>> c-span, powered by cable. >> c-span is your unfiltered view of government. we are fundedon companies and m. including cox. ♪ >> this syndrome is extremely. but friends don't have to be. when you are connected, you're not alo >> cox, supports c-span, as a public service. along with these other television providers. giving you a front row seat to democracy. we are joined byfó brian, the correspondent for the christian science monitor. welcome to the program. guest: pleasure to be here. host: there is a government funding deadline. again on friday. but there was a deal struck so

tell us about that and what's in it. guest: is the remaining six areas of appropriations which covers major agencies like treasury, dhs, labor, education and it represents about three quarters of federal discretionary spending's over $1 trillion. this is a very large deal and and we still don't have legislative text and they are supposed to vote on this by the end of the day friday. we are getting right up to the deadline particularly since republicans have instituted a new rule that everyone should have 72 hours to review legislation. it's looking likeeadline or youe to waive the 72 hours provision. host: that's not really working out for the 72 hours. the deadline is mi exactly. host: do you think there would be a short-term cr to get us past midnight? guest: the hope is still that they will be able to pass this minibus they call it with

six appropriation bills combined into one by the friday midnight deadline. as we've seen with this congress, you can never really count on anything. it's been very unpredictable so there is hsting to see what comes out of that because speaker mike johnson will be presenting his plan and making his case and probably making a case that we the 72 hos particular bill. we will see how that goes down with them. host: you can reporting are rear johnson's leadership when it comes to funding battles. what have we learned? guest: it's been interesting talking to republicansndthat. i was talking last night with representative thomas massie who in feal rebel and in this congress, he's an interesting position between some of the more vocal rabble-rousers in the more mainstream folks and he was saying it's sort of like when you have a substitute teacher come into school in the class

start to realize they can get away with a bunch of things. mike johnson was not the one that won the house majority and wasn't the one that gay people seats on committees that they really wanted so he doesn'tavy. some people have been very complementary of his leadership so far, recognizing it was delta difficult and and he is trying to pick up where mccarthy left off. on the democratic side of the aisle, others say, some of them acknowledged he is genteel and civil and a polite person but really have turned even more chaotic under his leadership. host: if you would like to join our conversation, you can do so. airlines or by parties. democrats are (202) 748-8000, republicans (202) 748-8001, (202) 748-8002 for independence you can join us via text at (202) 748-8003.

we are watching her feeds on facebook and onsenator schumer,y leader gave a major speech on the senate last week calling for new elections in israel. what has been the reaction on capitol hill? guest: i think it made a lot of waves not only because he called for new elections and essentially said that netanyahu, the prime nister of isel the obn the israeli-palestinian realm along with abbas and hamas and right-wing israeli extremists. it is noteworthy that he called netanyahu. another thing i thought was interesting was to what extent in this extremely polarized environment particular around gaza as we've seen across college campuses in different forms in the united states, schumer really did an

interesting job of afacts that e in conflict. israel has a right to defend itself but it cannot go too far. it matters how it defends itself. yes, there is human catastrophe in the gaza strip but it's also important to recognize how hamas is playing into that and how they embed themselves in the civilian population and using that reason why there has been so much human suffering. it was interesting the extent to which he was willing to state things that maybe someone from his political standpoint wouldn't normally acknowledge. i think there is two ways of looking at his speech. ■bto get israel to do something? and what he is he signaling to i don't think his speech is going to move a lot of people in

israel particularly in the israeli settlements in the west bank that he was referring to obliquely. you are living side-by-side with ns and it's just a different perspective that comes from that than speaking from washington. i think you also have to recognize benjamin netanyahu and how differences occurrence has been. many americans don't realize he comes my family that has some facedwith palestinian terrorist. his brother died rescuing people with palestinian terrorist. he rescued passengers from another high-tech plane. a lot has happened since then butexperience than schumer and t will be interesting to see what netanyahu has to say to senate republicans when he addresses thn a video this afternoon. host: what's the purpose of that videoconference with senate

republicans? guest: i think it's to counter what schumer said last week. it's to make his case and netanyahu spent time in the united states when he was young. is very comfortable here. he feels at home in the united that to his advantage in israel. and in u.s. political circles case for why a two state solution is no longer possible and that ship has sailed and here's what we need to do instead. here is why you need to continue supporting me because i'm the best person you have to lead this government. it will be along those lines. the other part of what schumer was trying to address was the politics here. as we'vesignificant risks withie democratic party. rashida to leave has been very vocal on the progressivest left about the need to have a cease-fire, to get more aid to the palestinians in gaza.

