congressional correspondence paul cain and christina peterson. and firewall editor and chief david hawkings turns to talk about pay and benefit for members of the new congress. "washington journal" is next. " is next. ♪ host: good morning. it is january 3, 2019. as mandated by the constitution, at noon today, members of the 116th congress will be sworn in. it is groundhog day as the government shutdown extends today 13. when and how to open the government becomes the first priority for new members of congress. democrats have control of the house, the senate remains in the hands of republicans. it is a divided congress and a republican in the white house for the next two years. what are your priorities for this 116th congress?

we want to hear from you as we spend five hours on the washington journal. democrats, 202-748-8000. publicans, 202-748-8001. -- republicans, 202-748-8001. independents, 202-748-8002. join us on twitter @cspanwj or facebook.com/cspan. we are live outside the russell balcony, just steps away from the capital. up until noon when the house gavels in, we will be taking your calls about the 116th congress. what are your priorities for members of congress and those reelected as well? john mcardle has more on how the day will play out. >> i am glad the rain held out for you. we want to show viewers some stats on the 116th congress beginning with the pounds -- the balance of power.

there is one undecided seat. democrats, 53 47 republicans. the average age of a member of congress, 59 years old. 24% female.s is 21% minority or people of color. the storylines we are following today feel about as numerous as the more than 100 freshmen members seated today. one of the first orders of business, the quorum call. that one undecided seat belongs to the north carolina member. with that race mired in allegations of election fraud, the republican will not be seated today. there may also be drama in the second order of business on the house floor, the election of the new speaker. nancy pelosi is confident she has the votes, but it could be

tight with more than a dozen democrats vowing to oppose her. the second vote could see a bit of drama as well. democratic leaders could face pushback on the new rules package coming to the floor. they are concerned about that package impeding efforts to pass ambitious social programs. as you said, it is day 13 of the ongoing government shutdown. democratic leaders have teed up two votes on a package of bills to end the shutdown and president trump already rejected the plan. mitch mcconnell said he will not bring it up in his chamber without the president's support. there is a lot to follow on c-span. hope you stay with us this morning. host: let's start with judy in delaware. what are your priorities for this 116th congress? caller: my first priority is they stop the shutdown.

800,000 americans are doing without their pay and their benefits, cannot possibly live $2000 to $3000 a month. there is no reason these people should be paying a penalty for president trump's temperament. not only that, the american people are also being violated by this shutdown because it means with these people not working, they are not paying taxes. with our government facilities being shut down, we are losing profits from visitors. it means the american people cannot participate in these things that should be available to us like the smithsonian institute, like if you need to .alk to irs or social security it is violating every single

american and they need to find another way to solve their problems. shutting down the government is wrong for every single person in this country. democratsou think should compromise and agree to give the president money for the wall along the southern border? caller: i don't think the wall is the problem. i think the president is the problem. in this day and age, there are so many things they can do to compromise the wall as far as technology and stuff goes and what they are doing with computers and things. i don't believe the wall is an issue. i would rather have them spend that money on personnel, and our immigration laws rather than putting up a barrier they will find a way to get around and then you have more americans working and contributing to

society. i don't think the wall is the answer. in newohn is next jersey, also a democrat. caller: how are you doing this evening? host: good morning. caller: morning, i am sorry. this is my first time calling. the 116th congress, since it is in the hands of the democrats, i believe that is good because it will not make donald trump possibly build the wall easy. that is $25 billion i believe that will be used. i don't think that will be very good. hopefully that doesn't happen. host: you are happy democrats have control of the house? they can stand in the way of his priorities. caller: absolutely. yes, they could. host: any other policy objectives you have for these new members? caller: that is okay. thank you. host: thank you for calling in.

another john in kansas city, new jersey. independent. you,r: good morning to greta. laste been hearing the couple of days about the and its being divided seems to me congress has always been divided -- always has been divided between the senate and the house. by the congress being divided it means something else, i would be curious to find out what it is. host: divided in that the house is controlled by democrats and republicans have control over the senate and you have a republican in the white house. it has been one party rule for the past two years. that is what people are referencing when they say now you have a divided government.

today, democrats take control. nancy pelosi became the first female speaker of the house on january 4 2007. here is what that moment looked like. [video clip] >> it is my privilege to present the gavel of the united states house of representatives to the first woman speaker in our history, the gentlewoman from california, nancy pelosi. [applause] host: she gave up the gavel 8 years ago and now she is poised to regain the gavel, being the first to do so since 1955. john mcardle has more on today's vote for speaker in the house. seats.crats control 235

nancy pelosi can afford to lose 17 votes and become speaker of the house. on november 28 in the vote inside the democratic caucus, nancy pelosi lost 32 votes, but picked up votes and sven. this list is tracking which democrats are supporting and opposing nancy pelosi. 16 democrats being opposed to nancy pelosi including 11 freshmen members, anthony brindisi of new york, joe alsongham, jason crow and veteran members including jim kindr of tennessee and ron of wisconsin. they currently track 180 eight democrats supporting nancy pelosi and the rest are either dodging questions or unclear. nancy pelosi is confident she has the votes to become the speaker. bloomberg talks about the process and the timing. it's a little bit different than

the usual votes that take place on the house floor. one by one enough better court order lawmakers will call the names of who they are supporting for speaker expected to start around 12:50. each member will state of the surname of the candidate he or she favors, a process they expect will take an hour to get through all 434 members on the floor to become speaker. a candidate must receive the majority of the total number of votes cast for a person by name. at least 218 votes in the chamber. the winning number could be lowered if some members vote present, if they don't say a name of a person they are voting for. if no candidate obtains the majority of the votes, the measure can go to another ballot. since 1913 when the house first reached the current size of 435 seats, only five speakers have been elected with fewer than 218

votes and the last multiple ballot speaker election was 1923. nancy pelosi remains confident -- confident. her office has released prepared remarks for opening day when she is expected to address the house has to speaker. here are some of the prepared remarks. she will say we will debate and advanced good ideas no matter where they come from and democrats will offer senate republicans appropriations legislation to reopen the government later today to meet the needs of the american people and protect our borders. i pledge this congress will be transparent, bipartisan, and unifying. the floor of this house must be america's townhall where the people will see our debates and their voices will be heard and affect our decisions. she will have more later today if and when she is elected speaker. host: that vote for speaker ship

-- some of the first votes this new congress will take on this january 3 2019, opening day of the 116th congress. what do you want them to do? what tops your priority list for these members of congress? we will go to brian in oklahoma, a democrat. caller: how are you doing today? host: doing well. go ahead. what do you want them to work on first? caller: one of the things is i would like to know why president trump did not recognize the native americans in the unemployment population and the situation at hand on the crossings and taking of land and what congress expects this year -- i hope they are ready to listen. host: adam in pennsylvania.

a republican. your turn. caller: good morning. is definitely to end the shut down and have some compromise here. the democrats, in my opinion "derangement system for trump. they can get stuff through. trump is willing to give them daca and pretty much the entire democrat immigration platform, it has to include all wall. am ae first caller, i young guy. i understand computers and technology. to say the border -- just put more drones and more computers on the border is going to stop immigration is absolutely ridiculous. once somebody crosses one step over the border, it entails a

whole slew of legal rights and it includes having people come out and get them. the border does work. we need it. $5 billion is not a lot of money anymore in our budget and trump is right, the amount of money we are saving with the new nafta and his policies and bringing back manufacturing is helping and it doesn't matter -- okay, mexico, pay for the wall, not pay for the wall. beyond that, i wanted to say a larger general compromise. when you see the legal justice reform that recently passed and you know infrastructure spending could get done. even health care could get done. this man is really more pragmatic than he gets credit for. i would like to see congress step up and pelosi and schumer step up. the fact that she was in hawaii

all week. if trump had done this, it would be a national outrage. host: what about comprehensive immigration reform? caller: i think trump is offering that completely. democrats, you can write the copperheads of immigration but -- reform, just give me a wall. that is all he is asking for and if they cannot meet that -- who is actually in charge of the shutdown? democrats are pretending this is a trump shutdown. it is name-calling who has responsibility for this. derangementmp symptom is messing everything up. host: let's listen to nancy pelosi, the presumptive next speaker of the house. she was at the white house yesterday. met withonal leaders the president in the situation room and they were supposed to get a briefing by the homeland security secretary about the situation on the border.

that briefing was interrupted as democrats demanded the president take the offer on the table and here is what nancy pelosi had to say to reporters after that meeting. [video clip] >> tomorrow we will bring legislation which will open up government. it will bait -- be based on actions taken by the republican senate, bills that have passed on the floor of the senate by over 90 votes or in committee unanimously, led by senator mitch mcconnell. it will also present in a separate bill the bill that mr. continuingdid -- resolution for the homeland security bill until february 8 using his exact date. we have given the republicans a chance to take yes for an answer. we have taken their proposal unamended by any house bipartisan amendments, but just staying true to what the senate

has already done. our question to the president and to the republicans is why don't you accept what you have already done to open up government and that enables us to have 30 days to negotiate for border security? host: opening up the government is the first about these new members of congress among with those reelected in november -- they will take that vote today. senate majority leader mitch mcconnell has said he is not taking anything up the president will not support. we will see where things go today and how they unfold as the 116th congress gets ready to convene for the next two years. rob in pennsylvania, republican. caller: happy new host: happy new year. caller: the biggest thing i have realized over this whole time -- this argument about immigration is the people in the house, the

senate and the congress and for that matter, a lot of the american people have forgotten what the word illegal means. they come into our country, democrats especially want to give everything to everybody. -- to receiveon the rights and privileges of the constitution, you have to be a legal citizen of the united states. we cannot afford to give everything to everybody and the thing about the wall -- democrats are proving they despise president trump and they said so, publicly, that they will block just about anything he wants come the new congress. host: should the president compromise on the price tag? somer: if it is not

dramatically really stupid amount -- he is asking for $5.6 billion and they want may be $1 million. that is not going to get the job done and the border is so long and so vast, you cannot put physical people 2000 miles across the border because there are too many holes to get through and the cost would cost more than the wall. host: we will go to tommy in tennessee, independent. caller: good morning. cutink mr. trump should foreign aid by half. i believe mexico is getting $4.8 billion. if we cut that in half, we can take that $2.4 billion and use it to build the wall and give pay raises to border agents. if not, mr. trump should declare martial law and do it anyway.

that would freak out democrats and the media and everybody else. border needs to be done with through a wall, drones, whatever. i think we need a secure border and i do believe the national security issue just like our $23,000 debt -- $23 trillion debt as well. have a blessed day. host: we will go back to john mcardle. seatwant to dig in on the that will not be filled in the house, that ninth congressional district seat. the man leading on election night, mark harris, the republican charlotte area pastor in dan mccready by 905 votes unofficial returns before allegations of election fraud has thrown that race into question. mark harris will be in north carolina today, not here in capitol hill. he will be headed to court to ask local state courts to

certify him as the winner in that race. they write the decision to take legal action come hours after election staffers said they would postpone a scheduled january 11 hearing on the ongoing fraud investigation into state. at the center of the probe is a contractor for harris' probe accused of collecting campaign ballads in violation of law. steny hoyer said he would not be seating mark harris. the nowlast week given well documented election fraud that took place in north carolina, nine democrats would reject any attempts for mr. harris to be seated. the integrity of our democratic process outweighs concerns about the seat being vacant. for viewers who might wonder why the house of representatives has the final say on who to seat, it comes from the constitution, article one, section five.

each house shall be the judge of the elections, returns, and qualifications of its own members. it is up to the house on who they seat. on what might happen in this north carolina seat, some news, roll call reporting congressman robert pittenger, the republican defeated by mark harris and the primary for that north carolina 9 seat said earlier he would not run again even if there was a rerun in that race. regardless of the determination of the evidentiary area hearing, i will not be a candidate and a possible primary election. robert pittenger, two-term republican will not be returning to the 116th congress. host: we will go to nick in philadelphia. we are here all morning on the "washington journal," steps away from the u.s. capitol asking all of you to tell washington, what do you want them to work on?

what is on your to do list? caller: good morning, greta. i hope there is less of a sense of divisiveness in this 116th congress no matter whether you are a democrat or republican. i think there are a lot of issues both parties can come together on outside of immigration, outside of getting the president to release more important financial information, personal financial information. one thing i would like to see is work to be done on pricing for prescription drugs. i think that is really an issue both parties can agree on. host: prescription drugs, you would like to see compromise. bipartisanship. regina, how about you? caller: i would like -- i do not oppose the government shutdown and i hope congress and the senate and the president sees

the people want a smaller government and to close down 25% of the government and all the expenses it entails would be a good thing. these people need to get other jobs, other employment. because of our president, we and more manufacturing jobs also, i know for a fact that the illegals coming in and seeking asylum -- the ones that are here illegally, not legally get -- my cousin worked at a food store. they get $1800 a month food stamps to support their families. month grocerya bill and i have been working all my life and i don't see that this is right. i think if they come in legally,

they should be able to find employment, sponsors and the illegal immigrants are not entitled to any of this and we do need smaller government and that is what i would like to see happen. host: what if this shutdown impacts you personally? are you expecting a refund on your taxes? that could be delays. do you have questions you want the irs to answer? what if it impacts you personally? caller: you cannot get your passport at the post office. i do expect a refund, but i can wait for it. the government is not my savings account. i think i need to handle my i don't depend on other things that could be unexpected. the government needs to do the

same thing. we need to cut this debt or we will be in trouble like greece was. host: each senate -- has their legislative priority. we spoke with the incoming chair of the republican committee, chuck grassley. he chairs the judiciary committee in this last congress and is taking over finance. here is what he had to say about his agenda. [video clip] >> for economic reasons and issues dealing with health care, particularly rural health care. let me say some of the things i expect to come up along those areas, there is one i ought to mention maybe we will not get to because we will have a democratic caucus -- democrat house. number one, if i could make last year's tax bills that would expire on the individual side,

2025, if i could make that permanent, that would be in my number one goal. other economic things that are pretty close would be the issues thehe trade agreements president is negotiating. starting.s., canada negotiations with japan and europe and hopefully get agreements with china. at the top of my list as far as i know, the way at least the united states, mexico, canadian agreements, if the president to -- continues to negotiate agreements like that. i think for the benefit of agriculture and manufacturing in iowa, it benefits all 50 states per eight i would want to continue our free trade and fair trade policies we will have under those new agreements.

in the area of rural health care. there is a lot of things you have to do because iowa is a reimbursement state and it would have $6,000ince we for a medicare person compared to florida with 9000 and we are number five or six in quality and they are very low in quality in florida. i am going to get that job done. we have a lot of things on the books that enhance the delivery of health care in rural america and this is all rural states, not just iowa. i would like to enhance that. for everybody in the country, we have got outrageous prescription drug prices and i have been working on this. some of this is in the area of judiciary, but also under medicare and medicaid.

