ask commander in chief, the president can ask congress for a declaration of war, but congress and congress alone has the sole authority to declare war. here is president roosevelt's historic request for a declaration of war against japan in 1941. >> i ask that the congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by japan on sunday, december 7th, 1941, a state of war has existed between the united states and the japanese empire. >> as chief executive, the president is assisted by 12 cabinet departments in administering the complex functions of the federal government. these cabinet departments and their heads develop new concepts, new programs, new policies for evaluation and action by the president. the department of defense is charged with the duty of preserving, protecting and defending our national security. it is a task that today involves 3 million men and women in the army, the navy, the air force and the marine corp. the department of state handles our relations with foreign countries through ambassadors and other em bah sars who are the personal representatives of the

one, before congress especially net new congress, 117th congress. but in those recommendations into their daily operations and into the rules. more importantly, simply to prioritize simple things like centralizing human resources. and trying to paint the staff more. what the select committee was not in a position to do, was a kind of major reforms that would read balance this incentive structure that kevin is referring to. right now members of congress have an incentive to be in washington for fewer than three days a week when they are in session. in much of the time to raise money for reelection. very little of that time actually doing the hard work of reauthorization oversight in painstaking detail to things like writing amendments and legislative negotiations. what would need to happen is a much larger holistic effort that would do a couple of things. one, go well beyond the low hanging fruit. really try to restructure the congress as they affirm branch price is what kevin was referring to to make it function in this political context for unit tw

the vetoed ill and message are sent back to congress, and this ends the matter unless congress can pass the bill over the veto by a two thirds vote of both houses. and then it becomes a law without the president signature. the president can also appear in person before a joint session of congress to explain a veto, or to propose new legislation. congress is then free to accept or reject the president's suggestions and then it starts all over again. the great lawmaking assembly line goes on, passing bills, creating laws as diversified as the nation's life itself. construction, labor, defense,

congress. democrats now control 222 house seats and republicans have 211. there are two vacancies in new york's 22nd district and louisiana's fifth district. speaker pelosi spoke on the floor after being elected. the clerk of the house: the ouse will be in order. the total number of votes cast is 427 of which the honorable nancy pelosi, of the state of -- ornia has received 216 the honorable kevin mccarthy of the state of california has received 209. the honorable tammy duckworth of the state of illinois has received one vote. the honorable that keem jeffries of the state of new york has received one vote. therefore, the honorable nancy pelosi of the state of california having received a majority of the votes cast is dual elected speaker of the house of representatives for the 117th congress. the clerk of the house: the clerk follows the following committee to escort the speaker-elect to the chair. the gentleman from maryland, mr. hoyer, the gentleman from california, mr. mccarthy, the gentlema

congress. it was noted, 216 goats is below .18 normal magic number she is the third speaker in the last 25 years to win with less than 218 votes. that was newt gingrich and john boehner. they had larger majorities and faced more defections. the clerk of the house: the house will be in order. the house will be in order. the honorable nancy pelosiate o -- ornia has received 216 the honorable kevin mccarthy of the state of california has received 209. the honorable tammy duckworth of the state of illinois has received one vote. the honorable that keem jeffries of the state of new york has received one vote. therefore, the honorable nancy pelosi of the state of california having received a majority of the votes cast is dual elected speaker of the house of representatives for the 117th congress. the clerk of the house: the clerk follows the following committee to escort the speaker-elect to the chair. the gentleman from maryland, mr. hoyer, the gentleman from california, mr. mccarthy, the gentleman

congress, he is a veteran of dc media organizations, he's observed congress from positions at msnbc, and the broadcasting board of governors, new media strategies, he's a native of washington and grew up attending temple i got and his families are member of temple shalom in northern virginia. "when rabbis bless congress: the great american story of jewish prayers on capital hill" is his first book. he's going to be in conversation with carl cannon, the washington bureau chief of real clear politics and executive editor of real clear media group, carl has covered every presidential campaign and major political convention since 1984. he's received the two most prestigious honors for white house coverage, gerald r ford prize for distinguished reporting of the presidency and the aldo beckman award for excellence and presidential news coverage. i think we are in really good hands for tonight. i want to welcome carl and howard.thank you guys. >> pleasure. >> thank you kyra, very much, thank you to all. >> howard, i'm going to start with a question about your book, my inspiration for this q

