ukraine. this is about 15 minutes.

>> head's up. mr. jeffries: good afternoon. from the beginning ofongress, the republicans made clear we'll find bipartisan ground on our colleagues on any issue wherever possible in order to take care n people and make life better for everyday americans. we've repeatedly done it from th beginning of this congress and we're prepared to do it once again in order to make sure thes are passed in the house, sent over to the senate, and on a path to be signed into law by president joe biden. under no circumstances can we

tolerate a government shutdown, which will hurt the american people. we have a responsibility to make sure the government is funded and the six appropriation bills do so in a way the health, safe, education, and the economic well-being of the american people. i look forward to the bills being brought to the floor for passage tomorrow. questions? reporter: you said the democrats were ready, willing d able to help pass the government funding bill. do you know how many democrats are ready to support this, could it be over 200? mr. jeffries: substantial majority. reporter: can i ask you the idea of loaning ukraine money for their aid package? ipplemental but could this be a path that could actually work? mr. jeffries: i don't prefer the

supplemental. the only viable path forward is for house republicans to take the national security bipartisan and comprehensive■o bill that ws ago and put it on the house floor for an up or down vote we can provide the security assistance necessary to our democratic allies in israel, ukraine, and in the indo-pacific, and at the same time meet the needs of palestinian civilians who are iá gaza through no fault of their own and surge humanitarian assistance into the region and other theaters of war across the world. we are past the 11th hour at this point in time and house stg the knee to the pro-putin faction that is growing

ascendant in their party and do the right thing in terms of the national security needs of the american people. the senate bill is bipartisan, it's comprehensive and the only viable way forward.■@ reporter: do you support israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu addressing congress an you have concerns with the reporting leader schumer rejected the opportunity to speak to the democratic caucus? mr. jeffries: i've not been formally approached with respect to the prime minister speakings. and until that formal approach takes place, i don't have any comment. reporter: there's a l of different policy riders in these appropriation bills, one talks about prohibiting the biden administration fro prohibiting

gas stoves, for example, what are the democrats reaction to those and why do you think republicans kind of continue to push those in the bill? mr. jeffries: as far as i can tell, the overwhelming majority of right wing policy riders have been rejected and are not part of the spending agreement, including in critical areas like it extreme maga republican efforts to undermine reproductive freedom, destroyndn programs, bully the transgender community, or detonate the progress that we made in the last congress connected to combating the climate crisis. every single one of the policy extreme maga republicans in

those critical areas are gone, nowhere to be found and that's a victory for the american people. reporter: are you surprised the way the speaker invited netanyahu to speak since a joint address would normally require the sign off of all leaders. mr. jeffries:l has not raised ts issue with me so there's nothing to talk about until we actually have a formal conversation about his intensions. intentions. reporter: has he had conversations with you about the supplemental? he sort of made gestures to funding that needed to come from where he had been previously, have you had conversations about that? mr. jeffries: we continue to make the case including to speaker johnson that the national security challenges need to be addressed with urgency and we shouldn't really be leaving town tomorrow without

addressing the needs of our democratic allies particularly as it relates to ukraine because there's a possibility that we could return in 2 1/2 weeks and the situation in ukraine has dramatically changed and all of the progress that the ukrainian people bravely have made in pushing back again■?■rst russian aggression has been lost. why has house republicans and large parts of the republican party become so pro-putin? because that's not the pro american position. not the amert position to allow ukraine to fall. that's the■2 first position. and it's a shame so many of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle refuse to recognizethe

safety and security of the american people and the freerrid by the ukraine -- continuing to stand by the ukrainian people. reporter: if i could follow up on that, there are some republicans in the house who are pro funding ukraine and there's a discharge petition and i was wrong this morning, 185 people have signed off on the discharge petition that would move the bill the senate passed. are there any overtures to those republicans as well as some of your democrats who haven't signed that, if ■this■' isrgent and needs to get done before you leave and to your point things could change markedlies, there's a pressure point rht there. mr. jeffries: the overwhelming majority of democrats have signed the discharge petition and there really are only a handful of republicans who need to step forward anjo us and we could end this issue right now. less than 20% of the house

republican conference at this point in time is necessary to join house democrats, sign the discharge petition, and we ca provide our democratic allies in ukraine and throughout the world with the assistance that they need to continue to defend democracy, freedom, and truth. less than 20% of the house republican congress. so the question is, are the others all pro putin? we only need less than 20%. so everyone else is lost, and i don't believe that is the case that everyone decided to follow th■,her side of the aisle donald trump's pro putin position or tucker carlson's pron or marjorie taylor greene's pro putin position. i know that's not the case with every single house republican. an speaker johnson

puts the bipartisan senate bill on the house floor tomorrow or we're going to have to explore all available opportunities immediately upon our return in april. reporter: the tunnel for fy-24 appropriations. can you■s talk abouho to be at the end of this process that caused a lot of dysfunction in congress and the key focus? mr. jeffries: i'm thankful for thescef who is our top appropriator on the democratic side as well as all of the members of who has been involved in negotiating the spending bills over the last several months. and they've done it in a forwarg way that meets the he needs of the american people under course

we're constrained by divided government. it's a win for the american people that we are on the verg■e of avoiding a harmful government shutdown and meeting the needs of the american people in a way that lifts up their health, safety, education and the economic well-being. reporter: when the speaker called for new elections in israel, i'm curious from an inflection point on youend in leaving the house democratic caucus or coalition, would it be easier for you in this position to hold the coalition together if someone other than netanyahu and how he's conducted the war was in charge in israel? mr. jeffries: i appreciate the way you endeavored to ask that question but i'll give you the same answer as related to anything in this space. what is in front of us right now is to make sure israel■j is able

to decisively defeat hamas, which is■j!8 a brutal terrorist organization, and that is necessary to be done for the good of the israeli people, palestinian people,, and for a t and lasting peace. at the same time, we need to do everything possible to decisively get the hostages out and decisive surge humanitarian assistance, food and water, into gaza so we alleviate the conditions that innocent palestinian civilians are confronting as a result of being in the theater of war. last question? reporter: there was data

released by the nontrac that says approximate 200,000 deportation cases were thrown out because d.h.s. did not file the necessary paperwork in time. is that aconcern at all and should that be addressed here? mr. jeffries: i can't address whether it's a concern or not because i haven't seen that particular report. the biden administration is working hard under the circumstances that they confront and the limitation of resources that have been placed upon them to make sure that we have a secure, a strong and humane border. as democrats, we've made clear ■ that we've got a broken immigration system and we've got serious challenges at the border that need to be addressed in a serious commonsense and bipartisan manner, which unfortunaty maga

republicans have taken because at the direction of donald trump, the republicans rather weaponnize the border issue politically in november as opposed to working with democrats a bipartisan commonsense way to solve it right now. and in this country, in this chd more common sense. unfortunately, this do nothing republican congress has far too often specialized in chaos, function, and extremism, not problem solving. but we're ready, willing, an able to work on this issue in a serious fashion. we just need traditional republicans to join us. thk [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2024]

reporter: did you fill out your bracket? one out. is that breaking news?