Transcripts For CSPAN Key Capitol Hill Hearings 20131028

The senate is also in today beginning at 2 00 eastern for general speeches until about 4 30 when they will then debate and take a pulmonary vote on the nomination of Richard Griffin junior for National Labor Relations Board general counsel. You can watch the house live right here on cspan and see the senate live on cspan 2. Highers will conduct profile hearings including one wednesday with health and Human Services sucker Terry Kathleen secretary Kathleen Sebelius. At 9 00erage begins a. M. Eastern wednesday on cspan 3. Off capitol hill, president obama is at fbi headquarters this afternoon. You will deliver remarks at the installation ceremony of james komi who was sworn in as fbi director last month. You can watch that live online at cspan. Org. Honoring jeb bush with its annual leadership award, the ceremony will include remarks by john boehner and South Carolina senator tim scott. You can see that live at 7 30 p. M. Eastern on cspan 3. The courtship of beth wallace and harry truman began here at her home in independence, missouri. When my grandfather visited independence, 26 miles from where he lived at the time in 1910, he often stayed across the street at the nolan house, which is where his aunt and two cousins live. One afternoon he was over there with his cousins with the family and his aunt brought in a cake late that my greatgrandmother this isn her a cake and nolan had cleaned the cake plate and was asking if anybody would take it back over. Whatandfather moved with my mother once described as something approaching the speed of light and grabbed the cake plate and ran over here and rang the bell on the front door in the hope, of course, my grandmother would answer the door. And she did and invited him in. And thats the beginning of their formal courtship in 1910. Beth truman, as we continue series. Are as part of our marker profile series, cspan said down with West Virginia democrat senator joe manchin who discussed his political career, his time in the senate, the legacy of his up inessor and growing farmington, West Virginia. This is about half an hour. Senator joe manchin. Democrat of West Virginia. You are a true native. Absolutely. Where were you born . The hospital closest to my home town of farmington. That was where i was raised and grew up. How many brothers and sisters . Two brothers and two sisters. There are five of us. I have about 20 cousins. We were raised really close together. And my grandparents were called momma and poppa. It was mayberry. What were your parents like and did you talk politics . We talked about it. It was a part of life. It wasnt something i desired to be in. I enjoyed being around it. My uncle was a flamboyant politician. He was the youngest house of delegates number member back in 1947 or 1948, he was elected. 1948. He was 20 years old. You had to be at least 21 to serve. He turned 21 when he was serving. He was one of the famous civil rights before it was even thought about. He was defeated on that issue. He did not think there should be two separate books, one for black children and one for white children. They defeated him on that. Thats back in 1950. He served with robert byrd. Family was always important. We had to start working. I heard and this arguing back and forth and i went back there and there was robert byrd and my grandfather. Different parts of the bible and verses and what they meant. My grandfather said, i think you might want to meet this person. He is running for United States senator. That was many years ago. If you can imagine, the 1960 campaign changed our family because of john f. Kennedy. We are catholic. Knowing that was going to be a big part of this election, could he break the religious barrier . I never thought there was a barrier. My home town, everybody worked in coal mines. My father and grandfather had a grocery and Furniture Store. Everybody made about the same amount of money. There was no class that i knew of that i could recall. I never thought religion was a problem. My methodist or baptist friends or whatever, we were all the same. In any way, that was a big thing. I would never forget. One night we watching the news and they were talking about in john kennedy got elected, the pope would run the country. I looked at my mom and said, i do not think they know the catholics that we know. With that being said, that was put to rest. My uncle became a big part of the john f. Kennedy entourage. He was big. Him and teddy were friends. He says, brother jimmy, you are in charge of little brother teddy to make sure he has the oratorical skills. These are in some of the books if you read the memoirs. Every time he got down, he would want teddy to imitate to make him feel good. That is what really got me interested. I saw this young, vivacious president , before that i can remember was eisenhower and he was more of a grandfatherly figure. Now i see this young person who is a leader of our country that plays football and athletic and swims. He really got me excited about that. I got a scholarship playing football at wvu. I went in there and met my wife. We were married. I got hurt playing football. My grandparents and the whole block burned down. We lost everything. The coal mines burned up. The dollar happened in 1968 in a short amount of time. We had 58 miners that got blown up. My dear uncle john was one of the fatalities. I grew up with the coal fields and understanding the real challenges that we had any opportunities that it provided. My nextdoor neighbor was harry dunbar. In 1954, i was seven years old. Harry used to play ball with me, right across the street. One night he did not come home. His wife, i said when is he coming home . The mine had just blown up. She said he will be late tonight. Two or three days went by and she is probably trying to figure out how to tell this seven year old boy that he is not coming home. I recall that. I really do. Fastforward to 1968. My uncle, the same person who lived in the same house and that pinchy was on the same cutting machine that he was on. This is all part of who we are. Fastforward to when i become i got involved and how i got involved. It morphed into that. I want to come back to a couple of points. The 1960 campaign. Virginia was a predominant state. Predominant protestant state. Did you work for kennedy . I was 13 years of age. I will never forget, i was in the basement, i was on a go kart. My mom kept saying i want you to meet some people. I was thinking the mom, i am dirty and greasy. It was the kennedy brothers. Bobby and teddy. They were having spaghetti and mama was feeding them. All of the excitement. This whole race, not just our family but the whole state. It was a turning point. My dad, our car was in the parade. We were proud of that. 1958 chevrolet. I remember the impala. John kennedy rode in that. My dad told us all about taking him around. Uncle jimmy would travel with them. He would share those stories with us. I was kind of involved. Because i knew every time they were here or there what they did and how the president was a regular person. Coming from a completely different culture. The 50th anniversary of his assassination. Do you remember where you were that friday morning . I had come off of lunch. I was going into english class. I was a junior in high school. I had just gotten my drivers license. In august i had just become 16. I was walking to class. And our teacher walked in. I will never forget it. Mr. Matthews, also one of our coaches. He said the president has been shot. The first reaction was, come on, stop kidding. He said i am not kidding. It is serious. He has been assassinated. You all need to go home. We beelined home. My whole family, my grandfather, our grandfather was there. My father, uncle jimmy, who was working for the kennedys, everybody was there. Just out of the clear, my grandfather said, we have to go to washington. Me, 16 with my license, i volunteered to drive. Poppa had a 1958 cadillac. We all piled in. I had my uncle jimmy and my poppa and my cousins. It was seven or eight of us. We drove to washington. My sister was living in arlington. We got here and my grandfather said, i have to go to the casket. He stands in line all night long to pay homage to the president. I can remember, it little kid, if you see pictures you will see children hanging in trees. That was probably us. I remember little john john. The casket and so many memories. Every time i visit my sister, i go to the grave and say a prayer. It was very easy to walk to the cemetery. The president grave was right there and the eternal flame. I would say a prayer. One thing i went there and there was security everywhere. I thought something had happened. It became more than the crowds. They had to have some kind of order to these visits. That happened a few years after the assassination. From your perspective, did we change as a country after his assassination . In my eyes, we did. I did not feel as safe as i had before as a junior in high school, 16 years old. For some reason, i grew up in the most peaceful time. After world war ii, i was born in 1947. Up until vietnam, korea war, i was too young to know what was going. It was a good time in america. All of a sudden, our lives were shattered. We had that and then in a few years we had Martin Luther king. You saw the country was really not it was not as cohesive. It was not as cohesive as farmington was, put it that way. Lets put it that way. It made us understand it was a different place. You mentioned your parents and the business they were in. My parents basically, my father was full of italian. My grandparents immigrated in the 1900s. My father, our name was i had gone back to thee little village. My mother is czechoslovakian. They were born here. Both parents migrated to america. Both of them ended up in the coal fields. Both grandparents had stores. My father when he got out of the Service Started a Furniture Store in farmington. We grew up in the retail business. It is retail. It is retail politics. It is simply knowing who your customer is and made sure they are satisfied. You give the product with a good value and great service. You live and die by the satisfaction of your customers. I put in same approach to government. Ive been bit ive been in business since i was 10 years old. I have learned this. They really were the ones, my mother and father and grandparents, is who i am. Im a product of my environment. We grew up in an area that we had tracks, the