morning, it could be a two-day shutdown and relinquish time, meaning shutdown could last for a few hours into friday morning, that assumes it passes the house. that is what we are waiting. the senate on c-span 2, any debate on the house, when it happens, live coverage of that. we'll take you to the briefings this morning and other republican leaders at 11:30 this morning.

our government has no higher responsibility than to support our men and women who are in harm's way. for months now we have been working to get our military the resources it needs to keep the peace. this budget agreement delivers on that commitment. it fully funds our national defense at levels that secretary mattis has requested. it provides what the pentagon needs to restore our military's edge for years to come. as secretary mattis said yesterday, i quote, congressional action will ensure our military can defend our way of life. that mission is hard enough, especially in a time of rapidly evolving threats, but our military's job has become exponentially harder because of the staggering readiness crisis it is facing. you hear me do this every single week. this is a statistic that gets to me. in 2017 we lost 80 service members in accidents and training incidents. nearly four times more than we lost in combat. in 2017, we lost 80 service members in accidents and

training incidents, four times as many people we lost in combat. think about that. with better training and equipment, many of these deaths could have been prevented. this is a sad and tragic state of affairs. and this is why we can never allow anyone to politicize our military. or use our troops as bargaining chips. the stakes are too high for this. let me say one more thing. i know that there is a real commitment to solving the daca challenge in both political parties. that's a commitment i share. to anyone who doubts my intention to solve this problem and bring up a daca and immigration reform bill, do not. we will bring a solution to the floor, one the president will sign. we must pass this budget agreement first so we can get on to that. so please know that we're committed to getting this done. before i turn it over to chairman thornberry, i want to take a moment and thank him. i want to thank mac thornberry, chairman of the armed services

committee, and all the members of the armed services committee, both republicans and democrats, their leadership and their unwavering commitment to our service members and their families made this budget agreement possible. they live and breathe these problems. they know these issues. they know all the people who are fighting to keep us safe. they can tell you as well as anyone how critical it is we get this done. chairman thornberry. mr. thornberry: thank you, speaker. ll of us on the armed services committee are extremely grateful for the speaker's leadership in putting -- fixing the military as a priority. let me just remind you-all of a couple of statistics. when the house passed our defense authorization bill at exactly the same numbers that are in the cap deal we'll vote on today, the vote was 344-81.

when we voted on the conference report at exactly the same defense levels that are in the cap deal today, the vote was 356-70. in the senate the votes were 9-8. and then the conference report was a voice vote. my point is there is widespread agreement in both parties that we have cut the military too much. that our service members are suffering as a result. and that we need to do better. this cap deal that will be voted on today is exactly the same funding levels as the bill that i just read the votes for. my view is that this -- fixing the military is the dominant priority. we have to fix the military. i know members on both sides have other concerns. i wouldn't do this cap deal exactly the same way, but we owe t to the men and women who are

sacrificing their lives for us to have the best equipment needed. i turn to a combat veteran herself, the gentlelady from arizona. ms. mcsally: i'm retired air force colonel, a-10 pilot, spent 26 years in uniform. now i deploy to washington, d.c. one of the reasons why many of my fellow vets like mr. gallagher here and i came here was we thought it was important for those of us who serve to be here when decisions like this are being discussed, debated, and voted on. we need veterans in congress in order to be a voice at the table. we have been tirelessly advocating and working with our chairman and leadership to be that voice for our troops. combination of lack of training,

lack of resources, lack of hours and our experienced pilots and that comes together under difficult conditions and may be the last things that are happening and they lose their lives. and after the dangerous cuts in our military from the last dministration, it has been going year after year after year and our troops are paying the price. we have the most amazing men and women who are defending us. and they are at bases all over america training what might come ext. and we owe it to them to give them everything they need and not play politics with them. hey are willing to pay the ultimate sacrifice and we need to stop playing politics with their lives in order to defend us.