this year i am proposing that congress provide the full 300 million dollars that the congress last year authorized to do just that. (applause) and i hope the congress will put the money where the authorization is. (applause) i believe this is an essential contribution to justice and the public order in the united states. and i hope that these grants can be made to the states, and they can be used effectively to reduce the crime rate in this country. but all of this is only a small part of the total effort that must be made i think chiefly by the local governments throughout the nation. if we expect to reduce the toll of crime that we all detest. frankly, as i leave the office of the presidency one of my greatest disappointments is our failure to sigar passage of a license and rescue registration act for firearms. (applause) i think if we have passed that act, it would reduce the incidence of crime. i believe that the congress should adopt such a law, and i hope that it will add a not too distant date. (applause) in order to meet our long-standing commitment to make government as efficie

special information they get as members of congress. we've done quite a bit of work on this and we were happy in the during the obama administration to get legislation with modest steps forward to lease requiring members of congress to disclose their stock trading while they are serving in congress. but they are not prohibited from doing it. the better move would be to say you can't be in the business of trading individual stocks while you are in congress. you can take a break from that or do it "after words" but while you are in congress you can't take the chance that your trading on special information you have. there is evidence they do better than the market and since trading while in the market is not a qualification for getting to congress there's a lot of reason to speculate and worry that in fact, they are leveraging their inside information for their own personal trading benefit. >> host: what rules are in place, ethics, lobbying rules are in place for the 117 congress and the house led by democrats? >> guest: well, they will h

states declared to prepare the 115th congress -- 116 congress adjourned. again, that is the last time the wanted 16 congress will have a quick pro forma session from the house. again, before they gavel in of the 117th congress. and a lot of activity expected when it comes to those efforts. you heard us talking about it this morning. pay attention to both c-span and c-span2 throughout the course of the day. if you are on c-span, then you can follow along with the actions of the house, which we cover gavel-to-gavel every time it comes in. if you go through c-span2, that of the action of the senate. again, where you can see every day, playing out, but today particularly, the actions of the 117 congress on this, it's opening day. thanks for joining us on this extended program of washington journal. another edition comes your way at 7:00 tomorrow morning. see you then.

that was true in the last congress and was reiterated on january 3rd in the new congress, that there would be no tours allowed, even tours given by members. and so, the only reason you'd have a visitor is on official business. so to see these groups around the capitol complex was really striking. and given what we know the next day, what happened, it's really shocking that those ties were made. and it was so odd to see them that my chief of staff called the sergeant-at-arms to say, what is going on? and he reiterated, the only way these people could have gotten into the capitol complex was with a member or that member's staff. and we now know that those violent groups that attacked the capitol complex had inside knowledge of the capitol grounds. >> do you know which members of congress or which congressional staff members allowed these groups into the capitol and were showing them around? i know that you haven't talked publicly about that yet, but do you know that information? have you conveyed that information to, for example, the house sergeant-at-arms? >> so, rachel, as you showed

congress passes the law, congress passes a budget, appropriates money to do stuff. nixon said forget that. he instead would take control of that process himself. and so he started -- you heard tom brokaw say in that report from july 1974 about impounding money. that's what nixon was doing. he started doing something called impounding money that had been appropriated by congress. this is something he did not just with small stuff but with billions of dollars. congress would appropriate money, fund a program or an agency. if nixon didn't like that program or agency, he decided he had the power to take all that money and refuse to allow it to be spent. he would impound the funding that had been appropriated by congress, thus delegating to himself what they call the power of the purse. like our country or don't, that's fundamental to who we are as a republic. it's congress that gets to decide how money is spent in the government, and nixon in his presidency took that power for himself. and congress was very unhappy about it. and so when president nixon was on the ropes,

