[applause] speaker ryan: something this this and something profound could not have been done without exquisite presidential leadership. mr. president, thank you for getting us over the finish line. thank you for getting us where we are. [applause] i just want to quickly say a thanks. this has been such a team effort. i want to thank gary cohen and steve mnuchin. [applause] speaker ryan: i want to thank my partner which mcconnell in the senate and i want to thank these two chairman, orrin hatch and kevin brady. thank you for your leadership on this. [applause] speaker ryan: it is really simple. the message to the hard-working taxpayers of america is your tax relief is on its way. that is what is happening here. the message to the families in america who have been struggling, your tax rates are going down and your paychecks are going up. this is the kind of relief that americans deserve. this is the kind of tax reform that get our economy growing to reach its potential. this gets us better wages, digger paychecks, a simpler tax system, this gets the american economy competitive in the

so now the race is on, mr. speaker. to smear the f.b.i. the race is on to smear mr. mueller, the very man who was praised by senator mcconnell, who was praised by speaker ryan. who was described by all of our colleagues as beyond reproach. unimpeachable. the former director of the f.b.i. former u.s. attorney for massachusetts and california. a decorated veteran of the vietnam war and now suddenly, they cry havoc they set loose the dogs of war on mr. mueller. and why? because he's doing his job. because we have two guilty pleas. one by the president's former national security advisor, mr. flynn. one by mr. papadopoulos. for lying to government agents. we've got 12 count indictments that have been handed down against mr. manafort and mr. page and they're afraid that the investigation might be closing in on the very highest levels of government so what do they do? they attack the prosecution. and that's what we've been seeing in washington over the last couple of weeks. a truly extraordinary display of contempt for the rule of law and the justice department and honest p

host: paul ryan wasn't always speaker of the house. here he is questioning your old friend, john 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. clip]ideo guest: 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 funniest 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. i have seen them on the hill. when they complain about some complex s

speaker, 11 months ago speaker ryan released the better way plan to save the nation's health care system and bring relief to the american people. this plan, which served as the blueprint for the american health care act, laid out policies to stabilize the markets damaged by the affordable care act, repeal the burdensome affordable care act taxes and mandates that have hindered innovation and limited access to care. so let's take a look at what the american health care act does. first and foremost, the american health care act provides immediate relief to the state insurance markets. as republicans we know that one-size-fits-all works for no one and certainly did not work for the individual markets. the states should have the flexibility to support their insurance markets and ensure that plans can continue to provide options for coverage. to do this we relax two of the more egregious market regulations that were imposed -- imposed under the affordable care act. the mandate pleemums cannot vary for younger and older americans by more than three to one ratio, and the mandate creating fixed

ryan. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from ohio is recognized for one minute. mr. ryan: i thank the gentleman. i want to thank the chairman and the ranking member for their leadership on this. this clearly is a big issue pressing the country. and i just wanted to rise in support of what's happening here today, of taking a firmer stance on russia, iran, and north korea. trying to stabilize the pins la. trying to take -- peninsula. trying to take care of the funding that's coming out of iran to all of these terrorist groups across the country. and across the world. and just say that what's happening with these sanctions here, in the targeting of russian gas pipelines, their number one export, i think, is entirely appropriate. the nortstream 2 which carries gas from russia through the balance tacks to germany, and i know -- baltics to germany, and know germany isn't happy about it, but this is something we have to do. we have to address this issue in a comprehensive way. we must continue to focus on how we get our gas here in the united states, our natural gas to euro

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

clyburn: thank you, mr. speaker. i thank my friend for yielding me this time. mr. speaker, i rise in strong opposition to the ryan-mcconnell tax scam bill. this bill should be named the republican donor class relief act. because that's what it is. and several my republican colleagues and many in the media have admitted as much. this tax scam represents -- it will test a set of priorities, revealing deep depravity of american values. one of the first principles of our judeo-christian value system is grounded in what we do for the least of these. from the outset, this bill violates that principle by lowering the marginal tax rates on the wealthiest among us by 2.6 appointments while raising those rates on the least among us by two points. this tax scam bill adds insult to that act by doubling the estate tax exemption from 11 -- $11 million to $22 million. republicans add further insult to injury by lowering the tax rates for corporations by 14 points, while raising tax rates on 86 million middle income families. it makes the tax cuts for corporations permanent and th

