>> on it newsmakers this weekend , our guest is tim phillips. he talks about the plan to spend up to $400 million during the 2018 midterm elections to help keep the house and senate in republican control. he also discussed the congressional agenda and hopes for entitlement reform and legislation to address daca. what's the interview today at 10:00 a.m. -- watch the interview today at 10:00 a.m.. >> lindsey mcpherson reports for roll call and covers house leadership. congress is facing another shutdown thursday at midnight. you covered the republican retreat in west virginia, what did you learn about their plans to avert the next shutdown? lindsey: from the retreat itself

there did not seem to be a lot of discussion. lawmakers that came through said they had finalized and even speaker ryan had said that they would need a cr but the duration of that and what would be included had not been decided. we do know from gop leadership aides that they are looking at a resolution through march 22, thinking that six-week timeframe would provide them enough time to get that budget deal they have been looking for, getting an omnibus bill after they have a budget cap agreement. that timeline could be problematic because it goes past the march 5 deadline for deferred action, replacing the deferred action for childhood arrivals program and democrats have tended to link a budget agreement with an immigration deal.

their willingness in the senate to agree to a timeline to march 22 remains to be seen but it is probably going to cause conflict. >> we will get to the immigration part of this, that -- but what have you heard about a possible deal on dealing with the budget cap and spending levels possibly going up? lindsey: the numbers do seem to keep ticking up. we understand they are looking at about $80 billion for defense for the rest of fiscal 2018 and fiscal 2019 and the nondefense numbers have been talked about as upwards of the $60 billion range. negotiations are still fluid. democrats have not agreed to anything yet and they continue to say they want parity, which they define as a dollar for dollar increase of defense and nondefense, and republicans have been seen to push negotiations

in a different direction and now talking about if they agree to such a large increase in nondefense discretionary that they would like some of that money to be earmarked for infrastructure as a down payment to the package they are planning to put together later this year for the federal portion of that. democrats seem to be pushing back on that, they have other things they wanted to use the increases for. the funding for opioid abuse prevention, veterans, health care, stuff like that, it is not that they do not support infrastructure funding but in their minds this was always going to be a separate effort after the budget to do separate infrastructure funding. >> in terms of government funding, democrats are going to be out for their retreat this coming week, one of the -- what are the obstacles that they are looking at for republican leaders in terms of getting their short-term bill, whether it is democrats, the freedom caucus, defense spending.

lindsey: it is all of those factions. democrats are expected to oppose another continuing resolution passed in a broader budget deal, an immigration deal no one , believes that is feasible by next thursday so we are to say the democrats will vote against the cr and that puts the onus on house republicans to pass the cr on their own, which they have struggled to do but have eventually managed on the past two crs. they are back in the same place with the freedom caucus and the defense hawks. they are frustrated with these stopgaps because of its impact on defense funding. they seem to be taking a harder line and the freedom caucus says that at this point they do not see a reason why they would be supporting the cr. negotiations will continue on, the defense hawks and the freedom caucus have planned to huddle at the retreat, i have

not had a chance to see what the result of that is yet but my guess is talks will continue through monday and tuesday. there is a real threat until they figure out a way to get those guys on board. >> on immigration and border security, you write about the divide among republicans on immigration and border security. what is the status of any legislation? what is the earliest you think we could see a bill considered in either chamber? >> the earliest we will see a bill is probably that week that mitch mcconnell has scheduled for floor time after the february cr, the following week, the 11th or 12th, whatever that monday is. he said he would be willing to start debate in the senate on an immigration bill, he has not specified what that bill would be, there are senators negotiating over there, trying to get a compromise.

mcconnell could just put the white house framework on the floor or any other bill as a space and then allow all the various proposals to be voted on by amendment. president trump was supposed to say yesterday at the retreat that he wanted the senate to use his framework as the bill for their debate, according to prepared remarks, but then he stopped short of that once he got up there, he went off script. it is fair to say that is still the white house's preferred position. in the house they are trying to work with conservatives. they do not have the votes to pass that in the house so i cannot guess when that would be ready. my guess is past the senate timeline. >> we will keep following you on twitter. thank you so much. lindsey: thanks for having me. returns monday to

consider a bill. early in the we, votes are possible on a temporary spending bill to keep the government-funded past eight deadline. the senate has to taken the measure before thursday. senators return monday to consider the nomination of entree to the under secretary of commerce for intellectual property. a vote on the nomination will follow at 5:30. watch the house live on c-span and the senate live on c-span two. monday night on the communicators, we are in las vegas for the second part of our coverage from the consumer electronic show. for each year, tech companies unveil products and give insight on what's ahead. the latest on robotic drone technology. watch the