she■ is helped by how much this is flooded social media and how many images people are seeing of the suffering there. we've heard arab-americans in michigan be very vocal about their disappointment in biden and we've seen biden shift his rhetoric considerably since october 7 and now schumer coming ■out with his speech. it seems like this is causing a re-think in the democratic party of that longtime support for israel. host: speaker johnson has floated the idea of it israel standalone aid package. where are democrats on that? guest: i think democrats have just been wanting to get the supplemental aid through one way or another host:ven if it's standalone. guest: i'm not sure what's happening with the border seria disadvantage of democrats to do israel as a standalone package because that would get republicans to go along with

ukraine eight. maybe they do if they can get that pass, democrats would be more willing to go with a standalone package for israel. host: let's talk to callers d david is up first in massachusetts, republican. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. this is my first timcalling.i we speaker should definitely waive that 72 hour allow the congress to pass this as soon as they possibly can because of the importance of■( host: any comment? guest: thank you for your call. 's a city i know well, lawrence. that's a prevalent viewpoint that this is really important and it has bipartisan support.'e were almost halfway through the fiscal year and let's get this

passed already. the 72 hour rule, it's a really important rule because these bills can be really big, hundrepages that's hard to know exactly what you are okaying and what is in there. they feel is their duty to their ti taxpayers who are providing this money to make sure the money is being responsibly spent. this is what they've been trying to avoid, last-minute gigantic ■obill that they don't really he time to review that's going to add more to the debt. that would be the other perspective and why they're pushing back on that. host: there is an article here in politico with the headline -- ukraine loan the gop. what are you hearing about forwa loan, low-interest or no

interest loan? gues it's essentially changing the packaging, is not changing a lot about the reality. ■zit's $60 billion that president biden asked for on ukraine what essentially go back to the american economy because it would be used make weapons and other supplies that would be sent to ukraine. we are just talking about a small portion of that, i believe it's $12 billion that would be a the idea is to make that loan, to make that a mount alone and it would be alone that could be forgiven. i think chris coons was talking about how the president can forgive things for nationals agree reasons. ■qi think even on the republican side, there is awareness that ukraine has been fighting a difficult war for two years and it's unlikely they can pay this back anytime soon anyway. it's essentially just labeling it in a way that is more palatable to the republican base

which is focused on more issues, pocketbook issues and things like that. host: do you know the timeline as to how fast ukraine could get aid if it were to pass? guest: to take every thing speaker johnson has to get this minibus across the line by friday at midnight. week recess and nothing will happen during those two weeks. we are looking into april at this point and ukraine has been waiting for this for six months almost. i think it's highly unlikely they will mana t funding, the ut being funded. host: let's talk to bronny next in covington, virginia, republican. caller: good morning. host: go right ahead. ■ky on th aid, i thk ukraine needs it. i think israel needs it. i think the united states people needed.

