incredible. heard stories from people driving up the alcan and things they saw coming to alaska, it was a nice trip. and i understand i've driven it myself a couple of times. and it is an awesome trip. and we are so glad your bus came here. and using it as a tool to bring fair backs nationwide. >> what i appreciate about kpa span, it's 40 years old, much older than me, that's a joke, by the way. you can laugh. what i appreciated about c c-span it's not partisan. you watch the sparring that takes place. you watch your delegations talk back and forth. it's extremely informative and very educational. one of the best things on the bus, and i'm a tech geek, so i hope they take me with them on their toweur because i would spd hours on that bus, if you go in and look at the video screens, they are interactive. people can learn and kids can

learn about government. government doesn't have to be a bad word. >> be sure to join us july 21 and july 22 where we'll feature our visit to alaska. watch alaska weekend on c-span, c-span.org or listen with the free radio app. >> kelly, $675 billion defense building bill. one of the main priorities of the house versus what the president's request held? >> yeah, thanks for having me. the house bill exceeds what the pentagon and the president asked for for this defense bill. most notably h the house appropriations bill will approve funding for 93 of the f-35 strike fighters. now, kay gaininger, texas chairman has said that she wants to buy these 93 planes as

opposed to the pentagon's requested 77 to drive down the cost. she says to buy them in bulk makes the planes cheaper. it happens to be in a lockheed in her district. but 12 ships for the nature to the compared to the president's requested ten n that bill, the appropriate oars have approved funding for two combat ships as opposed to the one that the president requested. so it appears that the shipbuilding communities in wisconsin and alabama where those vessels were made will continue to be busy because senate appropriations defense subcommittee this morning passed their companion bill up to the full appropriations committee also including two combat ships. so it looks like those will probably end up in the final bill. >> you pointed out the chair of the appropriations subcommittee on defense. what's been her view of the appropriations process so far

for 2019 and her work with her ranking member peter? >> sure. so this year, i guess, probably a little easier because of that budget agreement that was passed back in the spring. back i believe it was in march congress passed and the president signed a two-year budget agreement that extended to fiscal year 2019. so really kind of allowed the appropriate ors to get more of what they wanted and that kind of showed when the house appropriations committee passed that bill out of the full committee out of the floor 44-48 vote. >> as the debate gets way and over 130 amendments filed to the rule 24 will be considered, under the first rule, what are some of the key issues you are looking for in amendment debate in particular and might come up under the second rule snl. >> sure. so ta couple of attempts will kind of get the ball rolling.

rojas has something that will decrease. the amendment i'm particularly interested in watching today that was made into the rule was one from marathon mcsally arizona representative, and to rewing the a-10 war heart that mcsally herself flew in the air force. she wants to appropriate $160 million to rewing the military's existing a-10 fleet. and that is something like $65 million over what the pentagon requested. that funding level, however, was authorized in the houses defense authorization bill. so she is looking to rewing the aircraft that she flew for the air force, and that amendment we'll be seeing debate on that today. >> you are right about some of the democratic priorities.

in your piece, democrats target defense bill for immigration. tell us about that. >> right, there are more than dozen amendments that relate to donald trump immigration policy. handful of democrats filed separate amendments that would ban the pentagon from loaning the military attorneys that work for the defense department to the justice department to prosecute immigration cases. there is a handful of amendments that would do thafrmt the rational behind that is those military attorneys are not qualified to handle immigration cases. that's not what they are trained to do. and also taking resources away from the pentagon and put them into different federal agency. so we are not sure it's the rule or not. it will be interesting to see that t and also an amendment that would ban any funding that would be used to build

facilities to house migrant children that are separated from their families. and then also reuben guy ego has an amendment along with seth molten that would ban any pentagon funding to build the wall. so the democrats covered all their bases on immigration in these amenents. whether or not they'll be considered is another issue. and then on china as you mentioned, reuben again, he's a democrat from arizona and former marine, has an amendment that would ban chinese telecom company zte and wawa from doing any business with the pentagon. and also ensure that any penalties initially imposed on the company earlier this year by the trump administration would remain in place. and so we'll see if that's going anywhere or not. so that would be interesting to see what the rules committee ends up doing with those amendments. >> el with, outside of those issues, concerns over immigration and the zte deal, how do you think democrats will vote when the final vote comes up on defense spending?

>> so like we spoke about earlier with the budget agreement that cleared the way for a lot of this funding, that's really given both republicans and democrats a lot of what they wanted in this year's appropriations process. so as i mentioned, passed out of committee 48-4, so i'm sure there will be some democratic buy nas always there will be dissenters and no votes. but i would expect that this would pass with democratic support. >> roll call. you can follow his reporting online at cq.com. and also on twitterer at patrick kelly. thaungs for the update. >> thank you. >> up next, hearing on some of the advantages and challenges of charter schools. education advocates testify befo the house education committee on the value of charter schools. best practices for teachers, parental involvement, and concerns over access for