Of course, is a democrat, and both were saying they have done their investigation, they have found nothing to uphold the claims that President Trump made through twitter, and we have a statement actually that we can put up on a joint statement. Oh, okay here it is. The joint statement from the leaders of the Senate Select committee and theyre saying. Liz before or after. Remember, this is what trump tweeted early on the morning of march 4th, quote terrible, just found out obama had my wires tapped, just before victory. Nothing found. This is mccarthyism. Peter barnes is standing by in washington, d. C. , and obviously, this is a major breaking story, peter. Reporter thats right, liz and, of course, we do have the press Secretary Sean Spicer coming out here in just a few moments with the budget director mick mulvaney, and sean spicer is going to get asked about this, as you recall, after the tweet on march 5th, spicer issued a statement that called on congressional Intelligence Committees to determine, quote, determine whether executive the Senate Intelligence committee saying exactly what you said, that they saw no evidence of this, and no indications that trump tower was the subject of surveillance. Liz peter weve g twominute warning about 22 seconds ago. Could they be late because theyre crafting a response. The media are and give the definitive answer . Reporter were waiting on that, and expecting to hear something from comey on that shortly. But the statement from the two senators came out about 20 minutes before the briefing was supposed to happen, it was supposed to start at 2 00 eastern, and now were an hour late. I have a feeling that the statement, their response to the senators statement is what theyve been working on. Liz and again, just to recap here. The Senate SelectIntelligence Committee chairman, is republican, richard burr, of North Carolina has come out and said they have found no evidence, and theyve soundly rejected President Trumps accusation. Here is sean spicer. Breaking news, he begins an hour late. Lets hear what he has to say. Couple coming. Sorry for the delays guys, budget day. I was supposed to kick this off with director mulvaney. Hes still on a call with the governors. He hosts a ton of briefings with key stakeholders, so my goal if this times out right, as we finish up, director mulvaney will walk in the room right on cue and he will talk to you about the budget and well walk through q a on that. Hopefully this all works. Im going to skip past the part where i say thank you director mulvaney. [laughter] as the director will say, the president s budget blueprint keeps its promise to put americas security first, turning his words directly into policies that restore and respect for citizenss hard earned tax dollars. There was additional nonbudget events of the day. This morning the president had a bilateral meeting with taoiseach kenny of ireland, he was to recommit to strong, social economic political relations in ireland. This afternoon the president made the remarks at the friends of ireland lunch at the capitol, celebrating americans bipartisan commit to peace and security in ireland was started in 1983 by president reagan and speaker oneale and has been attended by every president and taoiseach since then. Dan coats as the next director of National Intelligence in his ceremonial office. Former senator coats has the sound judgment required to lead our Intelligence Community and the president is finally glad to have him on board as part of his team later this evening, the president along with taoiseach kenny will attend the st. Patricks day reception and participate in the ceremony. Since 1952, the president has invited the taoiseach to come to the celebration of st. Patricks day where they present a bowl of shamrocks as the symbol of the profound and lasting relationship between the two countries. The president and taoiseach kenny will make remarks, i have a few more notes before i get to director mulvaney. First, i want to share a letter that should be going out shortly, if it hasnt already that the president signed this morning wishing ray chavez, the oldest living survivor of pearl harbor a happy 105th birthday. Our nation owes mr. Chavez a debt of gratitude for extraordinary legacy of liberty, freedom around the world fighting to ensure security and prosperity for millions. A copy of the letter will be sent out if it hasnt already, and we extend our warm wishes to ray and his family as they celebrate his 105th and the president signed the letter wishing he hopes to have several more birthdays to come. This afternoon the president announced intent to nominate several individuals to key posts at the department of defense. Robert gaggle as director of program evaluation, elaine mccluster as deputy undersecretary of defense. David norquist as comptroller, kennh rompono, captain shanahan as deputy of secretary of defense for policy. The president s glad to have these extremely qualified men and women on board to assist secretary mattis as he undertakes the great rebuilding of the nations military. This afternoon, the president declared a major disaster in the state of california and ordered federal assistance to supplement state, tribal and local Recovery Efforts in the areas affected by severe winter storms, flooding and mudslides this january. We announced this afternoon, second lady karen pence will lead the delegation to the Special Olympics in austria. The House Budget Committee met early this morning and approved the American Health care act make together Third Committee to