And as part of our 50 state Capital Cities tou, we host good morning, its thursday, october 26. At the white house this afternoon, President Trump is scheduled to give a speech on the growing opiod epidemic and the federal response. Well talk about it today on the washington journal. We begin with a story from the 2016 campaign thats back in the news. New reporting this week tied the socalled dossier to President Trumps connections to russia to the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National committee. The president and his allies prove the dossier is a purely partisan document while some of the president s critics view it as standard Opposition Research that raised real red flags. We want to hear what you think this morning on the washington journal. Phones are open in our first halfhour, republicans, 2027488001. Democrats, 20 7488000. Independents, 2027488002. Datch up catch up with us on twitter or facebook. And a very good thursday morning to you. The story well be talking about in the first segment of the washington journal today broken yesterday on the front page of the Washington Post, a reminder, heres what it looked like on the first page. Clinton campaign d. N. C. Tied to dossier was the headline, the Hillary Clinton campaign and Democratic National committee helped Fund Research that resulted in the now famous dossier containing allegations to President Trumps connections to russia and possible coordination between his campaign and the kremlin. Today the Washington Post in their followup story on this topic notes neither Hillary Clinton herself nor the campaign manager, robby mook from 2016 responded to requests for comments about their story. The story today noting brian fallen, the former Campaign Spokesman for Hillary Clinton didnt know about the research at the time but called it, quote, money well spent if it provided information useful to Robert Mueller now investigating the involvement. The new report is likely to provide ammunition to trump and his allies who long portrayed the dossier as the partisan document designed to undermine the election results. Heres President Trump yesterday talking about this reporting. President trump well, i think its very sad what theyve done with this fake dossier, it was made up, and i understand they paid a tremendous amount of money and Hillary Clinton always denied it, the democrats always denied it. And now only because its going to come out in a court case, they said yes, they did it, they admitted it, and theyre embarrassed by it. I think its a disgrace. Its just a very sad its a very sad commentary on politics in this country. Host getting your reaction this morning but this story generating a lot of headlines and commentary pieces and heres a few comments from left leaning reporters and comments out there from the huffington post, nick wing said yes, the democrats funded the steel dossier and question is whether they got the goods. The research turned up a number of shocking claims and writes if theyre true, it wont matter where the money came from. From the plum line which is a liberal blog on the Washington Post, paul waldman, he has the g. O. P. Spin about the dossier story is disingenuous nonsense. Today on the front page of the conservative brightbart website, its on is their headline, Hillary Campaign d. N. C. Accused of slightings election laws with dossier payments and the conservative town hall website, a former bush aide, ari fleischer, the former spokesman for president george w. Bush saying it sure looks like Hillary Clintons campaign colluded with the russians. Thats just some of the response out there. We want to hear from you this morning and hear what you think of this story thats very much in the news in the past 48 hours, republicans 2027488001. Democrats, 2027488000, independents, 2027488002. The phone lines are up to talk about it. Brady up first from boulder, colorado, line for democrats. Brady q go ahead. Caller hi, how is your morning going . Host doing well. Go ahead. Caller yeah, no, i was just thinking. We dont even know whats true in the dossier and whats not. The only thing we know is it was paid for by the democrats as Opposition Research and that it has some allegations about our president getting peed on. Host the dossier talked about in the New York Times wrapup, questions about the dossier and where it came from. They note its a 35page collection of Research Memos written by a former respected British Intelligence agent primarily during the 2016 president ial campaign. The memos allege a multifaceted conspiracy between the Trump Campaign and russian government to help mr. Trump, now President Trump, defeat Hillary Clinton. The memos detail unsubstantiated accounts of the encounters between President Trump and russian prostitutes and they were intended as bribes and other claims about mr. Trumps businesses. This morning were getting your reaction to the story thats very much back in the news this week. Walker is waiting in cleveland, ohio. Line for independents. Walker, go ahead. Caller yeah, you guys left out a tidbit that the republicans had an oper test who started that dossier research, is that not true . Host yes, according to the reporting it was started the funding for it originally came from republican donor who was very much against trump in the primaries. Go ahead, walker. Caller do you not think that tidbit of information is important to get a holistic view of whats going on here . Host sure, walker. Heres the background and who paid for it, the same q. A of the New York Times, during that republican primary that donor opposed to President Trump becoming the partys nominee retained the Research Firm to unearth potentially damaging information about mr. Trump. The donor never has been identified but several possible suspects have denied responsibility including officials from socalled superpacs that supported senator rubio of florida and former governor jeb bush of florida. After trump secured the nomination, g. P. S. Was hired on behalf of Hillary Clintons campaign and by their law firm to compile their research about President Trump, his business nd associates. Host thank you. Line for republicans, what are your thoughts on the story . Caller mark here. My comment about the whole situation is that i think its the d. N. C. Had to be this way and the investigation is ongoing with trump. I just think we all need to respect the process of where its going and let the investigation lead itself. I wouldnt want to see everybody fall in the midst of so much controversy. We should just kind of like let more information come out before we start jumping down one anothers throats, hillary supporters, trump supporters. More than than it already is. I just think we should use caution at this time. Mark do you think it matters who paid for it at this point . Caller i do think it matters but not as much as necessary as people might think, its a small factor because they can pay as much money in the world, it could be hillary or other onors. Host karl, los angeles, california, line for democrats. Youre up early this morning. Go ahead. Caller yes, it is early, 4 00 a. M. Host thanks for calling in so early. Caller ive been doing this a long time. Id like to say doesnt anybody remember what trumps son said when he had the russians give him an email saying that they had things on Hillary Clinton . And they wanted to support donald trump, he said great, i love it. Dont people remember that . And you created a big thing out of this dossier. Its not 102, its 012. Why do you do that . Host who is at the top of the listing on your screen at the eginning of every month. Next month, democrats, independents, 8001, 8002 and month after that well do what were doing now, 8001, 8002, republicans, democrats, independents, try to do that just to be as fair as possible to make sure one isnt on top all the time. Thats why we do that. Appreciate the call. Thanks to getting up early. To your point about what the possible scandal is here. Paul waldman writes in his piece, the Washington Post plum line, what is the scandal, is it that the Clinton Campaign conducted Opposition Research to trump . Of course they did just like the Trump Campaign presumably conducted its Opposition Research on clinton, is the scandal that there were some wild charges in the steele dossier, so what, the Clinton Campaign didnt leak them to the press using them in the ads or make any use of them. The document came out after trump was elected, when buzz feed published that document january 10. He said the idea that what the Clinton Campaign did represents collusion is nonsense. The most clinton did was hire an Opposition Researcher who interviewed sources he knew in russia to see if her opponent had engaged any questionable activities here. We dont know if she or anyone else on her staff read the steele report since he was a few steps removed from the campaign. Nothing about that remotely resembles collusion with russia. Thats paul waldman, the Washington Post plum line opinion section if you want to read that. The line for republicans, michael, go ahead. Caller hey, how is it going . Thanks for having me. And yeah, i mean, i think this whole thing is a nothing burger, just like they repeated it over and over again. Theyre trying to do everything they can to tomple trump into nothing and ridicule him and demoralize him. I just think its ridiculous nd a waste of our money. The democrats, theyre insane. Most of them are insane. Anyone who thinks our president is colluding with russia is completely ridiculous. Even if you wanted to have good relations with russia, that would be a good thing for our country. It wouldnt be a negative. Thank you very much. Ill take any response to that. Host mike necessarily maryland. The lines again, 2027488001, democrats, 2027488001, and ndependents, 20274882 2027488002. We want to hear your reaction this morning. Rochelle is in franklin, indiana, line for democrats. Good morning. Caller good morning. Im glad youre explaining that went online to explore it. That devin ng nunez. Host the congressman, the intelligence committee. Caller hes so corrupt and i cant believe hes even allowed to enter into any of the investigations. We need some stricter restrictions for our lawmakers, especially spending money on investigations. Investigate is all i have to say. Host why specifically dont you trust congressman nunes to lead this investigation in the House Select Intelligence Committee . Caller hes always trying to do something to undermine the other people involved with the investigations from the republicans to the democrats and he goes off on his own and then goes to the white house and pops back out and then gives these news press stories and it just hes just a bunch of its just a mess. Host in indiana, this morning, information from the post reporting about the dossier about the process by which it was created. The officials said the f. B. I. Confirmed some of the information in the dossier, though not the most sensational documentation. Official records show the ampaign paid legal fees from 20162017 according to the finance records and they paid the firm 3. 