i hereby -- the clerk: the speaker's room, washington, d.c., november 7, 2017, i hereby appoint the mr. weber to act as speaker pro tempore on this day. signed, paul d. ryan, speaker of the house of representatives. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the order of the house of january 3, 2017, the chair will now recognize members from lists submitted by the majority and minority leaders for mog

mr. hensarling: mr. speaker, for almost a decade, americans suffered under obamanomics. their savings remained disamated, their paychecks stagnant but a new day has dawned under the leadership of president trump and speaker ryan and chairman brady. flatter the edge of a three e, one built for percent-plus of growth. this brings jobs and capital back to america. it simplifies from 75,000 pages to 500, where americans can fill out their return on a postcard. they can imagine a tax code swept of all the special interest loopholes. they can imagine a tax code creating lower rates for working americans and small businesses, and they can now imagine a tax code that's all about economic growth. and all my friends on the other side of the aisle can offer is the politics, of division, envy and class warfare. i'm proud to support the tax cuts and jobs act because it's all about better jobs, fairer taxes and bigger paychecks. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. both sides have 44 minutes remaining in this debate. the gentleman from massachusetts. mr. neal: th

brian: paul ryan wasn't always speaker of the house. here he is questioning your old friend, jon koskinen. mr. koskinen may not like the fact i called him "old." your longtime friend. here he is. i want you to explain this one. [video clip] >> i'm listening to this testimony. i don't believe it. that is your problem. nobody believes you. >> i have a long career. that is the first time anybody has said they did not believe me. that's fine. we can have a disagreement. i'm willing to stand on our record. [end video clip] brian: what do you think? tom: congress does not like john koskinen. congress likes to call in the irs and berate their officials. when i was covering congress, they did it every year. i thought it was one of the phoniest moments of the year on capitol hill. they berate the irs because the tax code is complicated, but congress wrote it. john koskinen was 78 years old and barack obama had to talk him into taking this job. so guess what? he does not care about snippy young congressman. he's indifferent to that. i have seen t

thank you, mr. speaker. and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. for what purpose does the gentlewoman from ohio seek recognition? without objection. >> i rise today to talk about tax reform. tax reform should be all about helping those who are in need. mrs. beatty: working families, veterans, seniors, small business owners, just to name a few. unfortunately the plan that the congressional republicans are currently ramming through the senate with a vote that could happen just in a few short hours does exactly the opposite. the plan would overwhelmingly benefit the superrich, the well connected and at the expense of the middle class, small business, not to mention veterans, seniors struggling to make ends meet. the middle class and small businesses, we can do better by them. instead of giving us a budget-busting half trillion dollar tax cut to the wealthiest americans, let's provide greater tax relief to working families, let's keep our promise to the veterans, let's strengt

mr. stivers: it is great to be on. ms. swain: let me introduce our two reporters asking questions. scott is the campaign editor for politico and hosts politico's "nerdcast." wong is from the hill. both are making a return visit to "newsmakers." mr. wong: thank you for being here, mr. stivers. former director comey, who is wg testifying on capitol hill as we speak, has said that donald trump told him in the oval office that the russian investigations have been a cloud over his administration. cloud was the word that he used. do you believe that the russian investigation, these multipronged investigations, the fbi ones and the ones going on on capitol hill are , distracting from the gop agenda? and how do you see these russian investigations impacting house races around the country? mr. stivers: i was glad to see former director mueller named as a special investigator to look into this. i have supported the house and senate investigations to do their job. i will support them through the pro

mr. gallego: mr. speaker, as candidate, donald trump made some big promises on health care to the american people. g.o.p. leadership in the house and senate have affected those promises. but the trump-ryan health care bill and the senate version of the g.o.p. bill fail to deliver on those promises. donald trump promised health care for all of the american people, even though the a.c.a. expanded health coverage to nearly 20 million americans, donald trump said he didn't think it provided enough people with coverage. he said, and i quote, we're going to have insurance for everybody. . and i'm not going to leave the lower 20% who can't afford insurance off. the congressional budget office says that 14 million people would immediately lose coverage under the trump-ryan plan, and 24 million people would lose coverage by 2027. the senate version of the bill isn't much different. trump also promised that americans would enjoy cheaper health insurance with much lower deductibles. his health and human services

the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. kildee: mr. speaker, middle class families should be the focus of tax relief. not billionaires. not the wealthiest americans. unfortunately the ryan-mcconnell tax plan fails that basic test. independent analysis shows that the republican plan would actually raise taxes on many middle class families. ,iving billionaires, the top 1% the biggest breaks. the nonpartisan tax policy center says that middle class families could actually pay an increase of d 1,29 -- of $1,290 a year. even worse, the families i represent would be asked to foot the bill for a big, massive giveaway to the rich. under the republican plan, the wealthiest families, 5,400 families that are the superwealthy in this country, would get a $270 billion break. through the repeal of the estate tax. 100 families in my home state of michigan, the devos family, certainly the trump family. this is not representative of the values of the american people. just saying that the people at the top won't benefit doesn't make it true.

