is your prediction for a vote . Guest the other thing about this, i have arguing for a long time this is a treaty. Like every other treaty this should be presented to the senate if two thirds of them ratified we will implement it. The president has claimed executive power and privilege, and twisted it on its head. So instead of taking a two thirds vote, he said this is an agreement unless you stop me. It takes two thirds of you to stop me. We should have more input from congress. It is a tough challenge for us. We will have to work with our colleagues. There are a lot of democrats concerned about this. I have met with several groups over the past few days. You can see in their body language, you can see in the words they say, they have deep reservations about this. They know that if this fails and many of them believe that it probably will fail, they will have to own up to that. That will be their responsibility. I think there are many of them looking at this with caution. I think we can persuade them. This is not in our national interest. Lets not regret this. Host the New York Times reports that with republicans voting against this deal, the president would need 145 of the democrats to stand with him. It is complicated by the fact that all members are up for reelection. Some of these can go back to their constituents and convince them this is their interest. Good luck. I think there is no question that there is a majority disapproval in the house and senate. The question is whether we can hit two thirds. Host the New York Times also believes that there is nobody that will command more pressure than chuck schumer. Usually one of the most outspoken numbers of congress. Has been uncharacteristically reticent to talk about the deal. Guest i hope and pray that he sees this the way i do. He will be enormously influential. There will be many who take their lead from him. If he opposes this that will open the door for many democrats. On the other hand, if he supports this deal, he will be able to persuade others. Once again, i hope people independently will make their own judgment on this. I will be working along with many others to try to persuade them. Host the Supreme Leader of a ron is urging careful scrutiny of the deal. Charles in california, independent. You are up. Caller i just like to talk about all these people calling up they are not getting whole picture. Have you trust the media, the government, congressman. They all lie. How can we make a decision on what they are saying . I think we are the terrorists out there. Were going killing everybody. Host ok. Commerce men. Congressman. He is saying we are the terrorists. Guest i guess i would ask them for evidence of that. I have had this conversation with someone last week, i wanted to pull my hair out. Who can argue that the United States has been a force for good in the last 100 years . How could anyone not believe that . When we engage overseas, it is not because we want to conquer a people. It is not because we want to conquer a land. It is because you want to help people. It is because you want to bring freedom to people. His observation, his conclusion is that that makes this terrace. I do not see that. There are reasons that the world looks to the United States as a shining light on the hill. We have learned that, because of our actions. We are not perfect, i get that. We have made mistakes along the way. I think we have been overall a very positive force in the world. Host have you had a chance to read all 100 pages . Guest no, it is difficult reading. You have to refer to the annexes, you have to correlate the two. Itll take a little bit of time. That is why we have 60 days. As more of this is really understood, i think it will cast light on why this is such a difficult challenge for us to implement. Host i understand most of it will be public. Some will be classified. Will the American People be allowed to see it during the 60 days . Guest i certainly hope so. I am not sure what is not. We think everyone should be allowed to see as much as they can. The Administration Needs to argue effectively for those parts they will not allow people to see. At the end of the day, the American Peoples judgment is very important. Host Palm Beach Gardens florida, patrick is watching there. A republican. Caller good morning. I have a told full question. Or two questions. First, i think i know the answer, do you know, or do you or do you know of any congressman that publicly supports hezbollah . Guest i hope not. I am not aware of any. I hope you do not surprise me. It would shock me. Host patrick where are you going with this . Caller my second question. If that is the case, then how can any congressman support a bad deal that allows billions of dollars to flow into a regime that will send that money to hezbollah . How can any congressman do that . Host patrick sorry i thought your finished. Guest that is a great point. Not just congressmen, but senators as well. That is what we have the agreement. It allows hundreds, Something Like 140 billion of sanctioned relief in cash, in some cases very quickly to flow to the iranian regime. We know it they will do with that money. And maybe with most of that money. Because, once again they have made their desire to be the most influential power in the region. They have made that very clear. We have seen a from hezbollah and hamas. Once again, the shia militias operating in iraq. Many of which are responsible for hundreds of american shoulders deaths. Again, that is a great concern. Hundreds of american soldiers death. Host pete, a democrat. Caller my question, what will happen to the other five members you people forget. Russia china, england, france, germany. They turn around and say america push this deal, but we believed in the deal, we will lift all sanctions. We will back them. We will allow them to have money, and russia and china will be an ally of the country. If we bomb them, what will happen if states back iran in a war against israel . Will you look for a third world war. Would not it be easier if we solve this thing. You keep forgetting that there are five other nations that agreed to this thing. This is not just the United States, that is what you republicans do not realize. This is a world problem. Not a United States problem. I wish you would think about it before we have a third world war. I am a korean vet, i do not ever want to see that again. God bless america. Guest thank you for your service. And youre exactly right god bless america. I will say two things. The president has created this narrative, i do not think it is an accurate. I think it is false. The options are that we have to implement the agreement, or we will go to war. I do not believe for a moment that this president intends to go to war. I just do not believe that he would do that. The second point you make is a good one as well. That is, this is not just up to the United States. Lets recognize this, if the president has been backed by his original redlines, that is that we will not allow iran to develop a Nuclear Weapons program, if he had said that all along. Then those p5 plus one allies would have stood with us. They would recognize that this was our bottom line. And that we if we were adamant, they would have agreed with us. It is difficult now. For congress to reject the agreement, i think our allies would stand with this. I do not think they want to go out on their own. It is more difficult now that the president has told them, over the past several months, that he is willing to concede on things that we were not willing to concede on before. United states leads on this. The United States will continue to lead on this. We could persuade our allies. But it is harder now. Host tyler in maccallum, pennsylvania a republican. Welcome your on the air. Caller good morning. I want to at the congressman know, as a 32yearold pennsylvania native, growing up in rural appalachia. That, the Younger Generation come ice want to tell the congressman, the best political advice and commentary that our country should go by is by turning on the radio to Michael Sanders on the radio. Ive been listening to them for 12 years. That was my reason for calling. Just to recommend to all the viewers to check them out. Host thank you. Guest there is our sponsor for the hour. Host we will go to our democrat in virginia. Caller good morning. I want to say the iran deal is a really bad deal. First, both for the public republicans and democrats are responsible for the message middle east. We give iran a free hand in the region to cause the rise of extremists. Iran sponsored terrorism, they took the embassy embalmed vmc in beirut. They bond bombed the embassy in beirut. We thought our arab allies, and it does not make sense. Everybody is confused in the middle east. What are they doing . Since bush, and now obama, even though i was a supporter of obama. It is a confusing Foreign Policy. It is a failed Foreign Policy. Iran is terrorizing its own people. We make a deal with them, we forget about the whole thing. A rod is like, they never did anything to us, a ron is like they never did anything to us. They cause problems in the middle east. Guest i have two things. The first, we won the war in iraq. There is no question about it. Against great probably pressure, president bush implemented his strategy, and it worked. When we handed over the situation to president obama, we had one that challenge. And that is one of the reasons i said earlier, i do not think there is any reason that obama wants to engage in a direct war with iran. He is so reluctant to engage in isis and some of the other major conflicts and challenges we have around the world. I do not think it is in his dna. He ran in 2008, he ran again in 2012 primarily on international affairs. That was drying down troops, ending the war in iraq. Very difficult for him to engage with isis. The main thing with iran, they have always said all military options on the table. I do not think they have ever been a military option. There has never been that option on the table. That is one reason why we have had to negotiate so many concessions in the deal. Host before you go, i want to get your assessment of the situation. In the New York Times, they report that the u. S. Is increasing airstrikes on the taliban. Guest it is such good evidence of how complicated some of these challenges are. Once again, we are reengaged over there. It is a real challenge for us, it is something the American People to expect. This will not be fixed over the weekend. This will take a while to sort out. And to be able to bring stability to the area. Host Chris Stewart a republican of utah. I appreciate the road conversation. Guest thank you. Host we are switching gears, we are speaking about education with congressman from california. Representative mark takano. We will be right back. Washington journal continues. Host we are back with representative mark takano. Last week the house passed a rewrite of no child left behind. What is in the bill . What do you like, and dislike . Guest this was the house version of the rewrite of no child left