cameras inside the senate chamber during a session. >> do you have a script? >> right here. >> follow the evolution of the senate into the modern era, from advice and can end to their role in -- from advice and consent to their role in a impeachment proceedings. "the senate: conflict and compromise." explore the unique traditions and roles of this american institution. premieres tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern and pacific on c-span. and be sure to go online to c-span.org/senate to learn more about the program and you interviews from senators, farewell speeches from the party members, and take a look inside the senate chamber and other exclusive locations. in about 30 minutes at noon

eastern, the 115th congress, the house will gavel in for the last time. a pro forma session coming up at noon eastern today. we will have that live here on c-span. the government shutdown, which began on december 22, now enters its 12 day. at least a partial government shutdown affecting some 800,000 government workers and a number of departments. until the house comes in at noon, we will continue taking your phone calls, as we have done over the past dozen days or so. here is how to join the conversation this time. lor democrats, calle 202-748-2920. for republicans, and we expect the

,short pro forma session and you might hear a member from the democratic side calling for bringing up a bill to reopen the government. jim mcgovern tried that in the last pro forma session at the house. the senate is also coming into session today. they are in at 4:00 p.m. eastern on c-span two. that is not a pro forma session, and depending businesses the bill passed by the house, the bill that does include funding for the border wall. where it is stuck. congressional leaders are meeting at the white house today. we will tell you about that in a moment. as we look to the schedule to tomorrow, when the 116th congress gaveled in, democrats will take control of the house tomorrow. the gavel in at noon eastern and we expect the order of business to be like this -- the speaker election, a passage of the rules package that the democrats have

aw, as they come into power, have developed a rules package, and a measure that would reopen the federal government, opening six departments, five of them for the rest of the fiscal year 2019, the other, the department of homeland security, through in they 8 as stipulated original package the senate passed, and on wednesday at noon on the span two, -- on c-span two, the u.s. senate gaveling in, swearing and senators. we will take your calls momentarily on the government shutdown. looking at the latest comments from the white house, in a statement both through sarah sanders and some of trump's comments, president trump wants an agreement that reopens the government and keeps america safe. he has invited the credit and republican lawmakers for a briefing from senior homeland security officials. they said nancy pelosi would not

reopen the government because it fails to secure the barter and puts the needs of other countries about our own citizens. trump is tweeting about two hours ago, saying mexico is paying through the wall through the new u.s. and he a trade deal, much of the wall has already been fully renovated or built. we have $5.6 billion that the house approved is very little income parents to the benefits of national security. quick payback. from nancy pelosi, the democratic leader, saying that trump is using the shutdown to force an expensive and ineffective wall upon the american people, but democrats have offered to bills which separate the arguments over the wall from the government shutdown. we might hear more from leaders today as they meet with the president at the white house. hillside, new jersey, good morning, patrice on our democrat line. hillside, new jersey, go ahead.

caller: i am just really disturbed by what is going on in the government. you know, trump is clearly doing this because he promised a wall. ,e have gone from a wall concrete slabs, to now steel slats. what are the american people supposed to think, that their government is so dysfunctional? ok, patrice. richard next, republican line in dulles, virginia. on our republican line, go ahead with your comments. richard, dulles, virginia. go ahead -- we will go to billy on the independent line. up in michigan. go ahead. caller: hey, just seeing what is up in d.c. with this new wallet everything,

they will be able to see each other -- it is a see through wall. i'm wondering why we have to see things? you have to go to a mirror and look at each other, right? host: you're talking about the comments trump made in 2018 in terms of being able to see through the proposed wall? latest yeah, i heard the update on the new wall, it is a see through wall. host: billy, tell me about your feelings about the border wall to begin with. is there enough of it already? does there need to be a higher, more secure border wall in many parts of the u.s.-mexico border? caller: no walls at all. i don't believe in a wall. michigan,s stay in patrick on our democrat line. go ahead, patrick. caller: good morning, sir. host: good morning. caller: good morning, thank you, c-span.

