host: thanks, tom. thanks to everybody who call this morning on the government shutdown. we will continue to take your calls for the next couple of hours here on c-span. we are doing that, wrapping ourselves around these pro forma sessions happening around the house at 10:30 and in the senate at 11:00. we will if anything is said. we do not expect any action until thursday. we will continue to take your calls. this is government shutdown day three. we >> we look for your reaction to all of this tomorrow. in the meantime enjoy the rest of your day today. merry christmas and happy holidays. we will see you back your for tomorrow.

and day christmas eve number three of the government shutdown. a partial government shutdown. we continue the conversation here on c-span over the course of the next couple of hours. call in with your comments on the shutdown. comment on how it is affecting her holiday plans. republicans call (202) 748-8001. -- 8921 democrats -- if you're a federal employee the line is 202 748 8922. those numbers are different for you washington journal watchers this morning.

we have them on the screen. .e will get to your calls particularly for you federal employees who are affected. whatll keep track of members are saying and reporters are saying and what the president is saying. president trump tweeting about the shutdown within the last half hour saying virtually every democrat we are dealing with today strongly supported a border ball offense. it was only when i made it an important part of my campaign because people and drugs were pouring into our country unchecked they turned against it . that from president trump. we expect more. the president remaining at the white house for the holidays. we won't hear from members of congress other than on the floor. two sessions. the house is coming in for a pro forma session at 10:30. we'll bring that to you live.

the senate comes in at 11:00. we will simulcast on c-span and on c-span two. the click the senate is very fast in their pro forma sessions. what may happen in the house session when they come in at 10:30 is we may see as we saw on , aurday, we saw members couple of democratic members trying to bring forward legislation that passed in the senate on friday evening. this is retroactive backpay for workers in the federal government that were agreed to. we may see that when the house comes in this morning. looking for your phone calls. (202) 748-8920 for republicans. (202) 748-8921 for democrats. for federal employees (202) 748-8922 this is judy. on a republican line.

caller: good morning and happy holidays. -- i have never been worried about politics but i have been scraping pennies to make a living. what i don't understand is, democrats and lobbyists are filthy lich and so are some republicans -- filthy rich and so are some republicans. everyone is taking this out on trump. republicans had two years to do something about this wall. we need a wall. it costs us more to bring these people in and put them on wealth care and house them, medical, schools and jails, then it does to build a wall in a year. we give all this money to pakistan and all these foreign nations and we send our boys over there to get killed for other nations but we can't build a wall to protect our own

country? democrats thing, don't worry about it. they are filthy rich. they don't have to worry about their kids getting raped or killed by ms 13 gangs. we go to gary on our republican line in wisconsin. caller: good morning. i am in full support of president trump and his wall. if the democrats are so worried about the wall maybe they should tear down their walls and let the illegal immigrants use their houses as sanctuaries. thank you. we go to dennis on a republican line. bullhead city, arizona. thank you. caller: i am in full support of president trump and the shutdown for the wall.

we need to do anything we can to get the wall built. people are entering the country and waving foreign flags is an invasion. i don't know why people don't understand that. host: you are a border state resident. give us an idea of what the barriers are like across the state of arizona between arizona and mexico. caller: the barriers are pretty slim and scarce. they have problems of people coming in and stealing equipment and cars. they have even been assaulting people. i desperately need the wall don't understand why people don't realize that. host: coming in at 10:30 eastern is a pro forma session for the house. they come in for this pro forma session. it will be brief. we may see efforts by democrats

to bring forward legislation. staten island, new york, solomon. i oppose the shutdown. i oppose the shutdown because every country needs border security, it is very important. this country is a country of immigrants, but also a country of law. people come in here, they need to come through a port of entry so that they can be able to be processed. trump is not saying nobody should come into this country. he is saying all the people that want to come here are welcome but they should come through a port of entry and come here legally. they are choking the security the people are forcing their way

and they want something from this country. host: are you an immigrant to the country? caller: i came here legally. host: tell us about your experience. you talk about coming through a legal point of entry, what country do you come from and what was the process like? liberia andme from i came through jfk. put in my paperwork. what i'm saying here is that we want all the people to come here but they should come through valid points. not fighting the security. they come in here -- some of them coming here to take care of their families. you cannot have people come that way. host: thank you for that. don beyer represents northern

virginia and has a lot of federal workers in his districts. he is tweeting this this morning, some of my republican colleagues in the house have been cavalier about their damage the shutdown -- there shutdown is doing to federal employees. 30% of the federal workforce is veterans and 100% don't deserve to permanently lose their paychecks, do the right thing. on the federal workers line in manassas, virginia, johnny. how are you affected by this? caller: i work for the federal bureau of prisons. there are many people that have to come to work without pay during this. i supportke to say the democrat position. i think there are far more reasonable ways to provide for border security through surveillance and drones and other things. the fence would be incredibly costly and incredibly inefficient and there are better

ways to approach this and the fact that they are punishing gains. for political i hope the democrats stick to and ride this through and end up with something that truly works and does not waste taxpayer money. the part of the promise that mr. trump made was that mexico would pay for this. i do hear that. it is not supposed to be a part of the taxpayer burden. that is my position. >> thank you for that, johnny. technically the third day of this partial government shutdown the white house has an executive order closing the federal government for christmas eve and christmas day.

