it is a conversation that congress would like to engage in. >> the majority of congress has rejected the pentagon's plan. >> we look forward to hearing what congress has to say as we begin the process. we believe that our members of congress who share the sec.'s view, the pres.'s view that responsibly closing guantÁnamo bay is an appropriate thing to do particularly before the next a ministration takes over, and we will begin that. >> is the pentagon prepared to go forward? >> we will be briefing members of congress. we. really forward to engaging with congress going forward. >> am going to have to go. >> the focus is on the -- the detention facility. logistics and other purposes. i did not see anything your plan that cover the overall guantÁnamo bay. >> this plan covers the detention facilities. there is no plan to change the status of the naval base. yes? >> more information about south korea? >> i will take that question for you.you. i am not aware of the delay. ongoing conversation between the us and south korean allies will have those conversations but will take that question.

we look at congress and the american people look at congress and what do we have? i think a 6% approval rating. 6% of the american people are saying, right on. 6% of the american people want us to discuss exactly where it says how many calories your hamburger has at your fast food restaurant. maybe those 6% checked the wrong box. on that congressional approval poll. but at least 94% of the american people think we ought to be doing something else. so do i. i think we should be working to balance the budget. i think that we should fix our broken immigration system and restore our borders. i think we should grow the american economy. find a sustainable way to invest in infrastructure. find a way to provide a boost to the renewable energies economy. boost american exports in manufacturing. raise the minimum wage. make health care more affordable and build upon the improvements of the affordable care act. but no. no. the republican majority has decided we're going to spend the rest of the day today and tomorrow debating where and how on menus, not even all restaurants,

members of congress have been demanding the guantanamo plan for months, and those representing south carolina, kansas and colorado have voiced opposition to housing the detainees in their states. the administration is currently prohibited by law from moving guantanamo bay detainees to the united states. the long-running dispute has taken on added intensity now because the push to close the prison before obama leaves office. advocates of closing guantanamo say the prison has long been a recruiting tool for militant groups and that holding extremists suspected of terror acts indefinitely without charges or trial sparks anger and dismay among u.s. allies. opponents, however, say that changing the detention center's zip code won't solve those problems. and they warn that moving al qaeda-linked detainees to the u.s. could create security concerns around the new location. there are currently 91 detainees at guantanamo bay. of those, 35 are expected to be transferred out by this summer. at its peak in 2003, guantanamo held nearly 680 detainees, and there were about 245 when obama took offic

he told congress, not congress but the library of congress played the role of diplomatic neighborhoods in russia and more than that he also went to iran and he went to visit the national library and the government wouldn't pay on behalf of the united states to go and i'm glad that mr. carnegie said we will take care of the piece. jim therefore has multiple tasks and has done them well. there are critics in any major organization but one thing we shouldn't forget is it has been called to serve the nation and the world to build bridges of understanding and to face all cultures as important, not minor or major and also to serve the cultures one of the last acts of jim billington was to help repatriate the memory. if you say that, what does it mean they have been destroyed and they have the heritage so. they send the hard drives to eight afghan universities to have the culture. the previous library of congress did something wonderful because they couldn't do it without coming to the library of congress. you know why, because when america was filling the grain we could only be played to the

has to inform congress and as 90 days to withdraw soldiers if congress does not given explicit approval. some people think the war powers act is entirely unconstitutional,unconstitut ional command there is an argument to be made for that. they accepted that the war powers act is legally valid. instead president obama's claims that bombing libya for months at a time killing lots of people was not actually hostility. therefore the act was negotiated. this is ridiculous. i am a law professor. here is one of here is one or have to say this is a ridiculous argument. obama's own lawyers say you can't do this. you have to go to congress. these are folks who are representing defense interests. youyou can do this. president obama went trolling around looking for somewhere with authority to say you can do this. he found former dean of yale law school. now, he was known in the academic world for arguing that the president cannot act unilaterally. even better he argued that when president reagan bombed libya that that implicated the war powers act. somehow he came to the conclusion that bombing lib

