| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
|
unidentified
|
C-SPAN, Democracy Unfiltered. | |
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| Coming up on C-SPAN's Washington Journal, the co-founder and president of Real Clear Politics, Tom Bevin, will talk about the political impact of the government shutdown. | ||
| And Maryland Democratic Congressman Johnny Olszewski discusses the House vote to reopen the government. | ||
| Then, Ankush Khandori, senior writer at Politico magazine, talks about President Trump's use of pardons, the House's effort to release the Epstein files, and the president's legal efforts against James Comey, Tish James, and others. | ||
| Washington Journal starts now. | ||
| It's an honor now to sign this incredible bill and get our country working again. | ||
| And with that, the longest shutdown in U.S. history is over. | ||
| President Trump signed the bill to reopen the government last night, just hours after the House passed the legislation. | ||
| Six Democrats joined 216 Republicans to send the bill to the president's desk. | ||
| And this morning, we're getting your view on the 43-day-long government shutdown and asking if you think the political fight was worth it. | ||
| Phone lines split, as usual, by political party. | ||
| Democrats, it's 202-748-8000. | ||
| Republicans, 202-748-8001. | ||
| Independents, 202-748-8002. | ||
| You can also send us a text this morning and also give us a call if you're a federal worker. | ||
| For federal workers, it's 202-748-8003. | ||
| You can catch up with us on social media. | ||
| On X, it's at C-SPANWJ. | ||
| And on Facebook, it's facebook.com slash C-SPAN. | ||
| And a very good Thursday morning too. | ||
| You can go ahead and start calling in now some headlines on the end of the shutdown from the world of the political media. | ||
| First, from the left, it's HuffPost, their headline, Trump signs funding bill ending the longest government shutdown following House approval. | ||
| That sub-headline reads, Democratic Party leaders said they would continue to fight while others said they should not have stopped. | ||
| Also from the left, it's Bach, one of the headlines there. | ||
| Democrats were never going to win the shutdown fight. | ||
| And then to the political right, it's Breitbart. | ||
| Here's their headline on the end of the shutdown. | ||
| Trump signs bill to reopen government after 43 days of Democrat shutdown, quoting the president last night, we will never give in to extortion because that's what it was. | ||
| Here's more from President Trump from the Oval Office last night. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Three days, government, three million people don't know what they're doing. | |
| For the last 43 days, Democrats in Congress shut down the government of the United States in an attempt to extort American taxpayers for hundreds of billions of dollars for illegal aliens and people that came into our country illegally from gangs. | ||
| from prisons, from mental institutions. | ||
| They wanted to pay them $1.5 trillion, which would have really hurt our health care businesses and our recipients at levels never seen before. | ||
| Today, we're sending a clear message that we will never give in to extortion because that's what it was that they tried to extort. | ||
| The Democrats tried to extort our country. | ||
| In just a moment, I'll sign a bill exactly like we asked Democrats to send us all along, many days ago. | ||
| This cost the country $1.5 trillion, this little excursion that they took us on. | ||
| Republicans never wanted a shutdown and voted 15 times for a clean continuation of funding. | ||
| There's never been a time when one or the other party ever didn't sign a continuation. | ||
| It's just a continuation, not a big deal. | ||
| It's a continuation, and we'll talk later. | ||
| Yet, the extremists in the other party insisted on creating the longest government shutdown in American history, and they did it purely for political reasons. | ||
| That was President Trump last night. | ||
| He would soon thereafter sign the bill to reopen the government. | ||
| The final vote in the House was 222 to 209. | ||
| Six Democrats joined almost all Republicans in the House to support the legislation. | ||
| Those six Democrats include Congressman Henry Quayar, the Democrat from Texas, Don Davis of North Carolina, Tom Swasey of New York, Adam Gray of California, Jared Golden of Maine, who had been opening, who had been voting continuously for the continuing resolution to reopen the government, and then Marie Gluzenkamp Perez of Washington, the six Democrats who joined 216 Republicans on that legislation. | ||
| Two Republicans voted no last night. | ||
| They include Congressman Thomas Massey of Kentucky, Greg Stuby of Florida. | ||
| The government is reopened today. | ||
| It was 43 days of a government shutdown. | ||
| Here's some of the debate yesterday from the House floor. | ||
| Hakeem Jeffries, the House Democratic leader, opposing that legislation. | ||
| This is what he had to say. | ||
| All across the country, I'm certain that there are people in America asking the question: where do we go from here? | ||
| House Democrats have a simple answer. | ||
| We will continue to fight to lower the high cost of living. | ||
| House Democrats will continue to fight to address the health care crisis that Republicans have created. | ||
| And House Democrats will continue to fight to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits for tens of millions of Americans. | ||
| This fight is not over. | ||
| We're just getting started. | ||
| We'll fight today. | ||
| We'll fight tomorrow. | ||
| We'll fight this week. | ||
| We'll fight next week. | ||
| We'll fight this month. | ||
| We'll fight next month. | ||
| We'll fight until we win this battle for the American people. | ||
| That's our commitment as House Democrats. | ||
| And there's only two ways that this fight will end. | ||
| Only two ways, Mr. Speaker, that this fight will end. | ||
| Either Republicans finally decide to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits this year, or the American people will throw Republicans out of their jobs next year and end the speakership of Donald J. Trump once and for all. | ||
| That's how this fight ends. | ||
| House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries. | ||
| You can watch the full debate before that vote last night on our website at cspan.org. | ||
| We're talking to you this morning on the Washington Journal about the longest shutdown in government history, asking you if you think it was worth it. | ||
| We'll take you through some of the provisions in the legislation that reopened the government, including the provisions about back pay for federal workers. | ||
| Some 750,000 federal workers expected to be back on the job today or in the days to come as the agencies reopen. | ||
| About a million federal workers had been without pay during the government shutdown for these past 43 days. | ||
| We have a special line for federal employees, that number 202-748-8,003. | ||
| Otherwise, numbers for Democrats, Republicans, and Independents as usual. | ||
| We'll start on the independent line out of Colorado. | ||
| It's Ray and Aurora. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, good morning. | |
| I actually called the federal employee line, but at the same time, I'm affiliated with the Libertarian Party, so there's a bit of a mishmash here. | ||
| That's okay, Ray. | ||
| What do you think about the end of the shutdown? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, look, with starters, you know, it's at least we're at the point where we can have some type of continuity. | |
| On the other hand, the fact that we even had a shutdown in the first place and that it happened for as long as it did, it definitely was not worth it. | ||
| I did place blame, on one hand, on Republicans for the way that they had been crafting all of this, especially after ending the after the debate was ended at the Senate side. | ||
| But I also place the blame on Democrats because here they are using the filibuster against the Republicans. | ||
| And this is from some of the same people who even contemplated the idea of ending the filibuster under former President Biden. | ||
| Ray, one of the op-eds in the papers today said that this shutdown ended because Democrats were worried about losing the filibuster, that that started to be something that was on the table. | ||
| And that's one of the reasons in the Senate side that eight Democratic senators crossed the line here to join Republicans on that Senate vote before it then came to the House last night. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, and I have to tell you, I actually think we should keep the filibuster because one of my long-term concerns is the idea of too much change happening too fast. | |
| And I think the filibuster aids in having a more slower, gradual change at any point. | ||
| And then, Ray, you talk long-term. | ||
| This legislation goes until January 30th for most federal agencies. | ||
| Three budgets, three of the 12 appropriations bills were passed for a full year of funding. | ||
| So through September of 2026, that was the Agriculture, the Department of Agriculture's bill, the Department of Veterans Affairs bill, and then the bill to fund the House and the Senate. | ||
| Those three are funded at least through September of next year. | ||
| But what are your thoughts on this shutdown fight or a shutdown except for those agencies fight happening again come in January? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, I seriously doubt it's going to happen because I do think there are a number of seats that are going to change. | |
| And when I mean long-term, I meant the way the filibuster is treated now compared to one year down the road, two years, four years, 25 years. | ||
| And Ray, were you one of those folks who was furloughed and without a paycheck for the past 43 days? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I was not because my agency is funded by fees, so we were exempt the entire time. | |
| So I just showed up to work day in, day out, and got my regular pay. | ||
| I know it sucks for a lot of others, so I do feel for them, but this shouldn't, I mean, frankly, this should have never happened. | ||
| Right. | ||
| Thanks for the call from Colorado to Russell, Republican in Missouri. | ||
| Thanks for waiting. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Go ahead. | |
| Hello, I would like to ask about Dr. Oz. | ||
| So, Russell. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I'm going to ask about what was his response to Hakeem Jeffries' attack on him. | |
| Was there a response aired on news about that? | ||
| I heard there was, but I haven't seen it. | ||
| So, Russell, don't have that for you right now, but we're talking the end of the shutdown. | ||
| Any thoughts on that? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, I'm glad it's over. | |
| Shouldn't have happened. | ||
| It was all leverage. | ||
|
unidentified
|
It amounted to nothing. | |
| They worked towards, they didn't work for anything. | ||
| They worked against Trump. | ||
| It's like TDS. | ||
| That's all. | ||
| That's Russell in Missouri. | ||
| And this is Bob out of Florida. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
| Thanks for waiting. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, good morning. | |
| Yeah, I'm retired military. | ||
| I was in special ops for 26 years. | ||
| And, you know, I'm almost 65, and I've seen this act before with the shutdown. | ||
| And, you know, common sense, I have a little bit, and I'm a little confused on how American taxpayers are being laid off and have no money to pay their bills. | ||
| But politicians leave Washington, D.C. | ||
| They go to Aruba on their vacation, and they come back and open the country back up, and they're still getting paid. | ||
| There should be a law, and it should be a new bill that if the government shuts down, politicians will not get paid. | ||
| That law has to be implemented and passed. | ||
| And not only were they paid throughout the shutdown, the bill that they passed to end the shutdown included the legislative branch appropriations bill. | ||
| That's the appropriations bill that funds the House and the Senate and federal agencies in the Senate. | ||
| That legislation also included an additional $203.5 million for security for the House and the Senate. | ||
| That was part of the deal that came together to end the shutdown. | ||
| What wasn't in there is an extension of the health care subsidies, that fight that was at the heart of the shutdown. | ||
| As the Wall Street Journal notes, as part of the deal to get some Democrats on board, Republican leaders in the Senate promised to vote on the Democratic proposal for extending the Enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies by mid-December. | ||
| The House hasn't made a similar pledge. | ||
| Senate Republicans also expect to get a panel vote on their own approach to the expiring health care subsidies. | ||
| So that fight is still very much up in the air. | ||
| We showed you some of the political headlines this morning on the end of the shutdown. | ||
| Here's one from Red State from the right side of the aisle. | ||
| Like a boss is the headline. | ||
| Mike Johnson takes a victory lap after the shutdown vote and shares important reminders for the voters. | ||
| This is what Speaker Mike Johnson had to say yesterday. | ||
| Am I going to guarantee a vote on ACA unreformed COVID era subsidies that is just a boondoggle to insurance companies and robs the taxpayer? | ||
| We got a lot of work to do on that. | ||
| The Republicans would demand a lot of reforms before anything like that was ever possible. | ||
| And we have to go through that deliberative process. | ||
| We have 430, well, currently 433 members of the House of Representatives. | ||
| There's a lot of opinions in this building and on our side, certainly a lot of opinions on how to fix health care and make it more affordable. | ||
| I have to allow that process to play out. | ||
| I'll leave you with this. | ||
| The biggest objection that I had to Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, who are playing political games with people's lives when they shut the government down, was Chuck Schumer came out and said the quiet part out loud. | ||
| I don't even think you realize he has no self-awareness. | ||
| But he came and cried to all of you that I would not agree to go into a back room and make a four corners agreement on these issues. | ||
| That just he and I and Hakeem Jeffries and Leader Thun would go in a room and make this decision for the entire population of America and block out all of our colleagues as if they had no voice in it. | ||
| That is why Washington is broken. | ||
| That's why Congress hasn't worked well for people. | ||
| That's why they don't have a lot of faith in what goes on here. | ||
