Transcripts For CSPAN2 Key Capitol Hill Hearings 20141113

Congressional leaders need to look in the mirror after a disastrous election day. They stay tuned senator rich indian who served as dnc chairman 20082011 said his family pitches for needs and a serious discussion wyatt got voted out and reflecting the mood in the old senate cheevers this morning a tweet hear from senator mitchell rascal mcc k mccaskill and will know for harry reid for leader. We will know the results later on today and later today the senate will gavel in at 2 15 eastern and shortly thereafter the gene amber will hold confirmation of the 3 two District Court nominees a vote to limit debate on a housepassed bill that authorizes a federal law that helps lowincome families the for child care. Looking ahead to next week harry reid said votes tuesday for two key pieces of legislation, one that would overhaul the government surveillance powers, the other is a bill authored by senator Mary Landrieu. You heard a lot of debate on this yesterday, she sees in runoff in louisiana. That would authorize the Keystone Pipeline, and the challenger in that runoff, congressman bill capacity introduced keystone built in the chamber. The house will begin debate on that, the rule for that this afternoon with a final vote likely tomorrow. The house voted nick vito and keystone bill until Environmental Review is done, completed by the state department. For a look at all this, preview to those elections and what is ahead for keystone we spoke to a capitol Hill Reporter Ron Washington journal. To set the stage as far as the votes, specifically looking at keystone. Mike willis is with the hill. Mike lillis, good morning. Can you give us a little bit of background on scheduled votes on keystone and how this happened . This is naked politics at its best, something the republicans have been pushing for a number of years. Obama has delayed it and belated. He was hoping to get out of the white house without having to deal with and what happened is the Louisiana Senate runoff is forcing him to address it. No one anticipated this would happen in a lame duck. They believed the race would be close. When the republicans said lets vote on this one more time, this is not the first time they voted on it. A pressing issue getting in the headlines. In that Runoff Election against Mary Landrieu is going to be the cosponsor, we cant let Mary Landrieu go back over the holiday and run against this guy who just passed this thing which is very popular in the state. Harry reid and the democrats can match that. And so both candidates the back to the state and say they stopped the legislation, were successful getting an offer of the floor and probably pass those chambers and it will create a headache for barack obama who will have to decide what to do with it. Host what will happen on the outside starting today. When is the senate expected to act on it . The house will bring it up before the end of the week. But they will delay it a little bit. I have not seen a calendar vote, and is this bill going to head to a desk . For a number of years, he waited on the state number of reviews and a belated and still waiting to see how it will impact the environment and the economy and they dont damage they keep saying we dont have a verdict yet. That is an argument republicans reject out of hand. They say this has been reviewed and how many more reviews do we need before we know this thing creates jobs is their argument. It is going to push the envelope. When it lands on the desk with democratic support, it is going to force Barack Obamas hand. He is a lame duck so we dont know what he will do with it but no indication from the white house what he will do. Host mike lillis with the hill, a congressional reporter about Keystone Pipeline and the. We ask you on the program to talk about leadership elections in the house and senate and what is expected to take place today. Can we start in the house as far as the scheduled events and what the outcome will be . Guest for all the talk of this election being such a shakeup there will not be too many faces back on capitol hill in the next congress in terms of leadership in either party. The house in the House Republicans met last night, candidates made a pitch, i say candidates but there arent a lot of elections. No one is being challenged. John boehner will come back as speaker, Majority Leader Kevin Mccarthy with conference catherine rogers, elections are happening today. On the democratic side, same thing. Nancy pelosi, any lawyer, jim cliburn, joe crowley, on the democratic side running unopposed. Those are not until next week, those are tuesday but it is possible a challenger could emerge but even if one does it is not expected to be any kind of real challenge. It would just be a symbolic thing. Host on the house side couple people are campaigning to be head of the Republican Study Committee. What is it and who is making the via for the position . Guest Republican Study Committee is the conservative wing. Honestly i havent followed that closely at all. I dont know whos running for that right now. We do have the positive policy committee, James Langford went to the Senate Following in his footsteps candidates have emerged. Tom read in terms of the Study Committee i dont know the answer. Host when it comes to the lowest board, what are the scheduled events between now and what congress has to take . What will happen in both bodies aside from keystone which you talked about . On number of things must pass. You have a Defense Authorization bill, a Government Spending bill that has to be done by december 11th, big package of tax breaks, the tax expenditures. Both sides went through repeal a ban on Internet Access taxes. Those are things that will happen. Because of the elections you will see a power shift next year taking control of the senate. Republicans want to do as little as possible this year while they are still the minority in the senate and push the tougher fights until next year when they will have more control and more seats in the house. Democrats on the flip side want to get as much done and jam as much through as they can before the holidays so you will see a lot of nominations. You saw that yesterday. First day back in the senate, a lot of nominations, 150 administrative nominations sitting out there waiting for action and republicans will stall, democrats will rush. How much gets done we are not quite sure. The keys dont sing is a wild, which will deny a lot of things. A lot of that will be pushed into next year but the things i mentioned will pass. Host mike lillis with the hill, thank you. The scene from a short while ago in the Capital Visitor Center area, the incoming part of the incoming class of 114th congress, the freshman class of 114th congress and the orientation happening today on capitol hill. A little bit of advice. A great session. I know what you all said. That is true. I have to tell you about that. Never been involved in that. They are out there in great numbers. Incoming class of freshmen of the u. S. House for the 114th congress are briefing. We have cameras over there and we will get any reaction from the incoming members if they come to the cameras. Outside the u. S. Senate chambers waiting to hear from potential remarks from leaders of republicans and democrats. Democrats began their leadership elections at 9 00 eastern in the Old Senate Chamber in the mansfield room. Republicans began their deliberations. We will bring you any comments live as we are able, the senate itself doesnt get it until 2 15 eastern. Our cameras are over capitol hill. We have a briefing coming up at 10 45 this morning, democratic leader, House Democratic leader nancy pelosi, we will have that live on cspan2 once it gets underway in 35 minutes or so. Until then the conversation from this mornings washington journal. Our first guest is representative tim ryan from ohio, the budget and appropriations committee, welcome. Can you give your assessment of what happened this past election season and what happened to democrat specifically . Do i have to . You know, we got our buts kept. It was clear in ohio and clear across the country. My real concern is i dont think we necessarily talk about the things that we have done that the president has done and democrats of dung, stabilizing the economy. Bending the cost curve on health care, gas prices are low, those kinds of positive things and i dont think we talked about the big pieces about growing the economy, creating jobs, increasing income, securing pensions, making sure people have a board ability. When democrats dont talk about economics we usually lose elections. We look at the history of the party we dont do that. Voters didnt come out to vote, and why they were going to vote, there are still huge levels of economic insecurity, huge levels of economic inequality and if we dont talk to average voters, democrats, not just democrats but on the sidelines, we dont get them out to vote. How do we grow the economy . We should talk about it because democrats growing the economy, i was at a meeting in cleveland, ohio at this round table and he says i have never done as well as i did under bill clinton. We know how to do this, how to put the Public Private partnerships together. We recognize the value of investing in our economy whether it is transportation, infrastructure, education, research. Ease of the things that have always groaned the economy. We need to say this is what we do for people who carry lunch bucket. We dont talk about that. We have the kind of elections we have last night. Host could your leadership have done Something Different in preparing a message this election cycle . Guest i would have liked to talk more about economics. We did talk about it. We didnt talk about where we were in 20089, how we got here, we didnt talk about how we saved the auto industry. We didnt talk about those things that really stabilize us, we didnt talk about the stock market. Those are all positives but we have a long way to go. Why would we turn the keys back to a party who got us in that predicament in the first place. Look at what we have done, campaign on our successes. I think moving forward leaning to talk about how we are the party of Economic Growth, Economic Opportunity and halloween build a new economy. Everything should sit and revamp her contract. That should be what means do. We grow the economy, we know how to undo it. If tax cuts for primarily the top 1 were going to be great for the economy we would be experiencing it right now. I always said after the republicans controlled congress and president bush was in we didnt have to think about supply side economics