move the ahc a forward. Were working hand and glove with the house to make improvements and confident the thoughtful and thorough process will lead to legislation that Reforms Health care making it more affordable and accessible to every american. Since we wont have a chance to meet tomorrow in light of the president s and chancellor merkels press conference. The president will welcome german chancellor merkel here to the white house, inclement snow prevented that the other day. The president will have a host of meetings and roundtable focusing on Vocational Training with american and german business leaders. They will also have a press conference in the afternoon. Well have details on the entire day later this afternoon. Also tomorrow, the president wiend a listening session with Veterans Affairs and va secretary shulkin and representatives from the various veterans organizations. Its important that we reform the va system to fulfill the promises made to the men and women who risk their lives for our nation. He looks forward to discussing potential changes that can help improve the veterans administration. On monday, the president will meet with bill gates, cofounder of microsoft and have lunch with the Vice President and meeting with secretary of state. Later that afternoon, the president will welcome Prime Minister abadi of iraq to the white house and wednesday the president invited all 49 members of the Congressional Black Caucus to come to the white house for a meeting. The president hopes for productive discussion want and to remind everyone that diyesterday via twitter that the lottery for the 139th annual easter egg roll is open until this coming saturday. Everyone interested in attending can go to recreation. Gov, further information at whitehouse. Gov for details. The president addressed the decision by the Federal District court and hawaii to block his lawful executive order. As the president said last night the law and the constitution give the president the power to suspend immigration when he deems it to be necessary in the national interest. The court didnt bother to quote the relevant statute which could have shown the president has the authority. I know you heard it before, since the court didnt, 8 u. S. Code, 1182 states whenever the president finds the entry of aliens or class of aliens into the United States would be detrimental to the interest of the United States, he may, by proclamation, and for some period he deem necessary, suspend the entry of all aliens or class of aliens as immigrants or nonimmigrants or impose on the entry of aliens any restrictions he may deem appropriate. The department of justice strongly said in a statement they strongly disagree with the Federal District courts ruling flawed in reasoning and scope. D. O. J. Continued the president s executive order falls squarely within Lawful Authority in seeking to protect our nations security, and the department will continue to defend his executive order in the courts. The department is exploring all available options to vigorously defend this executive order. We intend to appeal the flawed rulings. The department of justice is determining the legal strategy and timing. We expect action to be taken soon to appeal the ruling in the 4th circuit and seek clarification prior to appeal in the 9th circuit. The danger is real and the law is clear. The president was elected to change our broken immigration system and will continue to exercise his Constitutional Authority and president ial responsibility to protect our nation. And just before i get to your questions, and then before i will introduce director mulvaney. Want to follow up on a couple questions recently. John decker asked multiple times on the enforcement of the president s executive order to restrict lobbying activities of executive branch employees which includes a fiveyear ban on lobbying which you served and lifetime ban to foreign governments. The executive order has a section, section 5 which focuses on enform. The order outlines tasked with working with the government of ethics to determine procedures to determine violations. The executive order authorizes the department of justice to enforce the order through several mechanisms. Debarring proceedingings that would respect the tities from doing businessith the federal government. Seeking injunction such as restraining order from lobbying for ten years, the five years in the ethics agreement and additional five years or civil penalty commensurate with the nature of the violation. The president expects the department of justice to vigorously enforce this executive order. Yesterday several of you asked where the house is in regard to additional legislation as outlined in the third prong of the acha and the president s plan to Reform Health care. Please do note, leader mccarthy in the house introduces pieces of legislation that would reduce burdensome regulations and lower costs. The hr 372 which eliminates antitrust protection for insurance provider creating competition so that americans are not left with just one choice for Health Care Coverage. The Small Business health fairness act hr 1101 which allows Small Businesses to band together and negotiate lower prices. To protecting access to care act. Hr 1215 which limits frivolous lawsuits and drives up Health Care Costs and the hr 1304 which protects workers who get Health Care Coverage from employers that selfinsure but providing a backdrop on catastrophic losses. In terms of following up from yesterday in regard to the d. O. J. s indictments of Russian Hackers and yahoo data, this action demonstrates the United States commitment to identifying cybercriminals and bringing them to justice no matter where they are and highlights the importance of criminal cooperation to our cyberregime. And like i said yesterday, as this is a lawful enforcement action, anything beyond that i direct you to the department of justice and the fbi. Before i continue, let me turn it over to the director mulvaney. Good afternoon and happy day before st. Patricks day, known as budget day. Most of you heard me talk about the budget before, im not going to say too many things, but we will remind you recalling the First American budget. We had America First candidate, you have an America First president , and shouldnt surprise anyone we have America First budget. Youve seen the details5. 