Transcripts For CSPAN Key Capitol Hill Hearings 20140409

The gentleman from wisconsin. Mr. Ryan i yield two minutes to the gentleman from pennsylvania, mr. Rothfus. Mr. Rothfus i thank chairman ryan for the hard work he has been doing over the last several years as we look to get a handle on the spending problem we have here in washington, d. C. Mr. Chairman, our debt is out of control. In the past 10 years it has doubled from 7. 1 trillion to 17. 6 trillion today. We paid 416 billion in interest just last year. Imagine where that money could have been better spent. Failure to address the debt and deficits reduces opportunity and prosperity for future generations and directly threatens our ability to pay for our priorities like Social Security, medicare, a Strong National defense and taking care of our veterans. Unfortunately, president obama has offered another budget that increases taxes, expands the government, does nothing to save medicare or Social Security and never balances. Harry reids senate will not even consider a budget this year. The budget we offer to the American People protects and preserves medicare and Social Security and balances in 10 years. When congress responsibly budgets, we increase Economic Security for our families and ensure we leave our children and grandchildren with more opportunities and a brighter future. Mr. Chairman, i call on my colleagues to do right things and pass this budget. I yield back my time. The chair the time of the gentleman has expired. The gentleman from oregon. Mr. Blumenauer at this point, i would yield 1 1 2 minutes to the gentlelady from texas, distinguished member of the judiciary, ms. Jackson lee. The chair the gentlelady from texas is recognized for 1 1 2 minutes. Ms. Jackson lee i thank the gentleman from oregon and the members for a thoughtful and important debate, and thats what this is all about, it is about gripping a hold of the heart and soul of america. The budget is actually a moral document, a moral compass of where we want to take this country. I think what needs to be explained to the American Public is in tulet, we have been making progress. The deficit has gone down from 1 trillion from the past administration, the bush administration, to now 680 billion. We are making trog, from losing 800,000 jobs a month to imagining close to 200,000. But the document that is on the floor today, the ryan budget, the republican budget chooses to not have the morality and affection for the American People that is desired. When you look at their budget, you will see that 3. 3 trillion, 69 of their budget is cuts for programs for people with low or moderate income, the people who need a stair step of opportunity. They give 200,000 in tax cuts to the top 1 and none of us have any challenge to prosperity and opportunity, but how can you have a budget that hits lowincome programs or programs that give opportunity, how many have gone to schools because of pell grants, 175 million in cuts. How many people have gotten their health care from medicaid and still do, like children . How many people have needed to have the snap program . I believe we have budgets to work all people. I plan to vote for the c. B. C. Budget and democratic budget and no on this republican budget. We need to have a standard that respects all people in this country and this budget does not. I yield back. The chair the time of the gentlelady has expired. The gentleman from wisconsin. Mr. Ryan i yield two minutes to the gentleman from arizona. The chair the gentleman from arizona is recognized for two minutes. Mr. Schweikert i have been listening to the speakers on the left and as the gentlewoman just spoke, its a moral document. I agree with that. Let us discuss what is moral for the next generation and the generation after that and the generation after that. I grabbed this little poster which had been dropped off to me last week and its a little poster from over at the center which has been doing calculations of what would United States debt look like if you took the debt and unfunded liabilities of this country and put it on g. A. P. Accounting, whats the real number, the window attached to the regular debt. Process in your mind what you have been told year after year of your unfunded liket. I need you to wipe liability, i need you to wipe that number clean. They came up with 205 trillion. 205 trillion of debt and unfunded debt and liability. You do realize if you go to google and look at the best estimates of the wealth of the world, our unfunded liabilities are now exceeding many of the estimates of the wealth of the entire world. And this is what so many members are willing to hand to our children, our greatgrandchildren and the future generation. If you want to make a moral argument that debt, those unfunded liabilities is the moral argument. I yield back. The chair the time of the gentleman has expired. The gentleman from oregon. Mr. Blumenauer i would yield a minute and a half, the gentleman from vermont, member of the energy and commerce committee, mr. Welch. The chair the gentleman is recognized for 1 1 2 minutes. Well well we are mr. Welch we are making an argument as we see it alliance with our point of view on the budget and the bottom line is we have to invest and have a balanced budget, but the question i have about this budget is whats going to happen to the potholes in america . I came out of the state legislature where we had constraints on it and we had to find ways to pay our bills within the needs of the people of vermont to pay them. We had to deal with real problems and required a confident approach in investing in the future. That has to be part of a budget and americas roads are falling apart, our bridges are falling down. This is a real disaster when it comes to meeting the infrastructure needs of this country. The American Society of Civil Engineers rates our infrastructure dplus and estimates that the amount of investment needed by 2020 to be 3. 6 billion. This budget accepts the looming insolvency of the Highway Trust Fund and does nothing to fix it. Those potholes are not going to fix themselves and that is not republican or democrats but potholes in your district and mine. Scientific research, both sides are proud at americas scientific achievements and what this budget continues to do is reduce and squeeze National Institutes of health grants by about 1,400. The university of vermont has seen a 20 drop in those Research Grants and affects folks who are finding the cures for diseases in the future. The chair the time of the gentleman has expired. Mr. Ryan how much is left . The chair while there is no set time, the time is approximately 34 it will be 34 for full time and 32 on the minority side. Mr. Ryan all right. Having the right to reserve to close, we have no more speakers so ill let the gentleman consume the rest of the time. Mr. Blumenauer further inquiry, as i understand, the majority has consumed 34 minutes the chair has that much time remaining. And the gentleman from oregon has 32 minutes remaining. Mr. Blumenauer but were going to carry that. Got it. So i yield myself two minutes. The chair the gentleman from oregon is recognized for two minutes. Mr. Blumenauer thank you. And i do appreciate the back and forth discussion here, but i want to put this in perspective, if i could, because our friends with the republican budget have assumed, for instance, that were really not going to we dont necessarily have to raise taxes. We could actually cut some of the loopholes that weve offered repeatedly, and although that is referred to rhetorically, theyve never been able to follow through with any that they would cut. There are medicaid cuts and make no mistake about it these medicaid cuts are actually reductions in nursing home care for americas most vulnerable. Thats 2 3 of this money, and its going to be visited back on the states and impacting on families. They repeal the Affordable Care act, but they keep all the associated revenues. We went through a Campaign Season excoriating democrats for the reductions in Medicare Advantage and they keep that in their budget. Theres the magic of dynamic scoring, which weve heard about repeatedly for years which never quite proves itself. And then we have cuts to pell grants. We heard described in committee that these cuts to pell grants are not a problem because theyre just an excuse to raise tuition and enrich lavish academic salaries. Mr. Speaker, this republican budget not only would constrain us to have a freeze us into a downward decline in our infrastructure, it would be the lowest level of nonmilitary Discretionary Spending that we have seen in generations. Its not going to happen. It shouldnt happen, and my republican friends should not be able to get away with assuming that this is a viable and responsible approach. I hope well come to the