yet congress resisted. even after americans became more fully aware of the horrors of the not see death camps, congress resisted. can anyone tell me why congress would have been so resistant at this time to accommodating displaced persons? anyone want to venture a guess? bear in mind that at this moment in time, the national origin quotas are still in place. admitting people outside of those national origin quotas was a highly controversial idea. when the displaced persons act finally passed, it passed three years after the war had ended. even though president truman had advocated on behalf of the displaced person, he was tempted to veto this personal bill that came out of congress because he felt it was wholly inconsistent with american's sense of justice. in the end, he signed legislation because he wanted to be able to assist some segment of the displaced population, even though it was not the bill he was looking for. why did he consider this to be inconsistent with american sense of justice? the buildin

next, a look at the acts of congress with the president's handwritten notes and a proposed and not yet ratified bill of rights. it was auctioned at christie's in new york city. >> we are selling george washington's copy of the acts of congress. and it is showing in the front of the room for those of you who have not had a chance to peek. atwill start the bidding $1.3 million. [bidding occurs] >> my name is carol and i served as the curator here at mount delightnd it has been a to work with the team to think about the acquisition of this. george washington is exacting with his books and takes great care of them. he has them in beautiful shells in his library and we learned that he takes great care with each individual volume and often puts a flourish in the right-hand corner of the title has the important fromthat he ordered england and he gets them as early as 1771 before the revolution and they had the coat of arms with his name and his motto on them and he puts them on the inside cover of the volume and this was probably pretty special to him. he had his signature on the title page.

what can congress do about it? one of the reasons i took this job is i took it on the condition we go on offense on ideas. we can't be comply sent a with being a reactionary opposition party. we have to show people how we would do things differently. so what are we doing? we're rolling out an jenagenda. we're putting out an agenda to the country to give people of this nation a clear choice. 2016 is the telecommunication of all elections. congress is up for grabs. supreme court is up for the grabs. the presidency is up for the grabs. will we be a constitution republic or progressive socialist welfare state. we in congress have something to say about that. we'll lay out a five-point agenda. how do you grow this economy. what do you replace obamacare with? how do you fieks thex these entitlements. how do you deal with the fact we have these able bodied americans not working and getting training. what does a good foreign policy look like to keep us safe. how do you make sure the military is best. how do you reclaim the

it does call on congress to act. it turns out we already have. congress has repeatedly over and over again voted to enact clear bipartisan prohibitions on the very thing the president is again calling for and that is the transfer of guantÁnamo bay terrorists into our local communities. we've enact a bipartisan prohibitions in congress with split party control. we've enact a bipartisan prohibitions in congress with massive overwhelming democratic majorities. just a couple of months ago members in both parties expressed themselves clearly one more time. not once but twice. end on an overwhelming bipartisan basis. president obama signed of these provisions into law as well. so let's not pretend that there's even the faintest of pretenses for some pain and phone cam pic here. congress has acted to clearly, repeatedly and on a bipartisan basis. the president has a duty to follow the laws he himself signed. it shouldn't be that hard when you consider his admonition yesterday about upholding the highest standards of the rule of law. as americans he sai

there is an emerging trend in congress, where congress isn't in a position of just saying no, congress is refusing to engage. they aren't actively saying no, they are refusing to do the function of their job. they are refusing to even consider the president's nominee to the supreme court and refusing to take action on aumf or discuss the budget with the president's budget, something that has happened over the last 40 years. i'm not sure what they are doing in congress, they are doing everything but fulfilling their esponsibilities. reporter: they have been asked to vote in a fashion to say no, they don't want detainees brought to the united states. i'm asking you if they don't act on this and approve this plan that you just outlined, can the president still close that etention facility? can he still do it? mr. earnest: congress requested this plan on this time frame and we have provided it to them. they have to decide whether or not they want to take a look at his. what they have done is put in place barriers that prevented the administration moving forward. they have led us down the p

he also taught congress -- not congress, library of congress has to also play the role of diplomatic affinity building neighborhoods diplomatically. in russia they did it, and more than that, you don't know maybe, but he also went to iran when we were trying how to build relations with iran. he went to visit national library. of course, federal government would not pay the flight of librarian of congress for on behalf of united states to go to iran. i am glad that mr. carnegie from heavens -- [laughter] said we'll take care of librarian of congress' trip because andrew carnegie was dedicated to international peace. jim, therefore, i mentioned his multiple tasks and has done all of them well. there are critics, actually. any major organization loves critics. but one thing we should not forget, the mission of library of congress has been kept afloat to serve the nation and the world, to build bridges of understanding, to treat all cultures as important, not as minor, major. and then also to save those cultures. one of the last acts of jim billington was to help repatriate afghan memory

