months of the fiscal year and it is causing concerns with appropriators that prepare these and put them on autopilot, and they do not believe the department of defense should be operating under cr's especially when they have so many operations going on overseas. host: talk about plants, michigan. this will provide funding for their water system. how much is actually included in the bill and why is it in the cr? nancy: there are two things going on. this is supposed to be carrying $170 million and appropriations to help flint, michigan deal with the water crisis. and if there is another bill going through congress this week. reauthorization, and to the water bill has the authorization for the flint funding. it leaders want to see both of

these past, but the water resources bill, they see the spending, but the cr provides the real money. wants to be assured of the mike mulvaney to see both signed into law. host: four present a late donald trump, his pick of matus, explain that. says thatrent law that a member of the military cannot become secretary of defense. it is a civilian position. at the present would have to be out of the military for seven years before they can be considered for the post. in the cr, lawmakers inserted legislative language and the spending bill to provide a waiver to that seven-year rule. democrats today say they do not like the acr for the government is being used to change the law, but this kind of change should

be debated in congress and given consideration. some really do not object to him getting the waiver and that sort of signals that it will not be a big block for the cr. host: there is funding for security for the president elect, explain the funding and the differences between what is in the bill and what new york city has requested. ranking member of the appropriations committee says it will not help new york city as much as it needs to address what is going on in new york city right now. and the kind of extra law enforcement resources being used. yet that in itself does not seem to be a stumbling block you there. there are other things. for example, financial -- a senator from west virginia is

angry that only a very short extension of benefits is in the cr. he has been talking to republicans about extending protections to make sure that retired miners and their widows would receive benefits for a number of years, and in this cr health benefits would only be extended for the duration of the cr. today he was threatening to withhold consent to allow the cr to go forward until he can negotiate a better deal. and he was talking about perhaps offering an extension through next week, maybe next monday or tuesday. to give them more time to negotiate these and other things. host: any other provisions you have been taking a closer look at? say they havets been frozen out of the negotiations on the cr, even though they have been

negotiating the other spending bills together, all year long. and the one thing that the white cr,e has gotten into this maybe not at the level they wanted, but they have gotten extra money for the defense department and the state department to conduct overseas operations in iraq and afghanistan. and not the entire amount requested the president obama, but it does come close. and another thing is disaster assistance, something the white house is pushing for louisiana and other states. in the end, it looks like the cr will carry about $4 billion in after finding that the states that were affected by flooding, louisiana and other states that were hurt during hurricane matthew in the fall, can't share. it is not enough, the lawmakers say. it is an installment on what they need. host: will the white house

support the continuing resolution? nancy: we do not know you. we have not seen the statement on that. we have not really seen definitive statements from the white house press room about it. they are evaluating and the senate democrats are also evaluating and they say they will have a special caucus because the number of democrats who are unhappy with the provision, so maybe we will not know until tomorrow. host: nancy ognanovich writes about congressional appropriations for bloomberg dna. >> the house rules committee debated on the continuing resolution and the you projects bill. and they paid tribute to miss leaving too will be chair the education committee.

[chatter] rep. sessions: we will come to order. thank you for joining us today. the opportunity we have to be together for this meeting will include two specific pieces of legislation that this committee will be handling. hr2028, thell be further continuation and security assistance appropriations act of 2017, as well as the waterfront -- water improvements. short-termns a

continuing resolution to maintain funding at the current budget cap level of $1.07 trillion until april 28th, 2017. this legislation includes overseas contingency operation funds, including $5.8 billion for the department of defense and $4.3 billion for the state department to support military efforts in the fight against isis and other threats that are being made against this nation, and to support the readiness of our troops wherever they may be in harm's way, in light and in darkness, and in heat and in cold, as they protect this great nation with their faithful missions that stand before them. the second bill under consideration, the water infrastructure improvements for the nation act is a comprehensive legislation that addresses the needs of american harbors, locks, dams, flood protection, other water resources that protect our

infrastructure that are critical to the nation's economic growth, health and competitiveness. there has been a lot of work done on this bill also, and we're pleased to no he that it will be before us today. this legislation follows a strong bipartisan reforms included in the water resources reform and development act of 2014 and it adheres to the process congress established in the 2014 law for oversight review and consideration of water resources development activities of the corps of engineers. i'd like to welcome some of my favorite chairmen back to the rules committee today. yes, sir, my big brother fred upton is going to be here, the gentleman from pennsylvania bill shuster is going to be here, bob bishop who has graduated from the rules committee as chairman of the national resources committee, among my favorite of all the chairmen in this house, you know that the work is going

to get done when these chairmen show up, they have done homework, they have worked on a bipartisan methodology basis, they're making sure that the best interest of taxpayers is taken care of, but we're going to move forward with great exuberance to unleash in this great nation an opportunity for the american people to know that the people's work has been accomplished. so before we go any further, i also want to thank the gentleman from pennsylvania, mike doyle. coach, thank you for being here today. if you will please take this seat up here, we appreciate it. before we come to you without objection, we look forward to your testimony and we are going to defer to the gentlewoman, the young woman from new york for any opening statements she'd choose to make. >> the young woman couldn't make it today. rep. sessions: well, you're here, louise, and that's good enough for me. >> i have no opening statement. i just thank you as usual for your good work. thank you. rep. sessions: thank you.

>> thank you. and i will put peter's statement in in a little bit. rep. sessions: good. thank you very much. look, she's not here yet, a lot of members are busy this afternoon, but we're going to also wish virginia foxx the very best. these flowers that are here in celebration of virginia's years of service not only to this , committee but also to the house of representatives. mrs. fox will be leaving the rules committee to assume grown chairmanship. she will be doing this this january 3rd, but until then she's going to have to put up with some flowers and kind words. we will wait until she gets here before we do that. i'm delighted we are ready to go. so, we will now open up testimony on s-612 that is all -- i did ask the gentleman mr. doyle to please come forth and i will ask him again. mike, do you mind sitting right there? yes, we're going to share that microphone. you are into sharing today. >> sure. rep. sessions: