the motion is adopted. accordingly, the house standses adjourned until -- stands adjourned until 2:00 p.m

mr. jeffries: a gun violence epidemic in america that is unacceptable, unconscionable and un-american. traoepblgs maga republicans -- extreme maga republicans should bring the bipartisan universal criminal background check legislation to the floor. and should also bring to the floor an assault weapons ban so we can have a debate out in the open in front of the american people as to whether weapons of war have anyplace in a civilized society. house democrats believe that weapons of war, which are not used to hunt deer, but are used to hunt human beings and slaughter innocent children, do not belong in our communities

across this country. republicans have a different view. then air that out on the house florida in front of the american people -- on the house floor in front of the american people. we're confident in our position. stop hiding your position. and let's debate this issue of gun safety in front of the american people. instead what extreme maga republicans are doing is bringing their signature piece of legislation, h.r. 1, to the house floor that puts polluters over people. it will blow up the deficit even further in order to subsidize big oil, which is already making record profits, pollute our environment, undermine clean water, clean air and clean

energy, and exacerbate, make worse the climate crisis. which democrats were able to responsively address in the previous congress. you can't ask for a clearer contrast between house democrats, kids over guns and extreme maga republicans, polluters over people. questions? reporter: what did you phraeubg of the congressman -- what did you make of what the congressman did and said last night? mr. jeffries: i haven't spoken to congressman bowman. i've only seen some brief news clips about the situation. i'm going refrain from commenting about what may or may not have taken place until i talk to him. but i do understand that passions are running high on the issue. our children are being

slaughtered in the streets of america. no other developed country in the world has this problem. and we should be able to tackle it. there are more than 400 million guns circulating throughout the united states of america. and law enforcement has no idea where most of those guns are. many of them fall into the hands of criminals or individuals unfit to carry weapons of war and as a result carnage occurs. we need to do something about this problem. and so passions may be running high here in the congress. passions are definitely running high throughout the united states of america. and at the end of the day the framers of the constitution said that the house should be the institution that reflects the

passions of the people. and if in fact that's the case, congress should act on commonsense gun safety reforms. reporter: you have prepared something to get this on the floor? mr. jeffries: we're in corporation with all of the -- conversation with all of the stake holders to figure out the best way to proceed at this moment. what should happen is that the extreme maga republicans should put commonsense gun safety legislation on the floor on an up or down vote. the children of america deserve no less. reporter: talking about the energy bill here. [indiscernible] -- that doesn't seem to be the case. there must be some measure hit that those other democrats see in this piece of legislation doctor merit that other democrats see in this piece of legislation.

mr. jeffries: we'll see what happens in terms of the house floor and any member who votes for or against a bill that in my view puts polluters over people will articulate their perspective to the constituents that they represent back home. reporter: for the second time, the white house has reversed its position onal republican disapproval -- on a republican disapproval after house democrats dutily voted against it. do you trust the whro*us, what is your communication with threpl and what are you telling members on this upcoming d.c. police accountability resolution? mr. jeffries: i think with respect to statements of administrative policy, there are different levels of expressions of opposition in terms of whether they disagree, strongly disagree in some cases, affirmatively indicate that they are going to veto the legislation. and to the extent that the white house has indicated that they are going to veto legislation,

the white house has kept its word. and as far as i'm concerned, that is the most important marker of communication. reporter: do you have an open dialogue with speaker mccarthy? what have your conversations been like when it comes to the guns issue? mr. jeffries: we haven't had a conversation in the last day or two about gun safety reform measures but we will amend we will soon. reporter: just a follow-up on that. has there been any willingness among republicans, you have had any conversations with anyone in republican leadership about moving forward on anything when it comes to gun safety? mr. jeffries: house democrats were able to find a path forward in the last congress and pass meaningful gun safety legislation for the first time in 30 years. that is progress. and it was bipartisan to some degree in the house. and in the senate. and that's a foundation in my

view that should be built upon. we were able to make gun trafficking and straw purchasing a federal crime for the first time in american history. that's progress. we were able to allocate approximately $500 million in grants that will be available for communities across the country to deal with the rising tide of mental illness and the public safety implications, that's progress. we were able to allocate $250 million in grant support for community-based violence intervention initiatives all across the country, that's progress and there were other parts of the gun safety bill in the last congress done on a bipartisan way that lay a foundation. it is my hope to find a way forward to deal with a clear and present danger in america which is the gun violence epidemic.

reporter: going off of heather's question, how are you actually trying to reassure a lot of your most vulnerable members who may have voted differently if the white house or biden has said i'm not going to veto this? we have heard there are concerns, frustrations about that lack of transparency. even putting out ads saying they volted this way against -- voted this way against creme, etc. how are you -- crime, etc. how are you reassuring them you're getting communications from the white house? mr. jeffries: no one has to date raised a concern to me about the national emergency or the public emergency dynamic and there has been some communication about that early on with respect to the legislation. in terms of what ultimately will occur moving forward, particularly around the commonsense district of columbia police reform measures, it's my

hope and expectation that the white house will be crystal clear well in advance of that legislation hitting the floor as to their perspective. reporter: [indiscernible] -- commentary with the white house about making it clear -- [indiscernible] -- mr. jeffries: there are ongoing conversations to that effect. led in part by the congressional black caucus. and i assume there will be continuing conversations like there regularly are between the whip and the white house well in advance of the d.c. police reform bill coming to the house floor. reporter: you say you need to do something on gun reform. if you couldn't do an assault weapons ban and you couldn't do some type of a universal background check, would enhancing red flag laws be something as opposed to nothing?