Railroad Tracks ran. We had a buffalo creek. All those little kids living between that, every time a train came, my grandmother went insane. What she did not know is we would ride the train. It would drive her crazy. That is what the train provided. The lead was for the coal that fell off, a lot of people heated their homes. It was what we lived with. My grandmother was the most kind, compassionate. She was a onewoman social program. If anybody needed a place to stay, you go to mama kay. She made us conscious of our social responsibilities. She had a shower and a little bathroom in the basement. Not much. But she shared. We had all the different people who would ride the rails in the 1950s. A lot of people would ride the rails. We had names for every body. We had nicknames for all of them. What was your nickname . We had nicknames for people who would stay. She had three rules. They had to be sober. You have to stay sober. Mama would do anything, i will feed and take care of you but you cannot swear. You cannot drink and you have to work. It set a good example. Im a product of my environmental. I saw people with nothing but lived by rules. No work, no eat. I understood that very well. When i see people that are down and out, i say do something. Some people need a little bit of help. Mama help to them. They got back up. I saw young girls who got pregnant out of wedlock. They left their house because their parents threw them out. They will come to mama kay. I would come home after school and i would see her having lunch with a mother who threw them out. They would have the most productive kid in the world. I have seen it all. I am who i am because of where i am from any varmint i grew up in. And the environment i grew up in. You ran for governor wants and you lost the primary. Why did you lose and what did you learn . I did not do a good job. I did not do a good enough job explaining who i was and what i thought the state could be and how we would change the state. I come from business. My goodness, i grew up in a labor town. I do not project it properly. When it was over, i knew one thing. I never lost a race before that. My son was sitting with me. I said, we have been a very honored to be serving people. Tonight is not going to be our night. We are not going to win this. It is easy to win. You have to show a little class. I have watched people walk out. They want to blame everybody. Theres only one person name on the ballot and that is yours. If you cannot take blame for what ever went wrong and not i never blamed assault for not voting for me, i blame myself. Not selling the ideas i have for the state will stop i lost that election. After that, i did all i could do. Get back in business and to join my private life. My wife and three children. We have eight grandchildren now. With all of that, i was really enjoying that. I got pulled back in. Some of the people who work against me and defeated me in 1996 they said we think we made a mistake. We would like to work with you. I said, fine. I would like to work with you to. You, too. Let me ask you about your uncle who was killed in a mining accident. As governor, you had two significant accidents. What did you take away from your personal experience to what happened as governor of West Virginia . January, we had a and three weeks later, we had 2 miners, we could not find them. We lost so many. So many wonderful miners. The only thing i knew, i have said this before. Nobody gives you a manual when you become governor. You rely on everything you have ever experienced. Everything you learned, you rely on it. You delve deep into who you are as a person. The thing i knew, i remember a flashback to 1968. I was 21 years of age. Uncle john. My mothers younger brother. Very close. He borrowed my gun to go hunting. That was before he got killed in the mine. He slipped and fell. I had a new 12 gauge shotgun. He put some scratches on. He felt so bad that he said, i will get it fixed. I said, do not worry about it. I still have the same gun with the same scratches. Anyway, i remember waiting for news and it did not come. Sometimes i set for day and it did not come. I said, that is what is hurtful and cruel. I thought if i was ever in the position to give relief to people and there are ways to do it. And information was one. It may not be a whole lot of new things to tell you but something every couple of hours. I wanted to know were doing everything we can at any questions you ask us, i will find out. I am in the command center. I can find out. I want you to have the facts. I am not going to talk to the press until i talked to the family. I learned that basically from watching my mother and aunt and the agony of they they went through of not knowing anything. They heard the mine would be sealed and into my own goal. Entomb my uncle. It was so dangerous. I learned on that. I knew one thing. Families depend and if i could do anything as governor, i will sit down with the people, the owners of the mine and say i will ask you to do one thing, make sure they never miss a paycheck. Make sure they do not miss a paycheck. If you want to compound the problems, the family cannot take care of themselves through the most difficult times until we can get all of the straightened out. You have to continue a paycheck. And i knew that. I knew that was part of our way of life. People need that. They have to take care of their families. Some of those things came back from my experiences and living in the coalfields and being around. You never couldve learned that. Nobody couldve taught that to you. Is it safer to be a miner . Absolutely. It is getting safer. You have to empower the miners. You would never have enough inspectors. You can all the rules but if you do not have a company a company i know very well because they are big in my area, have taken the approach if one person sees an unsafe situation, they can pull the plug and shut the mine down. A situation where people try to stop or shut a mine down, they would be fired. That is what we have to change. That is what has to be changed. It has. I want them to let me know if they are in unsafe conditions and they are afraid of their jobs. We have to change that attitude. I think we have. You are doing things to make us safer. The bottom line is, well some the best of miners in the world. We really do. There is patriotic they are as patriotic as our veterans. I say that with all the respect for our veterans. They look at what they are doing for this country and the energy that provide for this country. If it was not for the minds and miners we would not have the economy or the country we have. We would not be the best economy in the world. They give us dependable and affordable energy. The thing i have a hard time here in washington fighting and , making people understand that coal is still part of the mix. The largest part of our energy mix. Do not make it more difficult. Help me find the technology that would continue to clean up the environment. Wouldve done more in the last two decades than ever before in the history. We can even do more. We like to think we have a partner. In West Virginia, our government is working against us. I think they are, too. I am trying to get every door open that i can work with. Im not going to sit back and not to let them know what we do and how hard we do and how much energy we provide for this country. And some the best coal in the world comes from West Virginia. We do not mind heavy lifting. We will do the heavy lifting. We would like for somebody to recognize and appreciate. Based on all of that, youre been washington for a couple of years. Is the senate what you expected . No, absolutely not. I guess i live that through the eyes of robert byrd and his reference for this institution. Reverence for this institution. I thought it was always Country First and state second. It is not what i see. I see 100 good people. I really do. I do not have anybody i do not like. I like everybody. I try to get along with everybody. I would question some motives and reasons and the purpose of your service. I go back to john kennedy. I keep thinking. I watched the speech on television. At 13 years old, ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country. That means it is our country. We own it. The constitution says we the people. You have to take ownership and care like owning a car. You have to change the oil and maintenance. Take care of it. And now it seems we have a country where people are saying, ask not what your country did to you but what you can do to it. That is a long way in 50 years. I want to get back. Were still the greatest country. All of the problems we can fix. Economically, we can fix this. We have to put our Country First and again. It is about this great country. West virginia will do just perfectly fine. The people my state are going to do well. I am here with that purpose of how i can serve retail government. How do i serve my customers and that as my constituents. What is next for you . Getting the finances in order. Another thing my grandfather, one time i will never forget. I came home and i said what i thought of charlie, what a beautiful person charlie is. I said he is the nicest person you ever met. He said he would give the shirt off your back. I said he would. He said he does not have a shirt to give you because he did not work hard enough. 