6 million in legal and compliance consulting. And some of those were paid from fusion g. P. S. No information on what went to the Research Firm that paid the contractor, the former British Intelligence agent here for his dossier. The story in the first halfhour, i want to hear your thoughts. John, line for republicans. Caller hell, good morning. So what im seeing here is now we have news that hillary is her team was paying all kinds of money to bring up slander, whatever, some dossier on trump. But when russia and these leaked emails came out with hillary and we found all this collusion in the d. N. C. For their election, the story wasnt about that, the collusion and election but how the method was done. Like the guy said before, maryland, i think it was somewhere, he said it shouldnt be where the source comes from, it should be if they find corruption, thats what they should go after. Goes back to the whole drain the swamp thing and just the senators from the past couple days coming out, you know, they speak nicely about trying to make everything, everyone speak nicely but are they just trying to maintain their establishment . Maybe trump is having trouble doing that but sounds like both parties just want to get things back to status quo. Host sounds to me like youre saying they should investigate this so see if theres anything that happened here. Do you as a republican think at this. From what youve heard theres some inappropriate connection between the Trump Campaign and the russian government . Caller i doubt it. So i also believe theres many intertwining connections between all sides, all parties that if you investigated one person to enough energy, you would find something, just like any average citizen. If you looked through every single last bit of records, youll find something that you could point the finger at them and wave. Let the first one without sin cast the first stone. But i voted for trump but i dont exactly trust the guy. Honestly, i dont trust any olitician. I was hoping him being an outsider would help things. Maybe it will, maybe it wont. Just the way things are being so much e is being focus on him, theyll find something especially when they nitpick every word he makes. Host a independent from texas. Good morning. Caller thanks for having me on cspan. I just want to say people are attacking the president and all, making things up and using this whole russian nonsense when its been proven beyond are and the clintons to me just as corrupt and having them are two bad choices but id rather have trump. There are over a hundred people that have gone missing or died who had dirt on the clintons and we need to look at the reality that things are not that bad. We can nitpick on every something d find bad. People complained about bush and obama and they want to bitch and campaign, watch my language. I feel we should just focus on reality and whats really going on instead of nitpicking everything hes done. Host got your point. Adam in texas. 15 minutes past the hour here on the east coast. Talking about the trump dossier thats gotten so much attention this week. Also want to note today at the white house an event expected at 2 00 p. M. , a statement from the opiod t on crisis and reporting from usa today this morning expecting a president to declare Public Health mbling, a more sweeping National Emergency including aides interviewed by usa today and well talk more about what that means coming up later today on the washington jump. Also later this morning on the washington journal, our cspan 50 capitals tour continues and were in topeka, kansas, the capital of the sunflower state. You can see shots of the cspan barely visible outside the Capital Building and interviewing jeff collier at 8 50 this morning, stick around for that for the next 15 minutes getting your thoughts on the story, the trump dossier, its ties to the Clinton Campaign, the Democratic National committee, the money spent to fund the research that went into this dossier. I want your reaction to this story. Jeff is in new york, line for republicans. Eff, go ahead. Host good morning, jeff. Caller first of all, i thank for you taking my call. I think its out of character for hillary to do that considering the way she dealt with bernie sanders. They refused to give her information and someone in the d. N. C. Resigned basically, they fell on their sword so hillary could continue. I dont think its out of haracter at all. And also with trump and the hell put erve bank, policy over substance. Inflation will start to pick up. Host certainly a topic well be talking about in the upcoming segment of the washington journal. We want to stay focused on the story getting so much attention, the trump dossier, revelations this week about where some of the funding came, the connections to the Clinton Campaign, the d. N. C. John is in trenton, new jersey, an independent. Go ahead. Caller i have a gripe against the whole damn deal about both parties and their underhandedness. Was donald iate Trumps Campaign to reach out to this firm to go ahead and do this investigation and that was wrodge. Take the personalities out of this whole thing. Theres no donald trump and theres no Hillary Clinton. Y would you go out and start a campaign that is dishonest to the American Public and portray yourself as the alltime truth sayer . I dont see the justification in this whole thing. He did collude with the russians and that should be the he didnt because if pay off somebody he wouldnt have the money to go to this firm to do the investigation. What good is it for us to do this bickering while our nation is in peril . You have the hurricane, you have the fire, you have all this other stuff going on and all of this money is going to the top 1 of this country. I dont see justification of trying to justify your campaign and for a fact, donald trump took the apprentice, and this was way before he went ahead and ran for office. He had to settle a lawsuit against mark bathea because he went ahead and pitched it to donald trump. Burnett was mark the intermediate of this whole deal. Host i got your point. The question to this research and how its done, the New York Times in their k a on the dossier asked is this Research Common or legal . They note campaigns and Party Committees frequently Pay Companies to assemble weas known as Opposition Research, badging information about their opponents and nothing is illegal about that practice but the watchdogs accused the Clinton Campaign by disguising the payments, the fusion g. P. S. On mandatory disclosures to the federal election commission. Their disclosure reports do not list any payments from the Clinton Campaign or the d. N. C. To fusion g. P. S. But list a total of 12. 4 million to perkins coie for legal consulting, 66,000 was listed for Research Consulting from the d. N. C. Thats ken vogels story on the dossier back in the news in todays New York Times if you want to read about it p. A few tweets on this topic. Rick writes in, its not about who funded the dossier and whatever is in it is true. He feels hes been exonerated. Another one, tax reform stalled and north korea is extremely dangerous and were talking about hillary and a dossier . Harold says its ironic all this came out about dems and their fake dossier. It isnt true and they know it. Join in. It happens every day where you with give us a call in illinois, democrats from elgen, illinois. How are you doing . Host doing well. Caller i hear what people are saying. Some of the stuff i agree with, some of the stuff i dont. First of all, i want to know how this man even won the election and stuff. Also, two, you know, kennedy killed gaddafi if you dont really know that. Number three, you have all this and you say youre a good president and youre trying your best to build up your community and American Country and you want to focus on wars and stuff like that overseas and spending money on all you and trying to take over another country and all that with the republicans and d. N. C. Takes the money and spends it in dallas and says you did not do that. But when you think about it. Host kendrick this morning. Donnie is in columbia, kentucky. Wine for democrats. Onnie, go ahead. Aller im a democrat. Donald trusm shows hes got kelly lying for him. And the whole Trump White House is nothing but a scam. From day one, i have watched the primaries and when he was running. But d trump is with nobody russia. Every time you turn the tv on, he wont say a thing about russia and the sanctions, he has never seen it through yet. Why do we need a president like him . He may be your president and someone elses president but i dont claim him as president. Host richard is in louisville, kentucky, line for republicans. Go ahead. Caller yes, the leader of the democrat party, barack obama, today, hes even come out of hiding. We now know that millions and millions of dollars was okd by him and the Obama Administration to go after trump. He had his people, samantha powers, all his other people absolutely unmasked and absolutely have broken the law now were finding out they took this money and dealing with the uranium. , w, for you democrats , donald trump is president of the United States. Theres nothing you can do about that. For almost a year now, youve lied to the American People. But its all going to come out and youre going to go to jail. People are going to go to jail for what they have done to this country. The democrats how does a week before how does a week before all this information comes out the d. N. C. Fires all their top staff . Thank you, sir. Host richard in kentucky. The Editorial Board of the wall street journal taking up this issue today in their lead editorial entitled democrats, russians and the f. B. I. They end it by saying the American Public deserves a full accounting of the scope and nature of russias meddling in american democracy and that means following the steele dossier as much as the meetings of Trump Campaign officials. Morgan, randallstown, maryland. Line for democrats. Caller i thought i understood the fusion group, the guys ing in research had an incomplete republican dossier and that they started shopping it around when the republicans pulled out on it and how it got to the democrats. It