the majority leader likes to talk about what we did in the past, his party shut down the government, he says i voted to shut down the government, that's absurd. you can cite a vote of mine against some sort of proposal that they put forward. the question is, he refuses to put on a bipartisan, to give the house even the opportunity to consider a bilthat is supported by 240 members of this house. and frankly, my perception, and i'm not bad at counting, mr. speaker, which is why i'm standing at this podium. and why the majority leader is at his podium. we understand counting. i dare him, mr. speaker, i dare him to put the hurd-aguilar bill on the floor and i guarantee him it will get 240

host: the house next week takes up the defense department spending bill. leo shane with "military times" what are the main priorities versus the president's request? mr. shane: it is pretty close to the president's request. and looking at the at the same level of military end strength. and same level for the military pay raise, 2.6%. and generally the same level of funding. little bit lower than what the administration asked for. we have gotten a note from mick mulvaney saying he wants to see those accounts fully restored. but it is pretty close. the two places that we have seen the administration send over a note saying they would like it to be correct that it is this bill would purchase

two extra literal ships with the administration we spent money offer and j-star program and another $600 million. minor things in the larger scope and in line. host: reading some of your reporting, military, the -- more troops? here's what the appropriators want. you quote the chair of the appropriations subcommittee, last year, we took the first big step to he rebuilding the military. what are the improved -- what are the proposed improvements? mr. shane: she is talking about this idea of rebuilding the military from trump and the republicans. we are talking about healthy increases, another $16 billion and continued end

strength growth and so we will see more soldiers and more sailors and airmen in this and seeing more investment in the accounts that started to get thinner. this goes to the issue of sequestration and budget caps and how much the defense department has felt strained -- has felt restrained and so, we are going to see a big boost in purchases and in things like the f-35 and combat vehicles. lawmakers are hoping they will get another deal around those spending caps. host the lines have been drawn : in terms of the provisions in the bill but there are 100 amendments that have been filed in the rules committee and two days for floor debate. what are the issues you are focused on? mr. shane: the biggest debate on the house floor is immigration.

quite a few of the amendments are dealing with money being used for national guard restrictions and money that may be connected to housing migrants on military bases. questions about whether or not jag officers will be assigned to some of these immigration cases. so we'll have to see whether or not those amendments are ruled in order and how much this immigration debate spills over into defense appropriations. there are a couple of other interesting issues including trends trend or policies. -- transgender policies. there are a couple of democrats who are pushing for ways to undo the new restrictions on transgender individuals joining the military and there is a fight over f-35's to turkey and turkey's latest actions in the region. in the u.s. relationship with

that country. there will be more attempts to restrict the equipment sale to them. host: steny hoyer said was shut out. how about on the defense spending bill. how do democrats feel about it? do they get a say? mr. shane: in the appropriations subcommittee, there was not as much consternation. there was back and forth and there were a handful of measures they were hoping to add on. and there were measures in the markup of this. but it hasn't been as polarizing as it has been in years past. and a large part of that is the fact that the lawmakers have agreed on the top line defense spending for this year. it was part of the two-year. there is a lot of back and forth, how much money will go to defense and nondefense programs. this year that is sort of settled.

a lot of those debates have been muted. host where is the senate in the defenses in the spending bill? mr. shane: little bit behind but still trying to move their appropriations bill along and starting to move over there. and a vote early next week on the veterans affairs and military construction bill which incorporates this military spending, too. the goal of lawmakers is to move these more quickly than they have in the past. typically, this has taken late in the year and in this year's case, even into the next caller -- even into the next calendar year. lawmakers think they can get it done. and we'll see if they can it done. host: leo shane, deputy editor of "military times." thank you for joining us. >> next, live, your calls and

comments on "washington journal ." on then a senate hearing cambridge analytic as involvement in the 2016 elections. followed by a hearing on russian interference in the 2016 elections. this weekend on american livery tv, c-span3, coverage from the gettysburg college civil war institute annual summer conference. starting this morning at 8:30 a.m. eastern with villanova professor east burke followed by an author regarding george gordon mean at the that george gordon meade at the battle of gettysburg. and wilson green on the battle of the crater during the siege of petersburg. our coverage continues sunday at nymex :00 a.m. eastern with new york historica