10yearold, 11yearold kid. Talk about busting your bubble. He said keep yourself strong. , not just physically and mentally but financially. He said talk is cheap. You want to help somebody . Pullout a little money and give them some. People would say, poppa, and i have five dollars . Youd say, no problem, heres a broom and shovel and take care of the parking lot. He said, dont worry, only about 50 take me up on it. He headed down to a science. Im thinking, financially, im taking the oath of office in cold january 2005 and my grandfather is pumped up in front of me keep yourself strong, financially. I knew my state was and we could be. I put all of my efforts i won by a big mandate. I used every bit of capital of mine and i said there are two things you dont waste and politics. You dont waste a mandate and you dont waste a crisis. You better make something good out of them. I had a great mandate. I was determined to fix the finances of our state. I think we did do that. I think i with my administrative staff, we worked hard. We went through the recession better than most any state in the nation, one of the top three states in the nation. Never cut act in education, never cut back on rock rooms for our children or seniors. We expanded for people in need. We had ourselves financially strong. I come here and my number one goal is fix the finances. Raising debt. Sooner or later, someone has got to fix the debt. I hope to achieve. Im working hard across the aisle, talking to everybody. Is there a way we can move forward and fix our debt . In they became engrossed bowls since approach. It was the only thing i sought that was bipartisan. One of the first things that i saw when i got here. Bipartisan, state state bipartisan and grew bipartisan and we couldnt get a vote. I think youre 18 people and they needed 14 and they got 11. Had sixthe last time we and five agree on a financial direction for our country and couldnt get a vote on the floor . What drives me. Let me conclude on a couple of personal nose. Your wife is here in West Virginia. My wife is now president of the state board of education in West Virginia. She is back home and i try to go back home on weekends. Have a beautiful place in Tucker Valley and we will meet there or i will go to charleston or fairmont where our home is in my son is there and i have two daughters in pennsylvania. We try as a family to get together as much as possible, that its difficult. I would be this old to be this homesick. What your kids think about their debts profession . We have a lot of conversations. We have some good conversations. Do you debate a lot . We talk a lot, ok . The girls in my family are very strong, opinionated, if you will, and strongwilled. In theiro successful own right. They have done well, and my son, too. We have some good conversations on social issues, fiscal issues, and it is quite a dinner party. Is there another office you would like to hold . I havent really thought of that. I really dont. I keep thinking, ive got so much work here to figure this one out. I felt good and very comfortable as being governor. I was ready and prepared i thought i was ready and prepared here. I watched senator byrd. Theres so much to work through. How do we get to this toxic atmosphere and get people to realize were here for the purpose, for our country and our state, not for ourselves or our political parties. I am a proud West Virginia democrat and a very proud american. Extremely proud mountaineer. With all that being said, i just want to put it in proper context. Hopefully, i can convince some of my colleagues to do the same. , thanktor joe manchin you. I appreciate it. As part of the profile series, we also sat down with commerce woman Cathy Mcmorris rodgers. We spoke with her about her family and background growing up in cattle falls, washington kettle falls, washington. This is just over half an hour. Republican, from Washington State, youre part of Republican Leadership in the highest ranking women. Do you have a voice with Speaker Boehner and leader cantor and others in the gop leadership . Yes. Yes. I think it is important voice that i bring to that leadership table and daily im sitting down with the speaker, with majority leader eric cantor, Kevin Mccarthy as we are strategizing on what is happening on any given day as well is what we face a few months down the road. I am the second woman to hold this position for the republicans. Deborah pryce was chair earlier. Haveproud of the fact we four women that are around the leadership table for the republicans. It is a little different perspective, different priorities at times that being a woman brings to the table. Heard andelieve i am that my input is valued as i present it around the table. Why politics and why did you decide to first run for the state house in washington and Later Congress . When i one of those kids was in high school i wasnt sure what i wanted to do, what i wanted to be, what i wanted to major in. My dad had always had an interest in politics. He ran for office when he was in his 20s, ran for county commissioner and lost, but he had dabbled in politics and i had grown up watching campaigns from afar. But out of college, i got involved in a Family Friends campaign for the state house in kettle falls, washington, our home. That was my entry into politics. Oft i learned was, first all, this was somebody that i could really believe in, get excited about supporting and then when he won his rate race and offer me a job, that it was a way in which i could really make a difference for my community and the people that we were representing in olympia at the time. I found a lot of fulfillment in that. And the purpose and being part of something that was bigger than me. I wasnt expecting to run for office. I really imagined myself being scenes, but the soon after that are state senator retired and my boss was appointed to fill the seat in the senate. He encouraged me to consider the appointment for the state house seat, so i kind of got in the but it was a great opportunity for me and i mustered up all the courage that i had and just said, you know what . m in a go for this and once i got the appointment to commit being the best for president i could be for the people of northeastern washington. When did your family moved to Washington State . We moved when i was a junior in high school. Both sides of my family have deep roots in the pacific northwest. They came out to the northwest on the oregon trail and my moms family was in the Timber Industry and my family her dads family has always been in agriculture, so i grew up involved in agriculture. Richard andned and fruit stand where we raised cherries, peaches, apricots. It is where i really learned a good work ethics and got the experience of working alongside my brothers as well as my parents in building a business. And the success of their business. It was a great experience for me. I am grateful to my parents i dad has a High School Education and my mom had a scholarship to go to oregon state, but dropped out as a freshman when her dad passed away. She was determined that her kids are going to graduate from college. I am grateful for the sacrifice my parents made so that i could go to college, my brother could go to college and have an opportunity for better life. Are they still alive . They are. And they our orchard actually divorced, but theyre both in spokane. My mom is remarried. We often reminisce that neither of us ever imagine that one day cathy would be serving in congress. An amazing course of events led me to this experience, but it also reinforces in my mind that the American Dream is alive and that in america, you can be anything that you want to be. That. Lived when all is going to college, for as long as i could remember my parents had me saving my money so i could go to school. Animals and sold them at the fair they would say, save that money so you can go to college, cathy. I worked at mcdonalds in school. Dutyays had housekeeping when i was at school, which is not anyones favorite, but that is what i did for three and a half years when i was in college. I worked a variety of other jobs so that i could go to school and ive seen in my own life with a difference that made in the opportunities ive had. Mba from the university of washington. I took out a student loan to do that. Some of the Student Loans we have been debating here recently in congress. Im still paying off the Student Loans. But im grateful this is a country where no matter who you are, no matter where you come from, that you can come here and pursue your dreams, work hard and really see what you can do with your life. I have been following your twitter account. You have tweeted some pictures, including one from mcdonalds in your uniform. That was in college. It was a summer job. That would probably be 1986, my fresh and freshman year in college. Are said to be one of the top 10 republicans to follow on twitter. How often do you tweet . Leastgoal is to do it at once a day. It is a combined effort between my staff and myself. Tweeting andy are sometimes i am tweeting. I find it is beneficial for me to easily check my twitter on my blackberry and get a sense to what the hot topics are and what is on peoples minds are what the reaction is to what is going on in congress. Media enjoyed the social and the ability to have a real time conversation with people that i represent as well as others that are plugged into what is going on here on capitol hill. Let me ask you about your district. Do you have any interest in serving as House Speaker . Be the best just to representative i can be for the people of eastern washington. I think john boehner is doing a great job as speaker and he has my support. I didnt run for congress thinking i would ever be in leadership. I am here because my colleagues encouraged me to run for leadership. Rememberck home will that tom cole he was speaker and well here i am in leadership and no asked that question, but my focus is just to be the best representative at i can be for the people i represent. Is sometime down the road if the opportunity arises, would you be interested . It is hard for me to say. Always a balancing act. I am a mom, too. Take into consideration the demands of having two kids and a third on the way as well as my responsibilities here on capitol hill, you know, those are all visions decisions yet to make and decide what is best both for you as well as your family. Youre the first woman in congress have a baby twice, now expecting a third. Your son, cole, was diagnosed with down syndrome. I was single when i was elected to congress. For me, the best thing that has happened since i was elected to brianss was meeting rogers and getting married and becoming a wife and then a mom. Our oldest, cole, was born with down syndrome. It isnt what you expect and it isnt what you dream, but i sit here today and im a better person because of cole and what he is tommy. Im a better legislator. He is given me a whole new passion for what i do here on capitol hill. How so . You first get the news, it is some of the most difficult news he received as a parent. It now and i was immediately welcomed by the disabilities community. People all across this country who have been through similar experiences first of all, just reached out and said, its going to be ok. And that meant everything to us at that point, and having different people contact me. Decided, you just know what . First of all, we are going to do everything we can to maximize coles development. We want to see what he can be. You learn everything you can about down syndrome or whatever disability it may be. And then i quickly