i would hope to save the taxpayers money the same way i want to save consumers money by getting cheaper drugs on the market. generics, as an example. host: that was the incoming chair of the finance committee, chuck grassley, talking about his agenda for the committee. his counterpart in the house is richard neal, democrat of massachusetts and the headline in politico is that he is advocating a go slow approach to the battle with president trump over his tax returns despite pressure from the left to move quickly. we are at the russell senate office building about half a block away from the u.s. capitol this morning on the washington journal, we will take you all the way to noon when the congress dabbles in for the first time, two year session

ahead of these new members of congress and those reelected. senate will bee convening around noon today to bring in the 116th congress and we will have coverage of their proceedings on the floor as well on c-span 2. you can follow along with c-span.org and get the free radio app of our coverage all day on c-span, c-span 2, and c-span 3. we are in day 13 of the government shutdown. this morning, we are asking all of you to tell congress, washington what you want them to do. we will go to jerome in pennsylvania, democrat. what are your priorities for this 116th congress? caller: health care infrastructure, and getting trump out. country.ancer to this

host: why do you say that? caller: look it what it -- at what is going to happen. he is going to separate us from our allies. nobody trusts him, he lies every day and you have republicans calling in who sold their souls. america used to be a country with morals. we have no moral values. we are celebrating -- separating families from their kids, putting serial numbers on their hands like it is nazi germany wanting to build a wall. saying.o what they are i ain't never see -- seen this country more separated. host: what do you think is more important for democrats in the house? someey try to notch up legislative compliments and try to get legislation through or focus solely on investigating the president and possibly

bringing impeachment proceedings before the house? where should they focus? caller: they should focus on health care, infrastructure, and mueller host:. you wanted them to do it all. caller: right. you cannot believe a word he says. you cannot trust him. you cannot trust if he is going to do what he says. they are going to have to do it in a way where they do not need his signature. host: michael in huntington, indiana. independent. caller: i think congress and the senate -- they have 365 days to pass -- keep the government running. that is stupid. they can't do it in 365 days? they ought to be fired, everyone

of them. be onrst priority should the national debt, pay it off in five years. we are going to hurt, but if they take 1% of everything, everybodywelfare -- has to pay 1%. the stock market, everybody. it is a national debt tax. host: michael's thoughts in indiana. then this opening day as 116th congress, always an exciting morning when a new congress comes in and always a good time to monitor the social media of members and new members especially. this from alexandria of casio cortez. this instagram post followed by asweet, some 400,000 likes

of this morning. this picture from a photo spread from a vanity fair. from left to right, you can see the 6 newly elected members, --luding of casio cortez io-cortez. photo "we are the in the building, swearing in tomorrow. " huffington post with some of the first represented in that picture, including presley becoming massachusetts' first black congresswoman. hyland and davids will be the first indigenous women in congress and davids will become the first openly lgbtq person to represent congress -- kansas in congress. escobar and sylvia garcia are the first hispanic women texas

ever elected and casio cortez at age 29 becoming the youngest woman ever to be elected congress. omar is in that picture. she sent an instagram post yesterday authored by her father, showed them arriving at reagan's national airport on the others of the potomac from d.c.. her father saying 23 years ago my family and i arrived at an airport in washington, d.c.. we were newly arrived refugees from a camp in kenya. i heard about the promise of america, prosperity for all and hoped for a better tomorrow. i could never dream 23 years later i would return to the airport with my daughter by my side of the day before she is to be sworn in as the first somali-american elected to the united states congress and he goes on from there. here is a few more stats on the freshman members of the 116th

congress. when it comes to their education, more than 70% went to a graduate school. one third of the new members have law degrees and 12 have mbas. seven freshman earned at least two graduate degrees. when it comes to previous occupations, two former nfl football players. one professional hockey player. fighter. partial arts four were teachers. we will take you through the stats on this 116th congress, especially this large freshman class. host: a look at some of the new members and we spoke to several of them when they were here in december for orientation week. one of them was katie hill. it democrat from california and she talked about what got her into politics. [video clip] running people

assisting the homeless. i worked on different policy issues. 2016 we passed a historic bond initiative. $1.2 billion to address homelessness. it is something we had been working on for years. instead of being able to celebrate the next day, donald trump was president and we had a republican house and senate and it was concerning as to how that would affect the work we were doing and the services that were critical to the people we served . i decided i needed to do something about it. wanted to get involved in a race, figured out my race was a key one -- my district was key in taking back the house and one thing led to another and here i am. two termeeded congressman steve knight. less, the way it stands now, it has been held by a republican. host: when you told people, i am

going to run and you are 31 years old, what did they say? caller: i was encouraged by a lot of people. my background from the district and felt like it was a good fit. there were others, especially the people who did not know me who maybe had been involved with the democratic party or different constituencies that were like, where did you come from? waiting your turn is a phrase you hear a lot. as a young woman, that is something you get. there was a little bit of both. once i started to establish myself and people got to know me, it became clearer and clearer that it does not matter how old you are. host: your work in homelessness, how has that impacted you? caller: homelessness, to me, is the intersection of countless failures on our part as a society and in many cases, the

government. i got to work on health care. i worked on the medicaid expansion in california. i got to work on housing policy and poverty and foster care and criminal justice reform. you see veterans issues and how these fit together. it kind of informs you -- what is the bottom? what is the worst possible outcome when we don't do our jobs correctly? ofhink i have a natural sort thought process around that that will inform policymaking in a good way. host: that was katie hill. she will be sworn in today after noon when the house convenes this 116th congress. she will become a u.s. house representative from california. she along with many other democrats ran on medicare for all. that also is something many of you mentioned.

health care, you want these new members and reelected members to work on health care. we are asking all of you to continue to tell washington this morning and call in and let us know what you want the legislative priorities to be for members like katie hill and others. we will hear from audrey, a republican in pensacola, florida. you are on the air. caller: thank you. i've got a question, first of all. the money the president is .sking for the wall whose money is that? host: why are you asking the question? house andcause the theirnate act like it is money. i don't think so. i think it is the people's money. host: do you think all the

people, democrats, republicans, independents can agree that is how the money can be spent? caller: none agree and that is the thing. when people call in, most of them are wanting the wall. okay, there has got to be some way they can come at an agreement and quit acting like two-year-olds and i am hoping said new people he just that had all this education, use leveluse it and heads and reach across aisles. that is what they have got to do. they have got to learn like nancy is doing, you can see it in her face when she is with the president. she cannot get along with him and she don't intend to. host: what about the offer

democrats put on the table? -- 25% ofet's fund the federal government is shut down, let's fund all the agencies that are shut down, excluding homeland. caller: that is not reaching across no aisles because if she was wanting to do that, she would at least put something in for the wall. us people wanted the wall. host: what they have offered is let's open up -- the agencies that are shut down, excluding the homeland security. we will open them for the rest of the year and then negotiate on homeland security and border security and open that until february 8, which would allow time for the two sides to negotiate. caller: you know why he won't do that? he knows they don't mean a word

they are saying. you can tell nancy pelosi is not .oing to give him nothing she don't want to get along with him. she wants everybody to not like him and i know why because it is all politics. i realize that. all of this is politics. host: stephen in los angeles, democrat. caller: good morning. i am first time caller. it is a little early over here. i wanted to call in because i live in los angeles, which is not far from the border at all and i am a rapid response resistance organizer and i work with a lot of different communities that are affected by just noion and there is moral reason we need a wall.

there is not a reason, i think americans could justify building -- using our taxpayer money to build a wall that would specifically try and keep out brown people. the people in my communities who come from all around the world in los angeles make it such a diverse and rich place to live believe -- sent a message this last election that we are not putting up a wall and my generation is going to spend a lifetime correcting the injustices of the immigration system and spent their next lifetime tearing down walls and borders to make sure people can migrate freely between countries

so that they are safe and protected from the instabilities of government that cannot protect them. host: what about those on the others that say the wall sends a message that illegal immigration will not be tolerated? that if you want to come to this country, you need to do so legally. you can go to the port of authority, show up and claim asylum or try to go through the process, but that the border wall is simply to stop illegal immigration? of illegal immigration comes from people visas and come here through air traffic. sending a message by building a wall that doesn't stop airplanes with people trying to do that would be ineffective.

investing a lot of money into a robust, comprehensive immigration strategy would be the best way to fix these if you build ae wall, people are going to go around it or under it or through it or whatever way they are going to do it. you cannot stop a force of nature and that is what it takes to walk through a desert and cross a border and -- in an unsafe passage. you will not stop people coming to america. host: more of your calls coming up. --p your some of you have already

one of your priorities is to deal with the budget and the debt. he talked about what is on the agenda for him as chair of the committee. [video clip] >> the first priority is to resolve the spending limits for the fiscal 2020 budget. toay that because we revert the law under the budget control act of 2011 and if we don't make a change, defense spending would be cut by 11%. nondefense spending by 11%. would severe -- feel that severely. under -- negotiate new caps for that year and after that, we pass a budget resolution that reflects not just democratic values, but the promises we made during the campaign, the for the people campaign where we deal with health care costs, creating jobs through infrastructure and

the budget will reflect those. >> what will the numbers look like for health care? >> i am not sure exactly what the numbers will look like right now. one of the things we need to do partially because we have i -- a diverse caucus. -- we need to consult with all of them to see what their priorities are and that is what i have done in putting together our alternative budget and that is what i will do again as chairman, consult with all committee chairs and caucuses to see their priorities and then we will come up with a number. >> what is your budget philosophy, if you have one? >> i think we need to make significant, selective investments in things that promote economic growth and stimulate the economy. also, i think we need to work on -- doingmore revenue away with some of the tax

expenditures in the budget. more than a trillion dollar in tax breaks. some of those were dealt with in the tax reform law. that is one aspect. comprehensive immigration reform . not only is essential on its own, but also as a way to creat -- correct many of the deficiencies in the budget. it's a real opportunity for us to help with social security and medicare programs long-term and create long growth. there are programs and initiatives that are not necessarily thought of in terms of budget, but have an impact on the taxpayers. host: that was the democrat of kentucky who will be sitting in the chair for the budget committee in the 116th congress. we are live on the washington journal steps away from the u.s. capitol and the senate russell building taking your calls this morning, you letting washington

know what you want them to work on over the next two years. we will hear from randy in wisconsin, independent. caller: good morning, greta. happy new year. host: happy new year. caller: i would like our congress to work on criminal justice. i have been writing a book on this and i found out in 1970, 70% of our country was segregated. the only way you can keep rural america from being all white around -- is to carry we found out 3600 children die a year for peanuts. 3200 children die a year from alcohol, five years old and younger, that means we had adults putting alcohol in baby bottles.

when this comes out and the people see why we need these laws to keep black people from being in our schools and rural areas. this is a stain. i am a confirmed christian lutheran. i am 100% german. all of our country has got to see how many people we have killed over this stupid law. i broke my back in five places. this happened in 1990. i am 50 years old. do you think i don't know i probably would not the here if they made me take synthetic heroin instead of smoke pot? host: explain the law you are talking about that needs to be changed for those who don't know. caller: listen. this is important. we only keep track of who we search in cities less than 10,000 people. who lives in cities above 10,000 people? only black people. this is about making sure a

black man is not around our white daughters. it is making honduras and guatemala and el salvador. we destroyed those countries because we knew they controlled 70% of the world's pot. host: what about the first step act. in the 115th congress the president signed it into law? caller: how do we control 85% of the world's drugs unless we have our army standing around it making sure we get to harvest it? that is about our government controlling drugs. host: that is randy in wisconsin. the president signed the first step act into law and it deals with sentencing guidelines for nonviolent drug offenders. there are those in washington who work on that who want to keep pushing criminal justice reform, a bipartisan group of senators and house members and folks in and out of the administration as well.

if you missed any of that debate and discussion, go to our website. republican.ona, caller: happy new year, greta. host: happy new year. caller: being a history professor, i would like to start with many things. it starts with a guaranteed passing budget and passing appropriations properly. 265 departments and the federal government, over 500 agencies. we are spending close to $4 trillion a year on the fewest amount of people with that much money. all these agencies and all these departments have grants. , theshington, d.c. lobbyists, everybody is going after all this money. that is the first thing, a

balanced budget. the second thing nobody talks the actualally register -- legislation to protect the united states and everybody is concentrated on the border. that is one thing. it is about not the border, it's about the rule of law. secondly, it is the grade. the united states grid is so outdated. we are so horrible in terms of any kind of attacks from a nuclear blast or whatever. this is the thing i have concentrated on in my gasstments is the natural side of poison. thanve more natural gas any country in the world. we have 500 years of natural gas. they cannot even figure out from

the fracking what to do with the natural gas. more onhn mcardle has the house and the rules they are going to vote on today that will set the guidelines on how they operate over the next two years. >> that rules package will be the second major vote that will take place on the house floor and already causing a bit of controversy. here is the headline yesterday from politico, house democrats feuding for the new congress begins, progressive slamming nancy pelosi's package to govern the house. david hawking's rights the key provision that is causing this controversy is the pay-as-you-go budget provision favored by deficit hawks, but opposed by progressives. it is known as eggo and requires any legislation that would increase spending on mandatory

programs include language that would raise an equivalent amount of new revenue or dictate offsetting cuts to other so-called entitlement programs. here is some of the pushback and it happened on twitter yesterday. io cortez saying she will boat no on the package trying to slip in eggo. it isn't only bad economics, it is a dark political maneuver designed to hamstring progress. we should not hinder ourselves from the start. member fromcratic california pushing back on this. i will vote no on the rules package. it is terrible economics. they were wrong about the great recession and depression. politicians need to learn from mistakes and read economic history. nancy pelosi's spokesman drew hamel pushing back against that

criticism sang yesterday on twitter a vote against the democratic rules package is a vote to let mick mulvaney make across-the-board cuts unilaterally. mick mulvaney of course the president's chief of staff now, budget director as well from the white house. the rules package may get some unlikelyrom a perhaps sector. that is house republicans. some house republicans signaling they like some of the changes in the rules package, including the republican from new york. this from the examiner quoting him saying he will back the rules package because democratic leaders included reforms he has prioritized as cochairman of the bipartisan problem solvers caucus. he said it was a step in the right direction and hopes it will show it is time for both sides of the aisle to set aside

partisanship and work together. some members have threatened consequences if he votes for the rules package. saying i will not speak about that right now, but hopefully they reconsider. that reporting from the washington examiner. we will look at that vote as it takes place on the house floor, the second big vote scheduled for today. nancypelosi -- host: pelosi, along with jim mcgovern writing an op-ed in usa today outlining the different rules they want to put in place for this 116th congress. what is it you want them to work on first and continue to work on over the next two years? we will go to durham when in dover, delaware. a democrat. caller: thank you for taking my call. on taxthem to work breaks for the 99%. i look at my paycheck and i am

paying 300 or $400 in taxes. the republicans and the democrats fighting over the republicans have forgotten they controlled both houses at the beginning. that is when they should have gotten that done. i am not in favor. i think it is a waste of taxpayer money. itsaid mexico will pay for and now he is trying to get it from the taxpayers. host: we will go to el paso, texas, texas, el paso, michael is watching us, independent. caller: i am glad to be able to speak with you on the issues. congress workthe on term limits. talk that theople

house has two years and another vote. should let that be only for terms that a person would be a congressman. terminate their representation for their state. we are seeing too many representatives have come from california, new york, texas and --e of the other figure bigger populated states and cities. we also need to have both houses , even if oneher house is controlled by the democrats and one house is controlled by the senate -- the senate being controlled by the republicans. even in the senate, we ought to have term limits. nobody more than 12 years.