the 117th congress. let's listen in for just a moment. >> it is my honor to welcome you to the first day of the 117th congress. we're here with the support of our families, and the faith of our neighbors to be their voice in washington. since congress first sat in this room, americans have always found a way to ensure that their needs were top of the mind. in fact, when abraham lincoln served here, members of congress only had small desks on the house floor to store their work. one of those desks now sits in the cannon office building tunnel. as members travel back and forth to the nation's capitol, they are compelled to carry all of their work with them. there were no filing cabinets. no servers in the cloud or offices. their desk was their office. members rarely went anywhere without physical librarying their constituents' concerns with them. these small desks are a timeless reminder to every american that the house is made to represent you, the people. and that it is the responsibility i welcome and e

and congress was very unhappy about it. and so when president nixon was on the ropes, when he was embroiled in scandal and on the press is miss of having to resign the presidency in disgrace, richard nixon signed a new law that cut himself short, signed a new law that was designed to stop him from being able to do this thing that he had been doing. he signed a new law that would prevent any future president from bow guarding the budget, from bog arding money away from congress the way he had been. it gave congress a whole bunch of new power when it came to the government, to constrain a government who was sticking his nose where it didn't belong. and that law, which nixon in extremis at the very end signed, that law included one tweak, one little power that congress gave itself with this new law. it's a quirky little thing that they could do only once per budget since congress was supposed to do a budget once per year, it meant congress could do this only once per year. it was originally designed in the that bill that brush

but if congress gets to decide which states get to vote in the electoral college, then clearly congress is selecting the president, not the people. whichever party controls both houses of congress would control the presidency. the public would never tolerate congress pick be the president instead of themselves so they abolish the electoral college as many of our colleagues would like to do and the end of the electoral college, of course, means the nation will be governed by a handful of big loose states and regions that can drum up very large numbers. mr. president, the constitution does not assign to congress the responsibility to judge the worthiness of state election processes nor its adherence to its rules. that's the responsibility of the states and the courts. let me conclude with this. i voted for president trump. i publicly endorsed president trump. i campaigned for president trump. i did not want joe biden to win this election. there's something more important to me than having my preferred candidate sworn in as the next president. that's to have the american people's chosen ca

the 117th congress is made up of more women than the previous congresses. you have 27 freshmen, nine democratic and 18 republican women. there are 26 females in the senate. 17 democrats and nine republicans. then here you have 89 democrats and 27 republicans total and comes from the center for women and politics. 143 women serving in the 117's congress, the most ever at one time. previous record for women serving in congress was 127 in 2019. also, 6 a note for military service. 91 veterans, 17 in the senate, 74 in the house. that's the lowest level since world war ii and there are 63 republicans and 28 democrats. five women total and 15 freshmen total that are veteran and 13 served in the 19 of r -- 1960's or earlier, 50 served after 2000 and the record is military times and most by state delegation is the state of texas with nine. let's continue to watch as they continue with this quorum call in the house. people ere additional to e house who would like record their presence. time has expired. 427 have recorded their presence. a quorum is present. credenti

it is up to congress. congress needs to say this is a priority, we are going to fund it and we are going to measure your progress on it. because we know if we don't put it as a measurement point, then it gets to be something that you talk about, but you don't say, did you do it? use the money for that technology transfer. there is already a lot of it going on. new mexico has actually started to bring in some young people who want to work on these issues, and we need to give it more funding. there is a great brookings diversifyinger these innovation technology sites. see congressto funded and new mexico be one of those places, because we have the ingredients. -- congress fund it and new mexico be one of those places, because we have the ingredients. should, -- >> should congress democrats pressure the senate, even if democratic bills don't have much senate,in the to pressure majority leader mitch mcconnell and other senators who don't want to act on a house agenda? or should the house to what it kind of dat

congress. washington journal is next. ♪ it is the washington journal for january 3. it is the first sunday of the new year and the opening of the 117th congress. --er things to watch out for this new congress must deal with -- the election and a new president. we welcome your thoughts on the opening day and what you are expecting from the 117th congress. here is how you can call us this foring --(202) 748-8000 democrats. republicans.1 for and (202) 748-8002 for independents. a five hour program. we will take you to the opening session on both the house and senate sides, but today on the house side a lot to watch out for and here to walk us through it is john mcardle. morning, john. caller: -- from capitoladline hill newspaper says "the house prepares for an opening day unlike any other and certainly a lot of changes will happening from the usual procedures c-span viewers are used to watching. you talk about the ceremony and procedures -- they look fairly normal. there is the call to order, an