we in congress, not the administration, but we in congress, we accumulate all these bills and all these financial obligations, and once you do that, you have to pay them. our constituents when they accumulate credit card debt, they have to pay t they just can't not pay it because they don't want to. so we have to start behaving like adults here and understand that we need to pay our bills. i would suggest to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle that one way we might to save some money and not add up to the deficit or to our debt, stop giving donald trump tax cuts that you don't pay for. if you want to have tax cuts for wealthy individuals, fine. pay for them. don't not pay for them. stop subsidizing big oil companies in this country. maybe there was a time when we first started exploring for oil you could make the case that taxpayers ought to be subsidizing oil companies. not anymore. not with global warming. and certainly not when they are making zillions of dollars a year in profits. maybe we could take that money and put it toward deficit reduction. or maybe we can pay for th

he blames congress for this. what we've seen from both the media and elected officials is a general sense that the findings are probably right, and what we're picking up in our surveys and with these interviews is the current state of affairs. who's to blame is a different question. from our perspective, we're happy to blame both of them and just move on. [laughter] >> you have talked about the attitudes of young people toward the political processer and toward politicians -- process and toward politicians. do young people vote, and if so, what moves them to vote and maybe not have good attitudes toward a politician? do they participate in the process? >> we know over time young people have always been the least likely to vote. voter turnout in general is nothing to praise ourselves ability in this cub -- about in this country, and for young people it's even lower. but that is the one area where we do seem to have seen at least sustained levels of engagement. and it was the one area where when we asked young peop

congress can fund military operations, congress can also pass various regulations for the armed services and as well congress can exercise oversight through congressional hearings on what's going on or through committees. so we know that. so james madison once drew the distinction that congress declares war, but presidents make war. and remember, i've talked -- there's only five wars where congress has actually declared war. 1812, mexican american war, spanish american war, world wars i and ii with the last declaration coming in june 1942 against several eastern european countries that were allied with nazi germany. so it's not italy and germany, but rather hungary, romania, et cetera. so let me give you a couple of case studies here to think about what we're going to talk about today. first of all, i want to talk about a case that occurred not that long ago, in my lifetime at least. richard nixon was president of the united states in 1969. he inherited the vietnam war, as you know. and reports came to him that the north vietnamese forces were seeking sanctuary in then neutral cambodia a

is doesn't need to be a bart zahn fight in congress. -- bipartisan -- partisan fight in congress. this tuesdayed to be much more central to our mission in congress dating back to the postal roads mandated by the constitution to president

what do you think of congress? sec. gates: the thing that concerns me is it has changed so much since i first came to washington 50 years ago. when i came to washington, i will use the senate as an example, because i remember the names better. our politics has always been polarized. and after all, i came to washington in 1966 and we were in the middle of the vietnam war. within a half dozen years, we would be involved in watergate, so things have never been smooth in washington. there were always, on the hill, a number of people both democrats and republicans, center-left, center-right who would reach across the aisle to get business done. they would pass appropriation bills, passed welfare reform, passed legislation to move the country forward. i called that body of people the "bridge builders" because they were building bridges across the aisle. the sad thing is, nearly all of those people are gone. the bill bradleys, the jack danforths, the bob doles, the lloyd bentsens, they were probably two dozen or more senators

what the president sent to congress yesterday isn't a plan. it's more of a research project, if anything. it does call on congress, however, to act. it turns out we already have. congress has repeatedly, over and over again voted to enact clear bipartisan prohibitions on the very thing the president is again calling for, and that is the transfer of guantanamo bay terrorists into our local communities. we've enacted bipartisan prohibitions in congress with split party control. we've enacted bipartisan prohibitions in congresses with massive overwhelming democratic majorities. just a couple of months ago, members of congress in both parties expressed themselves clearly one more time. not once, but twice, and on an overwhelming bipartisan basis. president obama signed these bipartisan prohibitions into law as well. so let's not pretend there's even the faintest of pretenses for some pen-and-phone gambit here. congress has acted, clearly, repeatedly, and on a bipartisan basis. the president now has the duty to follow the laws he himself signed. it