wasnt like the democrats went out and did this. It was something that was brought to them. The other thing is that any person who is vial, vulgar, a bully and tells lies is going to be disliked. Its just the nature of trump and why hes so much hated by so many people across this country. Host our last caller in this segment of the washington journal. Well have more time for open phones later in our program about a. Up next, value rogers of kentucky will talk about the president s speech on opiod abuse and later joined by a congressman from new york about the Recovery Efforts in puerto rico. First, yesterday, Congress Woman dina tidas read off the 58 victims of this mass shooting an called on her colleagues to take action on gun control. We cant allow the guns lost in my district or anybody elses. And if we dont act soon well be doing it again. I want to call the names, say the names, remember the names of the 58 casualties who lost their lives in my district. Let us honor their memory and let these 58 names give the republicans 58 more reasons why we must take action now. Nnah ailer, heather drovaro, kerry barnett, jack bato information, steve burger, candice bowers, denise berditis, sandy casey, andrea casilla, denise cohen, austin davis, thomas j. Jr. Hristina duarte, bron fraiser, kerry gal vin, angela gomez, osaio rocha. Hartman, a Police Officer offduty. Jennifer topaz imbinging, Teresa Nicole camera. Essica klemmchuck. Victor link. Jordan mcildoon, james sunny melton, practice trish yeah mestis, austin meyer. Adrian murfitt. Rachel parker, jenny parks. Isa patterson, von thipen, melissa arrive air ezz, quinton robins, cameron robinson, tara we, chris roybal, bailey switzer, laura ship, eric sylvia, susanne smith, brennan stewart, derek bowe taylor. Nathan tonx, kurt von tillo and bill wolf. These are the 58 people who lost their lives from gun violence in my district in nevada. 58 more reasons why we shouldnt stand silent but we need to take action now. Washington journal continuess. Host republican hall rogers in in his 19th term in the house and represents the Kentucky District and is cochair on the caucus of Prescription Drug abuse. Later today President Trump will make a muchanticipated speech on opiod abuse about the epidemic in the United States. What are you expecting to hear from him in this speech . Guest i expect him to reiterate what he said more than two months ago. Opiod declared the epidemic a National Emergency. I suspect hopefully well hear the details of what he wants that to include. No one knows. Its 2 00 this afternoon. I plan to go. Host cspan plans to cover it. Guest good, good. This truly is an emergency and im glad the president now is moving him to the front burner so he draws attention to the problem. Hes losing to an overdose now. E american every few minutes like 15 minutes or so and going unabated and increasing and theres more people dying now from Prescription Drugs overdosage than car wrecks. Or gun violence or what have you. So this truly is an epidemic as the center for Disease Control said two years ago. Now the president saying its a National Emergency, which i think elevates it on the importance of the scale. Host if what the president ends up doing is declaring it a Public Health emergency as opposed to a National Emergency, would that be disappointment to you, thats the reporting in todays usa today, a Public Health emergency, not the more sweeping and National Emergency and we can go through what that would actually mean but would that make a difference to you . Guest we dont know exactly what his intentions are to the federal agencies. We already spend about 8 billion a year on fighting Illegal Drugs or prescription medicine, opiod abuse. So its already high on the nations importance register. But what he intends to do change o either regulations of the moneys being spent for the problem or something else. So we have to wait and see. Host if its a Public Health emergency, one of the things that would allowed president to do is tap the Public Health Emergency Fund but that fund only has about 57,000 in it right now according to usa todays reporting. Is this going to spur congress to push more funding to this problem and where is the best place to push that funding in your mind of somebody who has been on the proposes committee in congress for a very long time . Guest well, yes, it makes a big difference on just how he intends to define this National Emergency and what follows on. So well have to wait and see. It may require more money in case in that case well try and find it. It may require agencies to change policies in some fashion. Well see whether or not they can legally do that. So i dont know yet what the efinition of his emergency is. Host well find out this afternoon. Cspan is covering, a congressman from kentucky, a former chairman of the Appropriations Committee, here to take your comments, a special line for those who have been impacted by the opiod 7488001 and democrats, 2027488000 and independents 2027488002. Congressman, why wasnt this declaration done sooner . Guest the center for Disease Control in atlanta two or three years ago declared that the opiod problem was a National Epidemic that didnt mean anything legally but drew attention to the height of the roblem were in. When the president says two months ago were in a National Emergency with a problem, it was not legally done, it was not declared, he just said that. All of us wondered, what does it mean and when is he going to do it and how can we make it happen sooner . Were all anxiously awaiting to see what hes proposing at 2 00. Republicans, mike, go ahead. Caller thank for you taking my call. I had a quick question, comment, not sure what to call it. But i sympathize with people who struggle with. My struggle is understanding why the government is doing it. You make your decisions, you make your own decisions of what you do to your body. No one got involved inaudible] you make your own decisions in your personal life. Host got your point. Congressman, the question of why the government needs to intervene and the difference etween the crisis now versus decades ago when it was primarily in the fricanamerican community . Guest the opiod abuse in 2001 started in my district and we were the first to have this onslaught of addiction. The lexington newspaper, which vers my part of the state, had this huge headline on the top fold said something to the effect, eastern kentucky, the painkiller capital of america. Something like that. I had no idea we had this problem, no one else did. I dug into it, of course, and discovered it was unfortunately true in spade. So we started an organization in my district called unite, stands for unlawful narcotics, investigation, treatment, education, threepronged holistic approach to this problem. I went to emergency rooms. And anyway that began the problem. And of course now, you know it spread coast to coast. Its interesting to me and i dont have an answer. Most all of the worldwide abuse of open oids is in the u. S. Hardly any in europe or other parts of the world. Why thats so, i do not have the answer. But its a national problem. Its infusing itself into every aspect of our life. Were still losing people every few minutes to an overdose, and the work is fully ahead of us. Host mike in ohio, line for democrats. Good morning. Caller good day, fellas, how are you doing . Im in lick skillet, ohio. And ive got a question about the heroin epidemic. You know, weve been in afghanistan 15 years or whatever now and the production is four times as much than what it was when we went in. This reminds me of the irancontra scandal, the covert operation when they were trading machine guns for cocaine in south america and now were in niger and dont mow whats going on over there, another superoperation that nobody knows what thats all about. It looks to me what weve created, i havent, you people there in d. Clmplet and the rest of them, if you think back, john f. Kennedy said hed like the c. I. A. Wadded up and thrown in the trash can along with the federal reserve. Host whats your question . Caller the question is, why have we got this facist disney production wrapped around the Twilight Zone . Host congressman, you want to pick it up . Guest im not sure i nderstand that last statement. The heroin epidemic is replacing the opiod prescription abuse. Heroin is cheaper and actually more available, they tell us, since weve been now really after prescription pill abuse, a lot of people are switching to heroin, and its just as addictive. Ts cheaper and easier to get. So were not through with this problem if we zero out the problem with prescription pills. And heroin is coming, frankly, across the southern border, southwestern border. A lot of it coming from columbia and a lot of it coming from mexico. And the fentanyl problem weve not talked about yet, fentanyl is a hundred times more powerful than morphine and its legislationed laced in the heroin sold on the streets, its deadly. Coming through china, some of it being made in mexico. Product but al fentanyl mixed in with heroin and no one knows what the ratio is, so its a very dangerous thing were dealing with here because you cant tell when you take that heroin shot whether or not it has fentanyl in it or not. If it does, look out. Host thats on synthetic open oids like fentanyl you were talking about with 2016, some 20,145 deaths in the United States attributed to synthetic opiods and primarily fentanyl for the first time deaths from synthetic opiods primarily fentanyl surpassing the number killed by prescription opiod painkillers. Dd opiod you mentioned the injection of these drugs. I want to ask you about this story from the indy star, a second Indiana County this week, ending its Needle Exchange program with one official citing moral concerns about Needle Exchanges. I know this is an issue youve gone around with as well. Do Needle Exchanges work, something you support . Guest yes, i reluctantly came to that conclusion a couple years ago, or three. I had been opposed to the Needle Exchange programs until the small town in indiana, i dont recollect the name of the town, had a severe outbreak of vaids and hepatitis c, just swamped, this small town. And governor pence, Vice President pence was governor hen and ordered that the Needle Exchanges take place. And in my instance, we wrote into the appropriations bill a couple years ago the provision that would allow communities to establish Needle Exchange programs, we would use federal funds not for syringes themselves but for the supporting activities. One reason why i think its a good thing, it at least gives us an intervention point with people who are sick, and