An hour with Lynn Jerkins - Encore

today's kbr prisons was originally broadcast on may second few thousand fifteen from the dole institute of politics at the university of kansas k pr prisons an hour with us representative lynn jenkins i'm kate mcintyre lynn jenkins was elected to congress in two thousand eight she is now serving her fourth term representing the second district in kansas which includes topeka and much of eastern kansas excluding the kansas city metro area jenkins gave the annual dog lecture on april twenty six two thousand fifteen speaking here for fuel institute director thank you so much for the invitation to be here at a stair staff humbling experience especially to be at the dole institute at my one of my mentors and heroes bob dole as delighted to see the chancellor i witnessed today thank you for reading ask me after listening at the caymans as say and i'm sure if i read the other two i think they got it all figured out but i don't think they need

any advice and counsel from may have that i think leadership is just an blooming where your planted in that is so him weren't for all of us and to for us to teach our children when they're very young as i got i started in elected office when i was treasurer of the prince of he's preschool now wear a winter hat to preschool and iran further treasurer that position of the preschool and then i have my next elected position was set the j scheidler pto president when haley was in kindergarten bear and you know the work bet i dead man and those positions are only is just as important as the work that i do today it doesn't matter now what position you find yourself as long as you find your passion is work incredibly hard to make this work

better now where every worker that i think that's just did that essence of lead in the polls about your upbringing and education and can i get interested in politics you know i grew up like many of un rule kansas i care when a dairy farm in holden we mapped a hundred head holstein cattle at every morning and night and air my parents were leaders in and the true sense that they knew they had to get involved if they wanted to make their community better and so i learned as a child and got involved and no church started in a domestic law to help you they always were involved in republican politics and i remember as a child probably had no mirrors five years old walking for bob dole in the jackson county for

each day parade with a sandwich board and my friend back in those dorky a styrofoam caps with a bumper sticker across dead because that's what she dared to act to make your country better was supported the candidate of your choice and scientists were honoring knowing that that was important so as an adult i nearer to what my parents had finally got involved in my community you know running for things like a treasure of the entities preschool and ally would walk door to door for the local republican candidates in my neighborhood and one day i was minding my own business practicing public accounting there in topeka and my state representative and retired ants so some friends that i made and republican politics over the year it's called uncivil why didn't she run for that

seat and i thought they were nuts at first but you know my kids were getting ready to start elementary school and as were all seen in the headlines recently the state government's main function is to find a through twelve education as a very important issue i've always worked on the tax side i was concerned about similar things happening with pakistan so anyway i decided those random just been incredibly lucky as far as being in the right place for another opportunity and so that's how i got started so i always tell the kids you know they can be careful what you say to somebody you could find yourself running for public office said it's gonna stumble into it the way that i did did you ever have a clue when he first ran that you'd wind up the fifth ranking member of the us house majority and now never a goal of learning that you know i would add a you know some nato has already run for office as a young mother i would've said they were nights at

that i guess it's just important i can't think of anything more important to be doing right now and i see opportunities present themselves and i try my best to make a difference so for the for short time i have on this earth as sony and i'm just delighted to be there trying to make a difference and that you're the vice chair of the house republican conference can you explain about what congress does and then what we are rollers but years ok we started two party system so most everyone in the house is either a registered republican or a democrat and so they it compliments well with either the republicans or the democrats now in the senate there i think is an independent and i think they caucus with the democrats that so right now republicans are in the majority in the house and the senate and we have like two hundred and forty six members and so at least once a week we

meet with our members and the democrats meet with them rumors that to get everyone up to speed on some of the things going on in other committees to talk about messaging to talk about a vision of where we want to take the country and so within those two groups they elect leadership and they're so not only do i ran to represent the people of kansas and the second district then once i got there i asked my colleagues all of the republicans in the house and to give me an opportunity to be a leader within that conference and so it's at position that we don't let you know the two hundred forty six of us all cast ballots than we elect our leadership and so that john boehner is the speaker kevin mccarthy is the leader and steve's gleeson stairwell and the worse rogers is the chairwoman and then i'm the vice chair and so that that's the leadership team on the