became grateful for so many who had walked this path before me and the opportunities and the resources that are available today that werent available that long ago. You think about early intervention, early education, all of the commitment that we have made to the individuals with disability act, for education so that now children with disabilities are in the parentom k12 and i as a and im so grateful for those who have fought so that now cole will have more opportunities. As a member of congress, it makes me think that it is my turn to carry that baton and to continue to work for more opportunities. We have made tremendous progress, but theres more to be done. Whether it is the transition to adulthood and employment an individual living, independent living there is more that needs to be done in that area. 80 estimate between 70 to of those with disabilities are unemployed. And many of them have a lot to offer and would like to be employed. So i have been working a lot on dealing on addressing those barriers to employment, working with senator harkin. Ine opened up doors for me relationships that i never would have had otherwise, across the aisle, house and senate. When he was born, Eunice Kennedy shriver calls and says, now, you bestto get cole into buddies and Special Olympics once he gets old enough. Come over and have a cup of tea with teddy one of these days so we can sit down and talk about all of these issues. I would have never had the opportunities to build these relationships or to understand these issues the way that i do if it hadnt been for cole. As a mom, were you nervous when youre pregnant a second time . Oh, sure. Yes. You get a lot of thought to what might happen. You look ats the odds of just based on your age, first of all, and i was told that because we have had one child with down syndrome, which is a duplicate 21st chromosome, the most common chromosome abnormality. But there are a lot of chromosome and the relatives. That i would have a 1 greater risk. My husband and i gave it a lot of thought, but ultimately, we didnt want to look back one day and say, oh, we wish we wouldve gone ahead and try to have more children. Parents. Oved being we want that in our lives. We decided that we were going to go ahead, knowing the risks, and have a second and now grace blossom was born in 2010 and she is doing really well. And we have number three expected this year. It is a tremendous blessing in our lives. And cole and grace get along great. I can already see where cole is having a positive impact on grades and she is having a positive impact on him. It is good. Here in washington, d. C. And your district is in Washington State. Youre a mother, wife, representative, part of the leadership. How do you juggle it all . Peoples a whole team of that make it possible. I might be out front, but first of all, the tremendous support of my husband. He is retired from the navy, has never been married, never been a dad. He was dreaming of that still happening in his life. He didnt necessarily imagine living in washington, d. C. And being mr. Mom, but he is embracing this at this time in our lives. I couldnt ask for more support from brian. How did you meet him . I met him at a campaign barbecue. It was the summer after i was elected to congress. His sister had worked on my campaign and she invited him to introduce into another volunteers daughters. At the end of the evening he said, maureen, i think i would like to meet cathy. That is how we met. Startedjust corresponding. Our first date was at the Naval Academy. Grad and Naval Academy he invited me for a tour of the Naval Academy. I was on the Armed Services committee and he thought i should see the Naval Academy and go to a football game. Great specialst a blessing, that whole relationship. Support ofaving the my family and our extended family. My mom and brians family, his parents and sisters and brother are all in spokane, so they offer a lot of support for us when we are home. Staff a great team, great and the thousands of supporters that i have. It is a whole bunch of people that make it possible for me to do this. Job andontend that this the balancing challenges that i face on any given day are not that different than millions of other working moms. My mind might be more high profile and people may see me on camera, but day in and day out, the challenges of getting the kids ready for school or helping them with their homework and the stresses of wanting to be a good mom and a good wife but then also the demands of the job some days you handle it better than other days. I think that is normal. Grateful for the opportunities i have been given and the people that make it possible for me to do what im doing here on capitol hill as well as have determined is blessing of being a mom to these great kids. Back toften do you get the district and how to maximize the flight time between here and Washington State . That flight time is some of the that is my time. The rest of the hours in the week quite often others have dibs for those hours. I have really come to enjoy the flight. A 7, 8 hour trip from washington, d. C. To spokane. Theres is no direct flight. I have to fly someplace and then get to spokane, but it is quiet time, time for me to maybe do some reading, catch up on notes i want to write or just have some time to myself. I enjoy that time. I get home it varies in the course of the year, but i would say at least 2, 3 times a month. We have at least once a month the district work period where we can go home for an entire week. I just hit it. I maximize those days, get around the district. I have a large district. 10 counties. It takes a while to get around the district. But we are making it work. In the beginning, brian would travel backandforth with me. Even after cole was born we tried having them in spokane. Then i was just going back and , which ity weekend was a long trip to make every week. I found i was tired and he still had limited time with the family, so i find it is working better to have the family based here in washington, d. C. , where i can go home some evenings, at least, and be with them, and we have our time together in the morning. And some weekends. We fit the travel around that. When i do go home to the district, then im not china spent time with the family and get around the district. So were making it work. I think every family, every member of congress has to decide how best to organize that. You some policy issues. You have a leader in the Republican Party and he made her present, the party doesnt need to be more moderate, but more modern. Give specifics how so . I dont believe the Republican Party needs to change what it stands for, the principles and values that we thatve in as republicans have been longstanding. But i do think the republicans have to do a better job of positions our policy with how people live in the 21stcentury first century. And also using 21st Century Communication tools that the days of just issuing a press or raising lots of money and going up on tv to do television ads, that is in connecting as much. We talked earlier about social media. Boy, in the 2008 election when president obama was able to 12, 12s network of million, 13 million americans with email addresses, that was a wakeup call to me. We see where technology has revolutionized so many areas of our lives. Well, it is also revolutionizing ,he way members of congress representatives, connect with the people they represent. Embraceblicans need to these tools we have for communications. So when i first ran for ondership, i was focused bringing the republicans into the 21st century as it related to social media. And when i was first elected, 30 of our members that were on twitter or facebook this was 2008, after the election and today we have 95 . And members were still using pagers rather than converting to the blackberry or smartphones. They made that transition. Members that had been there for many, many years recognizing that they needed to change. I remember jerry lewis, congressman out of los angeles area, he described it as the difference between when we went from radio to television that that is the same kind of communication transition that is going on today, where people get their news, interact both personally and professionally, and their communication is very different. Its digital. We have to be using those tools. I concludedection, it wasnt about the republicans needing to moderate, but we do need to modernize. Part of it is on the communication side of it. And that is where my focus is on the Leadership Team. Im charged with the communication strategy for the republicans in the house. So a lot of our work has been on taking our message to every fromr and engaging people every walk of life, every demographic group. We started organizing meet ups, for example, where we as republicans on capitol hill sit down with malindi also from around the country and talk to them about issues that are on their minds and even listen and just have a dialogue with them. We have done that with vietnamese americans, korean americans, hispanics, we have another one coming up with indian americans. But it is to build relationships and as republicans, talk with people from all different backgrounds as to what is on their minds and hear from them. And i think that was one of the takeaways from the election was that a lot of people didnt think the republicans cared about them. And that is pretty fundamental. So weve been doing more of that. And then using Digital Tools to take our message to every corner, and really highlighting the talent in our conference. We are younger than the democrats on average in the house. We are five years on average younger than the democrats. Our Leadership Team is 16 years on average younger than the democrats. Most people think of the republicans now that we are the rich whitee old guys. When in reality, you look at who the young people are. We have women, hispanics. We need to present a broader face and really demonstrate to people in this country that republicans represent them, and there are republicans in office that represent them. So part of it is related to the communication side. The other part is on these issues, in particular, where we just need to do a better job of making sure that when we are talking about balancing the budget in 10 years. That is a goal we have. We are challenging our friends on the other side of the aisle in the senate and the administration to join us in this effort to balance the budget in 