point, again, where we can find a way to come together to deal with things that we fuelly agree on in a tangible way and make some real progress. The chair the time of the gentleman has expired. The gentleman from wisconsin. Mr. Ryan i yield myself four minutes. The chair the gentleman from wisconsin is recognized for four minutes. Mr. Ryan mr. Chairman, budgeting is about choosing. Budgeting is about setting priorities, and in this particular case, setting a path for the country. Weve got serious fiscal challenges unlike any weve had before. And when we look at some of these fiscal challenges, it is very clear that the sooner we get on top of these problems, the sooner we deal with these problems, the better off everybodys going to be. Here in a nutshell is our big fiscal issue. Its not a democratrepublican thing. Its not a partisan thing. Its sort of a demographic and math thing. We are going from roughly 40 million seniors to about 80 million seniors, retirees. The baby boomers are retiring 10,000 people a day at this pace for 10 years. The programs they use, that they rely on like medicare, really important programs, they grow 6 to 8 a year. So when you have a payasyougo system where current workers pay current taxes out of their current paychecks to pay for current when im m paying, retired, my kids will do the same for me, when you have an 89 increase in the retirement population but about a 17 increase in the taxpaying population, therein lies your challenge. So these programs are growing so much faster than our ability to pay. Theyre growing faster than wages, than our economy, than revenues. To the point where these programs that we rely on look, ive seen Social Security and medicare do very important things in my own family, in my own life. These things are going bankrupt. The sooner we fix it the better off were all going to be. The other problem is, if we dont fix this, if we dont even show the world or the country that we even intend to x this, our economy really suffers, because the economy, business, banks, credit unions, creditors, small business, large business, they dont know what the future is going to look like. So all these things we need to do to get people to take risk, to hire people, to invest, to start a new business, were slowing that down. Thats why the c. B. O. Says the economy is just slowing down. Its hard to get people out of poverty if we dont have good jobs that can get out of poverty too. Now, you look at a chart, were going into uncharted territory. Weve had big debt before. Our debt was as big as our economy in world war ii but for the years we fought world war ii and then it went back down. Because of this problem i described, not a republican or democrat problem, just americas problem, our debt is going more than twice the sees size of our economy. Twice the size of our economy. You cant have a Prosperous Society with na kind of debt. Its never been done before. And so what were saying is, lets get ahead of this problem. Lets phase in these reforms so that we can make good to our promise to our seniors whove already retired, so all those people who are nearing retirement, people in their later 50s who are thinking about planning for their retirement, lets make good for them but lets acknowledge that those of us in the x generation and lower, younger, these programs will not be for us when we retire. We need to fix this. And oh, by the way, we need progrowth solutions, reform the tax code, balance the budget, have an Energy Renaissance in america, streamline our regulations so businesses know how to plan so we can plan and create Economic Growth. This budget does that. Thats why join us cogan will later in the show. Conversation on facebook and twitter. Let me say to him, lets bury the hatchet. [applause] first, i want to say to the gephardter that jane and i would like to invite hi m and his wife to missouri. I hope we can come to your district in illinois. Find more highlights on our Facebook Page. Yourn, brought to you by providor. Atellite provider. Akin toed something the realignment and closing commission, an outside group with integrity, former members of congress, no current members to do an audit of congress from top to bottom. If its not fulfilling its purpose, eliminate it. Dhere are now three hea starts. Two . O we have the other the first wasnt working. Fixing a broken washington. Partyheritage foundation as he signs books and chats with guests. Panels on race, power, and politics. And strengthening communities, a historical narrative. On cspan 2. President obama signed an executive order. The president is joined by Lilly Ledbetter. [applause] ladies and gentlemen, the president of the United States accompanied by mrs. Lilly ledbetter. [applause] thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. [applause] thank you and good morning. My name is Lilly Ledbetter and i am honored to stand here today on behalf of women everywhere who are struggling to make ends meet because of the gender pay gap. My perm story of unfair pagan in 1979 when i started at good year tire and rubber company. I thought a job at good year could help put my two children through college and enable my husband and i have to Financial Security in retirement. As the only female supervisor, i persevered through daily harassment and took as little leave as possible because i never knew if my job would be waiting when i returned. Almost two decades into my career at goodyear, i received an anonymous note that said i was being paid thousands of dollars less than my male counterparts. All i could think about is how much my family had done without and how hard it had been over the years and how i would never catch up to my male co worker salaries nor have the retirement benefits. My legal battle for fair pay soon began and wound up in the Supreme Court. When the Supreme Court decided in 2007 that goodyear had been paying me unfairly long enough to make it legal, i knew i wasnt ready [laughter] i knew i wasnt ready to give up my fight for fair pay. Less than two years later, Congress Passed the Lilly Ledbetter fair pay act [applause] and president obama [applause] and president obama made history with his signature on the bill. [applause] the first bill he signed sending a clear message about his priorities. Standing behind the president as he signed my name sake bill into law was one of the greatest moments of my life. Yet i knew and the president knew that my bill was just an important first step in the fight for fair pay. In the five years since, we have seen my bills companion legislation, the paycheck fairness act stalled in congress with Little Movement the fight for fair pay. That is until today. Folks often refer to me as the face of fair pay. But for today, at least, that time belongs to president obama. [applause] today president obama will sign an executive order that will ban federal contractors from retaliating against workers who discuss their pay and their salaries. Not only is this a critical piece of the stalled paycheck fairness act, but this action also gets at what was my largest barrier for all of those years ago. I didnt know i was being paid unfairly and i had no way to find out. I was told in no Uncertain Terms that goodyear then and still a government contractor, fired employees who shared their salary information. It was against company policy. Whoever left me that anonymous note did so bravely knowing that he or she could face retaliation if they were found out. For my namesake bill through todays executive orders, president obama has been the outspoken leader women and families need on fair pay. I urge congress to join the president on the right side of history by passing the paycheck fairness act. [applause] i thank president obama for his continued courage and vision and am deeply moved to be the one to introduce him today. Please join me in a very warm welcome of president barack obama. [applause] thank you. Thank you, everybody. [applause] thank you. [applause] thank you, everybody. All right. Well, thanks to my friend, Lilly Ledbetter, not only for that introduction but for fighting for the principle, equal pay for equal work. It is not that complicated. Lilly, i assure you, you remain the face people dont want my mug on there. They want your face. [laughter] you know, as lilly mentioned, she did not set out to be a trail blazer. She was somebody who was waking up early every day, going to work, doing her job the best that she could. Then one day she finds out after years that she earned less than her male colleagues for doing the same job. I want to make that point again. [laughter] doing the same job. You know, sometimes when you when we discuss this issue of fair pay, equal pay for equal work, and the pay gap between men and women, youll hear all sorts of excuses. Oh, well, they are child