it is congress that makes spending and revenue decisions, and it is congress' responsibility to raise the debt limit when needed to enable treasury to fulfill the debt obligations that we have made. if you owe, you pay. rather than wasting our time on a redundant report by treasury that does nothing to grow the economy, we should focus our ime on creating jobs and strengthening families. i can think of many things that we could be talking about. raising the minimum wage. creating summer jobs for youth. creating jobs through infrastructure development. supporting businesses to hire more workers. and increasing grant aid to families so that they could afford college. although our economy has demonstrated some solid labor market trends, we know that they are still -- there are still individuals who are not benefiting from the tremendous economic recovery that we are experiencing. for example, the university of illinois, chicago just completed a study that showed that half the african-american males in the city of chicago between the working20 to 24 are not and not in school. we could be

if the president wanted to work with congress he would start responding to letters that congress has sent. i sent letters asking for the legal authority that he is basing his opinions on to transfer to the united states. i asked him for legal authority to send a scouting team to colorado. how is that not in violation of the law. we haven't heard a thing in response to our letters. if the president is willing to work with congress perhaps he should do more than just communicating to us through cnn or msnbc. >> thank you very much. appreciate that. and coming up next caucus night in nevada, the upcoming democratic primary in south carolina. we have it all covered. our dream team is up next. you are watching msnbc, the place for politics. if you have moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis like me, and you're talking to a rheumatologist about a biologic... this is humira. this is humira helping to relieve my pain and protect my joints from further damage. this is humira helping me reach for more. doctors have been prescribing humira for more than ten years. humira works for many adults.

the white house is really trying to work with congress, and in many ways dependent on congress to get this prison closed. but in the space of that intractable opposition, is the president willing to leave office with guantanamo bay still open? is he ready to admit defeat? >> that surely is not his presence. >> it's a possibility. >> i remember standing -- sitting in that chair right over there, and i believe it was january 22nd, 2009, where the president put forward his specific plan for closing the prison at guantanamo bay. we've been talking about this in detailed fashion for more than seven years. this has been a top friar. priority. and at each turn we have opinion stymied by congress. and that's frustrating. but that frustration pales in comparison to how irresponsible it is to treat taxpayer dollars and our national security in that way. >> but are you just going to let the clock keep ticking? you've got a year left here -- >> yeah. >> -- and time is of the essence, as the white house keeps saying. >> right now it appears congress is going to let the clock tick -- >> after presi

he looks forward to engaging with congress and believes this plan provides a path forward for congress. finally, secretary carter expresses his deep gratitude to all of the service members who have contributed to and carried out the succeedingly difficult mission at guantanamo bay for so long with professionalism and dedication, including those service members who are there even today. with that i'd be happy to take your questions. lucas, you are in the front row today by yourself. lucas: thank you. will the pentagon close guantanamo bay if congress doesn't pass a law? peter: we are beginning a conversation here, continuing a conversation with conversation, lucas. we see this as an opportunity to work with congress to try and resolve these issues. it will take congressional action for these detention facilities to close in a responsible way and to find a location here in the united states to house those detainees who the secretary and -- feels are not appropriate and the national security review shows are not appropriate to be transferred to other countries. lucas: is the pentagon prep

neil: what would congress do? when and how you access a phone? >> congress has already done that. community assistance for law-enforcement, that law already exists. it does not cover this situation. we are saying there should be a debate whether or not and under what circumstances the government can achieve this kind of information. it shouldn't just be the executive branch. we have elected representatives to consider a balance. fbi director james comey who i respect enormously specifically said this is a cbs issue. it should be debated by the people. their balances on either side. what in the world is wrong with having the elected branch, the legislative branch, one third of our government way in? that is the place where these should be debated and resolved. neil: any fear that in the time we are waiting to settle this, a bigger constitutional issue that the very people with whom this terrorist was associating might be out there plotting something else and we could have stopped it if we simply have access to that phone? >> you can say that every single time, if we could only brea

there is an emerging trend in congress, where congress isn't in a position of just saying no, congress is refusing to engage. they aren't actively saying no, they are refusing to do the function of their job. they are refusing to even consider the president's nominee to the supreme court and refusing to take action on aumf or discuss the budget with the president's budget director, something that has happened over the last 40 years. i'm not sure what they are doing in congress, they are doing everything but fulfilling their responsibilities. reporter: on this case, congress has acted. they have been asked to vote in a fashion to say no, they don't want detainees brought to the united states. i'm asking you if they don't act on this and approve this plan that you just outlined, can the president still close that detention facility? mr. earnest: congress requested this plan on this time frame and we have provided it to them. they have to decide whether or not they want to take a look at this. what they have done is put in place barriers that prevented the administration moving forward. t