when they come in for the Needle Exchange, perhaps we can intervene in their life and help them avoid what caused the disease in the first place, drug use. Host on the line for those impacted by the opiod crisis. Thanks for calling in. Go ahead. Caller good morning. I rely on [inaudible] whats been going on has been a phobia causing havoc. Inaudible] undergo and whatnot. Im glad you took that up, you talked about the increase in eaths recently are a problem of openities were heroin and fentanyl, not so much with patients that are dying and also want to point out that those who overdosed and dies on one of those opiates, half of those were on alcohol and all of them, on average, were on six other substances. Yes, people are dying but its a combination of factors and a lot of misinformation is being thrown around and waiting a situation where doctors are afraid to describe medications and bringing a lot of needless suffering so keep us in mind when you try to push any new legislation. Host thanks for the call. Congressman rodgers, what do you want to pick on on that . Guest i had difficulty hearing what he was saying because of the line. Yes, alcohol is a problem as well. Hes right in that, you know, these opiod painkillers, prescriptions, the long lasting ones, the 12hour release pill, is very, very useful and helpful with terminally ill patients with cancer and what have you, though very addictive and difficult to kick once you are addicted. Oxycontin, for example, is till doctors have to help people through severe pain. Unfortunately, its so highly addictive it makes it very difficult for us to work into the regular business of curing people. The Silver Bullet on the opiod Prescription Drug problem is to velop a medicine that is effective in pain relief thats not addictive. That is what the research is going into at nrment i. H. And c. D. N. I. H. And c. D. C. And the golden ring were after. Host doctors being afraid to prescribe treatments i know its an issue you brought up is not enough doctors going into Addiction Treatment as a specialty, how are you trying to fix that . Guest thats a tough one. Were working with the f. D. A. , federal drug administration. And of course the medical community, and theyre governed by their state associations, doctors. So it makes it very difficult administratively to work on that problem. We are pressuring the medical community to study and prep themselves on the problem. We have now got the word out to the medical community about addictive qualities of oxycontin, for example, which they were misled at the onset in the late 1990s, early 2000s, purdue phrma that makes oxycontin misled doctors around e country to the effect that oxycontin was not really addictive. Of course we knew that from a long time ago. Nevertheless, that company, the officials of that company, perdue phrma, paid a fine of over 600 million because of misleading doctors about the addictive qualities of oxycontin. Host should it have been more . Guest more money . Host shoot fine have been more, should people have gone to jail . Guest yes, should have gone to jail. Were talking thousands of people who have died because of that mistake. Host to pennsylvania, pat is an independent. Good morning. Caller actually, im a democrat, thats ok. During the Obama Administration, there was a bill passed unanimously, and it d. E. A. In his effort to press down an illegal sale of opiods. [inaudible] two, are there any calls to repeal that bill . Thank you. Appreciate it. Host congressman, i believe the law the caller is referring to is the one thats been in the news recently when it came to President Trumps d. E. A. Nominee. Your response . Uest yes, hes exactly right. That bill weakened the Drug Enforcement administrations capability to fight Illegal Drugs. It was changed during the process of going through congress. It was modified so that the d. E. A. Then became supportive of that bill. Because it did not require them to prove that the act was intentionally done. Host did you support the bill when it came through . Guest i finally did after the d. E. A. Supported it. I wish i had not. In fact, i filed a bill that would repeal that bill brill that bill and i think well pass it. So that the d. E. A. Will have all the Enforcement Powers they originally had to go after the drug dealers. Host and the lines for those impacted by the opiod crisis. Keith waiting in warren, massachusetts, good morning. Caller good morning, sir, how are you doing take . Doing today . How this will impact me, is i have a broken neck and recently had lung cancer and a lung removed, a couple ribs removed and a lot of nerves cut and this and that. After id been out of the hospital on a couple operations, i was on a couple hundred milligrams a day of xycontin, and this and that. And ive gotten myself down to where a doctor describes 16 milligrams of vicadin a day and thats just to get up and move. Nd i decreased that by myself. [inaudible] once a heroin junkie, always a heroin junkie, but that should be a legal matter. Whats going to happen, are they going to try to take people like myselfs on them, the slow doses we take to get by and well all have to turn to heroin junkies or something . Host you get the question . Guest i didnt understand. Host hes concerned about his own access to opiods and is not somebody who abuses it, somebody who weaned himself off from what he was given at the hospital. Concerned with this crackdown he might not have access to the opiods he needs to get by through the day. Guest thats not a problem. His doctor will be able to utilize the pain medications available to him. What were trying to stop is the illicit, illegal prescription pills that are on the market. But his doctor will have full access to the pain medicines. Host the call for the line for those impacted by the opiod crisis. Mason, dayton, ohio, go ahead. Caller that is blatantly false and it is impacting people who need these medications to urvive on a daily basis. I had a injury with double back fusion three times and hip replacement and so on. I didnt need those medications. I had a prone foot and because i was on existing medication, they could not get me medication to help with the break and pain that comes with a broken foot. I had to have oral surgery with two teeth pulled and they couldnt give me anything because i was on pain edication. And they want to drug test pain patients, right . And if you dont sign an agreement to drug testing, they no longer will give you your meds. Host what should be the answer . Caller i think what the answer is we need to go after the problem and that would be the Drug Companies themselves and how its being prescribed, not the people who need it, the people who need it have to have it every day, like a friend of mine who just went through a kidney transplant and couldnt get any more than seven days of pain medications because of the laws in ohio. Host congressman . Guest her doctor will be able to prescribe whatever medicine she needs. Were not talking about cutting off access to these drugs by legal prescriptions. What were talking about is trying to prevent excess pills falling into the hands, particularly of young people, who abuse that 12hour release mechanism by questioning it and using it instantaneously. But her doctor will have full access to painkillers. Host we have a couple minutes left and i did want to ask you, as a Senior Member of the Appropriations Committee with this budget plan that the house is taking up, are you going to be supporting the Senate Version of the budget plan despite the fact its different from the house, despite the fact that is would add to the deficit to the tune of 1. 5 trillion over 10 years. Guest its coming before the house floor today. Ill be supporting it. Ecause mainly, its just a avenue for us to get to the tax reform bill thats coming up next or soon. Under the senate rules, we have to pass this budget resolution in order to bring up and pass the tax reform bill which were after bigtime. So yes, ill support it. Host what do you say to folks back home seeing that 1. 5 trillion number and heard the house talk upwards of 200 billion cut in their budget plan . Guest its a temporary bill were passing and will be replaced by the real budget resolution after we get through with tax reform. A preliminary step required under senate rules in order to bring up the tax bill. Host when do we get past tax reform, when do you expect that to happen . Guest im not on the committee that works on it but i think well get it done hopefully before christmas. Host hall rogers, republican from kentuckys fifth district, south of eastern kentucky. Appreciate your time. Come back and talk to us. Guest thank you very much. Host up next well be joined by a democratic member of the house. Thats congressman from new york. Well talk about his recent trips to puerto rico and Recovery Efforts there as well as tofertse safe the daca program and we have our 50 capitals across the nation and stopping in the capital of kansas, topeka. Well be right back. This weekend on American History tv on cspan 3, saturday night at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on lectures and history, luis alvarez on the 1943 los angeles suit suit riots and how they were used to challenge identities. Uit suitors were viewed as public enemy, if not number one, then number two or 1b japaneseamericans. They were seen as unamerican. P. M. , theat 6 00 green hill plantation. This site, green hill plantation, as the original slaveowner here. The slaveive in trade. What are the things he decided to put in his yard was an Auction Block, a state. The Auction Block standing where it is right now is a huge part of why the site is so possible. That powerful. This would have been the last children, women and would have been with their families. After this place, they would have been scattered across the United States. This is ground zero for that experience. With an00, interview historian on the stonemasons who build the outer walls of the white house. Over the front door, carved with their lease, flowers, griffins, acorns it is very lush over the front door probably the finest example of carving in america for 100 years. American history tv our weekend, every weekend, only on cspan 3. Washington journal continues. Host congressman Adriano Espaillat is a democrat from new york. He has been to puerto rico twice since Hurricane Maria and took a house for to declare puerto rico our caribbean katrina. When did you mean by that . Weeks, all, for four month, puerto rico has not had any energy. Puerto rico is in the dark. Many of them do not have portable water. There are still comes that are wrestling with the hurricane, and the damage the physical damage that it did particularly the smaller towns in the hills of puerto rico. I was able to visit one of those counts, take water and food to them. I see the plight of the puerto rican people. They are very resilient, but they need our help. Four weeks, a month later, there is still no electricity. In many places, no running water. You can see the photo on the screen. This is untreated sewage water. Host did you take this photo . Guest i took this photo myself. This is a great challenge. These natural disasters have cycles. The next cycle could be an outbreak of epidemics, and the next cycle could be, also, a lack of medical services for the people. We must be steadfast in bringing help to puerto rico, ensuring they get the electrical grid back up and running, and fema and the department of defense are there to help. I found mo help i found more help got to the puerto rico people from American People brothers and sisters to make sure they got to help themselves. 