let somebody else do the job. what we are seeing is a bunch -- as one of the alliance answer said, the bunch of white old men -- one of the hawaiian senators said, a bunch of white old men. also, i don't like to see congress breakdown into caucuses. because you're a woman or because you are black or hispanic. it is ridiculous. what we need to do is say we are americans working together and work with the president. the matter who he is. the majority of the people have chosen that particular individual to be the in the executive branch. make both houses stop

having a big issue with the senate. when the president of the united totes gives you a nominee fill a supreme court decision, let them do the work, but not make it so combative as we just saw with judge kavanaugh. we need to let the committees work their magic. one more thing. if everybody in the different committees work together, america can be strong. take care and god bless you. host: michael in texas. we are taking your calls on washington journal. outside the senate office building on capitol hill as the 116 congress prepares to

convene. washington waking up. listening to you. what do you want them to work on first? we will hear from edna in kansas, republican. good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. them finallyto see back this president and give him what he needs. if the democrats really want to , why did they all leave for the christmas holiday? tried tohey stay and work over this shutdown, and yet they say they want their way or no way. let's support the president, give him what he needs. they are not going to accomplish anything unless everybody is willing to give and take. host: how much of -- how much

did the president give? caller: i know he is asking for a lot and they don't want to give him anything. they should at least give him the $4 billion instead of the $5 billion and see if he will take that. and then see if they can get some of the things they want done. we don't accomplish anything by thinking impeachment. john we will go back to who is at the c-span studio with more on how this day is going to play out. >> on this opening day of the new congress, there is a very traditional specific order of business that takes place in the house and the senate. let me walk you through what happens. it is the call to order, led to the clerk -- led by the clerk of

the house, of the previous congress. a prayer is been led by the house chaplain and the pledge of allegiance is also led by the clerk. placeorum call then takes for all new members to check in and say they are present and on the floor. and then the election of the speaker takes place. we expect about 12:50 is when that will happen. that election is ordered by the clerk of the house. it is expected to take about an hour with individual names -- individual members calling out the name of their choice for speaker. following that, words by the speaker elect. don young is expected to swear in nancy pelosi. then the adoption of the house

rules and we already talked about some of the concern even among democratic members of congress about some of the provisions in that new rules package. other various administrative resolutions are passed and the announcement of the speakers policy on floor practices. of theioned the clerk house will be in charge for a little while longer but nancy pelosi will be able to appoint her officers of the house if she is elected speaker. she has already named who she wants as her clerk, that would be cheryl johnson. twoworked for nearly decades in the house of representatives. she served as chief of staff -- chief of staff for the director of the smithsonian museum of african american history and culture. saying cheryl

johnson embodies commitment to committedvice and has to your -- dedicated her career to defending the most cherished institutions of our democracy. talked to charlie johnson recently about why the clerk remains in charge of the house the beginning of a new congress. here is a bit of what he had to say on the history and the rules. [video clip] are emergedations from the party caucuses. it is usually the chairman of the caucus who gives the nominating speech. the caucus/conference distinction come of republicans call themselves a conference. after those nominations, the clerk asks if there are other nominations.

threeears ago, there were additional nominations after boehner had been nominated, all from the republican side. two years ago when ryan was nominated, there were no additional nominations. that does not mean that members cannot vote for other persons. they do and they can and they are counted if that person is alive, basically. >> what happens if one person does not get enough votes? >> that has been a matter of great speculation in the press. by people who study congress. the winning nominee has to receive a majority of all the individual.or an for example, if someone says i

x, that is not a vote for someone. that is a vote against someone. it is not a vote that counts in the overall tally but it does help establish a quorum. votedumber of people present as opposed to voting for a third-party candidate. powell for example has received a number of votes. more than one in each of the last several congresses. the late bob michael when he was minority leader and even after he had retired received some votes. the clerk will then announce the results and by surname. it is the only vote which is not

electronic that is taken that day. , calledvote by surname out by individual members. >> how long does that take? >> a long time. sometimes you have 20 or 30 members who for whatever reason have not voted for first call. their names are called again. host: that was the former house parliamentarian. we will give you more information about how the vote will play out. around noon, eastern time on c-span, we will bring you gavel to gavel coverage of the 116th congress as they convene at noon. one of the first votes they will be taking is for speaker of the house. nancy pelosi is presumed to be the speaker of the house. gavel in 2007 and served as speaker for four years.

she is expected to become the since congressman rayburn of texas to regain the speakership since 1955. all of that here on c-span. on c-span2, we have coverage of the senate. in the meantime, taking your calls this morning on what you want this new congress to do. what do you want them to work on? what do you want the democrats to push if you are a democrat? how do you want the republicans to respond? democrats have control of the house and the senate remains in the hands of republicans. at the from where we are senate russell office building is st. peter's catholic church. congress,ning day of the church offers a nondenominational prayer service for new and returning members of congress.

that service is going to get underway in washington and when we see some folks filing into the service, we can bring you that as well as we continue to take your phone calls. religious affiliations of these new members of congress includes at least 68 christians and 6'10" if i as jewish. -- first two muslim women and six identify as jewish. the first two muslim women. let's go to florida, independent. caller: can you hear me? host: we can. i am calling to give a shout out to stanley from wisconsin. i can talk to that man all day long. he has the drug industry pegged down. i am calling for this false sense of security with the

border wall and more agents. the problem is it is the poor and the rich and everybody altogether. everybody wants that cheap labor. everybody wants to have those -- for theyst pay don't have to pay benefits or holidays. they can exploit all the immigrants they want. nobody wants border security because they need cheap labor. in the united states are just starving to death. they don't want to pay the right wages. everybody should understand that. i hope somebody figures this out. they are putting on a dog and pony show and trump is the carnival barker. he does not know what he is doing in that white house. that is all i have to say. host: we will hear from anthony next, staten island, republican.

caller: good morning. i am calling about how they pushed -- back to 2019 when they were supposed to address it on november 31. now american citizens are being pushed until next year when they make another decision. while i don't have any money to live on, my ex-wife is giving me money to buy food. i could not even get food stamps. the people across this country who are in this country illegally are getting food stamps. host: how do you know that? tell you thathey and they laugh at you saying well we got it and you can't get it, that is the answer. it's not fair. it is not fair that congress orders them to push this into 2019 when they had a good bill that was sponsored by sherry brown and orrin hatch it. -- orrin hatch. ie reason i make the call is

see people losing homes, committing suicide and families falling apart. there was no reason for that, especially when you legal immigrants are coming here and getting taken care of. it is not right to do that to the american people. this is something the congress created, beginning with deregulation of the trucking industry and they are back at it again. i know people who are actually suffering who cannot pay their taxes. my friend who lives out in long island, his taxes are $14,000 a year. he cannot pay his taxes. what are they going to do, take his house? is that fair to us? it is not fair. host: what is your confidence level -- caller: my confidence level for donald trump is 70%. as far as i'm concerned, the

democrats only want these people here because they need voters in the future and they're are going to make sure they get their votes. they are not worried about the united states, they are worried about their party. the party should not, for the people. nancy pelosi is only worried about the democrat party along with chuck schumer and dick durbin. they are not worried about the american people. host: the breakdown of democrats and republicans in the house. 235 democrats, 199 republicans. we talked with some house members earlier this month, one of them being mark green, a republican and here is what he had to say about his life story. [video clip] >> to get into politics in the first place was my 25th reunion at west point. the presenter was telling us about how west point has changed and the nape of the slide up at the end that is the mission of west point and says this has not

tonged, the mission is still create leaders who will serve the country for the lifetime and it was sort of an arrow through my heart. i thought i have to do more service. i told my lieutenant-governor of the time who had asked me to run for state senate, i will do it. that was six or seven years ago. >> what were you doing before that? >> i was running a health care company and a health care foundation. in my company, we ran emergency departments for hot -- hospitals. we would come in and contract to run their departments. my health care foundation would run free health care clinics. >> and you're a doctor as well? >> a position by training. >> what was your practice? >> emergency medicine. >> you also are a veteran. ini am, i spent a few years iraq and afghanistan. >> you are part of operation red dawn.

what was that? >> as the position on the task wmd's,unting saddam and i planned the medical portion of all the missions. i would know where the nearest surgeon was and how many operating rooms they had. if we took casualties, where we would redirect to. on that mission, it was a hey we think we got him and we all flew one helicopters. of course we caught him and i got to interview him for about five and a half hours. >> you interviewed him? >> yes. i don't think it was intended to be an interview. out and said will you spend this first night with him? i said sure and saddam was talkative. we spoke for about five and half hours. >> what did you cover? >> it was fascinating, some of the stuff we talked about. it was mostly historical. why did you invade kuwait? why did you start the iran-iraq

war? some of it is not in any history books. when saddam gave me his answer on why he invaded iran, about that was the first time that answer was ever heard. i wrote that down and shared the story later. host: that is representative elect mark green of tennessee. he will be sworn in along with the other new members of congress later on this afternoon. we are taking your thoughts on the washington journal on what congress should work on first when they swear in and when they begin this legislative session. michael in kansas city, a democrat. what do you think? caller: good morning. i have another option for the border wall that trump and the publicans are squalling about. why don't they take the money they confiscated from drug money down at the border and put it towards the border wall along

the -- people and the big businesses in this country? maybe they can contribute back to this country. i would love to see the new congress start an impeachment for trump, pants and bring kavanaugh back in to have a real hearing with real congressional people. that is my thoughts on it all. i appreciate it. host: donald in south carolina, independent. what is on your to do list? caller: good morning. i think the top of the list should be term limits. one caller suggested it and i have heard this many times, eight years for congress, 12 years for senate. we have term limits for the president and we need to apply those same principles to the congress.

the next thing they need to do is do comprehensive immigration reform, including the wall. they need to spare no expense. it is one of the most important things. we had one caller that suggest because there are some a people coming in by air and overstaying their visas that the wall is not going to stop that. the wall is not going to stop that but it will stop the people who are trying to enter this country on foot, so they should build the wall and they should also complete comprehensive -- gration reform and it needs to stop. the people who are supporting that, especially like that mayor out in oakland, california, they

need to be prosecuted for what they do. it is incredibly stupid. the other thing they need to do is work on a balanced budget amendment. i think that is extremely important to securing the future of our children. the last thing i want to say is to end the wars. end all wars, by winning them. >> with all of the action in the house with the change of power, we hope c-span viewers to not forget about the senate this morning. the balance of power in the senate, republicans remain in charge. 53 republicans, 47 republicans -- 47 democrats. also 25 women in the senate. six states with all-female delegations including arizona, california, minnesota, new hampshire, nevada and

washington. the senate like the house is expected to gavel in briefly to officially end the hunt -- 115th congress. here is the order of business. the swearing in of the new senators, the establishment of the quorum, the adoption of standing orders for the new congress and then senators will agree on which bills and resolutions may begin to be introduced and then there will be a -- there will be new elections for the president pro tem. when it comes to the senate president pro tempore, it will be chuck grassley of iowa. ,ere are the quantity times writing about him becoming the president pro tem that pro tem

.or -- pro temp expectedit upon his election to that position, following the vice president and the speaker of the house. chuck grassley first elected to serve in iowa in 1980 and has represented iowa for 38 years. host: bob is next in illinois, republican. good morning to you. what are your priorities? caller: good morning. if you want to this -- if you want to come to this country, that's great, but do it right. it has to be mandatory, you have to speak english. we should not have to force people to learn spanish when this is an american english country. they don't want to learn our language with our assistance, they don't have to come here.

spanish on everybody that watches comcast. host: it sounds like you support the government shutdown. caller: i would shut down the whole border right now. nobody is coming in or out. anybody that comes in here for day labor, they don't come, shut it down. -- caller: we have american people that will not touch these processing plants. thee were a lot of things mexicans come over here and do and they do it or less than what .he people here get paid

trump has never showed his birth certificate, his tax returns and a is getting by with things lot of other presidents have had and as far as the wall, i hope .hey never get it shutdown host: we will get to dominic. caller: the last time i called then, you mispronounce my town and i did not hear you. host: thank you. caller: the problem i think is the people who are paying for the wall or the fence are the 50,000 americans dying from a drug overdose every year. they are targeting children. died town, nine kids

within two weeks of a heroin .verdose you had to see the funeral parlor with all the kids lined up. it looked like they were having a fire drill in the schoolhouse. it was disgusting. the parents and grandparents were there. they are killing the children. they busted a kid in high school with 87 bags of heroin in his backpack. he says i was not selling it, they told me to give it away. they got him with intent to distribute. the thing with the drugs has to stop. border patrol is asking for it. it is not trump. we need it, get it done and let's move on to 2020.

