[laughter] i know that is not what you all do. thank you. the confirmation process get started next week for president donald trump's cabinet, when the senate judiciary committee holds hearings for senator jeff sessions, the nominee for attorney general. scheduled for tuesday, you can watch it at 9:30 a.m. eastern on c-span three live. it will re-air later that night in primetime. more on upcoming confirmation hearings and the week ahead in congress, we spoke with a capitol hill reporter. we joined by a reporter for congress with political and she joins us for a look at the week ahead in congress. let's start with the senate confirmation hearings that are coming up. president-elect donald trump's cabinet nominees including secretary of state and attorney general, headlined in your article, gop jams the senate

democrats with a confirmation blitz. what is the senate republican strategy for scheduling these hearings? >> they say there is no court made it strategy committee chairman on their own role, but their main overall goal is to get as many of donald trump's ready in place to confirm an inauguration day. they love reminding us that they got seven barack obama nominees readyconfirmed and getting a lf hearings in places part of that strategy for senate republicans. democrats are urging a slowdown of the process, but republicans are not listening to the democrats because this is their goal. they believe donald trump wants his team in place as soon as week is and this coming really the big week to get as much of that done as possible. >> what has been the senate democrats response question mark do they have any power in terms of the scheduling or what they can do with these confirmations? >> they really don't have any power.

depending on committees -- especially the chairman and ranking member if they have a good relationship with one another. the chairman would generally sign off -- or the blessing of the democratic ranking member. but they don't actually need their permission to schedule a hearing, so you have them going , goingith jeff sessions ahead with rex tillerson for secretary of state on january 11, the next day. senatechumer, the new minority told mitch mcconnell, the senate majority leader, that he would like to not have simultaneous hearings. -- that request purely clearly is going unheeded. >> you mentioned jeff sessions, nominated for attorney general, he will be the first we see. his hearing starts tuesday. what meetings has he been having with his fellow senators leading up to this hearing and how is he

going to be treated in that committee? >> he has been doing a lot of meet and greets with republicans and democrats. he started off pretty much right away with republicans in december, needing first, as is custom with members of the committee. democrats had a caucus-wide strategy not to meet with any cabinet nominees until the new year. have a flurry of democrats, where meeting with sessions and other nominees this week. i spoke to the second ranking dem and it -- democrats on the judiciary committee, he met with jeff sessions has did chris kuhn, dianne feinstein, many other democrats. we will see how it goes. a lot of these democratic senators emerged from these private meetings saying, senator sessions is a calling that we have a lot of tough questions ready and waiting for him at the --ring next week to read

next week. >> the secretary of defense nominee, general james mattis will be before the armed services committee. what happened with the waiver he needed? >> it looks like the waiver he the pentagonme chief -- because he hasn't been out of uniform for seven years as the law mandates, that doesn't look like it is going to be an issue. surveyed a lot of democratic senators about their feelings on granting him that one-time waiver, and aside from kirsten gillibrand, who is very fast out of the gate saying she would oppose a waiver for general mattis, we don't see that sentiment building upon -- among senate democrats. you have seen a lot of comments from democratic senators might just very pleased with general mattis and his character and background. it is kind of interesting. he was kind of the only cabinet nominee that could have

effectively been held to a 60 vote threshold considering that is the number of votes that a havelative waiver would needed. senate democrats aren't going to use it because they really think that general mattis is qualified him -- and they want him there. >> let's turn to rex tillerson. who are the senators we should be watching as far as questioning and what issues are facing this nominee? >> one word, russia. secretary of state has a litany of issues he is going to have to pick up. there are a lot of foreign-policy issues that will be brought up at the hearing by all of the senators. all of the foreign hotspots. but i think the issue of real controversy is russia here. chief of exxon mobil, he has personal ties with russian president vladimir putin. several republican senators have brought that out as a reasonable concern. as for republicans on the committee, i would keep an eye

on senator marco rubio of florida. initially, when mr. tillerson was announced as donald trump's pick for secretary of state, he expressed his concerns about tillerson's ties to put in -- putin right away. he says he still has concerns. how he approaches the hearing, what questions he raises and how he feels after the confirmation hearing will be very important to watch. >> briefly on health care repeal, what is the status of things in the senate with the repeal them with -- when can we see it in the house? >> there are several tech -- steps that republicans must take to get the repeal track going. first is approving a budget resolution that sets in motion all of the procedures for republicans to be able to draft a repeal law. that is going to come up next week. we're talking long days on capitol hill. i will tentatively be wednesday

will be wednesday night where they can put forth a budget amendment of their own choosing. anything can get voted on. you are going to be here late into the night. that will be the big day for the budget resolution to happen and it will go over to the house. aree know, republicans talking about how to draft a replacement plan and what the repeal plan looks like. it is still pretty preliminary in the process. we are trying to take it one step at a time. >> a look at the week ahead, she reports for political. and you so much. >> thank you for having me. watch live coverage of the house and senate, as well as congressional hearings on c-span television and c-span.org. and listen through the seasick -- c-span radio app. >> this weekend, c-span cities

tour along with our cox communications cable partners will explore the literary life and history of san diego. on book tv on c-span2, we will 7000 abandonedof bicycles left along the river valley on the san diego-tijuana border. in the book, "the coyotes bicycle" the untold story of 7000 bicycles. >> every parcel along monument road i went to after that had a pile of bicycles, from the state park to the goright down here. , and thea county park people of the valley were just collecting these bicycles that were abandoned by migrants. tvthen, on american history on c-span3, we will hear how the u.s. navy tilt its presence in san diego. from historian carl xing hine. >> she was a large ship of new

design and the navy put her through the paces, even though the war had just concluded. and she made numerous deployments to the mediterranean for the first 10 years of her career. then in 1954, it was decided she needed to transfer to the she madend so in 1955, an epic voyage because she was too large to pass through the panama tomorrow, from nor folk, virginia across the link of the atlantic, the indian ocean and entering the pacific from the west. c-span's tour of san diego, california. saturday at noon eastern on c-span two's book tv. and at 2:00 p.m. on american history tv on c-span3. working with our cable affiliates and visiting cities across the country. next, justice department officials discuss with the obama administration has done in