Our road to the white house coverage continues next week with afoundsnnouncements those running for the race. Dr. Ben carson is launching on monday. Well have it live on 10 00 a. M. Eastern on cspan and tuesday well have live coverage of former arkansas governor mike huckabee. Live tuesday at 11 00 a. M. Eastern also on cspan. The new congressional directory is a handy guide to the 114th congress with color photos of every senator and house member. Plus bio and Contact Information and twitter handles and district maps and fold out of capitol hill and congressional committees and federal agencies and state governers. Order your copy today. Its 13. 95 plus shipping and handling at cspan. Org. Coming up next on cspan a new look at authoritiessation of military force against isis. With two members of congress. Then president obama discussing freedom of the press with a group of foreign reporters. And later illinois congressman bobbie rush reacting to the Police Officers charged with the death of freddie gray. We have two congressman to talk about their study group. Mr. Jones, lets start with you. What is the purpose what is this constitutional Work Study Group . Guest the power to declare war including the power of judging the costs of war is fully and exclusively in the legislature. We have no debates. The only time we have a debate is when they are asking for money, millions and millions of dollars to send overseas. Mr. Mcgovern and i have been outspoken about our constitutional response ability. Before we send young men and women to get their lives thats why we wanted to put this study group together because we believe members of congress should have an opportunity once a month, bringing in speakers to try to educate our colleagues to feel more responsible for these young men and women who have given their lives host what is the role of congress when it comes to declaring war or pursuing warfare . Guest we are supposed to have a role in declaring war. Were supposed to have a role when the president commits troops to combat operations. War is a big deal. Congress does not treated as a big deal. We debate authorization bills. We dont talk about whats going on in afghanistan or iraq or syria. We try to offer amendments and often times they are denied. We dont have the opportunity to debate these issues on the house floor. That is a Great Service to the men and women who serve in our armed forces. Disservice to the men and women. You cannot have it both ways. You cant criticize the president for committing troops into another war in iraq and syria and then say but i dont want to do my job, i dont want to vote yes or no. Its too easy for congress to stand back and let it all happen. If it goes bad coming you can seattle do it was going to go bad. If it goes good, i was with them all the way. We are trained to force our colleagues, forced the leadership to do what congress is supposed to do. Host you are saying that congress is reluctant to step up to take its constitutional duty. Guest walter and i had a resolution we brought to the floor last july. If u. S. Troops were engaged in sustained military combat operations in iraq, we would have to come back and have a vote to authorize that. It passed with 370 votes, a huge bipartisan vote. Everyone is on record saying we ought to engage in this issue. In august, we begin bombing in iraq every single day again. We are more and more engaged and we have boots on the ground and there is no end in sight. We can get the committees of jurisdiction to bring a resolution to the floor. Walter and i both have serious issues about what we are doing in the middle east right now. If you think its a good idea, you vote yes. You cannot blame the white house. The president has done his job. He submitted an amuf to congress. Congress is not doing what its supposed to do. Host the president s amuf is too broad from your perspective. From a conservatives perspective, it is too narrow. Guest i think it is to brought. Broad. Put it on the floor and lets have a debate. Those who dont want to have a time in, lets debate that. I blame the speaker of the house the president did send to congress this new amuf that we have not had members we have not had any formal hearings. The hearings included other issues in addition to the president s request for a new amuf. We cannot get it to the floor. Host you are racing Senior Member of the Armed Services committee. This article this morning it says tom cole and adam schiff have sent a letter saying we need to have this debate. Have you to sign on to this letter . Guest we sent a similar letter a few months ago. We have done this time and time again. We are a bit tired of sending letters. One of the things we will probably do when we come back offer a privilege revolution resolution and try to force a debate and a vote on our involvement right now in iraq and syria. If i can make a quick point we are spending roughly 8 million a day. The American People and those who wear the uniform, we have a responsibility and obligation to have this debate. It makes no sense for this leadership of the house to not let us meet our constitutional responsibility. This study group could help educate our colleagues, bringing in people who know the constitution to say you have a responsibility, bejewel responsibility mutual responsibility. Host lets put the numbers up on the screen. Guest not only do we not vote on whether or not to put our men and women in harms way, we dont pay for it, either. These wars have cost us trillions of dollars. If you go to war, congress and the president ought to impose a war tax. Right now, the only people that are sacrificing are the men and women serving in afghanistan and iraq. The rest of us dont have to pay for it. The American People dont want to paperwork, maybe dont go to war pay for war maybe dont go to war part weve made it so easy to get into these foreign entanglements. Congress sits back and ignores this constitutional responsibility, its outrageous. We have done letters, done resolutions. We may use the privileged resolution to force a vote on this in the next few weeks. Guest we have done fiveminute speeches. Ive done one a week. Youve talked about the waste and abuse. Thats why jim and