remain in place, as paul ryan, our speaker said on friday, and i quote, obamacare is the law of the land. the affordable care act is, indeed, the law of the land. mr. speaker, i rise, however, in deep concern, that the trump administration and allies in congress will take steps to undermine the law and weaken it. to the detriment of millions who will see their health care put at risk. in other words, in my view, they may well try to do indirectly what they could not do directly. let it be absolutely clear, republicans control the white house, the senate, and the house of representatives. as a result, they are the governing party as a result, they are the governing party and will be responsible for anything that happens on our health care -- to our health care on their watch. even without passage of a repeal bill, the trump administration's actions could fundamentally undermine the law and the stability of our health care system. first and foremost, the trump administration must commit to continuing payments for cost-sharing subsidies. we met with insurance companies yesterday to see

paul ryan, house speaker, on fox news, not only talked about the firing, but what happens next, also talks about his thoughts on a special prosecutor to take a look into the russia investigation. here it is. >> senator mccain can and a few others are calling for a special prosecutor. obviously democrats are in lock step on calling for that. why is that not a good idea? >> yeah, i don't think that's a good idea. first of all, we have three investigations going on right now. we have a house investigation by our intelligence committee, which is the appropriate committee to do that, i believe. and we have a senate intelligence committee, you just played richard burr, and you have the f.b.i. investigating all things russia. so i don't think that that's a good idea. i think the intelligence committee are the ones that should do this, because don't forget that the methods and sources of our intelligence gathering are also at play here, and we have to be very sensitive so we don't compromise that information as well. so i really do believe that these three investigations are the way to go. l

paul ryan and senator john mccain and lindsey graham will be speakers. biden is attending saying he believes in bipartisan and importance of keeping good lines of communication open. read more about that at the hill this morning. anthony, washington d.c. independent line. caller: good morning. i think they doing as best job they can. he's a pathological liar. he would say how the president is upset. he tweets from anonymous sources everyday. he's undermining those guys. i feel sorry for them. of three of them all day long on one subject and have three different answers. host: we had several viewers saying they appreciate the president tweeting. caller: the problem with that is, he wants you to think that what i'm telling you is the truth. don't worry about what the news say. that's why we have the first amendment. we can't help one person saying. forget about the news it's fake news. it can't work that way. host: jenny in maryland democrats line. caller: good morning. thank you for having me here. i had a lot of people saying that president -- i want to

speaker ryan, it was this side of the aisle that ept the government open. it was this side of the aisle that made sure we didn't efault on our debts. so, mr. leader, i want to be constructive. i don't want to argue further on this. it is to say, however, to all of us -- i talked to some of your members privately. they're shaking their heads. why are we in this position? we ought not to be in this position. and every one of us that sits in this body, every one of us ought to be saying to ourselves, we need to act constructively. this is -- confrontation is not constructive. the failure to reach agreement. schip. we passed we agreed on the authorizing side. unfortunately we couldn't agree on the funding side because you wanted to cut things we ought not to be cut. clearly we would have gotten to an agreement. in fact, you passed a bill on ipab, $17.6 billion unpaid for that would have paid for all of that. all of that. so mr. leader, i will yield to if you want but i just plead with every one of the members of the body, this is not good for the american peopl

mr. spicer: i am not going to start to tell speaker ryan or leader mccarthy or the whip, mr. scalise, how to release and when to release legislation. i think obviously we need to make sure that members and all americans understand the totality of this. at a schedule they see fit. i'll let them unsthrail schedule. that they talk about the totality of the plan and comprehensive nature and all three prongs that make up the repeal and replace part of this. it's important, i think, for people that do understand there is a commitment to those things we talked about. whether it's pooling or across state lines. there is a lot of principles and things that we have discussed that i think are important to et people to know about. inaudible] mr. spicer: on troops i refer you to the department of defense on that one. we're in the middle of a comprehensive review on our policy in afghanistan. working with our afghan partners and the department of defense and key military leaders to create an approach to address afghanistan to defeat isis. so i -- we're in the middle of that process and we

