Bruce westerman discusses the western wildfires, Climate Change, and other news of the day. Good morning. It is thursday, september 17, 2020, Constitution Day in the United States. This morning on the washington journal we will begin by asking you how you would amend the constitution if it were up to you today. Give us your ideas on how you think we the people may benefit on a change from the founding documents dating back to september 17. If youre in the mountain are pacific time zone, the number to call is 202 7488001. You can send us a text, 202 7488003. If you do come include your name and where you are from. Otherwise, catch up with us on twitter or on facebook. To you. Rsday morning officially known as Constitution Day and citizenship day in the United States. We are talking this morning about the u. S. Constitution. Some history is your calling in 1787, delegates opened their Constitutional Convention on may 25, 1787 in philadelphia to begin discussions on how to create a constitution and replace the articles of confederation. Less than four months later the u. S. Constitution was approved on39 of the 40 two delegates september 17, 1787. I june of 1788 the constitution became effective when New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify it. How would you amend it if it were up to you today . We split our phone lines up regionally. Eastern or central time zones, 202 7488000. Mountain or specific time zones, 202 7488001. We will get right to your calls. Morning. How would you amend the constitution . Caller can you hear me . I would amend the constitution by adding a provision that would compensate descendents of slaves whom labor has built america and Free Education and free medical and compensation for things that produced america and made her the financial giant she is. It was the cotton that financed america. It was not indigenous servitude, it was child slavery. That is with the amendment should be, to compensate those who are descendents of slaves, who slavery built this country. Host with that be a onetime thing, or how often with the compensation last for . Caller it wouldnt necessarily be a onetime thing. It could be programs. It could be returning some of the farmland that was taken and given adequate compensation for. It could be educational programs. It could be summer youth programs, which those programs have died out. At moret throwing money social issues, but financing things that have been neglected. Host carlin providence, rhode island. How would you amend the u. S. Constitution . Caller good morning. This is carl. Amendment to the constitution. The president has two terms. Im listening. The president has two terms. Caller the president has two terms. They should therefore, senators should have two terms and the house number 62 year terms to even things out. Terms to evenr things out. The entire government is bought and paid for by coastal elite wealthy individuals on both sides of the coast. Elite andt de hollywood elites own these congressmen lock, stock, and barrel. Host one concern brought up on the others have term limits is if members are forced to leave after a certain amount of time even if their constituents like them it seeds more control of theore control government to the bureaucracy not elected, individuals in the agencies, career individuals who gain more influence and control over the process rather than the folks directly responsible to the voters. What would you say that . Caller i respectfully disagree. If that were the case, these people behind the scenes would have had what i wanted to have enacted a long time ago. With that. Y disagree the socalled deep state, for example, it is quite obviously to overthrow donald trump. Its obvious, but they are hiding it. They tried to overthrow the man, because when he won no one expected him to win. I didnt vote for him, i wrote in ted cruzs name. But the Democratic Party, to be candid, a lot of republican and ,ommentators are afraid to say the Democratic Party has been andn over by cultural firstline communists. Host several of your tweets and Text Messages are already coming in. This from stephanie out of michigan, the Electoral College must be taken down. Popular vote will give us the leadership we need. From wichita, kansas, i would amend the constitution so children born of noncitizens are not automatic citizens, they are citizens of the parents country of origin. Is an arm. Ne what can i own a nuclear bomb . That is an arm. And we may see some lefties on the washington journal wanting to amend article two and calls for term limit restrictions. That is his call. This, asking you on constitution and citizenship day how would you amend the constitution if it were up to you . Ae most likely way constitution would be amended is it would require a two thirds vote in both houses, and the amendment would be ratified by three quarters of state legislatures, though there are other ways to amend it as well that calls for Constitutional Conventions and such. If it were simply up to you, how would you amend the constitution . Ennis from seattle, washington. Are you with us . Turn down your television and just speak through your phone. Caller ok. Host how would you amend the constitution, dennis . Caller i didnt realize it was you. The first i would like to ensure we passed the equal acts and we are done to help get that going in the 1970s and im tired of waiting on it. Since i got a chance to be on the phone, i would also like to do something to negate citizens united. You say you worked on equal rights amendments in the day. How so . Caller when i was in college helping campaigns to do the ratification process. Host talk about what that was like back in your day in college. Caller i was in eastern people notfor familiar with our state. Divide. An east west it is still conservative, but it was ultraconservative then. Challenging [laughter]. Host is it more challenging today when it comes to the equal rights amendment . Caller i just dont understand now that we have the requisite number of states why it cant be ratified. Putting a time limit to it was unprecedented in the first place, and i dont know why that wasnt deemed unconstitutional in and of itself. I wasnt following what the aclu might have been trying to do with that at the time. I didnt think it would be such a problem. Oft that is dennis out seattle. This is george out of leavenworth, kansas. Caller i would like to see the line item veto added to the constitution. I believe if you look at whats happened here in the United States just since the first of this year, a lot of the arguments that are heard out of congress and the funding issues seem to be of a partisan nature more than anything else. Is ok, but the ideas there is always something that each side, conservatives and liberals, want to throw in there that has nothing to do with the issue at hand. I believe the line item veto may help alleviate some of that. It might stop some of the arguing over issues since both sides know whatever the item is will be vetoed the president of the United States. Any worry that a president may abuse that, president you may not agree with, and taking out parts of legislation you do agree with . Caller my worry is that that already happens in congress. Host thanks for the call from kansas. Taking your calls on phone lines regionally, eastern and central 202 7488000. Mountain and pacific, 202 7488001. Writing about the constitution this week in various papers around the country. Is being the week that there is often a lot of education on the constitution coming on the week of Constitution Day. Is the heritage foundations president. We column, never before have had to defend the constitution like we have today. This is what she writes towards the end of her column that came out this week. What weve seen happening in our country today shows us why we cant neglect teaching younger generations about the constitution, and why we cant leave it in the hands of others. The observance of Constitution Day gives us the opportunity to fight the fiction of those trying to rewrite our history and to dedicate ourselves to educating future generations for how a limited form of government protects their freedoms, creates unparalleled prosperity, and opportunity for all citizens. We must do all we can to protect our constitution so it can continue to protect all of us. It is in the times leader. One more free you from elizabeth , the president of the Constitution Accountability Center in washington, d. C. Writing for inside sources. Com. Kenosha, wisconsin, minneapolis, washington, d. C. , and countless cities and towns in between people are taking to the streets, the ballot box, and taking our leaders to task. They are demanding our nation lives up to promises aid in our amended constitution, equality, justice, the right to vote free from discrimination, leaders accountable to the rule of law. We have seen all too often political leaders and institutions will fail us, but our constitution begins with we the people. We are the source of its strength and the wellspring of its meaning. Only we can do the hard work of giving it life and protecting it for generations who follow us. I believe we will. The president of the constitutional accountability center. We will take you through a few more of those pieces throughout this first hour. We want to hear from you how you would amend the constitution if it were up to you. Cheryl and saint augustine, florida. Caller good morning. I think a lot of our problems could be solved if in the very beginning of the constitution instead of where it says all men are created equal we simply change the word men to people. Constitution the begins is we the people of the United States in order to form a more public union promote the welfare, the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our posterity to ordain and establish this constitution for the United States of america. Caller and what follows after that . Host we go right into article one. Legislative power herein shall be invested in a congress of the United States which shall senate and a house of representatives, then goes into the house makeup. Are you thinking about the declaration . Caller where does it say all men are created equal . Host the declaration of independence. Caller that is what i am referring to. Host how would you amend the constitution . How we form this government . How this Government Works . Caller if we changed the word an to people we would have lot of things that we had to go back and change and make additional amendments to the constitution simply. Two words, the difference between people and men makes a whole lot of difference. Thats all i gotta say about