Test captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2008 sunday morning, i know i just came from mass but nonetheless, ill say this. When youre in the arena you have to be ready to take a punch, throw a punch for the children. For the children. Really, arent we all about the future and how we envision the future and its about the children and their future. People ask me the three most important issues facing the congress, i say the same thing, our children, our children, our children, their health, their education, the Economic Security of their families, a clean, safe environment including gun safety, violence protection in which they can thrive in a nation, a world of peace in which they can reach their fulfillment. There are plenty of Common Ground in all of that and i do think that we should seek as much Common Ground as possible. So when women come to me and say, how do you take all these barbs . I said doesnt matter to me, its worth it for what we are here to do for the children. My daughter alexandria is a filmmaker, made like 13 movies, many about whats going on in america, but she thinks basically politicians are boring. Shes only interested in the Popular Culture and whatever aspect that elections have to the Popular Culture and what people feel and how we meet their needs. Christine is a great organizer. She was a prosecutor. She works with u. S. Hud. She, too its a funny thing. We really do believe from many one. Thats what our founders taught us, from many one. They didnt know how many or how different we would be from each other, but they knew in our differences we had to be one as a country. Thats the politics in which i was raised and our kids see it and try to pull it back to a place where everybody is thinking, were one, now how do we vresolve our differences to get to that place. Theyre more in that vain than wanting to run for office, as far as i know. But i had absolutely zero intention of running for office until people came to me and encouraged me to do so. Sometimes the parents are the last to know, miss speaker. A lot of things. And now the grandparents. Eplur ra bus unum does say it all. One of the great expressions, was on the countrys seal from the very beginning. I just proposed adding it to the seal of new york because it really does sum up our overall philosophy. Let me ask you the first substantive question and then governors, obviously, weve been having a good conversation over the past couple days and ill turn it over to them. One of the topics we have been talking about is infrastructure and were going to work on getting a new word, by the way, because i think its just a that that word doesnt have the appeal we need to seduce all our partners into the business. Governors tend to be a practical group, they tend to be pragmatic. You know, we have to function every day. We wake up in the morning, we have to shovel coal into the boiler to start the heat, right. Infrastructure is a tremendous need. Everybody knows it. Everybody talks about it. 1. 5 trillion expected deficit in infrastructure needs by 2025. Federal government has talked about a significant Infrastructure Program over the past five administrations. Its been the same basic pledge. Meanwhile, the infrastructure deteriorates and the states are stepping in, but it is very hard for us because it is about funding at the end dafrts. We spent a lot of time on creative mechanisms and partnerships and p3s to find the financing on the state side. Without the federal government really stepping in to this arena, were not going to do what this nation needs. Evers the shift globally and we see our stagnation. A twopart question. A, why is it so difficult if theres one topic we are going to be able to find Common Ground, it is infrastructure, transportation, Economic Development, do we think theres any chance that we will get there in the near future and what can be doing as governors who represent democrats and republicans all across this country, we would be the implementing vehicle, right, the federal government is not going to go into the business, theyll defer to the states, so we would be the vehicle of actual function, what can we be doing or should be doing to actually help get to a resolution . Thank you for the question. I dont know another word for infrastructure except perhaps growth for america. Theres probably 4 trillion, maybe more, according to the society of civil engineers, 4 trillion dollars of deficit and this not just about brick and mortar and paving roads and the rest. Its about growth, quality of life, Public Health in terms of clean air and clean water, getting cars off the road, more public transit. Its about clean water. Some of our Water Systems are bricks and mortar, 100 years old. Its about broadband into rural areas, especially, but some of the urban deserts as well. Into the urban areas, its an education issue, health issue, and the rest. Its never, going back ive been in congress a long time, this was never a partisan issue. We all came together and worked together to build the infrastructure of america, to create jobs, but also and the promotion of commerce, quality of timing of product to market, it affects everything. And in our agenda for the people in which we won 40 seats in the last election, this was for the people who were going to do three things one, we were going to lower the cost of health care by lowering the cost of Prescription Drugs and i hope to have an opportunity to talk to you about that and protecting the preexisting conditions. Two, building the infrastructure of america, building Lower Health Care costs, bigger paychecks, building the infrastructure of america. Three, cleaner government by decreasing the role of big, dark money in politics and having that give people more confidence in the political system. I think on the first two we really had a lot of Common Ground with the administration and weve been working with them on the Prescription Drug bill until they stopped working with us on that. Be on the infrastructure, its all about money. Its all about pay for. And that takes us to another place, which is the National Debt is growing at such a rate