there are a lot of things we need to work on and issues related to our fiscal responsibility. we have to get to those and work together to get to those and get ur spending under control. right now, we need to give the troops what they need to keep them safe and alive and keep us safe because that price isn't what we want to pay. e are able to get to a place working with our chairman, our leadership here, secretary mattis and commander in chief who has the commitment to make sure our troops are supported and trained and ready in order to do their job and mission and we have got to get the resources to them and stop playing politics with what they need. thank you. ms. cheney: it is a very sobering experience as a member of congress to have the secretary of defense say to you that no foe in the field has done more harm to our military than the budget control act, sequestration and the policies

of the last administration and that's where we are today. we all, everybody on this stage, i would say everybody in the republican conference understands we have to deal with the debt issue. no question about it. but we cannot do it on the backs of the men and women who are erving us. we don't have time on our side. we have to get resources to them as quickly as we can. i would say to our friends in the freedom caucus, we got these numbers because we stayed together. and i would ask them not to quit before we get across the finish line. we need to get the budget deal passed and turn to the kind of reforms that are crucial in terms of the overall budget process. it is important. as we are having these debates as republicans and members of the house, we all keep much in ind, the moms and the dads out there whose sons and daughters

are deploying. and we cannot be in a situation where we are letting our political debates, our fights and arguments get in the way of giving them the resources they need in a dangerous world to protect and defend us. it is a sacred obligation. i'm proud to stand on this stage and grateful of the hard work of the speaker, the chairman, mike and martha. and will be proud to cast this vote to get the military the resources they need. mr. gallagher: before running for office, i spent seven years on active duty in the marine corps. you ride to the sound of the gun, which means if you see a problem, you don't run away or punt that problem to someone else, you confront it head on nd do your best to fix it. that's why i ran for office and we have the opportunity to do it today, to end the devastating cuts to our national defense. to my colleagues who have concerns, i get it. i would say two things.

neglecting our defense is not a recipe for long-term savings. as we have seen time and again throughout history, weakness invites aggression and costs us money if we slide into conflict on someone else's terms. i have only been here a year and i got lost trying to find this place today, but it is always easy to vote no. you could always find some excuse to vote to, but the american people sent us here to fix problems like this no matter how difficult that may be. thank you. he speaker: any questions? >> leader pelosi had her big show on the floor last night that lasted over eight hours. why are you insisting this will be a bill that the president will sign any --

the speaker: first of all, my hat is off to her. i don't know if i could hack that for eight hours. it was pretty darn impressive. especially wearing those shoes. i would have gone to the bathroom well before then. impressive. we want a daca solution. guess what? in order to shift our focus and get onto the next big priority, we have to get this budget agreement done so we can focus on this. and i said it once and i'll say it again, we will bring a daca solution to the floor. as far as the senate is concerned, i think it's important to see if they can produce a bill and what they produce. our system works different than heir system. the leader would say the same thing. i can't speak to what a rule is going to look like but we will bring a daca solution to the floor because we want to solve this problem. reporter: where are you on the defense side on this. on the nondefense side, the

question is -- [indiscernible] the speaker: i wrote the first one. i did the first murray-ryan. she calls it ryan-murray. i didn't want to see the sequester hit the military. i did the second one. we are doing this one. why? because we don't want to see the sequester hit the military. this is a bipartisan bill. like leader schumer said, you get some things you like and give the other side things they like. on the net, this is a very good solution. and as to the debt and deficit concerns, most of this domestic spending is one-time spending. it's hurricane relief.