republican side of the aisle and then the democrats elected by closely is danny boy year and they are leaders on their side is that how you a number of people been very critical of congress and saying it's a do nothing congress blame the republicans what's your response to what has been incredibly frustrating the civilians inside out there has elected in the lead for the first time and now i was just getting sworn in as president we had less closely ran the house's speaker house and harry reid was leader of the senate and so my first two years i mean one instance we were wearing locked out of the committee are the minority opinion was not welcomed so that was a tough couple years it has you don't run for congress to sit sit on the sideline and he ran there for congress to say the world

that's what you wanna do and so that was a really tough year old man there was kind of this wave election when republicans took back the house and get help the house as a majority for a couple election cycles that this center was still run again that's today i will tell you that we had had one of the most productive first hundred days of a congress in a very very long time that we passed more legislation through the house and the most recent congress is we've had more bills come out of committee as a percent of those that have been introduced and we've had more bills actually settling into wall and there've been eight bills in the first hundred days of an already been signed into law one of the most productive first hundred days since really two thousand and two and so it's kind of a new day in washington and it's given

the renewed hope and faith and not only the process you know that it can work again at the people without a lot of new faces in washington now after a couple of other big elections and so i am more optimistic today than i have in the entire six years that i've been there at that maybe we've gotten past a red line and that will finally you know really benefit people before politics and get something done bombing the variation i hope people are encouraged by the progress that they see as a light you know i don't know good way to start happening in congress than there are signs that the president and congress are actually pounding middle ground wasn't he issues can you talk about you know where you know i actually you know i know we still have a divided government i mean that's a really promising thing about this it's not like one party is running roughshod over the internet was

still have republicans on capitol hill and then the democrats took control of the administration so all of this that has gotten ten first hundred days as has been entirely bipartisan that wasn't going to happen that leaves this week we've got our budget reconciliation on deck to pass through both chambers this hasn't happened for years fox where the house and senate would be reconciled how is truly something to situate and in the absence of a budget resolution should pass both chambers and the baggage pants which is a new concept in washington at actually live within our means that that's encouraging in addition to that just a couple well last week the president signed a medicare bill that we did and we have a position in the ring as i visited with them earlier about this sdr are really talked about it every

year the week printed on this thing and seventeen times in the last eighteen years we've finally fixed it after eighteen years of kick in the can down the road the president signed a bill to pass with bipartisan support now with reforms to medicare help secure that program for the next generation that's been exciting and last thursday and in our ways and means committee we spent thirteen hours marching ants and trade bills again this is an issue where we've got bipartisan supports the administration working out what republicans and democrats on capitol hill to open up new markets as certainly a big big deal for kansans one in five jobs in the state of kansas is directly tied at opening up free markets and trading with other countries and if we don't do it the chinese will write the rules so we have a vested interest so that's an object today we're talking about transportation

renewed the sheer there's a lot of discussion amongst republicans and democrats alike alike about doing something long time and not passing this thing again by going along at ten years would not be nice to have a transportation infrastructure for safer roads and bridges that we can actually play on on in and so i mean i'm encouraged i really feel like maybe waive that turned a corner here and that we're going to be able to get some things done now given that you've got a leadership position in the house you find yourself working more on a variety of issues or do you focus on one or two a couple things that are particular interest to you we have a lot of balls in the air i mean obviously my first priority is to keep incidents and taking care of whatever they need hand and so we have two offices in the district it that we primarily just did peace work

so someone in this in the district has problems maneuvering their way through the bureaucracy that is the federal government they can call our office will open a file and will help them out with their issue with the va errors so security administration or the irs or what have you that thats a job number one and i loved that part about the job because and that has him saying nothing to do with partisan politics you know we're going to go through a wall for you no matter whether you agree with this on any issue you are not and that's very rewarding to be able to help everybody and then the other side is the public policy side and again we we can agree with everybody every day on every issue on that for that what we try to do is take our lead from kenyans and some work on the issues that are important to them that's my work and columnist frank discussion there's just nothing that's going to do more for the kansas economy and opening up markets

for and in the aircraft industries so we're going to work really hard on that rule health care is an issue that has been really trying to have mind and for us we have twenty five counties in my district and most of the marble and access issues are concerning to a lot of seniors and small communities so it's overtaking our cue from kansans working on the issues that are in or into them as certainly as a member of the ways and means committee a worker cheek tax writing committee that we have jurisdiction over all things taxed trade medicare medicaid social security health care so we have a lot of work that we focus on in our office just the council on that committee and tax reform is an issue that i'm fully tested and given my name history as a cpa working on the tax four am in my real life

