these are all trucks moving towards texas. so kobe could get over the road we started using dod and flight 17 to deliver water just because we need to get water to people so quick. so any impediment we push forward and over with the whole federal government supporting the state of texas and local governments to do that. and in addition to that on your declaration on february 19h declare the major turned on 77 counties for individual assistance. and again the 22nd we had a 31 more counties break just less nightly at 18 more counties based on damages in the state of texas. i am proud to say that we have paid over $20 million that's over two main dollars a day. >> more of your calls coming up first joining us on call is scott long he's a congressional reporter, scott the parliamentarian rules against including the minimum wage in the president's economic package, tell us why. >> guest: well, she ruled that

she serves, elizabeth mcdonough serves as sort of the senate referee. she holds enormous power. shede is not widely known to the general public. but in this case, she made a major decision lastr night informing the democratic and republican staff that she had ruled the $15 minimum wage is not really relevant to the democrats 1.9 trillion covid relief package. therefore cannot be included in this package through the budget reconciliation process. that is this arcane process that allows the democrats to pass something with just a simple majority rather than the much higher 60 vote threshold which required democrats to bring on republican votes. in this case the reconciliation. pass it with a simple majority and with just democrats in the senate. it is significant because this

had been one of the top priorities for democrats as they sought to take back the house and senate and recent elections. certainly the white house this nlwawas a promise says wire seeg nancy pelosi thing house democrats will keep the 15-dollar wage hike in the house bill when they bring it to the floor today. nancy plus and the democrats believe they have to show the progressive base that they are fighting for them. that they understand this is one of the reasons why voters sent them to the majority. and so, we are going to see this play out over the next week or so. it's going to be a game of ping-pong where the house will send this bill over the wage included. the house will have to strip it out >> the senate will have

to strip it out. in the senate will strip itt out and send it back over to the house. >> then what happens? >> what we are not quite sure. a lot of the senators are saying the fight is not over. there are progressives like bernie sanders who want to include this $15 minimum wage hike at any cost. one of his proposals the issue last night was that he wants to strip large corporations liket walmart of special tax deductions if they don't pay a $15 minimum'' wage. and he is saying he will demand this new amendment in the coming covid package. this sort of creates a new sort a of headache keeps arrest the issue for the modern who

said they cannot support it in any sort of covid package grid opens up a new set of headaches from the progressive wing. are agitating. chuck schumer's difficult task is going to be to try to hold together this fragile majority of only 50 senators plus vice president kamala harris baird to break any type of tiebreakers. so in the end, i think we will have a covid package. all of the democrats have realized this is critical. referred from some the callers today that the suffering we are seeing in the country and people's individual situations. and so democrats realize they don't have a choice but to pass a big covid package. but how they get there, there is still some twists and turns left in this long journey. >> so what about republicans? how have they said they

planned to vote in both thevo house and the senate? >> certainly in the house come the house about today we are not expecting many republicans to jump democrats. i think there are possibly a handful. by and large were going to see the republican party stick together and vote against covid package. that is interesting because the polling has showed that covid relief is a normal sleep popular. it's one of the reasons that have sort of propelled joe biden's popularity because he made covid relief his number one issue heading out of the gate. and so republicans are saying they have called this ara democratic wish list. they think the spending is too big. they are concerned all of the sudden after many years of running deficit spending. they believe, if you talk to

republicans,an they believe this is going to be an issue that will come back to bite democrats and the 2022 midterms. they believe the spending issues will be on their side. they made this a t top priority and certainly not running away from covid relief, they are embracing this is a very popular policy proposal.ly at a moment when democrats are now fully in control of the government. we will see how plays out in two years. andemocrats right now they have to act. and they have to act big. >> you can follow scotland's reporting on this 1.9 choi dollar economic aid package if you go to the hill.com. scott thank you for much for your time as always.

>> thank you. ♪ ♪ c-span's washington journal every day we are taking your calls live on air, the news of the day and discussing policy issues that impact you were coming up saturday morning jesse goodman chief scientist at the fda. corona virus variance within "washington post" national political reporter david on the 2021 political action conference in the future of the gop. and competitive enterprise institute senior fellow, john blau talks about his book george washington entrepreneur. watch c-span's "washington journal" levitt seven eastern saturday morning. facebook comments, text messages and tweets. it is the fbi director

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