as a go-between for the library of congress. with the destination so it should not, as a surprise. because the content is international. because those six -- 69 bridges -- 16 languages s.a. library of congress because the world hasn't been guarded to cultivate. and maybe i am breaking confidence, there are rules that congressman can beat and contemplate and the private and with the library of congress with the children in school children it is a parochial he is not. and the library of congress has played the role to build neighborhoods and more than that he also led to renewed -- iran. also the national library of course, the federal government for or behalf of the united states i'm glad that mr. carnegie said we will take care of the library of congress. [laughter] because that was dedicated solely to mention the multiple tasks with any major organization. but once they we should not forget the mission for the library of congress has said kept afloat to treat old culture is as important to help repatriate the company has been d

we have 30 houses of congress. and as far as original items goes, the chair on the platform for the speaker of the house is in original. we have three cheers exactly like that. we do not necessarily know which was which. we have one for the speaker of the house, one for the vice president, and one for the chief justice of the supreme court. we do not know which one is which. what we can fairly say is somebody important sat in that chair for speaker of the house. as far as this room went, it became a courthouse again. this was divided into two double rooms for a lot of years. they divided down the middle. about the time of the first world war, the city government have left this block and the city is recognizing the historic value of these buildings. they want to turn them into museum space. if you visited this in the years of the first world war, he would've seen the room restored back to the big single room it would have been, but it would've just been a room filled with old stuff. after world war ii, again the goa

congress was not designated that way at the beginning. they designated it just as the federal seat of government. that is the way it is stated in the residence act of 1790. but what happened was washington appointed three commissioners. i go into those commissioners in some detail in my book, and they decided along the way, it was several years into the course of the city creation that it should be called washington, and they declared that it would be called washington. about your question about john adams -- excuse me? [inaudible conversations] >> i apologize. christopher columbus. columbia. zero, dc. that is in -- i believe that is an the federal act of 1790, that it would be the seat of government in the district of columbia. yes. it is as simple as -- columbus had great importance to this land at that time. there was a poet named joel barlow who wrote an extraordinarily long poem about this nation, so i apologize. the other part of your question was about john adams. i think you're right. john adams is over the years not been received

what do you think congress will do with that? >> drawing down to 460,000 puts us in the position of a one front army. we couldn't fight on two fronts if we needed to. that's not enough troops and would cost us more in the long run. i am a product of the vietnam era, post vietnam, carter administration. the army was drawn down by substantial numbers. reagan had to come back in and rebuild it. we are in big trouble, our weapon systems are aging. our air forces aging, our navy is getting smaller. we are putting ourselves in a vulnerable position p and it's too expensive for the country to have to rebuild all that we're dismantling. i hope we would look to the future and realize that a well prepared america is one that does not have to often because of its power. but a weakened america because of numbers drawn down puts us in a position of being vulnerable in the future. >> thank you very much for being our guest. we appreciate it. >> thank you very much. >> senator johnny isakson has an ambitious agenda. i'm wondering about this, be

you had some malfees answer in congress. some are focused on grant are things that happened in the congress like the so-called salary grab and the credit. i don't mean to say that there was no corruption in the grant administration. that would not be true. there was some. i think it has been exaggerated, but a couple of examples i will lay on the table. secretary of war william bellnap was caught taking bribes to anoint person men to what were called post traderships in forts in the west. they would run the px in the forts. he was forced to resign. the whiskey ring was probably the most important instance of corruption during of the grant administration. that, too, by the way started before he became president. his secretary of treasury who attack ed it and brought it dow. this was a conspiracy between distillers of whiskey and officials in the interenal revenue service to avoid federal taxes. it touched grant in the sense that one of his secretaries was thought to be involved. the secretary of the treasury indeed brought ba