36. 5 Congress Approved billion in emergency spending, including 18. 7 billion for fema in puerto rico and california, 1. 2 billion for nutrition assistance in puerto rico. Is that enough . What more do you want to see if it is not enough . Guest the reconstruction of Puerto Rico May take well over 60 billion. The island was decimated by a terrible storm that many experts feel should have created a new category of wind and destruction, way beyond the category 5 hurricane that we usually see devastate many countries. So, this is unforeseen for the region unprecedented. It will take over 60 billion to rebuild puerto rico. It should be built in a resilient way in a reliable way that will be able to withstand any future storms. Unfortunately the caribbean stands in the pathway of many hurricanes. We had four of them hit the area many countries and the u. S. Territories in the area, but it is going to take some money to really build it. The money that was allocated will really go toward puerto rico a loan will go toward just keeping government running. So, we must go back and get at least a 20 billion allocation to really begin to address some of the critical needs of the puerto rican people. Guest 20 billion billion just for puerto rico is that in the hopper somewhere, moving along . Host it is moving along. We should be able to address that in the next two to three weeks. If we dont do that, Puerto Rico May spin out of control. What do you tell a father who has his children for four weeks with no electricity, no running water, spotty food that comes in and out of a town that might be somewhat still disconnected from the main cities of the island . What do you tell a parent that is in that dire situation . Guest did you meet that parent while you were there . Were we met parents that like that, crying for help for their children and their families. We dont want a Public Safety crisis to emerge, and we dont want a major epidemic. We have already seen how this could turn out to be with potential cholera, zika, or dengue some of the diseases that emerge. Guest how went host how close are we to Something Like that happening . Some there is communication of diseases, and we dont have an accurate count of the people that perished or died in the storm. 49 is the number we have, but folks were in hospitals, lifesaving equipment hospitals that lost their generators. We dont know how many people, subsequent to the storm, because of a lack of health care, Important Health care, or medication they needed, also passed away. We dont have an accurate account. We are asking for that to happen. Host were talking with congressman Adriano Espaillat of new york, talking about his ent trips to puerto rico his 10point plan for puerto rico covering. With us until about nine 8 30 a. M. Were taking your calls. Host we start on the line for independents. David, springfield, vermont. Go ahead. Caller hello, cspan, thank you for your service to service. Host you are on david, for the congress and. Guest hello, david. Caller appreciate your service. This suggestion the great needs to be underground, and the biggest problem we have had with hurricanes is electricity and water. Intold suggest building puerto rico, around the country, desalination plants that could run on High Pressure or forced water turbines, or hydroelectric power that could run through the water system. You can have an open, underground system in puerto rico in certain areas where you can have electricity that could be run off the desalination plants with turbines and hydroelectric power, and you can also the selling water to provide freshwater dachshund desalinate water to provide fresh desalinate water to provide freshwater. Guest that is a great suggestion, and you are accurate, write that the main problem seems to be a lack of you are right that the main problems into be a lack of electricity, water. Unlike other countries in the region, puerto rico had a u. S. Made electrical grid. They did not have a parallel, independent grid that many countries in the region have because of spotty energy supplies. They were caught off guard. I do agree it must be a stateoftheart, modern system that puerto rico could you perhaps, use could, perhaps, use their place in the permit caribbean for potential renewable energy, and it must be rebuilt substantially. I think your suggestions were good ones. Host in terms of rebuilding the grid, i want to get your thoughts on this contract that is gotten attention 300 million for a Small Montana energy firm to work on puerto ricos electrical grid. That is white fish energy. The Washington Post reporting they only had two fulltime employees on the day the hurricane hit the island, has never taken on the structure and the scale of what struck puerto rico, and now some questions from your colleagues on how that contract was rewarded. Are you joining . Guest i am joining the call. We are concerned that whitefish smells fishy, if you make, and we want the department of justice to look into how this contract came to be, the company that got the contract, and whether the proper and appropriate process was utilized to ensure that it was transparent, and they are prepared and qualified to provide the services they were contracted to do. Host what is your understanding at this point . Do you think they are qualified . Guest well, there are some big regards with regards to their capacity, their ability to provide services. They only had two people employed before the hurricane. We are questioning whether or not they are capable and qualified to provide the services they were contracted to do. Beyond that, we are also questioning the transparency of this whole exchange. Host we are joined by congressman Adriano Espaillat of the 13th district of new york here, taking your calls in question. He is serving his first firm term in contract congress. Had two recent trips to puerto rico in the wake of Hurricane Maria, talking about his expense. Jim, leesburg, virginia. Caller sorry, i am not Mother Teresa i get up every morning and bust my butt. A a corrupt country socialist nation. 60 of the people employed down there are employed by the government. I get up every morning. My son is a combat veteran from afghanistan, and he is getting andrunaround from v. A. , here i have to send money to a corrupt country like puerto rico. Host do you not consider puerto rico a part of the United States . Caller it is a territory, yes, sir. They are corrupt. I have to spend billions of dollars host got your point. Yout jim, i must remind puerto rico are u. S. Citizens. It is a u. S. Territory. Many of them, like your son, have served in the armed forces and many have paid the ultimate sacrifice for our nation, and have died for us in times of war and conflict. Puerto rico is a territory. We must treat them as fullfledged u. S. Citizens. They deserve to have the rights and privileges of any state in the United States or any territory in the United States is offered by our government. We saw how this terrible storm in previous storms devastated houston. Cities like texas, or the state of florida, that were really hit hard by irm a. We saw how the u. S. Virgin islands were also decimated by Hurricane Maria. This is not an exclusive calamity, exclusive humanitarian crisis of puerto rico. The Virgin Islands are also reeling back from the storms. They are all u. S. Citizens and must be offered the rights and privileges and the help we would offer any american citizen across the world. The 13thr district, district of new york, has a particular connection to puerto rico. Can you talk about it . Guest yes, i represent east harlem, the cradle of puerto rican migration to the mainland of the United States. They settled there, many, many years ago, in the 1930s and the 1920s. Host why there . Anst east harlem was attractive neighborhood many came to work on factories, on farms. Families settled in. You have fourth and fifth generation families that still live there, over 100,000. It is the cradle of puerto rican aggression to the mainland, and i am proud to represent them. Host brad is in virginia beach. Line for democrats. Go ahead. Caller i had a question i thought a few years ago richard branson, virgin records, had built saltwater purification takes and stuff, and i was wondering why they dont put some of those on puerto rico, that way they can at least go through the water . Host there are companies and went guest there are companies that have made her way to puerto rico with technologies that offer that kind of service. It is being experimented on, but not to the scale that is necessary to provide portable ofer for an entire island 3. 4 million people. So, we are concerned about the outbreak of epidemics. Folks like the gentleman you saw in the screen on the screen in a river with untreated sewage water. Sewers need electricity and have collapsed as a result of the lack of energy. Host in that picture again, from the congressmans recent visit to puerto rico. Where was this specifically . Guest this was in the town of not too far from outside of the city of san juan, puerto rico. Host we hear from linda in lake worth, florida. Go ahead. Friends in the keys that have been collecting their own water in simple things like rain barrels why on earth when you had the first hurricane did people not have rain barrels to collect the water and they would be able to survive to the second hurricane or through all the water in puerto rico . It is a simple, cheap idea, and it would have helped a lot of people, especially the people in the remote areas. Guest i think that is a good idea, and it will provide enough water for some families, but not 3. 