| And I'm committed to trying to restore that faith. | ||
| And one way we do that is we get back to regular order. | ||
| We allow all the duly elected members of this body to have their voices heard. | ||
| I'm not playing games and Chuck Schumer, I'm not going in a back room with you and making a four corners deal on anything. | ||
| And I hope you understand that. | ||
| Thank you all. | ||
| We got the government open. | ||
| Let's celebrate tonight. | ||
| Speaker Mike Johnson, yesterday, again, that vote taking place last night, 222 to 209 was the vote to send the bill to the president's desk to reopen the government. | ||
| The president signed it around 10:30 Eastern last night. | ||
| And we are at the end of the longest government shutdown in U.S. history. | ||
| Taking your phone calls. | ||
| Ed is in Ocean City, New Jersey, Independent. | ||
| Ed, go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, the shutdown is more proof that we need to have a constitutional convention to start the whole government over again. | |
| Two delegates from each state, two alternates in Charlottesville, Virginia. | ||
| The government doesn't work, and it's not solving the major problems. | ||
| Why do you want to do this in Charlottesville, Virginia? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Charlottesville has magical healing powers, so it would produce a good result. | |
| But look at the four major issues. | ||
| We need a clean one-room apartment for all the unhoused. | ||
| We need a guaranteed job for everybody. | ||
| We need no guns, and we need no wars and no military. | ||
| We've got to start the government over again. | ||
| It doesn't work. | ||
| They're incompetent. | ||
| That's Ed in Ocean City, New Jersey. | ||
| This is Anthony out of New York, Line for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Go ahead, Anthony. | ||
|
unidentified
|
First of all, the Affordable Care Act was passed 15 years ago to give insurance to people with pre-existing conditions. | |
| If anyone thinks that they can get insurance when a president says he's going to give money to them to buy insurance if they have pre-existing conditions, I wish them well. | ||
| Today, $500,000 bills for being in a hospital, having pre-existing conditions, et cetera, is common. | ||
| I don't believe any word that Johnson just said, and I don't believe anything that the President of the United States says. | ||
| By the way, he's a liar. | ||
| He lied about Epstein, and he can't get out of it now. | ||
| He will be convicted of a moral ineptitude. | ||
| He knew that the girls were being transferred out to other people and sold as slaves. | ||
| He knew all that. | ||
| He lies when he opens his mouth. | ||
| By the way, did you notice he fell asleep during his being in the presidential in the office of the president last week? | ||
| He's not mentally there, my friend. | ||
| That's Anthony in New York. | ||
| The other major political story out of Washington today is the Epstein emails, and it's the lead story today. | ||
| On the front page of the New York Times, here's what they write. | ||
| House Democrats on Wednesday released emails from Jeffrey Epstein and suggested that suggested that he believed President Trump knew more about Mr. Epstein's abuse than the president has acknowledged. | ||
| The release came as the White House tried furiously to head off a congressional vote demanding the release of more Epstein files. | ||
| The release of the messages was likely to thrust the Trump administration's handling of the Epstein files along with top officials' decision to backtrack on a promise to fully release all the investigative material in the case back into the glare in Washington. | ||
| That issue, which has split Republicans and alienated some of Mr. Trump's right-wing supporters, had faded in the background of the government shutdown. | ||
| On Wednesday, Mr. Trump called one member of the Republican Party to try to avoid her backing the petition to force the House vote on whether to demand the release of the files. | ||
| The story goes on from there. | ||
| That petition to release the files, though, did get enough support yesterday. | ||
| It came with the addition of the newest member of the House of Representatives, Adelita Grijalva, was sworn in today as the newest member of Congress, representing a seat in Tucson, Arizona. | ||
| And her first vote was to force a vote in the House on releasing the Jeffrey Epstein case files. | ||
| She was the final signature needed for that long-awaited document to force the release. | ||
| It's called a discharge petition, according to the rules. | ||
| The vote does not take place immediately, but Speaker Mike Johnson said he would schedule a vote next week on that legislation. | ||
| There's Congresswoman Grijalva being sworn in yesterday. | ||
| She is now Congresswoman, not Congresswoman-elect. | ||
| Yesterday from the White House, it was Carolyn Levitt who took questions on the release of the latest Epstein materials. | ||
| This is what she had to say to reporters. | ||
|
unidentified
|
In the interest of transparency, why not just go ahead and release the full files on Epstein, get this all over with? | |
| We have, this administration has done more with respect to transparency when it comes to Jeffrey Epstein than any administration ever. | ||
| In fact, this administration, the Department of Justice, has turned over tens of thousands of documents to the American people. | ||
| We are cooperating and showing support for the House Oversight Committee. | ||
| That's part of the reason you are seeing these documents that were released today because of the House Oversight Committees and Republicans' efforts to get these out to the public. | ||
| This administration also moved, the Department of Justice also moved to unseal grand jury testimony, which we know unfortunately a judge declined those requests. | ||
| So this administration has done more than any. | ||
| And it just shows how this is truly a manufactured hoax by the Democrat Party. | ||
| For now, they're talking about it all of a sudden because President Trump is in the Oval Office. | ||
| But when Joe Biden was sitting in there, the Democrats never brought this up. | ||
| This wasn't an issue that they cared about because they actually don't care about the victims in these cases. | ||
| They care about trying to score political points against President Trump, as we have, of course, seen with this government shutdown. | ||
| And this entire thing, again, it's not a coincidence to the American people at home. | ||
| There are no coincidences in Washington, D.C. | ||
| And it is not a coincidence that the Democrats leaked these emails to the fake news this morning ahead of Republicans reopening the government. | ||
| This is another distraction campaign by the Democrat and the liberal media, and it's why I'm being asked questions about Epstein instead of the government reopening because of Republicans and President Trump. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Break in transparency, Caroline, why are White House officials then meeting with Representative Boebert in an effort to try and get her to not sign this petition calling for the release of the files? | |
| Doesn't it show transparency that members of the Trump administration are willing to brief members of Congress whenever they please? | ||
| Doesn't that show our level of transparency? | ||
| Doesn't that show the level of transparency when we are willing to sit down with members of Congress and address their concerns? | ||
| That is a defining factor of transparency. | ||
| Having discussions, having discussions with members of Congress about various issues, and I'm not going to detail conversations that took place in the Situation Room in the press briefing room. | ||
| Caroline Levitt with the White House Press Corps yesterday, taking your phone calls this morning. | ||
| Phone lines for Democrats, Republicans, and Independents. | ||
| And as the government reopens, a special line for federal workers, 202-748-8003, is that number. | ||
| This is Larry out of Florida. | ||
| Line for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I'm just a little disappointed that my party has gone and put our country through all of these problems of poor people not being able to eat. | |
| Our troops are not exactly rich unless they have bars on their shoulders. | ||
| They're not rich. | ||
| They're very poor. | ||
| They have children. | ||
| And now, because of the Democrats doing this, my party, all this time, made them go and go and stand in line for food stamps. | ||
| It's just wrong. | ||
| I don't understand why the Democrats are trying to do all this. | ||
| My party has just gone berserk. | ||
| If I had the time, I'd probably switch parties right now because it's just been so crazy. | ||
| The Republicans actually act like they care about this country more than the Democrats, which is crazy, but they do. | ||
| So if I was going to vote again, I would vote Republican because the Democrats had just left Americans behind. | ||
| They brought in Biden brought in, what, 18 million illegal aliens, and now they're on our damn Obamacare, which is horrible. | ||
| Oh, Larry, why were you a Democrat? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Or it seems like it just, well, I've always been my whole family. | |
| You know, we were born up in Massachusetts, and my dad was in the Army, and we've been Democrats. | ||
| My whole family has been Democrats. | ||
| I've actually lost a couple of family members, I would say, because my point of view has changed dramatically since I was a young person. | ||
| Who was the last Democrat you voted for? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Clinton. | |
| But you still consider yourself a Democrat. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| That's Larry down in Florida. | ||
| This is Stephen in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, Republican. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, sir. | |
| It's good to have the government back open. | ||
| I'm all for full transparency, and any take you get from either party and/or the media is going to be, you know, whatever the recent bias is or whatever for whatever party. | ||
| What I would say is full transparency, put it off. | ||
| Everything is social media today. | ||
| Get Zuckerberg to put the entire Obamacare, everything they're going to be voting for in January, put it up on Facebook for the entire country to see. | ||
| And then let everybody make their own decisions. | ||
| Then you take a poll, who's who's who, and then the representatives either represent the people that are the vote of the mission. | ||
| The legislation that they vote on is available to see online now at congress.gov. | ||
| People don't do that a lot right now. | ||
| What makes you think they're more inclined to do it if you throw it up on Facebook and read through hundreds and sometimes thousands of pages of legislation? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, because guess what? | |
| Everybody puts that little Facebook button, man. | ||
| You know it and I know it. | ||
| Look it up on a Gov website. | ||
| How many people go? | ||
| I mean, I was like this guy. | ||
| I was in the military for 27 years. | ||
| I hate going on the Gov websites. | ||
| But Facebook, for us older guys now and our older women, boom. | ||
| And for the younger people, most importantly, for the younger people, Facebook is accessible. | ||
| You punch the button. | ||
| They can break it down in a, they can be real creative about breaking it down. | ||
| Everything comes out. | ||
| And there's no discretion there. | ||
| You could take polls. | ||
| You could really make this an interactive thing, which it should be. | ||
| Government should be interactive with the citizens, you know, instead of who's got an agenda and who's ripping off the next thing. | ||
| You know, this whole thing was disgraceful. | ||
| It costs everybody. | ||
| I don't even want to focus on it. | ||
| Today's a positive day. | ||
| The government's open. | ||
| Let's move forward. | ||
| Let's get both of these parties into work and get them both working as hard as they can right up to January when we got to pass the next one. | ||
| January 30th is that next funding deadline. | ||
| This is Lenny in Long Island, New York, Independent. | ||
| Lenny, go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, good morning. | |
| I'm kind of dismayed by these bills that they're trying to pass, the funding bill. | ||
| It's already passed. | ||
| Lenny was signed by the president last night. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Understood. | |
| I think it's a joke. | ||
| And the reason I think it's a joke is that I volunteer for a not-for-profit organization. | ||
| And the funds from 2025 have not been paid, not only to us, but to many organizations around the country. | ||
| So why have a funding bill if Congress or the White House or whoever's doing it is withholding funds that were allocated in prior budgets? | ||
| So we have a budget. | ||
| Well, that's great. | ||
| But are they ever going to get paid out? | ||
| It's questionable. | ||
| You know, Trump took away all the money from the schools, from the universities that are doing great work in research, in medical research, and other types of research. | ||
| And they're not getting paid. | ||
| So we might have a bill that outlines everybody that's going to get paid, but will they? | ||
| In today's world, I don't think so. | ||
| What do you think? | ||
| Lenny, here's some people who might get paid due to a provision in the bill that passed the breakdown from the Wall Street Journal. | ||
| Again, the Senate bill included a last-minute provision that allows senators, but not House members, to sue the federal government if investigators collect their records without their knowledge. | ||
| The Senate made the provision retroactive to 2022, which would cover the Justice Department's collection of phone records from eight Republican senators during former Special Counsel Jack Smith's investigation into the Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election. | ||
| The provision paves the way for payouts of $500,000 each in damages. | ||
| Lawmakers of both parties have criticized the provision as improper. | ||
| One of those who criticized it last night was Congressman Sue House Subaramamyun of Virginia, a Democratic member speaking on the floor last night. | ||
| People hate more than seeing their costs go up, seeing their costs go up while corrupt politicians line their pockets with taxpayer money. | ||
| That's what they really hate. | ||
| But that's what this bill does. | ||
| Republican senators slipped into this bill a legal pathway for them to personally receive millions of dollars in taxpayer money for being investigated after January 6th. | ||