10 years. But take it to the next step. Important to seniors . Why is that important to recent College Grads . Why is that important to hard working American Families . In my mind, that is when i say, that is part of modernizing. It is really talking about issues in terms that people in , and theyelate to it are around their kitchen table, in their homes and as to what our vision is for this country as an institution, is Congress Working and house working the way you expect it to be . There is room for improvement. I think people recognize this is a difficult time for the country. We have difficult issues we face. When you look at congress from an outsiders perspective, using its pretty simple. Houses those two pass its bill in the house as opposed to pass its bill and then you go to the Conference Committee and then you put it on the president s desk. Reality, thats not the way it has been working recently. Congress basedf on Crisis Management where we just go from one crisis to another. How do you fix it . How do you change . That is where i appreciated Speaker Boehner and the leadership hes brought in the house grade when he became speaker, one of his goals was to restore the institution itself and return to what he called regular order. But it is to restore how the institution is supposed to operate. Understood the Important Role committees have in this process. It may sound, its important that a bill start in the committee and you have the hearings and you have the debate and republicans and democrats both have the opportunity to offer the amendment and through that process, actually get a better outcome than if it is all done in the Speakers Office with a small group. Speaker boehner has wanted to empower the chairman and encourage them, you need to take the lead on these issues and put together the legislation when it comes to the floor, it is up to you. The days of ok, this will is ready to go, now you need to come up with the votes are over. Having said all of that, you have to figure out how to get to 218. Thats where the leadership, what i see right now in the house, it is up to us to be thating out how do we find sweet spot or the 218 members willing to support a particular bill to move forward . That has to be in conjunction with leadership and the committee chair. You have been in the minority and now you are in the majority, why are there such gridlock . Are the two parties just not talking to each other . I think for the republicans in the majority right now, we is a critical time economically for the country. Weve got to get people back to work. The fact that we have the lowest workforce Participation Rate since 1978 is unacceptable. We are on the wrong path and we need to stand firm on some policies that are going to get this economy growing and thats where you hear us talking about the importance of tax reform and balancing a budget 10 years, the importance of spending reform, spending reductions before just anding the debt ceiling, yet there is resistance, on the other side of the aisle, you president obama saying raise the debt ceiling with no conditions. Just a clean vote to raise the debt ceiling. Happen. Ever going to its never going to be acceptable to the republicans just to raise the debt ceiling without there being some conditions attached to it. Even when president obama, when he was senator, said it was toesponsible to continue just add to the deficit, add to the debt, have record deficits and we needed to take action. Its a lot easier to talk about what needs to be done versus actually do the hard work of needing to get that. The reason we find ourselves where we are right now is these very politically difficult decisions we have to make. Able toot going to be just continue the current path that america has been spending way beyond its means for many many years, but we have reached. Hat point it impacts our military and readiness and our children and the country they are going to inherit, whether america is going to be strong. These are difficult decisions we have to make. These are very important and may not be politically popular back home when you Start Talking about reforming programs or reducing spending at the federal level. But it needs to happen. Strong moving forward. Between the tugofwar what is politically popular versus what really needs to happen. Is part of the original Capital Office here . This wall right here used to be part of the outside wall of the original capital. When they expanded the capital in the mid1850s and 60s, this was all added on. Is pretty special and have a great view of the wall looking west to Washington State. Your bias says you have a passion for history. If you could talk to somebody in american history, who would that be . I think it would be george washington. And talk admired him about important leadership he brought at a difficult time for this country, he was someone regarded, steady as you go type of hand and actually was put in a position he didnt necessarily seek, but people said we need you and we need your leadership at this time. Those were difficult decisions they were making. They did not always agree. ,ery passionate debates sometimes with your friends and allies and sometimes with others pulling in a different direction. I think there are some parallels there and i would love to sit down and talk with george him share and hear what they were facing when they were founding this country and any perspective he could give us today would be especially helpful. When you recognize congress the way it is today . I hope so. Funding iour dont think our Founding Fathers ever expected the legislative branch would be as weak as i see it right now. So that the legislative branch would be the most powerful branch within the three branches of government but the struggles between the executive branch and judicial foresight thatr you want to have that out once of power and you dont just want to have one person in charge and you want to separate power and have checks and balances, i and itt was so wise served an Important Role. On behalf of the people we represent, the legislative branch needs to stand up to the judicial branch. Do you have a chance to read customer i go through spurts. What are you reading now . I picked up aggie noon in boston took on the revolution, her time on the white house under ronald reagan. I have been enjoying rereading. That and my baby name book, which i read almost every night because we are trying to come up with baby names. No decision yet . No. Whats next are you question mark any desire to Seek Higher Office . Some said you might run for president , leadership in the house or the u. S. Senate . We will see. Im honored to be representing the people of eastern washington. I dont have any plans to run for other offices. Here,nored to be and working with my colleagues around the leadership table to provide important. Eadership hopefully providing some vision and clarity as to where we want to take the country moving forward. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you. Both timbers of congress returned today. The house gavels in at noon eastern for speeches. Before considering a series of bills about veterans benefits. Any votes will be posed until 6 30. The senate is back for general speeches until 4 30 when they will take up the vote on Richard Griffins junior on National Labor boards counsel. You can see the house life here on cspan, the senate on our companion network, cspan2. Off the floor this week, lawmakers will conduct a number of high profiles hearings, including one with Kathleen Sebelius who will be testifying before the house energy and Commerce Committee about problems encountered with the healthcare. Gov website. Live coverage starts at nine . Astern on cspan3 president obama is at fbi headquarters this afternoon. He will deliver remarks at the installation ceremony as james komi who was sworn in as at the i rector last month who replaced Robert Mueller who stepped down after 12 years. He was a forward Deputy Attorney general during the george w. Bush administration. Startingatch that live at noon eastern on www. C span. Org. The Jack Kemp Foundation is honoring jeb with its annual leadership award. That will include remarks by House Speaker john boehner and South Carolina senator tim scott. At five at 7 30 eastern. The courtship of bess wallace and harry truman began here, at her home in independence, missouri. When my grandfather visited independence, which was 26 miles from where he lived, he often stayed across the street at the nolan house, which is where his aunt and two cousins lived. One afternoon, he was over there with his cousins and his aunt brought in a cake plate that my greatgrandmother madge gates had given the hurricane and mrs. Nolan had cleaned the cake plate and was asking if anyone would take it back over. My grandfather moved with what once called something approaching the speed of light, grabbed the cake plate and ran over your and rang the bell on the front or in the hope that my grandmother would answer the door and she did. Thatsited him in, and the beginning of their formal courtship in 1910. Bess truman, as we consider as we continue our series on first ladies, tonight on cspan, cspan3 and on cspan radio and www. Cspan. Org. National Economic Council director, Gene Sperling, spoke about a deal emerging from a Bicameral Commission set up as part of the deal to in the government shutdown. Craftd lawmakers should an agreement that close a tab loopholes and reduces government spending. He spoke at an event hosted by the group visits forward. We will show you as much as much as we can until the house gavels and four morning hour at noon eastern. Im jim doyle and im the president of business forward. Those who are new to us we were created four years ago with the mission making it easier for Business Leaders across america to tell washington had you to create jobs and accelerate the economic recovery. Thanks to the help of 50 of the biggest countries in the world we are active in 100 cities. We have briefed more than 400 different members, mayors, governors and members of congress and administration officials. We are honored to welcome Gene Sperling the president s top Economic Advisor to discuss how budget negotiations can move forward and what is ahead on the president s economic agenda. He is director of the national Economic Council and assistant to the president for Economic Policy, the first person to hold it twice having held the sail position for president