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

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

clyburn: thank you, mr. speaker. i thank my friend for yielding me this time. mr. speaker, i rise in strong opposition to the ryan-mcconnell tax scam bill. this bill should be named the republican donor class relief act. because that's what it is. and several my republican colleagues and many in the media have admitted as much. this tax scam represents -- it will test a set of priorities, revealing deep depravity of american values. one of the first principles of our judeo-christian value system is grounded in what we do for the least of these. from the outset, this bill violates that principle by lowering the marginal tax rates on the wealthiest among us by 2.6 appointments while raising those rates on the least among us by two points. this tax scam bill adds insult to that act by doubling the estate tax exemption from 11 -- $11 million to $22 million. republicans add further insult to injury by lowering the tax rates for corporations by 14 points, while raising tax rates on 86 million middle income families. it makes the tax cuts for corporations permanent and th

ryan, or 30 minutes. mr. ryan: thank you, mr. speaker. i appreciate the opportunity to be here this evening on the floor of the united states house of representatives. and talk about a timely issue most s an issue that is important to most of the american people. and that is the issue of the economy, globalization, automation, all of the issues that are coming down on many communities across the united states. and i want to take this opportunity to spend the next 30 minutes walking through for the american people a little bit about what's happened and talk very clearly about the differences in approach on how we deal with these issues and how the republican party is trying to deal with these issues. and how those of us on the democratic side want to deal with these issues. and i don't want to get into a suggestion at all, mr. speaker, about who hates whom and who's bad and who's good and who's this and who's that. i want to talk about the facts. and i want to talk about the historical facts and i want to talk about what is happening to av

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 to thank 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 famili

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

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

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

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

[applause] >> thank you, mr. speaker. i think a speak for all of us when i say thank you for bringing some of that janesville whether to us. [laughter] speaker ryan: it is going to be 19 below zero. this isn't cold. inches of snow0 on sunday. >> packers weather. i appreciate the chance. it is hard for me to start a conversation like this without talking about jack kemp. i wrote about him, you worked for him. his name is up there, as you noted. if he were here today, still preaching the optimistic, happy, big tent brand of conservatism that he liked to talk about, what would he be pleased about and displeased about in terms of where we are right now? speaker ryan: i remember we would have conservative meetings about fighting poverty and he -- and you could sit everyone around one table at his office. it wasike, six people. this is exciting just to see this effort. i think he wou be really excited. if jac herk wereor if his son were on time -- [laughter] remind him i said that. he would be excited that the call the battle o

mr. speaker, here sour chance to do just that. if we defeat the previous question, i will offer an amendment to the rule to bring up h.r. 3440, the dream act. the bipartisan, bicameral legislation that has the support of the majority of this house and would pass if it were brought up for a vote. mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent to insert the text of my amendment in the record along with extraneous material prior to the vote on the previous question. with that, i yield three minutes to the gentleman from texas, mr. doggett. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for three minutes. mr. doggett: thank you. i'm all in favor of keeping our government open. the difference that i have with my republican colleagues, i want to keep it open for everyone. you know, here at christmas, we think of the children first. but the children are not put first in this underlying bill. the children's health insurance program is barely left on life support. there are children out there right now, some with dread diseases or disabilities

mr. stivers: it is great to be on. ms. swain: let me introduce our two reporters asking questions. both with the first name of scott. scott bland is the campaign editor for politico and hosts politico's "nerdcast." scott wong is from the hill. both are making a return visit to "newsmakers." you are up first, scott wong. mr. wong: thank you for being here, mr. stivers. former director comey, who is 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

aguilar: thank you, mr. speaker. earlier this year we watched president donald trump and speaker paul ryan ram their health care bill through the house of representatives before it even had a cost analysis. it didn't take long for us to learn why. it will strip over 20 million americans of affordable health care. it will drive up premiums and out-of-pocket expenses for older americans by as much as 25%. it will allow insurance companies to discriminate against pregnant women, children, and seniors. . this is so donald trump can give a tax break to his healthy friends this will literally be a death sentence to many americans. house republicans had years -- let me say that again -- had years to come up with ways to make health care more affordable, but instead, they would rather pull the plug out from millions of families who put their health care in the hands of the insurance companies. since the affordable care act was signed into law, nearly 40,000 of my constituents have enrolled in cover california, and nearly 200