behind. I voted against it. It was because it was not a bipartisan involvement. I voted against it because of the way in which the republicans majority handled the title i funding. The nature of federal education is to ensure equity, to ensure that low income students have the resources to catch up. That are special education students, and disabled students have a fair shot. And we hope local governments and local School Boards in the states address the needs of the students. About 10 of the budget for any particular educational system is in state. The democrats were concerned about the locking in of cuts. There are also concerned about the block ramming. And with every block ram often they do not reach the targeted intended groups. And, there were many ways in which the funding was being diluted. So, the democrats were rather unified in opposition to the republican bill. However, i did appreciate the rollback with the hr five. Of accountability. Assistance. The whole, no child left behind highstakes testing. I think a lot of members, and a lot of educators across the country believe it is unsustainable. And was harming, rather than helping teaching and learning. The role was a good thing. I just wish that we could have worked more together on the front end. And the senate bill, the compromise between murray, and senator alexander is not what i want, but it is close. So if that bill, from what i know, it has to get to the senate. Weve talked about this before the show. If it gets through the senate. It is a bill that i could largely support. Host i jumped the gun a little earlier, i said the senate had passed their virgin. They cleared the way for a final vote. The Senate Passed their version. The senate voted 8612 on further changes to the bill. Of course, we will have coverage of that on cspan two. It says the bill sponsored by patty murray will limit federal involvement in the public state. They help the performance of schools, teachers and students. As you know, democrats were opposed to what the republicans put on the floor. 27 republicans also voted against it. So, what is your prediction for the house and Senate Lawmakers coming together for the final bill . Guest i think the Conference Committee is where the actions will go. In some ways, i think the republican compromise, from my point of view will improve the bill slot slightly. In a way, what i mean, we did move from test and punish, to test and reveal. So, testing and punishing from my point of view matches the kind of sanctions on the federal accountability system. We have removed those. But they kept in place the annual testing. I would prefer that we bring the testing back, roll it back even further. Like grade span testing. Standard testing was designed to be a systems check on schools. To not be tied to individual teachers. And, the problem with annual testing is that it gives the wrong impression to people that you can measure growth in students with annual testing. That is not true. It is not great at measuring student growth. It is good at measuring the effectiveness of a school. The effectiveness of the School System. We can do that much more inexpensively, with great span testing. Lets let the state municipalities figure out how to measure student growth, and negotiate with the local teacher associations. And work with parents and figuring out how student growth is measured, and how teachers are going to be held accountable in their job performance. Host theres someone on your side of the aisle, saying the accountability standards are in for a reason to protect children and parents who have no other way, or means of having accountability for their schools. And their teachers. It is a way of protecting poor communities. Guest i can sympathize with that point of view. One of the best things, one of the things i will concede that no child left behind did do, it did force teachers and schools to take a look at how they were teaching. I had been teaching for 10 years , i was a teacher 24 years before i came into congress. I was teaching in the classroom in the primary grades as well. I can tell you that in the first 10 years of teaching, i was not fully aware that we had students who were severely behind their grade level. Or significantly behind grade level, as far as reading. Testing should things up. It forced us to take a look at things. I have to say that the wellintentioned, the good intentions behind accountability did not work out. I just a terrible things happen. In particular the teaching and testing. It began with one week of test preparation, and then it extended into one month suddenly we had a whole years curriculum related to teaching to the test. And students who were behind are being put into two hours of english like with arts, english language arts. Their growth was being curtailed. And teachers were more afraid, and principles were more afraid to allow teachers to be creative. And invent projectbased learning which engages students. And students were becoming less engaged. So, moving from test and punish to test and reveal. And i would go further and say we need to move further in the bill and support our schools. Host what did you teach . Guest i taught english. I began my career teaching to kill a mockingbird. I love teaching that book. It is very interesting reading the latest headlines on that. On the other book, to kill a watchman . Host her latest . Guest yes, later on as i was teaching upper grades. I taught mostly seniors. I like teaching jane austin. In particular, pride and prejudice. And i also taught remedial students, or students who needed developmental english. Host lets get to some calls. Judy is waiting. An independent, you are on the air. Caller yes, i would like to make a pitch for fulltime school. We spent so much on child care and after school, there is so much more for children to learn these days. It has squeezed out many of these things from the curriculum that you attract. We attract the less academically inclined students to take an interest in school. But art has been squeezed out music has been squeezed out. Recess has been squeezed out. If we took all of the money we spend on afterschool childcare and on dealing with latchkey kids and the problems all that causes. And applied it towards a fulltime school. We could add back in many of these things that have been cut out. Teachers would be paid fulltime. So we could attract a better quality of teacher to the schools. I would like to know what you think about that idea. Guest i am certainly open to that idea. I think consistent with where i have been here, and what the role of education should be, i would certainly encourage some states to try that. Of course, the whole history of our schools, and why we are on a ninemonth schedule, and were all for the summer, it goes back to our agricultural roots. We needed to have students leave school for the summer so they could help the family on the farm. That was back in the days when most of our country was involved in agriculture. A very small, small part of our country is involved. In agriculture. You are right, your idea of engages students more around yearround is a interesting one. Certainly, we know that students do lose some of the knowledge and information that they have gained over the nine months, over the summer. I can tell you that there is a lot of concerned over the senior year. Because many seniors have earned enough credits so they can really roll back on the courses they take, especially the spring semester. There is this phenomenon known as the lost High School Senior year. That is costly because we really should be demanded of our seniors, instead of getting senioritis, to double down. Not, to be even more prepared, or even earning concurrent dual credit. High School Credit or College Credit their senior year. So, your idea of how to pay for it, how to finance it. I would love to see experiments happen at the local and state level. And see communities make this work. One final thing, i want to point out a wonderful book by my former harvard professor. Robert putnam called our kids. He talks about the need to reengage the whole Community Back into the care of the communitys children. That the care of our children is not just about the family, it is about an entire Community Whether it is the church pastor, whether it is wealthier folks in the community. Taking an interesting kids. It is a much broader discussion. Thank you for that question. Host we have a few people waiting to talk to you. So we will move on to karen in north carolina, a republican. Guest i am sorry host you are on the air karen. Caller yes representative, you have mentioned that it was the federal governments responsibility for education. Could you point to the constitution somewhere and say were that is stated. And also, you are right with this country about our aggregator in economy, however back in the day this country is built on oneroom school houses. These teachers had very little. They talk as soon as to read and write, they taught them history. Some of the women, if you understand little house on the prairie, she would on to be a teacher. That is the kind of thing we need to get back to, these communitybased, where the parents are involved. Where the teacher can actually discipline students. Were the teacher can go back to the home, talk to the parents. None of that is occurring today. Host congressman . Guest thank you for your comment. The constitution does not mention any rights of education. It has been role of states, and local communities. And, having been a Community Trustee and a teacher, i am a strong believer in local control. And local communities. Deciding things. I think that is how you build the kind of support for school funding. For funding our Nations Community colleges. You are right about that. The problem has largely been about ensuring equity. Since the problem when they passed the elementary and secondary education act, that has been the role, it is been about 10 of any given states budget. Is the title i funding, or the idea funding that comes in through special education. Again, professor putnam is more on the right side of the spectrum. The ideas are quite centrist. I urge you to kind of read that book. There are some ideas that i think will appear to republicans and democrats. There are things we need to come as a Community Take care of our children. These ideas that we need to return to. My father, went to the Technical High School back in the 50s. That was riversides one high school. In that school, rich and poor, people of all ethnic backgrounds, racial backgrounds, went to that school. We had issues of racism, and challenges of course, back in the 50s, the interesting thing is that people of all different economic backgrounds came together. We have a more challenging environment today for parents often both are working. Two jobs. The role of discipline is also a challenge for lower income parents. Anyway it is a much longer discussion. I know we have a lot of callers. Lets move on. Host we will move on to dan, in paris michigan. We are talking to mark teck condo. We are talking