speaker paul ryan of wisconsin placed a hasty phone call to his senior senator, ron johnson, in an attempt to resolve the likely conflict in his backyard. mr. johnson is the first to say he cannot vote for the senate version of the tax bill. during the phone call, mr. ryan posed an essential question -- what are you going to need? he said, is needs, for the bill to treat more favorably small businesses and's -- and other so-called pass-through entities, businesses whose profits are distributed to their owners and taxed at rates for individuals. the senate finance committee moving ahead on its legislation, two different versions, the house passing it thursday on a partyline vote with 13 republicans voting against it. no democrat supporting it. look for a vote in the senate early next month. thad is joining us from south carolina, republican line. caller: good morning. a couple weeks ago or a week ago, you will have the chairman of the ethics committee on, and i want you to kind of help me out here. i understood her to say that they only investigated incidents that happened after they are in

let's acknowledge the ryan amily. oh, wisconsin. got it. mr. speaker, god bless them, god bless you, god bless wisconsin. god bless the members of this house. god bless the united states of america. this is the people's house, this is the people's gavel. in the people's name it is my privilege to hand the gavel to the speaker of the house, paul ryan. the speaker: thank you very much. thank you. thank you. thank you. thank you very much. i'll be relatively brief. i want tohank madam leader. you know, i stood in this spot very, very many times. today, though, feels a whole lot different. part of it has to do with all the new faces in the house. you look at all the proud spouses, these beaming children, at their best. people's parents. it's hard if not impossible, to resist this rush of substance abuse yasm. there's no sense of foreboding in this house today. there's only the sense of potential. it kind of reminds you that no matter how long you've been here, you haven't seen it all. so i just want to say, to our new members, and to their families

after a meeting of house republicans, speaker paul ryan talked to reporters about the gop agenda following the failure to pass a health care bill to replace the affordable care act. this is 10 minutes. mr. ryan:

in this case, today, we elected mr. ryan, the gentleman from wisconsin, a great young leader for not just our party, but for our country. so today, what we do is we show up and we exercise our constitutional rights, our duties, our views. the ideas that we have. he ideas that we were sent here to exercise. and the ideas of our majorities. the bodies, the groups that we represent. so, today those men and women who gathered together with their ideas and plans, they're going to help project, move or country forward over the next two years -- our country forward over the next two years. and i think that what we're saying today is important and that is, we're trying to change the direction that this country least two ing for at years, and some could argue, for eight years. we're going to change that direction because the american people have given republicans an opportunity to lead in the united states house of representatives, the united states senate, and to the presidency of the united states. i believe that we are lookin

please keep mrs. ryan, her daughters and the generous community in your thoughts. hank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, i rise today to remember the life of my dear friend, mr. randall kicklighter who passed away on saturday, february 11, at the age of 74. randall, as he was known to his family and friends, was an icon in the garden city georgia community. he spent his life helping others, sharing wisdom and brightening people's days. at the age of 18 he met the love of his life, betsy. 10 months after the couple met they ran away and married. he served in the united states army making sure he always had betsy by his side. during this period the couple spent time in both the u.s. and germany, sake sembing our nation. when randall returned from duty he decided to go to beauty school and become a hairdresser which would allow him to work decide betsy every day. they opened up a salon which quickly gained a reputation around garden city. clients would say, you could not expect a quick trim because long conversations with randall were a must. i can attest to that firsthand. you see, r

ryan, for 30 minutes. mr. ryan: thank you, mr. speaker. i appreciate the opportunity and just want to say thank you to my colleague from ohio, ms. kaptur, for her great words and congressman crowley, who was here a little bit earlier, for his good words as well. i'm starting tonight a segment that i am calling america 2.0. i think we are in the midst of obviously some chaos in the united states. in washington, d.c., and in so many communities across the country that feel we are disoriented with our politics, disconnected from our politics. that we are disoriented around the idea of what's happening in ur economy, globalization, automation, all of these things have dramatically affected the american economy. and american wages. and standard of living. we have actually seen, mr. speaker, over the course of the decline, rs, a huge a sucking out of middle class wages, that have went primarily to the top 1%. i'm not here to bash rich people. i'm not here to make any enemies. but i think it's important and instructive for us to look at where we

speaker paul ryan is left badly bruised by the help defeat -- health defeat. dynamics could shift quickly. several of mr. trump's advisers have been casting blame on mr. ryan, who is close with the presidency. mr. trump ha is also known to grow angry over time when faced with public embarrassment. that from inside the "new york times." this is from "the national review." it is the editorial available this morning on the website. republicans more or less fell into a losing strategy. they begin by thinking they could quickly reveal obamacare and replace it at leisure. we know many republicans on the hill -- that this morning from "national review." here is more with speaker ryan. he met with reporters friday after announcing the bill would be pulled. >> we want to secure the border. we want to build our military. we want to get the deficit under control. we want infrastructure and tax reform. the last question about tax reform, yes, this makes tax reform more difficult, but it does not make it impossible. we will proceed with tax reform and continue with tax ref