4 million u. S. Citizens. I went down to puerto rico with my colleague luis gutierrez. We took water to the town. We took can foods and supplies canned foods and supplies. , who has of that town his own operation, seems to be doing a better job than fema. He is the one that goes to different neighborhoods with bullhorns and loudspeakers, and lets people know they are bringing food and water for that week, or for that day. This is an important operation that he has going. It is reliable. Many of the help is coming from towns and people that are friends of puerto rico that that feele the island it within themselves they must help out at this critical time. Host can you talk about the scale of the federal response versus the private response what you were just talking about . Is it 50 50 . What did you see when you are down there . Guest i cannot make an accurate assessment of the percentages, but for my first trip, when i visited the mayor of san juan, puerto rico, we went to a generator,at lost a and there were 41 patients there , including 11 that were on ventilators and in critical condition. She had to move out there and get the amplitudes in a row to ship them out of there, ambulances in a row and ship them out of there and get them to other hospitals. We did have the army corps of engineers to come and make assessments. We hear that often fema, or even the army corps of engineers, go makeveral towns, assessments of the situation there, but they do not engage in the actual repair of the generator, or the actual immediate help that is needed in that particular jurisdiction. So they are very concerned that bureaucracy has gotten the way of bringing help to the puerto rico that point we can people. Guest sunny p puerto rican people. Host sunny. Go ahead. Caller i have a few comments. First of all, what is to be done . Everything i see on the internet, the news what about reports of all the relief that is being brought in, food, water . I hear there is a problem with distribution once it hits puerto rico. Secondly, i dont honestly think that this is something done as the press and media is making it out to be, something that President Trump is somehow doing purposely. What would he have to possibly gain by doing Something Like that . Guest well, first and foremost, there is a problem with the distribution. Originally, right after the storm, there was an issue with actual access to some of these towns in the hills, but even if you wanted to get there, the road that would take you there, the bridge that would take you to that particular town was no longer there. Supplies had to be airlifted there. People had to be rescued from the very remote towns in the hills of puerto rico. There was a problem with access to those towns. In addition to that, there was a real problem with distribution. Many of the containers that got there were backed up in the ports, and there was a lack of truck drivers, trucks, and be so diesel fuel. Lines atr, some of the the gas stations went on for 24 hours before you are able to get diesel fuel. There were mechanical issues and obstacles repenting real rescue and help. ,ith regards to the president we saw it ourselves how he behaved when he was in puerto rico, hurling paper towels that folks that were in the middle of the crisis. I think the department of defense that was down there, and the general that has been assigned for this campaign of bringing help to the puerto rican people should have been more aggressive in laying out a plan almost a military plan, if you make, ensuring that debris will be removed immediately, floating bridges would be put in place where bridges went down, and it would be responded to as though it were a wartime emergency. That is what we need. And infrastructure in puerto rico to allow for supplies to get people in very remote places on the island. Host another place were you have been critical of President Trump is in the deferred action for Childhood Arrivals Program the future of the program, the president s comments on that. What you think the future is . Are you open to a deal that would preserve daca, the connect funding to a border wall . Guest the wall is a nonstarter. It is contrary to Americas Mission and vision of what our nation is. It sends the wrong message across the world that we are in a time of isolation, and that is totally the opposite of where we should be engaging the rest of the world. The world is a much different place than it was when the berlin wall was built, and ronald reagan, a fullfledged republican, said to gorbachev, bring down that wall. All of a sudden were going to build a wall on our southern border. A nonstarter for us. We feel the dream act is a piece of legislation that is a bipartisan piece of legislation that stands right now in the house of representatives, supported by a republican from florida, a democrat from california. We have close to 200 cosponsors of this bill, and on its merit, it should be debated on its own. We are talking about a hundred thousand young people that are kers, students that 800,000 young people that are workers, students. 20,000 of them are teachers, and they want to be, and are very much part of our nation. We should discuss this legislation on its own, on its merit. Ticket to the floor and take a vote up or down. Host you mentioned when republican. You mentioned 200 cosponsors. How many other republicans . Are three or four, but we know because this issue is pulling so well 75 of americans support the dreamers. Even among the president s supporters there is a significant amount of support for dreamers. It pulls very well. We know our friends on the other side of the aisle are eagerly waiting for this bill to come to the floor so they can vote for it. Their constituents constituencies when is to support these young people. Host about five minutes five minutes left with commerce and Adriano Espaillat of new york. Congressman Adriano Espaillat of new york. Line for independents. Goal had. Go ahead. Caller two i for taking my call. I am not an engineer or architect, but looking at structures in the world, igloos, up in the north where there is a lot of wind i am wondering, not just for puerto rico, but for the hurricaneprone areas, it is time to revisit the structures that we build. Instead of doing squared structures where the wind can rip everything off, perhaps curved things where the wind would not be able to grab it and go around it. I do not know. I am an engineer. I am really thinking about it. Host got your point, susan. Congressman . Guest i am not an engineer either, but i get your point, as i said earlier, the caribbean stands in the pathway of hurricanes. So, puerto rico, cuba, the u. S. Virgin islands, jamaica, haiti, some of the smaller countries like barbeau to, like barbuda, they must reinvent and that includes sustainability and Building Structures that in the future will be able to sustain very strong winds, hurricanes, and tropical storms, such as the ones we saw during this hurricane season. Of course, puerto rico, now, has the opportunity to rebuild itself, but it will cost about 60 billion to make that happen, and it will cost more money if were going to be building in a Sustainable Way that will be able to prevent the kind of devastation we saw with Hurricane Maria from occurring again. Host dutchess county, new york. Rob is a democrat. Good morning. Caller good morning. Thank you for cspan. Germany, i believe, has about onethird of its electricity from solar. 20 , toe come up from 25 , to 33 , and i am wondering why it seems that puerto rico would be the perfect case to rebuild using solar. It is southern. I dont know why we dont hear more about that, and i dont believe this backsent really has the of the puerto rico people. Is signaling to his base that these are not his white people his base. I think again it is a question of people that speak a different people, that are brown and just like he criticizes the congresswoman with the wacky hat, he is signaling it is the gift that keeps on giving he is signaling to his base, brown people, black people, constantly signaling that he is against people of color. Concernedwere very when we heard him say the crisis in puerto rico through the , that cycle out of whack puerto ricos put reagans were not taking on their own responsibility to respond to the crisis, when in fact i saw the results of the puerto rican people, the commitment. It was not a flyby helicopter ride or a day trip. I was there overnight. Are, how committed they how easily they are, and how they are committed to bringing back puerto rico from the Current Situation if this is now. With regards to solar energy, i know the authorities are already Engaging Companies private companies that are proposing alternative energy for puerto rico, including solar energy. Host st. Pete, florida. Ryan is a republican. Good morning. Guest good morning. Caller hi, representative. I would like to know, in our state they said how many of the displaced refugees are going to be coming here because there is just they need for them to have sing to sustain themselves is there going to be a plan to make it desirable for them to want to come back, or to stay in the dream country . Also, with that, there is also with the border what they are talking about, and how people are trying to keep certain people out so they do not take all of our jobs. Dont want to we give away to other countries sneaking in here, be filled by Puerto Ricans and keep it all self . Our own it is like, one United States. It does not matter color, boundaries. You call yourself a new yorker, i am sure. You do not say any ethnicity. I wanted to listen and let you talk about that. Be an accidentll of Puerto Ricans as i said earlier, many are u. S. Citizens, in centralmilies florida, texas, and other places across the country. Many will join their family members, and already have joined their family members. Many of them have returned, as we saw from katrina. 