it. Good morning. Caller thank you for taking my call. For the u. S. Senate in the u. S. House of representatives and the , all of them should be two to sit no more than four year terms or a total of eight years. Host you dont think any senator should be reelected . Caller not like that because we have career politicians and special interests in there for decades and decades and it becomes a cesspool of degeneration. Of new york. Caller that gentleman said what i was going to say. I dont think anyone should be more than eight years. It is absolutely correct. Politics is not a lifelong job. You are not going to be a politician. I think all of them should be relegated to eight years of service, just like the president , and then we find someone else. Host woodhouse members be reelected every two years . Caller eight years. Why do you have someone in the house for 30 years, 60 years . Thats absolutely ridiculous. Been the constitution has invoked many times in the campaign trail, the election 2020. I wanted to show you two recent examples. Vice president mike pence earlier in wisconsin talking up the president s record on judicial appointments. [video clip] pense we have appointed more than 200 judges at the federal they are all principled conservatives who will support the godgiven liberties and trying to narrow constitution, like the freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. PenceVice President mike earlier this week. Also earlier this week we were talking to Pennsylvania State , one of theve keynote speakers at the dnc last month. He invoked the constitution talking about why he supports joe biden for president. [video clip] one person who has really looked at the constitution and the other person, consistently, joe biden, talks about how he can take the things that america says about ourselves and make them real in our lifetime. That is the choice we have. When the Vice President talks about the soul of the nation he is also talking about the future for young families like my own. The future for folks all across the country. Host state representative Malcolm Kenyatta from earlier this week. You can watch the event or the event featuring Vice President mike pence at cspan. Org. How would you amend the constitution . Caller good morning. Somewhere that we can circumvent congress as far as their compensations. They arent think worth 180,000 a year. How can you parlay a sixfigure income into an eight figure Retirement Fund . If there is any amendments to be done, it is concerning compensation or withdrawing compensation. Aocnt like someone like putting in her three terms and being able to retire and it comes out of my taxes. Their retirements odd to be coming out of the areas they represent, not everyone in the u. S. That is my comment for the day. Host what do you think the job of a house member or senator is worth . What would you pay them per year . Caller they need to be paying us for the privilege. They are supposed to be servants. They should be making servants wages. Host whenever this idea of pay increases of Congress Comes up, one of the arguments is that the compensation is too low and it is up to you to determine when it is too low. Only wealthy people can run for congress and our government is run by only the wealthiest in the country. That has been one of the arguments for those who argue to increase the salary of members of congress. How did that argument fly with you . Caller not very well. I will go back to one instance. Had amber when chris dodd the energyople from industry, primarily the oil industry, and chris dodd criticized one of the ceos and where iish i had a job didnt know how many millions in compensation i would be making. That disappointed me, because he should have come back to senator dodd saying, i wish i had a job where i could vote myself a raise whenever i felt like it. Kind of figuring how all this works, but that is my general thoughts on it for the day. I realize you have other callers. Thank you for your time. Host rob is next out of new york. Caller good morning. Congratulations for getting to host today. Host that is a colleague of mine, but i will pass on that congratulations. Caller as far as the constitution, there needs to be something about lobbying. The lobbying stuff that has been going on supersedes the u. S. Weple, what we want, what need in order to have a healthy society. When lobbyists get in there and the politicians do whatever the lobbyists want, whether it is big oil or pharma or whoever. They need to have something about truth in media. The stuff that the media says not you guys but cnn, the networks, half of the stuff they more, is propaganda and it bends peoples minds to believe something that isnt true. That should be amended somehow. Host both of your points are addressed in the First Amendment. I want to get your thoughts on it. The First Amendment has the freedom of the press and it. When we talk to lobbyists on this program we ask them about their job. I remember one lobbyist saying that his job of being a lobbyist is in the First Amendment at the very end where it says congress respecting theaw establishment of religion or prohibition of the free exercise thereof or abridging the freedom of speech, the press, or the right of the people to peaceably assemble, or petition the government for redress of grievances. That is where he says being a lobbyist is in the first tondment, that his job is petition the government on behalf of the citizens for redress of their grievances on topics. Caller i dont believe it. It has been perverted by money. We have chuck schumer, he is my senator, and in all the years he has been in office he has done nothing for the people who live here. The only people he helps are the arms dealers like lockheed martin. As far as the rest of us, upstate new york is shrinking. People are leaving in droves because we are being taxed out of existence. The people who work at lockheed and other companies are the ones making out really good. The lobbyists, it corrupts our system something terrible. The politicians arent working for us, they are working for their special interests. Host that is rob out of new york. A few more of your comments from Text Messages, facebook, and twitter. Joe out of mississippi saying i would definitely amend the contribution for contributions from super pacs and term limits from congress. 15 years of prime court judge terms and 15 year judge Appellate Court terms. The 17thng appeal amendment. The house must protect the rights of the people come the house must protect the rights of the state. Strip the states of their rights is what stew says. Andie saying fiat money article one section eight gives power to coin money and regulate the value of both u. S. And foreign coins. It does not explicitly and unambiguously grant congress the power to print paper money or make it legal. Just a few of the comments on our twitter and facebook feeds and via. Hope you join the conversation, especially with your phone calls. 202 7488000 in the eastern or central time zones. 202 7488001 and the mountain or pacific time zones. David from mississippi. How would you amend the constitution . Caller i wouldnt change anything. I would leave it the way it is. It provides oversight. Without the constitution the whole truth about the russian solution thing, how they set the president up, says how hillary was supposed to win a rigged election, they framed trump for the russian solution. They will financially ruin him. That is what the plan wayas. Host you say you wouldnt change anything. A 27 times the constitution has been changed throughout the past 233 years . Caller there are changes in there that are important. I wouldnt say they are all in pointed. Host you dont think 27 changes was the right amount . Caller right now i wouldnt change anything on it. I think its perfect the way it is. Host david in mississippi. The 27th amendment, the most recent change has to do with a topic that one of our colors brought up, the compensation of callers brought up, the compensation of congress. Joe is in massachusetts. Good morning morning, your next. Caller let me cover my points. Number one, eliminate the Electoral College number two, with anyion associated elected office. Limit the powers of the speaker of the house in mitch mcconnell. The preamble says promote the general welfare. I interpret that to mean Free Health Care for all citizens. Social security. Every working person in the United States should pay into social security. And judges, each president should be able to appoint one Supreme Court justice, and they would move up the ladder to become the supreme justice. If vacanciesppens occur during a president ial term . Theer that president gets opportunity to appoint a second justice, but every justice would move up the line so they would serve their last term as head justice. Host how long are those terms . Did you say that in your changes . Caller i didnt. Figuring each president would move someone out, that would cover the lifetime issue. Host one other question on one of your earlier changes, how would you want to limit the power of the speaker of the house and the majority leader in the senate . Caller im not sure, but i think they have way too much power as it is. I think a certain number of representatives should be able to tell the speaker, we are going to do this or not do that. Joe out ofis massachusetts and this is cheryl out of knoxville, tennessee. Caller thank you for taking my call. I want to say first that amendments really have nothing to do with donald trump or any president. I want to separatei want to sep. I would impose term limits. I have heard it several times. Efore on the show a real in my opinion, they should not serve any more than eight years, if they are reelected. It provides less opportunity for. Orruption if you can reduce it, some of them will lose interest anyway because it will not become a lifetime job and will allow the workingman and woman to include the opportunity to run for office. As it stands right now, that doesnt seem to be possible to me. The other thing that happens is we have a change in the power of the lobbyists. More y are doing has there is a connection there that is not right, and i think everyone listening knows that the lobbyists get their way because they take the bags of money to washington. The other thing that i think will change, right now, try to call your governor. You cannot get them on the phone. We, the people, we have to remember, they work for us. They tell you always that he is not available or that he is out of the office, which is not all the time true. Where is he if he is never in the office . Than they want to know who you