| And the other side talks about fiscal responsibility and says there's no money, no money for health care, but somehow there's taxpayer money for Republican senators. | ||
| This is an ethics violation. | ||
| This is a breach of trust, and it calls into question the very legitimacy of this institution. | ||
| So I put forward an amendment to reject this corruption, but committee Republicans voted it down last night. | ||
| And they said they knew it was corrupt, but that there was nothing that could be done and that the system didn't work. | ||
| Well, you are the system. | ||
| And House Republicans promised to vote on this next week as a standalone bill, but there's no guarantee that the Senate will act. | ||
| In fact, they probably won't act, right? | ||
| So you have the power to join us in writing this wrong today. | ||
| So let's take out this ridiculous kickback. | ||
| Otherwise, a vote for this bill is a vote for corruption. | ||
| Some of the debate on the floor last night. | ||
| Again, you can watch it in its entirety at our website at c-span.org, taking your phone calls this morning as the government reopens after the longest shutdown in U.S. history. | ||
| This is Lee in New Orleans, Republican. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I want to make it short and quick. | ||
| This is a great opportunity for Republicans, President Trump, to make the affordable health plan affordable. | ||
| Because if the Republicans don't work something out with the Democrats, we're going to go through this again in January, and it might be even longer. | ||
| That's my comment. | ||
| I'll hang up and listen. | ||
| Catherine's out of Alexandria, Virginia. | ||
| Democrat, good morning. | ||
| You're next. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, how are you doing this morning? | |
| Doing well. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Go ahead. | |
| All right. | ||
| I just had a couple quick thoughts. | ||
| One on the government opening back up. | ||
| I'm totally fine with the government opening back up and Democrats voting for that. | ||
| My only issue is I feel like as someone who is working in D.C. and especially in the food service industry, we saw a lot of money getting lost just because business slowed down, people in the city weren't going out, the tourism was slowing down, et cetera. | ||
| And a lot of us were asked to wait between paychecks and just we were kind of told to be okay with it on the ground and then to feel blindsided by suddenly, okay, we've got this great vibe coming out of the elections last week and now we're going back and just we're okay with the promise of something down the line, but nothing more explicit than that. | ||
| It just felt a little bit like asking us to hold on to the hope that we can somehow manage to effectively message this next year when we're asking for their votes. | ||
| But this year we're just kind of screwed a little bit. | ||
| Catherine, you said you're okay with the Democrats crossing the line and voting for this. | ||
|
unidentified
|
It was mostly a little element of it that felt blindsiding and like asking us to have been okay with the fight that we said we were going to be okay with continuing and then going back on fighting that fight with us alongside us, if that makes sense. | |
| When you say we indicated we were ready to keep fighting, you're saying from the results of the election earlier this month? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Exactly. | |
| The Democrats who voted for that legislation, mostly in swing districts considered moderate Democrats, they include Congressman Queyar of Texas, Congressman Davis of North Carolina, Congressman Gray out of California. | ||
| There was Jared Golden out of Maine, who's been voting to reopen the government. | ||
| Marie Gluzenkamp-Perez of Washington, Tom Swazi of New York would be the other one. | ||
| Here's what Tom Swazi wrote on his social media page yesterday ahead of that vote. | ||
| He said that everyone knows that I've been preaching bipartisanship for years. | ||
| I'm relying on the representations of some of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle that if they want to get something done to extend the premium tax credits. | ||
| Unfortunately, we cannot rely on the White House, he said, which has chosen to make this process needlessly painful for many families who rely on SNAP to put food on the table for children, the elderly, veterans, and the disabled. | ||
| In addition, the airport situation is becoming untenable and government workers have gone without pay for too long. | ||
| If my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are willing to work together to address this health insurance affordability crisis by extending the premium tax credits, then we will have accomplished something meaningful. | ||
| If we are not successful, it will deal yet another blow to the already eroding trust in Washington, D.C., and it will be clear who failed to deliver. | ||
| Tom Swazi, Democrat of New York, yesterday on his vote joining most Republicans on this legislation that passed 222 to 209 last night, signed by the president, and now the government is reopened. | ||
| This is Nixon out of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Republican. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, John. | |
| I'm happy that the government is back open and things are back running as they should. | ||
| And this should never, ever, ever happen again. | ||
| I'm going to reach out to my congressman and ask him to draft a bill that basically ensure that the government won't ever shut down again. | ||
| No ifs, ands, or buts about it. | ||
| Some things that we can do without, some things that should never, ever happen as the government being shut down. | ||
| That should never happen. | ||
| Hopefully everybody get back to work and do what they were sent there to do. | ||
| Stop the fighting. | ||
| Stop the squabbling. | ||
| Stop the point and sang this name calling all the above. | ||
| Just get back to work and do what the people sent y'all there to do. | ||
| That's Nixon in Florida. | ||
| This is Linda out of the land of Lincoln. | ||
| Democrat, good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I was calling in because of the shutdown, and I'm really concerned about these senators that think they can be paid the, what, eight senators that can sue the U.S. government for us being able to look at their phone numbers. | ||
| That's appalling. | ||
| Anyone in the U.S. government, there should be access some way, somehow. | ||
| Now, the shutdown, yes, it needed to happen for the wake-up call for the American people. | ||
| I'm hoping and pray they wake up. | ||
| But thank you, and God bless America. | ||
| That's Linda in Illinois to Tennessee. | ||
| This is Harold, Democrat. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello, how are you? | |
| Doing well, Harold. | ||
| What do you think about the end of the shutdown? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, I agree with the shutdown, and I agree with reason they were shut down. | |
| It seems to me doing a lot of things that's not good for the citizens of America. | ||
| We're doing a lot of things for other people, and we need things as well. | ||
| But I do notice that labor has no voice in the control of their lives. | ||
| And what I mean by that is the rules are made in Washington. | ||
| We try to abide by the rules made in Washington, but the rules seem to be against the citizens of America. | ||
| That's Harold in Tennessee, the newest person making the rules in Washington, joining the ranks of the House. | ||
| Congresswoman Adelita Grahalva of Arizona out of Tucson is the district that she represents. | ||
| She was finally sworn in yesterday after an extended period since her special election to the House. | ||
| These were her remarks on the floor of the House yesterday. | ||
| It has been 50 days since the people of Arizona's 7th congressional district elected me to represent them. | ||
| 50 days that over 800,000 Arizonans have been left without access to the basic services that every constituent deserves. | ||
| This is an abuse of power. | ||
| One individual should not be able to unilaterally obstruct the swearing in of a duly elected member of Congress for political reasons. | ||
| Our democracy only works when everyone has a voice. | ||
| This includes the millions of people across the country who have experienced violence and exploitation, including Liz Stein and Jessica Michaels, both survivors of Jeffrey Epstein's abuse. | ||
| They are here in the gallery with us this evening. | ||
| Thank you for being here. | ||
| Just this morning, House Democrats released more emails showing that Trump knew more about Epstein's abuses than he previously acknowledged. | ||
| It's past time for Congress to restore its role as a check and balance on this administration and fight for we, the American people. | ||
| We need to fight for our immigrant communities and veterans. | ||
| We need to stand up for our public schools, children, and educators. | ||
| We need to respect tribal sovereignty in our environment. | ||
| We need to stand up for LGBTQ plus rights because that's what the American people expect us to do. | ||
| Fight for them. | ||
| That is why I will sign the discharge petition right now to release the Epstein files. | ||
| Congresswoman Adelita Grijalva yesterday on the House floor. | ||
| Taking your phone calls this morning on the Washington Journal after the government reopened late last night. | ||
| Some three-quarters of a million federal workers who had been furloughed are set to go back to work. | ||
| About a million who had not been receiving a paycheck are expected to receive their paycheck and back pay within the next couple days, if not today. | ||
| It depends on how quickly the paycheck system gets back up and running in the wake of the government reopening. | ||
| Your phone calls, special line for federal workers, if you want to call in, 202-748-8003 is that number. | ||
| We head, though, to the Republican line. | ||
| This is Gina out of Tennessee. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
| Gina, you with us? | ||
| You got to stick by your phone. | ||
| We go to Luis in Maryland. | ||
| Luis, good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Yeah, I just want to say, like, I know I live in Maryland, and I have a lot of my neighbors live here in Maryland and D.C. and Virginia, and they tell me they're suffering from the shutdown. | ||
| I mean, gladly, it's over, but to what sacrifice did we sacrifice the health care for our elderly and our veterans? | ||
| What's the sacrifice? | ||
| Should have we waited a little longer? | ||
| Do you think they should have, Luis? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I mean, I feel like we should have because now I feel like now I feel like day one, like we waited this long. | |
| And luckily, you know, there's organizations that will feed people, you know? | ||
| And I feel like if we would have laid it, if we would have waited a little bit longer, we would have got what we wanted and we would have got health care for people that really need it. | ||
| People are dying, and you know, that's what really matters. | ||
| That's Luis out of Maryland this morning. | ||
| Here's Mike McKenna writing in the usually conservative pages of the op-ed pages of the Washington Times, the headline on his piece, another shutdown, another pointless waste of time. | ||
| He said, a little history here might be useful. | ||
| No shutdown has ever resulted in the adoption of a specific policy advocated by the team that wanted this shutdown. | ||
| This go-around was no different. | ||
| He writes, Democrats, though, intentionally or otherwise, did blunt the political momentum of congressional Republicans and the president, who have pretty much had the run of the place for the past year or so. | ||
| It's tough to sell economic gains, affordability, restoration of law and order, and whatever else might be going on elsewhere in the world when one's own government is having difficulty feeding the hungry and landing the airplanes. | ||
| Secondly, he says the Democrats received a fairly specific promise that the Senate would have a vote on the enhanced tax credits for the Affordable Care Act premiums. | ||
| And that seems like an important concession, given that the president has indicated he is willing to play let's make a deal on this issue. | ||
| The Republicans as well have never won a vote on the ACA. | ||
| Of course, he says the underlying reality to all of this is sound and fury signifying nothing. | ||
| The shutdown won't change a single blessed thing with respect to our relatively dire financial situation. | ||
| The federal government spent about $6.75 trillion in fiscal 2024 and probably spent about $7 trillion in fiscal 2025. | ||
| The federal deficit in fiscal 2024, about $1.8 trillion. | ||
| Our federal deficit in fiscal 25, about $1.8 trillion. | ||
| When we pass the continuing resolution or whatever in February, we will be guaranteeing yet another deficit in the $1.8 trillion range. | ||
| We, you, me, and the nation, will be $40 trillion in debt pretty soon. | ||
| Mike McKenna writing today in the Washington Times. | ||
| Taking your phone calls, this is Cody out of Louisiana Republican. | ||
| What are your thoughts on the end of the shutdown? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes. | |
| Hello. | ||
| I'm a registered Republican. | ||
| I believe that shutdown should have continued. | ||
| I think our party is in charge. | ||
| When it's the reverse party Democrat, we blame everything on them. | ||
| And we have our concessions and they concede as well. | ||
| So I think that we should be blamed for the shutdown. | ||
| The shutdown should have been longer. | ||
| Cutting people off health care is never the right answer. | ||
| So that's just what I believe. | ||
| I'm happy people are going back to work. | ||
| But I just think it should have been longer. | ||
| Cody, what could Republicans have done here? | ||
| You said it should have gone longer. | ||
| You're saying Democrats should have held out longer, and you're saying that as a Republican? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, I am. | |
| I am. | ||
| I think they should have held out a little bit longer. | ||
| I understand like the people were not getting fed and whatnot. | ||
| But there were illegal courses that were illegal processes that were already undergoing with federal judges saying like we have to pay out the snap. | ||
| I think that there's contingency money for air traffic controllers, government officials and whatnot. | ||
| The Senate people are still getting paid. | ||
| I think congressmen are people getting paid. | ||
| There's money there. | ||
| They just didn't want to use it for the right reasons. | ||
| Cody, did you vote for Donald Trump in 2024? | ||
|
unidentified
|
No, I did not. | |