questione quick concerning the shutdown, the partial government shutdown. if you know, or some guest may , how will that affect the taxes,ho file income with the irs being partially shutdown? to wait ang to have lot longer to get our returns? thank you, sir. that is alieve rhetorical question. i cannot tell you in particular. started our when we segment, the president meeting with congressional leaders, republican and democratic leaders, calling it a border security briefing. this is cheryl bolan from bloomberg, tweeting about some of the timeline for today, saying today's daily guidance for the president, 12:00 p.m., leading a cabinet in the cabinet room. we will get some video coverage of that. the president anticipates in

that border security briefing for congressional leadership in the situation room. it is close to press, but after the briefing we might hear from republican and emma craddick leaders. we continue to take your calls and comments, just over 20 minutes until the house comes in for a short pro forma session. we are getting your thoughts on the government shutdown, day 12. democrat line, 202-748-8920. republicans, 202-748-8921. for federal workers, 202-748-8922. from florida, republican line. caller: hello? the reason for my call, i am older, a great-grandmother, and i have lived through so many different times when our government was supposed to make our country safer and control the people coming in and out.

criminals ort human trafficking, it can also be diseases. we build walls for other countries, we do. i feel like we need control over our borders to protect our people. isare living in a world that not really friendly right now, and i believe that the money has been given time and time again, but it does not go to the purpose. many i live, there are so people here illegally. we need to think of the schools we are having to build, the different teachers we are having to have, help -- in the central part?

host: between tallahassee -- caller: orlando and tampa. host: you talked about -- you are noticing a lot of immigrants. i think you may have mentioned illegal immigrants. caller: yes, that's true. a supporter ofre the wall. how does a state like florida work at keeping illegal immigrants out of that state? not a wallhere is situation. you have folks coming in by all kinds of different means? caller: the trafficking, they come in as they please just about. my city alone has quadrupled in size in the past 10 years. we are constantly building schools. host: what is behind that? is it construction jobs or other kinds of jobs that are bringing immigrants? caller: if the warm climate. at one time they even had it on the ballot, where english was to be a primary language here.

florida has really been impacted by the illegal immigration. legal immigration is not the same thing. host: thank you for sharing your experience as we go next to maryland, hearing from carl on our independent line. caller: no, i am on the federal employee line. you, thank you, carl. go ahead with your comment. you have been out of work for 12 days, i am assuming you are not having to go to work? caller: that's correct. i am at home, waiting to go into work. host: what is it like? caller: it is like an extended vacation. i would normally take vacation time, but now it feels a little weird. i think i'm a little frustrated because nothing seems to be getting done, and i wanted to colin this morning because i wanted to put out a couple of proposals to try to fix this for the future. one of the questions i have is, why congress, when they passed

the continuing resolution, had the continuing resolutions and on 12/21? why couldn't they carry the continuing resolution until the end of the christmas season and do a potential government in then somehow beginning of january? why did four dayshoose, before christmas, to end the continuing resolution? original one, going back if my memory serves me correctly, the original one was maybe the eighth, the seventh of the eighth of december, and in the second date became that friday, the 21st. there was at some push -- there was some push to extended to february 8 and the new congress, but that is where things -- caller: the wall funding -- they sort of fell apart at that

point. my question is when the democrats blame president trump for the shutdown, they are the ones who negotiated instead the date to the 21st. i also feel like when they are supposed to get this done by september 30. so when we go into the new fiscal year, it should go for the whole year. instead, what they did is they had a continuing resolution that went all the way through the election. is, they are not suffering -- i want to say personally -- congress, the white house, or their staff do not seem to be suffering like the federal employees are suffering. my solution to that would be pretty much to hold -- twofold. i do not like continuing resolutions. i think it is congress's responsibility to pass a budget for the entire year by september 30.

therefore, i would limit the duration of continuing resolutions to four days, because i think four days is enough time for them to work out negotiations and make negotiations along the way, as opposed to putting a month or two back to february 8. that gives them a month, and they can go off and do other things, and three or four days before the end of the continuing resolution, they sit back down and get back to business. one of the aspects of negotiating is you have to put pressure on the negotiators. i do not think giving them one month's time puts a lot of pressure on them. one last thing, what department do you work for and how long have you worked for the federal government? caller: i would rather not share that department i'm working with, but i have been working for about 14 years. host: thank you for calling in this morning. the federal employees line is