bearing and they are choosing to do this and that. She was doing the same job. Probably doing it better. [laughter] same job. [applause] putting in more hours. But she was getting systematically paid less. And so she set out to make sure this country lived up to its foundings. The idea that all of us are created equal and when the courts didnt answer her call, congress did. The first time lilly and i stood together in this room was my 10th day in office. That is when we signed the Lilly Ledbetter fair pay act. The first thing i signed into law. And some of the leaders who helped make that happen are here today, including leader pelosi. [applause] and i want to thank all of the members of congress and the state legislators and advocates who are here because you contributed to that effort. I want to give a special thanks to the equal Pay Task Force who did outstanding work to make workplaces across america more fair. Were here today because today is equal payday. Equal payday. [applause] and it is nice to have a day. But it is even better to have equal pay. [applause] our job is not finished yet. Equal payday means that a woman has to work about this far into 2014 to earn what a man earned in 2013. Think about that. A woman has got to work about three more months in order to get what a man got. Because she is paid less. That is not fair. That is like adding an extra six miles to a marathon. [laughter] it is not right. Aint right. It is not right and it aint right. [laughter] america should be a level Playing Field, a fair race for anybody, a place where anyone willing to work hard has a chance to get ahead. Restoring that opportunity for every american, men and women, has to be a driving focus for our country. More than 7 million americans have signed up for Health Care Coverage under the Affordable Care act. [applause] i know it is equal pay day and not obamacare day, but i do want to point out that the Affordable Care act guarantees Preventative Care like mammograms and contraception care and end the days when you could be charged more just for being a woman when it comes to your Health Insurance. [applause] thats true for everybody. Thats just one more place where things were not fair. We will talk about dry cleaners next. [laughter] [applause] i dont know why it costs more for michelles dress down my shirt. We have to make sure that America Works for everybody. Anybody willing to work hard should be able to get ahead. We have to build an economy that works for everybody, not just those at the top. Restoring opportunity for all has to be the priority. Thats what america is about. Doesnt matter where you started out, what you look like. You work hard and you take responsibility. You make the effort. You should be able to get ahead. We have to fight for the opportunity agenda. Training americans to make sure that they can fill those jobs in guaranteeing every child a worldclass education in making sure the economy rewards hard work for every single american. Part of that is fighting for fair pay for women. When women succeeds, america succeeds. [applause] its true. I believe that. Its true. [applause] its true. Heres the challenge. Today, the average fulltime working woman earns . 77 for every 1 a man earns. For africanamerican women, latinos, its even less. In 2014, thats an embarrassment. Its wrong. This is not just an issue of fairness but also a family issue, an economic issue, because women make up about half of our workforce. They are increasingly the breadwinners for a lot of families out there. So when they make less money, it means less money for gas, less money for groceries, less money for child care, less money for child tuition, less money going into Retirement Savings and its all bad for business. Our economy depends on customers out there and when they have less money, when hardworking women dont have the resources, that the problem. When businesses lose terrific female talent because they are fed up with unfair policies, thats bad for business. They lose out on the contributions those women could be making. When any of our citizens cannot fulfill the job, we are not living up to our founding values. We do not have second class citizens in this country, certainly not in the work lace. So tomorrow, the senate has the chance to start making this right by passing a bill that we have already alluded to, the paycheck fairness act. They have the chance to do the right thing. [applause] it would put sensible rules and place like making sure employees to discuss salary do not face retaliation. There are women here today who worked in offices where it was against the rules or employees to discuss salaries with one another. Because of that, they did not know they were being paid last just like lilly didnt know. For some, it was years before they found out and even then it happened because the manager accidentally let it slip or sympathetic coworker kindly passed a note. She only found out she earned less because someone left an anonymous note. We cannot leave this to chance. Over the course of her career, she lost more than 200,000 in salary, more in pension, Social Security benefits, both of which are pegged to salary simply because she was a woman. Lilly and some of the other women here decided it was wrong and set out to fix it. They went to their bosses and asked for a raise. That did not work. They turned to the law and filed suit. For some, after years of waiting, they finally got justice. Tomorrow, the senate can pay tribute to their courage by voting yes for paycheck fairness. This should not be a hard proposition. It should not be that complicated. [applause] so far, republicans in congress have been blocking progress on this issue, and other issues that would help with the economic recovery and help us grow faster, but we dont have to accept that. America, you dont have to sit still. You can make sure you are putting pressure on members of congress about this issue. I dont care whether you are democrat or republican. If you have a daughter, a sister, another mother i know you have a mom. [laughter] this is something you should care about. Im not going to just say that. I have used executive authority wherever it could to create more opportunity for more americans and today, i will take executive action to make it easier for working women to earn fair pay. First, im going to sign an executive order to create more Pay Transparency by prohibiting federal contractors for retaliating against employees who discuss pay with each other. [applause] pay secrecy fosters discrimination and we should not tolerate it. Not in federal contracting or anywhere else. Second, im signing a president ial memorandum directing the department of labor and our outstanding secretary of labor to provide data about their Employee Compensation so pay discrimination can be spotted more easily. Now, i want to be clear. There are great employers out there who do the right thing. There are plenty of employers out there who are certain there is no pay discrimination happening in their offices but then sometimes when the data is laid out it pays paves a different picture. Many times theyve been doing everything they can to fix the problem so we went to encourage them to fix these problems, if they exist, by making sure that the data is out there. Everybody who cares about this should Pay Attention to how the senate votes tomorrow on this paycheck fairness act. The majority of senators support this bill. But two years ago, a minority of senator republicans block this from getting a vote. Even worse, some commentators are saying that it does not even exist. They are saying the gap is a mess. Its not a myth. You can look at the paycheck. Look at the paystub. [applause] Lilly Ledbetter did not just make this up. [laughter] the court, when they looked up the documents, they said you have been ending pay less for doing the same job. Its been happening so long, you cannot do anything about it anymore, which made no sense and why we had decided another bill. Its basic math that adds up to real money. It makes a real difference for a lot of americans working hard to support their families. Of course, the fact that we have gotten some resistance from some people on this issue on capitol hill just fits within the larger problem, this vision that Congressional Republicans seem to be continually embracing this notion that you are just on your own, no matter how unfair things are. You see it in their budget. The budget the republicans in Congress Just put forward is like a bad rerun giving massive tax cuts to households making more than 1 million. Or and force deep cuts that would actually help families by Early Education and job training and of course it includes the novel idea of repealing the Affordable Care act. [laughter] the 50th time theyve tried that which mean the more