and so we're really working hard on those issues and yet we still have to find the time to help my two hundred and forty six colleagues in the republican conference with whatever they need help weigh whether it's in our messaging issues some information than they need so to get good improv fact based information to their constituents and then of course we spent a lot of time in meetings in a washington still less seniority based system you remember that from your time there if you hang out long enough you're going to be able to have some influence but that's when retired that i ran for the leadership positions so early in my career because now we know we had we sit at the table where jon maner end the leader of the ones that are setting the calendar and setting the primaries every week and you all have a direct pipeline the people that are making the decisions you want

me to get a message out to this bigger house or later at this town where they're awake that's what we're there for is to is to help kansans have a voice and rocco was one that was really encouraged me to do that that because i really dont intend there to be there as long as there's some folks in washington so i grow it won't hang around long enough to be chairman of the ways and means committee had a song to find a way that the most effective the initial arrest and now time possible the twenty fourteen elections are a lot of work very impressive republican women elected to both the house and the senate speaking a little bit about some of your colleagues know that you really enjoy working with him at that people may not apart about it there will be very clear that we hadn't really act impressive class certainly on our side of the aisle last fall when the election we have the youngest female republican elise

stefanik from new york elected she's just this impressive young woman i'd love to get hurt a canvas sometimes very big yeah and she made a great program this really impressive resume for such a young young lady and the first female black republican elected from new tummy allow is a rock star i talk about accounts can set the world on fire she is and that the fire in the balance sheets can be great and the whole class the last couple of election cycles has really breathes new life into horror no i think on immigration we're now six years younger than our colleagues across the aisle are leadership team is at about twenty years on average younger than the other side that and we have double the folks that are under forty on our side of the

aisle in the other side of the house so for me you know i hear from a lot of kansans will republicans or is that party a grumpy a white guys was sorry folks the facts just don't care about you know we've got these young vibrant and conservatives that are getting involved in elected office and i think it's really energized our party at the majority of our conference the two hundred and forty six had been there a lot less than the time that i've been there six years and so we really have to turn over without fresh blanket i think that's helped and getting some of these things moving again is just having the life and the body of the well so it was it then that incident classic one the things he worked on that would be a particular interest to members of our student body and maybe parents or for future students are it over five twenty nine plants can you talk a little bit about that yes that's been a passion of mine since my days when i was

state treasurer and we managed the learning worst program for kansas tried to do some innovative things on the treasurer's office and so i took that basic knowledge and my passion for that to washington and that we had an opportunity to expand those five twenty nine plans if you're not mayor those are that as savings vehicles you can set up accounts to send a student on after high school and a postsecondary education you can save money to send a student to go to school or community college or four year degree medical school there's no limit on aid should you consider that for me if you like and i could go back to college i mean they're really in me vehicles and their tax savings that's one of the popularity of these plans really took our when we people an incentive to say it's a college research shows and you know folks my age short of retirement our biggest worry is how we're going to

take our kids to get through an institution of higher ed and i've got two in college so i know this is a big big issue and so we really tried to modernize these accounts and we've introduced legislation last couple years of ron kind a democrat from wisconsin as a colleague of mine on the house ways and means committee he and i have worked so well together on this issue for the last couple congress is that it wasn't until this year where the president i think he accidentally and i just can't believe this was well thought out propose that we start taxing these nichols and every there was outrage from the american people chest and that we start taxing people's hard earned money when you're trying to save for their kid's song about tech school and so because of that backlash they move their legislation and we got it through the house it will get to the senate there is an

identical bill over in the senate again with broad bipartisan support i think six senators introduced it and the president has said and lightened his opposition and wanting to tax them he would sign the legislation so i think that will be in addition to the eight he's already signed at the house bill's i think he'll sign that one probably in relatively short order once we get it through the senate so that's another good thing for college students and anyone with kids or grandkids that you want to see and get some kind of that post secondary education act you as as a woman and you know several very significant positions but the face unique challenges because you were a woman probably it does not really focused you know one that i mean my parents tommy and i did wasn't any different than my brother you know