that we have to pay as you go. Thats one of the issues that i have within my own party frequently, pay as you go. You want something new, either substitute it for something, take something away, or find a revenue source. But we have to pay as we go. That doesnt mean that certain aspects of building the infrastructure of america dont have an impact of bringing money back in, but by and large, if you want to go 2 trillion as the president said he would be willing to do we have to find revenue sources. Some of them are within. For example, Harbor Maintenance fund or some things are theres some pockets we can put our hand in, but others, were just going to have to pay as we go. So thats really the obstacle because we have talked about all these things, whether its transportation, roads, mass transit, even highspeed rail, issues that relate to infrastructure and water and the rest, the grid, all of that, we have to do that. But when it came time to talk about paying for it was when the president walked out of the room. We do have my chairman, ritchie neil, would say that some of the things we can do and we did successfully in the stimulus bill, build america bonds. We got governors, democratic and republican, mayors came to us and said we got a lot of out of that because the Interest Rates were low. Now even more so. We could use build america bonds. We have to be entrepreneurial, transformative really, in our thinking about how we pay for it. We have in my view, we have to pay for it. And we have in the past. So this is nothing new. Its not usually a political we agree to this big plan, not agreeing on a pay for it yet, but were going to arrive at that together. We didnt have it two different points of view, we just havent come to a conclusion. They sent us over 200 we went from 2 trillion to 200 billion bill. This is what was painful, it was so small, it wasnt meeting the challenge in any way. It wasnt even a trillion dollars. And in it they reversed the formula. The formula used to be, 80 federal, 20 local. State or local. They reversed that formulation and said its going to be 80 outside and 20 federal. Now, you know, again im a budget hawk. I want to reduce the deficit. But who is going to come up with 80 to really get the job done unless its just some small initiative. So this is something that we can all Work Together. The mayors are very bullish on doing infrastructure as well. You all could be a tremendous resource on this. We chose those two things, reducing the cost of Prescription Drugs and this, because they were things the president was advocating. We were finding our Common Ground on two areas that he was advocating we thought we could Work Together and get what you get, results for the American People. But we dont have a big choice because here we have the whole issue of climate and theres some exuberance in my own party about that, but building the infrastructure in a resilient green way is a way to help preserve the planet. Its a Common Ground place for us to go. Another part of it that you all are in the lead on, if youre going to do this and do it big, you have to have you have to have the talent, the development of the talent for all of this. Education, training, tasks schools to train people to be able to do Workforce Development is a critical part of buildings the infrastructure, Workforce Development, you know so much about that in terms of education. So its a real opportunity. See everything. Dont see everything as a fight. See everything as an opportunity. How can we make the most of this for the good of the American People to get results and to do so in a way that does not add, as the tax scam did, 2 trillion to the National Debt. This is unstainsble. And by building the infrastructure, we create jobs, again in the immediate, promote commerce to create more jobs, and that brings revenue into the increases paychecks and brings revenue into peoples paychecks. They get bigger paychecks. Theyre more confident in their consumer activities. And with all of that, they inject into the economy which produces revenue. It has a full circle of advantages for all of us to do that. I hope as much as nonpartisan as it always used to be, that we could get to a place where we have to make decisions and the decision is, were not going to pay for it or whatever, then we have to understand the consequences of that as we weigh the equities of it all. Im optimistic because we must do it and its one thing that the public really appreciate and wants. They dont necessarily like the word infrastructure, i will agree with you, but if you say, we need to have some revenue because were going to repair the bridges this is a safety issue as well were going to repair in your area, there will be more facilitation of transportation, if the people see the impact as in california, governor, as you know better, they assaulted the gas tax, but when people saw the saw what it meant in their areas, it was sustained overwhelmingly and thank you for your leadership. Thank you very much, madam speaker. Let me turn it over to my colleagues. I think our chairman, governor hogan, had the first question. Well, first of all, madam speaker, on behalf of americas governors, we want to thank you very much for your joining us here this afternoon. And thank you for giving the Economic Development plug to little italy in baltimore. We hope all the governors get a chance to visit while youre here in town. Actually Governor Cuomo stole my first question. I wanted to talk about infrastructure but i will do a followup if i could. As chairman, ive been leading a yearlong initiative on rebuilding americas infrastructure and many of the governors around the table have been working together really in a bipartisan way to try to come up with some common sense solutions. Weve been trying to address these issues in our states and to try to come up with some recommendations maybe we can come to washington with. Wonderful. That would be great. To give advice to our leaders here how we might reach an agreement. Because it seems as if everyone says that its the top priority i mean, the in both houses of congress and on both sides of the aisle and