or what it would look like. We experienced it. The regulation of the financial institutions, tax cuts across the board, with this investment and we saw the collapse. We didnt have to pretend what this would look like, we experience it and we shouldnt go back and the democrats need to have confidence in what we do to grow the economy. Host nancy pelosi did an interview that i dont believe what happened the of the night was a wave election. Was no waive approval for the current republicans. They won the election but there was no wave of approval for anybody. Do you agree . In the sense there was an approval for the republicans, in ohio there was no message, there was no message from the republicans. Was we like puppies and Senior Citizens and women and those were generally the commercials but i dont think that was necessarily an affirmative vote. She is correct in that but it was a whale, theres no question. In ohio we got our buttss kicked and around the country wasnt what we wanted. Host is president obama one of the reasons why you lost the election . There is plenty of blame to go around. The problem is we didnt talk about president obama in the sense of his successes too, the stock market, bending the cost curve, in ohio and other places they have health care, protecting people from not getting denied health care because of a preexisting condition, young people can stay on their parentss insurance. Those are positive things. The stock market is higher than it has ever been. We couldnt even get out the 40 that approve of obama. You get caught in the middle of the roads a year wont embrace the president who has had some successes, the second term, he is not going to be as popular but even those people werent coming out to vote because you are not even talking about the things you did right and you are not increasing the policies and so we wont come out and vote for you. We saw a dropoff in mahoney county in ohio, 20,000 voters from the 2010 election, 2010 was the hardest we have been hit as far as waive elections in ohio in recent history so my largest county we were 20,000 plus votes, i dont think we were necessarily talking in the grand scheme about why you should get out and vote and why it is important. Host the representative from ohio joining us, the budget and appropriations committee, if you want to ask questions 585388 zero for democrats, 5853881 for republicans and for independents 3882. Lets hear from brenda in houston, texas. You are on with representative tim ryan. Caller am i glad to be talking to you. I watched you for years now. For as long as you have been in congress and i applaud that you have always been positive, you have always been supportive of this president. However, i did volunteer for the Democratic Party, this past late summer and relief fall, and i have to tell you the writing was on the wall even with our democrat constituents. They were very upset about this immigration thing. I think that really hurt us and i tell you what hurt me as the black woman, i will find it very hard to vote for hillary because of the way the Democratic Party, i wont say all of you guys, we know the ones, how they treated this president. This is beyond humiliation and i am very upset about it. We are democrats. We will have our disagreements. I disagree with the president as well. I think you cant run from what youve done. If we did we believed in it and we thought was best for our people and our constituents, then you stand by it. If the president was part of that you stand by him as well and i think you get credit from voters for saying we wanted to do health care. There are some issues but look at what is happening. Started to bend the cost curve of a little bit. It is good for everybody, and the insurance companies, and then getting covered, and those hit home and what people call my Congressional Office about. In ohio. We did something about it and we should be proud of that. Host republican line in pennsylvania. Caller good morning, everybody. We are in the low 30s for the first time, a little chilly. Just want to make a quick comment. A complete split completely for republicans, completely against democrats on the mid line but after the beginning of the obama presidency, it is a shift and the first couple comments you opened up with, how we kind of brought the cost of health care down. Actually, this week if you had been purchasing a lunch with any of the news we followed on the cost to the american student, i am a Health Care Provider and i know the insurance companies, in fact we cannot increase the pocket amount everybody pays. I know my husband is an employer and we have cut hours down. We have laid off as well as many other players in the area. That is the first comment, and a stable economy. How many do we have . Full time greases part time. We dont have a stable economy. The economy has declined. No employer wants to hire an employee. I wonder why. The democrats had costs and as far as the economic stability and oil and gas, very recently i can think back before the obama administration, only 2 for a quarter of gas. Guest the National Numbers are in, about spending the cost curve on health care and i think that is important. I dont think you can just say the health care isnt working out the way we want it to. Some folks act like it was hunky dory before the Affordable Care act. Everything was perfect with the Health Care System prior to. We brought some justice to it. Is a perfect . Absolutely not ultimately will be good for the economy because we are starting to reduce health care costs. Think about innovation, we want young people, people in our economy to be able to go out and innovate, started business. When you are tied to your employer for health care reasons, you need Health Care Coverage that they provide, an innovative and hire people. With the Affordable Care act you know you have access, you are more inclined to take a risk. And to support the entrepreneur is that are out there in a variety of different ways. The Health Care Bill as an opportunity to do that. Things were not perfect before. We can revise history, we brought some justice to the Health Care System, lets get back to work and fix what needs to be done. Ocala broad statements saying we talked about the part of the stupidity of the american voter. What do you think of those statements and how does it affect discussions on the Affordable Care act . The American People are not stupid, period. I think the point that needs to be made, these are complicated issues. Theres no way to reform the Health Care System without having to have details. If you are home, you have a couple kids and soccer practice that baseball practice at the Affordable Care act and understand the implications, that is how you elect representatives to do it. At the end of the day, if you poll item by item going to the Affordable Care act preexisting conditions, should we get rid of them. Their approval for that. And 26 approval, getting rid of the cap, do it individually, removing the politics, removing the president , these bonds are positive things you can support. Guest host the House Speaker and Mitch Mcconnell talking about them. What do you think it means about the politics of the Affordable Care act moving forward. I wouldnt be surprised if we had a few more votes to try to the president is in for a couple more years. 82 talk about issues to the American People, not polarizing and not giving ultimatums, they sit down, and to compromise and move the country forward. We have a roundtable discussion on the economics, it will be tomorrow morning on our program, 8 15. From akron, ohio, independent line for tim ryan. Caller i voted for you, you are good congressman. Thanks to cspan. The democrats have not talked about the things that they have done that good, for instance, the economy was in decline and barack obama at an end and everything, and also people in ohio forget about opposing the public employees, i am retired firefighter. Ended gerrymandering in ohio, and i want to convey to you and nestle lean democrat. I want to convey this issue, legalizing the immigration, legalizing these illegals is going to hurt, the political move and trying to get the vote, etc. It is going to hurt the Democratic Party because most people do not agree with legalizing 4 million people, those are not on the embassy, and whenever people are going to stay here, and i want to hear what you have to say. Thank you. Guest they are here. And it is in our interests to bring the mall and line. And they will start paying taxes. That will contribute to the economy and help solidify programs like Social Security and medicare because they are going to be contributing but these are all net benefits for why we should allow them to work their way into the country legally. There is no way to round everybody up and throw them out of the country. That doesnt make any sense. Theres no way to do that nor should we. The reality is they are here. What we going to do that is going to help resolve this situation. We need to have a thoughtful discussion about that. You learn language and pay a fine for violating the law and you need to start paying taxes and you do that, you will not be a contributing member of society and over several years you start achieving some of those objectives come in to the country, welcome to the america. Host new jersey, democrat line, go ahead, fred. Caller thank you. I am concerned about income inequality which is a real problem. My fellow democrats unfortunately seem to ignore the main causes which is illegal aliens, because it is cheaper than hiring americans. Theyre notorious for this. And holding down wages for everybody who is unskilled or semi skilled. There are laws against it. When they are enforced it is with fines which employers shrugged off as part of the cost of doing business. I dont think anything is going to change until these crooks are put behind bars. What i am concerned about is this executive amnesty we are hearing about. If the president grants amnesty to millions of illegal aliens, isnt he close to their employers . Guest that is the argument for comprehensive approach to dealing with Illegal Immigrants instead of having the president have to go off by himself and try to resolve this problem. These employers know when they are hiring an illegal immigrant. They know it and they should be hammered for it because that ultimately is going to stop the flow. The people that are here it is important for us to understand we need to work them into the system, learn a language, pay a finance start paying taxes. The issue about income inequality is an important one because income inequality at the levels