Fellow members who have been asked to come back and pinchhit for our 100 and 12th president , allison kojak, who is getting welldeserved rest leading Investigative Unit having just unit at the Associated Press, having just Left National public radio. Thinking the members as always for putting their trust in me to has have served as the 110th president in 2017. We welcome our headliner, congressman elijah cummings, democrat from the state of maryland, chairman of the House Committee of oversight and government reform. Before i get into the formal introduction, we will introduce the head table. A couple of housekeeping rules. The latter first. If you do have a question for the chairman, those of you in the ballroom, you have your cards on the table. Please write them down and pass them up front. We will try to ask as many of them as time permits and so forth. Also if you have a mobile device and you have slipped in there in the past few minutes and didnt hear my earlier warnings, before we went live, please silence your cell phones. The use of twitter and other social media to follow along and even to host questions for todays headliner lunch at, but we would rather not have that accompanied by the usual s and r2d2 sounds from beeps and r2d2 sounds from star wars. Now i would like to introduce our head table. On my left, mike smith member of , a the National Press club Headliners Team and volunteer at the New Era Academy in baltimore, where the congressman has a lot of involvement. Applausesay, hold your until the entire ds diocese ias has been introduced. Are there is approval or disapproval heard in the broadcast, it is a reminder that the general public is invited to our luncheons and not a symbol of journalistic i is one way or the other. Lisa matthews, news assignment manager at the Associated Press and member of the National Press board of governors. T, washingtonn correspondent at new jersey media and one of my predecessors who served as president of the National Press club. Al fahrouk, who likes to be called danny around the club, reporter at the tech and member of the press club board of governors. Jeff barker, washington reporter. The Baltimore Sun cummings, chair of the Maryland Democratic party south of congressman cummings. Russo,g over me, laurie cochair of the National Press club Headliners Team. Wheres sam . Sam not quite as always, is a member of the club and rushing over here from cnn. Its been a busy news day and we will introduce him when the time comes. Alana train, White House Reporter at actios. Bob weiner, president of weiner public news and the National Press club member who organized todays luncheon. Thank you, bob, for you, laurie, and the team. Jennifer cummings, daughter of the congressman. Nikki schwab, my fellow southwest pennsylvanian and reporter at the new york post. Jennifer jacobs, White House Reporter at bloomberg news. [applause] [inaudible] everybody got introduced. [laughter] said today, we welcome our headliner, congressman elijah cummings, demo at from the state of maryland, chairman of House Oversight and government reform. His remarks come in the wake of president s comments about his district in which he called baltimore a disgusting rat in rodent infested mess and the worst in america. Mr. Cummings will also investigate and the trump administration, the Prescription Drug industries price practices. Practices, and other topics before his committee. Now serving his 13th in the house, representative cummings has been an advocate for Health Care Leader in the fight against , a drug abuse, and assistance to lower income americans. Headliners, Committee Members again, cochairs, past s, club member lasky, jean, and the National Press the headliners liaison, executive director, laura from the office for Club President and many of the other Staff Members of the National Press club who i thank for helping to put together todays lunch. Usually lunch in august is a bit sleepy. Not so much today. About 230 of you in here. Thank you. So with that, i am going to introduce congressman cummings. We will get some remarks, have some q a and some fun this afternoon. Congressman cummings . [applause] rep. Cummings thank you very much. God has called me to this moment. I did not ask for it. As a son of former sharecroppers from manning, south carolina, who plowed the fields, picked picked the strawberries, i am indeed humbled by this invitation. I want you to fully understand that this invitation and the a long time ago. Two months ago, as a matter of fact. It just so happened that destiny has brought us to this moment. I would like to thank the National Press club. Your president , npr pass jeff,allison kojak, bob, i want to thank all of them for inviting me to join you today for this conversation. It is my hope there will be a conversation among citizens about the state of our government and the future of our precious country and our democracy, by the way. Begin, i want to take a moment to address the recent Mass Shootings that took the lives of people this past weekend. I got to tell you, first of all, let me express my sympathy and condolences to the families. And i also want to thank our first responders. Those who go into dangerous situations to save lives. I thank god for you. [applause] trulyummings im heartbroken for these families and communities or suffering at the hands of gun violence. Im sorry that once again, we are mourning the lives of those who were stolen from us before they reached their potential or destiny. Gun violence seems to know no bounds, none. None. A school, a shopping mall, a movie theater, a park, a church. Sadly the only thing that has changed is