80 of the population in new orleans left the city of new orleans. Many some of them did not come back. I think about 50 of them came back, so some of them did not come back. I suspect with puerto rico, some of them will come to the United States, stay with their families, and some of them will return to puerto rico. Some of them will perhaps find their way to remain here in the United States, and they are entitled to do that it is their right to do that because they are u. S. Citizens. Host last call. The in mclean, virginia. Line four democrats. Caller i am interested im hearing people talking about this situation and puerto rico, but i do not hear people talking about the status of puerto rico the relationship with the United States. The people of puerto rico voted for statehood in november, and that is the root of the problem. Im interested in knowing if the congressman supports the statement of puerto rico. Guest i believe the status of puerto rico remains in the hands of the puerto rican people. They did have a referendum with 20 of the voters came out to vote in the majority chose statehood. This is an issue that must be discussed. I believe puerto rican people have the right to determine their own destiny their status, whether it is the commonwealth status they now statehood, or whether they want to be an independent nation. But i think this is not the time to engage in a discussion like one that has been a very conflicting, divisive in some parts of history, and it has been somewhat controversial. I think right now the primary goal is to bring help to the puerto rican people. I think the issue in the island right now is the storm Hurricane Maria, and what it did to the puerto rican people and to the island. We must bring immediate help to ensure that puerto rico will continue to be a shining star in the caribbean. Host we will have to leave it there. Congressman Adriano Espaillat, democrat from new york, the 13th district. The q so much for your time. Host thank you so much. Journal, forington about 20 minutes or so until we take you to the latest up in our 50 capitals tour, kansas, topeka , kansas. Until then, lines are open for any issues you want to talk about. You can start calling it now, and we will be start calling in now, and we will be right back. This weekend on booktv on cspan 2, the Book Publishers 70 Anniversary Party in washington, d. C. Sunday at 8 00 p. M. Eastern, nbc news correspondent katie tur reflects on the Trump Campaign in her book unbelievable, my front seat to the greatest campaign in u. S. History. Sick secret politicians do not like reporters. What was unusual about this was the very public nature of it the way he would go after reporters, myself included, from the stage of rallies, and have the crowd, encourage the crowd to essentially turn on us and boo us. Eastern, at 9 00 p. M. Former host of face the nation, Bob Schieffer on his book overload, finding the truth in the deluge of news. He is interviewed by susan glasser. Bob schieffer the first thing we have to keep doing is doing what we are doing trying to sort out the true from the false. That is an overwhelming job it is a big responsibility than we have ever had because we are dealing with so much more information. We now have access to more information than any people in the history of the world, but we are running a little short on curators right now. We are getting so much information that we really cant process it. For more of this weekends special, go to booktv. Org. Washington journal continues. Host it is open phones on the washington journal for the next 15 or 20 minutes. It will take you to topeka, kansas, at around 8 50 this morning for the latest up to our capital tour. Until then, open phones. Host as you are calling in, this story on the front page of usa today, about the president s speech today on the Opioid Crisis in the country. Usa today reporting the have his will secretary declare a health emergency, but stop short of a National Emergency. We will find out for sure at 2 00 p. M. Today. The president will be giving that speech. We will be covering it live here on cspan. You can watch it on cspan. Org and listen to it on the cspan radio app. Phones are yours for the next 15, 20 news. Carl is up first, berkeley springs, west virginia. Line for republicans. Carl, go ahead. Car, are you with us this morning . Caller yes. Host go ahead, sir. Caller fine here. I believe corruption i am here. I believe corruption in washington, d. C. Is rampant. I believe the clintons are professionals at it. They have the hearings and the investigations but no one ever goes to jail. You know why . One, heif they convict will say i know what you have done, therefore i will not go to jail. , carl, are you referencing the story this week on the campaign dossier, the connections to the Clinton Campaign and the Democratic National committee . We lost carl. Ed is in lawrenceville, georgia, line for republicans. Go ahead. Caller yes, i want to talk about puerto rico, but i was going to say that last gentleman that talk to i think what he was trying to say is we have so many things that dont add up, for example, about collusion and russia. Listen, look at cnn they have more people from cnn that work right out of russia than they do in atlanta. I mean, all the media, they are all hoped up with russia hooked up with russia. That is what problem does what they are doing here. The news is fake. Host ed, what did you want to say about puerto rico . Ed hung up. Roger is in trenton, new jersey, line for republicans. Go ahead. Caller yes, i am interested in how the United States government deals with puerto rico compared also,ormal state, and where puerto rico gets its money tourism,f it is mostly or corporations that do business there. Host all right, certainly something we can do a segment on, perhaps one of our weekly your money segments. Appreciate your suggestions. We want to point out some other stories. One of the other issues we have been following this headline from New York Times this morning. The score growing from the republican ranks discord growing in the republican ranks from their push on taxes. This story in the washington proposingn brady woulds to 401k plans that buck plants from President Trump that those would be left alone. Also at issue in this tax reform push, somehow houses of the threaten to vote against the budget bill this week, some republicans threatened to vote against the budget bill this week because of concerns the eventual tax bill would eliminate or limit existing deductions for state and local taxes, also known as salt. Issues to keep an eye on in this tax reform push. Charlie is in her camera, new york. Line for republicans. Caller good morning. I would like to talk about hate groups. There are hate groups on the right. Washington journal is one of the hate groups on the left. Host why do you think that, charlie . No host of this program would have ever allowed barack obama to be called a pedophile. That would have never happened. Last june during the Election Campaign i called this program and i pointed out when a caller says barack obama is a muslim, whoever is hosting the Program Immediately jumps to his defense and says no, he is a christian, but when a caller says donald trump is like adolf hitler, the host says nothing. That is why you really are a hate group. Host charlie, we try to be a group, an organization here that allows you to express your opinions we allow calls from both sides, and we try to do it every day for three hours. We try to do the best job we can. Appreciate the feedback. Hope you keep watching. Tony is in alexandria, virginia. Line for democrats. Caller i am calling in reference to puerto rico. The Puerto Ricans chased out the American Navy out of puerto rico. At that time they want considering themselves they werent considering themselves americans. He wanted to get rid of america. All of a sudden they are americans now because they want the u. S. To help them. But when the u. S. Navy was there, they were throwing pox and pans, saying yankee, go home. How come they want americans they werent americans then . That is what i know want to know. Host you think we should be helping in Disaster Recovery . Caller we should be helping, just like we help any other country, but the point i am saying is they keep pushing saying they are americans. They are americans, but a territory wedding day why did they chase out americans if they are american . Host ron. Go ahead. Caller yes, i want to talk about reaganomics, how it trickled america down to its face, how the rich complain they pay all the taxes and the other half is sitting there slacking. Pays theiralf salaries every time they go to the gas pump, the food store, any other business, especially medical. I think they should stand up and get back to where they were 30 years ago when america was great. Karen, norman, oklahoma. Line for republicans. Caller yes, i called i want to say the man i dont watch the show that much anymore because every time i do i hear someone calling the president of the United States something bald. Could you imagine if a white person vulgar. Could you imagine if somebody said that about barack obama . Lets get back to what we are talking about. Puerto ricans only want to be american when it is convenient for them. We had veterans that cannot get the health care they need, but theyt refugees, illegals, can to have five or six kids that they pay every we pay every penny for, yet veterans cannot get the health care they need . Come on, now. Needave titus saying you gun control because of the people in nevada that is racist. What about the black kids killing each other in chicago and no one lets stand up and talk about gun control there, and those are illegal guns no one wants to stand up and talk about gun control there, and those are illegal guns. Host on the issue of health the federal judge refuses to order the Top Administration to resume Affordable Care act payments. Host also on the health care oront this morning the cb score that came out yesterday on the bipartisan bill proposed by Lamar Alexander and patty murray, the bill reduce the almost 4er billion over the next decade without significantly affecting the people that have coverage according to the cbo. The report that was released yesterday host certainly an issue we have talked about quite a bit on this program. Todd is in baltimore, maryland, line four democrats. Todd for democrats line for democrats. Caller can you carry . Hear me . About whated to talk they are trying to do when it comes to Consumer Protections when it comes to banks. They are trying to take away the right to sue a bank if they are trying to rip us off, and i believe mike pence was the deciding vote. It is telling me republicans really do not have American Peoples interest at hand. If they are not going to look out for us that way, how can we trust them on anything else . Like this tax reform, it is all about the rich. They are not really doing anything to help middleclass, and it is a game. It is really been exposed now. Thank you. Host todd, before you go, have you ever used the Consumer Financial protection bureau, the bureau at the heart of the role you were just talking about rule you were just talking about . Caller ive never had any issues, but i would like for it to be there if i needed it. I think the American People should be protected by banks who are trying to rip us off i heard i forget the name of the bank