than 7 million americans who have known the responsible thing and signed up to buy Health Insurance would lose their Health Insurance and the 3 million young adults who stayed on their parents plan would no longer have that available. Taking us back to the days when insurers could charge women more just for being a woman. On minimum wage, three out of four americans support raising the minimum wage. Usually when three out of four supported, they are right there yet republicans in congress are dead set against it. Blocking a pay raise for tens of millions of americans. A majority of them women. This is not just about treating women fairly. This is about opposing any efforts to even the Playing Field for working families. I was up in michigan last week. I dont understand fully the theory behind this. I dont know why you would resist the idea that women should be paid the same as men. And then deny that its not always happening out there. If republicans in Congress Want to prove me wrong, if they want to show that they do in fact care about women being paid the same as men, then show me. They can start tomorrow. They can join us in this, the 21st century, and vote yes on the paycheck fairness act. [applause] vote yes. If anybody is watching, listening, if you care about this issue, let your senators know where you stand. America deserves equal pay for equal work. This is not something we will achieve in one day. There will be a lot of stuff or need to do to close the pay gap. We have to make it possible for more women to enter highpaying fields let up until now have been dominated by men like engineering and computer science. Women hold less than six percent of commercial patents. We need more parents, high school teachers, College Professors and encouraging girls and women to study math and science. We need more businesses to make gender diversity a priority when they hire and promote. Dear than five percent of fortune 500 companies have women at the helm. I think we would all agree that we need more women in congress. [applause] fewer than 20 of congressional seats are held by women. Clearly, congress would get more done if the ratio is evened out a little bit. We need to work on that. Weve all got to do more to make the work face more welcoming to women because the numbers show that even when men and women are in the same profession with the same education, there are still a wage gap that widens over time. We will keep making the case for why these policies are the right ones for working families and businesses. This will all meet up to this firstever white house summit for working families on june 23. Ultimately, equal pay is not just an economic issue. Its ultimately about whether we are willing to build an economy that works for everybody, whether we will do our part to make sure our daughters have the same chances to pursue their dreams as our sons and whether or not we are willing to restore at the heart of this country the basic idea that you can make it no matter who you are if you try. That is personal for me. Ive said this before. I have two daughters. I expect them to be treated just like anybodys sons. My single mom worked hard, went to school, tried to raise two kids all of the same time and i think about my grandmother trying to work her way up through her career and hitting the glass ceiling. I have seen how hard they work, how hard they sucked it up. They put up with stuff and they dont say anything. They just take care of their families, take care of themselves. They dont complain a lot. At a certain point, we have the power to do something about it for the next generation. This is a good place to start. For everybody out there whos listening, ask your senator where they stand on paycheck fairness. [applause] if they tell you there is not a pay gap out there, you tell them to look at this. Its time to get this done and i will do my small part right now by signing the executive order. [applause] come on, lets scoot in here. All right. There you go. That one is done right there. Ok, heres another one. There we go. [applause] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2014] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [applause] president obama will attenda a service for victims of the fort hood shooting, on cspan 3. Chrisnd congressman van hollen talked about the budget process and november elections. Heis event was hosted by te Christian Science monitor. Thank you for coming. Chris vanis hollen. His parents both served as diplomats. He earned his bachelors degree from harvard and from georgetown. He took that resume on the staff of the Foreign Relations committee, and was elected to congress in 2002. And wasme cochair of named chairman himself in 2007, Ranking Member of the budget committee. Were on the record here. No live blogging or tweeting. No embargo when the session ends. Send a subtle nonthreatening signal if you have a question. Thanks again for doing this. Great to be back. Usnk all of you for joining this morning. The Senate Passed emergency compensation, and Speaker Boehner wont allow the bill to come up for a vote. There are millions that still cant find it. Three people are looking for every one job. The right thing to do for families and our economy. People that spend money at the toal grocery store, we want extend that. I hope the speaker will reconsider. I think it will weigh on his conscience. We start the budget debate tuesday, wednesday, thursday. Votes on a series of proposals. Ins ome way in some ways, people ask why it matters. It shows what the priorities of the parties are. Budgets are about choices. They reflect what people care about. And if you look at the republican budget, at every turn, it chooses to protect powerful special interests at the expense of everyone else. Something you said the lights are going out. Speaker boehner is turning off the lights on us. There you go. So if you look at their budget, they set an artificial political target of balance in ten years. Balance, but they say they wont ask anybody but middleclass americans to pay the price of that target. They fail to close a single tax break. Not for Hedge Fund Managers or oil companies. We continue to ask if the date is so important, why not ask these powerful special interests to make a contribution. It statrts with education. 1 18 is hit hard over billion in cuts compared to the ryanmurray budget agreement. Higher education takes big hits. 250 billion plus. Studentst charging interest while theyre in colelge. College. Oncan go over the impacts seniors. We had a debate on the safety net of the farm bill. A big battle of what was then a radical proposal to cut nutrition programs. 135budget calls for billion cut from nutrition programs. Atn faithbased groups look this, they fail the basic moral test to provide for the least of us. This is more reckless when it comes to shredding the safety net. The last point i will make is on the claim to balance. You cant say you will repeal the Affordable Care ac and claim the budget balances. They get rid of all the benefits. Provisionsdits, the to allow young pepolople to stay policies. Arents they get rid of that, but keep every penny of the revenue and savings. About 2 trillion the next ten years. The budgetthat, isnt close to balanced. They have this gimmick, but they have repealed it over 650 times in the house. The other day, they repealed a portion that raised the deficit by 57 billion. Immeditately out of balance on their own terms. It is a fraud to claim at the same time you get rid of the Affordable Care act and claim balance in ten years. Is Democratic Alternativei not identical to the president s plan but the priorities are in line with tehe president. Let me ask a question or two. Youve been known for your you set the democrats were in for a tough Campaign Season. I want to ask you about this Campaign Season. The Cook Political Report is forecasting a gain for republicans in the house of two seats of the 12 and a new poll released last week on the question of who voters most wanted to control congress, registered voters were most strongly interested in politics and favorite the republicans by 14 percentage points. What is going on here . What is the reason for the intensity gap . The big issue in these elections will be the ability to turn out for voters. I think a couple of things will change the calculus that was just laid out in that cook report. One is that despite all their efforts to demagogue the Affordable Care act, the reality is the opinion is beginning to change slowly on that. More people now support the Affordable Care act than oppose it and you have large majorities that are against repealing the Affordable Care act and yet that of been the johnny one note the House Republicans. They voted over 50 times to repeal it. I think that issue no longer has