i feel so passionately about this. Its about the taxpayer host are we still operating under the 2001 amuf right after 9 11 . Guest absolutely. The amufs we passed during the bush time the amufs from 2001 and 2003 is what obama is using now. He has his legal advisers, they say he has the authority to use the existing amufs. Its a new fight, its a new world. We need a new plan. Guest its 2015. We are relying on a amuf from 2001. It is ludicrous. We are fighting a different war in iraq then when we entered into thousand three. Th when we entered inan n when we entered into thousand 2003. We should have a thorough debate on this issue. Im skeptical of what we are doing right now. It ought to be tough to send american men and women into war. It has become too easy and im not sure that what we are doing in some of these involvements is for our security one bit. Host should the president have the free hand he currently has to wage the war . Guest the president has the authority but we have a war powers resolution. The constitution says what our response ability is. Responsibility is. It is pretty clear the fact that they are using the 20012003 amuf to justify what they are doing now tells you they even recognize that. Thats a long time ago. We ought to repeal those amufs. If you want to start another series of wars, they ought to have a new amuf. I dont believe we should start another series of wars. Thats one of the reasons we have to have this debate. Are there alternatives that are more effective . It reminds me of the dr. Seuss book, cap and accurate we go over to clean up a mess, it gets bigger. Cap in thet in the hat. Host it has cost over 2 million so far, the air attacks and bombings on isis. 2 billion so far. Guest we have to deal with isis. The arent evil group they are an evil group. We have to have a debate on the floor of the house. We continue to allow the president , who has the authority to continue this bombing, yet we say nothing about it. I blame the leadership of the house and senate for not allowing us to meet our constitutional responsibility. Host lets take some calls. Walter jones and jim mcgovern. This is robert in georgia who is a democrat. Caller thank you. I can get to questions out in 30 seconds. Can you tell me if you believe the special forces and intelligence were the most likely cause or ability for getting the people they wanted to get in al qaeda in afghanistan . It was sold that we need to send troops and. In. For iraq, it was weapons of mass distraction. Destruction. There was a boat held on that. We sent regular troops in there. You were talking as if you were proud of that vote. Are you . Guest no, i was not proud of that book. It was one of them worst mistakes ive made. The administration was misleading, manipulating intelligence a lie about the iraq war. It doesnt do my heart any good but i show god that i regret my vote. I will go to my grave regretting that vote, quite frankly. Guest you are right. We got Osama Bin Laden with a welltrained group of special forces, navy seals got them in pakistan him in pakistan. We ought to go after the bad guys, but how you do it is something we ought to discuss. I would argue that our involvement in afghanistan all these years has been incredibly costly. We have put up one corrupt government after another. Al qaeda is gone and now we are fighting the taliban and there is no end in sight. We were supposed to be out of afghanistan this year. We offered an amendment saying ok, we support the president come if we decide to stay beyond 2015, congress ought to vote to authorize that or not. We were denied by the congressional leadership to even offer that amendment. Host is you are leadership and support in support . Guest i think they are. The weight displaced work, whoever is in majority is in charge. Way this place works, whoever is in majority is in charge. At the end of the day, Congress Says no, the answer is no. If congress has yes, the answer is yes. The majority, the people in charge have the responsibility of scheduling what goes on the floor. I know our democratic leader wants to have a boat and discussion on this vote and discussion on this. She is not in charge. John boehner is. Guest jim mentioned afghanistan. I went to Walter Walter reed tuesday. I had these two little girls whose daddy was killed two years ago in afghanistan. His name was Sergeant Kevin balded. Benjamin palmer was from cherry point, in my district. They were sent to afghanistan to train afghans to be policeman. The night before those two men were killed, kevin emailed his wife and says i dont trust them , i dont trust any of them. The next day, he and palmer were killed by the people they were trying to train. I had no idea that i was going to meet two of the four who were part of the group were a medic was shot in afghanistan and killed by the people they were trying to help. We need to have this debate. The military deserves it and the american taxpayer deserves it. Host al in tampa, florida. Caller im a disabled vet. Ive been waiting nine years, two months and five days for my v. A. Claim. My concern is, you dont know where anybody stands anymore. Republicans or democrats, even their speeches about these wars. At least you can go and look at the voting record. Its nice to see republicans and democrats talking about the same issues. Ive given my service, i was not injured during the war. I was injured in an accident in the service. The problems with the v. A. And not being treated host thank you very much. Guest i would say quickly that al should call his member of congress. I have 7000 retired veterans in my district. They come first and they call our Office Response quickly. Thank you for your service. They call and our Office Responds quickly. Call and say ive waited so long, i need my benefits, ive earned them. Guest we are very grateful for your service. We owed them a debt of gratitude. That means making sure the Healthcare Services they are entitled to are available. We took up a v. A. Appropriations bill that is underfunding rva system our pa system. V. A. System. We are told we have a tough budget situation, we cant afford it. That is just wrong. Host have you seen improvements in the v. A. In the last year or