are. Things have to change. Host about 7 Million People in the state of tennessee. Do you think the governor can get to all of those phone calls if he was asked to be on every phone call for somebody that wanted to talk to him . How do you manage that . Caller i agree with you, he cannot be on every call, but lets say he cannot be on every call, does he have an obligation to return your call . Else cannot, does someone in the office have an obligation to return the call . If they never speak to you, respond to your mail, if you dont get a response, how are they of the people . Host that is kind of what we try to do here on the washington journal, give you a chance to speak back, especially to members of congress when they are here on capitol hill, when we had them here at the table before coronavirus but haveoom and interviews, we two members of congress joining us later today to speak directly to you and address some of those current test concerns. It is just after 7 30. We will continue for another halfhour about your phone calls about how you would amend a constitution. Just want to update you on some of the action on capitol hill, the other end of pennsylvania avenue yesterday, specifically when it comes to the idea of a vaccine timeline the cdc chief Robert Redfield saying that many will not get their shot into well into 2021. Robert redfield testifying yesterday on capitol hill. This is what he had to say about a vaccine timeline. [video clip] vaccine will be available sometime between november and december but limited supply and will have to be prioritized. If you are asking when it will be available to the general public so we can take advantage of vaccine to get back to our regular life, i think we are probably looking at late second quarter, Third Quarter 2021. So by the late second or Third Quarter, we will have started to vaccinate people . I think the vaccination will begin in november, december, it will be in a prioritized way. First responders, those at greatest risk for death. Eventually, that will expand. Hard to believe, but there are about 80 Million People in our country that have significant comorbidities that put themselves at risk. They have to get vaccinated. Host dr. Redfield before the senate yesterday. At the other end of pennsylvania avenue, at the white house, President Trump disputed that timeline that dr. Redfield laid out. This is the president from yesterday. [video clip] i think he made a mistake when he said that, incorrect information. I called him, he didnt tell me that, and i think he maybe got the message confused, maybe it was stated incorrectly. We are ready to go immediately as soon as the vaccine is announced baby it can be announced october or a little bit after. But once we go we are ready. As you know, pfizer is taking a tremendous financial risk and spending billions of dollars on actually making this vaccine. They are at the stage where they are making it because they feel confident as to the results. They will be announcing their results soon. That is incorrect information. He was clear means that. Hink he when he said it, i believe he was confused. Im telling you, we are ready to go as soon as the vaccine happens. What would be a timeline we would start distribute it immediately. Eral public very shortly really to the general public immediately. When we go, we go. We want to go immediately. It was an incorrect statement. I saw the statement, i called him and said, what did you mean by that . I think he just made a mistake. President trump yesterday from the white house. We will talk more about that vaccine timeline with some of our members in the 8 00 hour. Back to your phone calls, asking how you would amend United States constitution, having this conversation on constitution 2nd birthday of the constitution. Next caller. Caller i love your program, giving everyone a chance to weigh in. I have several points regarding amendments. First of all, take money out of politics, 100 . That means you have to do a grassroots campaign, zero contributions, generate signatures to qualify for the ballot. Once you qualify for a ballot, you have the two systems of republicans and democrats. From there, you have a state budget for the election and both arties get equal money, so state regulator issued, and taking the money out of politics completely. Host when you say grassroots campaign, what keeps able to your person from having an advantage, and ability to get around and have more signatures, have more people out there getting those signatures you are talking about. How do you balance that . Caller volunteers. No contributions, no salaries. People have to appreciate your message and agree with your policies and they will go out and generate signatures to get you on the ballot. Host you had some other changes . Caller term limits for the house, one term for the senate, one term for the president dav. Host that would be a lot of turnover in the house. Every two years . Comer a new person could with new ideas, and they would come from the grassroots themselves, which means the peoples policies would be implemented. Host what if there is a new person with ideas that you really liked, but after two years, that person has to go . Caller there is always a new person with some good ideas also. Give some new people a chance to get in there. Host we will stay in california with jeff out late and bill. Caller good morning. Staggered elections, the way they are set up, they prevent any third party from coming to any place of power. Years,sident, every four senate, every six years, congress, every two years. I have not worked out the math on this, but effectively, it would take 12 to 16 years for my party, the green party, to have any representation. You change indo the constitution to fix that . Caller the way it is set up. It is easy enough to say every electears we are going to a new senator along with the president and congress. Change the terms to change the election so that every four years we have an opportunity to affect real change. Is nevernt set up going to allow any third parties to come into power. Host you say you are a member of the green party . Search,ick google founded in 2001 i think that is accurate. It has been 19 years. The green party does not have representation in ingress, more representation congress over the course of 19 years . You said it would take 15 years to get a breakthrough but it has been 19. , it is principally because we are marginal in the first place. Greens are on the edges, and it is true, we probably dont represent anywhere near close. Anyway, if it was not the greens, it could be anybody else who is never going to get into a position to have political power. Host thanks for the call. Up early in california. Appreciate that. Debbie is next. Caller good morning. My concern to amend the constitution would also be term limits. I believe four years would be a good timeframe. Seen from rande paul, justin amash, are the only ones in favor of term limits. Said, if it was put before the popular vote, if it passes, then you amend the constitution. That is the way it is. They will not devote themselves to cut their own jobs. The jobs in washington are being bought by the lobbyists and such. Too much money is being spent and wasted, going into someones pocket that are not representing the peoples choices. Host on this term limits amendment, you say four, we had a caller say say, someone on social media said 18. Why is four years the right amount . Caller when you go into your state legislature and such, it takes at least one whole year to learn the ropes. Years would bewo enough time. If you want to get them in there to accomplish anything, i believe four years would be a reasonable timeframe. Host who is your member in michigan . Do you know offhand . Of the house. Stab at all,ve gary peters. I have contacted both offices. Inhad the dam break eatonville, i contacted both of them, and each of them call me back right away. I have no problem reaching people in washington. Up thisry peters is year, a seat targeted by senate republicans. Will you vote for gary peters for reelection . Caller yes, i will. Host even with your feelings about a fouryear term being the right amount . Caller i think he is doing a good job. I think the problem stems from being not informed on the government. Up until this current election, people didnt really even pay attention. Pollsters would go to the and they would vote for the same people, whether they were doing their job or not. They would just automatically vote. It seems, this year, people are paying attention. Weather changes, or not, at least you are getting the publics attention. Host a few more comments from your Text Messages, social media. Richard in florida, a balanced Budget Amendment would change how congress works. Guarantees a long career. Tony in texas. And the racist language. Black, white, asian, etc. Just human. From michigan, another viewer from michigan. Every Time Congress votes for a pay increase, the minimum wage also gets the same percent increase. One more from steve. The most important change needed is to have our citizens and elected official start studying and reading it again and get back to the original intent. The problem is in the constitution, its the fact that we got away from it. Dominic is next in new york. Caller we definitely need term limits. Let me give you a couple of reasons why. Nancy pelosi called it a distraction. When obama left the white house, he said you have to deal with north korea asap. They are causing trouble in japan. Trump said as soon as i deal with nato, i will take care of it. In the meantime, this guy does not want to talk on the phone, everything had to be done by messages. For, schumer, who i voted you sent him love letters. Thank god. Everyone wants to give him a peace treaty. Even joe biden, we have seen the interview on your show, where he was threatening ukraine. You will impeach trump on it but no one questions joe biden. It is too much. Period. X years, host speaking of President Trump, the president tweeting this morning. Here is what is on the president s mind just after 7 30 eastern. Because of the new and unprecedented massive amount of unsolicited ballots which will be sent to voters or wherever this year, the november 3 Election Results may never be accurately determined, which is what some want. Another election disaster yesterday. Stop the ballot madness. The president going on to say the unsolicited ballots states should give it up now before it is too late, asking people to go to the polling booths, and vote, otherwise, mayhem. Solicited ballots, absentee ballots are ok. Sending netsuite to fox and friends, which is what he is watching, and why he sent that. Amend the you would constitution on this Constitution Day. In the eastern or central time zones. 