Transcripts For CSPAN Washington This Week 20161114 : vimars

During the campaign trail, he would come after ryan. Now that donald trump is the president elect, the dynamic has completely shifted. The two men, who met yesterday, were praising each other. Speaker ryan rolled out the red carpet for donald trump, hosted a lunch for him in the capitol hill club. Then brought him back to the capital where he took him out on the speakers balcony and showed him the view of the entire d. C. Skyline, the platform where he would be inaugurated and sworn in on january 20. And so, the dynamic and the relationship, which has been a pretty testy one throughout the campaign, has completely shifted. At of that another duration ahead of that inauguration, congress has plenty to do. Walk us through this lameduck session next week in addition to the leadership elections. Mr. Wong the president ial race has completely changed everything as one leadership source told me today. The thinking before the election was that congress would try to tackle an omnibus bill, perhaps break it up into smaller pieces with a minibus type of approach that would extend funding for the 2017 fiscal year. Now the thinking, with republicans controlling both the white house and both chambers of congress, is that republicans specifically try to push for a cr that will take funding into perhaps february or march. That would allow thenpresident trump and a Republicancontrolled Congress to hash out a much better deal on spending levels than republicans would have gotten in the lameduck session with president obama. Again, Donald Trumps victory on tuesday night has changed almost everything in washington. On that cr, on the spending measure, lets take a look at some reference on where things stand. Well go back to september 28, hal rogers on the house floor. Mr. Speaker, i rise today to present the senate amendment. For hr5325. The legislation includes the fiscal year 2017 continuing resolution and fullyear appropriations for military construction and veterans affairs. It also includes funding to fight prevent the spread of the zika virus and assistance to communities affected by recent devastating floods. This is a reasonable and necessary compromise that will keep the government open and operating, address urgent needs across the country, and provide the necessary support for our service members, their families, and our veterans. First and foremost, mr. Speaker, this bill helps us avoid the unwarranted damage of a Government Shutdown by providing the funds required to keep the government open and operational past our september 30 deadline. The funding is provided at the current rate of 1 trillion and last through december 9. The short timeframe will allow congress to complete our annual appropriations work without jeopardizing important government functions. Secondly, the package contains the full year military construction, the v. A. Bill for fiscal 17, which was conferenced by the house and senate and passed by the house already in june. In total, 82. 5 billion is provided for our military infrastructure and Veterans Health and benefits programs, 2. 7 billion above current levels with targeted increases to address mismanagement and improve operations at the v. A. It is important to note that once the president signs this bill into law, it will be the First Time Since 2009 that an individual appropriations bill has been conferenced with the senate and enacted before the september 30 fiscal year deadline. Third, this legislation includes 1. 1 billion in funding to respond to and stop the spread of the zika virus. This funding is directed to programs that control mosquitoes, develop vaccines, and treat those affected. This funding is spent responsibly, balanced by 400 million in offsets, in unused funding from other projects. Lastly, this legislation includes important provisions that address Current National needs, including an additional 37 million to fight the opioid epidemic, which has struck my district especially hard, and an additional 500 million in disaster designated funding to help states recover and rebuild from recent destructive flooding. I believe this legislation is a good compromise that this house can and should support. It is not perfect. But it ensures we meet our nations current critical needs. I have said many times before, standing in this exact spot, that a continuing resolution is a last resort. But at this point, it is what we must do to fulfill our congressional responsibility to keep the lights on in our government. But at this point, it is what we so i urge my colleagues to vote aye on this necessary legislation so we can send it to the president s desk without delay. Hal rogers from september 28. Scott wong of the hill, that shortterm cr runs to december 9, a couple of outstanding issues. The president requesting additional military spending just this weekend also the House Republican Study Committee wants a shortterm cr into the beginning of the trump administration. Who will win out in the end on this . Mr. Wong it probably depends on what donald trump wants. He has a lot of Political Capital right now. Of course, president