the vetoed bill and message are sent to congress. this ends the matter unless congress contests the bill over the veto by a two-thirds vote of both houses, then it becomes a law without the president's signature. the president can also appear in person before a joint session of congress to explain the veto or propose new legislation. congress is then free to accept or reject the president's suggestion. that it starts all over again. the great lawmaking assembly-line goes on, passing bills, creating laws as diversified as the nation itself. harbor construction, labor, national defense, government departments, regulation of transportation, foreign trade, taxes, bills, bills, bills. every act refers to the constitution which governs the rules, acting two representatives of the people, rules for the people, rules which govern the great enterprise of democracy that is america. ♪ ♪ >> forward, march! [marching music]

in 1792, congress passed hamilton's tax plan. it included increased tariffs on foreign goods, so higher than the tariff of 1789. it also included a whiskey tax that would be imposed on whiskey distilled in the united states. hamilton hoped that by dealing with past deaths, by establishing a stable currency through the bank, and by providing a steady revenue stream into the national government, that he would make running a national government easier. he was right. and he would make the national government more respectable and trustworthy. and arguably, he made it last at all. at the same time though, hamilton's plan created opportunities for old enemies of the federalists. it gave them the issues that they had not had a first. and it also created new enemies of federalist policies. and so, hamilton's financial plan would be part of the wedge between the increasing divide in this era between the federalists and what would be the opposition. some people are still angry about how this new government was formed. they are still anti fe

the congress and the executives have the primary responsibility. i doubt if many members of this congress, who live more than a few blocks from here, would there leave their cars in the capital garage and walk home tonight. this year, this administration sent to the congress 13 separate pieces of legislation dealing with street crime, narcotics, crime in the district of columbia. none of the bills have reached my desk for signature. i am confident congress will act now to enact the legislation i waste before you last year. we in the executive have done everything we can under existing law, but new and stronger weapons are needed in that fight. [applause] while it is true that state and local law enforcement agencies are the cutting edge in the effort to eliminate street crime, burglaries, murder, my proposals to you have embodied my belief that the federal government should play a greater role in working in partnership with these agencies. that is why 1971 federal spending for local law enforcement will double that budgeted for 1970. [applause] the

congress should get back to work. host: when was the last time you think we had a functional congress? lifetime and my i'm going to be 75 next week. the one or two things congress can do to get on track and move towards that. ? face: president biden will a very full plate -- more like a smorgasbord -- and he will have to deal with the two obvious national emergencies, we face a very dark winter with rising unemployment as the number of new cases into deaths from covid-19 sores into the into theere -- soars stratosphere. the economy cannot reopen until we have that under control. of -- we areons going to have millions of billions of new unemployment claims, we will have businesses down-- inof shutting danger of shutting down. ere. have to start th i suggest they tried to demonstrate to the american people that they legislate. that may mean focusing on parts of the problem rather than the whole problem. i am convinced whatever the possibilities are for comprehensive immigration simply if they built status ofng the those

to pass the $2000 check in this congress either before or after dinner 20? >> we will pass the rules package daystar committee can be constituted and we can begin to move bills to the floor of the united states of representatives and i anticipate that will happen and once that occurs we can begin the process of addressing substantive legislation and joe biden has been clear that the coronavirus relief package that was passed at the end of the proceeding congress is just a down payment on the type of relief that we need to provide to the american people on a going forward basis and remains to be seen from the administration perspective, whether that includes 2000-dollar relief checks from my perspective and i think that's unfinished business that should be continued as part of our efforts to provide relief to the american people. the coronavirus relief package was meant as a short-term intervention for the first few months of the year and let's see where we are at in terms of how we move forward in the context of the impact the pandemic continues to have on e