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

mr. boehner: where do i begin? big thanks, fred, for your short introduction. i think you did a very nice job without getting too carried away. thank you to the city club for the opportunity to be with all of you today. i especially want to thank the host. dick has been a longtime friend, supporter, and i did not know this was your luncheon. but thank you for having me here. i was here six years ago, right before i became speaker. i came at your invitation to an economic speech, where i called on the president to fire his economic team. they did not like that. they savaged me afterwards. but i think i was right. but here it is, six years later, no longer the stick of the house after spending some 25 years in the congress. as i told the students at notre dame -- notre dame gave vice president biden and i the laetare award. i told the students, you know "laetare" is a latin word. in english, it means "rejoice." exactly what i have done every day since i left. [laughter] mr. boehner: people

ryan and chairman price. budgets which ransack their investment jobs education and for hard-working families. budgets thought the hand hand massive tax breaks to the rich by stealing from food stamps and slashing medicaid. all of this to give a tax break to the wealthiest people in our country. the national budget is a statement of our national values. it's important we reflect that and how we allocate our resources. this budget fails to recognize that education is the greatest investment we can make and people reaching their aspirations in keeping america number one. he also fails to recognize that nothing brings more to the treasury than the education of the american people. early childhood, k-12, higher education, lifetime learning. nothing brings more money to reduce the deficit. it's a false economy. it's one of the dumbest budget moves, with stiff competition mind you, but one of the dumbest budget moves they can make. president trump's budget shows he does not value the future of our seniors, children

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

i first want to applaud speaker ryan for forming a working group on this important issue. the gentleman and i have met numerous times on this. i've talked to the president about it as well. he's been very clear, and i agree with the president's position. ourts have shown that the past was unconstitutional, and that means the congress has to do their job one thing i would hate to happen here, that we only do the job halfway and then have this problem come back us to. the president asked about border security as well. i believe we can find a solution here together. i look forward to working with you. the president has challenged this congress to find a solution. i believe we can. we're going to work to make sure we get it done. i would like to do it sooner than the time frame the president has given. i yield become. mr. hoyer: i welcome the majority leader's thought that he wants to do it sooner rather than later. i will support himn that effort. i would say in his comment, with reference to a comprehensive solution, we're for a comprehensive solution, and we'd like to see,

king, president trump and speaker ryan are all on video clearly stating they will "lower premiums and more deductibles." yet the plan presented by the gop specifically allows insurance carriers to charge uninsured individuals 30% more in premiums. how does charging someone 30% more on a premium lower their premium? taxes insurance executives' wages above $500,000. how is not taxing an insurance executive ceo's $9 million salary lower premiums and deductibles? this does not make any sense. as soon as president trump realizes the gop will fail to deliver his promises he will turn on you, just like you turn on you in the primary. his supporters do not like the gop. that's why they left our party. you are playing with orange fire and you will get burned. host: thank you. guest: on the 30% penalty, and the republican plan they illuminate the individual mandate, which is in obamacare, that requires mandates of individuals by health insurance. the provision they wrote in to bill is if you don't maintain continuous coverage, when you buy back in you will pay a 30% more on your premium. that i

paul ryan, come up and say a few words on a job well done. >> [applause] speaker ryan: thank you. first, thank you mr. president. thank you for your leadership. >> [applause] there are too many people tuning in getting us to this part. i would like to thank the members of their committees for all of the hard work they have put in to this point. >> [applause] speaker ryan: i want to thank all of the of their members who made this the best deal possible. it was a collaborative consensus driven effort. i want to thank the team at the white house. i want to thank tom price, mick mulvaney, and reince priebus. we could not have done this without you gentlemen. you guys are the best. >> [applause] speaker ryan: of course this would not have been possible if it weren't for these two gentlemen behind the. this is the fourth presidency i have served with. i have never seen engagement like this. i want to thank mike pence and donald trump for their personal involvement in working to get us to where we are. thank you gentlemen. >> [applause] today was a big day, but just one step in this proc