202 7488001 in the mountain or pacific time zones. Here is another piece on the constitution this week, this out of the palm beach post. Kevin waggoner is a professor at Florida Atlantic university, constitutional scholar. This is part of what he writes in his piece today. It is not just disappointing that americans seem to know more about Carol Baskins and tiger king there in the debate over drafting the constitution, it is dangerous. The constitution is the blueprint for our society and modern societies everywhere. The constitution vests the power and legitimacy of our state in and informed public. Keeping people educated and informed is one of the reasons freefend a free speech and press. Citizens need to know the constitution and basic civics, not just to on is the Great American to came before us, but to exercise sovereignty and authority that the constitution vests within them. When it comes to americans knowing about the constitution, some good news on that front. A recent survey came out from center, theolicy Washington Post story about it times story about it. That story finding significantly more american today are knowledgeable about the constitution than they were three years ago. 51 of americans can name the three branches of government compared to 39 in 2017. 73 can identify free speech is one of the rights guaranteed by the First Amendment, compared to 40 in 2017. The results of the civics survey conducted in august suggest the contentious atmosphere in washington and nationwide protests, unexpected cream Court Decisions could be spurned americans to learn civics, according to the survey authors. Of those who responded could identify freedom of religion as part of the First Amendment. That is up from 15 in 2017. 42 can identify freedom of the press as a First Amendment, up from 14 in 2017. If you want to read that story, the Washington Times today. Harry is in california. Good morning. Caller good morning. Thinking, what really has come out of the Trump Presidency , the good thing that has come us, donald trump has shown exactly how much power the president has. The president has a lot more power than we actually know. Is doings that he shows that he has a lot of power. An amendment to the constitution would be to have specific guidelines to what the president s power is paving he can do this, cannot do that. Host that is part of the constitution. Article 2 is about the executive branch. Caller right. That would be amended to specific things. , what wehappened is have come to realize, the past president s of the United States have been more restrained in their exercising the full powers of the u. S. President. How specifically would you restrain the president . You dont have to have exact constitutional language, but what would you want any president not able to do . Caller he should not be able to move money at all, in any form or fashion, without the approval of congress. Now, as it is written, congress has the power of the purse, but apparently the president has ways and means of allocating money to different programs that he sees fit. Restrictions,r terry . Caller term limits. I agree with most of the panel. There should be some type of term limits. I have not done the math on it but there should be term limits in congress, definitely. Old line state, mike in silver spring. Caller good morning. How are you . Host doing well. Caller i sit here and shake my about people and their knowledge of civics and government. I think it should be mandatory that every american, every 20 adult newecially arrivals, immigrants, should be forced to take a government civics class. Every american should get a refresher every 20, 25 years. I sit here and listen to adult immigrants i know their children are going to public and private schools and getting the understanding of civics and government. But the parents, who are new arrivals, are not. Stuff. Me in saying wacky limits,thing about term when you press them, you can hear that they are voting for their senator or their house of representatives in their district, but they want to put limits on my house of representatives or my senator, mcconnelly times has run for senate . Harry reid when he was in . With mine, and i will continue to vote for mine over and over, more than six, more than eight, more than 20 years. I want to put term limits on your house of representatives or your senator. Then when it comes to the president , if the house and the senate put shackles and followed the rules on the president and did their job and told trump, no notu cannot move money, and kowtow to him, and the house and senate in america really have the power. Whatrants i dont know happened to some americans thinking that just because you have this label of commanderinchief, that does not mean squat. The senate and the house run this country. Host on your first point on a civics test, right now, if someone is applying to be a citizen, there is a civics test. From the u. S. Citizenship and immigration services, talking about that oral test. An officer will ask applicants 10 of 100 various questions, the applicant has to answer six out of 10 of those questions correctly to pass the civics portion of that test. You are saying that you want to see a civics test every 20 years for every american . Caller i did not say test, i said class. When me and you were in high school, we had to take two years of history in government. Two years. Not answering six out of 10 freaking questions. That does not teach you about how government, the american Government Works. We need to have these people even seniors who i know went to school, were taught about how Government Works they were taught this mandate, and talk about this term limits crap. Vote them out. If you dont like your house of representatives and your senator, like the constitution says, we, the people. We are the freaking government. We determine who stays and who leaves. Vote the person out though your person out vote out mcconnell vote out nancy if you dont like nancy. Whoever. Vote them out dont be saying you have your term limits. You are talking about putting term limits on somebody that i may like. Host mike in silver spring. Don out of redding, california. Caller good morning. I think there is a case to be made for abolishing the senate. I dont know why wyomings 700,000 people should have as 50y senators as californias million. The senate, these days, seems to justeoccupied with installing federal judges, republicans trying to get older ones to retire so they can put younger ones in. Meanwhile, hundreds of bills lay on the desk of mitch mcconnell. Senate was the supposed to be the states representatives to the federal government. Became popular elected, with the 17th amendment, well, we already have the house of representatives. We dont need the senate. Host one of our callers earlier, a lot of the colors were concerned about investing too much power in members. If you abolish the senate, that would put a lot more power in the hands of the speaker of the house. Would you become couple doing that if the speaker of the house ended up not from your Political Party . Caller the senate is just not fair. It is not fair that you have all of these red estates in the middle of the country that have as many senators as populated states like new york, jersey, california. How you distribute the power host is it a matter of democrats doing a better job of reaching out to voters in those states, trying to win those seats . I suppose they are always trying to gain seats wherever they can get them, and hopefully they will succeed in this cycle. Midwestern states, less populated states like north dakota, kansas. Why should they have as many senators as california . Just plain and simple, using that logic. Of course, also, you need two thirds of the senate to ratify it. You dont think two thirds of the senate would vote to abolish the senate . Caller isnt that correct . Host any amendment would need two thirds in the house, senate it, then goes to the state. Caller two thirds of the senate in order to make that happen. Host probably not likely to do that, but thank you for the call. We will try to get a couple more calls in here. Millington, new jersey. Good morning. Caller thank you for taking my call. Me, a lot of callers before i have some radical ideas. Would like to term limits. I dont like to see term limits because politicians need experience to do their job properly. Second, i want to have an age limit instead of term limits. 75. E Something Like 35 to we have too many elections in this country, too much money. There should be some control on the money spent. I would ideally like to see all elections being settled only once in four years, whether local, state, or national. Currently, congressmen are spending most of their time raising money for their next election. Thedy pays attention to country what is going on. , lot of money has infiltrated like a lot of european countries, campaigning should be restricted to maybe maximum six months before the elections. , we need to control the money from the politicians, that theseso politicians can spend more time working for the country rather than lobbies, corporations, who make big donations. Statistics, some 90 of the money comes from corporations. People are left behind, hanging like the second stimulus bill. The first stimulus bill was fast for the big corporations. Dont tell me that these politicians didnt know that the money was not going to small people. Host we will talk more about the second stimulus bill, what is going on when it comes to a potential vaccine distribution. That is coming up next with congresswoman andy custer. Later, will be joined by Bruce Westerman of arkansas, a member of the house Natural Resources committee. Only forrester. We will talk about those fires out west. Stick around. President trump and former Vice President joe biden are set to debate tuesday, september 29. Biden supports Cutting Police funding and has pledged to and cash bail. Sleepy joeeek, proudly accepted the endorsement of the program and antipolice portland District Attorney for the policy of releasing riders, vandals, criminals, and violent extremists without charge. He has lied to the American People. He knowingly and willingly lied about the threat to the country for months. He had the information, he knew how dangerous it was. While this deadly disease ripped through our nation, he failed to do his job, on purpose. It was a life and death betrayal of the American People. Theatch live coverage of first president ial debate on september 29 at 9 