202-748-8922. if you have travel that all were gone to any museum or national park, some national for szilagyi, -- national facility, many were impacted. the partialarea, government shutdown starts to take a bigger bite out of d.c., with the assignment the sims on the desk at the smithsonian, the national zoo. -- orr next from vivian do i have eric on the line, independent line? vivian in washington, republican line. you are on the air. caller: hi, how are you? is that all these people in congress and the house of representatives, they shouldn't get paid. moneyhould donate their to charity because they are not doing their job. on the feet, do

your job. then we won't have an issue with people having shutdowns. congress are not doing their job. that is what the taxpayers voted for them on. they should not be able to take the money from the taxpayers, give their money to charity, and not get a write off on it. they are not doing their job. i watch the television all the time. it is ridiculous. no, no, no. get the job done. that is what you are hired for. vivian in washington state. las cruces, new mexico, a caller on our democrat line. i do not live very far from the wall, and we live in the 21st century. it does not seem to be a good solution to put up the wall. the -- on the border

there not put more personnel down there to process the rather than soldiers? i'm completely against this wall. thank you. host: we hear from him again next, go ahead, erica. from ericanext -- next, go ahead, erica. hi, i'm calling from cincinnati, ohio, and i am wondering when the government will be open again? host: that is the question of the hour. the house is coming in in about 14 minutes. proill be short, a forma session. within the hour, we are expecting congressional leaders will be meeting with the president at the white house, democratic and republican leaders meeting there, and the house democrats have loaded a plan that would fund the federal

government through the end of the next fiscal year, five out of the six departments. one of those, homeland security, would be funded through february 8. as to when the current shutdown that is the, question of the morning. it is not a great answer, but it is where we stand. erika, are you on the line still? caller: thank you. host: woodinville, washington, democrat line. joyce, hello. how are you? thank you for taking my call. i am calling to express the fact that the bipartisan bill -- remember how we had a bipartisan bill that was given to the president to sign and he did not sign it? he had 10 days to sign it, and within that 10 date period, if he did not, it would become law unless -- this is in the constitution, and no reporter

ever said this to the public, and they need to know -- if congress is adjourned within that 10 day period, then that bill fails. so it could have last paul ryan not adjourned congress within the 10 day period. ands called a pocket veto, people need to know more about the constitution. host: joyce, remember, the house did pass that border security bill, the one with $5 billion in border funding. that passed on a partyline vote a couple of weeks ago, to 17-185 was the total -- 217-185 was the total, and it stop in the u.s. senate. caller: this was a bipartisan bill that both houses agreed to, they sent it to the president and he did not sign it. because he did not find it could haveperiod, it become law, but it was stopped

when congress was adjourned within that 10 day period. it is in the constitution, because i double checked it before i called, and if the media or whomever in the public would read the constitution and educate the public, because people do not know the constitution. it is not taught in the schools. that is why i called. i am against a wall, i think that there are other ways of controlling it. joyce, -- host: joyce, thank you for enlightening us on that. we go to north carolina next and hear from john, republican line . caller: hello, thank you for taking my call. host: you bet. caller: i have a couple of questions. i am on the republican line, but i have always voted for the person and never for straight partyline. but since donald trump has destroyed the republican party,

is something very serious happens i do not know if i could vote for another republican. i have a question -- is it possible that if some of the republican senators -- we have all of these new people -- and we have mitt romney, wonderful. if you have some other republican senators were to decide to not be republicans any longer but to become independent, and caucus with the democrats, would that change the senate? with the senate leader then be a democrat? that is my question. i will hang up and let you answer it as you please. a 150thing with congress into the 160th congress, -- going from the 115th congress into the 116th congress, the independents democrats. the

it gets more difficult in the 116th congress because republicans gained a few seats in the majority. that is an interesting thought. we are less than 10 minutes late from the house coming into their pro forma session. we expected to be present will continue with your phone calls and comments after that. comments fromome the white house with the president and congressional leaders, and in the senate is coming in were :00 p.m. eastern, and -- coming in at 4:00 p.m. eastern, and in terms of ending the government shutdown, the senators agreed that nothing would come to that senate floor in terms of a vote until all parties, the white house and the , had agreedemocrats to it. we will wait and see and watch on c-span 2 at 4:00. jerry on our others line in norco, california. yeah, i have been a native californian my entire life, and i am pretty much an