obama still has a few months left in his term and will be the one signing any sort of funding bill at the end of this year. But president elect trump will be dictating a lot of what happens during the lameduck session. He had the support of the voters. , members of congress on the republican side are falling in line behind president elect trump. We have not seen any signals about what he wants, but i expect that there probably will be a shortterm cr into either february or march. On that todo list, is aid to flint, michigan. The u. S. House passed that in late september. The congressman talked about that package before they resist. They recessed. This amendment is something ive been working on for some time and it would bring urgently needed aid to my hometown of flint, michigan. For over a year, the flint water crisis has been public. We have not yet been able to act here in congress. It has been even longer since that havence of flint been using water that is poison. For two fulllead, years. To be clear, what happened in flint was a failure of government at every level of government. Through this amendment, congress can take its rightful place in fulfilling its obligation in its responsibility to help my hometown recover. The amendment would authorize 170 million to restore the safety of Water Infrastructure in communities like my hometown of flint that have lead in their water. More importantly it would create a concrete commitment from both bodies of congress to get aid to my hometown, for my hometown, to the president s desk. The Senate Passed similar legislation by a vote of 953. This amendment would ensure the house also supports communities like flint that are suffering with this terrible problem. We have waited an awful long time for this. We worked very hard to get this amendment. Get this amendment in a bipartisan fashion to the floor. I want to thank all of our friends. Michigan congressman. Scott wong, he mentioned that the Senate Passed their own measure. What is left to do . Mr. Wong the two sides, the senate, house, the negotiators need to come together and settle on a final product and present that back to their respective chambers. That is another item that needs to happen during the lameduck session in terms of the flint session. In terms of the flint funding, the house bill that was negotiated is about 170 million. The senate bill contains a little bit more, 300 million. They will probably have to meet somewhere in the middle. The good news for the people of flint is that donald trump has been very supportive of those efforts. He visited flint back in september, he spoke to a number of the residents and has been talking a lot about Infrastructure Spending on the campaign trail. So, i would expect everything is up in the air, but i would expect the two sides will be able to come together on flint. Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell prioritized getting down the Defense Authorization bill and this 21st century cures bill. Tells about that, briefly. Mr. Wong i do not have too much information on what is happening on the senate side. I do know when mcconnell spoke to reporters the other day, one of his Top Priorities obviously was the repeal of obamacare. I think a lot of the discussion that will be happening is going to be about what republicans do in the first 100 days of the new trump administration. That was part of the discussion that happened yesterday between trump and mcconnell and trump and ryan. Reince priebus was there as the. Who is one of who is being talked about for chief of staff of the white house. I think a lot of the focus, what im hearing from members today, a lot of the focus is going to be on the Top Priorities of those first 100 days of the trump administration. Probably at the top of that list is repealing obamacare. We started talking about the house leadership elections next week. Lets talk about senate elections. The Senate Democrats will elect a new minority leader with harry reid retiring. It is likely to be Chuck Schumer. What is the relationship between Chuck Schumer and Mitch Mcconnell . Mr. Wong i think schumer is seen as more of a deal maker compared to harry reid. Harry reid was somebody who often would throw up roadblocks in the process and accuse republicans of doing the same. He was a fiery leader. Obviously, a former boxer. Chuck schumer is from new york, he is much more of a deal maker. It will be interesting to see how Chuck Schumer not only works across the aisle with Mitch Mcconnell and with his fellow new Yorker Donald trump, who he has known for decades. That is one relationship all of washington will be watching. A preview of what is ahead for the lameduck session. Our guest is scott wong. You can follow his reporting at thehill. Com. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2016] a look at announcer this week on q a, author Stephen Puleo discussing his book american treasures the secret effort to save the declaration of independence, the gettysburg address and the constitution. Mr. Lamb author of american treasures. You begin your prologue by saying, secret Service Agent ms. Alonen harry e. Neal stood