on c-span, senators joni ernst and kiersten gillibrand at the senate finance committee hearing on paid family leave. >> we have been exploring how new parents can receive a benefit through social security. in return for receiving benefits, participants would defer collection of social security benefits upon retirement. we are still working through complexity but i am hopeful we can craft a policy that will benefit most families and those who need it most. >> the family act, the way we have written it, is affordable. it is the cost of a couple coffee a week. two dollars a week on average for all employees. that is not a great deal of money to know that if your mother is dying, you can be by your side or if you have a new infant or special needs child, that you can be there when you're needed. >> friday at 8 p.m., the white house correspondent, talks about covering the trump white house. >> the relation between this white house and the press, you can watch one of these press briefings whether sean spicer or sarah sanders on television, they are combative. fuedal, and they are transitioni

gillibrand made it clear they would not spare the senator because he was a leading liberal and paul kane also congressional no doubt -- democrats have called for a house ethics committee investigation into allison -- ellison.

kiersten gillibrand has not issued a statement and her press office did not respond to her request for comment on wednesday. that story follows on in paul kane's column in "the post." susanna, independent line. caller: good morning. i am serving currently as a u.n. human rights commissioner. my top story of the week has been the excellent coverage you all had of the unique hearing with regard to the child migrant detainees. it was excellent. i highly recommend people take a look at that. we have four individuals responsible in the process for clarity and transparency of these children. the chief officer in charge of the entire process -- it was actually claiming that children were missing and his whites commander jonathan . he is a public health service commissioner and responsible for the oversight of that. thatd two individuals slighted any kind of responsibility and kept pushing and would notes claim they had "authority" or funding in order to do that. we had excellent senators on the senate subcommittee for homeland security and over this process kept asking them in particular for

senators jodey ernst and kiersten gillibrand testified on different legislative proposals. this is an hour and a half. senator: the senate finance committee will come to order. i rank and welcome everyone to today's hearing, examining the importance of paid family leave for american working families. i recognize distinguished colleagues with us, senators ernst and gillibrand not here yet, but will be. i also welcome miss ivanka trump, advisor to the president and fervent advocate for children and working families. hearing, thankis you for joining, and after we make opening statements we will proceed with two panels of witnesses and two big colleagues will make comments and then a second panel of experts with testimony. my statement begins now. working families are the core of our social average and economic success. american workers have increasingly felt good about their prospects. a recent poll shows economic optimism at a full year high. for a decade, wages and growth have been stagnant. health are in education cost skyrocketing. over the past two years i have helped fam

kear kiersten gillibrand talked about the backlash for saying that he ens essentially should leave the senate. you have another woman accusing a powerful man in the age of me too. many think they believe the woman. that's how the party should present itself. some people are, of course, defending ellison. >> all right. kasie hunt, we know you'll continue to stay on top of it. good to see you. >> you, too. >> thank you. >>> along with minnesota, there are primaries today in wisconsin, connecticut, and vermont, where democrats are eyeing potential pickups. steve kornacki is here with what to pay attention to. steve at the board. great to see you there. we love when you're at the board. what are you going to be watching for today? >> a lot of stories all over the place. let's focus in on this one right now. after the 2016 election, republicans were bullish looking to 2018. dpr democrats a little nervous at this dynamic. what you see here are the democratic senators. ten of them up for re-election this year in states that donald trump carried in 2016. today, one of those states, wisconsin,