independent. the cost of the wall is so to what itcomparison would actually represent. i don't think that just an actual, physical wall is what the republicans, much less president trump, are talking about. even if it is a physical wall, the representation and the fact that it would hold back a considerable amount of the people trying to cross the border. my problem with the democrats in california and the rest of the democrats that don't want the 20 years itthe last has been documented by almost every leader, every democratic leader and democratic president that the borders need to be secured, desperately need to be secured. so for them to try to use the wall as a reason not to secure the borders because they are saying it doesn't work, what do

they do other than talk about it? the fact that president trump right now is trying to at least do something instead of just talk about it, including many other things, i don't quite understand. living in southern california and watching my health care cost exponentially rise in the last 20 years, specifically the last ,ight years to 10 years preceding president trump, specifically obamacare, which is a total, total catastrophe, me being a mid-income can barely even afford my health care now. the fact that our schools are completely overcrowded, the homelessness is -- it's uncontrollable, the people that are -- i know that all illegal

, buts are not criminals many are. if we cannot actually check them before we get here -- they get here, we don't know who is coming. it dismays me that for the last 20 years every democrat president, leader, congressperson, senator, all the way down to governors, all have talked about securing the border. now that trump is resident -- is president, they don't want to agree. host: let me get back to one of your original comments. you talked about the wall. do you agree, i think it was kellyanne conway that made this -- paraphrasing, she says talking about a wall is a semantic argument. she says the word wall becomes a four letter word.

it sounds like the same point you are making, in the discussion for the funding, particularly for the wall, it has been lost that there are other measures that could be effective in terms of controlling migration across the border. caller: i agree. i agree 100%. and on top of that, once again, i am more of an independent. i sound like a republican right now, but that is more because of the ramifications of what has happened to me in the state of california. host: thanks for your points, a lot of good point there, and we want to move on. the house is moving in at noon eastern and we will have that live on c-span. we expect it will be a brief pro forma session, the final one of congress, and after that we will continue to take your calls. the senate coming in this afternoon at 4:00 eastern. robin in pennsylvania,

republican line. caller: hi, happy new year. i just want to say that i am for the shutdown, and after what i have seen happened on the border the other night, i feel he should shut down the whole border. he's got to make a statement, these democrats don't want to do anything. nancy pelosi should go to hawaii instead of coming to washington to help. this is ridiculous. all i can say is god help us. we need a wall. we need everything we can get because once they put their foot on the united states flag, we have to take them. this is ridiculous. line,allen, independent arlington, virginia. are you on our government workers line? caller: that's right. i work at the epa. i have been furloughed -- we had annexed or week of funding, but

we were furloughed -- we had an extra week of funding, but we were furloughed and went through the shutdown procedures. at. is where we are i want to make a few comments. i think, one of the things people talk about sometimes is whether congress should cut their own salary. i think that misses the point and would actually be unconstitutional, because the 27th amendment says they cannot pass a law on their compensation, and it is precisely for -- people think about it in terms of them raising their salaries, but it goes both ways, to prevent this grandstanding. jobs,hey have to do their but the whole point is that they should not be bride into doing their jobs, their compensation should not be affected by what laws they pass or don't pass. i think that is something that has to be kept in mind. actually, i am pretty concerned about what is going on generally.

usually, the government shutdowns, they might last a week or two -- this one might last longer, and it is only a partial shutdown, and the military is fully funded, so really, what incentive do the republicans have to keep things open? usually, the defense funding and nondefense funding go side-by-side, and this time it is not the case, probably because the president was able to lobby enough. he wanted to do the shutdown before the election. they came up with a deal where they funded the fence and a did not fund homeland security, so they put it off after the election. but that gave him a much stronger negotiating position. sometimes, the democrats need to realize they have the weaker hand and come up with some sort of deal to get us back to work. host: allen, i will let you go there. thank