in the administration and all of us here believe its an issue that needs to be addressed, i guess, you know and youve discussed it a lot already and i want to gets to the other governors questions, but realistically, what do you see as the possibilities of us actually getting something done in this Election Year or is it possible for us to move forward on this issue . Thank you, governor. I thank you for your leadership on this issue. If you promise not to tell anybody, ritchie neil, our chairman of ways and means, will be having breakfast with secretary mnuchin on tuesday and basically said to us during the u. S. mexico trade agreement, you get that done well talk about funding on infrastructure. Theyre going to be meeting about what the possibilities are. Again, its not just about adding to the theres never going to be enough appropriated funds ever to meet the needs that we have. We have to be more entrepreneurial and creative in how we come up with it, but build america bonds would be one of them. I think it is really, honestly, within range and i and we want to make sure that it is and saying to people, its going to be a compromise, understand that, its a negotiation, but weighing the equities justify whatever youre suggesting or and justify however you think you should be paying for it. I think theres a real chance. The president wants it, but again, the deficit, the deficit this year, the deficit, im not talking about the National Debt, the deficit this year is a trillion dollars. Again, im a big believer of pay as you go, but republicans like if i may be allowed a moment, the republicans say, pay as you go for any initiatives that you have on the on the domestic side shall we say, but dont pay as you go when you do tax cuts. 83 of it going to the high end, adding enormously to the debt. Think if we had that money for infrastructure. We could be well down the road, which would bring much more money into the economy than what they are doing. If i may, governor, thank you and mrs. Hogans presence at Elijah Cummings service. He was a hero to so many of us and and it was long. But you stayed. It was just lovely. If i may segue from that, we held him in such high esteem that we named our hr3, Elijah CummingsLower Health Care cost now legislation. Hopefully well get a chance to talk about that again. I look forward to working with you on the infrastructure issue. Mrs. Hogan, lovely to see you. He was an extraordinary gentleman and we all miss him. Governor pritzker. Thank you. Thank you, governor. Thank you for your leadership and your service, madam speaker. Thank you. Thank you, governor. I i wanted to ask you about the census. First, to thank you for your leadership in making sure that funding was available and making sure that the census is moving forward. Is there more that congress will do with regard to the census and how can we, as governors, be supportive of that effort . Thank you for your question because this is our founders put this is the constitution. The United States of america, who are we. An accurate, thorough count of who we are without any limitation in terms of citizenship or the rest. And that was unfortunate that was in there because it had a Chilling Effect on some people participating. But i i believe, you correct me if im wrong, its in everybodys interest here at this table that you have the biggest count for your state in terms of what it means in terms of services. I dont have to tell you that. You know that. Im just saying that. And then, of course, it relates to your representation in congress as well. Were always most interested in what it means in the lives of the people that were here to serve and they are better served if theres an accurate count of how many they are. One of our, shall we say, friendly negotiations with the caps, was that we had a big increase for the census. I know in our own state, our governor has put 150 million to remove obstacles to it. Its just respect yourself. Be counted. We keep just saying to people, dont avoid this for some fear that you may have. This is about who we are as a country. We did win in that. More than you want to know on the subject, but part of it was, we didnt think it should be counted as a regular domestic spending thing because its an exceptional expenditure just for this period of time when we have it. We didnt want it to cannibalize anything we might be doing for title 1, for children in schools and that, on the domestic side, so it was part of our debate and we kind of split the difference and came up with a good number for that. Thank you for asking, that is the dna, who we are, people and we want the full reflection of who that is and all of its beautiful diversity and numbers, sometimes maybe to the disadvantage of one state or another. We were watching carefully in california. We may lose one. Whatever it is, it has to be the accurate count. Thank you for your question and thank you for your leadership on this subject, which gives people real confidence they are important and they count. Sign me up. Thank you. I think we have time for one more. Weve run a little bit over time. Well go to our dean, madam speaker, of the governors is governor herbert. Governor. Thank you, Governor Cuomo and madam speaker. Nice to see you again. Thank you. Good to see you here. Thank you for speaking to the nations governors. Whether you plan on it or not, we thank you for your many years of service. Thank you. I do remember when we met last time, me along with a couple other governors had the opportunity to talk about issues of the day, and you quoted one of our favorite quotes from a judge who said, states are the laboratories of democracy. Right. And we are. And were doing some really good things. Every state here is doing some wonderful things to help solve the peoples problems. We work with the federal government many times as a partner, sometimes we feel like were the junior partner as opposed to coequals, but we have this ability to work with the federal government and providing programs for the people. We sometimes feel like we dont have quite the flexibility or the latitude to do what we need to do as we learn from