host: erik wasson is with us, he's a congressional reporter. now that the president signed a continuing resolution to continue funding, now there's two weeks for congress to figure out how to avoid a shut dunn what are the key issues remaining? guest: the biggest one is funding for the wall. congressional republicans have tried to talk him down to $2.5 billion this year and $2.5 billion next year. chuck schumer has rejected that. all eyes are on tuesday when schumer and nancy pelosi, the house democratic leader, will

sit down with president trump around 11:30 a.m. to try to come up with a deal. congressional lawmakers are hoping to have a deal hammered out and pass it in the house and senate to meet the christmas deadline. host: how much room does each side have to give? nancy pelosi is sayings that line in the sand, where do the democrats stand in terms of flexibility on border wall funding? host: the key comment from nancy pelosi, she talked about the need to not have a tradeoff for daca and the wall, the idea of protecting undocumented immigrants from deportation. there was a deal on the table in january in which they'd be protected and $25 billion would be for the wall. president trump backed off that deal when the congressional republicans said president trump needed more on legal immigration. they need to find ways to provide money for border security, fencing, for levees

and other ways of preventing people from crossing the border without making a concrete wall that's become very much a symbol of racism in the eyes of people on the left. host: let's talk about another issue we'll see on the senate side with senators expected to debate next week a bill dealing with yemen a resolution, i should say that would end the u.s. support of saudi forces against yemen. bloomberg.com, a piece of bloomberg.com reporting about that, how that ties into the murder of journalist jamaal khashoggi, with the headline saying, senators seek path to punish saudi prince. it seems like a standoff where the president stands and the senators. >> this is a war powers resolution, only takes 51 votes to get on the bill. it likely will get on the bill in the coming week. however there's concern about having a vote-a-rama, unlimited

chance of debate, gotcha amendments, not germane to the bill. senator corker said the house won't pass it, the president won't sign it, let's come up with something everyone can agree on that will have some teeth to it. there's debate about making an amendment to eliminate future arm sales and things that will make it into law. there's also a sense of the senate resolution, a copout, a statement by the senate that the crown prince of saudi arabia is responsible for jamaal khashoggi's murder. this would put the senate on record but doesn't have much teeth. host: the house and senate condition ferees on the farm bill reported agreement on that tell me where things stand on that and is that likely to be passed before the thoached queer? guest: i think it's very likely and even more likely it'll be put on the spending bill if they run out of times.

republicans caved in on their demands to make big, massive changes to food stamp programs, expand work requirements and shift money from beneficiary into job training. with this backing down, the farm bill can proceed. last lot of worry that when democrats took over the house they'd try to expand food stamps and do things that would dog down a farm bill and not provoid assurance to the farm sector so republicans said let's get it done. they're still waiting on congressional budget office score, there may be some issues of deficit impact that need to be adjusted. there's a lot of ways to do that in the bill. i'm expecting it to pass before the end of the year. host: one more item that seems like it's gotten a fair amount of bipartisan support, the severt on criminal justice reform. it's generally over in the senate where does that stan? guest: the big man on this question is senator majority leader mcconnell who doesn't support the legislation. president trump has not used his power his, his bully pulpit.

a different president might be able to browbeat the senator into putting this on the floor. i don't see a big policy change, social policy change, making it onto a spending bill. it's looking dicey for that bill at the moment. host: read more about the issues we talked about, erik wasson at bloomberg.com, that's where you

es. [applause] >> thank you so much. let me