clinton. Prior to this he was counselor to secretary tim geithner. He served as the point person on manufacturing policy, housing, economic assistance for veterans, played a key role in jobs act and Small Business tax credit. During his eight years in the Clinton White house helped negotiate the 1993 and 1997 deficit reduction acts an championed the Childrens Health insurance program, earned Income Credit and direct student loan program. Between the clinton and obama administrations he worked at the brookings institution, center for American Progress and the council on Foreign Relations working on a range of economics and education issues. He is the coauthor of a book on Girls Education and pro growth progressive and Economic Strategy for shared prosperity. He graduated from the university of minnesota and yale law school. He is a native of ann arbor, michigan, and will rejoin his family in california at the end of the year. When he finishes the remarks we will move over hear for q a. Thank you very much. Gene. Well, thank you very much for having us here today. I want to thank jim doyle very much, not just for today but for all of the leadership of business forward, all the consultations, even the recent meeting with your Small Business Advisory Committee as we went into this recent round of Budget Discussion discussions. Again, i really want to thank you and business forward for the leadership that you have shown and the desire to look beyond your own particular situation to the larger economic issue that away face as a country and understanding that that affects all of us. So, again, i really want to thank you. I guess i would just say we are, as usual, going into another phase of the Budget Discussion. We are now going into a period where we will have a budget conference that will go until december 13. We will have then a c. R. That goes to january 17. And a debt limit that is extended at least into february. And i think as always you will see different people go quickly into the weeds and details, which is not inappropriate, but it is important at these moments to step back and remember why we care about these issues. Sometimes here we start to think that the end goal, the end goal of all of our public policy, is to hit a particular metric, a particular budget or spending or revenue metric, as if those are the goals in and of themselves. But it is person for us in policy to remember that each of these metrics, however important, are means to larger goals. The larger goal of what we do, the end goal of what we do, is really to have an economy, to have Economic Growth that allows us to live the vision of the United States as a country where there is a growing, secure and inclusive middle class. Thats not an obama or romney or anybodys unique particular vision. That is the vision of the creation of our country, is to have an economy that was not a bar bell economy with a tiny group in the middle and a lot of poor people or some well off people, but to have more of a bell curve economy where there is a large number of americans that can be in the middle class and have the benefits of a middle class life, a chance to have their children do as well or better than them. That is one of the fundamental goals, the end goals. The second end goal is that people in our country who work hard and take responsibility can work with dignity, raise their children with dignity and retire with dignity. Third, that we are a country where the accident of your birth does not overly determine the outcome of your life. So, of course, nobody more than me will get lost in the difficult issues of pay fors and offsets and budget totals, et cetera. But it is very important for us to step back and remember that all of those measures have to be measured against whether it is fulfilling that basic goal of a strong inclusive middle class, being able to work or raise your children with dignity in a country where everyone has a chance to rise. That is what we ultimately measure our success against. And i feel that at times we do lose our way on this. When you look at current fiscal policy right now, you can feel that some who advocate forget what that larger goal is. For example, we work very hard, president obama works very hard in thinking through and design being a pro growth and pro jobs fiscal policy. We understand that you have to hav have that the goal is not a budget policy per se but an Economic Policy that promotes these values and these issues of job creation, a strong recovery, inclusive growth. So, when we look at how we do a budget, we look at whether the budget as a whole meets those goals. Right now, i think there is among a lot of people a consensus as to what the ingredients of a pro growth fiscal policy are. It would be a fiscal policy that, yes, did give more confidence in the long run that we have a path on entitlement spending and revenues that gives confidence in our longterm fiscal position and that we are not pushing off unbearable burdens to the next generation. That is very important. But it is also of a pro growth, pro jobs fiscal strategy to ensure that you can invest in the things that are important to growth and productivity. If you could hit every single fiscal goal that you wanted, but your bridges crumble and none of your students, or a tiny percentage of your students could read or perform well in school, nobody would say that your Economic Growth strategy was working. On the other hand, if some of those things are going well and you have a completely fiscally unsustainable future, that is not so great either. You have to think about this as part of an overall pro growth, pro job strategy. Also, theres no question that right now we still need to give this recovery more momentum. We cannot possibly be satisfied with the levels of projected growth when we are still coming back from the worst recession since the great depression. We have too many longterm unemployed americans. We have too many middle class families who are doing better, working harder, but still are harder, but still are not where they should be or where they deserve to be. We need stronger growth. We need to give this recovery more momentum. So, it is not hard to think about how you would design a pro growth fiscal strategy. You would make sure that right now you werent overly contracting the economy. Chris van hollen asked the Congressional Budget Office asked the congressional budget asked the Congressional Budget Office recently how much the sequester would cost us in jobs this year, next year. They answered 900,000. Really . We can afford to have a fiscal a fiscal policy that our independent score keeper thinks is going us 70,000 to 80,000 jobs a month . But it is worse than that because that is not static. Economies are about momentum. So, we could have a Economic Growth strategy where we had a more pro jobs, pro recovery fiscal policy right now that included that did not have this harmful sequester. We could have more savings that were on both the revenue and entitlement side that were long term and would help in the future. And we could make sure that we are making room for the things that almost everybody thinks we need to do more of. The amazeing buy kpwhroel research from n. I. H. The efforts to make sure Young Children from poor families have a chance to have a fair start when they go to kindergarten. I have not had any Business Leader come tell me they think the United States needs to invest less in infrastructure. None. So, a pro growth fiscal policy as president obama has it is one that has as component a strategy to have balanced, longterm fiscal discipline, deal with entitlements and revenues for the longterm situation, but also includes allowing this recovery to get more momentum and allowing us to do the investments that are in the critical ingredients of Economic Growth and competitiveness that virtually everyone who is not operating from an ideological or political frame thinks is important. The president is today. Heading to brooklyn to go to the i. B. M. Tech school. This is the things we are talking about, turn high schools that allow young people who may not have been on a college path to start in ninth grade on a career path to get maybe in four to six years have a high school degree, a technical degree, perhaps a job waiting for them or perhaps to be turned on to education enough to go to a fouryear higher education. These are important serious things. You go to the Business Roundtable or Business Council meetings and they are talking about these things because they go to the skills gap they are trying to fill. But too often here we are just in a world of abstract numbers, metrics, and even when we are talking about how we deal with the economy we are not asking ourselve ourselves, you know, we talk about whether were cutting spending as opposed to cutting unnecessary spending and investing more in the things that are good for Economic Growth. We forget the frame that everything we do needs to be measured against the goal are we encouraging a growing more prosperous middle class. It is relevant to the budget conference you are going to see today because even if you do not have the big grand bargain, if you were to have a medium deal or small deal, those deals could have permanent loophole closers and permanent mandatory savings that would help permanent, our permanent longterm fiscal situation. At the same time, they would allow more room right now for investments that will be important to growth in the short term and important to our investments and competitiveness in the long term. So, it would be a very positive thing if we used this moment to push forward a pro growth, pro jobs fiscal policy where we look at the components and make sure they make sense, not just for hitting a persons particular metri metric, but whether they make sense as a pro growth fiscal policy that will be good for the middle class, good for economic security, good for our longterm competitiveness. I think it is again a very important reminder as we go forward. The second thing i think we need to do is we just have to put an end to the sever inflicted wounds selfinflicted wounds. I became the n. A. C. Director in january of 2011 this time for my second swing through. And it was actually quite an interesting time. We had a veried about election in november very bad election in november if you were the Obama White House or democrats. But after that we had been in a very tough situation, yet i had been privileged to be part of working