>> what i appreciate about c- span, is that it is not partisan. you watch the sparring that takes place and you watch delegations talk back and forth. is extremely informative and very educational, but i am a tech geek, so i hope that they take me with them on their tour because i would spend hours in that class. but if you look at the video screenings, people can learn and kids can learn about government. and a government doesn't have to be a bad word. >> be sure to join us when we will feature our visit to alaska. watch alaska weekend on c-span or listen with the free radio app.

patrick kelly as a defense reporter and the house is considering a $675 billion defense department spending bill. what are the main priorities of the house versus what the president has requested? >> thank you for having me. house bill exceeds what the pentagon and the president asked for. most notably the house appropriations bill will approve funding for 93 of the f 33 joint strike fighters. the texas congresswoman who is the chair of the house appropriations defense subcommittee has said that she wants to buy these 93 planes as opposed to the pentagon's requested 77 to drive down the costs. it makes them cheaper if you buy them in bulk. they also are assembled at lockheed martin place in her district.

and also the bill approves -- compared to the president's request for 10. in this bill the appropriators ha approved funding for combat ships as opposed to the one that the president requests. and it appears that the ship building communities will continue to be busy because the senate appropriations subcommittee just this morning just past their companion bill up to the full appropriations committee also including dish so it looks like those will probably end up into the final bill. you pointed out that kay granger , what is been her view of the appropriations process so far for 2019 and her work with peter visclosky? >> this year it is easier because the budget agreement that was past the spring, -- i

believe it was in march the president signed an agreement that helped the funding for the pentagon. so it allowed the appropriators to get more what they wanted and it showed when the house appropriations committee passed that bill out of the full committee. >> as the debate gets underway and there are 130 amendments filed to the rule 24 will be considered under the first row. what are some of the key issues that you are looking for in that amendment debate that might come up under the second row? >> sure. so if you amendments will get the ball rolling. a democrat from california has an amendment that would decrease the overall funding, i believe, by $5 billion. it is probably not going anywhere. the amendment that i am particularly interested in today is an arizona republican

and two of her colleagues jointer on this to relink the a- 10 warthog, which is an error craft -- and aircraft. she wants to appropriate $163 million to re-wing the a-10 fleet and that is something like $55 million over what the pentagon requests. that funding was authorized in the house's defense authorization bill, so she is looking to re-wing the aircraft and that amendment, we will be seeing debate on that today. >> you are talking about some of the democratic priorities. democrats target defense bill for immigration and a chin debate. >>) there are more than a dozen amendments, i believe, that relate to the immigration policy in some way or another.

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 depament -- there is handful of amendments that would do that. the rationale behind that is that those military attorneys are not qualified to handle immigration cases. and it would be taking resources away from the pentagon and putting them into different federal agency. so i don't though -- and then adam schiff has an amendment that would ban funding that would be used to build facilities to house migrant children that are separated from their families. and then also ruben gallego has amendments that would ban any pentagon funding from going to build a border wall. so the democrats covered all

their bases on immigration. whether they will be considered is another issue. and on china, ruben gallego, he is a democrat from arizona and a former marine has an amendment that would ban chinese telecom companies, zte, from doing business with the pentagon and would ensure that the penalties that were initially imposed on the company earlier this year by the trump administration would remain in place. we will see if that is going anywhere are not. it will be interesting to see what the rules committee does with those.>> outside of those issues how do you think democrats will vote when the final vote comes up on defense spending?>> like we spoke about earlier with that budget agreement that cleared away for this funding, this is where -- a lot of what they wanted in this year's appropriations process. as i mentioned, i passed that

committee 48-4. there will be dirs, but i would expect that this would pass. >> patrick kelly covers defense issues. iqbal his reporting online at cq.com. thank you for the update. coming up tonight on c-span three, look at efforts to protect u.s. elections from foreign interference. and then from the white house, the awarding of the medal of honor to world war ii veteran. and later look at foreign investment in the united states. a senate judiciary subcommittee examined virtual currencies as way foreign countries are influencing u.s. elections.