have a happy 2019. host: thank you. as many of you noted, the government shutdown continues today. day 13 in washington. the 116th congress will gavel in around noon, both in the house and the senate. house democrats that control the house are going to be taking up to bills -- two bills that they want the president to sign. in the senate with republicans taking control, a leader said he is not going to bring anything to the floor that the president won't support. and the president yesterday told folks that he will not support their offer. pelosi, a catholic, making her way into st. peter's church this morning for that service for members of congress, others following behind. nondenominational service for members of congress on this opening day. maryland,annover,

republican. what do you want them to work on first? caller: what i would like to see from our legislature is an education initiative which would eventually get a bill on the president ticket desk to sign. i would like to see leveraging a public education system and focusing on health education. as we know, we waste half $1 trillion in this country every year on drugs, alcohol, tobacco and obesity and we need to start focusing on these at a young age. kindergarten to grade 12. show the dangers, show people how to live properly. everybody can get behind education in this country and i think this is the problem. billion acut the $500 year down and even save 10% on

this, i think we would make it forward step. i don't see how everybody cannot get behind this. that is what i would like to see. educate people. health in this country. oklahoma, ruby is watching there, democrat. caller: thank you. we need more money for infrastructure. we need to take that $5 billion for bridges and roads. they are in terrible shape. make healthed to care costs -- everybody needs health care. it is not a privilege, it is a

right. everybody has to pay for it. 5% ork a small tax, maybe something like that, but they need to work on those things that matter to everybody. wall and all that stuff is, just shutdown down the whole thing until they figure bill that will help everybody. i guess that is all i've got to say. host: thank you for the call. joining us now from inside the capital is the senior congressional correspondent with the washington post. he spent a lot of time roaming the hallways of congress. how do you describe the dynamic of this new senate? the makeup of these new sensors joining those that were

reelected? guest: good morning. this is a different senate than we have seen in some time because you now have a republican senate with the d3, up from 51 and it is the makeup of those 53 that is much different this time around. -- really in that sort of anti-trump crowd or at least very willing to criticize trump when they felt necessary, especially when he went against traditional republican orthodoxy. now a lot of those folks are gone. corker is retiring, jeff flake is retiring. john mccain passed away. there really is a different sense of this senate or you have incoming people like kevin cramer and marsha blackburn who are replacing those folks who

are very much on the pro-trump side of the republican party. into that midst, we cast this massive overwhelming presence known as mitt romney, former governor of massachusetts and now senator of utah to a couple days ago, using the washington post platform, blasted trump. it looks as if you were going to see a different dynamic, a more pro-trump dynamic in the senate but this one voice who has a bigger megaphone than almost anybody else. host: is he a coalition of one or might we see some republicans who are up in 2020 joining him in opposing the president? ofst: he is not a coalition one, just a coalition of mitt. he is his own entity right now. he might create some room and some space for other folks like cory gardner, like thom tillis

, who has beenllis critical of trump, especially in his threatening tone toward the mueller investigation. right now there just isn't this big force of people beyond mitt romney. susan collins has gone back and forth into which cap she has been a part of. lindsey graham, the same thing. host: are there freshman to watch? guest: i definitely think there are. he isolly of missouri, the statement -- state attorney general. somemes in and gives breath of fresh air to younger conservatives. marsha blackburn of tennessee, keep your eye on her. she is a house member for 18 years before getting sworn in today in the senate.

she is going to be on the judiciary committee, that has previously only had zero women republicans on it. she is going to be a presence on that committee. you will see her in the fbi hearings, attorney general hearings next week. host: democrats have control of the house. republicans have control of the senate. power that minority leader chuck schumer has over the next two years. how does that dynamic play out between the senate, nancy pelosi and the white house? it is a reverse image of what happened eight years ago when republicans took the house and you still had harry reid in the senate and president obama in the white house.

2014, majority leader mitch mcconnell did a lot of work in which he was able to tie up the senate and sort of --w it down, if not democrats say he was obstructing entirely, the senate and their needs for 60 votes on most forms of legislation. the senate minority leader is an important figure. , ife can hold the line pelosi can send stuff over to the senate and mcconnell tries to push his own sort of legislation that he wants to get through, schumer can hold everyone together and bottle up the place and it requires some form of compromise, middle ground between the two sides. that is the way it worked in 2011 32014 when this dynamic plays out in reverse. this is definitely a different 2014 when2011 through

this dynamic plays out in reverse. this is definitely a different era. host: -- and what sort of agenda could those folks have? guest: the two i singled out earlier, armed services and foreign relations, are much different. john mccain was sort of his own whaton of mitt romney or mitt romney might be, a fierce critic of donald trump, especially on foreign policy. he has been replaced by an oklahoma republican who is much closer in line with trump administration and in foreign relations, the shift from bob corker who was a media savvy, some critics would say media hungry chairman who was always on tv criticizing the trumpet administration is now replaced , who was ah of idaho much more withdrawn figure in the capital. he is not somebody who is racing to cameras and he is not taken

many positions against trump. the well card is going to be judiciary. lindsey graham becomes a committee chair for the first time since getting elected in 2002. -- took him6 years 16 years. he is a force of nature. you never know which way he is coming down. going to bes railing against trump or supporting trump. all of his judicial nominees are going to have to run through the lindsey graham gauntlet. it is going to be interesting to say the least. spent manykane has years roaming the halls of congress. you can follow him by going to washingtonpost.com. thank you. guest: thank you, anytime. host: as he mentioned, the -- the chairman carries

over for the 116th congress for the armed services committee. the senator sat down with us to talk about military spending and we asked if there were any weapons systems in the u.s. that the u.s. does not need any more. here is his answer. [video clip] >> i think we do. it is such a moving target. you have hypersonic's for example. this is 10 someone hundreds -- this is tense of one hundredths of onecond -- tenths hundredths of a second. president putin says he is ahead of the united states. he lies, so i don't think he is true -- i don't think that is true. i don't want to imply that is the only threat out there. the president was right when he put together his national security system and said we also

have rogue nations out there. iran, north korea, developing the capability of reaching the united states of america with a weapon. in terms of her competition, those who are either as good or better than we are in some of howr systems, people say good some other country be better than us? it is because ever since world war ii, we have built ourselves up where we have the best of everything and that started slipping and now we don't and it is important that people understand that because you have to develop a budget. if you are going to give a priority to military witches what we are going to try to do, then we have to get busy and people have to understand that we don't have the best of everything. host: the armed services chair on weapons systems in the united states. you can see more of that interview if you go to our

website. more of your calls coming up on the opening day of the hundred 16 congress. what are your legislative priorities for these members in the house and senate as they get ready to convene another two-year session in washington, d.c.? we will get to your calls but first more from john. >> opening day of the 116 congress, date 13 of the ongoing government shutdown. this photo from the white house yesterday. this was the roundtable briefing that president trump held with congressional leaders about the shutdown negotiations. philip rucker with the washington post, posting that picture and putting out nancy pelosi the only woman pictured around that table. the homeland security secretary participated as well via video. president trump tweeting about that meetings, saying there was an important meeting today on border security with republican

and democrat leaders in congress. both parties must work together to pass a funding bill that protects the people. the president saying i remain willing and ready to work with democrats to pass a bill that secures our borders, supports the agents on the ground and protects -- and keeps america safe. democrats on capitol hill tweeting about the shutdown as well on this opening day. -- we have come to the table time and time again with bipartisan solutions to end this reckless shutdown including a 100 -- a 100% vote in the senate, but be a administration will not take yes for an answer. it is time for the gop to stand up to the president and work with us to end this. mark walker of north carolina saying as liberals refuse to secure our border and drank on the shutdown, they are hurting the very people open border policies are sure the most. as long as these brave men and

women are forced to work without a paycheck, i will be refusing mind as well -- mine as well. with the hill, putting out that senator schumer made some statements to the new york times this morning, saying that president trump is being advised on the shutdown by the chairman of the freedom caucus, mark meadows. schumer saying that we cannot let meadows govern america. one more tweet, the expected incoming majority leader in the house, then he or your saying house democrats are bringing to bills to the floor that do all the things the president said in his tweets, securing the border, keeping america safe well reopening the government. he says i look forward to the president signing them into law hutdown.ng the #trumps when it comes to those build the democrats are bringing to the floor, this is the story, they are expecting votes on these

bills at some point today. sixdemocrats want to pass full-year funding measures to take most of the still on past physical 2019 bills off the table, bills they want to pass with full year funding including financial services, agriculture, interior and environment, transportation, housing and urban development, justice, science and state and foreign operations. those six building want to extend the full year funding and a partial funding, a stopgap funding bill for the last on past bill of fiscal 2019, the department of homeland security funding bill. they want to that stopgap measure until february 8, giving leaders five more weeks to negotiate over border security. president trump has rejected that offer. the senate majority leader mitch mcconnell says he will not bring a vote to the floor unless the bill has support from the

president. the presidential adviser kellyanne conway was in the driveway this morning at the white house. she talked to reporters about that meeting the president had with congressional leaders. [video clip] >> how and the world can we talk about funding the federal government and amid homeland security? this president ran on and will continue to govern on border security. you can say a wall you want. nancy pelosi can ignore -- yesterday they ignored and and -- interrupted and were frankly very rude and disruptive of our director of homeland security, our director of immigrations and customs enforcement. if we're going to talk about bipartisanship, you just can't ignore the facts and figures that somebody is trying to present you from our own government. that was really poor form, but the president has graciously invited them back here tomorrow and hopefully they will come and

recognize that border security is not a partisan issue. striving for bipartisan solutions. i heard the president say yesterday, $54 billion or so in the pelosi bill for foreign aid and nothing for border security? that is not make any sense to americans that know that border security is national security. host: back to your calls and your reactions as we continue on the opening day of the 116th congress. the capital here behind us and members of congress getting ready. those who were elected and newly elected putting their hands up to take the oath of office. we will go to our independent line next. what do you want them to work on? caller: good morning. to stop taking the proverbial cans down the

road. entitlement programs, environments, address them now with confidence and leadership. it is the least we expect from them. host: who do you think is capable of leading in this congress? caller: i am not seeing a lot of leadership. there is way too much happening with regards to twitter and social media. i think they should lay off of it and focus on the issues and not on mouthing off. i think that is one thing they should cut down on. work holidaysks and such, why can't they? middle working-class folks knew that. -- do that. i do think c-span for taking my call and hopefully a good 2019. host: the calls continue until noon, when the house will gavel

in the new congress. on c-span2, you can watch our coverage of the senate. they will be gaveling in the new congress at around noon time as well. sylvia in virginia, republican. caller: happy new year. i am wanting them to stop the shutdown right now because we have people that are hurting. pelosi, she reaches across the aisle and i know she will be working with the republicans. god bless her. i am hoping that they pay the teachers more. i help with children who have trouble reading and it amazes me what teachers do with less pay. i hope they do something about obamacare and to change it or something so that people can have decent health care. thank you. host: before you go, it sounds

like you support nancy pelosi for speakership. caller: i do. i saw her going into the church and i am praying for her. host: what do you think should be on her agenda? there are some democrats who are pressuring her to pursue impeachment. to investigate this president. what should you focus on? -- what should she focus on? caller: i think she believes mueller should finish his job. she is going to say no impeachment unless mueller says so. there are definitely rules of impeachment that she is going to go by. she is going to go by what the constitution says for us to go by. i have watched her for years. i am 63 years old and i have seen her work. she is like a mother.

i don't know how she is on abortion but i know she is praying for america and her leadership and i am praying for her. host: nancy pelosi, 78 years old. the new york times reports this morning that she has raised $728 2002on for democrats since and poised to become the next speaker, the first speaker to regain the gavel since 1955. she was on the today show earlier. [video clip] >> you said it would be sad and divisive for the country to pursue impeachment. are you willing to rule it out? >> we have to wait and see you what happens with the mueller in -- mueller report. we should not be impeaching for a political reason and we should not avoid impeachment for a political reason. >> do you believe the special counsel should honor and observe

the department of justice guidance that states a sitting president cannot be indicted? >> i do not think that is conclusive. >> you think it is possible that special counsel mueller could legally indict a sitting president. >> let's just see what mueller does. let's get results to the american people. >> there is long-standing department of justice guidance that states a sitting president should not be indicted. it is not the law. >> it is not the law. everything indicted -- everything indicates a president can be indicted when he is the longer in office. >> what about a president in office? and robert mueller come back and say i am a seeking indictment -- i am seeking an indictment? >> that is an open discussion. host: now inside of st. peter's church. we saw her go in for a service for all members of congress on this opening day.

a catholic church just steps away from where we are at the senate russell office building. the senate -- the service they give every two years when a new congress convenes and we are asking all of you this morning letake time until noon to lawmakers know what it is you want them to be working on. chuck in nebraska, a democrat. good morning. caller: good morning. these republicans that have been in congress for the last six down have just booted it and refused to bring it up. paul ryan refused to bring if they up to a vote voted on anything that would take care of the immigration

problem. they just want to spend money on this stupid wall that is not do anything. conwayt had kellyanne and you cannot deal with people that lie to you in your face. she said there is no money for border security. that is bull. there is $1.3 billion for border security and a never spent the last billion dollars they got last year. they got 2000 border patrol agents that can't gets hired because that what he wants to do that dumb job with what they are paying. they don't want to put their lives on the line. this president lies every time he speaks. host: just to clarify, that $1.3 billion is reported border security but it has been stipulated that it cannot be used for a wall. should democrats compromise and give the president some money for a wall?

maybe not the $5.6 billion but some money? caller: no. anys ok to spend that on other kind of obstruction. they just don't want to spend it on a useless 30 foot concrete wall. -- ohio, republican. hi dave. dave in rock creek. caller: hello. host: you are on the air. caller: this is mike from oak grove, missouri. host: my apologies. caller: no problem. watching the house vote on a cr the senate had already passed unanimously. it was on its way to pass in the house when donald trump mayor

the emergency call that stopped the vote -- made the emergency call that stopped the vote. it was a donald trump temper tantrum. onjob and chuck grass in the snake and truth was trump like to say that the democrats wanted to vote for a wall in the past. why don't we have a wall then? republicans did not think it was a good idea when the democrats wanted it. why did they think it is a good idea now? it is a waste of our time. it is hurting our government employees. wall are ap and his waste of time. el chapo, they tunneled for a mile right into his prison cell.

what is to say that we spend billions of dollars on this wall that could be spent on infrastructure. they are just going to tunnel under it. it is a waste of time and money and i hope that the democrats hold their ground. host: more of your calls coming up but first we go to john. of the new members of congress for the 116th congress tweeting out their pictures and reactions on this opening day, including a democrat from virginia. this pitcher saying -- i spent last night celebrating with the wonder -- with the wonderful people who kept my campaign going. thank you all for getting me here. michael guest is a republican of mississippi.

his tweet saying -- there is the swearing-in ceremony that happens on the ther but also the pictures, photo opportunities that take place later today as well for many of the guests. sharice davids is a democrat from kansas saying -- congresswoman debt holland with this pitcher this morning. mike leven is a democrat from california saying he is ready for an amazing day as we begin the 116th congress. one more tweet from katie hill, from california. here is the moment she could not get in her office door. it was locked as she tried to

open it up. [laughter] is that the door? >> katie hill on twitter encouraging her followers to watch the swearing-in ceremony's as it takes place on c-span today. here is one other freshman member of congress the way veteran of washington, d.c. , theocrat from florida former health and human services secretary under president clinton. she talked about her prior positions in washington and how she thinks that is going to help her as she moves ahead with this congressional job. [video clip] >> i was president at the university of miami and before that i was chancellor at the university of wisconsin. i have experience with young people and the issues they care about. obviously experience in world

class medical care. both in wisconsin and at the university of miami. people are concerned about pocketbook issues, the cost of prescription drugs, the out-of-pocket cost for insurance. that is my area of expertise. that is what i hope to focus on. it will not only help the people of south florida. in my district, there are 100,000 people are just for -- registered for obamacare. they expect me to make certain that we do everything we can to make health care affordable but particularly the focus is on perception drug costs. >> described your district and why you chose south florida district to run for congress. >> i have been living in that district for 20 years. my grandparents lived in the district, my aunt and uncles, my cousins. i have cuban cousins who came over.