00 eastern. Watch all of cspans coverage alive or on demand at cspan. Org debates. Quickly find all past president ial debates from the cspan library. There is also a link to our camping 2020 with videos, camping information, and Election Results. Ates, orspan. Org deb listen live on the free cspan radio app. Cspan, your unfiltered view of politics. Washington journal continues. Uster congressman annie k serves on the energy and commerce committee. Anni first on the mixed messagese we heard yesterday from the cdc director, when it comes to the rollout of a potential vaccine. What do you think a realistic vaccine rollout timeline looks like . Caller i think the president is playing politics with the vaccine. We have had several hearings related to the vaccine in our Health Subcommittee on the energy and commerce subcommittee, and the timing is clearly at the very end of 2020, much more likely to the beginning of 2021. These trials take time. They involve human trials, so they involve over 30,000 people. We need to be patient, follow the science. The most important piece of this, john, is to have confidence in the vaccine. Its about the safety and efficacy. Is it effective in preventing the future spread of covid19 virus . Is it safe, are there any side effects . It is not anything we want to rush into. Obviously, everyone is anxious to get the vaccine, but we need to make sure it is safe and effective. Host for the average american, not those on the front line, when do you think is a realistic timeline, how long do you think people should expect to wear masks in public and shop . Caller one of the most important things that dr. Redfield said yesterday is that masks are very effective. Continue to wear your mask. You are keeping yourself and your family and community safer. In terms of how long that could be, there are nine different trials happening right now, nine different pharmaceutical companies involved. We are very hopeful that this would be 2020 one. We need to get it out to the first responders, nursing homes, the people that are most vulnerable. Becan expect it to distributed to most americans, im hopeful, the first half of 2021. Winter, late winter, early spring. But it really depends on the science. We are all somewhat guessing right now. It is a big task, the distribution of the vaccine to millions of americans. I want to make sure it is equitable, that we reach communities of color, that we reach seniors, rural communities, so we need to be working together. What we are working toward is a federal plan to make sure that you and your family will get the vaccine in a timely way. Host congresswoman annie kuster is our guest until the bottom of the hour. Taking your phone calls. Phone lines split up as usual. Democrats, 202 7488000. If you are a republican, 202 7488001. Independents, 202 7488002. Go ahead and start calling for your questions or comments for the congresswoman. You mentioned cdc director redfields comments about masks before that senate panel. I want to play about a minute of those comments. [video clip] we have Clear Scientific evidence they were, they are our best defense. I would go to far as to say that this face mask is more guaranteed to protect me against covid then when i take a covid vaccine. The immunogenicity may be 70 . If i dont get an immune response, the vaccine will not protect me. This face mask will. I want to keep asking the American Public to take the responsibility, particularly the 18 to 25yearolds where we see the outbreak to need to go like this, because we have not gotten the acceptance, personal spots ability we need for all americans to embrace this face mask. Host dr. Redfield there. We heard the president from the white house yesterday. What is your sense about the relationship between the white house, the president , his top advisers in the pandemic, and the level of trust . Caller this is the heart of the prop guest this is the heart of the problem. I am so concerned about the president politicizing our response to the pandemic in a way that is harmful to the best interest of the health, wellbeing, and economic wellbeing of the American People. We have to tackle the virus first in order to have a full recovery. Let me give you an example that our committee is investigating. In the midwest right now, places like brassica, south dakota, north dakota, state they are seeing a big increase in virus cases. It started back in august. You probably will know the sturgis motorcycle rally where people were not protected with masks, gathered in such large groups. Cdc puts out advice, scientific advice, on a regular basis, to the states. In august, they said you should have a statewide mask mandate. You are in the red zone, the worst possible situation. Because of later political appointees that reviewed these scientific advisories, the language was changed, and they dropped the mask discussion, and we see cases continue to rise. It is at the very top. The president of the United States i dont know if it is his vanity or lack of understanding of the science dr. Redfield could not be more clear. Wear that mask, protect yourself, protect your family. I can give you another example. In New Hampshire, where i live, people wear masks. We have dramatically dropped the number of covid cases. We are down to seven or eight people out of 1. 3 Million People. It is because people have taken those precautions of staying home if they can, socializing outdoors, keeping their distance , and wearing masks. Host plenty of callers already. John in industry, pennsylvania. Republican. Good morning. Caller good morning, i want to ask ann to do her research on the disposable masks that dr. Redfield put up. They do nothing to protect you. The n95 protects you but the disposable ones do not protect you at all. Guest i disagree with your science, john, i really do. It is better than no mask at all. Aree are some masks that more effective than others i will agree with you there. If we could all afford or have access to n95 masks, that would probably be the face the safest. We want to be sure that our Frontline Health care responders have the access to the n95 masks. They are wearing them all day long, 12hour shifts. I want to make sure that they stay safe and healthy so that they will be available to take care of us, family members, Community Members who may fall ill. It is always better to be wearing a mask than not wearing a mask. That is the bottom line, john. Sorry we disagree on that one. Host cumberland, maryland. James. There was a paper released in april from the cdc talking about a some thematic patients, where it was saying they could not find any evidence that an asymptomatic person could spread it. Guest i agree there was confusion in the science early on. Look, science evolves. We know that. I dont have a science background that i have theydence in scientists as learn. I think there were a couple of mistakes made. People to discourage from wearing masks, rather than encouraging it, right from the beginning. We now know that the president of the United States new on the seventh of february that this was airborne, that covid19 could pass, not through touch necessarily, but airborne particles. Probably steps should have been taken sooner. I believe the president was not truthful with the American People. Frankly, i believe tens of thousands of people died because of it. Host do you think we as americans are less trusting of science and scientists then we used to be . Guest under this president we are. He is flaunting factual information on a daily basis. The people who keep track of this, pretty much every time he opens his mouth. What that does is undermines our confidence in scientific and in the process of the evolution of science. That caller gave is a good example. You have to have faith. When secretary azor came to our theittee back in february, 26th of february was the first discussion we had with him about the covid19 virus. When i questioned him that day, i said, the most important thing for us during a pandemic will be , credibility for honest, truthful information to the people as best as we know it, and maintaining that trust will be what is most important. That is what i believe this administration, this president , political appointees that had been changing these scientific advisories, changing the information that the American People received payment that is what has eroded our trust. The problem is, if we dont stick to the science let me use the vaccine as the perfect example. If we dont have faith and confidence in the vaccine, if we believe the president of the United States has politicized the vaccine because of the november 3 election, we will have a much lower rate of uptake they call it, that people will be disinclined to take the vaccine. The way the vaccine works best is if enough people take the vaccine that we stop the spread of covid19. I am an optimistic person, i will stick with this, i will work hard in my committee, work hard to commit communicate to the American People that we need to be patient, we need to stop politicizing the vaccine, and we need to wait until the scientists tell us we have a safe and effective vaccine. Then we need to encourage everyone to take it. Host middletown, ohio. Roger, a republican. Caller good morning. Am i speaking to ms. Kuster . Guest you are, roger. Nice to be with you this morning. Caller you have not read the news lately. If you are in the service, a general said we had 100 billion people out here. You dont even know what you are talking about. How did you ever get elected . Host what is your specific question . Hast roger, this president done nothing to avoid panic and so many other aspects. I do not buy it that that is his excuse. He was not truthful to the American People. He told us it was a hoax, he told us it would go away, he told us a handful of people had died. I have to be honest with you, roger. Tens of thousands of americans died because we did not take action sooner. 