| Who's the last Republican you voted for? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I voted for Bush, and that was it. | |
| That's Cody in Louisiana. | ||
| This is Melinda out of Arizona. | ||
| Democrat, good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I want to address a few things. | ||
| You'll probably cut me off. | ||
| I am really sad to see the Democrats lose their battle with the Republicans. | ||
| Republicans cannot be trusted. | ||
| They have no integrity. | ||
| They ran away from serving the people of the United States, watched football games, drank beer, and had 57 days of hoop-de-law. | ||
| Thank God the little girl from Tucson got installed. | ||
| Right after that, we had Caroline Lovett giving the Republican Party full credit for the Epstein files. | ||
| Boy, I think they're a little screwed up. | ||
| And the other thing, President Trump gave all that money to Argentina and didn't give a darn about feeding the people of America. | ||
| I am so disappointed in the Supreme Court and President Trump using food as a tool, SNAP. | ||
| This should never have been done. | ||
| These people do not deserve anything of my respect. | ||
| The ones that voted, no, they do not have money. | ||
| And this thing about immigration, President Trump gave 25 to 170,000, and this was on C-SPAN, asylum here in America. | ||
| And here's how he put it. | ||
| They are being crushed, the poor, rich, white Africans. | ||
| We are having them come to our, that is what this president does. | ||
| Well, you know, let's get rid of ICE. | ||
| That's ridiculous. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Bye. | ||
| On SNAP benefits, more on this bill that was passed and signed by the president late last night. | ||
| The Washington Times noting the bills, full-year funding for the Agricultural Department. | ||
| Again, that is one of the three out of the 12 spending bills that Congress's job is to pass each year. | ||
| The Agricultural Department spending bill was one of those that was included in this negotiation. | ||
| The full-year spending bill ensures food stamps benefits under SNAP will flow uninterrupted for the remainder of the fiscal year, which ends September 30th of next year. | ||
| It also replenishes the multi-year SNAP contingency fund to $6 billion. | ||
| That fund was a point of contention in the legal disputes over whether the Trump administration could pay some of the November benefits in the legislation. | ||
| And it is one of those provisions that was negotiated over the past couple weeks. | ||
| The Senate Democrats joining Republicans. | ||
| There's eight Senate Democrats joining Republicans on this legislation, the bill coming back to the House. | ||
| Six Democrats in the House join on to this legislation. | ||
| It passes in the House last night, goes to the president, signed, and now the government is reopened. | ||
| This is Barbie out of Texas, Republican. | ||
| What do you think? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi. | |
| Well, I think that first of all, what we need to do is make each state's governors have balance their balance budget themselves before they can actually go and vote in Congress on anything. | ||
| And if they don't have a balanced budget, Congress and Senate both of our states people should not be able to put a vote out there. | ||
| Once you do that, you will eliminate the needs for all this craziness about overpayments and these fraudulent things that they're doing. | ||
| But here's the problem. | ||
| These SNAP programs, these food programs, there's so much waste in them. | ||
| I can name 10 people today, right now, that I know, including family members that have done this, not just for the last few years, but for years and years. | ||
| We've got to clean these programs up, but it has to start with the states. | ||
| The states have to clean up their own programs. | ||
| And if you let them keep voting fraudulently, because these people are just voting because they're going like with the Democrats or whatever they're doing, if you clean it up, we will clean up the system completely. | ||
| And this is a start, but we have to start with Congress passing a bill on the floor to make sure that our government cleans up their own states first before they can come and go to federal government. | ||
| I hope that you'll listen to my program, and I hope other people agree with it. | ||
| And these SNAP and WIC, let me just say this one thing. | ||
| These programs, you're already being taxed from them with giving them tax, child credit tax. | ||
| You're already being pro they're already getting our taxes already. | ||
| We shouldn't have to give them additional programs. | ||
| Those were programs that were started years and years ago for individual states, individual cities, and then they went crawling and merged it into the federal government. | ||
| That is so wrong. | ||
| We're being taxed into the program. | ||
| That's your point, Barbie. | ||
| That's Barbie in Texas. | ||
| This is Michael in North Carolina. | ||
| Democrat, good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, I just have a couple of questions. | |
| One is, well, first off, let me say that I appreciate what Congress and the Senate and the House and the President have done. | ||
| They have worked diligently to try to get this government back up. | ||
| I'm glad to see it back up, especially for the government workers, military, and things like that. | ||
| And one of the questions is, will the people that's on SNAP that really need food, you know, that depend on them SNAPs, even th once every month, they only got some, you know, they only got a partial here in November. | ||
| Will they, when they start back up, will they get the full amount that they didn't get in September, add it to December, or will they just start back with the full in December? | ||
| And the other question is, I've heard some people say that we're not going to get a raise in our Social Security in January to, I think it was 2.8%. | ||
| I was just wondering if you could elaborate on some of these things that I've mentioned, but let me say the president has worked really diligently, diligently, to get this thing back up. | ||
| I know he's worked day and night and hard as he, I think he's about one of the hardest working presidents that we've had in history. | ||
| And he won't back down from anything. | ||
| And that's what the people need. | ||
| People need a president that don't back down from nobody. | ||
| And I really appreciate that, and I appreciate you listening to me this morning. | ||
| I appreciate it, sir. | ||
| That's Michael in North Carolina. | ||
| Pat, Tennessee, Independent. | ||
| You're next. | ||
| Pat, you with us? | ||
| I think we lost Pat, so we go to Jim in Kentucky, also independent. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, hello. | |
| This is Robert in North Carolina. | ||
| I'm a black American male. | ||
| I was born in this country. | ||
| And I would like to say that Donald Trump is the greatest president of any, even greater than George Washington. | ||
| I agree with everything that he is doing. | ||
| I hope that he is able to do away with the filibuster before the Democrats can. | ||
| So for the next three years, he can get all of his agendas passed and that they can become law. | ||
| And the reason I say this is because I am a senior citizen now. | ||
| I've been a hardcore Democrat all my life. | ||
| Just a few years ago, I woke up and became an independent, but I voted Republican for Donald Trump. | ||
| And I really, am I still there? | ||
| Yes, sir. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay. | |
| And I really, really, really woke up when all Conna Harris could promise us was a car seat, you know, and going to historical black colleges telling our young ladies to have abortions and all kinds of craziness. | ||
| So I just asked the American people and especially the Democrats, please wake up. | ||
| Who wants to be on, there's nothing in life free that's worth having, and freedom is not free. | ||
| And when people get your point, Robert Stanley got a few more people waiting, Robert. | ||
| Let me get to Vincent in Tulsa, Oklahoma. | ||
| Republican, good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| How you doing? | ||
| Doing well. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Now, I don't think it's going to be the longest in history because we've got another one coming up this year, I'm thinking, in January. | |
| And I have one more question for you. | ||
| Would you vote for Nancy Pelosi if she ran for president? | ||
| Would you vote for Nancy Pelosi if she ran for president, Vincent? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Would I vote for her? | |
| Yes, sir. | ||
|
unidentified
|
No. | |
| Why? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Because I don't think we're ever going to have a female in this country, ever. | |
| That's Vincent in Oklahoma. | ||
| This is Stacey, Woodstock, Illinois, Democrat. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, good morning. | |
| My name is Stacy McCaskill. | ||
| Nobody is talking about the entire hemp industry that was crushed yesterday. | ||
| I am a hemp farmer. | ||
| I founded a company called Hempstock Farms in Woodstock, Illinois. | ||
| We are a seed-the-label hemp farm, and they snuck in language into the bill yesterday. | ||
| Rand Paul did make a stand and propose an amendment in the Senate version to remove that hemp killing language. | ||
| And Stacey, give me one second just for folks who aren't up to date on this topic. | ||
| Just two paragraphs from the Washington Times on what you're talking about. | ||
| The Agricultural Spending Bill, so this is one of the three bills that was passed, included in the legislation that reopened the government, includes a provision championed by Mitch McConnell, the Kentucky Republican and former majority leader, of course, to prevent the unregulated sale of intoxicating hemp-based or hemp-derived THC products, including Delta 8, from being sold online in gas stations and in corner stores. | ||
| It does note fellow Kentucky Republican Senator Rand Paul unsuccessfully tried to move the provision out of the bill, arguing that it would effectively kill the hemp industry. | ||
| And you agree it will kill the hemp industry? | ||
|
unidentified
|
It'll completely crush the entire industry. | |
| And let me just give you one very simple example of a product that we make. | ||
| We grow hemp outdoors for CBD. | ||
| And it's legally grown. | ||
| It's fully compliant plant. | ||
| It's compliant both to the federal law, which requires 0.3% THC, and our state law, which requires under 0.3% total THC, which is a much more strict standard. | ||
| We grow that fully compliant product, extract all the cannabinoids from it. | ||
| It's called a full spectrum extract. | ||
| And then we put that into a salve, and we call it joint and muscle. | ||
| It's our best-selling product. | ||
| I employ nine employees, and that product becomes illegal because they included language that says each package that a hemp formulator produces, each package has to have under 0.4 milligrams of THC. | ||
| The naturally occurring THC in my compliantly grown hemp plant is much higher than that. | ||
| The ratio is about 25 to 1. | ||
| So I make a jar of joint and muscle salve. | ||
| It has 3,000 milligrams of CBD naturally occurring in that salve. | ||
| It also has 150 milligrams of Delta 9 THC that's naturally occurring. | ||
| That product doesn't get anybody high. | ||
| It's a topical product. | ||
| It's not marketed to children. | ||
| And this is a false, this was, it's over now. | ||
| This was a false narrative pushed by the marijuana big cannabis lobby, pushed by the alcohol lobby, pushed by big pharma. | ||
| Stacy, did you have any hemp? | ||
| Did you have any sense that this was coming as part of this legislation? | ||
| Was this a complete surprise? | ||
|
unidentified
|
No, this was snuck in at the last minute. | |
| And this is the kind of thing, this is the problem with our government. | ||
| I mean, this is ridiculous. | ||
| My customers have no idea that where they buy their CBD salve from, where they get their CBD products, has been made, has been completely outlawed. | ||
| And owning a jar of a topical salve will become a felony. | ||
| I mean, it is ridiculous. | ||
| That industry, that CBD industry is a $2 billion industry right now. | ||
| For hemp farmers alone, us hemp farmers, we get about $500, half a billion dollars in revenue from hemp. | ||
| So they put a law in, they went out, and I was part, I used to be a small business development center director, and I did workshops all across the state telling farmers, hey, this is, you know, in 2018 and 2019 when the law had changed. | ||
| We went out and we, you know, the Department of Agriculture pushed farmers and said, hey, come try hemp, come grow hemp. | ||
| And we did it. | ||
| I grew a half million dollar business here. | ||
| I have tons of employees. | ||
| And just with the strike of the pen, super sneaky, they sneak that in and crush the industry. | ||
| My business is completely over. | ||
| I have one year now to wind this business down. | ||
| And nobody's talking about the hundreds of thousands of people, farmers, processors, retail stores. | ||
| You're going to see this is going to have incredible ripple effects across the economy. | ||
| Stacy. | ||
| Thanks for talking about it. | ||
| And perhaps a topic for another segment of the Washington Journal down the road. | ||
| We're out of time in this first segment of the Washington Journal. | ||
| But stick around. | ||
| Plenty more to talk about this morning, including a little later. | ||
| We'll be joined by one House member who voted against the reopening of the government, Maryland Democrat Johnny Olshewski. | ||
| But first, a discussion on the end of the shutdown and the impact it could have politically. | ||
| We're going to be joined by Real Clear Politics Tom Bevan for that discussion. | ||
| Stick around. | ||
| We'll be right back. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Friday on C-SPAN Ceasefire. | |
| At a moment of deep division in Washington, former Alabama Democratic Senator Doug Jones and former Ohio Republican Congressman Steve Stivers come together for a bipartisan dialogue on the shutdown in top issues facing the country. | ||
| They join host Dasha Burns. | ||
| Bridging the Divide in American Politics. | ||
| Watch Ceasefire Friday at 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. Eastern and Pacific only on C-SPAN. | ||
| Watch America's Book Club, C-SPAN's bold original series. | ||
| Sunday, best-selling biographer Walter Isaacson, who chronicles history's most remarkable lives. | ||
| His books include Benjamin Franklin, Steve Jobs, and Einstein. | ||
| He joins our host, renowned author and civic leader David Rubinstein. | ||
| What attracted you to these people? | ||
| Was it because they were geniuses or you just happened to like them? | ||
