if we want to pay our teachers better and reduce dropout rates, we have to get there by challenging and holding accountable the elected officials we put in office. announcer: watch afterwards sunday night at 9:00 eastern on tv -- on book tv. the c-span bus is traveling across the country, visiting all 50 state capitals. the summer, the bus travel by ferry to juneau, alaska and honolulu, hawaii. join us as we visit des moines, iowa live on monday. announcer: in his weekly news briefing, paul ryan talked about recent unemployment numbers, the economy, and trade policy. he also comments on the new york

times opinion piece. this is 10 minutes. speaker ryan: i don't know how many of you were around in the 1960's. that's the last time the number of americans filing for unemployment benefits was this low. 49 years ago. this is the best job market we have had in decades. and here's something else that's very encouraging. workers in what are traditionally considered lower-wage jobs, the bank tellers, maintenance workers, they are seeing some of the biggest pay increases right now. and we expect this trend to continue. so we're on track here.

tax reform is working. families are better off. businesses are hiring. businesses are expanding. manufacturing is booming. should have seen the index come up yesterday. we're finally seeing the kind of broad based economic growth in our economy that we were gunning for. do we have more to do? we absolutely have more to do. we still have millions of jobs unfilled. that story is playing out across the country where businesses are trying to find workers with the right skills. this is why we just recently overhauled our career and technical education system so that it's easier to match people with the training they need. with the farm bill, we want to get more people from welfare to work so they, too, can get on their path of life. i know there is a lot of intrigue you want to ask me about, but from the start, this is what we here in the house have been focused on. jobs, the economy, things that affect people in their daily lives. and it's great to see these positive results from these

policies. all of which you can learn more by going to better.gop. any questions? reporter: the president yesterday in your meeting with him, to sign any spending bills you might -- speaker ryan: we want to get as many bills signed into law. and a good agreement and understanding we'll keep government funded. folks i haven't called on in a while. reporter: i'm with the weekly standard. i am curious if you would support a bilateral trade agreement with mexico instead of nafta, do you think that would be t.p.a. client? speaker ryan: good question. i want to see this run its course before making a judgment on that. reporter: does congress have any role to investigate who wrote "the new york times" op-ed that

was -- speaker ryan: to investigate it? not that i know of. the person -- a person who works for the administration serves for the president. a person who obviously is living in dishonesty. it doesn't help the president. if you're not interested in helping the president, you shouldn't work for the president as far as i'm concerned. reporter: speaker ryan -- speaker ryan: what were you doing in vegas? reporter: following you. that's a different story. and you popped up. speaker ryan: you popped up. reporter: it is my hometown. more and more members are talking about bringing back earmarks. is that something you think -- modified version. is that something you think should be done? do you think they should vote on it after the elections in

conference? speaker ryan: this is something that's always -- we dealt with this in our last organizing conference for this congress. i don't doubt that the next organizing conference, the next congress, will probably wrestle with this issue. the challenge is, when we had it before, it was a corrupt system. duke cunningham went to jail because of earmark abuse. my experience with earmarks was an abusive process. where i think some compelling points have been made is in the executive branch versus the legislative branch and the constitution. but that doesn't mean things that direct money to private sector as these for-profit and -- so the question gets narrowed down to like the army corps of engineer and things that are inherently federal in nature. that's where the debate is moving to. we have not settled this debate. it does at the end of the day come down to fiscal

conservatism, transparency, accountability, and what is the proper role of the government and the role between the executive and legislative branch. we haven't finished that -- settling that to date. i think the next organizing congress will have to wrestle with this. reporter: any comment on this new d.h.s. policy just announced. which would allow for the indefinite detention of immigrant children with their parents -- speaker ryan: just heard about it this morning. we should not be separating people at the border. i believe that's what the administration also agrees. the people i have spoken with. we shouldn't be separating families at the border. reporter: i'm wondering, you guys want to pass tax reform 2.0 before the election. you have also passed reform bill, the work requirement. mcconnell said they are not going to do a tax reform 2.0 vote. what are you doing to talk to your senator counterpart about

this? are you pushing them to include this? how confident are you? what are you doing about it? speaker ryan: i can't speak to theirs. ours will be at the end of the month. i understand why they may not get to the vote in the time frame we're on the tax bill. on the farm bill, i understand progress is being made. there are different ways of getting at the objective of promoting work and having work incentives. we feel very strongly about work incentives. reporter: you talk about the president yesterday. you and other republican leaders, mitch mcconnell, down played the idea of a shut down when the president in your presence -- that's serious. how can you continue to say we don't think there will be a shut down. we think we have a good agreement with the president and he sends a tweet like he sent last month, says what he says while you're sitting there, and the history what did he in march

after you thought had you an agreement he threatened to veto the bill for five hours. speaker ryan: but he didn't. reporter: at the end of the day -- is that how he plays ball? how he rolls? speaker ryan: yeah. i'd love -- i'll repeat what i said before. we have a good understanding. i'm confident our understanding will stick. reporter: you know have republican senators both inside the white house expressing concern on the near daily basis about the president's behavior in morality, his understanding of basic policy. how long can you as speaker legitimately pretend that you're unconcerned or unaware -- speaker ryan: i'm not -- what i concern myself about are the results of government. and the results of government are good results.

the military is being rebuilt. people are going back to work. jobs are being increased. people's lives are being improved. we're going to put another great judge on the supreme court if things go as planned. these are good results for government. i know the president is very unconventional. i know his tweeting and unconventional tactics bother people. but the results of government are good results. and we're a different branch of government. our branch of government is in charge of making sure that we pass good laws that improve people's lives. guess what, we're passing good laws that improve people's lives. this is why we're sticking with knitting, it is making a positive difference. reporter: wouldn't you be very concerned if this were a democratic president? speaker ryan: how many investigations are on right now? with respect to the other one, i have said this before, this wasn't your question, those investigations are continuing.

the special counsel should do his job, and he is doing his job. we're supporting that. reporter: senator kyl has ignited some speculation the senate might vote again on repealing the a.c.a. senator mcconnell has poured water on that. is that something you would advocate? speaker ryan: i'm a big believer in jon kyl. great guy. but i haven't even thought of that. never brought to my attention. reporter: is it something you want to see? speaker ryan: i want to pass it. i always wanted to. i don't know that we could -- i can't imagine -- i haven't even thought about it. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]