about education today. Mark takano. Caller i appreciate your support for local control. However, we are not doing very well. If you look at our achievement scores in both reading and math. We are probably 48 in the country. You want to remove any kind of measure of accountability, for the use of those federal funds. I am wondering then, how do you intend to encourage states like michigan to start moving this in the other direction . Children here are not being educated they do not have the support for achievement. Or the knowledge that they need to move forward. This it today, if you look at the data, you look at most teachers are highly effective. The reading proficiency is 30 . Host sorry dan. 30 in the school. Guest we know, obviously there might be slight gains that were made under the no child left behind law. But certainly after 10 years plus, we have not seen the sort of dramatic danes that be what hope for. Dramatic gains that people had hoped for. I would argue that behind the tests and punish model of accountability, i think first and foremost. We would want unadulterated valid data. I am all for the idea that the federal government does with ties to the federal funding, you must test 95 of your student population. You cannot hide the challenges that you are having with education. Therefore, i do believe that the public and children, and parents have the right to understand what is going on in their schools. As far as these assessments. But i do not think we know how to do accountability beyond that very well with the federal government. I think we need a lot more experimentation, a lot more experimentation at the state and local level. We need to figure this out. My own state of california has moved forward, with a whole plan of accountability. I would like to let california be able to see how it works. I think, we have a number of ambitious governors and state legislators. They really want to tackle this, i think we need to be a little bit more humble at the federal government level. And it knowledge, that we do not have the answer yet on how to hold schools accountable. We cannot be the National School board. Lets let the state municipalities figure out, and experiment, be inventive, that is my answer. That is my response. Host conrad come in philadelphia, a republican. Caller i have two questions. I was listening to the official say that some of the schools are lacking money. Different schools in different areas. But i say this, it seems like i do not know how to people who were School Teachers who are elected officials, the whole School Policy should be taking teachers from all over the country. I do not think an elected officials should be talking about schools, because they are not doing schools 100 . Number two, on the money issue they said where a we get the money from. If they treat schools like war our schools will have a problem getting funded. Because this country so great we can set around until china egypt, israel, iran, iraq how to run their country. And we have these great Brilliant Minds in washington cannot set up a School System to be on a level playing field. Mississippi has a huge dropout rate. Every year they do 70 million, nobody knows where goes. We are telling other people to how to run their country, all great minds in washington can figure this out. Host ok, the house is dialing in early this morning. I want to get in some other phone calls. A Quick Response then. Guest i have a Quick Response. It is that yes, i do believe there should be more teachers and people who have experience in the classroom, a Public School teacher, a background is not what people assume a member of congress is going to have. Especially, immediately before being elected to congress. Very few of us here in the halls of Congress Actually have that experience. In minnesota there someone i can think of. I know there are some other members. Jess witkowski is one of those people who have the immediate experience. They understand the most recent i say the last 10 years the most recent congressional actions on how to affect teachers. There are very few people here. That is one thing i came to do, is to bring the teacher perspective into the halls of congress. And to tell them, this may sound great, and it may be wellintentioned, do not blame you for being frustrated. After all, education is a centerpiece of the american dream. You think about what we believe in, and the core values of our country. We believe everybody in the country has a shot to make in america. And be successful. We do not believe we have a front tearing for. Front tearing war. If we lose the belief that education is central, and give every child a shot of the american dream, i think our countrys democracy is in grave danger. That is what i came to fight for. Host steve, in north carolina, democrat. Caller i have from waukesha north carolina. Im a retired teacher. I taught science. So the gentleman from pennsylvania just touched upon the my comments. Another comment, i have three degrees. The fact is, no one ever taught me a single thing, i learned everything i know. I had teachers who helped me, shall be whats to learn, and how to learn it. But until i sat down put forth the effort to learn what i know, i would not know a single thing. That is part of the problem. You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink. Thank you. Guest there is a lot of truth in what youre saying. There are some students, i experienced that no matter what you do, you cannot seem to get through. And, but, we cannot discount the role of the impact of the great teacher. A great teacher also knows limitations that we cannot force someone to learn. I have certainly made mistakes where i did my own pride, and ego i wanted everyone to learn. So badly. I think also of people who i know who have achieved extraordinary results. My desire to try to upgrade, or scale up, the kind of teachers what i mean by that, is i know i wonderful teacher who is teaching in one of my Small School District that are present. It is a to high school district. Very small. This one teacher is producing 25 of all of the latinos and the state of california who score a four and five on the ap test. Michael townes is his name. Want to believe that it is not specific just to michael townes, i want to believe that we can create more of him. It is not just about magic. I believe we can find a way to teach physics and the way that michael town does. It is very individualistic. Every teacher will have a different approach. There has to be some way in which we can learn from the people who are having such great success. Host in parksville maryland. Steve, from indiana. Caller i will try to be quick. I feel like education is kind of like a federal is a mess right now. Where, i do not know the state or federal problems are coming from. There are constantly changing standards as we tried to hold the schools accountable with data. I have to tell you. Data can be rigged. Part of that, is turning it into a lack of accountability in school for kids. I do not know if it is the testing companies. I do not know what it is. I feel like we need to move more to a system that allows students and parents to choose their course. I feel like were trying to teach all kids. Instead of letting some kids choose to going to something more vocational. Maybe they will have more opportunity. Then, we can actually teach kids the way they will be tested. An open up alternate committees to all kids open up opportunities to all kids. Guest it is frustrating because everybody is raising such great points. It is a rich topic. Let me go back to a to said earlier. One thing i did say my opening comments was, i do believe in some form of, national, i hate to use that loaded word, national standards. Even though i believe in cutting back on the number of tests, im not really thrilled about annual testing, for testing teaching to the test. But we do need testing. We do not need testing punish but testing revealed. And you made a good point. The caller made a really good point about the testing being valid and not rigged. There was a lot of gaming behind no child left behind. The incentives and punishments got people trying to gain the tests. So game the tests. So, in order to compare apples to apples, we need a way to have a national standard. The way i would call it, i think we can come to come common standard of what College Readiness means. From state to state. In california, we have a discussion about what College Readiness means. Career readiness, i have to say i do not really have a firm grasp on how we do that nationally. Career readiness can vary from place to place. There are a lot of other people who are far more versed in this than i am. College and Career Readiness College Readiness is certainly a standard we can create and arrive at together. Nationally. So, you are absolutely right. There are other points i want to address. Lets get to some other collars. Hopefully they will ask some questions that raise concerns you raised earlier. Host we have a few more minutes. Robert, in brooklyn, a republican. Height robert. Hello robert. Caller i do question. The first is about the teachers. We have more segregated states. Most of the democratic cities like cleveland california, indiana, pennsylvania, just to name a few. Host im going to take that point. Teacher unions endorsing Hillary Clinton. Guest im certainly seen the American Federation of teachers endorse Hillary Clinton. I hope it is because she has fundamental belief in the state, and faith in the Public Schools. I am concerned with a lot of the backgrounds and front runners in the republican race half, which is jeb bush. And his strong orientation towards privatization. I do not think that is where we want to go. I think theres more parental involvement and control when they elect the school board members. And when they control the local Public Schools. If were Corporate America involved in the administration of education, i think it becomes less transparent. Farmworker paik. As to what the curriculum will be about. Far far more opaque. Host do you think Hillary Clinton will bring privatization into the schools . Guest i do not know, it is hard to believe that they would endorse mrs. Clinton if they thought that she was about a corporate vision for education. I think most Americans Still want to have local control of their schools through elected School Boards, enter state legislature. Guest have you made up your mind . Host have you made up your mind . Guest i have, i have chosen to get behind, i am all in for hillary. It is largely because i think she has the experience, and the skill to be one of our great president s of our country. I am excited about electing the first woman into the white house. And i think, as far as the governments of gender, she is one of our most wellprepared citizens to enter into this world. Host the story of sees over early clinton endorsement. Labor unions made it clear that no National Labor unions would make an endorsement before july 30. At the American Federation of teachers jumped the gun. I have to ask you about a ron and