here's the simple reality, mr. speaker. republicans only care about deficits when they want to cut spending on programs for the poor, for veterans, elderly or our veteran. republicans only care about debt when they want to slash social security and medicare. republicans only care about that and are only fiscally responsible when there's a democrat in the white house. but the american people are now seeing right through this. they see through this hypocrisy just like they see right through donald trump's excuses about his tax returns. they want us to reject this republican tax plan, and it's about time we started listening to them. thank you and i yield back. ms. jayapal: thank you so much, mr. gallego, for your incredible leadership and, you know, one of the things when we think about this plan, there's really -- it's a three-step plan. number one, transfer wealth. trillions of dollars of wealth in tax cuts from middle-class working families to the top 1%. number two, explode the deficit, which we know is part of this deal.

[applause] vice-president pence: to members of our cabinet, to leader mcconnell and speaker ryan and all these members of congress, thank you. thank you for not only being here today for this special moment, but thank you for your leadership and support throughout this year. i truly do believe, mr. president, that this will be remembered as a pivotal moment in the life of our nation. a day when the congress answered your call and made history. but honestly, i would say to the american people, president trump has been making history since the first day of this administration. we have been rebuilding our military, standing with our veterans. just last week, president trump signed one of the largest investments in our national defense since the days of ronald reagan. we have been defending our rule of law. illegal crossings on our southern border are down more than 50%. president trump has been restoring american credibility on the world stage, standing with our allies and standing up to our enemies. as the president reflected today, our nato allies are paying more toward the common def

called on house speaker paul ryan to step down. after that he targeted conservative republicans in the house freedom caucus that opposed the bill. when you go to amber phillips' column, she says mr. trump came into this job knowing zilch about the way washington worked. why else would he promised to get obamacare repealed, a bill," in theax first 100 days. if not decades. the president has shown little desire to learn. next on our democrats line, go ahead iris. caller: i am concerned about the government shutdown. for myself and millions of seniors. if we lose our social security, which is small, i can see our landlords taking us out on the street is a lot of them are like , "we want our money now." we won't be able to afford food or anything. n't taxt time they did us, but this time i feel they will be aggressive. personally, i think his attitude "why will belike, done" or else. he is too aggressive. too aggressive. he wants what he wants regardless of the consequences for anyone else. that is extremely frightening for our economy

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 to thank 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 famili

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

before his announcement, house speaker pall ryan held a briefing with reporters as well where he talked about the attorney general he said he doesn't think he should resign but added that mr. sessions should only have to recuse himself if the investigation involves him directly. here are the house speaker's comments. reporter: did the attorney general mislead the committee and should he recuse himself. mr. ryan: i would refer to his senate judiciary committee, i checked the transcript, i can't speak to what the judiciary transcript is, i haven't checked that. should he recuse himself? i think he answered that question this morning which is if he himself is a subject of an investigation of course he would. but if he's not, i don't see any purpose or reason for doing this. let's take a step back for a second here.

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

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

[applause] mr. pence: i just feel so at home. i know that the speaker told me backstage that six out of 10 members of the house of representatives are new since about a year before i left the capitol building to be governor of indiana. but it doesn't feel that way. i feel very at home. and let me say how grateful i am, thank you for giving the 45th president of the united states of america such a wonderful, warm welcome by the people's representatives. [applause] mr. pence: i have to tell you, i am, i've grown accustomed to preceding the president at various events. oftentimes it is my duty to introduce him, and he is a hard man to preceed. but he is a harder man to follow. [laughter] mr. pence: i have to tell you, ladies and gentlemen, what you just saw today is what i see from him every day of the week, that energy, that enthusiasm, that optimism, that strength, that determination. it is my high honor and great privilege to serve as his vice president, and i know that president donald trump will m

[applause] speaker ryan: thank you. first, thank you mr. president. thank you for your leadership. [applause] speaker ryan: there are too many people today who played such an important role in helping us get to this part, but i want to thank a few people in particular. chairman gregk walden, kevin brady, diane black, pete sessions and the members of their committees for all the hard work they put into getting us to this point. [applause] thankr ryan: i want to all the other members who contributed to making this the best bill possible. it really was a collaborative consensus driven effort. i also want to thank the team here at the white house. i want to think tom price. i want to thank mick mulvaney, and i want to thank reince priebus. we could not have done this without you gentlemen. you guys are the best. [applause] speaker ryan: of course, this would not have been possible if it were not for these two gentlemen behind me. this is the fourth president i have served with. i have never, ever seen any kind of engagement like this. pence andthank mike president donald trump for thei