colleen it is mitch mcconnell there the members of congress are but. what impact has the violence not on the proceedings there on capitol hill. terry this was a wake up call for the senators from the lawmakers they saw how this division of the united states has almost killed in this country also a wake up call on the impact of donald trump's rhetoric some are even saying that adult trump is unfit to remain in office for the next 14 days president trump published a video you already talked about it on twitter after this riots asking his supporters to go home and to repeat it again after the riots and after we all learned that this woman was shot and killed he is to repeat it i know your feelings and this was an election with fraud so immediately afterwards his account was locked on twitter and on facebook now in the senate most of the republican senators who are planning to object to the electoral vote of several swing states that voted for a democrat joe biden have rejected their objection like for example the republican candidate for the senate from g

we have thought about congress -- talked about congress. i am trying to distill the essential lessons we have to teach our students and all americans. just to review, congress is supposed to separate powers and have checks and balances in order to ensure slow reason. the president is not supposed to communicate directly with the people and is supposed to be chosen by a wise electoral college so that he or she can exercise independent judgment. now we come to the judiciary, the least dangerous branch, as hamilton called it. and the most dangerous branch as alexander bickel called it, because the judiciary could be transformed beyond the framers view. madison saw the bill of rights as an inspiration to the people that would promote self-restraint and reason. he initially opposed the bill of rights on two grounds, unnecessary and dangerous. unnecessary because the constitution itself is a bill of the congressanting -- and dangerous because madison assumed that our rights or natural and it from god or nature and not government that they were so

obviously, legislation, anything that was in the 116th congress died in the 116th congress. do you see an effort at the beginning of the 117th congress to move to thousand dollar checks? guest: that is a great question. i really think it is worth a dire andjust what devastating situation so many americans are in right now. because of president trump's the-minute haggling for $2000 checks, millions of americans unemployment insurance actually expired. those $600 checks that were ultimately passed should have been sent out per individual already, or $1200 for married couples. on decembermailing 30. hopefully that is providing some relief to americans. democrats and some republicans supported the $2000 checks who americans need a system it's -- assistance. economists too. they really need this money. , the $2000 checks did not ultimately make it through congress. down 2020ound without pushing back. it could potentially gain more traction again, as has been backed by a pretty odd combination, which is president trump and kratz and -- and democrats and a handful of republicans. m

congress has responded to this by

his contacts in congress and outside of congress were very good. when the word of the interruption became public, to himgot off a letter and he explained it, am quoting from him right now. the entire proposal was a cabal : "the cabal against washington." i don't see how it could be anything else. and even more revealing letter was written by a member of congress, joseph reed, pennsylvanian. reed served asr, an aid to washington. his relationship with washington was quite tepid. 1776, washington had inadvertently become aware of anotherndence between american general, generally and joseph reed. it was clear that reed had become critical of washington and impressed with gates. theington, in the midst of 1776 crisis, let it go but his neveronship with reed really healed and never had the warmth it originally had. confronteded was about the abruption into canada, interpreted old against thea shot commander-in-chief. he wrote to another pennsylvania. -- pennsylvanian. in any form at measures on adopting -- can never agree to. either change the hands or

plan b would be to expel the members from congress. and that's the movement we see right now. >> part of what we're talking about is just intense coordination that went into the attacks. the washington post reports the fbi is inding more evidence detailing the coordination of january 6 attack. however they write inventoryings caution there is a important legal distinction distinction between gathering like minded people for a political rally protected by the first amendment. and organizing armed assault on the seat of american government. how do you distinguish which people go into which category >> well, you're reflecting the incredible challenge in front of the fbi right now. which is they're looking to stop the next domestic terrorism attack. and they're trying to distinguish between the aspirational the guy on his couch eating potato chips who might never act out and one moving toward the violent act. with regard to what's already happened, they are already challenged. but i'm encouraged by something. yesterday, alicia, we saw the

republican members of congress didn't wear masks. they refused to wear masks in that enclosed secure location, and now we're on, you know, just in the last 24, 48 hours our third member of -- democratic member of congress who just tested positive for covid because they were sheltering in that place. i, myself, did not even feel safe going to the -- that extraction point because there were qanon and white supremacist sympathizers and frankly white supremacist members of congress in that extraction point who i know and who i have felt would disclose my location and allow me to -- who would create opportunities to allow me to be hurt, kidnapped, et cetera. and so i didn't even feel safe around other members of congress. as for myself i had a pretty traumatizing event happen to me, and i do not know if i can even disclose the full details of that event due to security concerns. but i can tell you that i had a very close encounter where i thought i was going to die. and you have all of those thoughts where, you know, at the end of your li