lebanon,lebanese left they went all over the world. i have relatives all over latin america. the south florida district i represent involves the beaches, south beach and miami beach, downtown miami, coral gables, coconut grove. it is all within miami-dade county and is a wonderful district. it has been represented by a republican for almost 30 years so what has been a republican held district. i decided i could flip it to the focus on and begin the the domestic issues as well as international issues because of latin america. we consider ourselves the capital of latin america.

domestic issues like health care, immigration, environmental issues are life-and-death for people in florida. we have no climate deniers. a familiar face to all of you, donna shalala who served in the clinton administration and now representative elect, will be sworn in later today. what are your priorities for her and others? dave from rock creek, ohio, republican. >> i have been listening to this what i call bs. we do with the people ask us to do. we do not sit there and becker -- bicker -- yes, we do. we the people say build the wall. sorry it affects other people.

that is the way it is. people should not be in there for lifetime. there should be term limits on these seats, not 46 years and get all this power. that is a bunch of es. kim is in paterson, new jersey, a democrat. caller: good morning, happy new year. i don't know where to begin. i have been listening to everyone and everyone has a point on something. really speakdo not those republican or democrat but i am more liberal in my thinking and conservative in some things. i understand we have a so-called is -- has come in to destroy any kind of sensibilities.

it is kind of more of him just trying to destroy any kind of , and whatever the former president has done that was americans,elp particularly that are disenfranchised in this country. i don't want to get into the history of the start of this country, which started on genocide of people. this country in which people continue to talk about their country, this is their country, when the native americans were here first. we can debate who discovered lie country, which is a because you cannot discover something when people are here from the beginning. the whole start of this country that was built on the backs of sufferand people that and continue to suffer in this country.

now to bring it up to this year 2019, we have spent two years of this in laurel man in government immoral man and government which has brought hate which has always been here in this country. we are trying to get to a place where all people can be judged dr. martin luther king statement, the content of their character and what they are trying to be. everyone is suffering in this country and everyone has issues, but we tend to go back to those old stereotypes and these old ways of doing things. there is a lot of issues with what this country representatives do not reflect people. host: i am going to leave it there so i can let our viewers know what is happening.

a block or so away from here in washington at st. peter's church, we are watching as members of congress, newly elected and some old washington hands -- i think i saw leon panetta -- this is a service offered to all denominations. donna shalala and steny hoyer, the incoming them -- majority leader. we can continue to watch is more file out. -- as more file out.

church and peter's washington, d.c. from there, members of congress will make their way to the capital for the convening of the 116th congress, which is slated for noon on c-span. coverage of the house begins then and on c-span two we will have coverage of the u.s. senate convening the 116th congress. we are asking you to take this opportunity to call in and let these lawmakers know -- any of

inir channels turn to c-span the morning, especially on the house side, so many of them listening to you -- what is it that you want them to tackle? we talked with several of the new members of congress recently. the stauber represents eighth district in wisconsin. he talks about the importance of hockey in his life growing up. [video clip] >> blue-collar, commonsense conservatives. we have timber, mining is big. we have the most inland port in this country so we have shipping . salt come in. >> when parents do? my mother was an

administrator and my father sold janitorial supplies. >> what was your childhood like? >> i have five brothers. we all played hockey. my brothers and i played division i hockey. my brother was a goaltender and he won the holy baker award. i won the national championship division one. coacheder brother just the u.s. olympic women's hockey team to the gold-medal. i was fortunate enough to play professional hockey with the detroit red wings. hockey is part of our lives in part of minnesota. >> what is your life lesson? what have you learned lane hockey? teamwork, perseverance, hard work is always equalizer. many people never gave me the chance to play division i hockey yet alone professional. it western hard work, perseverance, dedication, and

that drive to meet your goal, and i was fortunate. >> how long did you play for? >> three years. i retired due to an injury. >> wedded you do after that? >> and became a police officer in paramedic. and moved my hometown into the rank of area commander. i was responsible for the western half of the city of duluth for long and short-term problems. >> how and when did you decide to run? >> i spent eight years on the local city council and six years as a st. louis county commissioner. i stand on the shoulders of the great generation and i want to make sure the next generation, our children and grandchildren, have the same opportunity to live, have the same hopes, dreams, and opportunities that my generation had.

i have a passion to serve. that propelled me. >> pitstop or will be representing the eighth district in minnesota -- pete stauber will be representing the eighth district in minnesota. your calls on the washington journal as we continue outside the russell office building on the opening day of the 116th congress. john mcardle is with us as well to give us more details. >> more numbers of the 116th congress, focusing on military service. downumber of veterans is five, 96 veterans when the 116th congress convenes and its members are sworn in. 30 are democrats, 66 republican. there will be 19 freshmen veterans, seven women veterans in the 116 congress.

38 will have served after the year 2000. 21 served in the 1960's or earlier. a historic number of women, 127 total in the new congress, 102 in the house, 89 democrats, 32 republicans -- 33 republicans. 60 will have all-female delegations. as we show you the freshman class picture, more stats about women in the new congress. in the senate, freshman senator marsha blackburn and joni ernst will become the first republican women to serve on the judiciary committee in this new congress. the appointments, politico notes, serves a long-standing problem.

they helped the appointment will deflect the criticism that judiciaryhen the committee investigated charges of sexual assault during the confirmation of supreme court justice nominee brett kavanaugh, and republicans hiring a female outside prosecutor. speaking of the judiciary committee, the work gets underway fairly quickly in the new year. the senate judiciary committee holding confirmation hearings for attorney general on january 15 and 16th. william barr will replace acting attorney general matthew whitaker after jeff sessions was forced out. appointment and confirmation process, one of the democratic members of the judiciary committee tweeting. tweeting --enthal mr. barr must be fully forthcoming on his views and any

conversations with trump or anyone else. he tweeted he must he willing to make a firm and committed decision to ensure the doj's independence from political interference. host: larry is in pueblo, colorado, independent. what is on the agenda for you for this congress? caller: i would like to say thank you to you and c-span for giving americans a voice. i would like to say happy new year to everybody and i hope they all get along. i think they are all friends in congress. they argue a lot for us, the public. they get done what needs to get done so i hope they get it done. host: you have a positive view of congress? caller: it has gotten us this

far, hasn't it? host: ken next in hernando, florida, republican. caller: thank you for taking my call. i am a first-time caller. host: you are welcome. and thenancy pelosi democrats have said the wall is immoral and not effective. what they need to do is pass a law that would outlaw all laws -- walls and fences in the united states, including the fences around nuclear facilities , government facilities like military bases, government prisons, federal buildings. they would also have to pass a law so there is no fences around our state prisons and jails. all of the brick -- fences around our gated communities. they could start by having maxine waters remove her big fence around her mega mansion.

pelosi,eaking of nancy she is coming out of st. peter's church here this morning, making her way to her car. secret service of course protecting the incoming speaker of the house. she will be surrounded by security as she goes forward gavel foreadings the the 116th congress. let's hear next from dave, pr yet, illinois, democrat -- pre ia, illinois,- peoro democrat. is three types of people represented on the republican elephant in three stars upside down. --re is three parties business, labor, and government. business ared big

in bed together. it is all over our wages. you have not heard anybody say anything about wages, $15 an hour wages. they broke our union down here at the uaw caterpillar and they used the pinkerton people. they used the fbi. they moved right in here to our caterpillar offices. you better hold onto your hats because they may try to run the economy and everything, and make people work for one dollar a day. chinese wages. i always said, why are they trying to make people work for chinese wages? that is our competitor. they want us to work for chinese wages. host: what did you do for a living? caller: after they ruin the country. host: what did you do for a living? holdovers --lt

bulldozers my whole life. i worked like a dog and nobody gave a dam about me. they fired me four times. my union got me back. i am retired and living comfortably on practically minimum wage. host: we will go to another dave, independent in harvey, arkansas. caller: i just want to get a few points in. the guy a couple callers back, it seems we needs to get our -- need to get our border under control. there are people dying down there on both sides of the wall. came out, schumer yesterday with that smirky face and it drives you nuts that these people cannot get together and fix the border for everyone. her. pelosi, i don't like she does have a 12 foot high concrete wall all around her

mansion. barack obama has a big wall all around his mansion. i have a fence around our place to keep people out. some people can jump over. some people do not look at it. we need the border security down there. it is going to be cameras, planes, boots on the ground, and some physical structure. that, let's say they can come together on border security, after that what are your priorities for this congress? caller: i would like to see the medical situation fixed. both sides have dumped on it. host: health care costs? caller: yes, it is important for the country to get their health care under control. host: how do you get your health care? caller: i cannot afford it. . cannot afford it on obamacare

that is the way it is. i just pay cash when i can and try not to get sick. host: what do you do for a living? caller: i just retired. i was a concrete construction worker. from illinois because of the political destructiveness. host: dave in arkansas. dan is next in north carolina, a republican. caller: thank you, c-span. i just want to make a comment and a prediction about this congress. if i might, i would like to suggest to that lady that called back a few minutes ago, she needs to leave this terrible country that she lives in and go find some place where she would be happy. i predictcongress, that this will be probably one of the most do nothing congress

is -- congresses for some time. host: why is that? caller: i say that because there is going to be gridlock here. andll stems from the fact, all the things that come up as far as the differences of opinions about things in our government, the wall and everything else, it is all related to 2016. was supposed to be coordinated into the oval office and it didn't happen. the democrats have never got that out of their crawl and they never will. they are going to attack this administration the whole time that he is in office. we can look forward to that because they won't ever give up. i was looking at the news this the homeland

secretary was supposedly making a talk and they showed where schuster leaned over to nancy pelosi and kirjsten.o interrupt that is the way it is going to be and we can just buckle down. host: randy is next in guthrie, texas, democrat. caller: happy new year. about for five months ago, we had a raid on an employer in texas in the northeast portion. ice officials, border patrol came in and within about four separated160 illegals who had overstayed their visa.

as this information only given to ice agents, and why is that not shared with employers? says that either employers have that information and do not abide by it, or they are not given that information. host: i do not know the answer to that. are you a proponent of e-verify? caller: exactly. for a fraction of the cost of the wall, we could shore up e-verify, find these corporations to the point that they go bankrupt. some people said that is antibusiness. have a good is a business not hiring americans in america? host: that is randy, with e-verify tapping his list. independenta city, -- rick in iowa city, independent. what do you want this congress to work on? caller: definitely the chaos on the border. they need to work on that border

wall issue first. we have other infrastructure and things we need to work on, but right now there's a lot of problems on the border. democrat,publican, they have all at one time wanted the border wall or not. it just seems like it is political issues that before and party wants it, the other one doesn't. i think they should get it done. we do need it. they need to focus on the people protecting our borders. want toy, people do not have that job because it is very dangerous because they need the tools to make it safer. the tools would be awol. -- a wall. i am not against people coming into this country.

i have no problem with it. it needs to be done correctly. if i go to mexico, i cannot just go into mexico. i have to fill out a form that , hows where i am going long i am staying, when i'm coming back. after they get the law -- the wall done, i think they need to change the laws so these people that are being taught they can just come to the united states and get in and seek asylum, maybe they need to change the law so they do not let them in. them and letse them go back into mexico, but do not keep them here. we do not have to house them. what they want for the wall to build, we spend on housing people and keeping people in the system while they are in limbo

for their 21 days. over.nd that over and host: understood. keep in evans dale, indiana, republican. in evans dale, indiana, republican. caller: my main thing is the sanctuary cities, i cannot understand how a mayor or governor of whatever state sanctuary cities are in are not abettingith aiding and a felon or fugitive of justice. the cops come to your house and say, is he here, and you don't give him up, you are going to jail for aiding and abetting. the wall needs to be built. i have liked brick my whole life since i was 13 years old. buddies, 15 to 20 brick layer friends of mine,

have lost their jobs to immigrants because they can come in 15 men to one. i know that just one of them is making the big check and paying his little buddies $25 a day. if you come down here into evans dale, indiana, they are doing the roofs, the masonry work, the drywall. i just said, the hell with it. i am done. host: how much did you make? caller: i was making 22 something working for the union. i started breaking new homes --bricking new homes. there was a few mexicans working on the houses beside us and me and my buddies looked up. they was on ladders. .ome on the bottom working i said, there is no way they are going to steal all of our work,

and by god, i was right. host: you were making about $22 an hour and you think the illegal immigrants here are making that a day? caller: no. one of them is making it and they are calling their cousins over and giving him $25 an hour. they are starting their own companies up, under bidding the price because they can get 10 people to help them and give them $25. we could not do that and survive with a family and stuff. they are taking over our country. i just hope to god that the democrats come around. there smirking us and everything, i swear to jesus, my blood pressure is topped out. ofeed to quit watching all this stuff because i just get so mad and frustrated i do not know what to do. it makes you want to give up. host: john mcardle?

host: some more tweets and stories about some of the freshmen members who will be taking the oath of office today, focusing first on rashida tlaib, twoof the first -- palestinian women. she plans to wear a palestinian down. that is what she plans to wear. the huffington post in their wrapup of that image and some of the reaction to it, noticing -- noting it is an ankle length traditional down. palestinians are known for their intricate patterns. theeaction to that picture, institute for middle east understanding tweeted out this -- tomorrow, rashida tlaib is wearing a -- and that swearing-in ceremony.

palestinian women will be sharing photos. we will be reposting your photos throughout the day. ,lso on social media yesterday antonio delgado talked about the first time he and his family went to his washington, d.c. -- washington d c -- washington, d.c. office. >> we are about to go inside for the first time. are you ready? >> yeah. >> let's do it. come on in. >> come on in. >> what do you think, guys? do you want to see daddy's office? come on. come on to daddy's office. here it is. is that daddy seat? >> do you want to sit in daddy's seat? >> yes.