| Smart people are a dime a dozen. | ||
| In order to be a genius, you have to be creative. | ||
| You have to think out of the box. | ||
| And one of the things that struck me when I wrote about Benjamin Franklin early on was what a great scientist and technologist he was. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Watch America's Book Club with Walter Isaacson. | |
| Sundays at 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. Eastern and Pacific, only on C-SPAN. | ||
| America marks 250 years, and C-SPAN is there to commemorate every moment, from the signing of the Declaration of Independence to the voices shaping our nation's future. | ||
| We bring you unprecedented all-platform coverage, exploring the stories, sights, and spirit that make up America. | ||
| Join us for remarkable coast-to-coast coverage, celebrating our nation's journey like no other network can. | ||
| America 250. | ||
| Over a year of historic moments, only on the C-SPAN networks. | ||
| Washington Journal continues. | ||
| Real Clear Politics, co-founder and president Tom Bevin, joins us now for a discussion on the end of the longest shutdown in U.S. history and its political impacts. | ||
| But first, Tom Bevin, before we get there, Real Clear Politics has been around about a quarter century now, but remind people who you are, what your mission is, and your approach to political analysis. | ||
| Thanks, John. | ||
| It's great to be with you. | ||
| So, yeah, we started Real Clear Politics 25 years ago, and our idea was to basically be a political, you know, clearinghouse of news and information for people who care about politics, policy, and elections. | ||
| And so, what we do is we get up every day and we scour the internet and we aggregate the best stories, commentary, opinion analysis. | ||
| We round up all of the best video clips, and obviously a lot of people know us for our poll averages. | ||
| We were the creator of the poll average back in the day, and so we're aggregating polling data, not just around elections, but also a bunch of metrics that pollsters ask, like presidential job approval rating, favorability ratings, those sorts of things, right direction, wrong track. | ||
| And so, you know, our model, our mission is to inform the public as best we can from ideas and news across the political spectrum. | ||
| If you go to our webpage, we're probably one of the only sites where you will find a right-leaning argument on an issue and a left-leaning argument right next to it. | ||
| And you read them both, and you can make up your own mind about who you think is right and what you think about that issue. | ||
| And some great political podcasts as well for folks who are into podcasts, all available at realclearpolitics.com. | ||
| So bring us to the end of the shutdown. | ||
| Who won the shutdown and how does one determine a winner and a loser of something like a shutdown? | ||
| Yeah, that's a great question. | ||
| I mean, clearly the polls seem to show that Democrats, more people blamed Republicans than Democrats. | ||
| I think that's one of the reasons that the Democrats held out as long as they did. | ||
| They felt like they were winning the public relations battle, although it wasn't so lopsided that Republicans didn't feel like they had ground to stand on as well. | ||
| I do think in the end, it seems like by the reaction of Democrats that they felt like they lost. | ||
| They were furious at these eight Democrats who decided to cut this deal. | ||
| And so I think in that sense, Democrats maybe lost because they basically only got what was offered to them eight weeks ago. | ||
| I mean, they really didn't get a whole lot of concessions from Republicans on this. | ||
| And as I think your caller mentioned in the last segment, we're going to be doing this again at the end of January. | ||
| So we'll see how that goes. | ||
| But honestly, I don't know that I'm not sure how much the shutdown played in the elections in November. | ||
| It probably played in Virginia and certainly Northern Virginia more than anywhere else. | ||
| I think it was more about the economy. | ||
| And I really don't know that it's going to have any impact on the elections next November. | ||
| I think that also will be about the economy. | ||
| And that's where I think Trump and the Republicans are really having some difficulty right now. | ||
| Well, I want to come back to that. | ||
| But first, Democrats' goal at the outset of this 43-day-long shutdown was put the rising cost of health care front and center. | ||
| They ended up getting a commitment for a vote next month in the Senate on some bill on the rising cost of health care and the subsidies. | ||
| Was that what they were looking for at the outset here? | ||
| Well, I mean, what they wanted, I think they wanted two things. | ||
| One, they wanted the ACA subsidies, and you saw that with Schumer, you know, his compromise proposal was to fund that for a year. | ||
| That was always, I think, unlikely. | ||
| Another subtext of this was the filibuster and Democrats perhaps wanting to do, there was some discussion about whether this was the end game, that Democrats really wanted Republicans to go ahead and do away with the filibuster because it might benefit them in the long term. | ||
| And certainly Trump played right into that when he was pounding on Republicans to kill the filibuster. | ||
| But to your point, you know, Democrats are arguing now after the shutdown that anytime that they can make health care a central issue in the sort of overall political discussion, political landscape, that's a winner for them. | ||
| They do lead on that issue when you look at the polling. | ||
| So in that sense, I guess they're correct. | ||
| But that to me is a bit more of spin. | ||
| That vote is going to take place, but I don't know that there's anyone who thinks that it's going to pass or going to lead to something from a policy perspective that benefits Democrats. | ||
| So this is something, though, moving forward, they want to continue to try and make an issue all the way through the November 2026 election. | ||
| The filibuster point is an interesting one. | ||
| One of the articles I read is that it was the threat to end the filibuster that actually got Democrats to break ranks in the Senate and finally eight Democrats joining Republicans in the Senate to move this legislation, that that was the breaking point for them, even after a off-year election in which Democrats swept the board. | ||
| Yeah, and look, Democrats were just arguing. | ||
| I mean, there were clips floating around of Bernie Sanders from just a year or two ago saying that he wanted to end the filibuster. | ||
| He wanted Democrats to end the filibuster so they could pass their legislation. | ||
| I think eventually it's going to happen because I think if Democrats do get back into power and they're able to do away with the filibuster, I think plenty have signaled enough desire to make that happen. | ||
| And on the Republican side, we had this discussion the other day. | ||
| I mean, if Republicans are going to do it, they should do it now because they control branches of the government. | ||
| If they lose the House next November, then it's kind of a moot point. | ||
| I mean, if they can't get anything through the House, what good is having no filibuster in the Senate? | ||
| So it's one of those things. | ||
| It's situational ethics for these parties based on where they find themselves in the current moment. | ||
| Although I know John Thune and Rick Scott and some of the other folks in John Cornyn in the Senate had expressed a real hesitancy to do away with the filibusters, despite the fact that Trump was basically screaming at the top of his lungs. | ||
| Do you think Chuck Schumer's time as leader of Senate Democrats is drawing to a close? | ||
| I do. | ||
| I think this was it for him. | ||
| He tried to engineer this in a way that allowed him to basically get the government open, but he could stand up there and vote no. | ||
| But I just feel like the pressure is such on Schumer. | ||
| He was really hounded by Democrats for his first vote to keep the government open a few months ago. | ||
| And then with this, the pressure that's on him, I think, is extreme. | ||
| And I do think if it's unlikely that even right now that Democrats will win back the Senate next November, it's probably more likely than it was a couple weeks ago, but still, it's an uphill battle. | ||
| But when Democrats have to vote for a leader in the Senate, whether it's a majority leader or minority leader, I think Chuck Schumer is going to face a challenge. | ||
| And I don't know, you know, he's not up for re-election until 2028. | ||
| I suspect he's going to get a primary challenge. | ||
| And I would not be surprised in the slightest if after the 2026 elections, Chuck Schumer is done as a leader in the Democratic Party. | ||
| Tom Bevin, a good guy to chat politics with, and he's with you this morning on the Washington Journal to do it for about the next 20 minutes. | ||
| So get your calls in. | ||
| 202-748-8000 for Democrats. | ||
| Republicans, 202-748-8001. | ||
| Independents, 202-748-8002. | ||
| Tom Bevin, as folks are calling in switch gears. | ||
| What was your thought on the Epstein emails that were released yesterday and how that story played out alongside this government shutdown ending story yesterday? | ||
| Yeah, I know there are a lot of folks who don't believe in coincidences. | ||
| And maybe in this case, I don't either. | ||
| Look, the Epstein, there's no question the Epstein files has been a problem for Donald Trump, a political problem, because this is something that he ran on. | ||
| This is something that his base is interested in. | ||
| They want these files to be released. | ||
| They've agitated for it for years. | ||
| He promised that he would. | ||
| And then he got into office. | ||
| And despite the fact that Dan Bongino and Kash Patel and Pam Bondi and all these folks were saying that this was going to happen, they've really just sort of made one gaff after another in the way that they've handled this thing to the point where it's become a sort of prolonged political problem. | ||
| I don't know that Trump is, Trump hasn't really helped himself either by saying, you know, months ago, oh, this is old news. | ||
| This is a hoax from Democrats. | ||
| That didn't really pass muster with a lot of folks in the MAGA base. | ||
| The issue did subside, but as you mentioned, it's back in full force now. | ||
| I didn't think the emails that were released yesterday, I thought the Democrats, they kind of tried to pull a little bit of a bait and switch there by redacting Virginia Jeffrey's name from that email and then getting these headlines, which most of the media ran with, which was emails claimed Trump knew and spent hours with Epstein victim. | ||
| I think that backfired a little bit because there was also part of those emails that said, look, Trump wanted Ghelaine Maxwell to stop. | ||
| And we now know Virginia Jeffery has testified under oath that Trump never saw him on the plane, never saw him at the island, never saw him in New York, he never approached her inappropriately or she never saw her doing anything with any of the girls. | ||
| Part of this story is people know that Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein were friends and friendly, and so that's kind of baked into some of this. | ||
| But there's no question that it's an issue that the White House does not want to be dealing with and would like to go away as soon as possible. | ||
| And it's just one of those issues that hasn't gone away. | ||
| They haven't been able to make it go away. | ||
| For Ms. Jeffrey, she passed away earlier this year, though, has a memoir that has been published posthumously. | ||
| It came out last month. | ||
| In that memoir, she recalled meeting Donald Trump once, saying that he couldn't have been friendlier. | ||
| She wrote that Julian Maxwell noticed her at the resort and approached her, saying she knew a wealthy man who was looking for a massage therapist. | ||
| People were taken out of the spa hired by him, in other words, gone. | ||
| And the memoir coming out after her death, the teenage spa attendant at Mar-a-Lago, who Maxwell recruited back in 2000, she died by suicide this year at age 41. | ||
| Taking your phone calls this morning with Tom Bevin of Real Clear Politics, and we've got plenty for you, Tom Bevan. | ||
| This is Alex in Mentor, Ohio, Democrat. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I had suggested to your person about when President Trump had renamed the Defense Department the Department of War. | ||
| I think from the time he was elected the first time till this time, he's been trying to start a war with anybody that would look. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Now he's attacking Venezuela. | |
| So is this the beginning of his regime that's going to continue on? | ||
|
unidentified
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He's going to just remain in power because there's a war going on. | |
| I don't know. | ||
| Has that been bounced off anybody? | ||
| Tom Bevin on the drug boat strikes. | ||
| Well, I don't know that there's any merit to the idea that Trump's trying to start a war so that he can stay in power. | ||
| He has talked about a third term. | ||
| He has, I think the last thing he said is he ruled it out. | ||
| I think that's more trolling than anything to get Democrats up in arms over this. | ||
| Look, I do think it's interesting. | ||
| Trump has gone around the world and he has made a big show of the fact that he's been the peace president. | ||
| He's helped broker all these deals, including the Israel-Hamas ceasefire, and he's been working on Ukraine. | ||
| He hasn't gotten that one done yet. | ||
| But at the same time, over the past few months, we've seen him make these attacks on these drug boats and really ratchet things up with Venezuela to the point where it does look like there could be some sort of hot war against Venezuela. | ||
| And those are very, very contradictory things, particularly among folks in the Republican Party and the MAGA base. | ||
| One of the reasons that they like Trump had voted for Trump is because he was the only Republican at the time who was willing to stand up in 2015. | ||
| I remember distinctly him being on a debate stage in South Carolina and saying, you know, the Republican Party, George Bush, had lied America into war in Iraq for oil. | ||
| And everyone was that, you know, it was kind of shocking to hear a Republican say that. | ||
| But he had tapped into something in the Republican Party that I think was building a frustration with these overseas, you know, building democracy abroad. | ||
| And so that's been a key part of his platform while he's been president and while he's run for president. | ||
| So the stuff that's going on with Venezuela is directly contradictory to that. | ||