this is a gesture to congress. the administration probably has very low expectations that this will get anywhere, but they're going to go through the process to see what they can do, to see if they can push it forward at all. interestingly as well, andrea, they didn't name the 13 facilities that they have been surveying to see if they were appropriate to house these detainees. obviously, they don't want to focus attention on these particular facilities. we believe one is in south carolina, where the primary is coming up. so there's that concern as well. trying to keep this a secret, not to make any of those facilities a magnet for protests, a target for what would certainly be an outpouring of emotion against this plan to bring detainees onto u.s. soil. the bottom line, they're saying by the end of the year, they think they could build this prison or refit a prison by the end of 2016, and it would house about 30 to 60 detainees, is the number they have settled on as to where they think they will be at the end of th

there is an emerging trend in congress, where congress isn't in a position of just saying no, congress is refusing to engage. they aren't actively saying no, they are refusing to do the function of their job. they are refusing to even consider the president's nominee to the supreme court and refusing to take action on aumf or discuss the budget with the president's budget, something that has happened over the last 40 years. i'm not sure what they are doing in congress, they are doing everything but fulfilling their responsibilities. reporter: they have been asked to vote in a fashion to say no, they don't want detainees brought to the united states. i'm asking you if they don't act on this and approve this plan that you just outlined, can the president still close that detention facility? mr. earnest: congress requested this plan on this time frame and we have provided it to them. they have to decide whether or not they want to take a look at this. what they have done is put in place barriers that prevented the administration moving forward. they have led us down the path of a policy t

that should be the role of congress. i do think when you look at this debate that's going on nationally on privacy, it's an important one that congress is being drug into and i think in some ways we've got to address some of the problems where you have threats to privacy. and then the balance is always, how do you make sure to protect national security and privacy at the same time? that's probably the biggest debate we have in congress. and i do think there are always ways to strike that fair balance. there are cases that pop up from time to time like we see right now, with apple, that challenge that and force everybody to really revisit are laws adequate and what is the proper role of government? sure don't want the federal government being able to tell a company how to write an operating system or how to develop hardware. so you've got to balance privacy with national security and find the proper balance. questioner: to be clear, this debate is -- [inaudible] mr. scalise: this is a much broader debate, this ladies and

but he urged congress and the american people to "step back and look at the facts. seven years after first signing an order to close guantanamo, a bruised and battle weary president obama pleading with an unsympathetic congress to give his final plan a chance. >> i don't want to pass this problem onto the next president, whoever it is, and if, as a nation, we don't deal with this now, when will we deal with it? are we going to let this linger on for another 15 years, another 20 years, another 30 years? >> over the years, some 800 prisoners have been held at guantanamo. of that, more than 500 were released to other countries during the bush administration. president obama transferred 147 more, and now there are just 91 lest. what the pentagon set congress was a four point plan to deal with those 91 and permanently close the prison camp. what president obama argues is a stain on america's reputation and a recruiting tool for america's enemies. the plan would transfer 35 detainees already cleared for release to other countries by this summer, and accelerate eligibility

it will be difficult for him to get it through congress. we are looking at whether or not this will be done for presidential action. those who know what is in this say there is nothing new and we will not learn any new. is there a potential for earning something, even the numbers and so forth? they are eligible at least for moving. >> the defense department put out some numbers and said it would be between 30 and 60 prisoners sent from guantanamo andhe u.s. has a mark desk they say they will reap the savings each year on this going forward. vonnie: the president is stepping up to the microphone or let's listen. president obama: we are using every element of our national power. lawland security, enforcement, federal, state, and local, as well as the example of our ideals as a country committed to universal values, including rule of law and him and rights. fight, we learned and we worked to constantly improve. when we find something that works, we keep on doing it. when it becomes clear something is not working as intended, when it does not a

they need congress and congress doesn't seem like it is biting. >> president says he is sensitive to many americans who are worried about terrorism. i think that would be all of us. we already have some terrorists here in this country who have gone through the legal system, in his words, he said, we manage them just fine. rich edson, thank you very much. please stay tuned to this fox news channel and this coverage of the story and all the day's breaking news both on cable and broadcast. news when you want it online all the time on foxnews.com. i'm harris faulkner in new york. the. >> this has been a give-away of a flat-screen tv. >>> what is one to do when in gum alley? >> you can't go to gum alley in california and not leave your mark. >> see what prankster rich ferguson has up his sleeve. >> i wasn't expecting that to be the trick. >>> hi, everybody, we're about to show you an incredible woman. this woman is natalie parra, she's a free diver. meaning she just dives without the assistance of scuba gear. goes underwater. holds her breath and look who her swimming buddy is here -- a h