each other what works and what doesnt work. What can be done and what can you do and we do together to provide more flexibility and latitude on these programs to give the senate wiggle room to find better ways, innovate and create Better Solutions to the problem . Well, as you recall, we have had this conversation before and thank you for your leadership. I do believe that its important for us to have as much dialog as possible because as you know, with the best intentions in the world, there can be ramifications, unforeseen consequences to legislation. The more information we have going in the better. Lets try forgetting partisan barriers, partisanship, we have differences on the role of the government and what the extent should be from the federal government, what should be local and state and local. But i think it would be not smart for us to ignore what you may have to say. Lets try to increase up front what some of the concerns may be, recognizing we do have some differences of opinion, there are some members of the congress that are antigovernment, they are also the same people who are antiscience. Its a hard thing because if you dont want to know and you dont want to do, then its hard to its hard to negotiate when theres no interest in governance or science to make an evidencebased decision. Again, youre on the front line, youre the laboratories. We learn from the governors, from the states. You have to make ends meet. We should too. You can have a capital budget. We cant. Maybe we can learn that from you. But one place that really will make a difference and that we have worked really with the administration up until now, if i may, on hr3, the lowering the cost of Prescription Drugs. It means something to you. So if i just may, what we do in that legislation is to give the secretary the authority to negotiate for lower prices. The negotiation is the leverage. The negation is the leverage. That can bring down Prescription Drugs. The formula for it is the we want the price to be no mar than 120 right now our folks are spending four or five or six times what people in other countries similar to our economy that would be australia, japan, canada, the united kingdom, germany, francep and germany i was doing it geographically france and germany. Take the average of those countries and we should not be paying any more than 120 of that. That is billions of dollars, hundreds of billions of dollars in savings and in the legislation, that savings would be used to improve medicare, dental, vision and hearing, by like a half a trillion dollars, a benefit that is more significant for medicare than anything since its inception. Very important to americas seniors and it would put a cap on 2,000 on what seniors pay. They have no cap on what they pay in the Medicare Program that some of them are in. So that. So it lowers cost. It also says this advantage is not just for medicare. Its for all those who get their drugs in private insurance as well. Its a savings to the federal government, its a savings to other governments, its a savings to business who are footing as lot of this bill and its a savings to individual families. Again, giving the having them have more discretion over their spending. Ive seen grown men cry on the campaign trail because they cannot meet the cost of prescription. I was in new jersey yesterday and new jersey the person testifying says sometimes we dont pay for electricity or heat, anything, because we have to pay for Prescription Drugs in the freezing cold. So this is, again, transformative to what it means at that Kitchen Table of americas working families as to how they meet ends make ends meet. We think that combination of lowering Health Care Costs as we protect the preexisting condition benefit and building the infrastructure of america to increase paychecks, is a fabulous combination of growth in a way that protects our planet because well do infrastructure in a way that is about the future and not wed it to the past. I put that out there, if you have suggestions, ideas, and all the rest of that, thats kind of where the debate is on some of these issues. Again, to be fiscally sound, promote growth, to create good paying jobs, increase the purchasing power for americas families, and decrease the National Debt. Thank you all for what you do. Im so honored to be here with all of you and i wish you very well in your deliberations and let this be the place that helps reduce any of the partisan barriers to finding solutions for the American People. Eplur ra bus unum. Thank you very much, madam speaker. Thank you for being with us today. Please welcome governor larry hogan who will open our next session. Article 2 is adopted. Do you solemnly swear that all things pertaining to the trial of the impeachment of donald j. Trump, president of the United States, now pending you will do impartial justice according to the constitution and laws so help you god . I do. The senate will convene as a court of impeachment. What we have seen over the last couple days is a dissent into constitutional matters. Again, we think the basis upon which this has moved forward is irregular to say the least. Donald john trump, president of the United States, is not guilty as charged in the second article of impeachment. For the third time in u. S. History, a president has been impeached and acquitted, from the house hearings to the senate trial, cspan has provided live, comprehensive coverage of the impeachment of president trump. You can find resources at cspan. Org impeachment. Cspan, your place for unfiltered coverage of congress. We go live now for a discussion on the trump administrations immigration policies. Well hear from the policy director for migration and Refugee Services at the u. S. Conference of catholic bishops. The American University law college hosts this forum. Live coverage here on cspan 3. Good morning, everyone. Good morning. Welcome back. For those of you who were here yesterday, were going tofor th yesterday, were going to get started. Good morning. Its my pleasure to welcome all of you to our second day of the best interest symposium focused on advancing protections for migrant children