as well as those leading georgia's trade efforts? we have the port of savannah, one of the fastest growing ports in the country -- to show how we can export around the world? >> if you sweeten your deal with a slice of pecan pie, it's a deal. >> it's a deal. >> let the record reflect the commitment that's been made here today. i want to thank you for joining us, grateful for your testimony. we'll proceed the second panel. senator durben has returned. i'll return the gavel for him to introduce the witnesses for the second panel. please come forward at this time. >>> special thanks to the secretary of agriculture. and i think it's been 20 years since he's prepared me for the judiciary committee. and thank you for your services to our country. we have a second panel coming up. and i'll tell you who they are. rene custra is from my home state of illinois. they operate a grain farm in wood stock. they were dairy farmers for 30 years. it's one of the highest producing farms in illinois. good for you. received several awards for production

host: dustin in suwanee, georgia. this is michael in marietta, georgia, good morning. you say you are seeing the impacts in marietta. caller: yes, i would just like to say to all americans that the antichrist movement is a lie in our democratic party. host: michael, a different topic, do you want to talk about inflation? caller: i think it is hurting all americans and christians all over the united states. until we expose the antichrist movement. host: that is michael in marietta, georgia. we will try to stay on the topic of inflation, asking you how it has impacted your family's finances. (202)-748-8000 if you say yes. (202)-748-8001 if you say no. having this conversation as "the washington post" puts it on the front page of their newspaper "president biden is revving democrats for a massive spending package, a pep rally aims at uniting the party on a budget package and infrastructure, a $4 trillion in new spending if you combine all of what democrats are looking to spend," yesterday at the white house, jen psaki was talking about the president's rally on capitol hil

cruz: do you know how many days of early voting georgia has? >> georgia has 17 days of early vote. sen. cruz: do you know how many days of early voting arizona has? >> 18 days of early voting. sen. cruz: how about chairman's home state of connecticut? >> zero. sen. cruz: connecticut has zero? i thought early voting was racist voter suppression >> i don't think it is but certainly the allegations has been made. sen. cruz: how about delaware, home state of president biden, surely they have more? >> no early voting in delaware. sen. cruz: zero. >> not one day. sen. cruz: why are they claiming no early is voter suppression when democratic states like connecticut and delaware have zero, nada, zilch. >> because it's politically convenient to do so. sen. blumenthal: i might point out to the ranking member what his own residents told me earlier today, i wish he had been there. the effects of those laws on their practical access to the ballot place, the intimidation that has taken place in texas as a result of those laws, and in connecticut we are moving towards expanding voting access thro

in atlanta, georgia, we saw them jerked out of suitcases under tables and a lady kept running the same paper through the machine over and over again. we start with our own eyes, it was no hollywood script. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2021] >> all of this available at

he also proudly served in the georgia army and georgia air national guards for 40 years, retiring as a colonel. through every position he had, he worked better -- to better his community and improve the lives of others. one cannot visit georgia's first congressional district without seeing the profound impacts vernon made for his community. my thoughts and prayers are with his family, friends and all who knew him during this most difficult time. thank you, mr. speaker. and yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlelady from pennsylvania seek recognition? >> i seek unanimous consent to address the house for one minute, revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentlelady is recognized for one minute. >> mr. speaker, i rise today to share how the invest in america act, which we just passed, will benefit residents of my district, as well as communities across the country. year after year the u.s. congress has failed to muster the political will to properly fund american infrastructure. state and local authorities don't have

the caller from georgia, the teacher from south carolina. there is no curriculum at any level of public schools that talks about teaching anything like critical race theory. it is a law school course, people. and most of the people calling in are not going to understand that there there is no curriculum. it is for law schools and it helps people look at the world and look at laws that have evolved in this country that came out of racism. so that scares me that you can give people information and they still do not get it. host: let's go to david, who is calling from denison, texas. good morning. caller: let's straighten out a couple of things. someone talked about british slavery in the 1700s. they abolished it in 1733, and that's misleading. they did not abolish it in america, where they had british people pay for it through bonds that were paid over hundreds of years. that made slaveholders extremely rich over the years. anyway -- the three fourths of a human being thing in the constitution was something pushed by the north to reduce the po