out a compromise deal in the lame duck that probably didnt make anybody, or definitely didnt make anybody entirely happy, didnt make us and Many Democrats happy because we extended some of the tax relief at the top that we didnt think were the most fiscally responsible thing to do but we did it in a context where we extended longterm unalignment. Middle class tax relief and a new payroll tax cut. And we surprised markets and growth was actually lifted up a half percent almost everywhere. Beginning of 2011 i think we were looking at 3 growth. I understand things happen right after that, i barely remembered where the bathroom was when you had both the developments in the middle east raising gas prices, you had the unprecedent eed Natural Disaster in japan that had a much, much deeper and more harmful on the Global Economy than anyone expected. Those are the things you cant prevent. Those are the external factors. Even the european Financial Difficulties that you have to deal with. But what you dont expect is that you are going to manufacture your own domestic crisis to inflict wounds on your own economy as you are trying to recover from the great recession. But unfortunately that is what has happened. The question is, why . It is not because we had divided government. It is not because we had great difference differences, philosophical differences in how to do a longterm fiscal plan. It is because we started seeing in 2011 really for the First Time Ever a serious use of a threat against our own economy and against and the potential for default as a budget tactic. That is what hurt us. It is not having divided government. It is not having a difficult budget negotiation. It was the practice of threatening the default of the United States as a negotiating tactic. And i think it is very important for people to understand that single fact. Because i think sometimes i read descriptions of the president s positio position. It often seemed to be about would the president negotiate, will he negotiate. There is no question that this president has been willing to negotiate and compromise on budget issues. Lets be honest, most of the flack he has received from his own supporters has been when they thought he was too willing to negotiate or compromise. But the president does believe in divided government and that everyone has to give a little and compromise cant be a dirty word and if you are going to move forward nobody is going to get 100 of what they want. What the president was doing was taking a stand against using the threat of default or put it this which. He was taking a stand against sanctioning anyone using the threat of default as a tactic in budget negotiations. I cannot express how important it is that this issue be resolved in the right way and soon. It is very important that we as a country decide in these next couple of months that the era of anyone threatening the default of the United States economy is over. I think we need to come together, the Business Community, both parties, and decided there are going to be many ways we will battle each other on our priorities. Air of threatening default is over. People would say, really . President s can take part of that stance . He is so determined not to sanction that type of negotiation that he will stand firm no matter what . What if you get to the 11th hour or it is 11 59 p. M. On that critical evening . The reason why the president did and was willing to stand firm was that he believed and his entire Strategic Team believed that if the president made concessions at the last minute to, even for the purpose of preventing a crisis, that it would increase and not decrease the chances of default. It would increase the chances we would undermine our full faith and credit and not decrease it. Why . It is logic. If after all of that the Lesson Learned had been yet, you put a gun to the American Economy and you get your way, why would people have not continued to try that tactic for the rest of the Obama Presidency . If it is used by the obama party, why in the world would you not expect payback . Why would you not expect that the Democratic House of representatives would not do the same thing to republican president later and saying they will not sign the debt limit unless there is background checks are higher minimum wage . This was a very important struggle for the future of saying an economic this goal policy. We have seen twice where there has been willing at the end it to extend the debt limit without, you know, concessions or someone being paid to agree to not default the country. It is very important that this ends now. Let me give some reasons why. We had a very wise secretary in alexander hamilton. When you read him, you really do have great admiration for his foresight that he could establish the u. S. Had impeccable credit, future generations would in effect. The actions that he took at a time when that was not so a conventional wisdom or understanding, a showed a great foresight. He gave us a great gift that we have maintained for over 200 years. I think we should look at it this way. I think that we should consider it a precious asset possessed by all of the american people, our credit standing over 200 years is a precious asset that is owned by the entire american people. That has allowed us and generations of businesses and entrepreneurs and families to invest in the future at lower costs. It has helped lead us to be the worlds reserve currency. It has helped the world to believe that treasury debt is the safest, most risk free financial obligation of the world. That was established over 200 years through world wars and on the things we have been through. We should not play around with damaging that brand, that precious asset. My deep worry is that if this happens another time, we will heart. We will do lasting damage to that brand. In 2011, there is no question that there was a harmful impact on the economy. We had a couple of Companies Come in and talk to the president were the talked about the impact on Consumer Spending and confidence that their company. During the financial crisis, it is only been matched by 9 11 and pearl harbor. That is not a great thing. We have lived through the second threat of default to our economy. It was estimated that he has cost us many jobs this quarter. Many people feel that is conservative. It is no question we will take a hit in growth. I most worried about what it means for the threat of lasting damage. Think about some of the spectrum. Jpmorgan, blackrock. They decided they could not hold the treasury bills that have maturities in early november. Is i going to do take our economy . No. Is that the kind that you want to send to the world . That your own top financials into shins are divided and they are still unsure of their own government they are not willing to even for a short amount of time theyre not willing to hold shortterm treasury debt it is not something we want to send. We have received some memory e mails from people saying they did a contingency plan and never thought they would have to do it again. We have gone through going through another contingency plan. Sooner or later, we will implement those contingency plans. The message is that it was bad that this happened in 2011. It was more harmful to confidence in our Financial System that happened a second time in just a little over two years. I worry that three strikes and you are out that a third strike within two years will start to do some of the lasting damage. Let me give you a couple of quotes we have told this is larry fink, this ceo of black rock. This is from the financial times. This is the person who holds the largest assets in the world. Many Foreign Investors are rethinking their approach to investing, even a marginal change in the willingness of government and Pension Funds and other institutions around the world will incrementally raise Interest Rates and drive up the costs of financing our deficit. Student loans are tied to treasury. People are rethinking their approach to investing in our that. That will do lasting damage ironically to the deficit and to middleclass families. Again, this is not because of the power of watchman nurser innovators. It is simply about dysfunction in the practice of threatening default in our budget battles. Bill gross, the worldview of the u. S. Has been damaged by all of this. This dysfunction appears to be a herman and disease that should concern longerterm treasury and investors as for the volatility of washingtons debt. The international Financial System is based on the assumption that the core of the system will predict early and responsibly if this assumption proves false, the rub would be pulled out. This is a very serious issue. I really do believe it is not a partisan issue. This is about the brand and the benefit that we as a country enjoy from the precious assets of our credit standing of over 200 years. I think we need to do decide that era threatening default has to be over. What you hear is that this is the way it has always been. People have to give up leverage. I want to contest both of those. I think i have made myself a bit of a history buff on all have to debt limit increases. Yes, there have been times but not often where the debt limit has got mock up in an issue or two. Maybe once or twice. There have been times where the debt limit was perhaps to used as a deadline. The there has never been before this and organized, longterm effort by a faction of a Political Party used to use as a key element of the political or Economic Strategy. That has not happened before. Let us remember that the house Republican Leadership bill actually in the last budget put in a prioritization bill. They were putting in a bill. Heres how you should manage the default of the u. S. This is unprecedented in the sense of it being a sustained and serious effort to use the debt limit and that private default is a key element of a political strategy. Second, the idea that you need this for leverage is what we know from our civics classes as junior high students and medical students. Our government system is enormous leverage to the Minority Party. Barack obama wants to pass Immigration Reform. He wants to have a strong infrastructure bill. He has offered a deal, compromise that will combine on term Corporate Tax reform and infrastructure investment. Program projobs. He has many priorities. None of them in our system can get through without the cooperations of the republicans in the u. S. Congress. That is the