the nuclear deal. Have you made up your mind about that . Will you support . Guest i believe that an agreement, if it can be worked out, if the agreement holds that it is an important thing to have. I have not made a final decision. But, i was impressed with the early framework. I think is important for our is important for our country and for the nation of israel and for the whole entire region. It is important that we arrive at some working relationship. Not in alliance, a relationship. Host more on that to come. Thank you congressman, we appreciate your time. That does it todays washington journal. We will bring you to live coverage of the house is the gavel in early. Congress, the president , his cabinet and all who struggle to lead your people. May they acknowledge your sovereignty over all events and times. Renew america in confident faith and deepen our commitment to seek peace. Help us to Work Together when confronting those whom we find it difficult to trust but with whom we must try to forge a Common Future of security and prosperity. In all inspire the members of this peoples house with your spirit that all might seek to find first areas of agreement where possible and openness to Honest Exchange where it is not. May all that is done within the peoples house be for your greater honor and glory. Amen. The speaker the chair has examined the journal of the last days proceedings and announces to the house his approval thereof. Pursuant to clause 1 of rule 1 the journal stands approved. The pledge of allegiance today will be led by the gentleman from arkansas, mr. Crawford. Mr. Crawford i pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. The speaker the chair will entertain up to five requests for oneminute speeches on each side of the aisle. For what purpose does the gentleman from illinois rise . Mr. Speaker, i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. The speaker without objection. Mr. Hultgren mr. Speaker, i rise today to deplore the deeply disturbing actions of planned parenthood which has no reservations to harvest the lungs legs, hearts of aborted babies. This week a video investigation caught the senior director of medical services eagerly promoting the harvesting of such body ports purportedly for medical research. The director said she holds a daily huddle to determine what body parts are in demand and how to get those from unborn babies. This demonstrates a new level of depraste. The damage controls fails to answer two basic questions have their affiliates done better than break even and profited from the sale of baby body parts and under what medical, ethical or legal code is it ok to choose a particular abortion method to preserve particular organs for harvesting . Nothing can erase what was caught on tape. Trafficking in human body parts is a federal offense. Planned parenthood receives over half a billion dollars of taxpayer dollars every year. I am calling for a stop to their inhumane practices and support the renewed congressional investigation into the organization. I yield back. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentleman from texas seek recognition . To address the house for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. The speaker pro tempore without objection the gentleman is recognized for one minute. Mr. Green thank you, mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when i was first elected to office, i had the preeminent privilege of meeting with a president of the United States of america. It was one of the most rewarding and gratifying meetings that ive had. At that meeting we talked about many things. One of the things that i walked away from the meeting with was a sense and a spirit of bipartisanship and how important it was to be able to work with people across lines. Im honored to tell you that that president was george bush 41, and i understand he has suffered an injury and i want him to know and his family to know and all to know that i will keep them in my prayers as they move forward. He recently celebrated a birthday, and i wish him many, many more birthdays. God bless you, president bush and god bless america. I yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from texas yields back. For what purpose does the gentleman from arkansas seek recognition . Mr. Crawford request unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. The speaker pro tempore without objection, the gentleman from arkansas is recognized for one minute. Mr. Crawford thank you mr. Speaker. I rise today in honor of marvin butch baydin. He has served in many capacities including his current role as senior Vice President of rice sales and marketing at producers rice meal. During butchs 37 years at the rice meal alone, hes marked 20 Million Metric Tons of both milled and brown rice. In 1981 when the u. S. Rice exploded from two million acres to four million acres it was crucial in supporting rice farmers. Butch was one of the critical pioneers at that time who demanded the export of rice. He was involved in the opening of new export markets in the caribbean, nyjer the gentleman from he expanded it in europe, saudi arabia and south africa. With nearly 50 of the u. S. Rice production required to be exported, the fruits of butchs efforts not only enhanced the returns of the farmers he worked for but for the new export demand for u. S. Rice also benefited the markets of all u. S. Rice farmers. In all, butch has logged nearly nine millionaire miles on behalf of the u. S. Rice industry. From Humble Beginnings as an office boy, he has demanded a high level of respect in the rice industry. The speaker pro tempore the gentlemans time has expired. For what purpose does the gentleman rise . To address the house for one minute. The speaker pro tempore without objection, the gentleman from illinois is recognized for one minute. Thank you, mr. Speaker. I rise today in honor of don newton a proud 40year member of the International Union of bricklayers and allied craft workers, local 56 of west chicago, illinois, and a friend of mine who passed away recently. Mr. Foster there was a time when workers fighting for their rights were met with lead pipes and gangs. Today they fight for their rights with picket lines, elections and the rule of law and with icons like scabby the inflatable rat. Scabby the rat, a towering inflatable mascot of labor protests was dreamed up by don newton and fellow organizer ken lambert during labor disputes of the 1990s. Today, scabby can be seen throughout the country, reminding us of the constant struggle for fair wages and safe working conditions and the importance of unity and solidarity in labor disputes. On the front lines of protests as workers fight to hold on to the protections they need to maintain fair wages and a healthy middle class, scabby the rat and the memory of don newton will never be forgotten. And you can now follow scabby the rat on wikipedia and facebook. I thank you, mr. Speaker and i yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentlemans time has expired. For what purpose does the gentleman from pennsylvania seek recognition . To address the house for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. The speaker pro tempore without objection, the gentleman from pennsylvania is recognized for one minute. Mr. Speaker, this week president obama announced a Nuclear Agreement with iran that falls far short of the commitments hes made to the American People. This agreement simply does not stop irans request for nuclear reps. It lifts an arms embargo against the number one state sponsor of terror and may let them getting ballistic missiles. The president s agreement and sanctions will help irans economy and will allow unrepentent iran, undermining the safety and security of the United States, israel and our allies. Never forget. Iran is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of American Service members from beirut to baghdad and beyond. The initial anytime anywhere access standard for monitoring Irans Nuclear program is replaced with managed access where we have to ask permission before entering suspected facilities. This deal does not make the world safer. Far from ending the potential of a Nuclear Arms Race in the middle east but all but guarantees one. I thank the speaker and i yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back. For what purpose does the gentlewoman from michigan seek recognition . Without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. Mrs. Lawrence thank you, mr. Speaker. I stand in strong support of the make it in america plan and work to strengthen americas great manufacturing comeback. The growing skills gap in manufacturing, which is why i and my colleagues on both sides of the aisle have joined together to lead the congressional investment in americas work force caucus through initiatives like make it in america and the work force caucus, we are working to expand apprenticeship and job training increase, employer provided educational benefits and provide tax credits for business who is provide critical work force training. Some of the efforts in my districts are already seeing results. We have been quoted, according to the Detroit Free Press that wayne county in my district is leading the nation in new manufacturing jobs added last year. Three other counties in the state of michigan were added as well. If we keep this up and if we continue to work to close that manufacturing gap we can make it in america. I yield back my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentlewomans time has expired. For what purpose does the gentleman from georgia seek recognition . I ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. The speaker pro tempore without objection, the gentleman from georgia is recognized for one minute. Thank you, mr. Speaker. I rise today to voice my concerns of the Senate Democrats standing in the way of funding our National Security. Once again we find ourselves in the position where democrats in the senate are attempting to extort higher federal spending on their social agenda in return for adequatingly adequately funding our troops. The house passed a spending bill with the same proposed spending limits that the president of the United States asked for but Senate Democrats are using the 60vote rule to prohibit this appropriation measure from coming to the floor. Mr. Scott general demptiony chairman of the joint chiefs dempsey, chairman of the joint sheefs said since 2011 global disorder has increased while our military advantage has began to erode. Our security has become a political bargaining chip. I respectfully request my colleagues in the senate to abandon these tactics. I urge my colleagues in the senate to stop this dangerous game and support a defense appropriations act. Mr. Speaker, i yield the remainder of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from georgia yield its back the balance of his time. Yields back the balance of his time. For what purpose does the gentleman rise . To address the house for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. The speaker pro tempore without objection, the gentleman from minnesota is recognized for one minute. Mr. Speaker, our veterans have earned the care they are due to receive through the department of veterans affairs. Mr. Paulsen so many men and women of the military put their lives on the line every day to ensure the safety and security of our country. Unfortunately, bad news coming out of the department continues to pile up. This week it was revealed that nearly 1 3 of the 847,000 veterans with pending applications for Health Care May have already passed away. This means at some point in their lives over 200,000 men and women who served our country bravely werent able to access the care that they were promised. These benefits were earned through service, but due to mismanagement they remained in an endless waiting line. Mr. Speaker we can and must do better for our Nations Service men and women and we must continue to institute reforms at the v. A. To ensure that our veterans receive proper care and i yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from minnesota yields back the balance of his time. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentlewoman from wyoming seek recognition . Mrs. Lummis i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on h. R. 2898. The speaker pro tempore without objection. Pursuant to House Resolution 362 and rule 18, the chair declares the house in the committee of the whole house on the state of the union for the consideration of h. R. 2898. The chair appoints the gentleman from illinois, mr. Hultgren, to preside over the committee of the whole. The chair the house is in the committee of the whole house on the state of the union for the consideration of h. R. 2898 which the clerk will report by title. The clerk a bill to provide drought relief in the state of california and for other purposes. The chair pursuant to the rule, the bill is considered as read the first time. The gentlewoman from wyoming, mrs. Lummis, and the gentleman from california, mr. Huffman, each will control 30 minutes. The chair recognizes the gentlewoman from wyoming, mrs. Lummis. Mrs. Lummis thank you, mr. Chairman. The American West is in the midst of a severe drought especially central california. This problem demands swift action with tens of thousands of trees plants jobs, food and livelihoods at stake. H. R. 2898 will help bring our Western Water supply infrastructure into the 21st century making it more drought resistant. The bill also addresses the manmade federal decisions that are exacerbating the drought. H. R. 2898 ensures scientific transparency and federal actions that are literally taking water away from people that desperately need it. All for questionable benefit of endangered fish. The bill also requires the deployment of more effective management addressing the nonnative fish that are harming the endangered fish. Westwide, the bill takes steps to build new water storage that is crucial to the wellbeing of western communities and economies. To assist nonfederal projects, the bill creates a onestopshop for water storage permitting at the bureau of reclamation. Oftentimes federal agencies overlap or conflict with each other when it comes to permitting nonfederal facilities. This provision forces them to sit down with one lead agency, the bureau of reclamation, to resolve issues and expedite permitting. For federal projects, the bill creates a streamlined and transparent process for the bureau that mirrors the army corps provisions in the water resource reform and Development Act of 2014, which was enacted by overwhelming bipartisan majorities in both houses of congress. Tooff set the bills implementation cost and finance new water storage it allows Water Utilities to prepay their share of the capital costs of federal water projects. Mr. Chairman some water users are prohibited from paying off contracts early. This is nonsensical. Congress has lifted the restrictions in piecemeal fashion before and its time to dispense with it altogether. One way to efficiently construct new storage is to allow the bureau of reclamation to make water storage improvements during the course of making safety improvements. H. R. 2898 allows the bureau to do just that. Finally, the bill prohibits the departments of interior and agriculture from Holding Public land permits hostage unless permitees give up their stateendowed water rights. This will put a stop to the federal governments repeated attempts to grab water rights at the expense of state authority from the Forest Services interim directive of ski area permits to the services illfated ground water direct i have this bill takes a commonsense approach to to solving water problems in the west and i urge its adoption. Mr. Chairman, i reserve the balance of my time. The chair the gentlewoman reserves her time. The gentleman from california, mr. Huffman is recognized. Mr. Huffman good morning mr. Chairman. I rise to claim time in opposition and yield myself such time as i may consume. The chair the gentleman is recognized. Mr. Huffman it was just last winter we were here on the house floor talking about another socalled drought bill my republican colleagues were attempting to slam through the house within just a few days of its introduction this time the bill has a different title but its pretty much the same bill. Were back today to consider yet another bill that harms west coast fisheries and tribal interests, a bill another bill that undermines state law. Another bill that micromanages the most complex water system in the world in a way that benefits a select few a at the expense of many others across the state of california. Another bill that is going nowhere. We have a statement from the administration, we have a withering threepage letter of sigs from the department of interior the two largest circulation papers in california has editorialized against it, the state of california is on record opposing prior versions of this bill. Unlike last year, when the house did not allow any amendments to the bill, were here today with four out of five republican amendments made in order and four out of 24 democratic amendments made in order. That may seem like marginal progress other the 113th congress very closed process but that is no way to do business and certainly no way to get a bill signed into law. With something as complicated and important as California Water, we really should make sure everyone has a say. Thats what democrats have attempted to do. We have introduced a drought response bill h. R. 2983, which is a comprehensive drought bill. It brings every to the table. This bill had six weeks of public review before even being formally introduced, resulting in substantial crowd source changes to the bill. Our water future deserves that kind of open debate and Real Solutions. I have been joined by 34 cosponsors on that bill because it provides both short and longterm investments in water supply reliability, the kind of cools that all western states will need. My bill includes significant resources to support farm workers and others who are out of work, not just lip service. I submit that if my republican colleagues really care about the challenges faced by farm workers and others affected by this drought theyll join us in backing Real Solutions that provide meaningful assistance in addition to stretching our limited Water Supplies. Our bill is supported by the association of California Water agencies, california sanitation agency, numerous other water agencies, environmental groups and stake holders and both the l. A. Times and the San Francisco chronicle have editorialized in favor of the Democratic Alternative drought response bill and opposed to the bill we are considering here today. Mr. Chairman, lets have some hearings. Despite the importance of this issue, we have held no legislative hearings on drought responses in the 114th congress. Not on the majoritys bill, not on my alternative. Lets have hearings on both bills. Lets see which one produces the most water. Which one produces that water more quickly. And which one produces it more cost effectively and more reliably. I hope that someday mr. Chairman, well be discussing real Water Solutions in that spirit. Vetted in an open hearing that can actually produce something that will be signed into law instead of the same tired, divisive ideas that pit our states water users against each other. Now, a lot of people have asked me why do you republican why do your republican colleagues refuse to have serious hear thonings water proposal . I think the answer is clear. Like its predecessors, we are here considering a bill that when its exposed to public scrutiny simply falls apart. Heres what the department of the interior said last week in a letter to our Committee New york lieu of testimony because there was in legislative hearing on the bill. They said, and i quote instead of increasing Water Supplies, h. R. 289 dictates operational decisions and imposes an additional new legal standard. Instead of saving water this could actually limit Water Supplies by creating new and confusing conflicts with existing laws thereby adding an unnecessary layer of complexity to state and federal project operations. As a result of this additional standard, we believe h. R. 2898 will slow decision making, generate sig cavent litigation and limit the realtime Operational Flexibility that is so critical to maximizing water delivery. Although the pacific Fisheries Management counsel wasnt given an Opportunity Council wasnt given an opportunity to testify on this bill because we had no hearings they opposed last year version and wrote to us this week to say theyre on record about similar legislation. Theyre concerned about the provisions that redirect water away from salmon habitat. The closure of the west coast salmon fishery required 158 million in fall disaster relief. Sadly the rule committees did not allow a vote on our amendment to require a full pacific Fisheries Management Council Review of this legislation. Theres no question that this bill explicitly preempts state water law and waives and weakens the application of bedrock federal environmental laws including the endangered species act and nepa. But the rules committee did not allow a vote on my amendment to protect California Water law from preemption nor my amendment to strengthen water rights protections in the bill. It seems the issue of states rights is simply an inconvenient subject when it comes to water legislation. Water is a complex subject but it doesnt have to be partisan conflict. It doesnt have to scapegoat water laws or pit one region against another. I chaired the california assemblys water economy in the last drought in 2009. We did it the right way. We held lots of hearings, brought interests from all over the state together and in the end, though it was a lot of work, through that deliberative transparent process, we produced comprehensive water legislation supported by republicans and democrats from all corners of the state. Last year mr. Chairman a near unanimous California Legislature agreered on a milt Million Dollar water bond that created significant water reforms in full