7 exactlyw, february what he knew and what we should have been doing while he was in a state of denial. Host on the next action that congress may take, can we talk about a Coronavirus Relief bill . Where do you think a compromise can be found, what are you willing to accept to get something done here . Guest i absolutely know that we can get to a compromise. Say, my formero colleague, mike meadows in the white house, the person keeping us from compromise. I know that secretary mnuchin and Speaker Pelosi have worked well, come to agreement on the cares act. I expect they will on the heroes act. I understand yesterday the president tweeted that we should go for the higher number, i agree with him on that. It is rare but i do. I think we need the higher number. The American People are hurting right now, particularly in the south and the midwest, where coronavirus is still surging. I think what we need is stimulus checks, to give relief to individuals, families. I think we need to continue the Paycheck Protection Program for Small Business where that is needed. I think that has been very effective. In new england and New Hampshire where i live. I think we need to give relief to our states and towns. That is the hold up right now. The democrats, in the heroes act, reimburses our cities and towns and state government, not just for responding to covid19, but for the lost revenue. Let me give you a perfect example. In New Hampshire, we rely on tourism, that is our secondhighest sector in the economy. We had a 90 drop during the shutdown. That accounts for our rooms and meals tax, 500 million. That is 20 of our state budget going forward. To see a worldg of hurt, if we dont help these so that theyish can provide the services that people need and rely on into 2021. That is where we stand. I believe we will have an agreement, maybe as early as next week. Certainly by the second of october when we are scheduled to adjourn. And i dont think we should adjourn without it. Host to show viewers the tweet that you referenced, this was the president at 10 30 eastern after the Program Ended yesterday. He said democrats are heartless, they dont want to give stimulus payments to people who desperately need the money. Plague camehat the in from china. Go for the higher numbers, republicans. It all comes back to the usa anyway. Guest just so you know, back in may, so well over 100 days since the democrats passed the stimulus payments. We know the American People are hurting. We just want the republicans to join us in that. I think the president has sent his signal that the republicans should, again, go for the higher number. Host lynn in massachusetts. A democrat. You are on with congresswoman kuster. Caller hello. I wanted to make a correction about dr. Fauci saying dont use a face mask. Was february,it march . At the time, there were no face masks for the doctors and nurses, ems workers, so he said that for the simple reason, people would go out and get all , and that believe frontline workers without it. There was a reason he said that. Guest absolutely. I totally agree with you. Caller nobody seems to have well, when they say i found she said dont wear a face mask. He said it for a reason. Guest i agree with you correctly completely. In hindsight, these were decision being made under pressure with very little time. In hindsight, we underestimated the ingenuity of the American People. It turns out as soon as we started people telling people that masks were effective, everyone took to sewing. People live, my sister, near her, they made over 1000 masks. That is what happened. And dont underestimate capitalism. You can buy a mask everywhere now. We did have some supply chain issues, and you are right, we needed to protect those frontline workers first. Ocean shores, of washington. A republican. Good morning. Caller i have a couple of questions for your guest. From thesentative government, the doctor seemed to say that masks are the best thing to help protect us from giving getting covid. Guest yes, dr. Redfield. Caller thank you. You seem to agree with that, but i want to point out, recently, senator bill cassidy from louisiana got covid. I saw this on youtube. He said he got it riding in a car with someone, and they were both wearing masks. I believe that testifies to the fact that as it was speculated initially, the virus is airborne , and you can get it in your eyes. Guest i think the mask is not full proof, but it certainly lowers the risk of getting covid. Look, the previous caller pointed out the n95 mask. If you go into surgery, they will be wearing a lot more than what the average person walking down the street is wearing. But i can tell you, where we live, where people wear masks, we have a very low rate of covid19. If you look at states like nebraska, north dakota, south dakota, where republican governors have refused a mask mandate, not incurred people to wear masks, they have a high rate of covid right now. Secondguess senator cassidy, where he thinks he may have gotten covid. Capitolay here in the its been challenging because many of our republican colleagues are refusing to wear masks. I noticed yesterday on the floor almost all of them are wearing masks. I think it is becoming more clear, it should have never been politicized. It is just scientific evidence, it is in your best interest to wear a mask. You will diminish your risk of spreading or contracting covid19 virus. Host one or two more phone calls with congresswoman kuster. Scott out of thomasville, georgia. Republican. Caller good morning. Thank you very much. I agree with some of the things you are saying. Obviously, im a republican. I want to make a comment about a realization i had on the coronavirus, what it has done to rural hospitals, and the importance of verbal hospitals. Guest absolutely. Caller i hear the government talk about verbal hospitals. But here is the problem. Them, and underfunded we underfund them by paying them their reimbursement. Medicare,medicaid and hospitals cannot make it on medicare. We have had a rural hospitals close in georgia. I have heard many friends say they can drive 150 miles to a bigger town. That does not work with corona. And it will not work with another situation. I would implore you, as a democrat, because the government buys 50 of health care, i think the government should pay a reasonable fee. More than what is being paid. We paid everything on the medicare reimbursement, but that is not enough for hospitals. Bailnnot always try to things out when the government is, in a sense, getting a discount that is higher than it should be. We need to properly reimburse rural hospitals, and all hospitals, so that they are there when we need them. So it is not a lastminute problem with hospitals. Guest this is a beautiful example of bipartisanship. I could not agree with you more. District in New Hampshire that goes from the massachusetts border to the canadian border. I have a dozen very small hospitals, some of them are 20bed hospitals. I fight very hard, why i wanted to be on the committee to fight hard for Rural America to have access to highquality health care. We have a program that we call critical access hospitals, and that is for these rural hospitals, where you say, otherwise, people would have to drive one hour and a half. Where we live with mountains and snow, if you are in labor looking to have a baby, you dont want to be driving one hour and a half, trust me. With yourghted question you, your concern for Rural America, and i could not agree with you more. Host one article from the year, thearlier this worst year for hospital closures in a decade. 19 rural hospitals closing down last year, including seven in that state where the caller called from. One more call. Freddie from california, democrat. First of all, im not the smartest person in the world, but it is very difficult to believe anything that trump says about corona because he says so many different opinions about it. Then he comes back and you find out it is not true. I want to thank the Congress Lady for looking out for people like us, the normal people who are really struggling with this thing. You just cannot trust what comes out of trumps mouth, whether you like him or not. Guest i agree. Thank you for closing on that. I want to say, it is regrettable. To your republican listeners, i grew up in a republican family. We share many of the same values. I work hard in congress, i have a Bipartisan Task force to end the opioid epidemic, Bipartisan Task force to end the sexual violence. There are many areas of agreement. But on this one, i think, this president has uniquely made this very difficult for our country. We are desperate for information, we are desperate for factual, truthful information on a most personal basis, which is protecting our family, protecting our health and wellbeing, and protecting our economy. Our economy will not recover fully until this coronavirus has been wiped out. Isgree with you, i think it unfortunate for our country. I am really going to work hard to get back to the facts, get back to the scientific basis, making sure that we have confidence in a safe and effective vaccine that everyone will be willing to take to protect our families and get our country back on track. So thank you. So, thank you. Host ann mclane kuster, really appreciate your time this morning. Guest stay healthy, john, wear your mask. Host up next, we hear from another member of congress, Bruce Westerman, republican member of the arkansas forestry commission. First, a memorial dedicated to the legacy of president Dwight Eisenhower will be dedicated today and opening here in washington, d. C. Joining us to talk about that memorial is senator pat roberts, the head of the commission for that memorial. Senator roberts, good morning to you, sir. Got a suggestion for amy. Why doesnt she support Dwight Eisenhower . This memorial today about that legacy, can you talk about the history of this memorial . When did the effort begin and what has it been like trying to land this opening amid a pandemic . Well, we persevered, we persevered, and then we persevered with many agencies and the eisenhower family. When we finally got it right, we we were going to dedicated at 7 00. Its going to be a beautiful site on independence avenue across from the air and space museum there on the side of the capital. , low statuary where the president put his hand on the globe. Statuarys the iconic of the president with the 100 first airborne saying lets go on dday. Unique in that he was the supreme allied commander and in europe he defeated nazi germany, saved western democracy, then we got eight years of peace and prosperity. Imagine that. I think most historians look on a crisis that happens in an administration and they talk about that a lot, but he prevented the crisis and, as he said, the proudest thing he could say was that no american man or woman in uniform lost their life during his eight years in presidency. Host how is the memorial going to happen today . I know you are going to be the keynote speaker. Whats your message . We cut it down from 18 minutes to 15, thats a good thing. But i think that eisenhowers comments, eisenhowers presidency, the way he was he waged war and then he waged peace to bring america to the world stage. He got along. Susan eisenhower just wrote a book called the middle way. Did he was a president that not delegate responsibility, he had authority