it is at today is bad for the economy. You cant have Economic Growth when you have this much disparity between the wealthiest and the poorest. There is no way if you dont have a strong middle class you dont have people to sell products to or consumers with enough money in their pockets to go out and purchase things in the economy. Inequalities that for Economic Growth, back to the first question what the democrats stand for. We stand for growth, you get growth by reducing levels of inequality and that means making sure we have a strong minimumwage. When you begin to legalize citizens and start making the minimumwage. And the investment in roads and bridges, and we have a 3 trillion deficit transportation deficit, investments that need to be made to get infrastructure up to par, that will put people back to work. And you get money circulating in the economy. We get these investments we need to make. How we take down the dilapidated homes and major cities like akron, knock them down, reinvesting to the cities and make sure we clean up our brownfields and incentivize manufacturing in the United States, and spend more secure pensions in Better Benefits . Those of the jobs we need so how do we continue to grow manufacturing jobs in the United States. And that sounds good. Smaller government, less taxes, and everything will take off. Economic development is very complicated. In the Public Private partnerships, give you an example. In youngstown, ohio, we have a billion dollars steel mill that just went up. In youngstown, ohio, people thought there would never be a new steel mill in youngstown, ohio, but they used 20 million from the stimulus bill to do Site Preparation work and work with the state and this deal wont go down. And the president put tariffs on chinese steel tubeing in the United States, and the government will level the playing field. And an Old Industrial town like youngstown creating 350 jobs, putting Construction Trade to work for yearandahalf to two years, that is enough to say i am going to send my kids to college. The economy will take off, and would simplifies is very complicated work that needs to go on at the local level and we were able to do that in youngstown and others. It takes all of these Strategic Moves that need to be made. You dont score a touchdown on a football field without saying okay, we get the defense to go this way or we come back, they will make their block and you got to do 10 things to score a touchdown and Economic Development is the same thing. You need a strong strategy in a variety of areas to make things work. Host the tier from betty in new york. Caller i know you sincerely think host you are on. Caller i know you think everything you just said you sincerely believe. But the rest of us dont. When you talk about the 5 million immigration problem you are talking about bringing people in and taking lowpaying jobs and paying Social Security and everything else. But we have to subsidize them because they are being paid such low wages. It goes on and on and on. People coming in from outside the country, taking jobs, not paying their way. What about all the people who waited on line for many years to become citizens . Is that is what these people are going to be given. They are given all the rights that a citizen has and probably even jewelry become citizens. Guest we have a problem we need to fix and we need to be realistic how to fix it and i think it is important beat folks learned the language, start paying taxes into the programs and we are not subsidizing them anymore. So there selfsufficient and can do experiences to create value. Part of our responsibility is to make sure other countries primarily mexico have a Strong Economy and when we passed nafta with the mexican workers and farmers out of work. We devastated their economy. Now folks are coming over the border. They are very desperate. Think of the desperation that you have to be living and if you are willing to take all the risks to come to the United States. Things like nafta exacerbated this problem and in many ways created this problem to where we have 7 mexicanamericansmexicans who want to coming to the United States. Reevaluating exactly how we approach our geopolitical strategy is in our hemisphere are important so that we dont have to have the same issue in the future but also need to beef up what is happening in immigration so we can process people quicker. Ultimately immigration is good for the economy and helps grow the economy but were far not making these investments that will put our Building Trades to work, that reinvest back into the United States, invest in america, grow the economy, we continue to have this divide with issues like inequality and immigration. Host the agenda for democrats and the incoming congress, rep tim ryan on the budget appropriations committee. Theres a story in the wall street journal that 50 lawmakers in the house are signing a letter asking for language to keep the president from moving on immigration, tying that to the bills that will keep funding past december 11th. Aside from that where are we in the process of that bill as december 11th approaches . What needs to happen . We got there last night. I am anxious to hear what the plan is. We have got to fund the government and the republican strategy will be we will fund it until we get back and have a majority in the senate. That is the move to make so i and engine there will be something done to move that forward and i am not sure what they are planning on doing with immigration. And we should not tie the president s hands and they are trying this is politics. They are trying to handcuff the president on this issue and try to use their muscle as well as the incoming majority, this will be interesting Political Science over the next few months. Host do you see a bill happening by december 11th . What get your confidence up . Guest hope floats. Host lets go to virginia, allen on the independent line. Caller good morning to you. I would like to make a couple comments. If you look at 2010 and compare to 2014 as far as democrats controlling everything they made a lot of the same mistakes republicans made earlier but on the other hand if you look at the agenda the last six years under obama and look at the success you are referring to, for example talking about benghazi, the veterans administration, the economy, the list goes on and on, they were in effective. The issue with immigration is a serious issue. And it makes a lot of sense but the point i would like to make is this has been going on for six years. Where have republicans in . Where have you all been . The burden is put on the taxpayers of america, they cant seem to come to a sensible agreement that will benefit the people at home. I no one is against immigration but why we cannot enforce the laws we have i dont understand. If you comment on that i appreciate it. Thank you so much. Guest it is a difficult situation, difficult to enforce. We need to beef up enforcement for illegals. Lot of people call the president the quarter even chief because of the level of people he deported. What you wants to do is change that story a little bit by making sure if you are tied to a family in the United States you go through some process but this gets back to the gerrymandering issue where we have some extremely conservative republican districts not just in ohio but across the country and immigration is not an issue most republicans want to deal with. They are afraid they will get a primary election next time. If they support any comprehensive immigration reform. That to me is what the holdup has been if democrats kept the house and the senate after 2010. We definitely see comprehensive immigration reform. Host keys, democrats line. Caller good morning, congressman. For the first time in 30 years, thinking of becoming an independent. Cowher this on the part of the democrats, not running away from the president , the leader of the party. Who alienated everyone, everyone who is stuck by the president and seeing the tremendous level he has been able to accomplish coming out of the great recession. I dont know why democrats dont use that term. All recessions are not equal. For many was the recession. You dont talk about the longterm unemployed at all. No mention at all of people over 50. I am talking people with advanced degrees and multiple years experience, supposed to be at the prime of their careers. You dont talk about us. You dont talk about the militarization of the police and the murder of black kids. You dont discuss those things. Those are important to the black community. Guest you hit the nail on the head. A democrat talking about moving to be an independent because we were not speaking to his issue of how do i feed my family. If you dont talk to folks on how you are going to help them and their family, your going to lose them and i think we need to be very firm in talking about growing the economy, why we are good at it, how we have done it in the past, we just got done doing it and trying to climb out of the Great Depression that we just had and how we do that, what the next steps are moving forward in the youngstown we have the president s added give Manufacturing Initiative where he is doing manufacturing innovation. We have the first one in youngstown, ohio for additive manufacturing, corporations from all over the country that come to youngstown, boeing, lockheed, that are working on Public Private partnership to grow the new industry not just for globally but also benefits in youngstown, ohio. That is the kind of hard work Public Private partnership it will take to help grow the economy and exploit and take advantage of a whole new sector of the economy that is growing, and how you compete in manufacturing advanced manufacturing. It wont just happen. We need to set up these incubators to facilitate and grow the partnership. We need to talk about how democrats are better at doing that than republicans are. Host Debbie Wasserman schulz of the Democratic National committee will form a committee to do soulsearching taking a look at the last election. What questions would you advise her to ask . What needs to be discussed . I think we know. It is good to get input from folks, but what is the key issue that we can all talk about regardless what Congressional District you going to, regardless what region of the country you go into, what is the common theme we can all talk about as democrats, what in our heart and soul does it mean to be a democrat . I ask folks what they think. I think it means how do we create an environment for those folks to thrive . How do we create an environment where ordinary people can do extraordinary things