>> mr. speaker, the president of the united states. [applause] [cheers] donald trump: thank you very much. paul ryan: members of congress, i have the highest privilege and distinct honor of presenting to you the president of the united states. [applause] donald trump: thank you very much. mr. speaker, mr. vice president, members of congress, the first lady of the united states. [applause] donald trump: and citizens of america, tonight, as we were -- as we mark the celebration of black history month, we are reminded of our nation's path towards civil rights and the work that still remains to be done. recent threats -- [applause] donald trump: recent threats targeting jewish community centers and vandalism of jewish cemeteries as well as last week's shooting in kansas city remind us that while we may be a nation divided on policies, we are a country that stands united in condemning hate and evil in all of its very ugly forms. [applause] donald trump: each american generation passes the torch of truth, liberty, and justice in on broken ch

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

trump has done such as terminating mr. .omey, may have been legal house speaker paul ryan and mitch mcconnell can no longer duck these issues in an effort to focus on the gop agenda. the russia-comey fiasco is now the country's agenda. mr. trump, if his denials are true, should welcome an independent inquiry. linda on our independent line in little falls, minnesota. caller: i agree fully with the last two. they stole my thunder, just about every word practically i was going to say, the last two calls. ,ne thing i could add is everybody in the whole united states had better get on their knees and start praying. that is the only thing that is going to help this nation. host: herald in tacoma, washington, republican line. caller: am i on? host: you are on, go ahead. caller: i think it is the russians playing us. they have very intelligent people, but they are too close to the situation. at, basicallyook they are saying who is telling this? who is telling that? that is playing into the russians' game of all of us saying, what is going on? we are just getting worse and worse about who is doing thi

[laughter] speaker ryan: oh, wisconsin. 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. [applause] speaker ryan: thank you. thank you very much. [applause] i'll be relatively brief. leader.o thank madam you know, i've stood in this spot more than a few times. and yet today it feels completely different. part of it has to do with all the new faces in the house. you look at all the proud spouses, the beaming parents, children at their best. if not impossible to resist the rush of enthusiasm. there's no sense of foreboding today. there's only a sense of potential. kind of reminds you no matter how long you've been here, you still haven't seen it all. and so to all our new members, i want to say simply, "thank you, congratulations, and welcome." [applause] ryan: to my own priest, father p

president, if you enact the plan that's been put forward by the speaker of the house, paul ryan, and by the person, the person that president-elect trump has nominated to be his secretary of h.h.s., tom price, i encourage every american to look at their plan because they want to voucherize medicare and they want to save the medicare system money by raising the prices and the risks on every medicare beneficiary. that is the result of that plan. so, the affordable care act benefits 30 million people directly, and we need to make sure we don't put them in harm. but it also benefits all these other people in the system. the people on the employer-provided health plans who have seen historically low premium increases and seniors on medicare. rural hospitals will be particularly hard-hit by repealing the affordable care act. so the proposed republican action is going to think the those 30 million americans, including my neighbors in silver sprifnlgt it's also going to hit those tens of millions of other americans who may not realize the extent to which they're benefiting from the affordabl

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

also, i would like to tell you to be leery of speaker ryan. i think he is just waiting for a backlash of people turning against mr. trump if something goes wrong. i think he's just waiting to step up to the plate and kind of take over. guest: very interesting point, because he didn't really support him during the campaign and then came around in the end when it looked like the president was going to win. i think in the end the american people are pretty savvy and one of the things that they'll see is it's speaker ryan who is driving the train on this bill that doesn't really fulfill the promises of repealing obamacare. and perhaps you're right that he is waiting for president trump to stumble and then wants to step up to the plate. but i've seen a lot of politicians who plan that way and then give away their principles. people like governor kasich who was a real conservative when he was the budget chair but became a moderate, more liberal governor in ohio, took on obamacare, expanded the medicaid, and then people in the primaries said, wait a

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.