4 billion of additional defense spending. We have details where the money is going. Were seeing increases at the va. Increases within the department of justice for Law Enforcement. Increases within the department of Homeland Security for things that include Border Security and immigration controls. Increases within the department of energy to deal with Nuclear Triad and corresponding reductions in similar amounts offsetting dollar for dollar in other programs. The largest reduction, if youve seen the budget already is 31 reduction within the Environmental Protection agency. The next largest production on percentage basis is within the department of state and other departments are reduced in lesser amounts. I think the smallest reduction we have is nasa which is less than 1 , but there again as with many of the agencies you see certain line items within the budgets. This is the message the president wanted to send to the public, to the press, to capitol hill, he wants mor money for defense. More money for border enforcement, more money for enforcement generally. More money for the vets, School Choice and to offset that money with savings elsewhere so all of that is done without additional dollar added to the deficit as i mentioned before. This budget does not balance the budget. It reallocates and reprioritizes spending as any family or business would do. This budget does not, for those of you not here last week, this budget does not address the big picture items such as policy changes. Revenue flows. Tax policy. Mandatory spending. This is the top line spending budget, thats why we call it the budget blueprint and not the full budget. The full budget which will contain all the rest of the pieces and parts will be released in may. Before i take questions, im going to do something i dont ordinarily do. I call on the New York Times because theyre in trouble. Apparently, where is my New York Times guy. Matt and alan are in big trouble. Ill give you the first question but you have to deliver the message that i am the father of 17yearold triplet girls. My 17yearold daughter really wish that happened but 17yearold sons are upset. If you could clarify that, that would be great. Ill give you the first question if youve got one. Go ahead. Reporter we are not good at math at the New York Times. The math is right, it was the gender that is wrong. Reporter candidate trump talked about National Debt, which, of course, is reaching 20 trillion. You mentioned it in budget message this morning. Is there a plan, as the president talked about during last Years Campaign to eliminate the National Debt in eight years. He said during the campaign it would be easy to eliminate the entire debt, not the deficit but the debt in eight years. Is that something the president is committed to do. I suggest its not the right time for the question. The budget blueprint does not deal with the debt and doesnt deal with the deficit. It is the first part of the appropriations process. Well send this up to the hill now and the appropriations committees of the house and the senate. The house controls the power of the purse congress controls the power of the purse, this will be the first step in the process. We will address the issues of longerterm deficit, longerterm debt in the budget. Well have to deal with things like mandatory spending, tax policy, revenue flows to the government. Its a fair question i dont think now is the time to ask the question. Reporter the 28 that comes out of the state department. Youre leaving a lot o discretion to the people in arge tre and all of the agencies for having to implement e cuts. How much is intended to come out of foreign aid budget of 10 billion . A lot of it. Keep in mind, as ive said before, one of the reasons you seen a reduction basis is not that the president doesnt think diplomacy is important. Secretary tillerson had a tremendous won diplomatic success on the deal with iraq. President believes in diplomacy and believe the budget protects that core function of the state department. It just so happens that much of the foreign aid that the president talked about in campaign, much of the money that goes to climate research, green energy, those types of things are in the state Department Budget. If thes line items had been in the department of commerce, you would see department of commerce going down by similarly large percentage. The answer to the question is most of the cuts within the state department try to focus directly on foreign aid. Yes, sir . Reporter yes, the budget showed a. 8 decrease for nasa, but youve talked about in the Administration Using private companies such as spacex, for example, for more of that. So does this show some of this going to be shifted over to the private sector, and does this show