georgia, republican line, on the capability of big tech to moderate content. go ahead. caller: thank you, c-span, and calling your great network for 30 years. i just want to say that i'm a strong donald trump supporter and i think every american ought to have the right -- i teach a leadership class and i teach our young leaders to call in and express their conservative thoughts but with no malice, to be positive. in other words, i think the democrats are spending too much money but i don't attack them personally. host: the ability of expressing content or thoughts on social media, the possibility of moderation, what do you think of back? caller: i think it ought to be, i think 230 ought to be eliminated where every american can speak out and give their thoughts. i'm a conservative, but the liberals ought to be able to speak bears, too, but don't do it with any malice, no hatred. i tell my young people to preach love, and so i do think that it ought to be eliminated so that everybody in america can call in and give their opinion. therefore, and i think that's very import

this time, especially in georgia and battleground states, blacks showed up. they stood in line despite the suppression tactics by the republicans. i think people were committed, not necessarily for biden, but wanting to stop him and not wanting to have another four years of the drama. i think people were exhausted by donald trump. guest: that's a really good point. that does show up in our data. i mentioned earlier that republican voters overall were very motivated voting for trump rather than against biden. about seven in 10 republicans said they were voting for trump rather than against biden. democratic side, democrats said they were voting against trump rather than for biden. in a lot of ways, this was an election that was all about trump on both sides. republicans were voting for trump and democrats were voting against him. host: can you look at your data biden won in 2020 and hillary clinton lost in 2016? is there anything in the data that helps explain that? guest: i think it's a lot of these are small shifts. we saw in our data this was not an overwhe

the minute the democrats won their victory in georgia, what did they do? they canceled the schedule. now we found six months later all they have done is develop a crisis. the republican conference will have the answers and solutions and lay them out to the american public. as we move into this weekend, just six months of the biden administration, highest gas prices in seven years as many want to hit the road. inflation grew at the fastest rate since 2008. crime, last weekend, more than 70 shootings in chicago. just watch the weeks before man and woman pulled from their car in broad daylight and shot and killed on the streets of chicago. just a few weeks ago, we watched a young children on a sidewalk in new york being run down. we watch crime continue to spike as the democrats made that movement just a year ago about defunding the police. the democrats defunding the police isn't enough. we watched in appropriations just yesterday. the defunding of the border as well. from c.b.p. and i.c.e. and reducing what the biden administration wants. we watched the per

the caller from georgia, the teacher from south carolina. there is no curriculum at any level of public schools that talks about teaching anything like critical race theory. it is a law school course, people. and most of the people calling in are not going to understand that there there is no curriculum. it is for law schools and it helps people look at the world and look at laws that have evolved in this country that came out of racism. so that scares me that you can give people information and they still do not get it. host: let's go to david, who is calling from denison, texas. good morning. caller: let's straighten out a couple of things. someone talked about british slavery in the 1700s. they abolished it in 1733, and that's misleading. they did not abolish it in america, where they had british people pay for it through bonds that were paid over hundreds of years. that made slaveholders extremely rich over the years. anyway -- the three fourths of a human being thing in the constitution was something pushed by the north to reduce the po

we will go to lynn in atlanta, georgia. sorry about that. (202) 748-8000 is the line to call. i seem to have hung up on all the colors. (202) 748-8000 for democrats. (202) 748-8001 for republicans. (202) 748-8002 for independents and others. your host is at fault here. i just hung up on a bunch of you and i apologize. wall street journal this morning and their headline, republicans warn of battle over debt ceiling. top set republicans say the gop may line up against any effort to raise the government's borrowing limit this year adding to the uncertainty surrounding how congress will address the issue after the limit is reinstated next month. minority whip john through said wednesday that democratic plans to advance president biden's for -- for bank trillion dollar -- 4 trillion dollar agenda could cause republicans to oppose the debt limit increase. senate minority leader mitch mcconnell made these comments earlier. they write that congress suspended the debt limit for two years in 2019 as part of a broader agreement on overall spending levels brokered by then treasury secreta