to the congress. that being said, it's important that we respect those votes and i believe that -- that our system for remote voting should apply with respect to votes cast in committee of the whole in the same manner it applies to votes cast on the floor. that being said i commend the further strides we are making in this rules package. as a former prosecutor and council on the ethics committee i applaud the tightening of whistleblower laws. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman is recognized. ms. plaskett: as former council on -- counsel on the house ethics committee i'm pleased with the tightening of whistleblower laws and appreciate the economic fairness to recommend policies to make the economy work for everyone. i expect this to be a positive development and i urge my colleagues to adopt this package. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from oklahoma. mr. cole: thank you very much, madam speaker. i yield three minutes to my very good friend, the distinguished gentleman from l

congress, congress, congress we need you to come and help us. it's not about wall street or main street. we need our streets to be taken care. the federal resources included in the america rescue plan would enable county leaders to make strategic investments to get to the task of vaccinia residents mitigating the spread of the deadly distractive virus. these unprecedented times for unprecedented cooperation and bipartisanship, both parties and i stress, both parties should work together and pass this american rescue plan. now we'll handed back over to mayor sub tenent thank you all for listening. >> thanks commissioner and thanks to my colleagues for their salient points about why it's so important for congress to work now on the biden land and why we need the rescue now and move as quickly as possible. image before you if you have a question put in your name and which outlet you are within the chad and i will call on you. we also have tom cochran and matt chase of the national association of counties on the call as well if you have questions fo

congress wanted to retain its own power. jointlybers of congress to control the outcome. structurally, the statute makes a key decision on whether or not submissionince one of electoral votes, one package. here are votes we want you to count. if there is a single submission, the statute has one set of procedures. it is if there are rival submissions from the same state, each claiming to be the true electoral vote. complicatedn more when that has happened, as in 1876, for example. procedures are different in that scenario. that has been largely untested throughout american history. one of the big questions as we think about tomorrow is are we going to see the rival submissions scenario in any of the states that have been under discussion? i have not seen a clear indication on whether the vice president's office thinks it is going to bring a single submission of electoral votes from a state like arizona or there has been talk about alternative electors having met in december and whether this would be an example of that rival submissions scenario. see some senators objecting

so members of congress going back into that joint session of congress so they can continue certifying the votes to josh hawley the senator from missouri we are told getting reports that he still plans to make a fuss about the certification of the votes at least in pennsylvania there have been reports that members of the republicans are going to back off on some of their of on some of their questions and some of contention on the certification of on some of those votes. a couple of other tweets who want to show you real quick. okay one take you right now the u.s. senate where that joint session of congress is once again in session. all right, thanks president >>is presiding once again over but let's listen in for a moment. >>violence never wins. freedom wins. and this is still the people's house. and as we reconvene in this chamber. the world will again witness. the resilience and strength of our democracy. for even in the wake of unprecedented violence and vandalism at this capital. the elected representatives. of the people of the united states. have assembled again. on the very same

the president can also appear in person before a drink section of congress -- joint session of congress to explain the veto or proposed new legislation. congress is then free to accept or reject the president's suggestion. that it starts all over again. the great lawmaking assembly-line goes on, passing bills, creating laws to diversify the nation's life itself. harbor construction, labor, national defense, government departments, regulation of transportation, foreign trade, taxes, bills, bills, bills. and every act informs the region constitution of the united states, which fixes the rules, rules made by the people themselves, acting through representatives of the people. roles for the people. which govern the great enterprise of democracy that is america. ♪ ♪

eastern from the statehouse, to congress, to the white house. watch it all on c-span, on the go at c-span.org, or listen on the free c-span radio app. ♪ freshman in the 100 70th congress. fully for our republican. house minority leader -- 44 are republican. house minority leader kevin mccarthy organized a photo opportunity with them on the steps of the u.s. capitol. [cameras shuttering] >> very good. i would like to have -- yup. [chatter] [laughter] >> if i could have you two