>> awesome. all right, here we are. host: check it out, antonio delgado showing his kids his new office for the 116th congress. kristina peterson is inside the capital here behind us, congressional reporter with the wall street journal. let's talk about first this undeclared seat, or carolina ninth district. give us an update on that on whether mark harris will face the election. guest: i have been mostly focused on what is happening in d.c., so i think we are still in --wait and see mode and see mode. we might not know the answer today. mark harris is not coming to washington as he seeks to be certified for that seat. there is more coming. what is the latest on the shutdown and what will happen

today and how will it play out? guest: it is an interesting moment, because we will see the balance of power change in congress when democrats take control. shutdownics of the remain similar, we are at an impasse. house democrats will pass a package of two bills designed to reopen the government one would bills throughing the end of the fiscal year, through october. the second would be a shorter-term stopgap spending bill just for that homeland security which oversees the border wall. that would enable them to reopen most of the government for a long period of time and focus the debate on the border wall separately while allowing the rest of the government to go back to work. president trump signaled he does not support this plan and mitch mcconnell said he will not bring it up in the senate.

we will see a flurry of activity later this evening with the spending bill, but we are still in the same gridlock as we approach week two of the shutdown. after this is resolved, what is on the agenda for house democrats as they can -- take control? guest: they have pledged to focus on oversight of the trump administration. we expect to see lots of committees requesting documents into various agencies and cabinet officials, and probing conflicts of interest. they have a package designed to overhaul campaign finance laws, and we could see a focus on health care. there is a push to do some dramatic overhaul, medicare for notlegislation, but that is a consensus among the democrats so we will probably see some debate for what steps they want to take.

some of the newly elected democrats from centrists districts will look to do something to shore up obamacare. host: what impact will some of these new freshmen have on the dynamic in washington, whether it is the legislation or politics? guest: it is very interesting. we are seeing lawmakers from the far right and left and of the political spectrum coming this week. wing of thea democratic caucus. we have some new democrats saying they will oppose it, which is pretty unusual, over this pay go language. democrats are proposing when we have big entitlement programs we change, we want to pay for them at the same time. this is controversial. whether it leads to spending

cuts that are too severe, and democrats saying they will impose the package because of that. you are saying and interplay between the more moderate and liberal wings, and you also see that on the republican side. the freedom caucus has been a thorn in the side for a long time and they will represent a bigger chunk of the house gop now as a lot of the republicans lost more centrist members. host: who are you watching? who are some of the new faces you will be watching? --st: everyone has an idea has and ion alexandria causey are cortez. she is one of the two house democrats who says she will oppose the package. we should see a lot from her in the coming weeks and months. host: you can follow christina christina peterson's

reporting. thank you. back to your calls. maryland,n rockville, what do you want them to work on? caller: what i would like to see them work on is to get away from s in congress, hate and hypocrisy. the division they have against one another when it comes to getting the job done, the hypocrisy is because they blame it on things in the past instead of moving forward. i hope they do not stain the new congress coming in. i hope the new congress can see through all of that and start to govern as it is supposed to be. the one thing i want to bring up , and i know c-span don't cover much of this kind of stuff, the little girl that got shot in the car with her mother, had not been reported on the news a lot.

it seemed like it went away. it came in and never came back to the news. the gunman is still on the loose and it is part of a hate crime because he shot them for no reason at all. shooting the little girl several times and shooting the mother in the arm, that news has not been reported at all anymore since that one day. i believe if a black man had shot a white child and his or her mother, it would be all over the news. it is hypocritical for that. host: what do you want washington to do about situations like that? for gun, hateg crime legislation? caller: that is correct. i want them to respond to that, get a little more vigorous on it. it seems like a holes -- a whole lot of stuff in congress goes by the wayside. they speak about it one minute

and it is gone. it breaks my heart. i don't care if they are black or white. the bottom line, it is a crying shame in congress has not done anything about gun control. they did not tend to do so when big money is involved. on both sides, let me say something. my thing is let's get the job done. we are in a divisive place. host: adele in florida, independent. concerned about the person who needs medication, better health care, money to support their life and their house. this is what that means.

, the seniors and the retirement persons. it is not working in that part. does not work. b,t: we talked with greg stu incoming representative out of florida taking over for retiring congressman francis rooney. here is what he had to say. [video clip] >> i was a state senator for florida. i was one of 24 republicans representing all of sarasota county and charlotte county. >> before that? >> i am a lawyer by trade. the legislature is in session part-time. >> what were some of your signature issues? >> something very important to me is our second amendment. i filed a lot of different second amendment bills.

i was the chairman of the florida judiciary committee so anything of a judicial nature, i chaired the judicial committee. anything related to the judiciary, i was involved in. anything from illegal immigration to the second amendment, i have worked on a myriad of issues. something that has been important is the daylight savings time bill. -- theress allows and states to opt in, florida will opt in. >> what priorities do you have? >> my district is very diverse geographically. you have the southwestern portion of the state. then you move into the interior counties, starting into southern pole county, okeechobee, and de soto county. it is very rural, the number one citrus park deuce in eric --

citrus producing area in the nation. >> did you grow up there? >> i grew up in the area. my great grandfather retired to sarasota semi-family has been in and around the area for generations. my father was the former sheriff of manatee county. >> what was your childhood like? >> my father was a deputy, my mother was a teacher. went to the university of florida after graduation, undergrad and law school at the university of florida, and went to the military. introduction to the congressman representing a district in florida for the 116th congress. we are asking him -- asking you to let him know what are your priorities. caller: i only had a couple things to say.

one, may god have mercy on these democrats. they are out to destroy this country. they are trying to destroy a wonderful man that is in the office. another thing, i thought we were the united states of america. what are we putting muslims in our congress for? host: why would that -- caller: this is our country, not theirs. host: they are muslim americans. james is in remington, michigan, democrat. caller: how are you this morning ? host: fine. go ahead. caller: that color before me, i don't know what country she live in. my number one priority is we need to get donald trump's income tax returns and number

no -- can not need you hear me? host: we can. you want donald trump's tax returns. damnr: we do not need no wall. we are not russia or china. but: more of your calls first, john mcardle. congress, -- 116th members looking ahead to reelection and campaigns to come . an interesting tweet from michael beckel, the manager of research at issue one reform, noting that when it comes to new house members, 21 have formed leadership political action committees and all eight new senators have leadership political action committees as well. why does this matter? special interests often donate to leadership tax to curry -- leadership packs to curry favor.

martin o'malley from maryland, democratic candidate in the 2016 presidential election said -- i will not be running for president in 2020, but i hope beto o'rourke does. it is time for a new generation of leadership. that tweet coming just after 9:30. as we talk about proceedings on the opening day of the 116th and interesting tweet from lynn sweet of the chicago sun-times about who will be overseeing the floor. jim langevin, the first quadriplegic elected to congress to preside over the house this afternoon in. it was pelosi who ordered the installation of a lift system for wheelchairs to the speaker's podium during her first time as house speaker. she did it marking the ada anniversary.

host: nancy pelosi, her first speaker ship 2007 to 2011 and poised to take over the gavel again. we are getting your thoughts on the 116 congress, the opening day in washington, d.c. we are at the senate russell office building, i half block or so away from the u.s. capitol. members of congress, new and returning ones, getting ready to take the oath of office in washington this afternoon. our coverage will be of the house on c-span and at c-span2, you can watch the senate. tony in tucson, arizona, and independent. say, the would like to top priority should be the future which entails climate and our children.

we need a wall built around washington. something trillion dollars they absconded from the social security trust fund, they could fire the person trillionle for the $21 that the audit showed for the pentagon that we have not been talking about. the first thing led be to prosecute everybody -- the first thing would be to prosecute congressperson. first and foremost. that would get rid of about 90% of them. host: charlie is next in connecticut, republican. good morning. caller: one of my major priorities, i would like to see what happened with this uranium

one. that was a serious thing. who gave these people permission to sell this stuff to the russians? this is used for nuclear missiles and stuff pointing at us. i would like them to get on that, stay on that, and have some accountability. host: mike in johnston town, illinois, democrat. caller: good morning. onanted to state some facts some of the things on the wall that needed to be done, but it needs to be worked out. a lot of people are out of work because of this. something else that is on my mind is the fact that we have more imports coming to this country than exports. that needs to be solved. it needs to be more. if you want to make america great again, build america. host: more attention on trade issues, trade agreements?

caller: yes, because there is more imports coming in than exports. host: glenn is an independent, st. petersburg, florida. caller: good morning. i would like to bring up two items. i think the first thing they need to do is not to elect nancy pelosi is the house speaker. i base this on two points. 2008 economy we had a where democratic house, democratic senate, democratic president, and yet it took almost 10 years whilewl out of that come wasrillion dollars of that down the train and millions of homes in foreclosure.

schumerlosi and chuck were both very ineffective by trying to move the economy than to hold the banks accountable for their actions. second, what happened to bernie sanders while she was speaker of on house where delegates states that he won turned their votes to hillary clinton, is another reason i feel she should no longer be speaker of the house. host: she wasn't speaker of the house during that. are you referring to debbie wasserman schultz? caller: true, also her too. the point i am making is i think the current leadership that we have in the democratic party is ineffectual. it is time with representative cortez coming in, it is nice to

see some better -- it makes me hopeful for new leadership. the last thing -- and i will be brief on this -- as they need to do medicare for all. they are starting to spend medicare for 55. i think this is an appeasement for the insurance companies so they can spend their -- keep their jobs where $.25 out of every dollar is spent on administration costs. 55, it of medicare for needs to be blanketed medicare for all. host: the president tweeting this morning -- the shutdown is only because of the 2020 presidential election. the democrats know they cannot win based on the achievements of trump so they are going all out on the desperately needed wall and border security, and presidential harassment for them, strictly politics. reaction to that this morning as

well as other legislative issues on the table. we also spoke with veronica escobar as part of our freshmen profile series we are doing on c-span. she is representing the 16th district of texas, taking over for beto o'rourke. martin o'malley hoping he runs for president. veronica escobar taking over his district. [video clip] >> i am native of el paso, third-generation. my family has been in el paso for over 100 years so it is a community i love very deeply, and a border that is part of my identity and in my dna. >> how so? >> i think growing up on the u.s.-mexico border, i thought every community was kind of an international place where people would speak multiple languages, at least two, where people were interconnected, and it was not

until i became a little bit older i realized how different we are from the rest of the country. as i grew up in heard the rhetoric, the rhetoric that has been ramped up over the last 15, 20 years about border communities, especially the last to paint us inng a negative way and mythologize this place that i have known as place that i have known as a safe place where i will -- where i grew up and my children grew up, i felt very personally about a tax -- a tax against my ks against myattac community and a place that people look at as a wonderful part of america. >> how did you grow up? >> about a block away from my family's dairy farm and it was wonderful. i grew up around a lot of animals, knowing that we were part of a team and in order for

the team to be successful, everyone had to pitch in. everyone had a role. it gave me a tremendous work ethic. living near a daily -- a dairy sick,never an animal was mama was having a baby calf, the lights went on in the house, everybody was up, it was time to get to work. -- my brothers had a different role than my mother and i, but it was all for one, making sure the business continued. the family business that is no longer there, but gives me tremendous pride. during the great depression, my family fed people. siblings and his my grandparents provided milk and cheese for struggling families. it really shaped my view of the world. [end video clip] congresswoman veronica

escobar representing the 16th district and she will be sworn in this afternoon. john mcardle has more on the new congress. host: you just saw the scene outside of capitol hill, members of congress tweeting pictures of themselves excited about the opening day, freshman and veterans alike. susan brooks on twitter saying -- happy new year, dave and i are excited for a big day in our nation's capital. looking forward to the swearing-in ceremony later today. that guns are way -- that gets underway at 12:00. susan brooks elected in 2012 and has served since 2013. another freshman member of congress, tweet from just outside the capital visitor ilhan omar.elmar --

one provision of that rules package, here is how it is described by david hawking's. it is a change in a two century old prohibition on hats on the house floor, altered to prevent religious headwear as an accommodation for one of the first muslim woman in the house who wears a headscarf. that part of the rules package changed. one more tweet we want to show viewers, this is from former congressman john dingell, offering his thoughts from his twitter page this morning. begins, a bitss of advice for new members that i received back in 1955 -- for the next six months you will wonder how the hell you got here and then you will come onto the house floor, look around, and wonder how the hell all the other fools got here. host: john dingell, former

congressman, with his thoughts. c-span,e gaveled in on and if you are interested in watching the 116th congress of the senate, on c-span two they will be gaveling in. jeffrey from auburn, new york, a democrat. what do you want these members to focus on? caller: i would like to speak up for aboriginal rights. america, the aboriginal peoples have been here 16 to 20 -- 16,000 to 20,000 years. years. that is way more than the colonialists, and i have a relative that came over on the mayflower. i am not going to stand up for european colonialism. i am going to stand up for indigenous peoples rights.

rights. the states of california, arizona, new mexico, and texas were once part of the spanish colony. give rights to the people who have been here to migrate, and other indian tribes which central america had, aztecs and mayans, way before way people were here. native, an indian or a but i think fair is fair. who some equality to people are minorities that have no representation in congress. ,hey should be able to migrate because they migrated here first. i have one other brief on. askedher brief one is china how the great wall of china did against genghis khan. thank you. host: dee in washington, d.c.,

independent. good morning to you. caller: good morning. can you hear me? host: we can, go ahead. caller: thank you for c-span and all of -- all that you and your colleagues do. we are wishing you improved funding and support. i think there will be improved measures of funding for gender and racial equality, improved measures and funding for greater access to mental and physical health care for residents of our nation, and as well, working toward eradicating poverty amongst our nation's most vulnerable populations, you consider citizens. -- youth and senior citizens. i would love the congress members to renew their

commitment to monitoring large banks. the emergency economic stabilization act of 2008 in conjunction with the 2010 dodd frank wall street improvement with assuringo do that the banks did not get us back into the financial crisis ago.dured a few years there are still illegal foreclosures being collected by the big banks. i am hoping they will renew their focus on that. we still need to monitor that. thoughts and washington, d.c., independent caller. the next couple of hours, continue to dial in. you can also try us on twitter and facebook as well.

we want to show you an interview we did. c-span sat down with congressman don young of alaska. many know his face. the role he will play on this opening day of the 116th congress. [video clip] >> don young became dean of the house of representatives in 2017 and will continue that role. explain how one becomes a dean of the house. >> he stays in congress a long time. there have been 44 deans since the beginning of our congress and the last republican dean was 84 years ago. that is sort of a big honor for me. the longest-serving one was john dingell. i have his book right here. the best seat in the house. >> just came out. it is an honor. my official duties, i think you

may know what my official duties are. the main one is the swearing-in of the speaker, and that is an honor as well because i get to make sure the speaker has to hold up his or her hand, and swear on the copy of the constitution. i do not know what would happen if i was not here to do it. someone else would probably do it. is there definitely host: is there a way -- host: is there a way you can put your own spin on it? guest: it is against the rules, but i probably will. as being recognized me the dean, the speaker, ryan, said you have to swear in the speaker and not swear out him. that is an interesting comments, because i have a tendency to let people know how i specifically feel. i will do ok. host: how will you use the platform of dean? you have been in the edition for a year, does it give you a different platform

for talking to your colleagues? it, theye way i see give me a little deference and they recognized the dean, and once in a while they will ask me what i think. whenis sort of an honor you get to the maturity of what do you think? have been through 19 presidents, over 2000 members of congress. i have seen most of the major legislation passed over the last 45 years, and different i get a new office -- not this one, but one over in the capital, which i don't use, but i do get an office over there, being the dean, and it is supposed to be a place where i can have private meetings with people, not have them come to my office, especially if we are in session. not many people have done this. 44 of over 11,000 -- i think it

is 11,100 members of congress who have served. so this is a good history mark. host: you mentioned the office -- is there anything else that comes with the job, like better committee assignments? guest: no, and you don't get paid anymore. -- paid any more. chairmanships, i have gone through that route. we made a mistake on my side, i think, when they gave us term limitations. you get to serve six years as a after --rman, and then you automatically are discharged from that slot of a committee, and i was lucky to serve as chairman in two full committees, which not many have done that. if you have. -- a few have. host: which to? guest: -- transportation. i am the chairman emeritus of resources right now, and that doesn't do much. i get to sit up in the front.

