hotspots for students to connect, connect up to five devices. i think there's been innovation across the board on how to send out there feeding program but how they're also connecting students with usb or hotspots, however, there just finding a way to make it work. >> tonight at 8 p.m. eastern on "the communicators" on c-span2. >> molly reynolds is a senior fellow at the brookings institution and she studies conked with a focus on a congressional rules and procedures impact governance and molly reynolds, , the major actn house for today will be a vote on the house rules package for the 117th congress. what you people11 know about how democrats want to run the house in the 117th? >> guest: sure. it's great to be here. thanks for having me. the rules package is a standard

part of the start of the new congress and think if you look at this year'slo we see a couple of places where democrats are responding to things that if happen in the house, not just over the past two years but kind of longer than that. a great example of this is a reformed to something called the motion to recommit, which is an opportunity for the minority party, so the republicans now to offer one last amendment before a bill comes up for a final vote. over the past several years, the past two years of democratic control in particular republicans have really tried to use this motion to embarrass democrats, to divide the party on the floor. in response democrats have taken some steps in this package to limit the ability of republicans to use the motion to recommit in that way, kind of the culmination of a long

tit-for-tat between the two parties, minority majority on this motion. that's one place. we also see, for instance, some clarification around committee subpoena rules which i think is a signal that democrats in the house want to continue to investigate things thatng have happened during the trump administration. and then the rules package also has a number of things that may seem kind of technical but are important,-- but important to te functioning of the house, particularly in the current moment where we are still dealing with the cove s pandemic and that the house is largely operating not in person. you see things like changes that are encouraged, encouraged to making more information available in machine readable format online. again, kind of technical things but things that are met to make

-- are meant to make house more assessable to the public but also for folks who work there in unprecedented time. >> host: diving into the motion too recommit, , use republicans have used it to sometimes embarrassed democrats on the house floor when bills are moving. explain how. >> guest:: sure. it represents the last opportunity to amend a bill before comes up for final passage. often the minority party does not reveal what is going to be in the motion to recommit, what change that motion is going to make to a piece of legislation. they will announce what is going to be in it, and on a number of cases they have tried to offer motions to recommit that are contentious, that some

democrats, not democrats from competitive house districts look at and say i think i need to vote for this, whereas my party is saying no, you shouldn't. you shouldn't vote for this thing that republicans often. that's treated some divisions within the party on the floor at times but really again is meant as a gotcha move by republicans. it's not new to the last two years. we had this conversation, we have had a few us have watched coverage of the opening of previous congresses but . we've had the same conversation about whether the parties willwi make changes too the motion to recommit before, but this year it looks like democrats have finally decided to do that. >> host: belly long republican of misery, this was his take on it. on twitter yesterday, about the

house rules package, the motion to recommit is one of the only tools a minority party in the house can use to alter what is often completely partisan legislation picky says this is proof that democrats are afraid of republican ideas and will go to any length to shut them down. again the house rules package will be the debate that's happening on the floor today it's going tong be a debate and vote that will happen in person because toxic voting has not been approved yet for the 117th congress. it was approved in the 116th congress all those rules go away at the end of the 116th and this is the new rules package for the 117th congress. molly reynolds come to think proxy voting after the pandemic is overdue think proxy voting is here to stay? >> guest: that's a great question. and i think as we've seen over the past year, there still a lot of debate over whether proxy voting was the right response as

the pandemic. there has been an effort in the house to try and come up with a way for fully remote voting. they had been making some progress on this. it will be interesting to see how that turns out. it's always hard in congress to put something back in the box once you open the box up. i would hope that as he becomes safe for folks to gather in person again in large groups like the house of representatives, that we return in most cases to actual in-person voting. there is i think proxy voting was a reasonable and appropriate response to the pandemic but i do think there is an enormous value in members of the house coming and doing their duty in person when it is safe to do so. it will be interesting, what would be interesting to see is what you are some cases where

the house continues to allow for proxy voting safer members asked for a members absent because there's a member or their spouse just had a child, that sort of thing. i think we sju will have discuss about kind of where d the line . but like i said i would really supposed by and large we return to be the in person then why do you think that is valuable? what about proxy voting could make for bad legislation? >> guest: yeah, so i feel so much that proxy voting itself as it is the fact that proxy voting allows for members to do their work not from washington, and that so much of important legislation, let's say

deliberation, happens with kind of nose to the grind stone in person work, and that i think a house organized around proxy voting or any kind of fully remote voting permanently for the long-term would likely have the effect of keeping members away from washington more and making it harder for them to do the really important work. again, at this moment is really important for them to stay safe, keep their families safe and to avoid to gathering as much as possible. it over the medium to long term i do think it's important for the house and the senate to largely return to in person work work, to make sure they doing the best they can to have good deliberation. >> host: molly reynolds guest in this segment of the "washington journal" 20 us until 9:30 a.m. eastern. she's a government, government

studies senior fellow at the brookings institution focus on how congressional rules, procedures impact governments. that's what she focuses on. today on house for the main action will be about the rules of the house in 117th congress laying out the rules and procedures and that willes happn over the next two years. it all begins at 10 a.m. eastern this morning. that's when the house will gavel and for today and, of course, you can watch that here on c-span. we will take you there live after our program ends at 10 a.m. if you want to join this conversation, republicans -- molly reynolds up first and built out of newfield new jersey and the defendant. good morning. >> caller: good morning. i would likeup to speak about to things. the first is i would like to say is if anybody has checked all

the disputed states, the registered number of i voters in those states and those counties, count them up and then tally of the number of votes cast for biden and number of votes that were cast for compensate the number of votes cast exceeds the number of registered voters. if it does then you know there is somethingte wrong. my second comment will be this did was build was passed. .. . that were passed. the 60 bills were ridiculous bills that i believe the average american in this country does our money spent the way it is in those bills. don't they print the names of the sponsors of those bills and what the bill was so we can

determine whether we want them in office or not? host: molly reynolds, why don't you pick up on the second part of that, the stimulus legislation moving with larger -- a larger government funding bill. explain why that happens and why it so often happens that, at the end of a congress, that some of these major must pass pieces of legislation get wrapped up and rolled together at the end of a congress. guest: that is a great observation about contemporary -- the contemporary legislative process. in congress now is to build whatd you need to pass something. especially in the senate, where the senate makes -- where the filibuster makes it necessary to get 60 votes to pass something. congress has responded to this by