the location. The only thing. Im a man of deep faith. And i believe that prayer works. But the American People are begging us for more than thoughts and prayers. They want action. And guess what . They want it now. Because they know that this is a critical moment in our history. That is why i cosponsored a bipartisan background check act, which will require background checks and five on for firearm transfers between private parties. This will pass the house and i call on the senate and Mitch Mcconnell to take it up and consider the measure. And then i want the president to sign it. We want action. [applause] stopcummings we must also the hateful, incendiary comments. We got to do it. Those in the highest levels of government must stop invoking fear, using racist language and encouraging reprehensible behavior. It only creates more distance division among us and severely limits our ability to Work Together for the common good. As a country, we finally must say that enough is enough. That we are done with the hateful rhetoric, that we are done with the Mass Shootings, that we are done with the white supremacist domestic terrorists terrorizing our country and fighting against everything america stands for and everything our phenomenal military has fought for. And when i am speaking of that, im just reminded of [applause] rep. Cummings im just reminded of a conversation that i had with my 10yearold niece this weekend. She said uncle elijah, are they going to put us in cages . Are they going to put us in cages . That is coming from a 10yearold. We are better than that. We must stand together with those who we do not look like,ith those who we disagree with and recognize that we have more in common than we have that separates us. [applause] rep. Cummings we all are sick of this. We all want decency and respect. Decency and respect. We want our communities to be protected. We want all to live in a country where our children are safe when they go to the mall or to walmart or to the local school. We must stand united and demand change. You know, one of the things i have always thought about and i think about it a lot, its one governmentyou have a where the people are afraid of the government. Where people are afraid did you hear what i said . Afraid of the government. We need to switch that around where the government is afraid of the people. [applause] and i have some hope. I have hope because i know so many people at home and every city in this country are watching the communities of el paso and dayton in pain. We are grieving with them. We feel your pain. We really do. We feel it. As you prepare to bury your own, who were simply trying to live a life of peace, doing what americans normally do. They are in pain and we are in pain. And from that pain, though come. Ust come passion and from that passion, we must do our purpose and shift our pain into action. And demand our government take serious action to prevent people intent on killing from obtaining to this put an end senseless violence. Now let me turn to our discussion for the day. I will touch upon the great work and i do mean it the great work my committee is doing and trying to do. To eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse of this administration and our efforts to address critical issues, like Prescription Drug prices. I will briefly address blatant attempts to attack my community in baltimore and in so doing, to divide us as a country. And to distract us. I want to emphasize that there that. Distract us. From all that unites us and combats the dangers our country faces. I was born, along with my father and my six brothers and sisters, in baltimore. Educated and still live in baltimore. And i want my neighbors to know and how, god, i am so proud that they have trusted me to represent them in the congress of the United States of america. Thank you, baltimore. Thank you. [applause] rep. Cummings my neighbors by large are the most determined, hardworking and deserving people i know. People, anyone, and especially our national leaders, should he ast be proud to commend their countrymen and women. They are no different than the people of texas or ohio, or anywhere else in our great nation. We have honest and candid conversations. We do not hesitate to protest critique and protest what we are what is lacking and is wrong with our city. These criticisms are necessary , for they are the birthing of construction change constructive change. At the same time, however, unbalanced criticism can be self reinforcing, causing us to doubt our ability to improve. And we are improving every day. When i hear a criticism from anyone about the city, what bothers me the most is we have ofple stepping on the hopes our children and the hopes of our people. When i have my niece asking if they will put us in cages, there is just something wrong with that. Our children must know we are doing everything we can right now to ensure they will have a better future. I will do my part until i die to make sure that happens. Time is precious. I will not waste it on anything that is attempting to distract me from my purpose in my mission. And my mission. When i became the chairman, i said i wanted to conduct rigorous and responsible issuesht and go over the that matter most to the American People. That is what my and my committee are trying to do. We are addressing issues like Prescription Drug pricing, Voting Rights, criminal justice reform, opioid abuse, and each one of these issues are dear to my heart. Them have been addressing for a long time. My First Committee hearing was on the rising cost of Prescription Drug prices. We heard from a mother, her name m. Worship listen to this, she was the first to appear before my committee as chairman. She told us about her 22yearold daughter who was rationing her insulin because she could not afford it. It was 333 a month. She died. She died. Do you hear me . 