public view. If my colleagues on the other side of the aisle would just give up on the idea of ramming the sam divisive ideas through congress the same divisive ideas through Congress Every few month well, too, might be able to make some progress on solving water problems. I reserve. The chair the gentleman reserves. The gentlewoman from wyoming is recognized. Mrs. Lummis i yield two minutes to the gentleman from california, mr. Mcclintock. The chair the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. Mr. Mcclintock droughts are natures fault but water shortages are our fault. Theyre a deliberate choice we made nearly 40 years ago when we stopped building new dams. We have not added a major reservoir in california since 1979 while the preponderancelation of our state has nearly doubled. Even before the drought leftist policies created severe water shortages in californias Central Valley devastating the economy and creating the spectacle of food lines in one of the most fertile agricultural regions of our nation. For four years the house has passed comprehensive legislation to resolve this crisis before it became a crisis. For four years, Senate Democrats blocked it. But the public has now awakened and the senate has changed. The voices we hear in opposition are the same voices that have dominated Western Water policy these past 40 years. We now know where that leads. This bill doesnt preempt California Water law. It protects it by forbidding state officials from fulfilling their threats to violate it. It comes at the request of local water agencies that are sick and tired of having their water expropriated by ideological se lots. It is time to choose between two very different visions of water policy. One is the nihilistic vision of the environmental left. Increasingly severe government induced shortages forced rationing astronomical water prices and a permanently declining quality of life for our children who will be required to stretch and ration every drop of water in their parched home. The other is a vision of abundance a new era of clean, cheap and plentiful water and hydroelectricity. Great new reservoirs to store water in wet years to assure plenty in dry ones. A society whose children can enjoy the prosperity that abundant water provides including fresh and affordable groceries from americas agricultural cornucopia. Mr. Chairman we choose abundance. The chair the gentlewoman from wyoming reserves. The gentleman from california is recognized. Mr. Huffman mr. Chairman, the alternative vision we offer is certainly in the one of austerity and sacrifice. Its one of reality. There was a time when the Reclamation Program from the federal government proceeded on the asthalmings rain follows the plow. It was completely wishful completely delusional, and we seem to be hearing vestiges of that old argument even today. What democrats offer are Real Solutions, solutions that have been underfunded by republicans for too many years, solutions that will generate more water and more water supply reliability than the republican alternative were considering. We continue to hear representations that are simply not correct. The claim that we havent built a major reservoir in california since 1979, tell that to the folks that built los vaqueros reservoir of Diamond Valley reservoir or in others. We hear that the doubling of the population in the last few decades is driving this crisis. The urban centers where that population doubled have held their demand flat. Population has gone up but water consumption has not. We continue to hear that this bill remarkably, we hear it doesnt preempt state law. I would refer you to the c. B. O. Report page 2, which recognizes that h. R. 2898, when imposes intergovernmental mandates by preempting the ability of california to manage its own Water Management and Wildlife Preservation laws. Saving money by telling federal agencies they no long ver to comply with state laws is no way to make public policy. Mr. Chairman, with that, i will offer three minutes to my colleague, mr. Mcnerney from the delta region of this state. Hes been a champion on Sustainable Management of our Water Resources and im pleased to have him with us. The chair the gentleman is recognized for three minutes. Mr. Mcnerney i rise to express my strong opposition to h. R. 289. Many of my colleagues here in washington have told me they dont want to get involved in the California Water wars. You know, i dont blame them. I dont want them to get involved in the California Water wars. But this legislation will do tremendous harm to the california delta an area im privileged to represent. Lets start with the facts. California is experiencing its driest year on record. In may, there was not even enough snow pack to measure. United states Drought Monitor measured that about 46 of california is in an exceptional drought. The socalled drought bill does nothing to solve californias water issues or address drought across the west. Instead it presempts it preempts state laws, eliminate pross text for salmonned on other endangered species and rolls back our nations fundamental environmental laws. We need to look at Real Solutions and not waste time and Resources Recycling old bad ideas. Moving more water south doesnt answer our problems it hurts delta farmers and the salmon industry and we cant pick and choose our economies. We need to fight for all of them. And lets be clear. My republican colleagues are basing a lot of their arguments on the idea that environmental regulations send too much water to the ocean that otherwise could be used by communities. But according to the state Water Resources control board, in 2014, 72 of the delta outflow was required to control is a lynnity. So that the delta to control salinity, that the delta didnt become too salty for agricultural area. If we override these laws further damage will result for fishermen, farmers families and businesses throughout california. What i dont understand is why our republican colleagues keep fighting for keep fighting against protections that preserve the quality of water for their constituents. The department of the interior also oppose this is bill because it would, and i quote impede an effective and timely response to the continuing drought by providing no additional water to hardhit communities. California doesnt want federal legislation to weaken state and federal environmental protections, preempt state law and favor one region over another, which is exactly what this bill does. We are a state known for innovation and we have a support bold, forwardthinking solutiones that create new water and dont pit regions of california against each other. We should be supporting water efficiency, storage, reuse, recycling, Water Management and innovative water projects and longterm approaches to water shortages. While this legislation will further disrupt a fragile delta and hurt its local economy, i, along with my colleagues, will be pushing for solutions to create more water and respond to the needs of the entire state. The chair the gentlemans time has expired. Mr. Huffman i yield the gentleman an additional 20 seconds. The chair the gentleman is recognized for 20 seconds. Mr. Mcnerney and i want to ask my colleagues in the Great Lakes Region and the Florida Everglades to Pay Attention. This bill, if passed, will set a new precedent for grabbing fresh water over any environmental protection. Your water could be next. I urge my colleagues to oppose h. R. 2898. Thank you and i yield back. The chair the gentleman from california yields back. The gentleman from california reserves. The gentlewoman from wyoming is recognized. Mrs. Lummis mr. Chairman, i yield three minutes to the gentleman from california, mr. Lamalfa. The chair the gentleman from california is recognized for three minutes. Mr. Lamalfa thank you, mr. Chairman. And mrs. Lummis, thank you. Weve heard today and well hear quite a bit more claims from the opposition and i think its high time that we reintroduce facts on debate of California Water. My district is home to the largest reservoirs which can hold eight million acrefeet enough to help for the entire year. No other district provides so much for so many. However, many my constituents are facing mandatory rationing and fallowed fields. I support this measure because it respects states water rights. Ask the bay area lawmakers which expressed so much concern over sparking a water war where their water comes from. Youll find they come from my district, the sierras. This bill advances planning of five surface water storage projects that would yield enough water for 9. 6 Million People projects that 2 3 of californias voted for to fund with state money just last year. Yet, my disappointment here we have so many california legislators here and in the past that oppose anything we try to do to enhance the water supply and deliver in the state of california. Its not only the human water usage. According to the delta stewardship council, salmon are killed and eaten by invasive fish species before they even reach the delta. The opposition, despite all that to the contrary, denies species are part of our problem. It hasnt helped at all endangered salmon but this bill takes real steps to aid that population. This bill takes action to reduce the population of Invasive Species. While opponents may claim this bill impacts commercial salmon fishing, they wont say that National Marine fisheries found that commercial ocean fishing hurts it by 25 . So there it is right there. 92. 5 of endangered winter run chinook are killed by Invasive Species and commercial fishing outside what happens in the delta. 92. 