Do i have any recourse . Guest assuming it was as you said you were working you would have been covered under Workers Compensation law in the state where you were working. Normally you have a statute of limitations period where you have to file a claim. Sometimes if you have an injury that you dont think will actually inhabit your ability to work and it develops over a long period of time, you can file a claim within a reasonable period after it changes to that level. I would contact your state Workers Compensation authority and see if you might be able to raise the claim that would cover your medical expenses and your diminution in earnings. Host george, wichita, kansas, independent line. Go ahead with your question or comment. Caller thank you. Good morning, professor. A quick comment before i give you my question. I and i think most americans do not believe that two wrongs, three wrong, eight wrongs make a right. And the fallback on collisions politicians is that prior president s did this, prior parties did this or that. What we do, even though it may be wrong, is right. Point of clarification on recess appointments. President obama as others have have made recess appointments. But the constitution as i understand it says those vacancies that he is filling must have occurred during that recess period. The appointments obama made, they were already vacant. He he chose an opportunity when congress was technically adjourned, not in a formal recess, to appoint people without due process when those vacancies did not occur during a recess. Therefore they should be thrown out. And the process should go forward as the constitution indicates. Thank you. Guest george, can i ask why have you been following this issue . And why is it one of interest to you . George . Caller since i have retired i have rededicated myself to my country, my constitution, constitution. I have read it, i have studied it. I have done a lot of research. My grandchildren i have educated on the constitution. The founders original documents so that they can understand how our country is built, why it became the greatest experiment in human freedom the world has ever known. And they could better form their opinions of what they hear on knowledge rather than propaganda. Guest thank you, sir. Host whats your answer . Guest i would say historically even where there have been vacancies president s have made recess appointments and thats gone back and forth through republicans and democrat president s. What makes this difficult is i agree with you. I think there was substantial doubt whether there actually was a senatorial recess at the time he made these appointments. If thats true they werent valid appointments. Had he to go through the appointments process. As i said earlier what he should have done is sat down with the Republican Leadership in the senate and try to come up with a list, many president s have done this also in the past. He doesnt bargain very well with congress. I dont know why. Hes very detached in that regard. But president obama needs to sit down with the leaders, come up with a group of four names, two acceptable republicans, and two acceptable democrats and the republicans have to make sure they are not too far to the right and democrats not too far to the left. And the senate would approve them. Host clarksburg, west virginia, this is spence. Go ahead. Caller this makes the George WashingtonUniversity Look awfully good. Hes very smart. You should have him back. Hes very knowledgeable. I would like for him to address how state workers sometimes they do the federal jobs and many in many regards. The state have them do your disabled. Some of your welfare. Things that are federally chartered. Id like for you to address those two issues together there. And then i would like to ask also some people are required to do training. This person is taking the same training is not a College Degree person, but they have to do the same job thats the College Person with the degree. That person is now not paid the same. However the person with the 15 Years Experience has to train different people because the College People that make that money is always looking for a better amount of money. So you have a turnover and you have the steady employee who is there every day not receiving that type of pay. Whats the scrings line on that discrimination line on that snill listen to your answer. Guest take the second question first. Its very common for people to train new workers and there is nothing that says i cant defer College People over nonCollege People. There is no formal discrimination there based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, or age. The only thing someone might be able to claim is there are more College Graduates who are nonminority than minority and you might be able to argue theres discrimination. Thats the type of thing i think a court would find perfectly appropriate. It goes on all the time. So often if i have a job that im really skilled in that job but i dont have the background to move to the higher position, they bring in someone i have to train to be able to do my level of work and then they get a higher salary, they get bumped up to the higher positions and i stay where i am. Thats very common. Unfortunately its not illegal. The first question you ask is about state people doing federal work. So many of the federal statutes give money to the states, different welfare provisions, different unemployment compensations under the unemployment tax, which is a federal tax, but the states run those services subject to certain minimum requirements. Where you work for the state formally, are you a