22 years old. She will never reach her destiny. She is gone. 333 a month. I convene another hearing before the august recess where we heard directly from patients who described the devastating impact of not being able to afford their lives lifesaving medications. They represent the millions of patients all over this country who need our help and needed desperately. That is why i launched an investigation into these high drug prices. The American People simply want to know why Drug Companies are increasing the prices so drastically. . Hat happened to the proceeds and the steps that congress can take to make drugs much more affordable . We need to address the problems. Oversight starts with gathering facts. You all should know a lot about that. If we are being blocked and not getting the information that we need to hold the administration accountable, then weve got a problem. And thats exactly whats been happening. Gathering. The committee has collected tens of thousands of pages of documents in response to our request from these Drug Companies. Our staff is analyzing the materials that we have and we have received quite a bit of it so far and we are expecting to collect even more. But it is interesting that the republicans want my committee they wrote the Drug Companies and told them not to cooperate with us. Youve hear me . They told them not to. Thats unheard of. By the way, let me put a footnote right here. To the dont let the congress off lightly. Everybody keeps running around talking about the president ial race, which is very important. Talk about the congressional seat, thats important. The senate go. Do not. Zero win on the senate. Every single last one of them. We act like we dont have the power to change the senate. We do. And we need to act now, right now. [applause] so, we also are investigating reports of voter suppression. Let me tell you why that is so near and dear to me. My mother, on her dying bed, 91 , uttered some words to me that i shall never forget, that are part of my dna. She is lying unheard deathbed. She didnt say eliza, i love you. She didnt say eliza, im proud of you. The last words that she spoke before she died were do not let anyone take our votes away. Those were her last words. We have been investigating these reports of voter suppression. Let me say this, i get tired of people, and you in the press again should appreciate this, they want us to be blinded by what we see. See. Ed by what we and i submit to you that we are so much better than that. So, i hope that we can learn from the events of the past while also making strides to improve the criminal justice system. Bill, thepassed my fair chance act, which would prevent the federal government from requesting criminal history information from applicant until they reached the initial offer stage. Very, very important in helping folks get jobs. We are also addressing the opioid epidemic. I introduced the care act with my colleague, senator Elizabeth Warren. Because it is time for our nation to take a comprehensive approach to providing the resources needed to treat those who suffer from addiction. Than 200 groups have endorsed the bill. More than 100 members of congress have cosponsored the legislation. I say lets get it done. You can clap. [applause] can clap whenever you get ready to. Very soon im going to be traveling to West Virginia to talk with advocates and medical professionals about the challenges that they face every day when addressing this epidemic. These are just some of the ways tocommittee is working hard improve the lives of all, and i emphasize all, i underline all americans. At the same time, we have launched investigations to abuse waste, fraud, and which is our job, by the way, under the constitution of the United States of america. Thats our job. [applause] example, wes for are investigating the administrations child separation policies and decision to add the Citizenship Question to the census. And you all need to really ,valuate you in the press what happened here. Let me give you the rest of the story. The problem is the administration refuses to give us the documents that we requested and have instituted a delay and stonewall approach. This administration dictated this approach the day after the democrats took control of the house, when he threatened a posture against democrats. This is frustrating and it takes up a lot of time and a lot of effort. We need to be sure that we dont let the administrations attempt to delay and obstruct us go unchallenged. The American People voted us into the majority with the expectation that we will uncover, expose, and ultimately face these abuses. The Oversight Committee is the primary investigative body of the congress. Our job is to ensure that the same are waterman, the same requirements, same requirements of transparency and accountability that have applied to every other administration apply to this one. Question we must ask what do we hope to leave for the next generation . That the question we have to ask. Thats a question we have to ask. Its a major question. I say to the American People that if you want your government to do more on the issues that matter most to you, you need to vote and you have got to vote like you have never voted before. [applause] if you want your elected officials to work for you and not for their own self interests, then you need to vote. If you want more from the highest levels of governme