and have an opportunity to climb the ladder, to start a business, to make sure you are healthy, welleducated and have both of those things without being bankrupt too much in debt so you can create and how do we create an environment in the country where we have a skilled work force, where we are reinvesting in no more talons and we have river watch and amphitheaters and dizzied districts and high quality of life, that is what this is about. How to be improvedes live, why did my grandparents love Franklin Roosevelt . He gave them better quality of life. His policies improved them. He knew what they wanted and gave it to them. And democrats when we do it we dont talk about how we did it and too often we dont talk about it. Host from michigan day visit next on the republican line. Caller good morning. I tend to disagree with you, young fellow. Guest you are not the only one. Caller i have been living for 70 years and the only good times this country ever experienced, really good times, has been during the Reagan Administration and the president s that lived off of his successes with the influence of Newt Gingrich, mainly bill clinton. Your ideas of all these immigrants coming in here and making things and the door for them and allowing them to be happy, there are all types of unemployed americans that would like the jobs that they have. And they dont deserve to have those jobs. They have no right to those jobs. I walk down the street. I am retired of course but sometimes i get bored watching grass grow. There are a couple restaurant jobs i would take in a nanosecond were it not for immigrants, Illegal Immigrants working those jobs. That is the problem. You got a lot of people willing to work those lowpaying jobs you call them. They are good jobs for retired people. They subsidize a pension that your president has managed with his q e 1, q e 2 and q e 3 programs diminished the value of their pension to where it is pocket change. Guest i disagree with you. First of all on the pension issue if you have money in the stock market right now is the highest it has ever been. A lot of people are feeling more secure because of their investment they made into the stock market. I disagree with you there and i dont think there are a lot of Senior Citizens that want to work on a farm and to all the farm labor lot of the Illegal Immigrants are doing right now, working in the factories like gentlemen a couple calls ago talked about, where a lot of Illegal Immigrants are working. I dont think there are many people who want to do those jobs because you are not making minimumwage. It is indentured servitude because youre not making minimumwage, you are not getting benefits so americans dont want to work, that is why we have the minimum wage, because americans save your going to work 40 hours a week there should be a basic minimum that you should make and illegals i getting paid under the table. By the natural explanation of what it means to be an illegal worker in the country and wont make the minimum wage. These businesses are not paying them medicare or into the medicare or Social Security on them, americans are not taking a good majority of these jobs. The issue is how do we create a strong middle class in the United States . I gave over the last few minutes how i think youd do that and i have seen it happen in places like youngstown, ohio where we had a business incubator, 400 workers, we do business software, the average wage is 58,000 a year. We continue to grow these different areas, you had your steel mill, 1 billion, your incubator, 400 people keeping young people and giving young people an opportunity to come back to a place like youngstown, ohio and making a decent wage. We had a company move from San Francisco from india to youngstown, ohio, in sourcing work into youngstown because of the kind of environment. That is a Public Private partnership. It is easy to say Illegal Immigrants fall or this persons fault or blame obama, your historical revisionists are stunning that you wouldnt even include the budget that clintons and the democrats passed in 1993 that allowed them to lose the house in 94 but it was that decision, that budget that set america up for the kind of growth we had in the 90s, largest peacetime expansion, 20 million new jobs, every income categories of an increase in wages and if you want to just say reagan was great and i hate all democrats that is fine but the reality is democrats made some decisions and Newt Gingrich came in and was at that point much more moderate, talking about immunization and investments in education and research that they beefed up the budget on in the 90s that they did that because they had money and so i say we go back to the clinton model land to a certain extent what the president and democrats have done to beef up the economy and try to help the middle class and i think tariffs on the chinese, tariffs on the auto supply chain, tariffs on buyers high giving American Companies a fair chance to compete. Host the budget and appropriations committee, representative tim ryan, democrat from ohio. We talk about funding from the government. What has to happen in this lame ducks . What is a priority . I dont think a whole lot. We will have some issues with iran sanctions. Is important we keep nuclearweapons from the iranians, that needs to be a priority and that is coming down the pike in the next week or two. For the most part we will fund the government. I dont see anything else, we had one series of votes today, not sure about tomorrow. A lot of maneuvering behind the scenes and there wont be a lot. Host what is your take on a series of votes that look at the Keystone Pipeline issue . Guest i have concerns with it. To Keystone Pipeline has leaked more oil, the existing component of the Keystone Pipeline has leaked more oil in its first year than any one year pipeline has in the history of our country. There are safety concerns with it. The chinese were a big investor in canada. This is mostly for benefiting canada. We have some concerns with it. I want to see what the safety issues are. I am concerned about this deal. Someone called earlier before i got on here about this deal being used is not being made in youngstown. And steel coming from other places. These are the things i am concerned about. Host dan from louisiana, you are next. Independent line. Caller u. S. Congressman, i am a 56yearold man, democrat all my life. And democrats got back in power. And democratic principles are back in power, this country has been beaten down so hard but our problem is the Democratic Party that people have walked away from us. You have embraced these illegal aliens over what we say and you want to tell us why we shouldnt think the way we do, were going to think the way we do and we are not host we will break away from todays washington journal and taken to the capitol to hear from nancy pelosi. The recognition by chinas that this needs to be addressed is very significant. The argument that some have said it is no use, we are not doing anything unless the chinese do something, they are. It is quite a remarkable when china and the u. S. Deliver on their pollution, causing pollution reduction, other nations hopefully will make similar commitments. They no longer have the excuse. China isnt doing it and people in congress no longer have the excuse, isnt doing it so i should wait. I think it is pretty exciting, you make some deal of revers, that was a very important the issue establishing the select committee on the Climate Crisis and Energy Independence headed by ed marky and so we are very excited about disagreement. Immigration. On the subject of immigration later today we have press comments with some members who are urging the present the president to use his executive authority to improve the situation. We have had this conversation before and i called to your attention the oped we wrote, that not only has been Legal Authority to act but all the president s of president s before from eisenhower, kennedy, nixon, some of you, nixon, ford, carter, reagan, reagan, reagan, any number of occasions, George Herbert walker bush, george w. Bush, all of them have taken executive action. I refer to again as president s before him with authority to act, we have over 100 senators to a letter today, at least, calling upon members to join the managing the president not to take that action. That will be exciting to see, the timing and scope of that we have no idea but what we do know is every modern president before president obama has used that executive authority. Last night we swore in the 100th woman member in this 113th congress. When we swear in the new congress we will go over 300 in history, but 100 was this congress and that is pretty remarkable. 65 of them on the democratic side and some of them in the senate but 65 democratic women. It was a decision we made from years ago to increase their numbers, there were 12 when i came to congress and now we are 65, that is not good enough but nonetheless a source of pride. The incoming class, two thirds of women and minorities, were very proud of them, you will be seeing more of than as they go through their orientation but we are proud of what they are doing. So i regret the loss of some members, nine members will not be returning. Three longstanding members, john barron from georgia, very valued members of the house of representatives. Independent representatives of their district, as they did not get reelected and six members of the freshman class, two who had been here before came back, porter and two excellent members of congress, brand new members in illinois, french schneider, and and two down south in florida. Joe garcia and texas and one more. One more in nevada. Some are calling it the big wave. In many respects democrats read large but when you think of the wave we had in terms of the house, 54 lost in the first election after the erection, since 1994, 54, only 54 democrats lost their seats, when we took the house and a further wave when president obama was elected and the wave that gave the majority to the republicans so altogether about 12 members, nine who lost their seats, texas lost their seat and three did not seek election. California, probably picked up a seat. Hadnt lost a House Democrat since 1994 in california. This election year, they were targeting california. I dont know why that they were targeting california with a breakeven or gain a seat and that is why number of people who had lost or mitigated by the ones in california. You probably want to talk some politics but again, the service and leadership of the members of we lost, you cant quantify it. Because of the quality of their service but