what welity to persuade call persuadable voters. Does it help get out the Republican Base . Sure thats why they are focused on of the way they are. I dont think they are winning over any of the persuadable voters on that issue. Focus onst, when we these very different rate i talked about this morning, the approach that democrats will take is much more appealing to the American Public than the House Republican budget. Choicedo not support the of defending powerful special interests at the expense of other important priorities in our country and in the economy. They just dont. In fact, if you look at the 2012 president ial campaign, that was pretty much with that campaign was about. Plan for theomneyryan the economy and yet the president and Vice President out there with a clear contrast. We believe that once people , we willthose issues not only win the persuadable vote but the core democratic voters will recognize very clearly whats at stake here and that will help bring more people to the polls. There is no doubt that democrats need to get the core democratic vote out in the midterm election. Means letting people know what is at stake and secondly having an operation on the ground that can do that. Sense y, is it your who are the people that your budget or postal most resonates with . Assume its democrats who really follow closely policy. Is it your sense it is a large flock of voters . When you boil down the budget into what they mean in peoples lives, our budget motivates a lot of people and the republican budget will turn off a lot of find thatause we large majorities believe that we need to focus on getting the economy and jobs going and reduce the longterm deficit in a balanced way, not in a way that takes it out and our kids education by violating our commitment to seniors and shredding the social safety net in they believe the very wealthy should contribute a little to reducing that longterm deficits of the rest of the country does not take as big a hit. Lets take students for example. If you let them know what this means in terms of reducing the affordability of college, that something that can help rally them. You look at seniors which traditionally has been a difficult constituency for democrats especially in midterms. When they see the impact of the republican budget, the House Republican budget, i think they will be more motivated to come out and vote democratic. Those are the kind of things we will emphasize. [indiscernible] what about the budget will get people out to the polls . Respect to motivating people to come out to the polls, you have to have two pieces to the strategy. You have to have a message that resonates with those voters and secondly you have to make sure you deliver that message to where the voters are. You need to reach them. It sounds obvious but sometimes when we talk in washington, we assume the country is listening when all of us know that at any one time, most people are going about their regular lives. Reaching them in their homes and delivering that message is a challenge. With respect to the content of the message, i think this Congressional Republican budget is totally out of step with where the country is in terms of rarities on jobs and the economy. Cbo says it will create a drag on the economy and the next few years and reduce job growth over the next few years. It essentially allows the Transportation Trust fund to go insolvent this august, no new transportation projects, which means thousands of workers on federal Construction Projects would go out of work. Whether we fix that between now and then, i dont know. I know with the republican budget calls for and it does not do anything about that problem. Focused onry that is trying to invest in jobs, expand opportunity, republican budget that hurts job growth and systematically knocks out the rungs on the ladder of opportunity whether it is education, he investment, science, and research, infrastructure that will not go over well. Our challenge is to get that message out. Its not just about our priorities, its about the clear contrast of our priorities compared to the republican congressional budget. [indiscernible] what about the risk of losing the independent voters . They hit the target despite the very rocky early rollout. The issue to look at in the days ahead is where premiums fall. If you look at Health Care Costs since the Affordable Care act was enacted, you actually see a reduction, a significant reduction, in the per capita increase in Health Care Costs. Im not saying that is all due to the Affordable Care act. It is one factor but the reality is that today we are seeing much in per capitas Health Care Spending so that is good news. It is good news for peoples premiums and their outofpocket expenditures in private insurance and medicare and medicaid. Let me ask you two questions. The debate between the two hearties the last couple of years is largely centered around how fast we can move to reduce the deficit. There are an increasing number of economists who have been arguing that what we need to do is increase the deficit, that the economy is performing way below its potential and the only that trap it out of is to increase the deficit and have a much more [indiscernible] policy. Im wondering whether you sense there is any support at all for that kind of approach in congress or is that out of step with Public Opinion . The other question on a different topic, you talk about motivating voters in the midterm and you want to make constituency groups that have been lagging like latinos. Is it time for the white house to take some new steps to curtail importations. On your first question, i democratic in the caucus and the white house, if you look at those budgets, they actually do call for significant additional investments now while recovering but we are slower than we would like. Greater deficit increase in the out years as we recover the president s budget, while it adheres to the bipartisan budget agreement in terms of its allocation in fiscal year 2015, it also calls for the Jobs Opportunity and security fund, 58 billion, to make the exec kind of investments that Larry Summers is talking about. The House Democratic budget also includes that. The president s budget also includes 302 billion in Transportation Trust fund. Increase. To modernize and expand their infrastructure so we can compete in the 21st century. The republican budget allows the trust fund to go broke later this summer. Yes, i think that is our view. The republicans have already rejected the president s plan for the Jobs Opportunity and security fund. In terms of prospects of passage this year, that looks like it will not happen. I think that is part of the argument we will take to the country because the republican budget opposes so much immediate austerity. It will reduce job growth in the next couple of years. That is what the cbo says. Been makehas sure we make the investments necessary to power the economy and have a plan to reduce the deficits over the longer term and our budget does do that. We reduced the deficit. Declining atdp is the end of the 10 year window on the president budget and the Democratic Alternative but establishing an artificial target actually, as the republicans do, establishing that is putting ideology over jobs and the economy. Immigration, our republican colleagues will have an opportunity to vote for Immigration Reform as part of this budget debate. Im am glad you raised that question. Alternativemocratic is it, like the president s theet, will include in it bipartisan Immigration Reform bill and the Congressional Budget Office has indicated that is one thing we could do right now that would significantly boost Economic Growth and will reduce the deficit over the next 10 years. They calculate it will reduce the deficit by 190 billion. Over two decades, by close to 1 trillion. Cbo has analyze that and said that will be the economic benefit of and the deficit reduction benefit of it. 15 which isnted hr the house version of the bill that passed the senate committee. We will have a vote on that. Our Democratic Alternative will incorporate the bipartisan Immigration Reform so we hope our republican colleagues who support Immigration Reform will support that. Deportationsto the , the president has indicated he has asked for a view of the policies to make sure we take into account the humanitarian poll that some of these policies have and we hope that review will result in some changes. In the meantime, the fastest way to deal with this is to have speaker john weiner john boehner vote on this and it would pass. That would resolve these issues. Is glad the president reviewing the policy again but we could resolve this today and the president could sign it today if speaker john weiner would allow a vote in the house. John boehner. [indiscernible] what