| And he doesn't, he kind of waves it away, but I think there is some discontent, not just among his base, but as the caller mentioned, among the public more broadly about how quickly we seem to be in escalating with Venezuela. | ||
| Let me go to the Constitution State. | ||
| This is Mary Lou in Newington, Connecticut. | ||
| Independent, good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I want to know why none of you seem to be worrying about all the Muslims that are winning places in the government of this country. | ||
| There were 27 Muslims voted into November. | ||
| Why does a person's religion worry you, Mary Lou? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Into office. | |
| They could not, they knocked down the World Trade Center. | ||
| They tried to knock. | ||
| All right, that's Mary Lou. | ||
| Tom Bevan, let's take this to New York City. | ||
| And Zorhan Momdani's victory, Democrats' victory, and I closely watched mayoral race. | ||
| What does that mean for 2026 in terms of what Republicans plan to run on next year? | ||
| Well, sure. | ||
| I mean, look, it's been very clear for months that Mamdani was headed for victory and Republicans have already tried to make him the face of the Democratic Party. | ||
| They're going to try and make him the and right now he is currently elevated to, you know, become one of the leaders. | ||
| I think Bernie Sanders was asked this a week or so ago. | ||
| Is he a leading figure in the Democratic Party? | ||
| He said, of course he is. | ||
| He's the mayor of New York City. | ||
| It's the biggest city in the United States. | ||
| And so he's this rising star, and Republicans are going to try and make him the face of the Democratic Party moving forward. | ||
| And Democrats have had sort of an interesting, you know, they've been, some of them have kept their distance. | ||
| Some of them sort of eagerly embraced him, AOC and Bernie, but others have sort of, you know, had been, I don't want to say dragged kicking and screaming, but they did not, they ended up endorsing him in the end, but not in a very enthusiastic way. | ||
| I think a couple of things. | ||
| Number one, Republicans, you know, just hoping that Mamdani wrecks New York City in the next 12 months is not an electoral strategy. | ||
| It is not a plan for victory. | ||
| They can put him up as the face of the Democratic Party, but unless they have something that they're running on that resonates with voters, they're going to be in trouble next November, particularly on the economy. | ||
| He's been very smart. | ||
| He ran a great campaign. | ||
| And the key to it has been this, you know, the word affordability. | ||
| And Democrats have adopted that. | ||
| And I think that's a really smart strategy. | ||
| It's a really smart word because it's in many senses apolitical and it's very easy for voters to digest. | ||
| It's a word. | ||
| It's not gobbledygook. | ||
| It's not a slogan. | ||
| It's very simple. | ||
| Can you afford this or can you not afford your life and the things that make that up? | ||
| That's something that every single voter can easily recognize, digest, and understand. | ||
| And he did a good job of parlaying that into a victory. | ||
| And so we'll see what happens. | ||
| But it certainly was a watershed moment to have a socialist win that race, even though it was closer than most expected. | ||
| And now we'll see how he's able to govern. | ||
| On what resonates with voters in November of 2026? | ||
| Do you think a shutdown in October and November of 2025 matters to voters a year from now, 355 days from now, to be exact? | ||
| I do not. | ||
| I think what voters are going to care about heading in. | ||
| And look, this is what it was in 2024. | ||
| And unless events intervene, and by that I mean, you know, a terrorist attack or a virus like COVID, which went from literally non-existent to the number one issue in 2020, unless something like that happens, it's very clear that voters are concerned about the economy, inflation, by an order of magnitude. | ||
| It's two or three times. | ||
| When you combine those two issues together, it's way more than the next most important concern. | ||
| It's the entire ballgame right now. | ||
| And as I said, Donald Trump came into office. | ||
| He had an advantage over Joe Biden and Kamala Harris on those issues. | ||
| He ran on those issues. | ||
| We're 10 months into his presidency now, and he's underwater by 11 points on the issue of his handling of the economy. | ||
| And by that, I mean his disapproval is 11 points higher than his approval rating. | ||
| And when you dig down and look specifically at inflation, he's at negative 25.5. | ||
| His approval rating on inflation is about 35%, and his disapproval rating is over 60%. | ||
| It's 61.2%. | ||
| So clearly, voters and not just Democrats, Independents and Republicans, have looked at Donald Trump's stewardship of the economy thus far and said, look, he promised he was going to get inflation under control. | ||
| We're still feeling it. | ||
| And that's something that he and Republicans have to grapple with between now and next November. | ||
| Let's go to Paul here in D.C., Democrat. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
| You're on with Tom Bevin. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, good morning. | |
| Thank you for taking the call. | ||
| I've used RealClear Politics a lot in past elections, took a break for a little while and just came back to visit the site more frequently. | ||
| And it definitely has a lot of good information on it. | ||
| But one of the things that I struggle with, though, is something that the guest had referenced earlier on, which is that they put a right-leaning argument that they call from all media sources. | ||
| And then next to it, you can see a left-leaning argument. | ||
| And the thing about that is it really reduces issues to a binary solution so that if something the Republicans do really well or successfully, there'll be an article from a left-leaning perspective that calls that action or outcome totally catastrophic. | ||
| But when I talk with my Republican or conservative or MAGA friends or family, we're actually not that far apart, like Democrats and Republicans. | ||
| And so I think that your format, while you try to give different perspectives, by only giving two, you're creating this illusion that there's an us and a them and a right way and a wrong way or something that's glorious or something that's catastrophic. | ||
| And so I would just like encourage you to find issues or arguments, you know, like on healthcare, for example. | ||
| Well, Paul, I got your point. | ||
| Let me give Tom Bevin a chance to respond. | ||
| Well, look, I mean, I would argue that we try to cover every single day a variety of issues from elections to the economy to foreign policy to everything and try to cover a range of perspectives. | ||
| And sometimes those are far right. | ||
| Sometimes those are center right. | ||
| Sometimes those are centrist. | ||
| Sometimes they're center left and sometimes they're far left. | ||
| And we have, there are different flavors, obviously. | ||
| You've got the Republican establishment. | ||
| You've got MAGA. | ||
| You've got Independents. | ||
| You've got Libertarians. | ||
| You've got Democratic Socialists. | ||
| So we try and cover the gamut. | ||
| I understand the point you're making, which is sometimes issues are more nuanced than allow for just two articles. | ||
| But I would also say that one of the problems that we currently face and have faced for a long time is we constantly, via our phones, via social media, via what we watch on television, whether it's Fox News or MSNBC, we've cocooned ourselves in these information bubbles so that we're only getting one perspective. | ||
| And usually that perspective is reinforcing our priors, as they say, on these issues. | ||
| Republicans are bad or Democrats are bad or whatever. | ||
| And so one of the things that we try and do and we encourage people to do is come to our site because again, you know, I tell people all the time, if you go to National View, great publication, it's conservative. | ||
| And you will go there for five years and you will never see a liberal opinion there. | ||
| And you can go to The Nation magazine or the New Republic, liberal publications, left-leaning publications. | ||
| Great publications often have good information, good stories, good articles, good arguments, but you will never see a conservative. opinion there. | ||
| And so we can take from National View and we can take from the nation and put those arguments next to each other. | ||
| And we can challenge our readers to say, hey, here's what the left is saying on this issue. | ||
| Here's what the right is saying on this issue. | ||
| Read both and make up your own mind. | ||
| We're not trying to tell people what to think. | ||
| We are trying to foster freedom of speech, free discussion, civil discussion, which is another, I think, thing that's been lost in this country is we can no longer just agree to disagree on issues without impugning each other's motives and telling, you know, thinking that whoever holds a different political opinion from us is somehow bad or evil. | ||
| So that's what we try and do. | ||
| And again, we're not perfect at it, but that's what we get up and work really hard to do every single day. | ||
| One more minute on this topic. | ||
| Your polling is some of the information on your website that is most popular, your polling pages. | ||
| How do you deal with what you were just talking about in terms of polls? | ||
| There's a lot of frustration with people. | ||
| Oh, that's a conservative poll. | ||
| That's a liberal poll. | ||
| How do you navigate that minefield? | ||
| How much time do we have? | ||
| Go a minute and 30 minutes. | ||
| I'm going to say one minute. | ||
| Look, so the polling industry has been very challenged over the last 15 or 20 years, sort of broadly speaking by the fact that people don't have landlines anymore. | ||
| They're all on cell phones and they're harder to reach and it's much more expensive and all that. | ||
| I think Donald Trump has thrown a monkey wrench into the polling industry as well because he completely changed the dynamic of who was turning out and all of the models. | ||
| He was bringing in, he was converting Obama voters. | ||
| He was bringing in disaffected voters. | ||
| And so you had a lot of polls that ended up missing the results in some cases badly. | ||
| You had right-leaning pollsters that did a better job in 2016, 2020, and 2024 when he was on the ballot of projecting what the electorate was. | ||
| And so, look, our attitude toward polling is, and unlike some of the people who have, I was going to say copied us, but who've created different polling models in the last 20 years, and they've added a bunch of bells and whistles and secret sauce. | ||
| They're waiting this and they're doing that and they're trying to account for this or that. | ||
| We've stuck with the same, I mean, it's a very simple average. | ||
| The polls are right there. | ||
| You can see the numbers. | ||
| We don't fuss with them. | ||
| We don't put our thumb on the scale and say, this is a Republican, therefore he's going to get docked 10%, or it's a Democratic poll, so we're going to dock him 10%. | ||
| We include all of the public polls that are available. | ||
| We don't include polls from campaigns, and we don't include polls that come from, you know, that are sponsored by PACs that have a specific point of view. | ||
| But all the public polling that's available, it could be a Republican-leaning firm, could be a Democratic-leading firm. | ||
| And at the end of the day, if you look at our average and our record versus everybody else who's out there, our method has turned out to be the most accurate. | ||
| It sort of all comes out in the wash. | ||
| Now, we have had some, you know, the polling industry at large has had some misses, as we talked about with Donald Trump. | ||
| But I think overall, our attitude on the polling is the numbers are the numbers. | ||
| We put them up there for people to see. | ||
| It's very transparent. | ||
| And that's the best way that we've been able to handle that and all the challenges that the pollsters have faced. | ||
| I know we're running short on time. | ||
| Okay, take your last two minutes to talk about profanity in politics. | ||
| I bring it up because Mitch Daniels, the former governor of Indiana, is columnist for the Washington Post, brings it up today in his piece. | ||
| I don't know if you had a chance to read it, but this is what he writes. | ||
| He says, profanity is suddenly mainstream. | ||
| Once unacceptable words, specifically the one you know I'm thinking of, are everywhere, from comedians who apparently couldn't get laughs without them to politicians who must think it makes them look tough. | ||
| The grossness has now infected even our formerly proudest and most stately publications. | ||
| However, one might wish it, it seems unlikely that once the vulgar becomes commonplace, society will ever rerule that it's out of bounds. | ||
| His concern about public norms being warped and wondering whether the damage is permanent. | ||
| Profanity in politics and publications. | ||
| What are your thoughts? | ||
| Well, profanity used to be, I mean, it's existed in politics, certainly, but it's always been more private. | ||
| And we saw that, and we've seen that with, you know, if you read histories and biographies, there were plenty of presidents who were very profane. | ||
| They just didn't do it in public, but it has seeped into our seeped into our public discourse and particularly over the last few years. | ||
| Again, I think, you know, Donald Trump has just thrown so many wrenches into our system. | ||
| Democrats would argue he's the one who's lowered the standards. | ||
| And certainly Trump has cursed in public more than I think most presidents. | ||
| But Democrats' response to that has been to curse at Donald Trump because their base wants to see them fight. | ||
| They want to see this sense of outrage and indignancy against Donald Trump. | ||
| And that's led people to one expression of that is to is to curse. | ||
| And we've seen that all the way. | ||
| I mean, the former Vice President Kamal Harris on our book tour has done that repeatedly in public. | ||
| So it is a problem. | ||
| And I do, I understand his point. | ||
| It is a crossing of a line that perhaps we're never going to go back into. | ||
| I think social media has contributed to that as well. | ||
| We managed to say things online to people, terrible things, that we would never say to someone's face. | ||
| And so that has, it's also become a part of our discourse to see that kind of language used online. | ||
| And so I totally get his point, but I'm not sure that that's a genie that can be put back in the bottle. | ||
| Tom Bevin, I know you got to run and make some politics real clear for folks. | ||