we all had to know the cows will have to throw their hay bales up on the trailer and take our turn stack and it didn't matter that i was a girl so i've kind of has taken that philosophy through life then this they can't afford one i think education can be a hurdle but right now i think we got more women graduating from adults call school only demand at so guys yeah we're aware the chilies and try it that night we get that two women at least running for president secretary clinton on the democratic side carly fiorina on the republican side we think about the prospect of a woman being president or vice president i guess kat i'll buy when i think it's time

that i'm not a big famine voting for someone just because they're a woman or is because they're a m a and i want the best person for the job and so that i'm not get hung up on you know what their gender as that i think we've got some great talent you know carly fiorina is a tiger and she's proven to be a tough guy now suddenly says center for secretary clinton has proven herself in the arena so i don't know and i think the prospects are going i think it'll be a very few number of years that we see a woman president in your set and then the billing this name for senator bob dole i know that you guys are close friends would speak a little bit about your relationship and how you feel about that well having some of the friends i got to hear you knew earlier about it there are a few people that i hold in higher regard than senator dole and

this one of my mentors friends and he rose and he best friend in me early on in my political career and has helped me every step of the way i don't know it how he finds the hours in the day to keep that when everybody that he keeps up where that he he he calls me regularly on my and my personal cell phone and he straightens meow we ran so skeel over on capitol hill is that he you may deny anyone that he knows more about the issues that were debating on capitol hill than most people on capitol hill and he has a strong ally he'll call and ask you i mean they called again i'm on board to get this deal on that and i'm just like wow one when i guess t years to this

nation that to be so engaged and stale after all he's done still trying to help the country and dance in the following i'm i rely on him for advice and counsel i was over a couple weeks ago this same ran into him last week at the world were two memorial he just was a delight to get to travel wear last year when he was doing his one hundred and five counties to work with every county he got stronger among younger it appeared here it just it has the ear of at green's to get that connection with kansans and he he said it was his opportunity to two are kansas and bank kansans habit it sure would get a pass because we had the opportunity to live on him and tell him how proud we are him and all that is done guy i mean

bob dold at iran and continue to give me advice and counsel on what i do about him was true so you've got a number of a very interesting position we talk about that what's been one of not so the toughest but one of the toughest challenges he had to fight for you and one of those positions well the toughest thing for me personally is just getting up every weekend traveling to washington dc and not a city girl and a simple country girl and so that i mean if there is a challenge of my job it's not that even the tough issues of the day i signed up for that and i have that fairly clear idea of where i i think the country should be going on a number of these issues but for me it's just leaving my friends and family in my home and every wait to get on a plane to commit i say that ms toth says top talent

and they're just trying to survive there four days a week and then live to get back on the weekend and get re energized and re connected with kansans to get up and go again so you know that's really the biggest contract that's really ever get is just finding that though with the will leave kansas every wait to go to a job that is very important there are a lot of days it's not really enjoyable to do the job at the end that's okay cause it's so important for some work i have one more question and we're going over that year our questions and answers but i just want to ask you on why is it important for more women to get involved in public service in a run for office well i think we have different skill sets and i don't when and over generalize

but i think as a general rule women have different strengths that may not tell you at when you got a a nation that's eighteen trillion dollars in debt added that iranians running mate killer capabilities every day and awake yeah you know medicare going bankrupt a tax system that's broken we all need to be engaged this is a we can't just rely on their strengths are one gender we all need to be involved and that means women what their strengths their unique need to step up his pants so i don't think that guy should have to do this online sales and i'm ashamed to say i had it we asked her run for office and when i first remember about every office i've never run for i waited for someone to say hey would you be interested in doing that and that's wrong men

sometimes just wake up one day at the mirror and say hey darling i'm so that may run for congress as lady is just i don't know whether there's about his village's not really wired to like add that we need to play at because we have a lot tougher and again whether we learn it as babysitters or big sisters are mothers we are going to keep and everybody happy and a lot of balls in the air and multitasking we just have a unique skill sets them at some of our men don't have and we are needed we are one of an oh oh oh i we have to work hard to recruit woman to do this job whether it's run for the local city council or the state legislature or for congress and i'll continue to ask i think it's important because we need it we need that skill set a generous gesture which women religious learn to be more