was the quotation . It an act of love of people coming into this country. They come to this country to make a better life. For themselves and their families. Interest in making sure we can secure our borders. We need to improve Border Security and all these board bills due improve Border Security. It is wrong to bury our heads in the sand on this issue. That is why the bipartisan , ande bill is a solution am perfect solution. What is inhumane is not to allow a vote on a bipartisan piece of legislation that has already passed the senate. And isnt lifting payment millions of families. Can you talk more about the budget for those all in how it specifically is different from what obama has proposed and why and what are you doing going to do this year that is different . In architecture, it is similar to the president s budget. Respectt identical with to every policy. For example, when it comes to tax policy, our revenue numbers are similar to the president s but that does not mean how we get there will be identical. We lay out some guidance to the ways and Means Committee in terms of closing special interest tax breaks and loopholes but we dont go into great detail. The largest difference for our the president s budget is that we eliminate the nondefense sequester or the entire 10year the president s budget eliminates the nondefense sequester for a. Of time and then its a tapering where he reduces the sequester. Thats probably the largest difference. Again, while the overall numbers are similar, we do not necessarily adopt the same policies for achieving those numbers. In some cases we do in some cases we dont. Mentioned an unwillingness to invest in big , Hedge Fund Managers and so forth. Has saidnt democrat that one of the great problems the democratic artie has is because the democrats on the republicans draw money from exactly the same sources. There is a lack of difference and distinction and definition between that two parties on economic policy. To what to ask you degree the money becomes [indiscernible] the staunchest defenders [indiscernible] you and mr. Ryan have an admirable personal relationship come fromf his cuts poor and lower income people. Reconcile that with your personal admiration to him . To the respect differences between democrats and republicans on economic policy, they could not be more stark. This budget debate is exhibit a. A primary difference is that the democratic budget, the president s proposal, asks for shared responsibility. In our budgets come a we call for the elimination of the special interests tax breaks. The president specifically eliminates some of the perverse incentives that encourage companies to ship jobs overseas. He goes after the hedge fund special breaks, big oil companies. The reason the budget that we are introducing, like the president touching, is able to achieve deficit reduction over the 10 years without socking it to the middle class or seniors and kids like the House Republican budget does, is because it calls for that shared sacrifice. There is a huge difference there. When it comes to carried in the senate, and even if you cleared some of the democratic opposition, you got a lot of backup republican opposition. We have been trying to get this out of the house for a long time. When we were in the majority, we actually did a change in the carried interest giveaway. You have to get the 60 votes ultimately. It would be nice to have a few republicans even if we lose a few democrats, like 10 republicans even in the senate to get that done. I have incredible differences with paul ryan and his priorities and his outlook when it comes to his vision for the country. , as a have said is that human being, his motivation is genuine but i think is policies are incredibly misguided. Connected to the real world of people who are out there working hard every day, people who are struggling, and if you take those budget numbers and translate them into how the impact peoples lives, its devastating. Underminesl, it really important investment that of made this country grow since our founding. We have had bipartisan consensus in the past that we should invest in our National Infrastructure and innovation and manufacturing and yet this budget would absolutely devastate those cuts. Its hard to give people a sense of the magnitude here. Let me give you one fact. Trackwe have been keeping what share of our economy what our investment budget is in terms of nondefense, since we have been keeping those records since 1950, this House Republican budget will reduce that investment as a share of 40 below the lowest level it has been since we started keeping track. In the a huge cut investments that have helped power the American Economy in science and research, keeping us on the cutting edge of innovation. Thats why we say this republican budget is a recipe for economic decline. It ignores the important lessons of the past that have helped those grows a country. We think that is a sad state of affairs. Last night the administration referred to a plan [indiscernible] do you think insurers needed that cut and is the administration under too much pressure to scale back pieces of the law . I dont know all the details have they made it yet . They made it last night but my understanding is the basis of the decision was that the savings that are coming in under the current medicare plan are on target with the budgets so that would this adjustment still keep us on target in terms of the amount of money coming in from the savings. Thats all i know at this point in time. I will get more information later. That the House Republicans sometimes get credit for being bold and taking on some of the big political challenges. This budget is not bold at all because it is not bold or of yourus to take 2 3 budget cuts from the most vulnerable families and people in this country. If you look at the republican budget where they are saving they whacked the discretionary budget which is where you have important investments to our kids education in the areas i talked about. Secondly, they come out against food and nutrition programs. Is that courageous to go after programs that prevent kids from going hungry . That is outrageous. It goes after medicaid. Williamune of 730 dollars. If you look at the Medicaid Budget at the end of 10 years, they cut it by one quarter relative to what it would be area in a program that is already on a shoestring budget and has the lowest increase in Health Care Cost per capita of any Health Insurance program, private medicare or anything else, and yet they cut that. That puts a lot of kids health at risk and puts a lot of seniors in Nursing Homes and other fragile seniors at risk. If you look at where they get by cuts, its actually hitting middle income and lower income families. Of the savings in their budget. It doesnt sound very courageous to me. And yet its appealing. Assessment that the world is not totally run by populated by millionaires . There was great appeal to the republican candidates as seen by the fact that they control the house. What is your assessment of how you can be against medicaid, be against food for hungry kids and still be trouncing you guys . I would beg to differ. I dont think its appealing. The election of 2012 showed it was not appealing at all. Said heney infamously did not care about the 47 and the budget sets out to prove that. Drops the top tax rate for millionaires from 39 25 which is a 1 3 cut in the top tax rate which will increase the tax burden on middle income taxpayers. I would argue that is not that anybody. Nates with education and what it does to our future. In a president ial anybody. Its that we need to do a better job of communicating to the American People what it does to their kids election when more of the country is paying attention, that debate happens and the president prevailed. Is make sureto do that the voters who were part of the coalition to help elect the president are as motivated and come out in the midterm as in the general. We know that is a challenge given the historical patterns knowe believe when people how this republican budget would impact their lives and what republicans would do if they have the power to do it, that will be a wakeup call to those voters. You talked about the historical patterns. Int is different this year terms of what you guys are capable of in terms of political tactics that gives you hope you can break the historical patterns and turn out the base for a stronger election . Addition to a turnout issue, democrats also lost the swing voters, the persuadable voters. In this case, for some of the reasons we talked about, republican message is not resonating with the persuadable voters. Repealing the Affordable Care act message is to get at their base and expect their base to turn out. We think the message we are focused on of jobs