it is a different thing when you think about that many people. when i started in the 93rd congress, and now it is the 116th coming up, i believe. that is quite a few years to serve. i am proud of it. really, i have been here a long time. guest: you mentioned john dingell's book. did he give you any advice on being the dean? guest: his -- guest: his wife and i are good friends and we communicate quite a bit. he told me to keep my head straight, as i always have and he did, and to keep the eye on the ball of the house. i think it has a lot of great history and prestige, and the ability to lead this country -- we have been a little slack, i have been critical of that and said that before, we have become very partisan.

we were not partisan up until recently, when we became very partisan. i cannot blame anybody particularly, maybe it is the national media, in the sense that somebody has an opinion on everything all the time, and leaders follow the view of their constituents. instead of working things out, we don't. i talked to people about that and say, come on guys, there is a solution. the problem we created, we, the congress, can solve it together. separately.olve it i have talked to them quite a bit about that, and sometimes they listen and sometimes they don't. host: say you get a moment with the freshman member of congress on the floor on opening day. what is that bit of advice that you have? guest: one bit of advice i give them all, keep in mind, we are the united states congress of , thenited dates of america house of representatives, and our job is to represent your constituents, but more than

that, to represent the united states together. some of them think they are going to solve the problems really quickly by themselves. team tohave to have a make things solved. right now we are having problems and it will happen under nancy pelosi if she is the speaker, which i expect her to be. it happened under john boehner and it happened under jim ryan. it is not good for the country, and i have said this all along -- we are the body that is supposed to govern this nation, not the president, and it started with woodrow wilson, the what they call the parliament form of government, willt in place and they run the country, not the prime minister as they do in england. we are beginning to go that way and i think it is wrong for a democracy or republic to have

that form of collective government instead of the right of the governing body, the house of representatives in the governing body. not the senate, that is another story. .on't get me started on that i will bring it up. the oldest member of both the house and the senate, when the swearing in session starts -- that means i'm getting a little mature. host: final question, you have been around for 23 opening days of new congresses. do they have to run together? guest: not really. best, whene was the i was single. i was under a special election and i like that. from then on, it is somewhat the same but it is like watching kids come from freshman into high school. you've got a lot of new members and a different tone, because you have members who have been in the minority for eight years.

now they are in charge and they get the government, that type of enthusiasm. and then the wives and husbands will be there. i won't, but most all the people get the pictures of them swearing in. it is a good day, and think about how many people there are in the united states and you are of the united states congress. you look upon that with a great respect for the body. host: thank you for your time. thank you -- guest: thank you, it is great to be the dean. on the swearing in of th 116th national conference. we just saw the vice president's motorcade make its way to the battlegrounds. they will be presiding over the senate when they convene the 116th congress, and we will be of theor the swearing in

new senators and those that were reelected. on c-span2.e on c-span, we will continue until the house gavels and, around noontime, and those members will also be sworn in for the next two years, the next congressional session. john mcardle has more on that. viewerse just saw the interview we did with don young on becoming the dean of the house. one of the ceremonials will be to swear in the new speaker. person will have to get the votes to become the speaker. nancy pelosi is confident that she has the votes, but here is the math right now. control by thein democrats in the house, nancy pelosi can only afford to lose 17 democratic votes. the washington post has been of those whoements have expressed their support and

opposition to nancy pelosi. 16 democrats are on the record as opposing nancy pelosi. there are two dozen more who have dodged questions or whose answers are unknown to that question. that will be one of the first moments on the house floor, win that vote is taken. nancy pelosi is confident she has the votes, confident enough that her office released some of her remarks that she is expected to give when she addresses the house after being elected speaker. here is what she will have to say in part. she said, we will debate and advance good ideas, no matter where they come from, and in that spirit, democrats will be republicans appropriations legislation to reopen the government later today, protect our people and our borders, and i pledge that this legislation will be nonpartisan and unifying. the floor of this house must be america's town hall, where the

people will see our debates and our voices will be heard and affect our decisions. these remarks released by nancy pelosi's office. when it comes to the new speaker addressed, we sat down with the former house parliamentarian charlie johnson to discuss the significance of that address that each incoming speaker gives. guest: in recent congresses, the addresses to the house have been almost entirely political. programmatic, and not necessarily focused on institutional processes. when i started, speakers would take a lot of time promising fairness from the chair. from the the fairness chair is any lasting concern of modern speakers, it is that number one, they are not in the chair very often themselves. people they do

appoint as presiding officers, always from the majority party, are expected and instructed by the speaker to be fair and follow the advice of the party. what about the change in themes of the speaker's address? guest: i do recall nancy pelosi's first speech as speaker, which was very programmatic and obviously it was after 12 years of republican speaker ships, but if you compare that with newt gingrich's speech in january 1995, i am guessing -- although i have not researched this -- that he made at least a passing reference to his determination to be fair as presiding officer. itt is almost a given, but

always bears repeating. host: how do long -- how long to those speeches usually take? guest: anywhere from five to 10 minutes. it is not overly lengthy, as a rule it is not overly lengthy. of the largesome number of children, including her own grandchildren, to the speech,s she made her when she was first elected in 2007, so that was very interesting. >> nancy pelosi, the first female speaker of the house in 2007, will regain the gavel today. she is expected to do so and have the votes to do so when the house democrats and republicans vote for speaker of the u.s. house of representatives this afternoon. gettingat, they will be to work for the next two years, so we are asking you this morning to tell the legislators out here, what do you want them to do? what is first on the agenda.

ike is on the republican line. caller: i want to remind everyone of one book, the island of jekyll. a fellow from oak grove, arkansas and a fellow of oak grove, missouri called and really put down our president, who i would die for. i believe hundreds of thousands of us would die for the president, so when we hear somebody, we just want to say thank goodness for mississippi because they were lower than us. god for people that live in missouri and have to listen to this jealousy that we see so much on television. i have had my car stolen, been robbed, and finally i got out of los angeles and had been to new another fellow

called in. i lived in new york as an actor before he was even born, so i ports and learned something there. thank you for listening to me. >> john, in minnesota, democrat. john? caller: yes, hi. first of all, i want to say that i love c-span a lot, as well as book tv. i tell people what i see on c-span, on book tv, and almost no one is familiar with it. i just wish that c-span could be in every household. the tv package, it will not include c-span unless you pay $68 a month. there are a lot of people who are missing the benefits of c-span. >> yes, but let me stop you, few cents of a your cable, and you need to talk to your cable or internet

provider, talk to them about making sure that you have c-span in your guide and your package. cents, notbout six $60. offeredpublic service, by those that offer cable television. caller: i understand it is a public service, that is why i wish everybody could have it, even if they are only paying for a basic package. >> your thoughts on the legislative priorities? caller: concerning the wall and everything, you know, most people in this country eight fruits and vegetables and dairy and meat and drink coffee. all of these products are picked or processed by immigrants. if you cannot -- you cannot go into a pig barn or a dairy barn in minnesota and find -- not find immigrants. do they perform many of

this work today, but they are saving many small towns in the the big farmers are running them out of business. the migrants have been moving in, buying the house is pretty cheap, setting up businesses. i can tell you, half a dozen towns in minnesota have been saved by immigration. i am against illegal immigration, but i think we need to make legal immigration more accessible, because it is saving our country. host: ok. frank in pennsylvania, independent. hello, frank. caller: hi, i would like to say thank you very much to c-span for giving me, regular, everyday american of voice. host: of course. caller: it is really nice. i have two things to say, since i waited here so long. ago i went to l.a. 30 years

or more and made a friend up there. what happened was is we left l.a., he went to texas and icame a paid contractor, and was a union worker who came back east. we would get into some pretty heavy arguments, because he would hire, like a gentleman said earlier, he would hire one guy on the books for doing contract work, painting, and then he would have one guy on to save taxes, but 15 guys would show up and do the painting and not the house out in two days. we would fight about it, because i would tell him, i that the other 14 guys aren't paying taxes. that was down in texas, right? just the other day, where i live ,ere in northeast pennsylvania some guy showed up to put a roof on, and sure enough, it was one white guy who shows up, and the next thing you know, after the contractor signs enough, there

are 12 mexicans. then the roof is on and they are done. don't get me wrong, i do believe immigration, sign in and let us know you are here and pay taxes like the rest of us. but the thing is, if you have the other 14 guys not paying taxes and stuff and it is a lot of people losing jobs, good paying jobs they worked years on. host: what did you do for a living? caller: i was a union ironworker out in california. i went out there to the apprenticeship school because it was very hard to get into, and then i came back east to do it. ,e was always against the union for some reason, with the idea of contractor work. when i got back here i was hurt because it is a tough trade on the iron workers. the funny thing about it was, in the end, i got screwed because gottenons have somehow

bylaws and stuff like that, so i did not get pension after 20 years, i did not get a pension and i did not get my annuity and iteither, somehow disappeared. when i called the department of labor they couldn't help me. it is a shame because i did get the shaft. i have one less thing to say about our president. i respect him and all that, but he is not a businessman when he is in government. he should be a man of government, not a man of business. host: all right frank, i'm going to leave it there. jim is in greer, south carolina, republican. caller: good morning, and thank you for your show. it is really nice to get some neutral opinions and listened everybody. my biggest thing, i was in law enforcement 30 years and i have watched this country be divided, come together, be divided from the early days of my voting all the way up to present day. one thing that always gets me

about the citizenry in the united states is that congress, as long as the country is divided, they cannot come together unless they follow their own oats. when they raise their hands, they swore to uphold the constitution of the united states and the laws of this land. the laws of this land are not being upheld by this congress, because it is illegal to cross the border without proper documentation or being vetted or whatever. and until our congress and our law enforcement officials that represent us day and night around our country, until congress gets behind the law, which they should, we will never have any type of resolution to our immigration. going back to the days of lincoln, house divided cannot stand. that is where we are at right now, and i do not see any progress because there are so

many factions, so many clicks, and think about your days in high school and college -- all the clicks that were in there and the factions -- nothing ever got done. there and the factions -- nothing ever got done. if they want to uphold the constitution, it is not going to get done. host: it is a new day in washington with a 116th congress, hours away from convening, but it is also groundhog day is the government shutdown continues. 15, approaching two weeks. what do you want the government pickup and work on, whether it is taxes, infrastructure, health care, trade, etc.? we want to hear from you this morning. joining us from inside the capital is david hawking to talk fort benefits and pay members of congress. so what will these new members, what will the new members being sworn in today be paid? guest: they will all be paid the same amount of money, $174,000 a year. there is a lot of talk right now on social media about why our

members of congress are going to continue getting paid during the shutdown, and the answer in simple terms is the constitution says so. it says members of congress are to get paid november what. -- paid no matter what. some freshmen members are promising to give back a prorated amount of their pay to the treasury until the shutdown is over, but they will continue receiving this money, that 174,000 has been the same for a decade. it used to be that congress would allow itself an inflationary increase every year to take congressional pay off the field as a political issue. a quota everye year unless they voted affirmatively to deny themselves that race, and that is what they have done every year since 2009. if the increases have happened, my back of the envelope calculation is that the members 8,000.ughly $200,00

host: do leaders in congress get paid more? guest: five members of congress to paid more than that 170 $4000. the minority and majority leaders get paid $193,000, and the speaker of the house is paid even more than that. the speaker gets paid 223 $5,000 -- $223,000 a year. so assuming that, nancy pelosi will make significantly more than members in the future. host: but that is not much money when you have to live in two different places, have a residence here, etc. are they allowed to make money outside of being a member of congress? they cannot make much. it is a percentage, about $28,000 a year, but there are all kinds of restrictions on how they can make that money.

lawyers who are members of congress are not supposed to represent clients. people who were in business can continue to get paid by their family businesses if they do work. doctors can continue seeing patients, but they can only take , as i say, up to $20,000 a year. yes, it is a point worth noting for people who are not familiar with washington, d.c., that this is one of the more expensive metropolitan areas in which to live. i moved here 32 years ago and lived on capitol hill, a few blocks from where you and i are right now. it was pretty cheap, actually, pretty good. a young guy, just married, could afford an apartment for $700, which is a lot of money in some parts of the country, but is not a lot of money in washington or on the east coast. that same apartment now rents for about $2100 a month, so d.c. housing is expensive and very few members do it.

groupf them live in houses, many of your viewers know that they do in fact live in their offices. they get bed rolls or rollaway beds to sleep on the couches in their offices, where the next morning they will greet constituents and ask them to sit on those catches for the same meetings. it is an odd practice in congress. some would say it is illegal but a benefit,lly taking a federal benefit that they do not have to pay any taxes on, which is essentially free housing. no one has called that question, so a couple dozen members at least, we think, will be sleeping in their offices and probably some of the new ones will be taking up that habit pretty soon. host: what about perks or benefits, like health care? enactment ofthe the affordable care act, obamacare, one of the requirements in that law, which was directly written to address that they getlief

excepted from obamacare, members of congress have to buy their health insurance on the .ffordable care act exchanges they are required to participate in obamacare as part of serving in congress. they do get other benefits, there are some perks, there are special parking places at the local airports to allow them to cut it close when they are trying to make a flight. when they are here, it is pretty easy to get a free cup of coffee or a free sandwich. there are rules about things more elaborate than that. the so-called toothpick rule, which is always amusing to mention, 10 or 15 years ago congress had an ethics rule where congress members could go eat free food if they could eat it with their hand or toothpick, but they cannot accept the meal if they had to use a fork.

i would say the perks are relatively limited. they do get a pension, they do qualify for a pension if they remain in office at least five years. that is essentially the better part of one term if you are a senator, two-and-a-half terms if you are a house member, and you are vested in the pension send him -- pension system. there is a social media believe that congress members can make their entire salary as a pension after serving one term, and that is not true. they have to serve five years, and their pension is calculated in such a way that on average, and it is tough to say these averages because members of congress come here with different experiences, it is maybe $40,000 for somebody who serves four or five terms and retires, and once they turn 62, have to wait until they are 62, generally they would get a pension in that range. it is nothing close to their full salary. host: could they ever lose their pension?