aggressive and make sure that they have something to offer and to step up because we still are saying no more men have an interest in serving then then when gary for about your questions what if you're just joining us this is congresswoman lynn jenkins giving the door lecturer at the university of kansas and april twenty six two thousand fifteen she's speaking with dole institute director bill lacy and ready to take questions from the audience you're listening to katie our presents and kansas public radio for coming and one thing that i would like to know is women often have to tailor their advertisements to get elected into office because they do have unique voices and bring a different element to the table one running against men so i don't know what you did to kind of highlight africa's as a woman and what you get to basically a project that so that you could be elected again now great question

kansans are special and that i think we have a long history at understanding the strength and leadership qualities of women i mean we were the first state to have a female mayor we certainly were the first state to elect united states females senator that was elected in her own right we have a long history of being leaders and lemans l hat i don't think i really had to convince anyone at that being a female was in a good bank uses no the strong kansas women have value and so just yeah i don't know people don't think in lena's tiny color up as a mass for the congressman added that and we are advertising will

overcome that feeling images became an issue we're focusing on you know the issues that i'm passionate about and now i know i think the issues that the females are concerned about a really any different the issues than males are concerned about you know as a cpa i remember the fiscal issues getting our fiscal house in order or balancing a budget fixing our tax code and yet all the while there are some pretty important things like education by twenty nine plans mental health issues that are really in one to me and so i think it was a bigger challenge for me as it is the few issues that i could talk to people's hearts to let them know what my priorities are and that was hard for them the question in the back but i really black spot on campuses saw politics was odd when those dear children and sandy hook were massacred and i believe all the

kansas delegation voted against very minimal very minimal gun measures that would have perhaps protected some of those children and i'd like to know why you keep voting against the people that really wants a memo yes i support the second amendment and people's rights to bear arms certainly as kansas country girl i understand peoples' desires to have guns and i don't know if this is one of those dishes where i'm not going to please everybody uses obviously you have a different view

than i do and in so i don't get to though maybe i get to vote yes or no and on this particular issue that i support the second amendment and will always do so requests yorker and i was wondering if you think that the formation of super pacs is going to have a positive negative or perhaps no effect at all and did you check their elections in keeping the power of voting and every day peoples hands at great question yeah we i think the best thing we could deal with money in politics at the world is just provide transparency i think that's what i desire i am i haven't met in cannes and yet thinks there are votes for sale we you know we we know what we stand for you can

run a billion dollars worth of advertising that you know why if i don't agree with you are not known for years and all i want to know is who it is that same water so that i can be well informed to make up my mind and so yeah i'm for transparency in in that other than that i think we are listening a buyer beware is set to do your homework it's tough sometimes i understand everybody's busy we were all this aid that our governments pretty important there's just nothing in your life it's not affected by government at some level whether it's local state or or federal as the world is going to have to invest a little time in doing some research in you know finding out which candidates are good bad or which issues it's an issue oriented campaign by which side of the issue you're on and so i think the money is here to hear this day you know we just have to think that consumers about it

oh what a lot of students in attendance today can you elaborate on some of the details of your five twenty nine plan biggest things about the five twenty nine plan is that allows you to use five twenty nine plans to buy a laptop that's one of the modernization features and i think that's really important because anymore i know my kids are even taking online classes or hey will give her notes online rather than take them out longhand and so many more he'd yours and six that's still to be enhanced if you have access to a laptop a nap and tell at this legislation get signed into law and you're not able to use the many edgy save and a lot of times it is that they are your beak has some people i don't know if you have a scholarship that i know a lot of students get scholarships to pay for their jewish and what have you but they got

just another nearby twenty nine plan had to do some things like a laptop and right now you can't get to its that's probably a thing that most effectual the legislation the question here liane i appreciate very much about five twenty one plan and those are for people who actually can afford to set aside savings after they possibly put a little bit of sight for their retirement however most of our students are financing and bahrain and in two thousand fourteen our government made forty one point three billion dollars off the interest of our students and i've actually this before which you possibly support legislation that would allow students to either refinance at zero percent interest or reduced percent interest matt refers ivana i'm twenty nine plans any family can say you can open an account for twenty five dollars which are for a lot of the question actually it doesn't add up when you're talking about getting it every student gets a