nonetheless we are ready to get going and we hope to honor the 52 anniversary of the Voting Rights act by having a real Voter Engagement using the inspiration of what people did, people died, people risked their lives and now we have the 50s to the anniversary, 50th anniversary of john lewis walking over the bridge and all of that inspiration, education helps us to get people of purpose, a reason to register, a reason to vote and i think you will see a massive return to the field of politics of elections when we have the next election. I dont care if they register democratic republican. I just want them to engage and vote, two thirds of the electorate did not vote in this election and that is not a good model so with that i will be pleased to take any questions you may have. That is about it. You again. John boehner made it clear last week there were multiple versions of congress, the news of the last few days about a comments made in the industry, sort of in light of that, talk about having hearings and talk about the architecture. Tell me how does your side engage on this issue in a different way . Everyone going back to this again and what does it mean . Does it give you more opportunity . Is this just the same battle over and over . An interesting set of observations but when you skipped is that those comments were a year old and backtracked for most of them. You didnt have it in your narrative and that is important, he was not advocating the positions that he was at a conference. I dont know who he is. He hadnt read our bill, so with all due respect to your question you have a person who wasnt writing our bill commenting on what was going on when we were writing the bill who has withdrawn some of his statements that he made. Lets put him aside. And getting insurance and graduating from college no longer will you be pulled off of your parents if you have a preexisting medical condition no longer will you be discriminated against or charged astronomical rates. So the message is really what this legislation has meant in the lives of the American People. Clearly theres been a tremendous amount of misrepresentation in the campaign, the use of it as a Campaign Issue because the truth is in the policies people now have, the protection of patient rights that are now bare so we will speak to it with pride and from a factual basis. Yes maam. You have expressed a lot of skepticism in the past about the project and whether it would create jobs, so im wondering what you think about the decisions vote on it and then on your own leadership after the democrats lost seats last week im wondering if you gave any thought to stepping down as the leader and what you thought about it. Why dont i start with the second question because ive heard it from from you all a number of times and the most recent person that asked said youve said that three times why dont you step aside. And i said what was the day that any of you you that image mcconnell when they lost the senate three times in a row making progress in taking back the senate three times in a row are into getting a bill or the, shouldnt you step aside . Have you ever asked him that question . So i dont understand why that question should even come up as long as im here and my members want me to be here and there is a reason to be here. Im not here on a schedule or anything except a mission to get a job done. I am so proud of the confidence that my members have placed in me and my life my life and who i yam is not the defendant on being here to have the liberty of if you want me here i am happy to be here and if you dont, then im proud of what we have done together. But it is interesting as a woman to see how many times that question is asked and how many times that question is never asked of Mitch Mcconnell. To get keystone i say that in the kind of thinking i have a mission for women on this score. When we won the house, and it is largely an initiative that i started around 2000 to take us to a place that we would win the house, that was a big thing. In Time Magazine the first woman come isnt out of curiosity, if Mitch Mcconnell wins and is there a pattern here plaques it doesnt depend on that but as a woman is very message here for something that we are missing i dont know what the senate i just know whats happening here and we are making that debate today and tomorrow on a bill on the Keystone Pipeline. Whats important to note about that legislation is that if you were 100 for the Keystone Pipeline, you would have to have a problem with the legislation on the floor because it exempts the Trans Canada Pipeline initiative from the Oil Spill Liability trust fund. As you know, there was in michigan in 2010 a week that they were compensated because they have paid into the Oil Spill Liability trust fund. There have been payments made into that. This says even though the tar sands that are corrosive would be going through the pipeline and you know there are cases about this right now should there be a leak . It will be exempted from paying into the ordeal spill liability even though the component of what they are transmitting is highly corrosive. So god willing than ever what he believed that if there is, they are totally off the. So independent any discussion about the Keystone Pipeline and where the ordeal goes into the rest of that is the subject of the Oil Spill Liability trust fund which they are exempt from this bill. And for this reason youll see people that may be maybe on both sides of the pipeline bill or the Keystone Pipeline in and of itself voting against it today. But we will see the debate. Why do you think that they would exempt them highly controversial which the president said his standards would be the impact on the environment that they would we understand who and i guess the brothers that said a separate issue but in relationship to the tax credit and the tax that would come out they are going to spend money against republicans who support the support the tax credit for wind and renewables so this is of a pattern. But again i havent made a Public Statement about the pipeline but i do make a Public Statement about this until they should not be exempt from the trust fund. [inaudible] do you expect that to happen and how do you try to make sure the government doesnt shut down . I dont think that republicans should do that. Dont use your executive authority. So they turned and said dont use your legislative authority. Thats what they do they have executive authority. He has his authority to perhaps vito such a bill that i dont think that we have to give him that place. We want to create good paying jobs for the American People, we want to do do what he do whether it relates to energy in a way that keeps people in a healthy environment and why are we going down this path by the congress can prevent it from happening by passing the senate bill. 500 days since the Senate Passed the immigration bill. And a couple of years since the speaker said over and over again we will pass an immigration bill in the house. It may not be the senate bill and it may not be a vote of confidence in the senate bill that we will establish principles. Remember that they went up the flagpole and the members came down the flagpole is nonetheless come a dont be excited about it. Its going to happen and then it didnt. So the congress could prevent the president from doing executive action by legislating on the subject at hand, passing this Bipartisan Senate bill that passed over 500 days ago. [inaudible] voting for the oneyear extension on the petition to be provision to be renewed and there are a lot of republicans who also [inaudible] thank you for the question. We are having conversations now in the house and the senate and if the Senate Passed a Bipartisan Committee bill which is a good place i think to start and i think two and because there are certain equities to be balanced. One is that we really do have to have the revenue reform. We have to reform the tax code. But when you make so many things per minute and a bill like this, you diminish the leverage from one part of the bill to another two at the end of the day increase revenue so that we can reduce the deficit. I would hope that they would come out with something that looks like the Senate Bipartisan passed a bill in the committee. And at the problem the problem that i have in the permanent aspects is that it is an independent man to doing real reform which we need to do to simplify, to be able to close the loopholes and lower the corporate rate so that we can have a better tax system. Its retroactive. By the time we passed that there would only be one month to the bill so that doesnt get you much and if you are thinking in terms of wind, solar, any transaction you want more lead time than a month. So the fact is two years at the least that gives 13 months in the next year to be able to debate with full transparency put everything on the table, the agnostic what works and what doesnt work, get it done so that we can lower the corporate rate, make permanent the issues that should be made permanent but do so in a more Public Transit frame and baking somethings permanent here that diminish the ability to something much better in the tax bill. But we will see when they come forward what they have. Yes maam. Obama claimed the action and i was wondering if you agree with that and how do you plan to take on this issue . The right now we have to look to see what Different Things happen in different places and members are coming back and we are getting the review. Of course i have an overview of it from here on the ground that happened in a specific district remains to be seen until we see a certain pattern. So i dont know. I cant say the president delay into the executive action in the past i do think that with two thirds of the electorate not voting, its something other than the president s actions and the timetable on immigration and thats what we have to find out. Thats why we want to use and honor of the Voting Rights act by having that inspiration, that education to encourage people to vote, and as i said before, this is a nonpartisan registration education. If they want to register republican, bless them that Pay Attention and make sure the people that you are voting for know what is important for you and what is important to those people is their financial stability. And good paying jobs and affordability for their children. Those kind of issues that frankly republicans have avoided and the increased participation would improve the climate for debate for working families to have an economy that works for everyone. So i think that one of the big oppressors of the voting is big money in