to attack other members of congress, to incite an attack on other members of congress, and to do so as we're doing our constitutional duty to certify the election. something that every member of congress should have really held sacred, an oath they took to the constitution to perform that, they will have to be kicked out of congress if that is found to be true. >> congresswoman mikie sherrill, democrat of new jersey, u.s. navy veteran. thank you for your service both in congress and in the military, and thanks for your time this evening. >> it's always an honor to serve. and thanks so much for having me, rachel. >> thank you. all right. we'll be right back. stay with us. if you need the key to fresh laundry try gain flings. they have more freshness ingredients compared to bargain liquid detergent. they have 3 super powered ingredients that fight stink oxi boost febreze odor remover and concentrated detergent. try gain flings and smell the difference. [♪♪] every time you touch a surface, bacteria is left behind. try microban 24. it kills 99.9% of bacteria and viruses initially, and

well meanwhile democrats have won control of the senate and congress in the u.s. by winning those 2 senate seats that were up for grabs in georgia raphael warnock and george also seen here with president elect joe biden both secured a narrow victories over republican incumbents borna a baptist preacher is the 1st black senator in georgia's history and also for become the senate's youngest member at the age of $33.00 there was a record turnout for the runoff elections with more than 4000000 people casting their ballots in george. w. is peter is part of our u.s. elections team and joins us now for more on this peter it seems the democrats have indeed taken those 2 senate seats for georgia what does this mean for joe biden's presidency right i mean this is got to be a huge sigh of relief not just for democrats but obviously by the ministration it means that for the 1st time in 10 years democrats now control both congress and the white house and last time that happened keep in mind that president barack obama passed health care reform which was a huge historic deal bi

some members of congress worry that invoking the 25t amendment would further enflame tensions lester >> all right pete williams tonight, thank you, pete. >>> we are learning more about what happened inside the capitol, including harrowing accounts of those trying to protect themselves my colleague savannah guthrie after a long evening anchoring coverage together last night is there for us tonight. good evening. >> reporter: lester, good evening i was so struck by an interview i heard with a member of the press locked in the house chamber yesterday. she said she calle her mom saying, don't worry. i'm in the safest place on earth but as we know now it was not. 24 hours later, as the sun sets on washington, memories of that mob breaching the capitol still haunting members of congress who were there. >> what i felt just 24 hours ago in the capitol behind us is something that i haven't felt since i was in afghanistan. >> reporter: congressman jason crow, a former army ranger, trapped inside the house gallery and comforting his colleague. >> to think that as a member of congress in 2021 in

to attack other members of congress, to incite an attack on other members of congress, and to do so as we're doing our constitutional duty to certify the election. something that every member of congress should have really held sacred, an oath they took to the constitution to perform that, they will have to be kicked out of congress if that is found to be true. >> congresswoman mikie sherrill, democrat of new jersey, u.s. navy veteran. thank you for your service both in congress and in the military, and thanks for your time this evening. >> it's always an honor to serve. and thanks so much for having me, rachel. >> thank you. all right. we'll be right back. stay with us. us but, when used at the first sign, abreva can get you back to being you in just 2 and a half days. be kinder to yourself and tougher on your cold sores. each febreze car vent clip gives you up to 30 days of fresh air. so, you can have open window freshness... even with all the windows up. enjoy fresh, any time, with febreze. struggling to clean tough messes with wipes? try mr. clean magic eraser sheets. just wet, squ

and how congress worked and what are let's go back to talking that when congress makes changes to its wrules what are the likely consequences of that and why is that happening and that's the stuff we do. >> host: the house is getting to make changes to the rules today and i will be the main action on the house floor to, date with e second day of the 117th congress and begins at 10:00 a.m. eastern when the house gavels in and we will of course be taking either live on c-span for gavel to gavel coverage. when they do but a few minutes off with molly reynolds this morning. donald has been waiting in alexandria, virginia, independent, good morning. >> caller: good morning. first thanks to c-span and happy new year to the c-span crew. i would like -- you're welcome, i would like to make a rules change to allow the supreme court justice roberts to swear in biden as soon as the victory is announced on the congress or at the congress that he has won the election. >> host: donald, what are you worried about for the 15 days in between? >> caller: i'm worried about what donald trump might do. th