scholarship and all they're looking for is to subsidize their housing and or buy computers or buy their books you can literally make or break and kid going into debt or not by having a five twenty nine and twenty five dollars a month and so it was designed to help every family just forego mcdonald's so one night a month and save to send a kid to college and you're right you know why i believe student debt is one of the largest if she is that's why we're really pushing these five twenty nine plans but right now when they're when the nation is eighteen trillion dollars in debt i don't think the answer is to just knew that debt over to the federal government and the taxpayers so what we need to do is have a vibrant market competitive mr witte student loans and dodd frank went the opposite way and they did a government takeover of the student

loans which is not the right answer the government doesn't do much he fish only one effective way for career work your next quote i want to thank you for your support of free of a national heritage areas and i hope you will continue to do so and how do you feel about the role of three of the heritage eric decker freedoms on terror which is in the twenty nine counties in eastern kansas of guys westerns are in play and economic developers various parts tourism at great point at you know canned foods are though most wonderful people in the world that we have a lot going for us that a lot of times you know we get our heads down and we say well we don't have a mountain we don't have an ocean you know why would people come to kansas and all you have to do is look around and see some of her historic areas with compton's a perfect example in which a dan dare as done great things are drawing people in archives seventy to take in some of

those things in and they that the local coffee shop and stay in the hotels that we do have a practice alan keenan says the nets are rich at history and the tourism spots and we need to rein that happened really sell ourselves and be proud of what we have and ap hopefully we can encourage folks to have to come to campus will reap the benefits to thank you so much for doing what he can for kansas that's great i do my best to be as asics has hopeful for the future is possible but as a science graduate of science former science teacher the thing that i worry about the most land ideas that worries about all the increased levels of catastrophic weather events and climate change and it's it's not even debating warming climate scientist talk about it is a fact our duty are you hopeful for the ability of congress to pass legislation that will help decrease global carbon outsider ameliorate the effects

of climate change and if so how is that going and you know it's a debate that is ongoing in washington right now obviously there are some differences of opinion on how best to approach it right now i think the big issue is how best to balance at the issue here united states address those at china don't that is a really moving the needle internationally at all are we just him straining are businesses and our industry and our economic growth at the expense of our competitors worldwide and so is threading a needle finding the balance where we can't you know common sense regulations we all want you know safe environment we want clean water clean enough it's quiet when we all want the same things it's fine sense of that that that debate will be ongoing i don't know that war the result they share with really got a lot on our plate right now but i

know the debate continuous yes just a few minutes ago you used the phrase that the government show allow the five twenty nine that and you've talked about a number of things this afternoon that the federal government is involved in do you or do you not believe that article one section eight he finds one hundred percent of all the legal activities the federal government can and cannot be and while van and don't do you or do you not agree that the federal government should get their nose out of every aspect of our lives that is not contained specifically in article one section eight why believe that there should be constitutional basis for every bill that i drop in the hopper we have to have a reference where in the constitution that we have the authority to be doing this and that was something that we remain an intuitive rules when they came in and so at i think

thats though the right approach we should be doing it at there is if the constitution doesn't really test the authority to have and made the record yes congresswoman you said that senator dole calls you weekly and advice you probably remember meeting tonight and i just wonder if you know if he calls the other kansas congressman and senators as well why think he he gets some of it i think he used a little bit of pressure on me because i am at the leadership table and he helps me get there and then when i expressed an interest he said well who do i need to call their help lobby to get their votes said to get you the votes required and so i think he does expect a little bit more out in may and we had the obligation as leaders in the house of governing and we have the responsibility of that rallying the votes it leaves you know got legislation that we need to get passed and so i think he

understands that that burden and he's again always a team player now willing to help others thinking that's right now we don't have that obligation they are not charged as part of the leadership team with wrestling up the votes for things and so i think he doesn't understand this can be tapped he's had to do it when the senate leader and some days it's just that you know the easiest though you've ever cast i mean the issue is no illinois explain how i was a dead man i didn't you know didn't cross and i earned in data mining cross a table big tonight's been doing that i mean now is easy getting ds is really really tough and then going home and explaining that it wasn't perfect but it's the best you could do an he's been in that position and you know he's told me time and time again he can be against everything you know be something some time and that's the approach that he's taken with