state employee which means if youre going to have a union or youre going to have any rights it will be as a state employee not a federal employee. And thats critical because state employees often have broader rights, sometimes they have narrower rights. But if you have federal funding and it goes to the states and the states then carry out that funding to a state agency, youre a state employee. Host professor, wild and wonderful sense in this tweet, the National Labor relations act was a reasonable compromise to keep the wheels of commerce turning. It was later mitigated a bit by the lmra. Guest the tafthartley act. And the disclosure act of 1969. What happened was senator wagner, the National Industry recovery act was passed in 1933. In title 7 actually authorized the labor board and certain labor rights at that time because it was during the height of the depression. And senator wagner was asked to be head of the labor board even though he was a senator. He realized how unequal the situation was during the depression, so when the Supreme Court struck down the constitutionality of the National Industry recovery act, he then proposed what became the National Labor relations act. It was actually a very liberal law in the sense that at that time workers had no rights outside the railroad industry. They had no right to organize. If you said i want a union, if i were your employer i could fire you. I didnt have to listen to you. That act really established the right of workers and labor organizations to organize those workers and engage in collective bargaining. That gave workers finally some very significant rights. The biggest right that unions actually provide isnt simply wages and benefits, its the fact that you cannot be disciplined under Union Contract except for just cause, and they can take it to labor arbitration before someone like myself if they think the discipline was inappropriate. A nonunion work i can fire you at any time for any reason. What happened after that is congress became more conservative and the american employers were more conservative, so they induced the tafthartley act which was passed over the veto of then president truman, and then in 1959 the lmrda in both those statutes, the 1947 act finally unlabor practice by unions because there were no unfair labor practices by unions between 1935 and 1947, and they refined that further in 1959. Host the National LaborRelations Board protects employee rights to improve wages in working conditions. The board has five members. Acts as quieso judicial body. Appointed by the president for fiveyear terms. Senate consent with 28 regional field offices. The current budget has come down over the last couple years, but the current budget of the nlrb, 238 million. And c dog tweets in, are the Regional Labor arbitration boards part of the nlrb . Guest no, the labor board doesnt have arbitration. When im an arbitrator, im using a point either under the arm tration rules and the parties simply pick their own arbitrator. The local people are both part of the board and the general counsel, they investigate charges and decide whether the issue of complaint, if they issue a complaint they also conduct election that is are conducted very carefully. They dont arbitrate. Then they have a separate group of Administrative Law judges who are totally independent even though they are employed by the labor board and they you can see the house every morning. Can you see washington journal every morning here on cspan. The u. S. House is in recess until 1 30 eastern when members return they will continue working on a bill that would continue a pay freeze for federal workers. Its been in effect since 2010. President obama issued an executive order allowing a half percent pay increase which would get under way march 27. And can you see live coverage of the house when members return. Again that will be at 1 30 eastern right here on cspan. Short time ago House Speaker john boehner held his Weekly Briefing answering reporters questions. Heres a look. Happy valentines day. In two weeks well haval storied ceremony here in the United States capitol. The house and Senate Leaders will gather to unveil a statue of civil rights icon rosa parks. This will be the first statue of a africanamerican woman to be placed here in the capitol. And i cant think of a more fitting honor for a Great American hero who still inspires us all. On tuesday the president laid out his agenda, and its one i largely disagreed with. Admittably i think it lacked any new ideas. Hope to the millions of Americans Still asking the question, where are the jobs . It was largely more of the same. More tax hikes, more stimulus spending. And the president elected to attack congress but if hes serious about enacting his agenda, i think he must start with a part of this congress that his party controls, the United States senate. What can they get passed in the United States senate . The president wants to impose a national cap and trade energy tax. I would hope that Senate Democrats would take it up. The president wants more stimulus spending. I would expect the United States senate to take it up. The president wants more tax hikes that destroy jobs, then his democrat allies in the senate ought to take it up. This isnt the agenda that Many Americans are looking for. And i think many in the president s own party wont support those ideas. In the house well continue to focus on what the American Peoples Top Priorities are, creating jobs and cutting spending. For the last two years the house has done its work. We have passed legislation to tackle the tough challenges that america faces only to see our Senate