and he did so much. The air and space highway system, nasa, the memorial sitting right next the department of education. And then you know, so many other things. But i think a memorial is pretty controversial these days, not to mention statues. But with eisenhower [no audio] think we lost senator pat roberts there this morning. We will try to get him back. I should note that the dedication of the memorial will be tonight at 7 p. M. Live coverage on cspan two, you can watch or listen to it on the free cspan radio app and you can watch it livestreamed at cspan. Org for the do dwight d. Eisenhower memorial dedication. We will try one more time to see if we got the senator back. Well, you will see him again tonight if you tune into cspan. Org at 7 p. M. Now, we go back up to capitol hill, to the other side of the capital, we are joined by republican congressman Bruce Westerman. Before elected office he worked as an engineer in forrester, the only one serving in congress. As we continue to watch the western states burn this week, to went out yesterday discuss the importance of Forest Management. Can you walk us through what that means and what we are and arent doing for our western forests right now . Guest good morning. Great to be with you. Forest management, thats something i love to talk about, being a forrester, being licensed to practice forestry. I have seen how it works. We are talking about applying science make the forest healthy and resilient. In the time of climate effects, its more important now than ever to apply these science Management Practices to the forest. In the act, the bill that i filed, there are four areas on public lands that cross into private lands that we really need to focus on, especially in with fire prone areas higher temperatures. Youve got all the physics for fire. Fuel, oxygen, and heat. What we can do is manage the fuel part of it. Is,wildland urban interface places where you are subject to not just catastrophic wildfire, but death and property destruction. We saw what happened in the camp fire. We saw billions of dollars in property damage. These are areas that need to be and managed immediately. We should have been doing it years ago. Along with that we need to look at transportation corridors where you have vehicles going back and forth, more humans interacting with the forest. People unfortunately throwing cigarettes out the window, or fire. Er, can start a we need to manage in those areas. We need to start with transmission corridors where you have power lines. Thats how a lot of these fires start. We need to do management on critical watersheds. The forests are so important to air quality and are also the best tool we have to manage Water Quality. Founders recognized that. Roosevelt recognized the importance of forest to air and water. These are the places that need the work the most and immediately. After that, we can move further out into the forests. But im not talking about clearcutting. Im talking about typically thinning the load from side to side. You cannot be too generalized, but taking out smaller stuff, the trees that are too closely spaced. Giving them the space they need for sunlight and water and to not have the lighter fuel to get up into the crowds that cause these tremendous catastrophic fires. For those of us on the east coast, how do you fight a fire . How much is new technology versus whats on the ground . Whats the typical plan . The best way to fight a wildfire is to prevent it in the first place. You can stack the deck in your wildland urbane interfaces and other areas, you can create fire breaks so the fire drops to the ground. You can put them out with more conventional boots on the ground approaches, but firefighting has become a Huge Industry in this country. We have got 747 tankers and other large aircraft using drones that are very sophisticated and expensive. We could be saving up money and putting it towards more Forest Management and preventing the adage that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure is magnified over and over when we talk about our forests. Host when the firefighters go into fight the wildfires, what are they actually doing eschenbach are they trying to clear ahead fuel ahead of the fire . Trying to redirect the fire . What happens there . Guest they use different approaches. Sometimes you want to set a backfire so that you are burning into the wind. So that there is not fuel. Arefirefighters, but they trying to achieve his fuel reduction. They are trying to clear a path, burn backfires and do things to get the fuel out of the way because that is really the only thing that we can control. When these big fires get going, they create their own heat and you get the wind that adds more oxygen and it gets back to physics on fuel, oxygen, and heat. The thing that we can control and try to work on is mostly on fuel. Some of the stuff that you put on it from the air that takes the oxygen out, thats the main tool and Science Behind fighting fires. The we have probably got best guest on capitol hill to talk about Forest Management this morning. Congressman Bruce Westerman is joining us from capitol hill, republican from arkansas, taking your questions. Republicans host billy is up first, out of oakland. Democratic line. You are on with congressman westerman. Caller thank you for taking my call. Facile smokeyhe the bear Forest Management malarkey. Its fast ill bs temperaturesng couldnt have anything to do with turning the west into a massive tinder box thats ready to ignite the spark. What we can do is control fossil fuel emissions starting with of 600ing subsidies billion on the pentagon budget. Look, republicans, they used to be for cap in trade. Now it is all this wavering between denial and skepticism of god will save us and the planet is big and its all a cycle and all this malarkey. Clearly, you have to do something about Climate Change and republicans refused to even recognize the reality of that, with all of this equivocation. Guest billy, thank you for bringing up the point about climate. Andve to discuss climate debate that. Its part of the problem and something that we need to address. Our forests are a big part of the solution and that. When we look at whats happening with climate, if you look at what we know from polar ice caps on the amount of carbon in the atmosphere, preindustrial revolution in the modern times, it didnt get above 300 parts per million. In the 1950s when we actually started sampling Carbon Dioxide in hawaii, we saw that carbon got over 300 parts per million. Now we are over 400 parts per million. There is no scientific doubt that we are putting more Carbon Dioxide into the atmosphere. How do we get that out . Theres a lot of things we need to do with fuel. Innovationhave more so that we can continue to produce the energy that we need and balance it with carbon going into the atmosphere. If you look at trees, theres one thing that pulls carbon out of the atmosphere. If you want to get the carbon, the atmosphere carbon levels lower, plant more trees, make your forests healthy. Photosynthesis takes the Carbon Dioxide and stores the carbon in the wood and releases oxygen for us to breathe. The woods stores the carbon better than anything we could invent to store carbon. Sustainablyhe woods , thats being done in a lot of different places, you can create carbon reservoirs in the new buildings. I think that we can address the climate issue. Long term there are a lot of things that have to happen. It cant happen overnight, just like Climate Change doesnt happen overnight. But we can work on those policies and at the same time start doing things to make the forest healthy that are also good for the climate. You mentioned the trillion trees act. You talked about planting them in the past in the wrong ways that we did it. Can you talk about how we should be planting trees . Specifically not doing it all at once so that they all grow old all at once when we try to plan new auras. Guest unfortunately, where the five forest fires come through, you do want to plant them at the same time and you can manage them for uneven management over time but when you regenerate in the forest, its probably going to be even. Its not the simplest thing as planting trees. You get a lot of natural regeneration. You will even get trees that sprout up where the fires have been without anybody planting them. As we look across the country in the world, it becomes sitespecific. Bottomlands of arkansas where we have wetlands that we are trying to restore, you can plant multiple species of different kinds of hardwood and overtime you would manage that for an uneven aged forests. The sciences there. We know how to do it. Its not that we dont have the knowledge, the ability, or the Research Behind how to do this. Its just getting the system in place to make it happen. Whats happening a lot on our federal lands right now is you have competing interests for rights on the land. Wants aeverybody certain right that the land provides, you end up with nobody doing anything and thats the biggest problem with our federal lands and forest. No management is happening in the management that is happening is a handsoff approach that is putting the fire out as soon as it starts. You talk about smoky bear, he should have been controlled earning bear. That would have been a much better approach to keeping the forests healthy. Host terry, republican line, good morning. Iller i was calling because had a recent trip to colorado and we were up in the rio grande wilderness area, all these different types of areas, the forests were dead. Most of the mountainsides and mountains that we looked at and hiked through, a lot of the forests were dead as far as i could see. I looked on the department of forestry webpage and they do said it was a depot that had done this damage. What can be done with those forest sitting there to sitting there ready to catch on fire. Guest thats a great analysis and i appreciate you bringing that up. Again, it didnt have to be that way. Forests are a lot like humans. If you get stressed, if your immune system is weakened, when disease comes along, it attacks you and you are not near as resistant to it. Forests,een these especially in colorado where you are way overstocked, they are competing for all the resources. Climates rise, temperatures rise when there is less water. They get stressed. When they are stressed to get the insects and the disease moving in and the Mountain Pine beetles came in there, killed a lot of trees. Now you are really talking about a tinderbox. What we should be doing is taking a proactive approach to restoring the lands, taking the timber out, getting new growth and managing it so that the trees that are there have a chance to survive and compete. Its so much common sense but we have a really hard time making it happen. Host just about 10 minutes or so before the house is scheduled to come in for legislative business this morning. We will take viewers there for gaveltogavel coverage when they do come in. Until then, congressman Bruce Westerman taking your questions this morning. From twitter what are your views on the Green New Deal . Theres a better approach that a regulatory approach. If you look at how you achieve environmental success, you either do it regulatory or you do it with an incentivebased system. I think the great thing about america is the free market has always worked in the free market will work with environmentalism as well as it works in other areas. We are seeing a shift towards this. Just yesterday the business roundtable, i believe they represent about 7. 