what would be something if you felt like you couldn't get the bigger items? mr. jeffries: we should take a look at the items that were in the house-passed bill on gun safety in the last congress. and see what didn't make it into the ultimate legislation agreed upon by the united states senate. and there are a variety of items that fall into that category, including red flag traoepblgs risk protection orders that can help identify individuals who are potentially on the verge of doing something harmful to the american people while possessing weapons at the same time. universal criminal background check legislation has the support of more than 90% of the american people. the overwhelm magazine jotter of -- overwhelming majority of republicans support it throughout the country. a majority of n.r.a. members

support universal criminal background check legislation. and so why are house republicans, extreme maga republicans, standing in the way? that's the question that all my colleagues on the other side of the aisle should answer. day after day after day, until congress acts, to stop the carnage, stop the killing, stop the slaughter of children and innocent americans. reporter: foreign affairs chairmaning call says he wants to do a repeal and replace of the 2022 aumf. do you agree with that sentiment? are you open to that? mr. jeffries: top democrat on the foreign affairs committee is going to take the lead in that area so i'll defer to him in terms of what is the right approach to take working with the senate and the administration. go back that side. reporter: when do you think it will be appropriate --

[indiscernible] -- mr. jeffries: we haven't made any decisions one way or the other with respect to a particular legislative approach. but we are going to continue to make it clear that congress must act. extreme maga republicans should either join house democrats in confronting the gun violence epidemic in america, or get out of the way. it's that simple. the american people are demanding action. the children of this country are demanding action. our classrooms have become killing fields. is that acceptable? in america? is that how we want to raise our children? no, we should be putting kids over guns. and act with the fierce urgency of now. and my republican colleagues need to step forward or step out

of the way. last question. reporter: on h.r. 1, senate's not going take it up, most likely. but there are some bipartisan provisions like permitting that's been discussed between democrats and republicans. there's been some discussion among republicans about including permitting in some must-pass legislation like debt ceiling or government funding is. than an appropriate place to put is it and is something you'd be willing to entertain later this year? mr. jeffries: there are a variety of different conversations going on on the house democratic side. around permitting reform and trying to figure out how to facilitate clean energy projects moving forward, emerging out of the tremendous opportunities that we have connected to the inflation reduction act. progressive caucus has a task force and an effort that is under way. there are new dems such as scott peters involved in an effort.

it's my expectation that all of us as a family, house democrats will come together upon our return and start to figure out where can we find the common ground in order to both affirm our values in addressing the climate crisis, but facilitating the growth and development of clean energy projects throughout america. thank you. reporter: thank you. [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. 2023] >> four score and seven years ago. >> ask not what your country can do for you. >> throughout american history,

presidents have delivered pivotal speeches during inaugurations, times of challenges and farewells. and on saturday watch our 10-part series, speeches that defined a presidency, on american history tv. hear the words of george washington and abraham lincoln through ronald reagan and barack obama. this week will feature george w. bush's 2000 state of the union -- two*u state of the union -- 2002 state of the union address just months after the terrorist attacks, calling out regimes aligned with terrorists as an axis of evil threatening america. >> as we gather tonight, our nation is at war, our economy is in recession, and the civilized world faces unprecedented dangers. yet the state of our union has never been stronger. [cheers and applause] >> watch our 10-part series, speeches that defined a presidency, saturdays at 9:30 a.m. and p.m. eastern on american history tv on c-span2.

>> sunday on q&a, former "wall street journal" reporter reflects on his nearly 300-mile journey walking from washington, d.c., to new york city. we interviewed mr. king in 2021 shortly after he completed the walk. >> doing it a year later with all that had happened, all of us being shut in, all of us being, you know, walking around behind masks, that long covid winter as we call it, which was a pretty horrific one, the events we saw play out at january 6 at the capitol, which i live nearby, the contested election, there's a lot of bad blood in the air overall. so it made my desire to go out, really i think it was the fifth day of spring, and just walk through the spring, see it unfold, and look up close and very slowly at the country i was going through and meeting people along the way and trying to kind of understand where were we as a

country at the moment. >> sunday night at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span's q&a. you can listen to q&a and all of our podcasts on our free c-span now app. >> c-span is your unfiltered view of government. we're funded by these television companies and more. including cox. >> homework can be hard. but squatting in a diner for internetwork is even harder. that's why we're providing lower income students access to affordable internet so homework can just be homework. cox connect to compete. >> cox supports c-span as a publ service, along with these other television providers. giving you a front row seat to democracy. >> british prime minister made another appearance before the house of commons