he called the secretary of state in georgia and said just go find me 11,000 votes, that's all i'm looking for. after that appalling attempt election fraud, it was exposed to the whole world rather than everybody apologizing for it and trying to figure out what we do to protect election administrators, now there is an effort to displace him and run somebody against him so they have a sufficiently advantage and subservient secretary of state in georgia. it's amazing to watch that. what about the idea of the increasingly partisan election officials were being targeted around the country should be deferred to in terms of the voting rights of the people? >> thank you so much for that question. i appreciate the point of secretary adams. the state laboratories produced some of the most disenfranchised systems. the 1890 election disenfranchised most african-americans. other southern states followed suit. the point is well taken but at the same time, sometimes they are laboratories for ill. there is a list of things that will serve as a national conception of democracy. democracy cannot be a state

the people in georgia, the runoff. they are pleading with jared because he is someone who has shown effectiveness at directing the president. pleading with him for help. he tells them no i can't. rudy giuliani is involved at this point and there is nothing i could do. some of the georgia republicans were stunned. they had never heard anything like that from him before. host: let's hear from tony in tampa on the independent line. caller: i just wanted to say i thought the media attacked his character, but as far as, especially the conservative media. they never really reported or held him accountable. he had $25 billion in the first budget to build a wall. he passed on it. he actually built 15 miles of new wall. on obamacare, he protected it. he saved catered -- he safeguarded it instead of getting rid of it. rand paul told him get rid of it and we will work later on to get it replaced. he takes the tax off of it. it became three times more popular and three times as many people signed up for it than obama's desk than o

former president trump famously placed a phone call to georgia state secretary of state. [indiscernible] we also found -- interference abounded. many officials told the truth and refuse to undermine the process -- replace the secretary of state as the chair of the state election board with a political appointee. every -- virtually every election worker we spoke with said this was fueled by misinformation about the election. lies about the election, in particular the lie that was stolen -- attacks on election officials. we compare that to [indiscernible] maricopa chi was an example in real time. the disinformation campaign they built continues. when secretary of state katie han -- election review. they began -- a personal security detail. our report included three ways congress can help. the department of justice needs to announce a task force to investigate threats and intimidation. we need funding for safety changes for physical security of election offices. the disinformation is daunting. social media companies should promote truthful information over conspiracy theorie

georgia lawmakers added it to the state laws just this year. the utah conversation is like cities saying, hey, do we want one election or two? that is faster, cheaper, better. these are very conservative cities. the virginia republican party used ranked choice voting because they have a crowded field and they wanted to get a stronger nominee. this parliamentary guide to associations recommends ranked choice voting as alternatives if you cannot vote in person repeatedly. that is the first choice but if you cannot do that, use ranked choice voting and many associations use it to get representative winners. this is not an ideological issue. it is one that is about a practical way to make more votes count. host: virginia is calling from georgia. good morning. caller: good morning. this is my first time calling in an thank you c-span for what you do to give everyone a voice to speak their opinions on subjects and titles. i am more interested in the fair voting side of where possibly the voting can be a holiday where everyone can come and vote on tha

this is a message from a viewer in georgia saying we started our own residential cleaning business in the metro area and are looking to hire. it's hard to find people who want to do the job. from north carolina, keith, your next. caller: good morning. one of the things with unemployment is that right now there is a lot of jobs that cannot be filled because people make more to stay at home than they do to go to work. the thing that will kill is now is with the gas prices and all that going so high is that once again, you will make more money to stay at home and draw than to go to work. host: based on that, what do you think the second half of the year will look like? caller: truthfully, i think the whole thing as long as we keep making the decisions that our current leadership is making is not good. you look at the states that opened up and the state stayed open. they are recovering well. the ones who didn't are not. i am a teacher and we worked, i've been face-to-face through the whole thing. we shut down at the beginning of the pandemic and went to virtual but when the new school yea