are we not going to rebuild houston or florida or help puerto rico or the fires in california? those are things that we have to do because our fellow citizens in these disaster-ravaged area need assistance and that is the proper role for the federal government. the other domestic spending is something we all agree on. we have an opioids crisis. let's fix it. we can get close on cancer research. let's keep that going. we want to get a good down payment on infrastructure. i think this budget process is broken. here we are with another c.r., c.r., c.r., omnibus. that's why something we put in here that i feel passionate about is having a budget process reform dialogue. we had a one-sided dialogue in the house with republicans. we need to get the senate involved in a conversation so we can actually have an budget and appropriations process that works. he house passed all of its

appropriation bills this year before the deadline in september. we are doing our work here but the senate has a different ystem. and as much as we are frustrated by that system, it isn't working and we have a joint select committee between republicans and democrats and senators and house members to figure out how to fix this budget process so it works much more smoothly in the uture. reporter: the tax cuts are starting to kick in now and this bill will put the deficit over a trillion dollars this year and probably next year. these are supposed to be good times. are the times going to be that good to close that deficit? the speaker: by the way, economic growth is one of the

critical ingredients in getting the debt under control. the military is not the reason we have fiscal problems. it is entitlements. and i keep telling you. the budget we passed last year, that was the biggest, the most conservative budget congress has ever passed. something like $7.4 trillion in spending. what you need to fully deal with this debt crisis and it is entitlement reform. we have work to do with our friends on the other side of the aisle. reporter: the president is known to change his mind from time to time, so why not allow a vote on a bipartisan plan and see if e'll spofert it? the speaker: i want to make sure we get it done the first time. i don't want to risk a veto. and i think we can get there. i'm confident we can bring a bipartisan solution to the floor that can get signed into law and solved this problem. we want an immigration solution. i'm confident we can get there. getting this budget agreement done, a lot of this is to focus on the deadline, which is a priority, which is this issue issue.

very time -- reporter: there is a great deal of spending in this bill. and speaking to why you are supporting it. but are these spending levels sustainable after these two years and setting up another budget cliff. this is a very short turn around for a large bill. the speaker: we were involved in this. this gives the authorizers and the appropriators to go to the money in this bill for the march 23 deadline. remember why we have it. remember the old supercommittee and president obama said, we'll set up the supercommittee committee to do entitlement reform and if it doesn't work, then this thing kicks in. the original plan which never came to being and go point fingers but the fact it didn't happen. the entitlement reforms that were necessary did not occur and then the sequester kicked in.

the sequester is a very crude tool which puts the cuts where they don't belong on our military and need to get back focusing on the true driver of our debt crisis. it is health care, inflation, entitlements. these are very important programs that were written in the 20th century that aren't working in the 21st century which is giving a debt crisis which we have a emographic crisis. we have to face up to those challenges and deal with it. that's why cutting the military doesn't solve the problem. we can get rid of the military and still have a deficit. reporter: is there a longer term. the speaker: entitlement reform, you could solve these problems. reporter: there is speculation about your own personal future here. and has bedeviled republicans. how does your own personal future play? the speaker: it doesn't.

not at all. i don't think about it at all. reporter: i wanted to ask you about the tweet over the weekend highlighting the $1.50 paycheck increase. the speaker: the average family of four in america is getting a $20,000 tax cut. we were working a concession stand last weekend and a friend of my said this is putting real money in my pocket. thank you very much. [captions copyright national satellite corp. 2018] captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org rir more likely of a government shutdown at midnight, congress has not finished its work on the next short-term spending measure

which would fund the government through march 23. and tweeting about the white house office of management and budget, saying the agencies are now being urged to review and prepare for a lapse. midnight would be. here's where things have stand. the house has passed its measure on tuesday this week and gone over to the senate. but the senate has yet to move forward, and the measure is being blocked by rand paul ecause he is against the tweeting what rand paul is saying, saying, i'm here tonight to put people on the spot and i want people to feel junk comfortable, the country is worth the debate until 3:00 in the morning.

and rand paul's chief strategist warns reporters, it will be a while so order dinner. rand paul has been speaking since after k. and we love you watching c-span and the real story is happening on the senate floor. so check your cable guide and tune in. until further developments in the house, until they come back into session and other developments or briefings come up, we will show you an event today where the british committee came to the united states and came to washington too to hold a whole-day session to hear about fake news. and also from the officials from organizations like google and facebook. it happened earlier today in