| It's realclearpolitics.com if you want to see the work of Tom Bevin and his colleagues, Carl Cannon, one of them. | ||
| We always appreciate chatting with you and your team. | ||
| Thanks a lot, John. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Appreciate it. | |
| Coming up later in the program, a discussion on the reopening of the government by one member of Congress who voted against that legislation last night, Maryland Democrat Johnny Olszewski joins us. | ||
| But first, some time for open forum. | ||
| Any public policy issue, any political issue that you want to talk about. | ||
| Phone lines are yours to do so. | ||
| Phone numbers are on your screen. | ||
| go ahead and start calling in, and we'll get to those calls right after the break. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Seat span is as unbiased as you can get. | |
| You are so fair. | ||
| I don't know how anybody can say otherwise. | ||
| You guys do the most important work for everyone in this country. | ||
| I love C-SPAN because I get to hear all the voices. | ||
| You bring these divergent viewpoints and you present both sides of an issue and you allow people to make up their own minds. | ||
| I absolutely love C-SPAN. | ||
| I love to hear both sides. | ||
| I've watch C-SPAN every morning and it is unbiased. | ||
| And you bring in factual information for the callers to understand where they are in their comments. | ||
| It's probably the only place that we can hear honest opinion of Americans across the country. | ||
| You guys at C-SPAN are doing such a wonderful job of allowing free exchange of ideas without a lot of interruptions. | ||
| Thank you, C-SPAN, for being a light in the dark. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Watch America's Book Club, C-SPAN's bold original series. | |
| Sunday, best-selling biographer Walter Isaacson, who chronicles history's most remarkable lives. | ||
| His books include Benjamin Franklin, Steve Jobs, and Einstein. | ||
| He joins our host, renowned author and civic leader David Rubinstein. | ||
| What attracted you to these people? | ||
| Was it because they were geniuses, or you just happened to like them? | ||
| Smart people are a dime a dozen. | ||
| In order to be a genius, you have to be creative. | ||
| You have to think out of the box. | ||
| And one of the things that struck me when I wrote about Benjamin Franklin early on was what a great scientist and technologist he was. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Watch America's Book Club with Walter Isaacson. | |
| Sundays at 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. Eastern and Pacific. | ||
| Only on C-SPAN. | ||
| Friday on C-SPAN Ceasefire. | ||
| At a moment of deep division in Washington, former Alabama Democratic Senator Doug Jones and former Ohio Republican Congressman Steve Stivers come together for a bipartisan dialogue on the shutdown and top issues facing the country. | ||
| They join host Dasha Burns. | ||
| Bridging the Divide in American Politics. | ||
| Watch Ceasefire Friday at 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. Eastern and Pacific only on C-SPAN. | ||
| Washington Journal continues. | ||
| Time now for our open forum. | ||
| Any public policy or political issue that you want to talk about, now's the time to call in as you're calling in. | ||
| Here's where we are on Capitol Hill today. | ||
| The Senate is not in today. | ||
| The House will be in briefly in about 25 minutes for a pro forma session. | ||
| We're only expecting that it'll take place for about two or three minutes. | ||
| We'll go there and return to our program afterwards. | ||
| At 10 a.m. Eastern time today, the National Press Club hosts recently fired immigration judges and their union representatives to discuss the dismissal of judges and what it could mean for due process. | ||
| That is airing here on C-SPAN, C-SPAN.org and the free C-SPANNow video app. | ||
| Later today on C-SPAN 2, former Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and executives in the defense and financial sectors discuss economic challenges to American development of artificial intelligence and biotechnology and quantum computing. | ||
| 1230 p.m. Eastern on C-SPAN2CSPAN.org and the free C-SPANNOW video app. | ||
| Also today, journalist David Ignatius of the Washington Post will speak about new technologies and their relevance to national security and the law. | ||
| That's hosted by the American Bar Association. | ||
| We're airing that talk live at 1245 p.m. Eastern here on C-SPAN and also on c-SPAN.org and C-SPANNOW, the video app. | ||
| A few of the topics we're covering today, but it's open forum, so it's any topic that you want to talk about. | ||
| Phone lines are yours to do so, and we will start in the Tar Heel State. | ||
| This is William Independent. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
| What's on your mind? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I'm just been curious for some time as to, and I'm not sure if you can find this information now or later, but I'm curious as to the racial makeup of American citizens who are Medicare recipients, Medicaid recipients, and SNAP recipients. | ||
| And why? | ||
| William, what are you interested in finding out? | ||
| Or why is that something that you want to know about? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Because I'm an independent. | |
| I don't care for either party. | ||
| I think the Republicans wouldn't know the truth if it hit them in the face. | ||
| And I think the Democrats are spiritless. | ||
| But that aside, I have a number, several, not a number, a few very right-wing good friends, actually, who claim that most recipients of government benefits are African American. | ||
| And I've just, I've tried to research that and look at it, and I just find that to be completely untrue. | ||
| But I'm wondering if there's any way to find out what the facts really are. | ||
| William, have you gone for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid and looked at their stats that they have? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I've looked at their stats. | |
| I mean, are they, I assume that they're going to be 100% accurate. | ||
| It shows far and away that white people tend to be the biggest recipients of federal benefits. | ||
| William, another great place to go for information like that is the Kaiser Family Foundation. | ||
| Their folks come on this program a lot to talk about various medical issues. | ||
| The distribution of people with Medicare by race and ethnicity, I believe this is as up-to-date as it can be. | ||
| So 2023 across the U.S., it is people who are on the program: 72.3% white, 10.1% black, 9.8% Hispanic, 4.6% Asian, Native American, or Pacific Islander, and a few others there. | ||
| But those are the major groups from the information from the Kaiser Family Foundation. | ||
| Does that help? | ||
|
unidentified
|
It helps much. | |
| Thank you for your help. | ||
| That's William. | ||
| This is Judy out of the Garden State, Democrat. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello, my name. | |
| Hello, my name's Judy, and I'm a retired nurse in New Jersey. | ||
| And I'm calling up about the shutdown. | ||
| And actually, I thought it was partially successful because it brought everyone in the country to attention of the trouble that people have with health insurance and Medicaid and also food stamps. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And I have read a lot of articles, you know, in the papers and all. | |
| I did get the New York Times. | ||
| And they have sad stories about these women waiting and lying for food. | ||
| And I read story after story of them, and I don't have anything about the fathers. | ||
| I couldn't find any stories about the fathers looking for food or the grandfathers. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So I don't understand. | |
| You know, I think you need to do some, what do you call it, journalistic investigations about where are the fathers with these kids with no food. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I also think that our government, both sides, do reactive problem solving. | |
| You have a disaster and then they try to just put in their own ideological solution. | ||
| And I see very little proactive problem solving. | ||
| Everybody knows food's a problem, that people are poor, health insurance is a problem. | ||
| But you don't see proactive work at all. | ||
| What you do see, or this is what we hear, you know, is these disastrous situations and then people just rushing in, that politicians rushing in and making these solutions that, you know, don't really last in the long run. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So I wish that we had, yeah. | |
| Got your point, Judy. | ||
| That's Judy in New Jersey. | ||
| This is Tim in Rochester, New York, Republican. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, good morning. | |
| I was just calling because I appreciate that you brought on the gentleman from Real Clear Politics, but it seems as if, you know, even at his level, there's an issue politically with the media. | ||
| Just even on, if you go back to previous videos posted on C-SPAN About recent Senate committee hearings on the relationship between Venezuela and ISIS and drugs and human trafficking and narcotics and money. | ||
| It's very evident that there is a relationship there. | ||
| And we're a country that does not negotiate with terrorists. | ||
| This false narrative that we are at war with Venezuela, that Trump is at war with Venezuela, is very misleading. | ||
| And not to bring that up in an interview with someone who calls himself a media expert is very misleading. | ||
| That needs to be discussed. | ||
| That's Tim and Rochester. | ||
| This is Robert, also a New York Democrat. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Good morning. | ||
| Donald Trump hates the ACA so bad that he's never going to sign an extension to it because he hates Barack Obama that he had, Barack Obama did that. | ||
| So he'll take that to his grave. | ||
| So I'm asking Republicans: do not worry about what the Democrats are doing, this Democrats is doing that. | ||
| Go back to your own representatives and ask them: where is our health care plan? | ||
| Ask them why we don't have one. | ||
| Why did the Democrats come back? | ||
| Because Donald Trump would rather starve this country to death by not giving them food, trying to get rid of the ACA. | ||
| That's what this is all about. | ||
| This is not about anything else. | ||
| One more quick thing. | ||
| Maybe C-SPAN could start looking into what's going to go on in Nigeria. | ||
| Donald Trump wants to go into Nigeria and try to steal the resources because he feels that they can't stand up to the United States if he goes in the military. | ||
| The largest, the largest oil is right there in Nigeria. | ||
| Gold is in Nigeria. | ||
| Minerals is in Nigeria. | ||
| Donald Trump wants to get in there and get his fingers in there. | ||
| So I want to, again, please, Republicans. | ||
| Robert, got your point. | ||
| Melissa, Gaithersburg, Maryland, Independent. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, hi. | |
| I would like to say what I would like to hear from the Republicans at this point, because I really want to see the Republicans and Democrats work together, is I'd like to hear someone stand up on the floor and not just go back and forth like a playground. | ||
| It's your fault, it's your fault. | ||
| But the Republicans to say, I really want to thank the Democrats for giving up their ideals of what they really wanted the insurance to do and come to the table, Republicans and Democrats, and let's work together and fix the insurance. | ||
| I want to thank the Democrats for giving in. | ||
| I know how hard that must have been. | ||
| And now let's come together and work together to fix the insurance for the American people. | ||
| It's time for us all to work together and not just call names in a playground and blame the other party. | ||
| That's Melissa in Maryland on Working Together, a program about people trying to find common ground and work together. | ||
| That's C-SPAN's ceasefire show. | ||
| It airs on Fridays at 7 p.m. Eastern and 7 p.m. Pacific time. | ||
| This week on Ceasefire, former Alabama Democrat Senator Doug Jones will be joined by former Ohio Republican Congressman Steve Stivers for a bipartisan dialogue on the shutdown and the top issues facing the country. | ||
| Again, 7 p.m. Eastern and Pacific. | ||
| That's here on C-SPAN, C-SPAN.org. | ||
| And of course, the free C-SPAN Now video app. | ||
| Back to your phone calls. | ||
| David, Texas, Republican. | ||
| You're next. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Ashley, I'm a rhino. | ||
| I'd like to be independent, but our elected officials have made that impossible because then you can't vote in the primaries and select who you'd like to vote for later. | ||
| The other thing, let's give this thing that Trump came up with to give money to the individuals, let them buy their own insurance. | ||
| But in order to do that, he better get onto the insurance companies and quit, you know. | ||
| And item, one important item: quick pointing fingers at Democrats, quick pointing fingers at Republicans and Independents. | ||
| Take those three fingers that are pointing at yourself. | ||
| Quit re-electing the same mudwumps that have been in office forever. | ||
| Let's get some new blood in there. | ||
| It seems the elected officials could care less about the American public and they care more about their own pockets and their big donors. | ||
| Thank you for your time. | ||
| Appreciate it. | ||
| David, speaking of new blood, what do you think about this as a potential new member of Congress? | ||
| Jack Schlossenberg, the grandson of John F. Kennedy, said he would run for the congressional seat being vacated by Jerry Nadler of New York joining that crowded Democratic primary in New York City. | ||
| Mr. Schlossberg is 32 years old, perhaps best known as a social media political commentator and provocateur, as the New York Times describes him. | ||
| He's frequently weighed in on national politics, shared the news about his campaign in an email to supporters on Tuesday of this week. | ||
| What are your thoughts on him joining the ranks of Congress? | ||
| Another Kennedy. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You know, I wish I could honestly answer that, but I really have no idea what his background is. | |
| You know, I really think the voters, those that have computers, go in and look at the background of some of these people. | ||
| Maybe they wouldn't have elected that criminal out of New Jersey had they really looked at his lies early, you know, before the vote. | ||
| You know, it doesn't seem to bother the American public that we can elect convicted felons to high office. | ||
| You know, so I don't know about him. | ||