i k border, they are shoving ths around, if they take care of the border and shut the border down in the united states and fund israel, they are our ally and ukraine is not, not that i don't want to support ukraine. it seems like, i don't know why they want to keep the border open. then republic is on thing. they all know why they are not coming together. it's because of the democrats border of the united that's all i have to say, thank you. host: what do you think? guest: thanks for your call. the bigger picture here is there is a real debate over what is america's role in the world at this time? this has long been the most powerful democracy in the world and that we are at a point where we can't decide how to -- how to

fund our own gerare concerns ove border that it's compromising the strength of the united states and its ability to be of help to thoswi borders and those beyond the borders. there is also a debate to what extent is it actually in the u.s. interest to fighting u.s. adversaries like russia and china and iran which is backing the hamas group in gaza. that's part of the debate that's playing out in congress. that's why this is taken months and months because on the one side, people say every penny we ■spend on ukraine against russia or defending israel against iran and defending thai against china will save us tons of money in the fur avoiding conflict with those of -- aggressive adversaries. others say it doesn't work that way. we need to take care of ourselves at he country and not be going off on these far-flung adventures that may not pay off at all. that's■ really part of what we

are seeing here behind the scenes. host: do you have any details as to what's in the dhs bill for the border specifically? guest: has not been published yet but what i've heard is that they were able to add several billions of dollars for more border enforcement and i that was something the republican saw as a win. we will just have to see when the text comes out. host: what's the holdup? why hasn't come out yet? i thought everything was agreed to? guest: most agreed to and there were some pickups at the last minute. the biden administration had some last-minute concerns that they brought through. these are huge things. the border is the number one election issue going into this fall. sides and it just takes time to hash these things out. even once you agree in a meeting, then you have to guage.

has journalist, we appreciate every word matters. hopefully, we will see that later today. host: iant to ask you about an article you wrote for the christian science monitor, congress takes a hard swing at tiktok. where does that stand? it passed the house and a bipartisan way so what is it stand in the senate? guest: the senate gave it a cooler reception. the committee that would take it up in the senate would be the commerce committee which is headed up by senator cantwell from washington and she signale. i think this effort to fund the federal government will te attk and then we have a recess we will have to see what happens in april. the more time that goes by, the more time there is for lobbyists and tiktok's allies to weigh in to get the ear of senators to say this is setting a bad precedent, you shouldn't compae

different ways of doing this. we will have to see when we get back from recess. host: a question for you onx - guest: great question. seally an equivalent. the palestinian authority does have security forces but traditionally, they have worked concert with the idf to basically keep the peace in the west bank. they noperating gaza for many ys because of a split between the palestinian factions. there is no palestinian security force. hamas basically is the military forces been for many years. palestinians would absently say they have a right to defend themselves. they been living on that land for many years

was taken from them unfairly. there is a lot of resentment toward the united states since october 7 for supporting israel soongly. my colleagues at the christian science monitor last week wrote a really interesting piece about palestinians in gaza speak out against hamas. they are still saying we have a right to defend ourselves, we still believe there should be a palestinian resistance but hamas gave is no invaded israel and td no plan for how they would protect a civilians. they knew israel would respond with proportionate force a to de they are in their tunnels were living in their mansions in doha or whatever. toe,t was an extra in our peas that they were willing to speak out. some people gave their full names and said hamas camels with our lives. we are the ones paying for that. host: cheryl is calling from south carolina, line for democrats, good morning. caller: hi, my biggest concern

is the fact that the lady is very nice and she comes on there and she's smiling, butact is, our congress is not been working for several years. they've been in there trying to do a budget and havehave lacked. we are always under these cr's and they have to do a budget. that there job to do the budget. to do it, they should get out and let somebody in there who will do it or refund the money to the public. they are not doing it. we are stuck with these people who are just bickering over nothing. host:ould out the next election. guest: some of them are not in my state. caller: believewho i can. host: understood. go ahead. guest: i think there are a lot of people share your frustration cluding in congress.

the budget process has been broken for years. i know speaker johnson is trying to get a head on the fy 2025 budget. they've already marked that up in the budget committee on the house side. there are letrying to get this t again. the huge underlying debate is b/■jvkthe national debt and to t extent is the responsible to be deficit spending year after year? that's where you've seen a lot of things grinding to a halt because the freedom caucus has taken a strong stand that we cannot continue this deficit spending. representative matthew has a debt clock on his lapel that he designed himself. it's like $97,000it's blurry ate numbers because it goes up so fast. >> we are leaving this here to keep our commitment to covering congress.e house is coming