and opportunity and, as i said, contrasting our priorities and approach with republican one will appeal to swing voters. In terms of core democratic voters, we are also going to have to punch through with this message. We are in the process of developing a plan and a strategy to do that. Reachinglves both those constituencies with your message as well as having a ground game to pull out those voters. That is what we are going to be focused on. It is important in the president has made clear that he is willing to go out and talk to the country about what is at stake in this election. You saw him recently in michigan with gary peters. That is an indication. Gary peters is right, it is really important. That the president and Democratic Candidates work to remind people about how important this election is and the president has offered to be there and i am confident he will continue to be there. Its very important to have the president fully in gauged and he is more than willing to big. To be. Every state and every district is a little different but if the number one priority here is to make sure that democrats get out the core vote, my view is that having the president out there on behalf of candidates is very important, reminding democratic voters of the Unfinished Business that is before us. The top line deal for this cautionary spending increases less than one percent from fy 1415. That is baked in already. The appropriators will markup to Appropriations Bills before the budget passes. There is they seem to be ignoring the budget process entirely. I was told thats what they are doing. Republicans are not moving on emigration and theres no indication we will get a replacement bill that has a chance of going where thats going anywhere in the senate. A redundant legislation for the year . Refuseser john boehner to bring up these major bipartisan bills that came out in the senate like emergency Unemployment Compensation was thrown out of the senate yesterday, comprehensive Immigration Reform that was voted out a long time ago and if the speaker refuses to allow votes on big pieces of bipartisan legislation, by definition, he has decreed and and end to legislation and we hope that is different. We think there is a lot of work to be done but there is no doubt that the House Republicans seem on blocking the democratic process on these important issues. It has been a source of great frustration and will be something people have to focus on in the elections. There are two examples of both i am absolutely confident would pass the house if brought to a vote. We have to do with transportation. Wouldpublican budget allow it to go insolvent but we will have to deal with that. There are some issues that i hope will find a way to get done. There is an infrastructure bill that has been held up in committee and has been held up for months now over some mysterious thing. If you have a light on it, i would appreciate you shining on it. We have a highway truck fund gap that is coming up and we have certain transport reauthorization. The difference there is money. There is a money revenue problem in surface transportation. We are done with serious legislation, how in the world are we not going to have the highways across the country go absolutely to pothole later this year . With respect to the Water Resources bill, im not sure exactly what is holding that up. I hope they can resolve that quickly. Iu are right, the reason raise the situation of the Transportation Trust fund is it is urgent. You have already seen some states and local jurisdictions scale back on their contracts because of the uncertainty of federal funds. It is already having a negative impact. The president has a plan on the table. The House Democratic budget has a plan. Its not just to deal with the shortterm but to actually establish a fouryear, 302 billion infrastructure investment. Its not just to repair existing infrastructure but to make the investments we made in modernizing our infrastructure. I know i am expressing the same frustration but we welcome republicans to join us in that. Infrastructure has traditionally in a bipartisan been a bipartisan cause. You got the Business Community from the u. S. Chamber of commerce to all the local chambers of commerce and the Labor Community altogether on this issue. The only people who are not on board are the Tea Party Wing of the Republican Party many of whom think there is no real role for the federal government to play anymore in infrastructure. Thomas massey has said on the record that interstate commerce is absolutelya [indiscernible] for congress. This was their strategy and they got it through the house only on three votes. . Hopefully that sentiment will be recaptured when it comes to the transportation bill. On the budget committee, you got congressman Scott Garrett jarrett who says he does not see a federal significant improvement in infrastructure. You have a real split. That is holding back the country when it comes to this issue. In maryland, the legislature this week decriminalized small amounts of marijuana. The d. C. Counsel has done something similar. How do you feel about what has happened back home with your fellow residents on that issue . I support the action taken by the state legislature. It is wrong to have so many for the used bars of marijuana. Country, you already have too many nonviolent offenders in prison in this country. The one area where there is some potential hope for bipartisan action, maybe not in their term but going forward, is in the area of criminal justice reform. There is a growing recognition system parties that a which locks up millions of nonviolent offenders is counterproductive. I support the action of the Maryland Legislature and the d. C. Decision, i support it on two grounds. Additionally, its a local decision and so we respect that decision. Anybody want a question before we go . You talk about the budget on defense policy do you keep the sequester in place . Is there a growing sentiment towards Building Back up defense . When it comes to defense, our budget is identical to the president when it comes to the basic Defense Budget. That means that defense is not at sequester level. Above defensed levels in accordance with the plan put together by the joint chiefs of staff, the secretary of defense. Admiral mullen said a few years that huge increases in the Defense Budget have allow the Defense Department to avoid difficult choices. I think the Defense Department now is looking at its budget in the out years. Making some of those choices. One of the choices the president s budget make space on the recommendations of the joint chiefs of staff is that we are not going to meeting going to need an army that will fight overseas land wars simultaneously. The call for a reduction of the army over a. Period of over a time. You dont want to do acrosstheboard cuts. You want to make Strategic Decisions based on what you think your needs are. We handlednswer is the base Defense Budget the same way the president does. Maybe there will be a need to have a deal on fy 16 appropriations early next year. Wondering how the nondefense levels in the republican resolution may make that harder or how much you guys plan to bring that up next year given they take from nondefense and core defense in fy 16 . Up theh does this gum works for next ares appropriations . On the philosophical level, democrats always seem to be emphasizing shared sacrifice and responsibility, a more humanitarian approach and republicans often talk about the individual rights and more libertarian approach. How do you make that sell politically when people feel insecure . To takeou convince them a more humanitarian approach . I was suggest i would suggest i dont think its logical for people to say basin what happened in ukraine we should dramatically boost our defense spending. I think everybody remembers back in 2006 when Russian Troops went into parts of georgia. That was a time when our defense was rapidly escalating so the motion there is some calibration in Vladimir Putins mind between the size of our Defense Budget and whether he takes action is disconnected. There should be a strategic this is for the decision and you need to and you dont need to fight and win two overseas wars. 2016, you raised a good point which is that the ryan budget is a radical the parts are from the bipartisan agreement. That we were able to come together with the murrayryan agreement, it might be much harder to do that. Getting risking a governmentto shutdown position. They are telling their caucus not to worry about the fiscal year wanted 15 numbers are higher than we wanted. We will make up for it starting in 2016 by really cutting these investments. People who are voting on this areet based on that promise going to have a difficult time turning around and making the