number two, i inherited this mess from the earlier congress. everyone knows this budget bill was done, but we also got very conservative wins, very good pro-life writers, on the internal revenue service, a lot of good conservative wins. >> people hear that and they say, he's talking about compromise. die trying. die trying. >> i find myself giving civics lesson. >> am i going to get one now? >> maybe a short lesson. a bill has to pass the house, the senate. >> schoolhouse rocks. >> when you have a liberate president who won't sign conservative bills into law, they don't go into law. we put them on the president's desk, he vetoes that. we don't have the votes to override it. he's vetoed six bills we've sent to him. >> on that point realistically, if electoral puts a republican in the white house and flips the senate bag to the democrats, which a lot of people will happen, is anything going to change? >> i don't think that's going to happen. if we win the white house, i think we keep the senate. here's the point. what we are doing is we believe w

obviously a law of congress can be repealed by another congress. they want to put the basic principle of civil equality into the constitution, but another thing about the 13th and 14th and 15th amendments that is important to point out is that they all have this final clause saying congress shall enforce these amendments to by appropriate legislation. compare that to the bill of rights, the bill of rights is a set of restrictions on congress. congress shall make no law. the states were not bound by that. some of them had their own bills of rights in their state constitutions. >> there's a supreme court ruling about that. >> the 14th amendment says congress -- it now sees the states as the danger to liberty and congress can override the states when they try to deprive american citizens of their basic rights. it's a fundamental shift in the federal system from a state centered system before the civil war to one in which the federal government has far more power, particularly when it comes to defining the basic rights of all citizens. in the 20th cent

is there a solution that the congress can come up with? >> guest: it's a solution that comes in many pieces. the one refrain you constantly hear on capitol hill and from the white house is no silver bullet. they took a first step in 20 saw. backers -- 2015. backers of the cybersecurity act of 2015, most people know it as the cybersecurity information sharing act, but that was signed into law late december passed through as part of the omnibus budget bill, the $1.5 trillion budget bill. and the idea behind that is it is a first step in allowing people to understand more about the hacking threats that the country faces. backers of the bill which, you know, the white house was onboard, had broad bipartisan support. many industry groups were onboard. they said we want to be able to share more information with the government and have the government share more information with us. the idea being if they are able to more quickly see the hacking threats that are out there, perhaps one company -- say home depot -- gets hacked as they have in the pa

so libby, what exactly is the president asks the congress? >> he want as fair hearing. he wants congress to with deliberation, and thought, review the plan give consideration, but as jamie just pointed out, it is unrealistic to think the republican led congress will really dig into this plan much. and the president seems to be aware of that. >> in part because of the fear of the public, there seems to be a fair amount of opposition to closing guantanamo. if it were easy it would have happened years ago, as i have been working to try to get done. but there remains bipartisan support for closing it. and given the stakes involved for our security, this plan deserve as fair shake. >> now those by partisan opinions seem to be scarce these days. we do sernly expect congress to take this up and review the plan, but that review may be as far as it goes. >> he clearly seems to know what he is up against. what is the next step? is the realistic next step in a republican held congress? >> republicans are already reacting. we heard from the likes of john mccabe, of course a note wo

the reports to congress on the state of the nation. what is so interesting about the book in terms of its printing is that it is printed here in . washington's copy was bound by a gentleman by the name of thomas allen who also bound books very beautifully for other distinguished gentlemen in the early republic like john jay, and thomas jefferson. we see that washington and his colleagues are really putting into printed form those concepts that they had been struggling with over the constitutional convention where they have been laboring for many hot days trying to figure out exactly the shape of the new nation. they all realized that they were setting precedent to be followed. it is incredible to think of all of those thoughts being printed here, bound here in america for circulation for those who not only contributed to them but for , those who became big proponents of how to exact a form of government exactly like the one they were envisioning. >> this is the first page of the constitution right at the beginning of the book. you can