mean he's willing to help us get there and so i appreciate him i consider him a member of the weather team almost because he's still engaged and still held in a skip and rustle up the votes to get things to question when you knock both come from farm families and the biggest issue we face in agriculture committees access to water so can you talk a little bit about the waters of the us role and the house's efforts to sort of clear that up or hopefully get rid of it or great question we're trying to get rid of that while many of you may not be familiar we've had a ruling that they basically want to regulate little streams of water or sometimes in the case of homebuilders little puddles of water and again we all understand the importance of clean water and clean air and it's fine we want that nobody is questioning that the when we cross the line and there's no common sense left in the way

that they're applying some of these regulation that's where we have a problem and waters of the us role is one of those and at its you know personally campus that are up as their home builders the egg producers are livestock producers everyone is outraged and that's putting people out of business and so we're working very hard to push back on that and again all we're asking is is to return a little common sense and to the rulemaking process what i think it's fair to question that commitment that you for being here today so some people believe including mark mckinnon number no labels was a guest goldstein earlier this school year that tom hayden political gridlock is largely a result of members of congress not really hang up the other being friends with one another so i'm just wondering tom who would you consider your best friends in congress and are any of the democrats yeah great question

and and not roman no labels organization and that was a group that was started on capitol hill for those of you familiar after the twenty twelve elections so i think we first started and gathering d center in twenty twelve so it's been they're thirteen and fourteen that we've been meeting and the way it has is it's a group from both sides of the aisle from both chambers of the house and the senate and what we're trying to do is address that issue jesse ventura that which is there was a day when bob dole serve poor people live there families to washington and they socialized together they went to church together their kids went to school together and they got to know each other as human beings and not as just the opposition party and that model has changed entirely now as we saw with the last election cycle if somebody doesn't

come home every weekend they're likely to be in political hot water and so i come home every weekend and went as i want to win this is my home the number two i think it's the politically expedient thing to do and so now when the gavel falls within that the weak everybody run severe corn we all go home and we don't have the opportunity to get to know each other as like real people and so no labels was started on capitol hill have called the problem solvers caucus and what we do is we simply had breakfast together about twice the man like an occasional dinner together at where we all come together from both chambers both parties and try to find common ground in common ground is different in compromising your core principles we don't ask anyone to do that at that we do ask is for folks to come and appeared to the meetings too to talk about things that we can all agree on some of that note

meant that we'd seen him legislation fish here has been thanks to the labels opportunity to get to know each other as real people ron barber was a good friend of mine and fortune and he got beat he's a democrat he got the last fall at that another good friend on the other side is tall see how bird she's from oh why a democratic female and she says stacked she works out with the man imagines every morning and don't mess with pulse a few glitches there and like military background and she's awesome and i've gotten a chance to really know her over the last couple years the guy we have friends now better on both sides of the aisle which i think is just a step in the right direction ok we have time for maybe one last question and their microphone appeared their last question and it wasn't just the second raiser good afternoon i was very optimistic to hear

that you feel like things are moving forward however when i think about the most recent confirmation our attorney general and how long that processed turkey longer than i believe the last five attorney general's fine she was uniquely qualified i'm wondering what your perspective on why it was great luck with that i'm as african american women it brought me great concern and sadness to see that happen to yell at the line that was ascendant the house kept the house had nothing to do with that it came down as simple issue at the democrats were insisting that the hyde language which has been the law of the land for generations on the abortion issue the rub my eyes out with something that has not been agreed to by both sides and as they were insisting at the hyde language be replaced and the

republicans said no we've been doing hyde language for all these years we're gonna protect life and so the republicans said you come back to your old position he used to agree with us and we'll let the lynch confirmation of forward and they wouldn't do that for months and finally they came to their senses and realize that compromise language that we've always had a map and on the abortion issue was the appropriate compromise position and so once they came off the hard line position they failed godzilla by some of the joyous as you just heard congresswoman lynn jenkins giving the annual duel lecturer at the university of kansas and april twenty six two thousand fifteen this event was moderated by bill lacy he's the director of katie's dole institute of politics the recording engineer with k pr intern jeff carmody i'm kay mac entire

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