let's go to our democrats line. this is donald from nebraska. caller: good morning. i just want to say that donald trump has everyone talking about the wall. the thing you have to understand is this is all just a part of racist agenda. it is about keeping brown hispanic people out of america. want you toout -- i fact check me on this. have visa over state in the united states per year. if you want to get at a legal immigrants you have to attack that problem. the people that come into the southern border compared to

655,000 mostly coming through canada. fact check me on this. in through canada and they are white and that is not a problem for donald trump. host: that is the number you are saying are what are called to be set over stays? -- visa overstays? caller: that is correct. , we is the largest number are talking illegal immigrants. isn't that what the wall is about? isn't that the concern of the wall. if the wall is designed to keep -- keep outgrants illegal immigrants we have 60,000 from the southern border. host: let's go to our republican line in here from james in south

carolina. caller: good morning. wallieve we should have a or something in place down there. the wall is cheaper than having manpower. how much would it cost to have a man posted every few feet across all the wayborder to california. it would cost more than $5 billion. that would be a bill that has to be paid every day. democrats and republicans both promise they will make america a .etter place instead of fighting each other and trying to take care of their own agendas.

whether it is to mexico or the middle east or wherever the problem is, they can give jobs in the military and station them in countries nobody wants to go to and the military can do the job they need to do by people that don't mind doing it. host: we will continue to take more calls and comments and look at tweets. taking a lighter look at the way things are. hal9000, caning someone try turning the government off and on again. it is christmas eve and we continue with our conversation and your calls. in for itsaveling pro forma session in about 15 minutes. we will show that to you when it happens. the senate and house came in on saturday afternoon. we will show you the comments of mitch mcconnell next as they came in to set the stage for how

the next couple of days might go. thiswore a red sweater morning in the hopes that christmas is not far away for all of us including the members of congress. with that in mind let me give everyone an update on where we are. yesterday the democratic leader and i reached a procedural agreement to create space for ongoing negotiations over government funding. therovide flexibility as white house and senate democrats continue their discussions, the senate will officially proceed to the house and senate already. officially proceeding to the house to pass funding legislation. we did so with an understanding that no further votes will occur until the president and senate democrats have reached an agreement to resolve this. let me say that again.

we push the pause button until the president from home we will need a signature and senate democrats from whom we will need votes reach an agreement. votes, no test votes. just a meaningful vote on a bipartisan agreement whenever that is reached. it is my hope it is reached sooner. rather than later. it is no mystery while securing is such a's borders major priority for republicans in the senate and republicans over in the house. and for president trump. any look at the plain facts leads to one simple conclusion. the crisis of security at our is --rn border israe

southern border is real. customs and border protection records of apprehensions and interdictions at our southern border are literally, mr. president, staggering. staggering. members, a 50% increase over last year. nearly 7000 individuals with criminal histories including weapons trafficking and violent offenses. double the levels of fentanyl along with other illicit substances. the report card is clear america's borders are in crisis. these facts i have stated are not partisan facts. they aren't ideological. they are just fact.

they don't describe the republican party's version of events or the presidents. or the version of events. they describe reality. think that securing our homeland and controlling our borders and protecting the american people would be a bipartisan priority. uncontroversial. common sense, bipartisan priorities. a core duty of any nation's government. here is the interesting thing. recently that seems to be the case. back in 2006 democrats were perfectly happy to support hundreds of miles of physical barriers along the border.

26 democrats voted for the bill including then senator obama and my friends the democratic leader from new york. what about more recently? earlier this year the democratic billion fored $25 physical barriers in his negotiations with the president. as the white much house is reasonably requesting right now. that was earlier this year. republicans in the house and senate believe the house provision for $5 billion in border funding was additional disaster funding was completely reasonable. i was glad to vote to advance that legislation yesterday. my colleagues and i are proud to stand with the american people on this subject for the safety of american families and the health and security of our

community. democrats have rejected that reasonable request. they have refused to meet president trump halfway and of the even 1/5 resources for the border they were willing to provide just a few months ago. just a few months ago. is no bright line or principle that separates hundreds of miles of physical -- from new physical barriers in 2018. there is no major philosophical shift that made a $25 billion for border security worthwhile just a few months ago. but makes a far more modest investment of $5 billion in -- immoral andal

unacceptable today. democrats have not rejected the president's request and invited this partial government shutdown because of some principle objection they just discovered. this is not some principle it was a discovery they made in the last few weeks. for the far left and feel theelled to disagree with o president almost anything including this. that is where we are. but we don't need to be here for long. in order to get us out of this mess and negotiate a solution we will need to check these boxes. it is simple mr. president. you will need the support of 60