campaigns. It turns people so totally off all this money coming in and saying that without any where does this money come from. We are coming in with misrepresentation about the Affordable Care act, whether it is about immigration, whatever it is, the issues that are important in in peoples lives of being so mischaracterized im not even going to vote. I dont go if its set in the report why people didnt vote, something in the 60s they said i didnt have time. And then another i was busy with work or school. And another time was something that related to time as well. All of that adds up to it wasnt important enough for me. For some it is a legitimate kind concern. Working two jobs, having both here and there you cant stand in line for long hours when people have deterred the vote for you in your community by reducing the hours and the bills and reducing the polling places and machines. So there are a lot of things that contribute to that but the overarching thing i think is that not enough people saw that it was important to their wellbeing that they vote. The republicans called it as a base election. And again, that was depressing. This regulation of the airwaves by big money is so undemocratic and thats why i thought the Supreme Court for the Citizens United decision. So, we will be talking more this afternoon and we will talk little bit about immigration. I cant stay the whole time because i have a lot of work to do thats going to be the next chair of the people who want to come into talk about this kind of subjects so i wont be able to stay the whole time and theres good to be the chair of the Energy Commerce committee and im very proud of the issue that i think sometimes in the course of our legislative lives a person comes along with a perfect fit to take us into the future and i think that is who she is. She has a tremendous amount of support and my calls to the members congratulating them on their election here and enlisting their Voting Rights on the Anniversary Initiative some of them may be fewer than 20 and have asked me what i thought of that and why i havent asked them about it. Its just because i havent. But ive spoken to a few. I hear that shes asking people. Or there are those who are clearly not assigned to one person or another are spoken for and been spoken anybody like Frank Pallone who is terrific. But we have a choice to make. But anybody that is for him i would respect their decision and friendship and support. So, i havent had any conversations of that kind. Only conversations with the subject that has come up. So im trying to anticipate all of these things that come to the office. We havent even had a conversation with the candidates in the d. Triple c. I heard yesterday that we made the choice it was about to announce it. Somebody that i havent even spoken to and a 24 hours before i didnt have an interest in. So, if you want to know call me. Thank you all. All of the tom taunting before, remember all of your enthusiasm about the giants, the headlines coming yes yes yes. [inaudible] [laughter] we might want to just fill in the blanks. I really dont know. I am looking forward to my kansas city my gosh they are so good. [inaudible] that was the chant of the parade, sign the panda. That would be nice. [laughter] we will see. They have that catch at the end. So we are very proud of the giants. I said to the commissioner at the game can you be made that we have the two teams in the world series that are wildcards and i said thats how i envisioned it. So there you are one way or another. But its interesting to me because before it was nothing. Perhaps i should have brought independent. We have the leadership last week and i had this headline. Yes yes yes. Reign of victory tonight was raining the day of the parade. Youre not getting enthusiastic at all. [laughter] when the wonderful to publish the article the other day in the series with baltimore we didnt get back. House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and her colleagues will gavel in for legislative work afternoon and thats on cspan. Earlier in the Capitol Visitors Center the class of the 114 congress began their orientation and and here is a look at that. [inaudible] tomorrow morning we are going to have a great session [inaudible] that is true. A businessman that are involved in the political process. They tried to really looking at lie to the senate just outside the chamber the ohio area of the reporters are gathered and have been the last couple of hours as the leadership is underway and it looks like republicans are pretty much settled on most of their leadership renewing the leadership of the 113th. Senator Mitch Mcconnell will be the majority leader in the congress with john cornyn of texas as the width and john thune of south dakota as the conference chair, John Barrasso is the policy chair and we also understand from the number of reports deciding who will be the next nrsc, dean heller running for the position that no members have come out yet to speak to reporters and neither have the democrats. Theyve been meeting since buying a clock this morning in the Senate Chamber and there is no word yet on the democratic leadership. We do know that senator mccaskill said earlier that she would not support kerry read. Here is a tweet that says senator reid told a story yesterday i met with. Read and told them i wouldnt be supporting him for the minority leader. I heard the voters loud and clear. They want change in washington and common sense tells me that begins with changes in leadership. That is from senator mccaskill. Also more from abc news about the leadership on the democratic side. Even Elizabeth Warren will be a liaison to the liberal groups as part of harry reids Leadership Team and they learned the policy position. A number of news outlets reporting that as well. We mentioned the senate is coming back up 2 15 eastern and shortly thereafter they will hold confirmation votes on a couple of judicial nominations. They will also vote on limiting the debate on a bill passed by the house on the reauthorizing and renewing the federal Program Helping low income families pay for childcare. And also a note about looking ahead next week. They set up two pieces of legislation one that would overhaul the nsa and the government surveillance powers and the other is a bill offered by senator Mary Landrieu facing a runoff in louisiana which would authorize construction of the keystone xl pipeline. Look for a final vote in the u. S. Senate sometime next week. Meanwhile in the house, the senders challenger bill cassidy of louisiana has introduced the keystone bill and the house is set to begin the debate on back this afternoon. The house will be dabbling in for legislative work at noon and you can follow that on cspan and on cspan2 and with all of this keystone xl talk in legislation the white house again removing the threat to peace veto any bill and the state department has been completed and in a tweet earlier from the wall street journal saying the house has passed eight bills approving the pipeline since 2011. We got an update where this stands by speaking to the reporter yesterday. The session of congress is barely underway and already the issue of the keystone xl pipeline has risen to the top of the agenda. We are joined by laura who covers Energy Issues for the hill. Lets start where Mary Landrieu the headline says today Mary Landrieu pushes for the Senate Keystone vote. What are they saying on the floor of the senate . Senator Mary Landrieu who is thinking of running she has a december runoff against bill cassidy and so she was saying that right now they need to pass keystone xl and she just did request unanimous consent and the senate is poised to take up the vote next week now. She was saying that there was a message that during the election that Senate Majority leader harry reid and the Senate Minority leader Mitch Mcconnell and everyone should be on the same page. We are saying we want to compromise and its keystone be the first thing we compromise on. She did get unanimous consent. You said earlier in the day that senator white house, senator white house on the keystone xl push ibb we can have this debate that will not object to bringing the bill to a vote. Looking ahead how will this fare out in the senate . Guest thats correct hes not going to object that the democrats like senator white house, senator boxer you can expect them to vote against the pipeline. They are not supporters of it that mary but Mary Landrieu is positive she can bring over the vote. So last time they tried this and there there were 57 votes in support of the pipeline. 11 of those were democrats but Mary Landrieu said she can get roughly about five more to sign on so that would get them over 60. Host tell us what the bill would do because india and correct me if im wrong but the president has a say whether the pipeline is approved, correct . Asked code thats correct he does have the final phase. If the house and senate both passed the pipeline built it was approved construction immediately and that would send the bill to the president s desk and obama would either veto or find it through and Mary Landrieu said its easy that yes she hasnt received a commitment from the obama but she feels he will sign it and she is confident that somehow because of the fact that they are compromising republicans and democrats this can convince obama to say okay to the pipeline. Host word that the house will take up the keystone bill. This is a bill sponsored by bill cassidy and as you mentioned hes running against senator landrieu into the runoff race in december 6. How is that expected to go in the house, and that comes up for a vote on thursday. Guest thats correct. The house house is going to vote on the pipeline built from cassidy running against Mary Landrieu and that is expected to pass. The house passed multiple bills approving the pipeline before the bills that would go a round obama on the pipeline approval. So, you know there is no expectation that that wouldnt be able to go through. And you know, it is enough for Mary Landrieu in the runoff because of these issues thats why shes making a lastditch effort if you will because she doesnt have the gavel and a more to say that she holds that way and also recently come at the senator Mitch Mcconnell said he was going to appoint cassidy to the Senate Energy if he wins the runoff. Host so a lot about the pipeline coming up in the house and the senate and covering it is laura lopez you can read her report that the hill. Com and follow her on twitter. Thanks for the update. Guest thank you. Host to recap where they stand on the keystone xl pipeline legislation in the House