the gentlewoman from georgia, ms. williams, the vice chair of the subcommittee has five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. my top priority in congress is that those marginalized remain involved in the consideration. this means that those with marginalized are going to have access with those who are involved in. ms. hammer, how can you be communicating with those investing for the first time to be avoiding predators? >> thank for the question. protection is a key issue. i refer to several key agencies is in erisa in the department of labor is something that we think about in these markets. investors have different risk profilessh and different periods of time that you can think of, and not every asset is available for every vehicle. today, we are seeing the crypto currency amming inst younger investors through feel strongly that coordination from fsoc is important through consumer protection and that we have the data and the resources to evaluate what is happening in the market. without a official data source, we are

al is in georgia, independent, good morning. caller: good morning. i just listened to your previous guest. i am very much opposed to the idea that limited government should take precedence over the real problems that we have. what we actually have that is the problem is we have dysfunctional government and we need to have the recognition of the real problems facing us today. we do have crumbling infrastructure. interstate 16 in georgia just got close down on about a 20 mile stretch because someone hit a bridge. we have issues of infrastructure all over the country. we also have a never before in history problem we confront an climate change, and these are not simple problems, not problems that can be solved by just saving money. it is like if we are in a war, we have to do things to support the troops on the ground regardless of what it costs. the same thing is here. we need to move, as they say, boldly and put enough money into our system so we can address climate change and address the crumbling infrastructure so our children have a decent place to

they bring the fighting over voting rights to georgia today. senator amy klobuchar, former presidential candidate and minnesota democrat, has muscled a panel into the spotlight. the committee will hold a field hearing in atlanta this morning as democrats turned their attention to voting restrictions in georgia and other gop led states to start the push for an elections overhaul. betty in blacksburg, south carolina, good morning. caller: i don't like nothing that he's doing. i think he's just the worst president we have ever had and i am 76 years old. everything he is changing. like, fox news, those people are truthful. they don't lie. i can look at them and tell that they don't lie. but anyhow, everything he is doing, you look at everything he is doing, everything he done when he come in office, everything that from -- everything that trump done. the country looked better then than it does now. i've never seen the likes of it in my life. host: caller? caller: everything the republicans wanted to get, they got. the democrats need to put a stipul

over to congressman doggett, i just want greg abbott and the republican leaders in texas, florida, georgia, anywhere else to know that we are not going to stop. we are always going to push back against these sort of bigoted, racist, jim crow 2.0 style boating laws whenever you decide to bring them up. congressman doggett. -- voting laws whenever you decide to bring them up. congressman doggett. [applause] >> most of the focus around here these days is around infrastructure. it is right that we focus on crumbling bridges, but today we are here about something much more important, and that is the info structure of democracy, about broken voting rights. these courageous colleagues chose not to be accomplices by sitting at their desk and being steamrolled. it took courage to do what they are doing. i served also with thompson, at a time i was a killer bee when, -- killer bee, when 12 of us chose to depart. what can changes right here in this building. as dean thompson mentioned, what we really need today is a lyndon johnson moment. we need the power of the presidency, a great president and vic

when i look at louisville, it's similar to atlanta and georgia and that is in the southern states where you have very lax gun laws, it doesn't lend itself to a high proliferation of illegal weapons on the street. you lay on top of that there is a post-covid component to it. individuals who are marginalized are for the set on the sides we talk about young people. when you have young people without agency in their lives, often a safer area school or clubs like big brother or sisters. now you have children without anything to do. now we have the illegal guns, we have idle time on our hands, we have a real backlash against policing which has prompted but we are seeing in many areas. what we are seeing is a reluctance against officers to initiate activities to be proactive. it's not that they are anti-community, it is last year put them in a brittle space where they are not sure the committee wants them. they are concerned that if they are involved in use of force, they will immediately be vilified with protesters in front of their house and they are acutely aware given the volume of guns th