that was in the news trying to do this, but you dont want to roll back anything like that. I mean, we need more attractions, not take away protections that we have. Post e washington their story about this effort. We love against taking aim at legislation, ewing giving more flexibility to sue their banks. If you want to read that story about the special maneuvers used in the congress to kill the arbitration rule, that story is in the Washington Post. John is an elbow lake, minnesota. Go ahead. Caller good morning. A couple things prompted me to call this morning. One of them being and i heard this before they talk about building a wall, and how the berlin wall was torn down and why we are building new walls were wanting to, and it seems disingenuous that it is not pointed out that one is to keep people in, one is to keep people out. Rico, ilated to puerto hope there is a delineation between their former debts and what is needed for the recovery. Thank you. Host harold. Wilmington, north carolina. Line for democrats. It is open phones. What is on your mind . Caller good morning. I am calling about the president donald trump. He told a lie when he said he told that woman that heri am can knew what he was signing up for. That is exactly what he cold her, and that he got his little chief of staff, a fourstar general to come on and back up his life and say lie and say he was who he was with and who he wanted to be with. We have a liar as a present, liar as a chief of staff, and we have to get those liars out of office. They are no good for character. Names. Ll people he is one ignorant man. Host len, high point, north, and. Line for republicans. Good morning. Caller i would like to make a point, no matter how big or tall the wall is, people can climb mountains. They can climb over a wall to it they can climb a mountain. I am curious how much money is zinkeso trumps and pocket from that little Whitefish Company in puerto rico and what is the where is the money from saudi arabia. Host on the wall issue, well have a segment focusing on the wall saturday morning on washington journal. Tune into that. Today marking 50 years since senator john mccains capture in vietnam at the beginning of his time as a prisoner of war. Cspan spoke to him. You can watch that starting at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan, and also online or the free cspan. Adio app also, Hillary Clinton, jeff bezos, and Billie Jean King will attend the annual dinner in washington, d c. Couple more calls. Carol, fairmount, west virginia. Independent. Go ahead. Caller i was just calling in. I have a comment and then a question for all the American People. Thank you for cspan, first of all. And my comment is, you know, we have both sides up there republican and democrat. They are pitting each other tat,st each other, tit for and they are using the American People. Im very upset with both sides, and hope they can come together and work together. We, the amerco people here is can we, the American People, please stop politicizing each other for democrat and republican . I thank you all. Good day, american america. Host how would you answer your own question do you think that is possible . Caller yes, i do, because we are very resilient. If we give a little bit of respect to the other person that is talking even to listen to them even if we dont agree, i think that would go a long way. I really do want to see america start to come together and stop this democratrepublican, democratrepublican. That is not good for anybody. I do thank you. I do watch every day, i even dvr every day and watch you. Host appreciate that, carol. Ryan is in st. Petersburg, florida. Line for republicans. Caller good morning. It is brian p i was going to be on the same page as carol brian. I was going to be on the same page as carol. It should not be a single name you are talking about anybody. It should be a mr. Or president. Everybody deserves respect. Everybody deserves anything anyone can give them. God, andon, there is a there is the respect you give him. It should be the respect the same with people. Or whoever they are praying to. Host that is ryan, our last caller in this open phone segment. The house coming in at 9 00 p. M. 9 00 a. M. Today, but until cspan continue our capitals tour that we are in topeka, kansas, where you can find the van parked outside of the Capital Building. We are joined by Lieutenant Governor jeff cole your, a republican. Talk about the powers and duties that come with the Lieutenant Governors office in kansas. Guest first, thank you. Welcome to kansas, the heart of america. I have been Lieutenant Governor for five years. It is a great position. It is defined by what you do. There are not constitutional requirements in it i have been able to work on a variety of issues over the years, primarily health care. Being a surgeon in my other life, and being involved in a whole variety of issues with Economic Growth and schools. Mentioned health care certainly a topic we have talked a lot about on this 50 states tour. Kansas one of those states that chose not to expand its Medicaid Program under the Affordable Care act. What does it have instead, and how does that process impact your state . Guest sure. Kansas is trying to make its own way, and were trying to make solutions that make the most sense for kansans. Kansans were pretty clear they did not want to go down the obamacare wrote. One of us road. One of the things we had to do was reform our medicare program. In 2010, when we came in we had all sorts of problems in the Medicaid Program. There were cuts across the board. They made decisions, for examples, to create waiting lists for people with disabilities that were years long. There were restrictions on things like heart transplants you could not get a heart transplant if you were over 18 years of age. There were also very little accountability and records of who you could go to. So, we have been working very hard to reform the medicare program, to give people choices, and to start dealing with some of those issues we were talking about. We found a lot of things happening in kansas. We have a great set of doctors, nurses, hospitals incredibly highquality ones and what we want to do is encourage them to serve people. What we have seen is we are now taking care of heart transplant. We were taking people off of those waiting lists i was talking about. Costse able to cut some in kansas, and what we have actually seen is the number of visits going to the doctor is up nearly double digits. The number of visits to the emergency room are down, and the number of days in the hospital are down, so were sorry to see results from all of this. Care int is called kan kansas. What sort of oversight you have to operate under even though you did not take this aca expansion . Guest you know, the federal oversight this makes it the most complex Government Program anywhere. Currently there are thousands of pages of documentation and things there are thousands of pages of documentation and things. We have had to work very hard in order to make those things work better for us so we can be more responsive to kansas citizens. What we are trying to do is really trying to focus on outcomes and how do we get Better Health outcomes for people. That is something the federal system has not been used to, but they are starting to move a little bit. It has been tough because there is a lot of oversight. That is fine. There needs to be oversight. What we would really like is the flexibility so that we can move this work with the candace legislate kansas legislature, local doctors and nurses so we can get the best system that serves our patients. Host just a minute or two before the house comes in, and we will go to the house when it dabbles in for gavel to gavel coverage here on cspan. Lieutenant governor jeff colyer, you served as a state representative in the state senate and now as a Lieutenant Governor what job have you enjoyed the best . Had anyou know, i have amazing time. Lieutenant governor is an amazing job. I have one of the coolest jobs in north america because you can really see what is going on in your state. I am also a surgeon. I still do a little bit of surgery. I had to cut my practice way back, but i had great day i met the able to see some of my patients, do a little bit of surgery. Going to places like norton, kansas, hayes, where i am from people and and visit you can see things happening in our communities. When people have issues, we can try to tackle them and move on those. It is a great opportunity to do that. I have had a lot of fun really discovering a great state. I hope you can come visit us. We like having the cspan bus here today. Host we appreciate you posting us. Asernor sam brownback, viewers know, was nominated by President Trump to be the ambassador at large for International Religious freedom. He has not been confirmed to that post yet, but if and when he does, you would then become governor. How are you preparing for that . You know, this is something you always have to be prepared for, whether you are the Vice President or the Lieutenant Governor you always have to be prepared for that situation. We have been working very closely with a lot of kansans, and what i have been doing is listening and collaborating with a lot of kansans over the last few months here, and being able to talk to folks. What they are saying is they want to help they want to see kansas moving forward, and it is very exciting, because kansas are interested in growing the economy, great families, a great home life, and it is a great place for america. We are the heart of america. I really believe that. And when im talking with my kids his friends, and just theye on the street, really see some things that can happen over the next few years, and that is exciting. I really like listening and worked with people. Host Lieutenant Governor jeff colyer, we appreciate your time this morning on board the cspan bus. It is there just outside the state capital today. For folks in kansas who may want to visit. Do appreciate it. Hope you again down the road. And we also want to thank, cox canwe leave, our indications partners in kansas. Stay tuned for our next stop on the capital store in austin, texas, and now we take viewers led to the house floor. Pray. Eternal god, we give you thanks for giving us another day. On this day we ask your blessing on the men and women, citizens all, whose votes have populated this peoples house. Each member of this house has been given the sacred duty of representing them. O lord, we pray that those with whom our representatives might meet during this coming long weekend in their home districts be blessed with peace and an