levers that is given to the Minority Party in our government. That is the leverage that is given even if you control one house. In 1997 when we did the balanced budget agreement, we have the white house and both houses of congress. The one in medicare savings. They wanted a lower the capital gains. And we are going to get the Childrens Health initiative and investment funding for education, we had to get the cooperation. That is a mutual leverage that leads to compromise. You do not need the thread default in your country for leverage. That is more of a super leverage that is designed to nullify election results. It is not taken within normal leverage you have to force a president or the other house to work with you in the spirit of compromise to make sure that something that passes includes the priorities for both the democrat and the Republican Party. That is what we want to get back to. Not asking anyone to give up their leverage. We need to move forward. Thank you. [applause] thank you, gene. The first question comes from hundreds of investors and entrepreneurs that we deal with all the time in the last couple of months. When you are negotiating, does the threat to fourthquarter earnings, but the table . Does it come up in the negotiation . That is interesting you mention it. I think there have been people in the Business Community who have been frustrated that their words have not have the force that i should have on washington. To be honest, some of them have felt as many of the orchard 500 ceos are republicans fortune 500 ceos are republicans and may not have had the impact on some elements of the Republican Party. There are selfinflicted crises. If there is one thing that seems to really break through, it was indeed the idea that putting the crisis point in the middle of december was going to impact the Holiday Shopping season and the awareness that for many businesses large and small, the 70 75 of Business Revenue can i was struck the fact that one day we were doing significant outreach one day and the president was talking to a Bipartisan Group of governors. I stayed on the phone after to take questions and answers. Other than issues on parks, the number one issue for most democrat and republican governors was, these dont do this thing where youre going to make the date in the middle of december. Then, we walked downstairs and the president and i met with a group of Small Businesses and literally the first words out of the first person who went to us was a person who sells gift candles who said she was dead if this happened. It was very interesting. It seemed like in a very short period of time, the republican proposal that was going to extend into the middle of december suddenly went to january. I think that perhaps the reason that broke through was that it was a commonsense message that people were hearing from the largest businesses, but also the smallest businesses in their district. I think it says a lot about what has impact, which is a lot of people do care what the ceo of the 15th Largest Company in the world thinks. A lot of times they care a lot more about what theyre going to hear the town hall meeting. Perhaps in their home with a Small Business they may not be hearing as much about what is happening to money market funds or Interest Rates, but they are hearing somebody say youre going to kill me. I usually hire more people at the Holiday Shopping season, i meant to lay off more people. Thats a pretty powerful, tangible message. I think that broke through. Secondly, i think the shutdown i think the negative impact of the shutdown was felt quite broadly, for a couple of reasons. One, with the sequester, the sequester is going to be is obviously harmful to growth, harmful to investment, harm to a lot of families in our country but when it first go into place, people are able to, you know, do goes into place, onetime things, find that money under the cushion or whatever and so it doesnt necessarily hit as quickly. I think in the shutdown, people might have expected it was going to be like that as well. Or they might have remembered the 19951996 shutdown where maybe only half the government was shut down. I think this ended up being very harmful. I think people felt it in their economy. I think people started to realize thats not just about federal workers. They saw the Small Business contractors. I think what a lot of members of congress started to hear was the Small Businesses say, hey, when you open this government, federal workers will get paid, not me. You know, i missed a payment. My credit is hurt now. You know. I already took the hit. I think there was a broader sense of the economic harm there. I think the reason why, unfortunately, while all those things are extremely harmful, the thing that would be the most, you know, the most scary and threatening would be a default and yet that might be harder for some people to digest. Clearly some members of congress tried to pretend that, you know, it would be the United States could somehow get through it or the United States for the first time in its history massively not meeting its obligations, breaking its bond, would not have this terrible, harsh effect. Fortunately, i do feel that the leadership on all sides did not buy that. I think there are members of congress, house and senate, who take that position. But i think those in the leadership of the democrat and republican parties were not confused that a default would be financially devastating, but its not the kind of thing you want to prove. We found that Business Leaders might be unwilling to talk about sequester cuts because theyre not experts, but we talk to them about what with happens if they dont pay their credit cards, theyre they know about that. You talked about the farm bill. What do we have a chance of getting done before you leave at the end of december . Well, let me Say Something on immigration. I do believe that immigration, comprehensive Immigration Reform will eventually become the law of the land. I think there is just an overwhelming logic, humanitarian logic and political logic for both sides. I think there should be as much pressure on the system as possible to get this done. A couple of things. Obviously it would be a great thing for the economy. We know that immigration would be good for growth. We know it would help more Companies Continue to locate in the United States and employee more people. And employee more people. We know would be good for gdp, but its also interesting, were sitting here talking about, youre seeing comments from congressional leaders saying, maybe we can get something done. Maybe its not going to be a large deal. Maybe we can get something done. When you look at what the, you know, what people are talking about, it makes you realize that the c. B. O. Has scored the immigration bill as reducing the deficit by almost 900 billion over the next 20 years. So if youre asking yourself right now, what is one of the most promising, bipartisan things we can do to reduce the longterm deficit, you should be supporting and actively fighting for passage of the comprehensive Immigration Reform that passed the United States senate. But obviously its just also the right thing to do from a moral point of view. The president s mentioned the farm bill, where theres been bipartisan movement. You know, one of the other things that we talked about with the president quite a bit is understanding the ability of the president to get things done and have change even beyond legislation. Now, legislatively, a couple of other things i mentioned, i think theres some bipartisan progress on patent reform, and trying to reduce the degree of abusive litigation that gets in the way of innovation. I think chairman goodlatte has shown leadership in getting in moving forward a bill that will probably still need some adjustments from his democratic colleagues but nonetheless is consistent with the president s, you know, goals. I think that there has been surprising but promising opportunity on g. S. E. Reform in the senate. Myself and Shawn Donovan and jack lue, the three of us have been working very closely, often behind the scenes but to work with those who are trying to forge bipartisan progress on g. S. E. Reform. I think there are areas along with Immigration Reform where, you know, if we could if washington could get itself in a better state, we could make progress but theres also areas where were working with members of the Business Community or other stake holders to make progress where you might not need, where legislation would be most helpful but you could still make progress. Weve done an enormous amount, the president and first lady have, and mrs. Biden, on veterans. In a very serious way. Reforming the way the military deals with people coming out, reforming credentialing. Very serious things that will affect hundreds of thousands of people. The overall majority has been done without new legislation. We proposed the manufacture and innovation institutes weve been able to do to pilot our first one in youngstown and well be announcing before the end of the year the next three. This is being looked on in the United States, at universities around the world, as one of the top innovations in manufacturing and encouraging jobs here. Weve done it with federal resources but weve been able to find ways to do it without new legislation. Now that people have seen the success, there is, you know, senator blunt and senator brown have a bipartisan bill in the senate. Theres a bipartisan bill in the house. A couple of areas we have been working with the Business Community on is longterm unemployment. Just making sure that were talking to companies about making sure they dont have screens that unintentionally dont give people who may be who maybe have been unemployed for six or seven months or a year, dont give them a chance to at least interview to prevent that negative cycle. If you could get a real change from Companies Large and small,t the negative cycle. Could get a real change from Companies Large and small we will leave the discussion at this point. See it in its entirety at www. C span. Org. Live now to the u. S. House. Ys before the house a communication from the speaker. The clerk the speakers rooms, washington, d. C. October 28, 2013. I hereby appoint the honorable frank r. Wolf to act as speaker pro tempore on this day. Signed, john a. Boehner, speaker of the house of representatives. The speaker pro tempore pursuant to the order of the house of january 3, 201