senators which will obviously include a number of democrats, it will need to pass the house and it will need a presidential signature. that is how we make a law in the situation. senate and the majority in the house and president trump's signature. that is what will and this irregular episode. and produced the investment in border security that our nation really needs. i am glad that productive discussion is continuing at this hour between my friend the democratic leader and the democratic leader in the house and the white house. when those negotiations produce a solution that is acceptable to all of those parties it will receive a vote here on the

senate floor. >> mr. president at midnight last night down because of one person and one person alone: president trump. we arrived at this moment because president trump has been on a destructive two-week temper tantrum demanding the american taxpayer pony up for an expensive and ineffective border wall that the president promised mexico would pay for. make no mistake, the trump shutdown is not about border security. all of the proposals we've made contain over $1 billion in new border security money, the same amount allocated last year by both parties, and even the president agreed to. and the trump administration has barely even spent aniest border security money -- any of the border security money from last year. the trump shutdown isn't over

border security. it's because president trump is demanding billions of dollars for an expensive, ineffective wall that the majority of americans don't support. let me remind you, the president called for a shutdown no less than 25 times. he's wanted one for months. in our meeting in the oval office, president trump said he would be proud to shut the government down. imagine saying he'd be proud to shut the government down. even rush limbaugh, one of the biggest supporters of the president, said it was a trump shutdown, that he caused it. he said said, quote -- this is limbaugh speaking -- the president wants you to know it's money for the wall or nothing. and if it's nothing, he shuts it down. just two days ago the senate unanimously agreed to a proposal

by leader mcconnell to keep the government open through february. it wasn't exactly what democrats wanted. we thought it should be longer but we agreed because we wanted to keep the government open. and all indications were that the president would sign the bill. but president trump, beholden to the far, far right, unwilling to shoulder even the slightest critique from rush limbaugh or laura ingraham changed his mind on the bipartisan senate bill passed unanimously by all republicans and all democrats in this chamber, and he sent his house allies off to tilt at windmills. everyone knew yesterday long before the house vote that the president's wall lacked 60 votes in the senate. it has proven to lack even 50 votes. it will never pass the senate, not today, not next week, not next year.

so, mr. president, president trump, if you want to open the government, you must abandon the wall, plain and simple. the senate's not interested in swindling american taxpayer for an unnecessary and wasteful policy. what we do support, democrats and republicans, is real effective border security, but not a wall. the wall is president trump's bone to the hard-right people. it's no way to spend $5 billion for a political bone. i've heard the president and his allies in the media say democrats don't support border security. nothing could be further from the truth. democrats have always been for smart and effective ways to secure our border. we're pushing for technology, like drones and sensors and inspection equipment. every single proposal we made to

the president included $1.3 billion for border security. the trump shutdown provides zero dollars for border security. i have never supported a border wall and i challenge anyone on the hard right to find a time when i or any expert has supported a wall like what the president has proposed. so, where do we go from here? well, three proposals are on the table, two by democrats, leader pelosi and i; one by leader mcconnell, each of which would reopen the government and provide $1.3 billion in border security. we're also open to discussing any proposals with the president as long as they don't include funding for the wall. but in order for an agreement to be reached, all four congressional leaders must sign off, and the president must endorse it and say that he will

sign it. leader mcconnell must agree, speaker ryan must agree. they cannot duck responsibility. leader comainl -- leader mcconnell still controls this chamber. speaker ryan controls what reaches the floor of the house. they are essential to this process. leader mcconnell can't duck out of it. he knows that. of course leader pelosi and i must agree. and most importantly, the president must publicly support and say he'll sign an agreement before it gets a vote in either chamber. we don't want to go through what we went through a few days ago. both leader mcconnell and i have agreed that qualification for a specific reason. repeatedly the president has privately agreed to a deal with congressional leaders only to reverse himself when criticized by the far right. we can't have another situation when the president signaled support at first but then

reverses himself, which is precisely which caused this shutdown in the first place. if leader mcconnell, speaker ryan, leader pelosi, and i agree on a solution and the president says he'll sign it, we can end the trump shutdown immediately. discussions continue among the members of our staffs. the republican leader and i will update the senate on the status of those talks once progress has been made. >> the house is back in session briefly today at 10:30 for a pro forma session. government shutdown expected to last until after christmas thursday when votes could be held on any possible agreement to reopen the federal government. the house is coming in next and

it should be brief. taking yourck to phone calls and reactions on day three of the government shutdown. the speaker pro tempore: the ouse will be in order. the chair lays before the house a communication from the speaker. the clerk: the speaker's rooms, washington, d.c. december 24, 2018. i hereby appoint the honorable alexander x. mooney to act as speaker pro tempore on this day. signed, paul d. ryan, speaker of the house of representatives. the speaker pro tempore: the prayer will be offered by the guest chaplain, reverend