let's hear from raymond in georgia. good morning on our "oppose" line. you are next. caller: yes, sir. i oppose it because the president should listen to the generals and people in the military because they are the ones that know the ground rules more than anybody. and also, you have to think either you get involved in these conflicts to keep them from being over here flying airplanes into our buildings and hold them at bay over there. that is my opinion. host: when you hear the president and others make the case as far as the time spent in afghanistan, the money spent, the lives lost, those impacted in other ways, what you think about those in justifying the decision to pull out? caller: i understand. but you have got to also remember what did it cost america when they flew the planes into the towers in new york city? how many died there? you know, you give people like that a place to live, sooner or later, they will be here. you have got to look at it all the way around the block. and you know, to me, it is sad when you stand for somebody and then you just up and le

will there be any kind of real repercussion situations like in georgia or around the country? sec. psaki: absolutely. that is a priority of the president and the secretary of state. they will have more of a policy announcement, i don't have one to preview for you. go ahead. reporter: [indiscernible] does the president believe that his strategy to counter the iran leadership in syria is working? with the second attack we had seen in the last week? sec. psaki: he approved the strikes, one, with full legal authority, full u.s. legal authority and international authority. because in a way, that was proportionate and responded to the threats against our u.s. men and women serving and entities serving in his country -- in this country. we do not expect everything to arrive at a complete halt at the time, but he felt it was the appropriate, proportionate step. >> on cyber, the president and president putin had a meeting about ransomware. sec. psaki: i said the meetings are ongoing and there is another went next week. >> has there been one, a meeting between the 2 -- sec. psaki: i do not h

when i look at louisville, it is similar to atlanta in georgia. in the southern states, where you have lax gun laws, it does not -- it does lend itself to a high proliferation of illegal weapons on the street. so that is already in place. you layer on top of that, that there is a post-covid component to it, certainly. individuals already marginalized were further set off to the sides, particularly when you talk about youth. if you have young people who do not have stability in their lives, often that syncsort is school or a boys and girls club's or big brothers and sisters. when that is removed you have a bunch of children who do not have any place to be or anything to do with purpose. now, we have the illegal guns and kids with more idle time on their hands. we have a real backlash against policing, which, in turn, has prompted what you are seeing in many areas. i have seen this firsthand in louisville. we see a reluctance by officers to initiate activity and to be proactive. it's not that they are anti-community or do not want to do the job, to

twitter that says there is a two-year minimum weight for low income housing apartments in warner robins, georgia south of atlanta. these apartments are important is that weight -- is that way in particular unusual across the country? host: the weight is not -- guest: the weight is not unusual. those weight lists could vary from several months to several years. we all -- we absolutely need to expand the program. it is also essential that we ensure these properties are kept up. a couple of the commenters are right. much of our affordable housing stock is in poor condition due to decades of declining resources to repair these units and keep them and sanitary condition. public housing for example has been underfunded for decades. and now has a $70 billion needs backlog. it would cost that to maintain these properties in sanitary conditions and to keep it for the generations who will need it in the future. that is the additional investment we are urging in public housing, so it is safe and sanitary for people who live there today and generations who will need it. host: richard and minneapolis, minnes

i saw them going to georgia and texas to change the boats -- vo ting system in their favor. texas has changed. texas is no longer like it was, independent. i agree with her that they are trying to limit voting for hispanics and minorities. greg abbott wants to be president or vice president so he is on the side of trump all the way. there is no problem with voting in texas. they just want to make it harder. guest: ink you for your advocacy and your inc. -- thank you for your advocacy and your encouragement. i am trying to speak with our congressional leaders and ask them to please pass legislation as soon as possible to preempt what is barreling down our face in texas. host: when you here's -- hear people say " we want to make it easier to vote, harder to cheat" what do you say? guest: how does that make it easier to vote? there is nothing in it that makes it easier to vote at all, and there is nothing that even addresses cheating at all. it is a talking point, but it does not make it easier to vote if you are going to deter an elderly person from being able to receive a mai