Committee will begin debate today and work on the rule with the final passage vote expected on friday. The senate likely will hear speeches on it today that any legislative finality will be pushed into next week in the senate. We are looking live outside the chambers in the ohio area as the reporters are waiting to hear from leadership on both sides of the aisle the republicans are settled on Mitch Mcconnell as the majority leader for the 114th congress and a couple of updates but this one from the meal rollcall that says roger has been elected to chair man through his office and he will head up the Campaign Committee on the republican side in the senate. Politico says politicos as the Elizabeth Warrens titles Strategic Policy adviser to the democratic was the communications committee. That is all that we know so far. The democratic leadership has been meeting this morning since about 9 a. M. Eastern and republicans meeting since about buying 30. Any time they come to the camera we will have that for you here on cspan2. Back to the keystone issue the house and the senate to hold votes on the project is the headline they write this morning for the first time in the sixyear fight over the controversial keystone xl pipeline voting on the project giving each side in Louisiana Senate election a chance to boost its candidate and of course the incumbent democratic candidate is Mary Landrieu she dominated the floor yesterday with a discussion on the pipeline and heres a look at some of her speeches from yesterday. I was hoping to catch the senator before i left because i wanted to ask him and im not sure if hes going to slip back into bite was going to ask him if he thought, because i agreed with him that new approach to bipartisanship could start today. I dont think we have to necessarily wait until january. There are some of us that have been ready and have worked in a bipartisan way literally for years getting really important things done for the nation. And im sure that he has some other pressing business because i wanted to ask him i absolutely agree with him on the priorities he laid out. I think that he said the American People want us to act and act together in their interest. I think that i heard him say on the top of his list that he was particularly anxious to work on the keystone xl pipeline, the expedited export of natural gas. I think he said it was important for jobs in america to help strengthen the middle class, sending a very positive signal to them that we heard then in this election but he was troubled about the Median Household Income and wanted to do something to raise it and i think that i heard him say he was concerned with how should i say he was thinking some of these would push putin back on his heels. One is sanctioned and there are a few others on the list, so ive been of that mind for a while. I think that he also referred to ted kennedy as one of our dear friends and mentors many of us and republicans as well with his straightforwardness and honesty and passion and capacity for extraordinary work and his willingness to Work Across Party Lines as the senator from texas pointed out they called out a Great Partnership with senator kennedy and senator hatch and they talked about the 8020 but agree on 80 . We may not agree on everything but lets move forward. I think that his words on the 80 that we do agree on. So, i want to come to the floor today to ask senator cornyn from texas particularly and senator mcconnell and senator reid and others if they would join me moving forward on the keystone xl pipeline. This has been a project that has lingered for far too long and it is clearly supported by 60 or more members of this body. It is a piece of legislation that has been endorsed by the new majority leader, to be the new majority leader and is a cosponsor in a leading cosponsor of the legislation. There are a significant number of democrats on the legislation and i believe that with a push in the next few hours we could actually get the votes he needs to pass the Keystone Pipeline. Now now, in an hour or so at the request of the minority, im going to wait for about an hour and then im going to propose a unanimous consent to do exactly that to set up for two hours two hours of debate after the vote and then having vote on the Keystone Pipeline tomorrow. Iab leave it is time to act. Iab leave its time to take its time to take the new majority leader at his word and stop blocking the legislation that is broadly supported by the American Public and has been for quite some time. I want to say yes to the new majority leader Mitch Mcconnell the time to start is now. The public has spoken, and i belief we can move forward on several important pieces of legislation. Senator reid mentioned the marketplace and that is another very important piece of legislation that iab leave needs to be moved through and with a little push right now it could get done and it would be a significant boost to business and retail that are being hurt every day by our inaction. With my comments today are going to be about the Keystone Pipeline because i am the chair of the Energy Committee from the United States senate and im going to do everything in my power here and at home on the campaign trail where i im still in a runoff as you know to get this project moving forward. One of the extraordinary facts about the Keystone Pipeline is not what is coming and im going to talk about that in a minute and what it does put one but one of the most extraordinary pieces of the argument for why we should pass it is the Unprecedented Coalition that supports it. Other bills have a longer list of supporters. There are bills that have pages and pages of lists. But this particular bill has a relatively short list of organizations but they are extremely powerful and diverse which makes it compelling and i think it makes us or should make us want to stand up and respond to this coalition. Im going to read their names because i have some time to do this before i call for unanimous consent to pass the original Hoeven Landrieu keystone bill which is a originally originally introduced with 45 republican cosponsors, every member of the Republican Caucus is already a cosponsor of this bill and we have on data bill about 12 democratic cosponsors and im confident that we have the votes necessary to pass it. The American Chemistry Council and the American Concrete Association and the american exploration and Production Council committee american highway users this alliance, the American Petroleum institute, the american road and transportation builders, american truckers association, the sense that general contractors of America Association of oil pipelines, concrete reinforcing steel institute, distribution contract or is association, independent Petroleum Association of america, Industrial Mineral Association of south america, the institute for the 21st century energy, International Brotherhood of electrical workers, Laborers International union of north america and let me stop and make a point. Many bills that passed here or attempted to pass have a list of all business organizations were all labor organizations were all environmental organizations or all highway contractors. This bill has such a Diverse Group of leaders in the country and i want to underscore to my democratic colleagues that are supporting this piece of legislation tremendous support from the labor unions because labor unions like Business Leaders want jobs. They want profits, they want success, they want more investment in business creating good middleclass jobs and the difference between the ordeal and gas industry which ive been pleased to be a strong advocate for in many different facets is that this industry does produce the kind of jobs americans really want. Not minimum wage jobs minimumwage jobs or slightly above minimum wage but jobs that in my state, and the senator knows this excerpt of 60 concept and cause of them become 85,000 for a young man or young woman coming out of high school or trade school let alone college. These are very important job and thats why the labor unions are represented here along with the association, the United Association of journeyman and apprentice industry american concrete come at the business roundtable, american suppliers association, american iron and steel institute, National Association of manufacturers, National Electric contractors association, National Roofing contractors. Why would they be supporting the Keystone Pipeline . There are no roots on the pipeline but there are thousands on workers needed to build a pipeline all along the route of the pipeline will be increases in populations of housing, industrial sites, retail, residential supporting over 40,000 workers to build this pipeline. The north american die casting association, the National Utility contractors. Again associated business. The legal and Gas Association and finally the steel manufacturers and western alliance. This is an extraordinary color lotion thats come together to support the Hoeven Landrieu bill and going to call up in a few minutes for unanimous consent to pass because i believe that the new majority leader has said and i believe what senator cornyn has said into the and with current majority leader has said soontobe minority leader in the next congress that we need to Work Together and that we can Work Together and we need to begin to do that today. Not tomorrow, january, not february, not march, not around the corner, not next week, but today. That would ascend the most positive signal and im not asking to have unanimous consent on the bills that are controversial im not asking us to do the impossible, i am not asking us to do something about it just came up last week. Im asking us i am asking us to move forward on a bill that has labor support, business support, general contractor support and the American People most importantly the latest polls on the Keystone Pipeline not just in my state and i see my colleagues from West Virginia by justin West Virginia but the polls in the country from california to new york to michigan to pennsylvania to ohio to florida and texas overwhelmingly democrats, republicans not everyone but overwhelming support to build the Keystone Pipeline because americans want jobs and American Families deserve good paying jobs and americans are tired in addition to bowing down to the mid east powers or russian dictators about what our future is going to be. Americans are proud and we want to stand proud and we be leave the Keystone Pipeline is an important first step. It is a signal and it is a symbol that represents American Energy power. Its a symbol moving past the gridlock. It is a delivered