5 . When opponents claim this bill hurts the endangered species act, ask them to show the language that does so. They cant because it doesnt. If it did i would help species as well as human needs. In fact, this bill enhances implementation of the e. S. A. By requiring improved Population Monitoring and Invasive Species management, components that should be universally supported. Mr. Speaker, lets put a stop to the half truths and misleading rhetoric such as no hearings being held. We had two hearings as well as hearings in the valley on this bill and its components. Opponents dont believe we should take any action at all, nothing is wrong despite 36 mandatory water reductions to homes such as in my home like in reding. Lost of lost thousands of lost jobs. These drought deinsiders claim that 3800 people soon to be 50 million in california can prosper for water facilities made 20 years ago. Mr. Speaker its time to take action and pass h. R. 2898. I yield back. The chair the gentlemans time has expired. The gentlewoman from wyoming reserves. The gentleman from california is recognized. Mr. Huffman thank you, mr. Chairman. The opposition does not oppose addressing Invasive Species that may victim pacts on our fisheries. What we do agree with, though, is all of the serious signs including peerreviewed science, that finds that water diversions is the main challenge and the main impact and we cannot ignore the elephant in the room when were talking about recovering our fisheries. As for this claim that there was some kind of a hearing in the valley. Mr. Chairman, not in this congress, and not a real hearing. It doesnt count when you have a republican swing through fresno with a fundraiser and a rally and a press event and no democratic Ranking Members in attendance. Thats not serious deliberation. Were talking about real hearings where diverse witnesses and water experts and lots of democrats get to participate in a serious and meaningful way. And with that, mr. Chairman i would yield three minutes to the Ranking Member of our water subcommittee in the t. N. I. Committee a champion for water issues for many, many years, grace napolitano. The chair the gentlewoman is recognized for three minutes. Mrs. Napolitano thank you, mr. Chair, and thank you to my colleague for yielding. Mr. Speaker, i do heavily oppose 2898. It does create no new wet water. Now, im hearing a lot of rhetoric on all these Different Things that have happened. Ive been on the subcommittee for 17 years, and ive heard it all. Ive been to the Central Valley. Ive been talking to farmers. But i dont see any of my colleagues on the other side visiting Southern California and checking out how we do in san diego and los angeles to be able to have hearings with the water agencies and all those that are critically affected by what is affecting Southern California. Now, this bill has been introduced. There has been no hearing in our subcommittee of Natural Resources. There has been no consultation with democrats except one, maybe, with no water agencies, with state agencies, with cities and with tribes. It does nothing for farm workers, the ones who are really affected by the drought and who have no way of being able to have income or other way of other things. It focuses on the Central Valley at the expense of both Northern California and Southern California. It requires mandatory pumping to agri business, reduces southern California Water deliveries. It creates a complicated and illdefined system that is a very poor attempt of protecting state water deliveries to Southern California and it is proof also, that the authors know that the bill will reduce deliveries to Southern California due to the Water Quality and environmental problems created with the increased pumping to Central Valley. This bill affects the entire country, the u. S. , by weakening federal Environmental Review laws by creating unreasonable deadlines for Environmental Review when the biggest problem really is with the delayed review really is, and i quote, inadequate funding. Californias Natural Resource secretary john laird states, this bill will, quote try to pit one part of the state against the other, closed quote. Californias senator, dianne feinstein, senior senator, said it contains provisions, quote that would violate environmental law end quote. Barbara boxer says the bill, quote, will only reignite the water wars, closed quote. The white house opposes the legislation and will veto it saying it fails to address the critical elements of californias complex water war challenges and will, if enacted, impede an ineffective an effectively and timely response to the continuing drought while providing for no additional water to the hardhit communities. We must work on this water issue on a bipartisan manner to address californias entire state drought. I have introduced h. R. 291 water in the 21st century act, which would provide actual drought relief to all of california with Water Conservation programs, water recycling projects, groundwater improvement operations, stormwater capture solutions and desal. We need to support longTerm Solutions shovelready project. The chair the gentlewomans time has expired. Mrs. Napolitano 15 seconds. The chair the gentlelady is recognized. Mrs. Napolitano there is a 3 million backlog that would help Southern California to be able to wean itself off on the imported water. Key House Democrats have been excluded from the bill we are marking up today. I ask my colleagues to oppose 2898 and vote no. I yield back. The chair the gentlewoman yields back. The gentleman from california reserves. The gentlewoman from wyoming is recognized. Mrs. Lummis 18 hearings in five years have been held on this subject. Democrat members were invited to attend hearings in california. Only one chose to attend. Mr. Chairman, with that i yield one minute to the gentleman from arizona, mr. Gosar. The chair the gentleman from arizona is recognized for one minute. Mr. Gosar mr. Chairman, i rise today in support of the western western of the Western Water and American Food security act. The Obama Administration has put extremist special Interest Groups ahead of hardworking american families. For example, federal regulations and environmental lawsuits have allowed for hundreds of billions of gallons of water to be diverted into the San Francisco bay in order to protect fish. This has had a dramatic impact, killing thousands of jobs, harming our food supply and leading to unemployment levels as high as 40 in some communities. H. R. 2898 is a balanced approach for combating Drought Conditions in the west. The bill protects private water rights and prohibits federal takings. This legislation streamlines the federal permitting process and will increase water storage capacity. American families are hurting in the west and need some relief. H. R. 2898 will help ensure a reliable water supply for our nations and nations ag producers. I urge adoption of this commonsense bill and i yield back. The chair the gentleman from arizona yields back the balance of her time. The gentlewoman from wyoming reserves. The gentleman from california is recognized. Mr. Huffman thank you, mr. Chairman. More clarification needed. We continue to hear about this legendary threeinch fish that is apparently taking so much water from californians. Facts are stubborn things and the facts are that over the last two years that threeinch fish has taken exactly zero water from those who depend on water diverted out of the delta system. As for employment levels, certainly folks are hurting from this drought throughout california and in other western states, but with reference to agricultural employment thanks to the incredible productivity of our farmers in california, ag employment was actually up 2 last year. Another stubborn fact that needs to be remembered so we can get the context of this bill right. With that, i am proud to yield three minutes to our distinguished Ranking Member of the Natural Resources committee from arizona, mr. Raul grijalva. The chair the gentleman from arizona is recognized for three minutes. Mr. Grijalva thank you mr. Chairman. Let me thank the gentleman from california for yielding time and for the great the good work thats done on the water issues in our committee and for the rational thought he brings to the discussion. The indengered species act is not causing the endangered species act is not causing the drought in california, period. They cant tell them that the answer is to abolish environmental laws. It isnt. But here comes the House Republicans again with another unfounded attack on endangered species that will go extinct without e. S. A. Protection. Here they come again claiming power grab and overreach every time they dont get their way. Here they come again using a serious water challenge as an excuse to chip away at a law they dont support. Even if its unrelated to the problem at hand. Millions of californians need Needs Congress to take this seriously. The opposition to the endangered species act is more important and the drought in california a convenient excuse to dismantle e. S. A. We recently finished debating the interior appropriations bill which now includes language that would jeopardize the survival of the african elephant, greater sage grass, gray wolf, northern longeared bat, northern tortoise and other species. H. R. 2898 will add the delta smelt and several salmon and steelhead runs to the list of species that the House Republicans have decided we can do without. I guess we shouldnt be surprised. After all, the sponsor of this legislation said last month on Live Television that he would hopefully someday repeal the endangered species act. That kind of rhetoric is not constructive, but a useful glimpse into the real republican agenda. By showing by showing that this bill by showing what this bill is actually about, these comments tell us republicans know that this is a distraction from the real problem. California faces a crippling drought and Global Warming that will continue to make the state dryer and hotter and demand drier and hotter and demand for water outstripping supply. The republicans do not need to choose to exterminate fish and wildlife resources that belong to the American People. Congress should not choose to do so either. People and wildlife can coexist and the e. S. A. Has proven it. Since 1973 99 of protected species have survived, and the u. S. Economy has tripled from just over 5 trillion to more than 16 trillion. Restoring delta smelt, salmon and steelhead will have additional economic benefit for commercial and recreational fishermen, and if that isnt enough, americans are telling us that they have to protect species. Recent polling shows 90 of voters support e. S. A. Sadly, this bill is just another example of House Republicans ignoring the will of the American People and driving the extinction of american fish and wildlife one species at a time. I ask for a no vote on h. R. 2898, and i yield back. The chair the gentlemans time has expired. The gentlewoman from wyoming. Mrs. Lummis i yield three minutes to the gentleman from california, the sponsor of the bill, mr. Valueday yow. Mr. Valadao. Mr. Valadao i hear on the other side that theres no solutions in this bill solutions that help deliver water that frustrates me to no end. There are a lot of solutions that have a lot of support. We also here the delta smelt has had no impact on dumping this water out of the delta when the bureau of reclamation say about a million acrefeet annually between the Central Valley project. Thats a Government Agency thats doing the restrict thats telling them. Every year we hear another three fish were caught in the pumps and theyre counts and theyre stargetting to figure out when to turn the pumps off again. This doesnt have an impact on farmworkers. Farm workers arent looking for a handout. Theyre tired of taking sitting at home and taking a check. They want to produce. They want to walk into a Grocery Store with the money they earned and purchase products they were involved in growing. Thats a sign of the american dream. Thats a sign of being able to produce and being a productive member of society and raise their family in an environment that allow them to grow with a little respect and dignity for what they do. As far as the solutions in this bill that they claim dont exist. Reservoirs. Reservoirs are a big deal. Thats what holds water so we can use it later on in periods like now. We have asked to streamline the process so those can be approved quicker. We ask to end the study that was been going on nearly 15 years. Were 