fast forward to today, and let's take that georgia legislation, what is that legislation saying? there are going to be mandated weekend hours, expanded opportunities for malin, and expansion. putting some guardrails on what you can and can't do, sitting rules out before the election, colorado wants to do all malin and have a system for that. i'm fine with colorado deciding what colorado wants to do. i don't think it is a good idea to centralize this all in washington, but you are right and i think these issues -- there have been troubled histories and that is where it is right for the federal government to step in. we are looking at situations where how we had record turnout in voting, where you are having that happen, no one is being denied the right to vote but what we want to make sure of is, going back to the original premise, i think ensuring everyone has confidence in that system. host: back to a comment for you on text. you can send us a text at (202)-748-8003. sheila says this. until congress gets back to people over party, it makes no difference who is in control. stand

we focused much of this work in states including alabama, arizona, florida, georgia and texas. state with some of the lowest vaccination rates. across june, vaccination rates in the states grew faster than the overall natural national vaccination rate. so we will stay at it -- overall national vaccination rate. we will get vaccines to more and more family doctors so americans can get a shot at the doctor's office. we've already nearly doubled the number of medical practices, with tens of thousands of family doctors now administering shots. we will build on this progress and work with pediatricians and other health care providers to serve younger people and push to get younger people vaccinated as they see their doctors for back-to-school checkups or get physicals for fall sports. we will also intensify our efforts to bring vaccines to her many people spend the most time during the week at workplaces and on school campuses. at the same time we will work with communities to get more shots in arms. we are also mobilizing covid-19 search response teams to provide additional support

they decided if it doesn't work and you know in georgia and texas, all around me small businesses, they started a family leave policy and able to support a great expense to them this family leave to let that partner take care of his partner so they are going to testify about this and we need to help our small businesses for enormous financial pressure to deal with their commitment to their own employees who they regard as family. look over to introducing him and working with the committee to see if we can make progress on family leave. thank you. >> thank you so much. our next witness about the national cash the american federation of government employees. then we will hear from vicki, senior fellow for paid leave policy strategy in the better life lab at new america. we also have the director of policy at the independent form and finally we will hear from renÉe, interim vice president for economic justice and congressional liberation at the national partnership for women and families. the witnesses will be on muted so we can swear them in. raise your right hand, you swear or affirm th

we will see what the impact is with the georgia case that the biden administration filed, where they make more progress of about discriminatory intent and the number of -- maybe greater than we have seen in arizona. they, the heels of an election that lawmakers who passed the bill were disappointed in. that may be the follow a case that tells us how far the arizona decision is going to go. that is the case. i just want to add -- >> it was interesting for me to look at the brnovich case involving donor disclosures, not only because you had the same split among the justices, but also because of the different way the court looked at state interests versus minority interests. you saw the donor disclosure case, the board took a broad reading -- the court broad reading and said, you have never based any investigation at all on these schedule b's that have been filed, you've got other ways we can investigate conflicts of interest or fraud in charities, and the burden of these donors -- a subset of donors -- people who contributed $5,000 or more to charity and that may can -- that may includ

we will see what the impact is with the georgia case that the biden administration filed, where they make more progress of about discriminatory intent and the number of -- maybe greater than we have seen in arizona. they, the heels of an election that lawmakers who passed the bill were disappointed in. that may be the follow a case that tells us how far the arizona decision is going to go. that is the case. i just want to add -- >> it was interesting for me to look at the brnovich case involving donor disclosures, not only because you had the same split among the justices, but also because of the different way the court looked at state interests versus minority interests. you saw the donor disclosure case, the board took a broad reading -- the court broad reading and said, you have never based any investigation at all on these schedule b's that have been filed, you've got other ways we can investigate conflicts of interest or fraud in charities, and the burden of these donors -- a subset of donors -- people who contributed $5,000 or more to charity and that may can -- that may includ