>> of three trips today considering bills battling russian cyber attacks. the senate also has to take up that measure for thursday. first images return at 3:00 p.m. eastern -- first senators return at 3:00 p.m. eastern. director of u.s. patent and trademark office will go down the nomination scheduled at 5:30. the house is live on c-span and the senate is live on c-span2. >> lyndsay mcpherson reports for

roll call and covers house leadership. congress is facing another shutdown. you cover the republican retreat in west virginia, what did you learn about their plans to avert the next shutdown? >> from the retreat itself there did not seem to be a lot of discussion. 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 for 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 and there -- 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 what have you heard about a possible deal on dealing with the budget cap and spending levels possibly going up? >> the numbers do seem to keep taking up -- to keep ticking. 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 talked about if they agree in 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 would like to use, the increase of 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, 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. >> it is all of those factions. democrats are expected to oppose another continuing resolution passed in a broader budget deal, and 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 have struggled to do but have eventually managed on the past two cr's. 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 seen 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 be. would there are senators negotiating over there, trying to get a compromise. trying to get more members to support it, absent a consensus bill, mitch mcconnell could just put the white house framework on the floor or any other bill and then allow all the various proposals to be voted on by amendment. president trump was supposed to stay 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 went off script once he got up there. it is fair to say that is still the the white house's preferred position. they do not have the votes to pass that in the house so i

cannot guess when that would be ready. my guess is pass the senate timeline. >> we will keep following you on twitter. the website, ask so much. -- thanks so much. a.coming up next, q and at 7:00, we open the phone lines and take a look at today's headlines. house homeland security committee chair, michael mccaul gives a state of national security address. >> mr. james talks about his book "the man from the train,"