| And were I in New York, possibly I'd vote for him. | ||
| In Texas, I have a list of those that I will not vote for. | ||
| I haven't made a list yet of who I will vote for in 26. | ||
| That's David in Texas. | ||
| This is Jim out of the Wolverine State line for Democrats. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, this is Jim. | |
| Are you there? | ||
| I'm listening to you, Jim. | ||
| Yeah, I wanted to talk about when Donald Trump in 2001, I believe, was on the Howard Stern show and talked. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Howard Stern asked him when he was then up to. | |
| He said he just got back from Russia, that he liked to go there three or four times a year. | ||
| He said he goes there because of the women, and Howard Stern asked him about that, and he kept saying how young they were. | ||
| He went from the age of 19 to 20 all the way down to 13 and 14-year-old. | ||
| Howard Stern called these babies and children. | ||
| Donald Trump said. | ||
| So, Jim, what do you make of this latest story about these emails being released by the members of the Democratic Oversight Committee and the Epstein story being back in the news once again today? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes. | |
| And I believe everything about it. | ||
| He was talking about these like it was just a normal thing. | ||
| He said he went three or four times a year, and he did this in Russia. | ||
| He was also talking about only having a third-grade reading ability that he was tested. | ||
| Then he said, maybe only a second. | ||
| Well, that explains why he always tears apart these teleprompters. | ||
| They work fine for everyone else that comes along. | ||
| But when he gets up there, he acts like they don't work. | ||
| All right, that's Jim in Michigan. | ||
| This is Roger in Florida, Independent. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, can you hear me? | |
| Thank you. | ||
| Yes, sir. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, I wanted to say I agree with the gentleman who spoke that Trump has issues with younger females because there was a lawsuit that was closed out or agreement was made that these two young girls would not talk and him and Epstein were involved in that. | |
| And there are many pictures of that. | ||
| But the issue I was going to say that I heard guests say, how did our congressmen or senators put their names in to get paid by the government because their phones were looked at? | ||
| They feel that they've been invaded, their privacy, and they put it in a bill so they can be paid. | ||
| This is like lining their own pockets. | ||
| The emollience clause for the president, of course, does not apply anymore. | ||
| But congressmen and senators, especially senators, there's one congressman who's not allowed to be in it, named Kelly. | ||
| Why are they doing this to rip off the American people? | ||
| It just befuddles the mind. | ||
| That provision that is now part of the law that was signed into law by the president last night after the House vote, the Senate bill included a last-minute provision that allows senators, but not House members, to sue the federal government if investigators collect their records without their knowledge. | ||
| The Senate made the provision retroactive to 2022, which would cover the Justice Department's collection of phone records from eight Republican senders during former special counsel Jack Smith's investigation into Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election. | ||
| The provision paves the way for payouts of $500,000 each in damages, and lawmakers of both parties have criticized it as improper. | ||
| That was the specific provision the caller was referring to. | ||
| About 10 minutes left here in open form. | ||
| Here's what's going to happen. | ||
| The House is going to come in in about 10 minutes for a brief pro forma session. | ||
| We're expecting two to three minutes, and we hope you stay with us on C-SPAN through the pro forma because we'll be back here on the Washington Journal on the other side of that. | ||
| When we return, we're going to be joined by Johnny Yoshzewski, Congressman from Maryland, a Democrat, for a discussion on the shutdown and have that discussion at the top of the hour, 9 a.m. Eastern. | ||
| But until then, your phone calls and some of the latest stories from the news, including this front page obituary from the New York Times. | ||
| It's the obituary of the American penny, 1793 to 2025. | ||
| It's worth a read today. | ||
| Here's how it goes in a few paragraphs from it. | ||
| The American penny died on Wednesday in Philadelphia. | ||
| It was 232 years old. | ||
| The cause was irrelevance and expensiveness, the Treasury Department said. | ||
| Nothing could be bought anymore with a penny, not even penny candy. | ||
| Moreover, the cost to mint the penny had risen to more than three cents, a financial absurdity that doomed the coin. | ||
| The final pennies were minted on Wednesday afternoon in Philadelphia. | ||
| Top Treasury officials were on hand for its final journey. | ||
| No last words were recorded. | ||
| In its heyday, the penny had immense cultural impact. | ||
| The New York Times writes in its obituary. | ||
| It was the going rate for thoughts. | ||
| It was a symbol of frugality, saved and or earned. | ||
| It could sometimes be pretty and other times arrive from heaven. | ||
| And how many ideas would never have come to light without a penny dropping? | ||
| When picked up, it was said to bring good luck for 24-hour periods in assertion commonly made, but one that was never proven by any scientific double-blind study. | ||
| The obituary goes on to say, the American penny was born in 1793 in Philadelphia. | ||
| Its parent was Alexander Hamilton, the first Secretary of the Treasury, who was the chief author of the Coinage Act, which birthed the penny and its siblings. | ||
| As the penny entered its long decline, it more and more frequently found itself casually tossed into a jar in somebody's home or ignominiously dropped into a take-a-penny tray at a checkout counter. | ||
| Calls grew for it to be euthanized, citing its obsolescence. | ||
| In the end, President Trump signed its death warrant in February. | ||
| Even after death, the penny will not vanish for a while longer. | ||
| There are some 250 billion pennies in circulation, and they will be out there gathering dust or maybe very, very rarely being used to help pay for something. | ||
| As the last pennies slowly disappear, businesses will have no choice but to round transactions to the nearest nickel when dealing with cash or to request electronic payments only. | ||
| With the penny's demise, coin enthusiasts worried that eyes now turn towards its longtime associate, the nickel. | ||
| Its purchasing power has also shrunk to nearly nothing, and it costs more than a dime to make an obituary for the penny. | ||
| James in Ohio, Republican, you're next. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes. | |
| This is James Spenner from Ohio, and I'm calling on behalf of the American people because they said last night that 95% of people are on insurance marketplace. | ||
| And like myself, I am not. | ||
| And I keep getting phone calls saying that I am. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And I just want to try to figure out how this, how that all works because I never signed up for it. | |
| And I wonder how many other American people have been put on it that don't know they're on it. | ||
| So thank you. | ||
| That's James in Ohio. | ||
| Miguel in New Mexico. | ||
| Democrat, good morning. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Yeah, all I got is a few comments. | ||
| Ron, what is Margaret going to do when our president starts tearing down the tearing down the what, Miguel? | ||
| Statue of Liberty. | ||
| You think, who do you think is going to tear down the Statue of Liberty? | ||
| The president? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, he's already tearing down the White House. | |
| Message. | ||
| That's Miguel in the Land of Enchantment. | ||
| This is Joe in the Mountaineer State. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, thank you, C-SPAN. | |
| Many years ago, I took an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States. | ||
| I did this to the best of my ability for 22 years in the Air Force. | ||
| I see the oath as a promise before the Lord and Creator. | ||
| It is not like a simple promise that people make to each other and cast aside when they're not convenient anymore. | ||
| Today we have just finished the longest shutdown in government history. | ||
| It was a shameful, disrespectful exhibition for all the world to see. | ||
| We were as though we were aimlessly rudderless ship casting around with no direction, but no one was minding the store. | ||
| We had a legislature that didn't legislate and a president that didn't lead. | ||
| All these took the oath, too, but seemed to have abandoned it. | ||
| The definition of politics was the art of governing, including compromise. | ||
| Now it seems to be to obtain and retain power on my way or the highway. | ||
| This style has never worked in any human activity. | ||
| The president's leading style is to be acting as king, a bullying monarch that will get you if you cross him. | ||
| I encourage everyone, especially veterans, to fight to save our democratic republic. | ||
| You can write in to your representatives, call them. | ||
| You can use the internet, you can rally, you can march, and you could probably vote if the president doesn't call off next year's election. | ||
| God love and bless the United States of America. | ||
| That's Joe in West Virginia. | ||
| Mary in South Carolina. | ||
| Republican, good morning. | ||
| You're next. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I am so astounded at what has been happening ever since the day Donald Trump declared that he was going to be running for President of the United States. | ||
| I was born in 1952. | ||
| I never really worried one moment about what my government was doing. | ||
| They took care of the people and they made sure that we had what we needed. | ||
| When Pearl Harbor was bombed, we didn't sit there and worry about it because we knew our government was there for us. | ||
| And now, where is our government? | ||
| It's fighting a president. | ||
| Every step he takes, every breath he takes. | ||
| He's doing it wrong. | ||
| Why don't we stop and go back to where we were 50 years ago? | ||
| Let the government do their job. | ||
| Now, the Democrats are so bent on their hatred for President Trump that instead of doing what they're supposed to be doing, they're planning this. | ||
| They're planning that. | ||
| They're seeing what they can get on him. | ||
| Why don't you stop seeing what you can get on him and see what you can do for us, the people? | ||
| Do your jobs instead of being kindergartners trying to get over on each other. | ||
| It's Mary in South Carolina. | ||
| As we said, there's a brief pro forma set to take place in just a few moments on the House floor. | ||
| We hope you stay with us through that pro forma on the other side of it. | ||
| We're going to be joined by Maryland Democratic Congressman Johnny Oshewski to discuss the government shutdown, to discuss the reopening of the government last night, the legislation to do that, and where Congress goes from here. | ||
| A little later on this morning around 9:30 Eastern, we'll be joined by Politico's Ankush Kadori to talk about the recent release of the Epstein files and President Trump's use of the pardon power. | ||
| Those discussions taking place in the 9 o'clock hour. | ||
| We take you now to the floor of the House of Representatives. | ||
| The House will be in order. | ||
| The Chair lays before the House a communication from the Speaker. | ||
| The Speaker's Rooms, Washington, D.C., November 13th, 2025. | ||
| I hereby appoint the Honorable Randy Fine to act as Speaker Pro Tempore on this day. | ||
| Signed, Mike Johnson, Speaker of the House of Representatives. | ||
| The prayer will be offered by Chaplain Kibben. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Would you pray with me? | |
| We give thanks to you, O God, for you are good. | ||
| Your steadfast love endures forever. | ||
| For you have guided this body through the complex challenges of these times, and we have restored to us the assurance of your steadfast love in all circumstances. | ||
| Why then do we doubt your provision? | ||
| Why do we fail to trust in your care and keeping? | ||
| Before we even call, you're already listening, providing for our needs in ways we cannot comprehend. | ||
| While we're still sharing with you our worries and concerns, you have already heard the yearnings of our hearts. | ||
| Praise be to you, O Lord, who has not rejected our prayers or withheld your love from us. | ||
| So in confidence, we set before you the work of our hands and the desires of our hearts, praying in the strength that is ours when we call on your name. | ||
| It is in your sovereign name we pray. | ||
| Amen. | ||
| Pursuant to clause 13 of Rule 1, the Journal of the Last Day's Proceedings is approved. | ||
| The Chair will lead the House in the Pledge of Allegiance. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. | |
| Pursuant to clause 4 of Rule 1, the following enrolled bill was signed by the Speaker on Wednesday, November 12, 2025. | ||
| H.R. 5371, making continuing appropriations and extensions for fiscal year 2026 and for other purposes. | ||
| The chair announces the speaker's appointment pursuant to section 313 of the Legislative Branch Appropriations Act 2001 to U.S.C. 1151 as amended by section 1601 of Pub L 111-68 and the order of the House of January 3rd, 2025 of the following member on the part of the House to the Board of Trustees of the Open World Leadership Center. | ||
| Mr. Bacon of Nebraska. | ||
| The Chair announces the Speaker's appointment pursuant to section 803A of the Congressional Recognition for Excellence in Arts Education Act to U.S.C. 803A and the order of the House of January 3rd, 2025 of the following member on the part of the House to the Congressional Award Board. | ||
| Ms. Fox of North Carolina. | ||
| The Chair lays before the House a communication. | ||
| The Honorable, the Speaker, House of Representatives, sir, pursuant to the Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation, authorizing statute 20 USC 4703, I am pleased to recommend the following appointment to the Board of Trustees, the Honorable Burgess Owens of Utah. | ||
| Signed sincerely, Steve Scalise, Republican Leader. | ||
| Pursuant to clause 13 of Rule 1, the House stands adjourned until noon on Monday, November 17th, 2025 for morning-hour debate and 2 p.m. for legislative business. | ||
| That's it from the floor of the House of Representatives for today until Monday, but we're still with you on the Washington Journal this morning. |