Colleagues do nothing. Well, those days are over. The house will continue to meet our obligations, but the Senate Democrats must begin to do their work. Thats why we passed the no budget, no pay act requiring the senate to pass a budget for the first time in four years. And thats why we are going to insist that they finally pass a plan to replace the president s sequester. This sequester was the president s idea. His party needs to follow through on their plans to replace it. With that i answer your questions. Speaker boehner, Senate Democrats are going to unveil their plan today to avert the sequester for 10 months with a mix of spending cuts and subsidies in defense, would you rather see the sequester kick in than accept a deal that includes some new tax revenue . If the Senate Passes a plan well look at it. Until they pass a plan there is no reason for me to comment on what theyll do or not do. Speaker boehner, former senator chuck hagel is at rick of being filibustered in the senate. It would be the first time in the history of the United States that a National Security appointee would be filibustered. Do you think its appropriate our republican colleagues in the Senate Filibuster his nomination . I remind unand mr. Russert this is the house side, we are not involved in Senate Nomination fights. Can you ask the senate do you have an opinion on it, mr. Speaker . Your republican colleagues are leading the charge. You noted that the house has passed legislation to replace the sequester, that legislation expired at the end of the 112th congress. If the senate does pass a bill it will have how will the house handle it if you dont have a bill we passed a bill twice to replace the see quers. Our position is very clear. We have outlined it. Its up to the senate to do their work. If they are willing to pass a bill, well find some way to work with them to address this problem. I have made a it perfectly clear the sequester dont like it. No one should like it. But the sequester is there because the president insisted that it be there. Wheres the president s plan to replace the sequester that he insisted upon . The Senate Passed by a wide margin the violence against women act. Whats your timeline . People are calling for you to bring up this version. Continuing to work with the committee of jurisdiction, looking at finding ways to deal with this legislation. We are fully committed, doing everything we can to protect women in our society. I expect the house will act in a timely fashion in some way. No decision has been made about how we whether we take up the senate bill or move a version of our our own version of the bill. It may or may not. Your message this morning about the senate going first on the president s agenda extend to immigration . Or will the house move on its own bill . Theres a you heard me say there is bipartisan talk, talks under way both in the senate and in the house. I have done everything i can to try to encourage those bipartisan conversations continue. I dont think no decision has been made who should go first. I think we are way too far down the road. There are a lot of issues that we have to deal with. Our border is not secure. The ability of our government to enforce the law is has its share of problems as well. There are a number of issues that have to be resolved here. And so lets not get too far down the road. I want my colleagues to continue to Work Together to see if they cant come to a solution thats acceptable here in the house. Mr. Speaker, you mentioned jobs. What did you think of the president s proposal to fix it now, put people back to work repairing the nations infrastructure . As you are all well aware i have worked very diligently over the last couple years to try to grapple with our infrastructure problems here in america. The problems we have are chiefly one of resources. And still trying to find a Funding Source to repair the nations infrastructure is still a big goal of mine. The president talked about infrastructure, he hasnt talked about how to pay for it. Its easy to go out there and be santa claus and talk about the things you want to give away, but at some point somebody has to pay the bill. I pushed mr. Shuster, the new chairman of our house transportation and infrastructure committee, to work on this issue. Im committed to working, to find a Funding Source so we can begin to repair americas aging infrastructure. Mr. Speaker, you dont like the sequester and you have made that clear, if it goes into effect at the end of the month, how do you handle what will in effect be treated by many, many of your republican members as the new baseline and the c. R. Following immediately on that . It seems when the sequester goes into effect, apart from the cuts that will take place, enormously complicates your ability to agree with democrats over basic spending bills just a couple of weeks later. If the sequester goes into effect, will that be the new spending baseline youll operate off of . Or will you treat that as temporary . Ill do the same thing i told my republican colleagues, the sequester will be in effect until there are cuts and reforms that put us on a path to balance the budget over the next 10 years. Period. [inaudible] i told senator reid this morning the same thing i told you. Pure and simple. Even though you spoke up before i called you on, ill call on you because you have been patient. The president promised would he take executive action on Climate Change unless if congress doesnt pass something. Are House Republicans going to block him from doing that . I dont know what actions the president thinks he can take. I dont think he has the ability