two . Guest i have seen some improvements. There is more to do. The v. A. Got the message. Its too bad we had to confront these issues by learning about this terrible scandal that occurred. Idc changes in massachusetts i do see changes in massachusetts. Host joe. Caller good morning, peter. Im 63. I wholeheartedly agree with both of these gentlemen, republican and democrat. If you look back at what congress did when george bush was negotiating with Saddam Hussein to go and inspect him he told congress he needed the war power so that saddam knew he meant business. This congress did the most cowardly thing in its history and gave the power to declare war to the president , which is the most of noxious obnoxious thing i can imagine. No, they did not hold any hearings on that back then. I dont know why these gentlemen expect them to hold hearings on anything of substance after that. Guest we appreciate your comment and we certainly feel your frustration. Thats why we are putting together this group. Thats why were also putting our fellow members of congress on notice that we will use every procedural motion available to us to try to force this debate. If you go to work, there ought to be a clearly defined mission. If you go to war. No one can tell us how it ends. I cant figure out what our Current Mission is in afghanistan anymore. We need to exercise our proper constitutional role in oversight and providing authorization or not providing authorization. Sitting back and letting all of this twiddling of thumbs is unconscionable. Host you may use a privileged resolution. How does that work . Guest this is jims initiative. This really is getting to a point where its about the only option we have to force any discussion to put debate on the floor. Jim would introduce it and i would join it. This is his idea. Guest we mentioned we took the vote last july, we introduced a privileged resolution saying invoking the war powers resolution enforcement an end to further escalation. We negotiated with the speaker about a less forceful resolution. If we are engaged in sustained combat operations, we will reconvene and vote on a formal amuf. That was in july. Nothing has happened. We come back from our break and we will introduce the privileged resolution. It forces the vote on the floor. Host what makes a privileged . Guest there are procedures in place that give us that ability to bring a resolution like this to the floor. Unfortunately, you cant write the legislation you would like to write. Its about withdrawing our forces. We hope people will vote with us. To send a message to the leadership that you have to do something. If the majority in congress is saying no, its no. If the majority say yes, its yes. But being silent, thats moral cowardice. It really is. Walter talks about the veterans that he has seen at walter reed. Ive talked to veterans come ive been to funeral after funeral after funeral. To not even be actively engaged in the discussion about what we are doing is a sad commentary. Host tom in harrisburg, pennsylvania. Democrat. Caller he took a lot of fe heat guest i voted for the afghanistan resolution because i thought it was appropriate to hold those responsible for 9 11 to account. What i did not expect was that resolution would be so broad in terms of its interpretation that we would still be in afghanistan , not fighting al qaeda, now fighting the taliban, god knows who else i voted against the Iraq Resolution as well because i thought that was a mistake. Im glad i voted against it. The important point here congress was on record on both afghanistan and iraq. We are not on record in this current war. Host robert in rochester michigan. Independent line. Caller i would just like to say that i am very proud of both of these gentlemen for being sociable and giving getting along with each other, which is very rare for both parties. As far as all these wars, i dont know why are in the middle of everybody elses for. We have to keep the shipping channels clear. If we are going to be in the middle of everybodys work, they should be paying us instead of us paying to control everybody elses war. There is no reason for us to be in the middle of every war. Host a response by walter jones. Guest i want to thank robert because thats exactly why jim and i are grateful to you to have us on this show today. We will be in afghanistan for nine more years. Its an agreement that obama signed with the new president of afghanistan. Nine more years of life, limb and money. We have not even had a discussion on that. A nineYear Agreement with a foreign country to have a troop presence and to help them rebuild their roads and streets when we cannot build our own roads and streets, spending billions of dollars every month thats why we are so frustrated. You hundred percent correct. You are 100 correct. Host is this different than the congress being involved in the iranian negotiations . Guest the president should have the latitude to have ongoing negotiations. We do have a role. Once they complete this agreement, congress should have the ability to analyze the agreement on behalf of the American People. I do think that we need to have an ongoing negotiation. Both parties have a right to see what the agreement is. Guest what walter and i are talking about are instances where we are putting american servicemen and women in harms way, directly involved in hostilities and combat operations. That is war. It is very clear that congress has a role in that. Even the executive acknowledges that. Thats why the president keeps pointing to these amufs from a long time ago and why hes amid a new what he submitted a new amuf. When it comes to war, its ironic because the iranian deal is not about us putting troops into harms way. Everyone feels congress ought to have a role, we ought to have a debate and approve this and prove that. Yet, we have people in harms way right now. We are borrowing billions of dollars to fight these wars. Where is everybody . Why doesnt congress have a role in that . Host you are a member of the rules committee. Could you explain briefly why that is such a powerful committee . Guest it is the traffic cop of congress. Every bill that comes to the house floor goes to the rules committ