announced president trump is donating his second quarter salary to the department of education. she spoke during today's white house briefing and showed a check for $100,000 that was signed by the president. education secretary said the money will go toward hosting science, technology, engineering and mathematic camps for children at the department. well, congress is in session today. the senate working on health care. and the house on 2018 spending. we spoke to a capitol hill reporter f eer today to learn m about what's going on with health care in the south. >> this headline, this senate rejects the measure to repeal much of the affordable care act. joining us on capitol hill is mike. he covers congress for the washington post. walk us through what happened today and where things stand at the moment. >> sure. thanks, steve, for having me. so the senate just finished voting today on a couple of

measures. one of which was the so-called straight repeal bill, which is the bill that was sent to president obama back in 2015 in which he vetoed. at the time, all of the republicans in the senate had supported that bill. this time there were numerous defections. seven republicans ended up voting against this bill and sending it to defeat. after that, the senate voted on a democratic motion to commit the bill to the financial committee for further amendments. and now we're really in sort of unchartered waters here. the bill is -- they're into the 20 hour -- 20 hours of debate reconciliation process, but republican leaders really have -- don't have much of an idea of how this is going to end. there is a lot of conversations going around about different ways this could go, but this is really unchartered territory at

this point. >> for those who read the washington post this morning, describe the situation on capitol hill as chaotic and frenzied. so i want to ask you if that's how this has all unfolded from your standpoint. >> sure. there's just a tremendous amount of uncertainty at this point, especially for a piece of legislation that's as momentous as this one, that would affect a fifth and a sixth of the economy. there's a huge amount of uncertainty and it's very much palpable and i think that the leader -- that leader mcconnell is trying to find a way forward that can get the 15 votes necessary but also can meet all of our budget requirements, meet the parliamentarian muster and, of course, meet the -- at the end of the day, something that can get passed in the house as

well which remains an open question. there's a lot of moving parts and a lot of questions left unanswered and it's set to wrap up within 48 hours and there's just a tremendous amount that is going to happen before then. >> so based on that, mike debonis, what's next for mitch mcconnell? what options does he have at the moment? >> you know, from this point forward, i think there's going to be a lot of actions in behind the scenes. they are trying to get 50 votes and merge from the senate. you know, there's a lot of talk now about so-called skinny repeal, which has become shorthand for a very scaled-back bill that wouldn't touch medicaid or the insurance regulations of the affordable care act but it would perhaps undo the unpopular mandates and

perhaps set up a negotiation with the house. i will say that having spent some time in the house today and asking members about it, it's not a terrifically appealing option to them. if that passes, there's likely more prelude to wrangling and perhaps many more weeks of drama when i think congressional leaders in the white house are looking to move on to things like tax reform, debt ceiling, fiscal matters. it's looking like this could continue to be a live issue past this week. >> because initially we had heard talk from house republicans that if the senate passed a bill, they would automatically then go ahead and move ahead on the senate legislation. but what you're saying now is that's not going to be the case? >> it's still a possibility but from -- i just had a number of very intense conversations with house republicans who said, listen, we're not just going to swallow this. we're going to have to pick this

up and talk about it and negotiate perhaps through formal conference, perhaps just discuss this behind closed -- in a room somewhere and try and do more to undo the affordable care act than simply removing the mandates. there's a huge appetite to get rid of the regulations among house conservatives. there's certainly a good number of republicans who want real medicaid reforms and if the skinny repeal doesn't do, that is this something really better than nothing? and the people were advocating for this say, yes, yes, it is. this something is better than nothing. that's not a solid question. far from it. >> are we still seeing that the senate will be in session for the next couple of weeks? any changes to that? >> there have been no scheduling announcement by the majority leader or his office.

there is sort of a -- shall we say rumblings that if -- depending on how this all ends up, some of that time, if not all of it, could be given back. the majority leader very much wants to process nominations. i think that democrats might be in a mood to negotiate and to get folks out of here sooner. nominees, if there's a bad result for the health bill, there's also talk of processing the national defense authorization act. a lot of that depends on senator mccain and whether he's going to be up to it, up to managing that bill next week. it seems to be still undetermined whether he will be here next week and whether he'd be willing to step aside in managing that bill for one of his fellow members of the armed services committee. just a lot of unanswered questions there. but right now the plan is, yes,

to stay for another two weeks. >> finally, mike, as you talk to senate republicans and their staffers, are they -- is the sentiment pretty universal of frustration? are you hearing anything differently behind the scenes of what we've been hearing on the senate floor? >> there is frustration, particularly in the leadership ranks. we're taking it one step at a time. no one said we would get this far but here we are and we're going to work it and see where we end up and maybe this all blows up but, you know, listen, this is a campaign promise we've made for years and years. we've got to pull out all of the stops and do everything that we can to try and get this done and right now there's not a lot of looking ahead. it's looking at the piece of road right in front of your face. it's not about looking down the asphalt, so to speak. so that's really what i'm sort

of gathering. >> more details available online at washingtonpost.com and mike who covers congress for "the post" is on capitol hill. thank you for being with us. >> thanks, steve. >> in congress this week, the congress takes up spending for the next fiscal year and the senate repeals parts of the affordable care act. watch live coverage of the house on c-span and the senate on c-span 2 and watch c-span.org and listen to our free c-span radio app. earlier today, justice department officials testified on foreign agent registration requirements. inspector general horowitz discussed the review that his office looked at the foreign agents registration act and outlined recommendations for better enforcement practices. held byhe