necessary cuts later on. I worry that this republican budget is painting themselves into a corner which will result in them trying another Government Shutdown in the future. It makes it so much more difficult to bridge the gap. Does not, this just take on defense. It actually reduces it by 700 billion more than postsequester levels. What was the second question . Republicans talk more libertarian and you talk about more of a shared responsibility. How can you make that politicallysellable when people feel insecure . Very briefly, if you look at the republican if you look at the democratic proposal, it respects what i would say are strains ofportant the american character. We are all focused on making sure every individual can achieve his or her full potential, the American Dream and individual responsibility. That is what helps power our economy. The democratic budget reflects all those values but we recognize there are some things that we can do better as a country that one individual cannot do alone. Basic Scientific Research like what we did in the Space Program or the kind of things that help discover the internet, those are things that resulted from all of us working together as one people to make these investments. The republican budget just ignores the whole part of the barncan character, the building part of the american heritage, the fact that we recognize there are some things we are better off doing together and we would not be a powerful country if we were just a bunch automatons. L we made decisions to build out our infrastructure and make these investments in our kids education and have a College System that was second to none, to have nih which is the premier institute. Without the economic power we have today, the republican budget ignores that art of the american character, the idea that we want to focus on individual responsibility and entrepreneurship but there are some things we can accomplish better when we work to gather and that is absent in their budget. We appreciate you coming and we look forward to the next one. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2014] our budget includes all the economic benefits. 15 which is the house version of the senate bill the is we get some benefit. [indiscernible] its not identical. We dont have that expenditure. If we have to choose, this is our democratic budget. The face of the opposition, [indiscernible] that gave you a little bit of a punching bag. I agree with all of that. They are not out there every day. Askinge argument voters why these billionaires from outside your state are spending so much money to try to influence your voting that can work in the state like in alaska. That has been done pretty effectively. I agree with you. President ial elections sorry. Thank you all very much. The Senate Judiciary committee holds a hearing today on the proposed comcast time warner merger and potential effect on consumers. The two cablem companies and other Media Companies will testify. Live coverage starts this morning at 10 00 a. M. Eastern on cspan three. I say lets bury the hatchet. [applause] i want to say to the new speaker rdt and i would like to invite him and his wife to our Congressional District of missouri and i hope the days ahead, jane and i can come to your Congressional District in illinois. Find more highlights from 35 years of house floor coverage on our Facebook Page. Americaseated by Cable Companies 35 years ago and brought to you today as a Public Service by your local cable or sublet provider. Month, cspan is pleased to present our winning entries in this years student cam video documentary competition. It is cspans annual competition that encourages middle and High School Students to think critically about issues. Students were asked to create their documentary answering the question what is the most important issue the u. S. Congress should consider in 2014 . Lisa are among the second prize winners. They believe the environment is the most important issue. Across the globe, the environment is rapidly changing. Tundra is to the sahara desert, no place has been left unharmed. Warmergetting transforming life everywhere. Sky, in the, in the mountains the world as we know it is in danger. People fail to realize that Global Warming does not just affect bears in their arctic habitat. If its much closer to home. It hits much closer to home. Welcome to my home town of ann arbor, michigan. Global warming has affected our community in many ways, from the food we eat to the safety of our city. The truth is, we, humans, are the cause. Humans are causing Global Warming with the burning of ouril fuels when we drive cars and heat our homes and runner industries to burning fossil fuels. That is the major contributor to Climate Change. Despite overwhelming evidence, there are still some people who refuse to believe in the science of Global Warming. Global warming has been politicized. There is a substantial number of scientists who have manipulated data so that they will have dollars rolling in. 97 of all scientists agree that Global Warming exists and it is met made. Climate change is no longer a theory. We the impact of it have 12 of the hottest years in the last 15 years. These are devastating crops across the country. Produced inrops are michigan and in 2012, 97 of the crop was destroyed by drought. For the first time ever, ann arbor local business was forced to import cherries. We are seeing the impact and droughts and floods and more wildfires. The planet overall is hotter. We see more of these extreme weather patterns. Last summer, june 27, the Severe Weather effects of Global Warming hit ann arbor lighting streets and buildings across our downtown and threatening the safety of our city. After the storm, residents were found kayaking. Serious. E seen the lands are destroyed and cups are destroyed and coastlines erode, that is a huge Economic Impact from in the past three years alone, weather disasters have. Ost our nation this is just the beginning. If we continue on the current trend, the effects of Climate Change will only get worse. Our nation has implemented some measures to reduce Greenhouse Gas omissions. Analyses show the in up. S are not nearly Scientists Say we need to do more to avoid the worst effects of Climate Change. Here at our nations capital, congress has the ability to help the environment immensely in the house and senate. If they can focus their attention a possible solutions to combating Climate Change. The environment in our country began very much is a bipartisan issue. It was something that everyone agrees on. Itr the last several years has become a partisan issue. In congress, the ideology gap between republicans and democrats is the greatest of has ever been. 2010 was the least productive year of congress and we need to cut our differences aside and a solutionand find to Climate Change because it is too late. We need to go further as a nation. ,here are a range of things there can be caps on carbon omissions. Any policy approaches can work. We need to Work Together to find a solution. There are things that congress can do but they have not chosen to do that. This is an issue that is a moral issue. But kind of world would leave to future generations and the president has recognized that. He had a Climate Change speech and jim. In june. This is about the world he is living for his children and the world being left for all our children. Whetheruestion now is we will have the courage to act before it is too late. Father, andnt, as a as an american, i am here to say we need to act. Our environment is getting worse and unless we act, future generations will be forced to face our negligence. Congress, we need your help to make the earth a better place. We dont need to continue to debate. We need to talk about this. We need to act now. We need to bring along the rest of the world as well to achieve solutions for our future. Bigger change than people think is doable and possible and is part of what needs to be done. I think we can do it and we must do it. I have faith in the American People to do this. The environment is the most important issue facing congress in 2014. To watch all the winning videos and learn more about our competition, go to www. Cspan. Org and click on student cam and tell us what you think about the issues the students Want Congress to consider. Post your comment on the Facebook Page or tweet us. Cspan, for 35 years bringing Public Affairs units from washington directly to you, putting you in the room at congressional hearings to white house events, briefings and conferences and offering complete gaveltogavel coverage of the u. S. House all as a Public Service of private industry. We are cspan, created by the cable tv industry 35 years ago and brought to you as a Public Service by your local cable or satellite provider. Watch