5 trillion dollars in revenue in the u. S. Economy, all the companies that are a part of that, they put out there climate policy. They are looking at, you know, what do we do to make a better environment and climate . To see starting petroleum companies, bp and shell announcing that they will reduce the amount of fossil fuels that they produce, trying to transition more into energy companies. Thats excited not only because of the capital being invested, but you have Brilliant Minds coming up with innovation and new solutions. Instead of doing more of a political environmentalism, where you say you must do this lets cant do that, relieve the free market. Let people come up with ideas to make the environment better and also make the economy better. Theres a lot of really promising things out there and thats the kind of legislation and leadership i want in congress. Gail is out of massachusetts. Line for democrats, good morning. Are you with us . Then we will go to lynn, june lake, independent. Good morning. Morning. Ood i live in the middle of International Forest with a timber with timber everywhere. My husband was a 35 year timber contractor. We are very familiar with the tinderbox out there, especially i heard someone talking about colorado, but also through tahoe, yosemite. Its there is so much Natural Resource out there ready to be harvested. It just seems impossible. I love what you are saying. We tried to work with the Forest Service and it seems like their hands are so tied. We cant do this, cant do that, they try to start a project and an Environmental Group will challenge the epa or, you know, start a petition to end the project. We are burning. We have bad air quality. As far as Climate Control or climate crisis, you know, everybody cries about it, but nobody parks their car. If everybody took the drywall off their walls, they would see would. Its like as soon as you are ready to give up the luxuries of fossil fuel through cooking, driving, and all the things it provides, maybe then you can kinda put your money where your mouth is. In the meantime, i just really love what you are saying and as a citizen i would love to see ,ome sort of plan management land managed, it cant be preserved. We would love to be able to follow you on your work. I appreciate those kind comments. Supplymmon sense with science. Federal land managers, the bureau of land management, those organizations were put in place to bring expertise to federal lands. Its not that they dont know how to manage them, but often when their hands are tied they get back to this idea of competing rights for the land and trying to do political environmentalism. Forest illustration, the service will put out a plan to do management, someone sues them, it goes to court, theres an injunction and the plan gets filed away. No human management happens but management happens because forests are constantly in a state of flux. Flow forests constantly change. If we could come to the table and agree not to stop these sound management plans, we can see a lot Better Success on forests and across all land management. Thats the kind of policy and pushing for here in congress. I think when we will sit down and talk rationally about its something that republicans, democrats, and independence can all agree on. Host the caller talked about following your work, and a good way to do that is using your twitter handle. She also brought up a term that viewers may not be familiar with. . Hat is new but nepa guest the National Environmental policy act, the process that federal land managers go through when they prepare a management plan. Its all done with good and tatians good intentions, just like the clean water act and the endangered species act. All the rules were put out there with good intentions but they also provide a mechanism for somebody that may not have an , but has antimber interest in outdoor recreation, they say i dont want you touching the timber, so im going to sue you and get the project stopped. In reality if you look at the science, sound Forest Management helps for recreation and for wildlife habitat. Really, if we have healthy forest its a win for everyone. Theres no downside. You get clean air, clean water, better wildlife habitats, beautiful vistas, and you can have rural economies that thrive off the Renewable Resources that come off the land. I would just ask people who are filing these suits, who are there where the air quality is so bad, how is that working for you . Look at the habitat for endangered species. How is that working for those endangered species . When the fire stops in the rain comes, how is that doing for Water Quality . We really need to have an honest discussion about those things. Host is that what you meant when yesterday you said if trees could talk, they would ask us to stop loving them so much. Guest yeah, we are loving our trees to death. I love trees, they are so fascinating to me. My wife calls me the tree nerd. But we have got to put discipline in the life. Youve got to manage the forests and give them a chance to survive. You know, im not the lorax, but i do want to speak on behalf of the trees and it is our responsibility to be good stewards of them. Host time for a couple of more calls here. Darlene, waiting out of washington. Did i get that right . Caller good morning. California, 1960 to 1994, i lived there. The way that i described to the california weather to people is sun, wind, fire. Thats all we experience, sun, wind, and fire. It happened every year because of the el nino. We took a trip and went through yosemite. Because of a beaver beetle harvesting on the trees, there were so many dead trees. There was a lot of logging going on, they were leaving the tinder and pulling the healthy trees. I talked to people the other day, i asked why doesnt the federal government establish a body where they hire people . Im not talking about president s. Thats a whole prisoners, theres a whole set of problems with prisoners in the forest. Why doesnt the federal government hire people . You know,ople start, federal employees to go out on these dead floors and pickup whats lying on these forest floors . To clean them out . And then cut down the trees that are dead from these more healthy trees . And then continue the logging . But at least make the forest where you are able to walk through them. Thats my comment. I would like to hear about having a federal Agency Available with money to clean up these forests and make the federal employees i dont care if they get pensions or whatever. Host congressman, dont we have a Forest Service right now . Guest weve got a Forest Service. Its not a matter of knowing how, is having the permission to do it. If you had permission to do it there would be private businesses springing up that would be glad to go do that work. You can provide good jobs in rural areas. Again, its not because we dont know how to do that or people wouldnt be willing to do it. We have Great Technology and it requires some Skilled Labor to go do these logging activities and Forest Management activities. Its simply that you cannot get legal permission to do it. The court system, its a congressional failure to direct clear policy that is tying the hands of the people that love to do this work. Host this is tim, out of griffiths, indiana, democratic line, good morning. Guest good morning. I have maybe a stiff stupid question. They built a pipeline across the state of alaska, one of the meanest environments in the world. How come we cannot build leasttion pipelines to at some of these areas . I realize it took big money to do that, but, ok, isnt it worth big money to save the environment . Thats all i had to say. If you have a comment, i will listen on tv guest tim, our environment is big money and its very important for our future. We could have a whole show talking about a lot of these water, not only that but the Natural Resources committee, im the Ranking Member on the wire water and environment transportation subcommittee. I deal a lot with water and we have so many opportunities to be better stewards to the water in this country. Not only to use less of it and conserve what we have got, but also to have cleaner water. Thats another issue that we all need to be working on. Whether its new pipelines or just learning to use the water we got in a better way so that we dont have to pop it pipe it in from other places. In my home state of arkansas we are blessed with lots of resources, water being one of those, but we still need to do a much better job of managing it and being good stewards of that resource as well. Beforen the time we have the house comes in pretty soon, where does the trillion trees act stand . Guest well, we are getting ready to file the second version of it. To my reached out democratic colleagues, trying to get them to work with me on this bill. Unfortunately, with the , imical season we are in getting some success with the senate. I think we could file a Senate Version of the bill at the same time. President trump gets a lot of flak, people criticize him on climate and the environment. He may not be a scientist, but hes a businessman and he knows when he sees a good dill. Planting trees and using sustainable willing products is a good thing. Taking care of the forest we have got. Host Bruce Westerman is a republican from arkansas, member of the house Natural Resources committee. Do appreciate your time this morning. Guest john, always good to be with you. Look forward to the next time. Host that is going to do it for our program today. We will be back tomorrow morning at 7 a. M. Eastern, 4 a. M. Pacific. We now take you to the floor of the house of representatives. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2020]
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