>> to retiring members of congress, republican senator orin hatch of utah and the credit senator of michigan talk about their tenure and to -- tenure in congress. and what to next after retiring from politics. join us tonight for retiring congress. and listen with the free c-span radio app. >> condors returns tuesday for the start of a lame duck session. the houses back to work on legislation funding the federal the december 7ed

deadline. the senate returns for votes on coast guard programs and the nomination for the federal reserve board. watch the house live on c-span and the senate live on c-span .wo here's more from a capitol hill reporter. returns15th congress tuesday. and the home stretch of legislative fork and leader slip elections. joining us is senior staff writer with the hill. let's start with those elections and nancy pelosi is strengthened to reclaim the speaker's gavel. what happened to the potential challenges mentioned before the election? >> so far they have not materialized. we heard a lot of criticism of nancy pelosi over the past two years of rebellious democrats who have want to change in the process. who have wanted a new step forward. .im ryan did challenge pelosi

right now we don't have any other names that have been floated. there are a lot of discussions happening behind the scenes but nobody has stepped forward to take on nancy pelosi. >> the headline describes it like this -- "pelosi critics lose momentum in the battle over speakership." what about challenges to any of the other positions, the majority leader -- the minority leadership positions? who might we see challenging for leadership roles there? >> so far, stan hoyer, for the number two spot on the majority, has no challenges. right now, in the number one or the number two spots have no challenges. there is a very interesting challenge to a jim clyburn in the number three spot, the chief vote counter, the minority whip

position. he is getting a challenge from a representative from colorado, the chief deputy vote counter for democrats, she has been in that position for seven years now. that is a race i think a lot of people are watching. somewhat of a surprise. so far with no challenges in at the top two positions, all eyes are on the #3 spot. host: things could get interesting on the republican side, with no majority position, thinks turn to the minority leader position at the top in the republican conference. tell us about the landscape there with the elections coming up next week. scott: we had a surprise this week in kathy mcmorris rogers, the conference chairwoman who has been that position for six years now, the highest ranking republican in leadership at the capitol. she decided to bow out of leadership now that the republicans are in the minority. she is facing a challenge from liz cheney, the daughter of former vice president dick

cheney, she is a defense hawk much like her father, someone with a big name in republican politics and someone who can be a good fundraiser for the party, so she will run for the number three position, which in the minority, is conference chair. right now, the only other challenge that we are seeing is to kevin mccarthy for the minority leaders spot. he is getting a challenge as we have known for several months, from jim jordan, the conservative freedom caucus leader. both men, jordan and mccarthy, are close to the president, so it will be hard for the president to weigh in. the president was campaigning with jim jordan in the waning days of the election and speaks to mccarthy almost on a daily basis. but i think because of the way the votes are structured, where all you need is a simple

majority of votes internally and a closed-door secret ballot election, i think mccarthy will win the race. host: briefly, what is the timetable like in the leadership elections for the house republicans and house democrats, and when will we see the speaker election? scott: republicans will vote next week on wednesday here in the capitol. all the new members will come to the capital, they will go -- they will come to the capitol, go through a freshman orientation and that is when one of the returning members will be voting for their leadership teams for their 116th congress. democrats come in after the thanksgiving break, and they will decide both internally on the speaker of the house, and the other top democratic leadership positions, internally in a closed-door vote as well. then on january 3, we expect that after the new year, there will be a formal roll call vote on the house floor for speaker of the house, where each

lawmakers name will be called on the house floor as we have seen every two years, and lawmakers will need to stand up and say exactly who they will be voting for. democrats will likely be casting ballots for nancy pelosi, although there is always some wildcards. and republicans likely will be casting their votes for kevin mccarthy on the house floor. host: let's look at the legislative agenda facing the house when they return. the biggest item of course, the budget, you were writing about that in this piece about the border wall, which the headline saying, "battle looms over the funding of trump's border wall." why is the border wall the linchpin in getting the budget resolved?

scott: because it has been a problem for past funding deadlines. we have seen sort of rolling shutdowns on and off this past year, most of them happened in the fight over immigration. trump is demanding, as he has the entire year, $5 billion for his border wall with mexico. he wants that attached to a government funding measure. a lot of the bigger agencies like the department of defense and hhs have already been funded through the 2019 fiscal year, through september, but the rest of the government remains unfunded. so congress will need to come back in the lame-duck session and pass a funding bill for the rest of the government by the december 7 deadline, or we will face yet another shutdown. we will see whether trump is serious this time in terms of demanding the $5 billion for his funding wall. click scott long -- >> scott --thanks for the update. >> here's the president as he arrived this m