determining how the laws are made workable is not the job of congress. this task falls to a powerful but little-known group of bureaucrats called regulators. to some, they are more powerful than many of the lawmakers themselves. what they do affects nearly every part of our daily lives and has become one of the hotly -debated aspects of government today. our story begins in 1980, the last year of the carter administration. in a residential section of the nation's capital, david hawkins begins his daily commute. ♪ hawkins is a federal regulator for the environmental protection agency. his job, like the ever-changing face of this city, is the result of the relentless growth of our government. a century ago, it was relatively simple. under the great capitol dome, laws were passed and the nation followed. but today, our laws are many and complex. every morning, this city's grand avenues are filled with an army of 100,000 federal workers, regulators whose sole task is to implement and enforce the will of congress. to those who defend it, regulation is an ab

pursuant to house resolution 7, 117th congress. such designation, i have the honor to report that on 2021, at fort lauderdale, florida, i administered the oath of office hastings. mr. hastings took the oath u.s.c. 3531. 5 i have delivered two copies of the oath signed by mr. hastings of the house of representatives. signed sincerely, debbie wasserman schultz, member of congress. the speaker pro tempore: under clause 5-d of rule 10, the chair the house that in light of the administration of the oath to the gentleman from whole number of the house is 431. to clause 8 of rule 20, the chair will postpone further roceedings today on motions to suspend the rules on which the yeas and nays are ordered. the house will resume proceedings on postponed questions at a later time. for what purpose does the gentlewoman from new york seek recognition? mrs. maloney: i move the house agree to e rules and 21.bill h.r. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: a bill to enhance the innovation, security, and of c

we need two thing one, for congress to especially in the new congress, the 117th 117th congress -- to adopt many of the recommendations into daily operations and rules and more importantly simply to prioritize simple things like centralizing human resources and trying to pay staff more. the select committee was not in a position to the kinds of major reforms that would rebalance these -- this incentive structure that kevin is referring. to right now member owes congress have an incentive to be in washington for fewer than three days a week when they're in session, much of that time to raise money for re-election, and very little of that time actually doing the hard work of legislative, authorization, oversight and the painstaking detail into things like writing amendments and legislative negotiations. so, what would need to happen would be a much larger holistic reform effort that would do a couple of things. one go well beyond the low-hanging fruit and really try to restructure the congress as a firm or as an enterprise as kevin was referring to, to make it function given the current

congress passes the tariff of 1789. the tariff put about 5% import duty onto imports coming into the united states. president george washington moved quickly to set up the executive branch. under the articles of confederation, if you will remember the executive functions of the national government took place in three committees. committees of congress that ran the government. george washington set up the same three executive functions as executive departments now under the president's new office that the constitution had created. the department of state under thomas jefferson, the department of war under henry knox, and the department of the treasury under alexander hamilton. the combination of the powers of this new constitution and his position as secretary of the treasury gave alexander hamilton the perfect opportunity to correct the economic problems under the articles of confederation and to reassure the wealthy financiers and merchants who he believed were essential to the solvency of the united states and also it

but if congress gets to decide which states get to vote in the electoral college, then clearly congress is selecting the president, not the people. whichever party controls both houses of congress would control the presidency. the public would never tolerate congress pick be the president instead of themselves so they abolish the electoral college as many of our colleagues would like to do and the end of the electoral college, of course, means the nation will be governed by a handful of big loose states and regions that can drum up very large numbers. mr. president, the constitution does not assign to congress the responsibility to judge the worthiness of state election processes nor its adherence to its rules. that's the responsibility of the states and the courts. let me conclude with this. i voted for president trump. i publicly endorsed president trump. i campaigned for president trump. i did not want joe biden to win this election. there's something more important to me than having my preferred candidate sworn in as the next president. that's to have the american people's chosen ca