the gentleman from arizona, mr. gallego is recognized for 10 minutes. mr. gallego: i'm going to cut directly, the trump ryan health bill is every single promise and enormous tax cut for those who need it least. first promise that trump made to the american people is that everyone would have health insurance. although the a.c.a. expanded health care, donald trump said he didn't think it provided enough people with coverage. he said and i quote, we are going to have insurance for everybody and i'm not going to leave it to the lower. what does the bill do? according to the congressional budget office, 14 million people would lose coverage next year and 24 million people by 20727. that is outrageous. according to the white house own estimate, people will lose coverage under the trump-ryan bill. the second promise that donald trump made was that health insurance would be cheaper. donald trump said his plan would have much lower deductibles. secretary tom price said under the bill, nobody will be worse off financially. what does the trump ryan bill actually do? i

mr. speaker, i think my time as expired andield back. the speaker pro tempore: does the gentleman from california have a motion? mr. garamdi: mr. speaker, i move to adjourn. the speaker pro tempore: the question is on the motion to adjourn. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. the ayes have it. the notion is adopted. -- motion is adopted. accordingly, the house stands adjourned until 10:00 a.m. tomorrow

the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas. mr. burgess: mr. speaker, i yield myself two minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. burgess: i want to reference a letter sent to speaker paul ryan and majority leader kevin mccarthy by a number of sports related organizations. we write representing organizations that collectively include millions of wildlife conservationists, wildlife enthusiasts, wildlife scientists, and strong support of h.j.res. 49 from congressman don young from alaska. our community exhausted all executive branch appeals and remedies urging the fish and wildlife service to slow down the proposed rule and to revise it to reflect the proposal mutually agreed upon by the state of alaska and the fish and wildlife service, but all to no end. they ask, it is time for congress to nullify this final rule. they go on to say the final rule boldly preempts the authority of the alaska department of fish and game to manage wildlife for both recreational and subsistance hunting on national wildlife refugees, which

of the house, mr. ryan. the chair: the gentleman from wisconsin is recognized for one minute. the speaker: i thank the gentlelady for yielding. my colleagues, i rise to urge our colleague in the house to support this resolution. let me tell you why. this provides congress with the legislative tools that we need to repeal and replace obamacare. this is a critical first step toward delivering relief to americans who are struggling under this law. in the weeks ahead, several steps will be taken to provide relief. some steps will be taken by this body. some stems will be taken by the -- steps will be taken by the new administration, including, after he's confirmed as h.h.s. secretary, our own colleague from georgia, mr. price, our goal is a truly patient-centered system. which means more options to choose from, lower costs and greater control over your coverage. and as we work to get there, we will make sure that there is a stable transition period so that people don't have the rug pulled out from under th

of the house, mr. ryan. the chair: the gentleman from wisconsin is recognized for one minute. the speaker: i thank the gentlelady for yielding. my colleagues, i rise to urge our colleague in the house to support this resolution. let me tell you why. this provides congress with the legislative tools that we need to repeal and replace obamacare. this is a critical first step toward delivering relief to americans who are struggling under this law. in the weeks ahead, several steps will be taken to provide relief. some steps will be taken by this body. some stems will be taken by the -- steps will be taken by the new administration, including, after he's confirmed as h.h.s. secretary, our own colleague from georgia, mr. price, our goal is a truly patient-centered system. which means more options to choose from, lower costs and greater control over your coverage. and as we work to get there, we will make sure that there is a stable transition period so that people don't have the rug pulled out from under th

you have your hands full, mr. speaker. they keep taking the time to talk to me. [applause] speaker ryan: and joy this warm weather. >> the presidential inauguration of donald trump is friday, january 20. c-span will have live coverage of all the day's events and ceremonies. watch live on c-span and c-span.org, and listen live on the free c-span radio app. >> it is the opening day of the 115th congress, and today on will beton journal," we taking you live to capitol hill for a look at what's ahead in 2017. what legislation we expect to be brought to the house and senate floors and how president-elect trump can work with the new congress. "washington journal" is next. host: good morning, everyone. it is tuesday, january 3, 2017. it's the day the 20th amendment of the constitution directs the new congress to convene. today, 435 members of the house and 70ators, and those reelected in november, will take the oath of office. with republicans controlling both chambers, along with the white house, for the first time since 2007, we want to hear from all of you about what