3 years in iting hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars spent to study it. Thats unreasonable. We target predator species that are having an impact on the delta smelt. You hear about 95 of those are being con sumed by the predator species. We offer a solution to take care of that problem. Real science. We ask for a layer of bureaucracy, as my opponent seems or my friend from the other side seems to think its a layer of bureaucracy but were asking real science to be many place so when we turn off the pumps that the real science is actually used and we try verify that things are actually accomplishing something when we turn these pumps off. And as far as hearings, weve had hearings. We wanted those hearings in the valley. We took the request of our friends on the other side, we had the hearing right there for the heart of the problem so they can see for themselves what this is causing, what effect this is hag on our community. Like my friend from wyoming mentioned, we have one person show up. Id like to thank the gentleman for coming mr. Costa, and spending time, its his hometown so he understands the issue well. But this is being we take seriously. S that comprehensive bill that coffers a covers a lot of different topics but it also helps deliver real water. I dont know what the difference between wet water and dry water is, but were looking to deliver real water. If there bill doesnt deliver real water whats the problem . Were hoping to get people back to work to grow delicious, wonderful American Food we can be proud of. The chair the gentleman yields back. The gentlewoman reserves. The gentleman from california. Mr. Huffman i want to cite testimony from the United States fish and Wildlife Service before the state water board a few months ago, february 8 2015, they testified the delta smelt has not required mandatory restrictions on water exports since early 2013, over two years ago. With that, mr. Chairman, im pleased to yield two minutes to my distinguished colleague from fresno, i do not agree with him on this particular bill but i do want to say hes been a champion for his district and certainly has great command of the water issue. Mr. Cost tasm the chair the gentleman is recognize mr. Costa. The chair the gentleman is recognized. Mr. Costa i strongly urge my colleagues to support the Western Water and Food Security act that we are debating here today. And yes, we are debating this issue. This is not new. What you exhibited here and seen this morning is where the water faultlines lie in california and it also is reflective of many of the western states. But this historic drought this four years of historic drought has pointed out clearly that we have a broken water system in california and here we are on the floor having another debate other whether or not were going to pass a bill to help people because at the own they have day, these are people problems. People problems never reof california. And nowhere have those people been more impacted than in the San Joaquin Valley, which many of us represent. Thees are families where parents have lost their jobs, whose children have not are not able to attend school. These are farm workers, farm communities that have been felt the most severe impact of this drought and the water constraints that we now are dealing with. My colleagues on the democratic side argue that this is simply a cause of four continuous dry years. And while that is partially true it ig for thes that in fact we have a broken water system designed for 20 Million People. Communities in the San Joaquin Valley have seen their water supply reduced longterm by 40 . Agricultural use has declined over the last 40 years because were more efficient water users. Some in my area have had zero water allocation the last two years. Zero. No water. And this reduced reliability has impacted every region of the state. To be sure. Its impacted large metropolitan areas like the silicon valley, los angeles, san diego, as well as the small, rural and often disadvantaged communities like those in the valley that i represent. This measure, h. R. 2898, takes a step toward addressing longstanding imbalance by enhancing Scientific Management of the water projects in california and then giving it greater flexibility. It also provides adegreesal storage. I ask the gentlewoman for another minute please. Mrs. Lummis i yield the gentleman from california, mr. Costa, a minute. The chair the gentleman is recognized. Ms. Costa i thank the gentlewoman. It provides additional flexibility to increase our water supply. We have to use all the water tools in the Water Management toolbox include increasing storage capacity. This is about time that we begin doing that. It also tries to address many of the other factors that are preventing the recovery of endangered species like the Invasive Species that are a result of a lot of the decline in salmon in california. Let me quote karen hass, author of out of the dust. She says, the way i see it, hard times are not only about money or dust its about losing the spirit or hope when dreams dry up. Im here to tell you that a lot of dreams are drying up in the people i represent in the San Joaquin Valley this drought is crushing their spirit, making them feel as if their dreams never become a reality and too often feel theyre the country cousin, literally and figuratively, of the two urban areas in Southern California and Northern California. The solution that california needs is not more talking points but legislation working together on a bipartisan basis. This legislation starts that process. Its a work in progress. Obviously it will be a minute, it will be amended, it will be changed as we work with the senate later this fall. I yield back the balance of my time. The chair the gentlemans time has exer poo expired. The gentleman from california reserves. The gentlewoman from wyoming is recognized. Mrs. Lummis i yield one minute to the gentleman from california, mr. Mccarthy. The chair the gentleman is recognized for one minute. Mr. Mccarthy i thank the gentlelady for yielding, i thank my colleague on the other side, mr. Costa, for his work on this and the bipartisan bill. I thank congressman valatao for bringing it to the floor. You see mr. Speaker, i come from a place thats called for a very good reason americas salad bowl. We produce the vegetabled and fruits and nuts that feed the nation. The nation should know what the people in my district know. Food grows where water flows. In out tissue no water equals higher food cost. Thats what the signs read across the district if you drive down the highways. But you can see trouble in more than just the signs you read. You can see it in the parched farmland, in the reservoirs that are all but empty. And in the faces of those whose jobs have dried up with the water. Now im talking about this as a californian a native from bakersfield. But this isnt a local problem. Half of the produce we eat in america is grown in california. California is the eighth largest economy in the world. When california hurts, the entire nation hurts as well. But this is even bigger than just california. Almost 40 of the west is facing a severe drought. And it is undeniably clear that the status quo is unsustainable. If we do nothing people will lose their livelihoods. Water prices will continue to go up. And america will have to rely more and more on foreign food. Perhaps from countries that dont have the same labor or environmental laws that we do. Now we cant make it rain, but we cant give up either. Some people want to do just that. Mr. Speaker some believe that our way of life has to change. That its time to focus on conservation above all and manage our the cline. I re our decline. I reject that. If california is in decline, then the American West is in decline and the hope of so many generations is in decline. We will lose that Pioneering Spirit that will lead us in the 21st century. Now we have a bill before us today that rejects the idea that we reached the height of the shiny city on the hill and its time to come back down to a world of limits and uncertainty. Weve never accepted failure and nothing, not even a historic drought, will make us start now. Here in the house, we have tried time and again to address this problem. This congress, the last two congresses, have addressed it before. Before we hit a historic drought. Lets not forget just five years ago, we had 172 snow pack. We talk a lot about desalinization and i support it. What does desal do . It takes salt water and makes it fresh water. But why in california do we allow our fresh water become salt water . Shouldnt we protect that first . So this bill takes ideas from both sides. As we just heard. From congressman costa and from this side. We designed the bill to move as much water down south to our farms and to our cities as possible without making any fundamental changes to the environmental law. In reality this bill is very simple. It does four things in california. We allow water to flow through the delta. We create a process to build more storage that has been promised so many years before but has been held in bureaucratic red tape. Well increase the reservoirs and well protect the senior water right and the california state water project. But this drought also extends beyond california. Thats why this bill includes so many provisions to help our friends in the western states. Through their tough times as well. You see, mr. Speaker, we have a challenge before us. The challenge of nature, yes. But it is also a challenge of policy foresight, and plain common sense. For decades our state and country have faced drought, for years, californians have endured this drought. But now we are here today to move forward toward a solution. It is a solution built upon ideas from, yes, democrats and republicans. It is a solution that rejects the idea of decline and failure. And says with a clear voice, we will not let this drought defeat us. California is better than that. The west is better than that. And mr. Speaker, america is better than that. We will not lose hope. We will solve the problem with or without you and i yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman the chair the gentleman yields back. The gentlewoman from wyoming reserves. The gentleman from california is recognized. Mr. Huffman may ini inquire as thth balance of the time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman has 8 1 2 minutes remaining. The gentlewoman from wyoming has 8 3 4 minutes. Mr. Huffman i appreciate the gentlemans statements about when fresh water becomes salt water. Im pleased to yield to a gentleman who understands the ecological and economical value of that mixing zone from wresh water fresh water becomes salt water and represents communities depending on that point at which fresh water becomes salt water and if it were compromise and if that salt walter were allowed to intrude he represents the front line of communities that would be very adversely impacted. Im pleased to yield three minutes to my colleague, mike thompson. The chair the gentleman is recognized for three minutes