on promises that we have all made. Yes we will Work Together, but it will be next year. Yes we will Work Together but it will be in the spring. Guess we will Work Together but we cant pass unless we pass these ten other things. Theres always going to be tomorrow and ten other things. Lets act today, tomorrow. We can do this. We can pass the Keystone Pipeline and enter the frustrations of answer the frustrations of the American People so they can rest next week and say my gosh the senators of the United States of america have ears and brains and hearts and theyve heard what we said and we can do this. And we have a bill that is on the calendar. I passed a similar bill in my committee but im not even asking to pass the bill. I passed it through my committee which i think is slightly better than the one on the calendar but we can all compromise here. I am also a cosponsor of the bill, the lead sponsor of the bill on the senate calendar. It doesnt have to go through the committee. Its basically technically already has. It is ready for a vote and we have the 60 votes to pass it. So im going to recognize the senator from West Virginia but i will ask the senator in question because only the chair can recognize but i would like to ask the senator from West Virginia does any of this make sense to him. Listening to the comments of the majority leader and the good senator from texas. This would be the bill to start moving us from the gridlock to doing the job for the American People. My good friend of the senator from louisiana has been working on this for many years. I think even before i came up. When i first came up i talked to the senator my friend from louisiana and asked about this and basically i think youve explained to me at the time but first of all the nation was going to produce it so we had no say in the production of the product. And next it is going to go somewhere that there is demand for it. With all that being said it didnt take me long. If you recall years ago that in West Virginia we had common sense and good people and we thought if this product is going to be sold and we are buying this type of product around the world why would you buy from your friends versus the enemies that we have supplied resources to be used against us that is the one that resonates with West Virginians and louisiana. The other thing is the thousands of American Companies already a thousand American Companies, senator, and West Virginia not to say what youve been able to do and help all the jobs theyve gotten from this there would be a tremendous win for all of us as something that we can count on. I cant for the life of me understand why we havent today unable to move the piece of legislation forward. I did hear both the minority leaders and soon to be the majority talking about this but its time to start working together. There is no better piece of legislation to show that we heard the results of the election and if you heard nothing more from that whether they voted or didnt vote they basically told us to do something. Start doing what youre supposed to do. We might not agree with you that we would like to see this open dialogue, this transparency, the beautiful body of the senate, the whole world watching. But when they see us doing nothing, it isnt something that we will look very good at doing and that goes off. So i would ask my Senate Colleagues if they would be so kind to give the chance its our first day back. We are going to have a piece of legislation that is going to help us be more secure as a nation and that what i like to hear. Maybe you can comment about the nation. Basically youve been here and youve been seeing whats going on and what its meant to us. The area of the world that its taken us two and the amount of resources that we have spent building the treasure, fighting for those resources whether people believe it or not this is a chance to secure. The senator from West Virginia is right on focusing this debate on the subject of National Security because better and stay was just celebrated by all of us yesterday i believe. We all participated in the events and so it pains me to say this but im going to give you the facts this country exports and imports 340 million a day in iraq exports 345 million per day. Keystone we have left men and women, not on the battlefield of that but we have many soldiers here at home. Canada which is a friendly culture and ally of ours with the Keystone Pipeline to bring in 875 to the u. S. But the American People sit here and think okay what is wrong with this picture . We could be taking oil from our friends in canada, creating jobs in america, good paying jobs not only noting the pipeline, maintaining the pipeline, this pipeline doesnt come to louisiana. I fought for it like a tiger at the pipeline doesnt even come to my state. It goes to texas. We have refineries in louisiana and louisiana as a company that benefits this pipeline doesnt connect canada and louisiana. It connects canada and texas. So i am sorry that the majority leader had to scamper off the floor and im sure that he has a meeting to go to but this is about refineries in texas that are waiting for this oil through the most faith means possible to these refineries off of the highways and off of the railroads and supporting a relationship with canada as opposed to countries in other parts of the world that share our values and that we have to spend a lot of our defense money protecting. So thats why i think this pipeline has such overwhelming bipartisan support across the country. You touched on something very important i want to go back to. Transportation today the ordeal is coming down into the refineries anyway and weve had some explosions by the carriers, its coming by truck and in so many different forms. This is the safest way to transport and when people talk about the transport this is isnt the first pipeline we have we have pipelines all over america and i think that is the perfect map to see. The Alaska Pipeline means so much to us in america so im concerned about that and also when you said it directly going to texas but you all benefit, everybody benefits and the other thing i wanted to say i can only imagine the schedule it has to be unbelievable but that being said, people still want jobs and opportunity to work with certainty. This gives america a lot of certainty about the Economic Growth in the country. Absolutely. Just this morning to prepare for offering this unanimous consent which i will do in a very short period of time and ask for a couple of hours of debate and then both sometime tomorrow i spoke to the leader for the United States of america and he was very strong in his words to me about how disappointed he has been and some members here who cannot start up for the building and trade. All they want to do is go to work and have jobs. He said, senator, were about fed up with elections and with politics, because what my members want are jobs. Thats what their families want. And they are tired of fooling around with such commonsense projects that bring so much wealth to middleclass families. I note that the majority leader on our side is concerned about the flatline of middleclass income in this country, and i know that his heart is working towards increasing incomes for all families. This is the first step, not only is the project itself going to is the project itself going to not only is the project itself going to generate huge amounts of jobs and economic activity, and im going to put that amount in the record, it is 20 billion estimated. It is almost the size, slightly less than the state of vermont entire gdp. This one projects like and output of one of our state. Albeit a small state but vermont is an important state. Ive never in my life seen a project with so much economic benefit. Ive never seen Infrastructure Project supported by a broader base from the left to the sender to the right. Ive never seen labor and business come together in my life like they have on this issue. Ive never seen so many senators cosponsored a bill. And yet because of something i cant quite put my finger on, we havent yet passed it. I think that we can do that now today. That would send, or tomorrow, a very positive signal that we heard the voters. We do understand this cry for breaking the gridlock, moving forward together, getting the job done. I could not think of a better bill that symbolizes what were trying to do in terms of jobs, economic security, Energy Security and looking to the future in our country than this bill. That would build the pipeline, get this oil which is going to be produced anyway off of the rails, off of our highways into refineries. And may i say, the senator from West Virginia knows this, and the senator from north dakota who is my right hand on this, with the senator from West Virginia, we have additional pipelines to build because weve got to build east eastwest. The real need of the supply is the west coast and east coast, as the sender knows. You can produce all the oil and gas or all the energy are producing generate the power but if you cant move it to the places that it needs to become its as if you havent produced a. I know something about this as chair of the Energy Committee. After wiki keystone which we will do tomorrow, weve got to build some of the pipelines to go east and west. This is only going to take 10 of north dakotas supply. North dakota has become reading supplier of oil and gas in the country. Let me talk about north dakota for one minute because i cant do it justice like senator heitkamp can do. But ive heard her give the speech and have to repeated. And its worth repeating to the senator from texas just came here and lamented, oh, my gosh, what can we do to lift the middleclass . How can we left there Economic Outlook . All three came there and asked that question. I want to give them an answer. Build the Keystone Pipeline. Do you know whats happened in north dakota . It might be sparsely populated but it is now surpassed every state in the production of oil. Do you know what else they did . They took the economic number, which is 36 and income on a scale of one to 50. They were the 36th poorest state. The senator from West Virginia would know. To know where they are today in four years . They have moved from 36 to six. I want to let that sink in for just a minute. North dakota move to their number from 3650 to six out of 50 in four years. I challenge any senator from any part of this country for any political leaning to come back to this floor in the next 24 hours and show me one more one piece of legislation, one tax cut, one jobs bill that could move a state in four years, or a group of states from 36 to six