but the fact is congress, when is the last time congress declared war? this president has actually asked congress to fashion a law and pass it with regard to american intervention b in syria and iraq, and they won't do it because they don't want to be responsible. they would rather sit back, let the president take the risks and then be free to say this was a great idea or it was a bad idea. and this is true on both sides of the aisle. but from an institutional standpoint, congress is just simply not performing the way the constitution is written or the framers intended. now, on the domestic side, ilya, things seem to have improved somewhat in this last year. congress is, there are times when congress is actually trying to work and pass legislation, can that's all to the good. but the fact is congress is still basically just saying, no. it has refused to confirm presidential nominees with the result that throughout the administration the administration has been seriously understaffed at senior levels which really impedes the ability of the government to f

having served in congress, i understand that it was an easy political decision. however, the issue of reliable succession planning is another example of the many challenges presented by a long-term conservatorship. the fact is that the enterprises run businesses that rely on a highly specialized and technically skilled workforce. retaining that workforce is essential to the enterprises' success and to fhfa's success as conservator. with continuing uncertainty about conservatorships of indefinite duration and what role the enterprises will play in the future of housing finance, retaining skilled employees will be an increasing challenge. we have made these ongoing conservatorships work thus far through the dedication of staff at fhfa and the staffs of both enterprises and we, of course, remain committed to continuing this task. we know that the stakes are high for the housing finance market and for the broader economy. however, as i have indicated in my remarks today, there are substantial challenges and risks associated with the unprecedented size, complexity, an

because it's a same reason i ran for congress. if i have to look at my grand kids in a socialist country or a fascist country or the empire has imploded and i have to look them in the eye and tell them i didn't do everything i could do to save this country i would feel so bad. that's why i ran for congress, that's why i came to iowa. you might be saying didn't you look at the polls? you should have stayed in kentucky. the polls say, you know, we are not going to win. folks, i didn't look at the polls because the polls said i wasn't going to win. the polls said rand was never going to be a senator. three months ago the polls said the democrat was going to win the governors race in kentucky and now we have a tea party conservative governor in kentucky. has anybody here -- show of hands. just admit it. ever watched "house of cards." has anybody ever binge watched "house of cards"? this is a show, a fictional show, folks, okay? i'm trying to explain it to the presidential candidates. they think it's an instructional video! really, tho

the view from congress on this? >> well, i think one of the interesting things about the of howion debate is kind global the perspective is, because a lot of members will say we mandates, that apple give us access to currently which are encrypted. what if the terrorist groups can then just move to a russian based company, where there is no back door? of -- we'rest kind whack-a-mo at that point. we're just kind of beginning these conversations in earnest. i think this is the kind of thing -- it's not even like the administration has a cohesive this.ctive on this is definitely an interesting conversation. i think it's really just starting. >> what's interesting about that that you -- as you mentioned, the white house has not onessarily put its foot down this. and we can expect the white house to do that, perhaps in the coming weeks. this is something they said, in they were going to issue an updated stance on encryption policy. the new year.nd the new year has come and gone. we're into february. it.ave not seen but it

is there a solution that the federal government and a solution of the congress can have? >> guest: is a solution that comes in many pieces. the one refrain we hear on capitol hill and the white house is no silver bullet. they took a step and 2013 backers of the major sub is a bill which was ultimately called the act of 2015 which you probably know as the cybersecurity information sharing apps but that was signed into law just before the new year, late december. it was passed there is the omnibus budget will. the 1.15 chilean dollar budget bill and the idea behind that is it's a first step in terms of allowing people to understand more about the hacking threats that the country faces. backers of the bill which the white house was on board had wrought by partisans of war. many industry groups were on board. they said we want to be able to share more information with the government and have the government share more information with us and we want legal liability protections when we are doing that. if they are able to be able to quickly see the hacking threats that are out t

he's proposed things congress after congress that would fund a grander vision. unfortunately, in the context of this congress, they were not realistic. they had no chance of passing regardless, probably of who is controlled gave the nature of those proposal. nevertheless i welcome the administration's proposal for a $10 per barrel fee on oil to finance that green infrastructure. because the timing at this point of incredibly low gas prices, flirting with $1 a gallon, high oil production, swollen inventory, a $30 per barrel has become the benchmark , unfortunately the new proposal was launched as near as i can tell without consultation with people in either party or the organizations that deal with infrastructure. it was not met with organized support on behalf of the vast array of individuals and organizations who are deeply committed to rebuilding and renewing america. it simply begs the question, why not just raise the gas tax? the proposal i have introduced to raise the gas tax was widely supported by business, labor, professions, local government, environmen