guest: they can lose their pension. there have been very rare instances where members of congress have, i believe, a couple members who have been expelled have been denied their pensions by virtue of being expelled, but it is pretty hard to lose their pension. host: and what about the budget -- the budgets for each of their office, the office stipend. how is that number calculated and how do they spend the money? guest: sure, great questions because it is an important part ompensation,rs' c because they have to hire a staff to work for him or her. in general it works like this, congress appropriate a block of money that is apportioned almost equally to every house member, with a few exceptions. they get a chunk of money they can spend as they wish on office rent in their home districts, on hiring staff, on stationery, supplies, travel back and forth to their districts.

deviations in which that amounts of money, which is fixed for almost all house members, members from big and expensive toies get a little bit more compensate them for the high cost of renting office space in their district, and members far away from washington get a little bit more in their budget to pay for those long-haul flights back to california, especially, or hawaii or the mountain west. on the senate side it is a bit different, because as we know every senator -- every state has two senators. california has two senators and sodas vermont. those states have vastly different numbers of constituents to deal with, so in the senate, the office budget is apportioned differently. a senator from california has more money to spend in his or her budget a senator from vermont or one of the single house member states. reiterate, into

theory every house member represents more or less the same number of people, not so the senate. the senate office budgets var y somewhat between the big state senators and the tiny, underpopulated date senators. -- underpopulated state senators. the me tooly, after movement last year, have the rules on sexual harassment changed on the hill? guest: they have. congress came together at the thatminute on legislation would change the way sexual harassment and other harassment and discrimination claims by staff members are handled in congress. one of the most important ways for the public to know is that it is no longer possible for a house member to get the taxpayers to pay for a sexual harassment claim, which is what happened in a couple of very

high profile cases last year. like -- from texas who was forced to give up his seat, after it was unveiled he had used taxpayer money to pay a sexual harassment claim. same for the longest-serving john -- in the house, of michigan, he also left after it was revealed he used taxpayer money to pay a settlement. that rule has changed. new rules package that will be adopted on mostly democratic party line vote would expand some of those rules further to protect staffers more. ar sexualexplicitly b relationships between members of congress and not only members of their own staff, but members of any committee they serve on. it expands the no taxpayer money spent language to say that you cannot use taxpayer money to pay for any kind of judgment on discrimination, sexual, employment, disability, any

other kind of discrimination claim. house member who is found to have discriminated will have to pay that money out of his or her own pocket. host: david hawking's, what is the firewall? guest: thanks for asking. it is the newest media organization in town, or we hope around the country as people start reading it. it is an enterprise that a colleague of mine and i are creating to cover nothing but the issues that people say are contributing to our broken democracy. we will be covering money in politics, voting rights, political mapmaking or gerrymandering, we will be covering the challenges that are confronting congress to make people think that congress is dysfunctional. we think these stories are undercovered, especially in the current journalistic diamond, where so much energy has to be spent appropriately on covering the white house. we think that some of these issues, democratic reform, need

more light shed on them. we are hoping that with we -- if we shed light on them, not by being a cheerleader for one or another, but by shining light on the debate, we will get the public engaged and thinking more about these issues in the next election cycle. no matter what they feel about how the political system's they willchanged -- be well informed to make those issues part of their decision-making process in the 2020 election and we hope the yacht. host: david hawkings, editor-in-chief of the firewall. thank you so much. back to your calls this morning as we hear from all of you on day on the 160th congress. what are your legislative priorities? dave in new mexico, democrat. yes, i do believe politicians need to understand what is legal and illegal, what is fair to the american taxpayers who have been

and put to the side for much too long. legal, fair, legal is and every time they look at the tv and i see their face, they are looking at me and telling me, tough luck, fella. you might be an american, but we ie going to show mr. trump -- don't agree with that, even though i am a democrat. i believe the man is doing something well and good or looking to. i think he will go down in the history books of politics as either the man who saved america or the man who tried to save america, and i hope it is the man who saved america, because we are in deep, deep water. after they settle border security issues, or if they do,

what else do you want them to work on? just fairness. everybody says we need immigrants here, and history says we are all immigrants, and i am sure that is true. there is no doubt about that. come over inot this way out of fairness to the taxpaying people. we have americans here who never work or never will. politicians are saying well, what are they going to do about it? i think america is lucky that we inen't raised so much hell america, the way it is, like other countries are. i hope it never gets that way, but i would not be surprised if it does. host: let me move on to spencer, maine, independent. caller: hi, how are you doing? first of all, i have been a union member for 17 years, in construction, supervisor for a

very big company, and traveled all over the united states, working on power plants. i would like to see members of congress spend some time visiting some of the large construction job sites going on in the country and talking to the people who build our buildings, build our schools, get the power back on after hurricane. the same people that we see, many people in washington, debasing, the writing, calling them deplorables and racists when they are worried about immigration policy. out to workers and find where the anxiety is coming from. figure outng and more about what the american people need. when you talk to people on job sites, mostly construction workers, that is all i can really speak for, i have talked to thousands and thousands of them. the anxiety is coming from the

wage stagnation caused by the cheap labor coming in. i believe in e-verify and i think it is important, but one of your callers from minnesota brought up a great. -- great point. when you have contractors hiring illegal immigrants to work for a fraction -- it is a known fact, it is not something we are making up here. it is a known fact that you have one boss man, he will make the $20 an hour, he will be given the cash on payday to distribute to the illegal immigrants he brings in, and that is what is holding wages down in this country. host: spencer, beyond wages, what else? where else is there anxiety for construction workers? what to do things people want fixed in washington, d.c.? caller: pensions. you cannot have a pension like our grandparents and great rant parents did. you cannot have a pension like

they have in congress. you cannot have that when you are worried about wages. you can have no security in retirement, just on social security. pensions, we are not going to have pensions. my kids, they will not even expect a pension when they get their first jobs. if you are worried about wages in competition from illegals, how can you ever hope to get a job at a factory with a good pension? host: spencer in maine, worried about immigration and wages. what else do we have? >> we have talked about the activities happening on the floor of the senate, and also some hot button issues will be making their way to the legislative hopper. here is a story from the l.a. times. congressman brad sherman, a democrat, plans to introduce

articles of impeachment against president trump today. sherman's richard is in a measure that he first rolled out in 2017 come but this year it carries more political significance with democrats in charge of the house. the articles of impeachment accuse trump of abstract injustice by firing former fbi director james comey, among other wrongdoings. democratic leaders have not been as eager to jump to the impeachment route as some members of their party have. this is a story from an interview yesterday on cbs news with the incoming chairman of the house judiciary committee. interview, for the last two years the president has had no oversight, no accountability from congress, the republican congress is derelict in its ability to provide oversight. we will provide that oversight, he said, but when it comes to impeachment, he said there is certainly a lot of allegations, but we will have to wait and see what the mueller investigation comes up with and other investigations that are looking into it.

jerry nadler is expected to introduce his own mueller protection bill at the start of this new congress, following that stalled bipartisan effort from the 115th congress. when it comes to the idea of impeachment, nancy pelosi was also asked about that topic in her interview this morning with the today show, and was asked whether a sitting president can be indicted. would be sadaid it and divisive for the country to see impeachment. are you willing to rule it out? >> we have to see what happens with the mueller report. we should not be impeaching for a political reason, and we should not avoid impeachment for a political reason. we will have to see what happens. >> do you believe the special counsel should honor and observe the department of justice guidance that states that a sitting president cannot be indicted? >> no, i do not. >> so, you think it is possible that special counsel mueller

could legally indict a sitting president? >> let's see what mueller does. let's spend time on getting results to the american people. know, there is long-standing department of justice guidance that states a sitting president should not be indicted. it is not a law. >> everything indicates that a president can be indicted after he is no longer president of the united states. >> what about a sitting president? >> when he is no longer president of the united states. >> when he is in office? >> i think that is an open discussion in terms of the law. that was nancy pelosi on the today show earlier today. we are taking your phone calls this morning, what you want to see the next speaker of the house, the presumptive speaker of the house do as she takes control of the house with democrats in control, and the senate remains in the hands of the twoblicans, and

sides will have to come together ifbipartisan legislation they want to send something to the president's desk. what should that legislation be? greg in florida, a republican. caller: good morning, i have been a republican for about two years. mexico, spentin time in guatemala, salvador, and i will tell you something -- --get about this pelosi ms.'s, which seems to be more just didn't oversight than legislation. in every foreign country i know of, the respect for the law is zero because it is not enforced. the difference between america and these other countries, we enforce the law. do you know why these people are trying to get to america? that is what they want. here, we take them in, even though they break the law to join a lawful state -- this is what really irks me.

these congressmen, pelosi and all of them, want to try to steer you away from the simple fact, that they want to come to this country because we enforce our laws. ist they are trying to do make it so we cannot enforce our laws. this is what brings people to our country. overxico, if i got pulled by a policeman, i would pay the policeman $20. this is true throughout the world. people seek a place like america, that enforces its laws. until we enforce those laws along our border, we are in trouble. , iget back to ms. pelosi have yet to hear any positive legislation from democrats. all i hear about is oversight of and the hardest working president that we ever had.

it is sad that a man who comes to work and tries to do his job is constantly held back. you talk about oversight -- i hate to say it -- i am a liberal, but every liberal judge says, you can't do that, mr. president, rather than looking at case history and what is legal. so many things he has tried to do on behalf of us, the american people, have been squandered because judges -- if not judges, then the media, leaves us astray in some sad story. host: on the democrats, the house democrat agenda is hr one. according to politico, a ng aesentative is fili motion to increase access to the ballot box and -- the amount of money in public service. here is what he has to say. >> the first order of business

that we would like to see would be a broad democracy reform package to address a number of areas where i think the public is starved, to see that their voice matters again. we want to make sure it is easy, not hard to vote in america. it should not be an obstacle course when people are trying to get to the ballot box. there are a lot of things we can do to strengthen the opportunity to vote across this country. the second thing we want to look at is ethics and integrity. i think people want to know we you go to washington as a lawmaker, you should behave yourself. there are a lot of rules we need to put in place, guidelines to govern behavior in the executive and legislative branch, but that is about basic accountability, that people who are elected ought to a high offices as an office of public trust and -- ought to occupy those offices as an office of public trust. the third area is really

important, and it is where people really feel they are being disrespected every day -- there is so much influence in washington by big money and special interests. it makes the average person feel like they don't matter, they are left out, they do not have a voice in the way policy is made. we have to address the influence that money has here, and we can do that by putting curbs on the way lobbyists operate, we can have more transparency and disclosure in terms of the way that money is coming up. fundamentally, the power moved by the public would be to set up a new way of funding campaigns in america that is powered by small donors and matching funds so candidates can step forward, ,urn to the broad public, say you're the power of our campaigns, we will work for you than the candidate, always having to go to the packs and the lobbyists and deep-pocketed donors to fund their campaigns. getting that big money pushed back so it does not have so much

influence in washington is another key element. that is a whole set of democracy reforms that make a powerful statement to the public, that we hear them and want to give them their voice back. we want that to be the first order of business, hr one, to come out in the next congress. i -- john survey sarbanes, a democrat from maryland, talking about hr one and he is pushing to have that bill on the floor. is that a legislative priority, what you heard from the congressman? we are asking you to call in to the washington journal today and tell these lawmakers what you want them to do first. donna has been watching in california, waiting as well. a democrat. good morning. caller: good morning, and thank you, greta for taking my call and thank you, c-span. one caller earlier was talking about cable networks offering thean -- it should be in

basic package. you should not have to pay extra for it, and i agree with that, so thank you. the second, third, and first priorities have to be the environment. if we do not have a planet to live on, mars is not an option. we have to clean up our environment. pollution causes these problems. swings, bigger and bigger swings in our environment. if we do not clean up our act or our planet, we are all going to be hosed. i have a couple other things i would like to say. host: ok, climate change tops your list. then what? caller: ethics, there is too onh repeat, repeat, repeat the last thing -- trump said this and trump said that. but we do need to get him out of office. the thing to do is to let

mueller do his job and congress needs to work on climate change. host: what do you do for a living? caller: i am a registered nurse. registered nurse, ok. do you support nancy pelosi? caller: i do. there was someone from florida who said she had not passed any legislation? excuse me, yes she has. part inhe have a big our weapons, our gun laws, our gun safety laws? i think she did, here in california. maybe he is not paying attention to that. the last caller talked about latin america, you can pay the $50 or $20. that does not work all over the world. he needs to get a bit more broad experience in going to mexico or

guatemala, europe, china. you need to go around and actually see some parts of the world. in fact, i think that should be part of a basic high school education. our kids are not getting educated, they are becoming -- they don't even know how government works these days. let's leave it there to go to mark, in spring, texas, independent. mark? there is a huge problem in washington right now, and it is the democratic stated it. it is the dark money that cannot be seen. the money that is passed to these congressmen and senators to make them do things that the rest of the public do not want them to do. the government has been for sale , going on for almost 30 years right now. we are seeing the results because we have deficits that show that.

trade --ee in equal trade and hour laws not being enforced, and the public sees it. washington is so blind because inside the beltway, it seems nobody outside the beltway pays attention, or is being paid attention to. is mueller investigation just a blinder to save dark money. that is all it is. host: ok. nader in michigan, a republican. caller: good morning. beh, my sister today will sworn in. she is a democrat. i am a republican, so we do not see eye to eye on a lot of issues. host: who is your sister? caller: rashida philippe. host: oh, ok. conservativea

republican and we do not see isaiah, but she is a fighter and i believe that is what is missing in our legislative branch. there are not a lot of fighters there, just career politicians. we do not see eye to eye and we final the time, especially about trump. host: i assume you voted for president trump? caller: yes i did, yes i did. we do not see isaiah on a lot of things, immigration -- i to i on a lot of things, immigration and et cetera. but she is a fighter on a lot of things, like civil rights, etc., she is a fighter. host: do you agree with her on those issues? caller: well, what she did with h brothers, you have to respect that she is a fighter. republican, i respect people that want to fight to make things right. we do not agree on immigration, we don't agree -- i am very proud of her.

how did it end up in your family, a republican and a democrat? caller: in the past, the emailed that came out with hillary and bernie sanders and how he was treated, i think after that, it woke me up -- i do not like the democratic party. i did not like how they did bernie, i did not like all the emails i read. so it just turned me to republican. donald trump, especially donald trump, i think he is doing an excellent job. he is just not getting good media coverage. host: and your sister this morning? -- and your message to your sister this morning? and i: i am proud of you, cannot wait to see you. we are in the palestinian fold. it is amazing, very amazing for our future generations. unbelievable. host: all right.

>> greta, you have had some interesting callers this morning. we want to keep you updated on some of the posts from congressional reporters and members of congress as well. of cbs from ed o'keefe news, showing the new lapel pin that members of the house will be wearing in the 116th congress. you can see it has a red back, blue stripes around it. this picture is the one now being worn by congressman gerry connolly, a democrat of virginia. you the dean of the house, don young, a picture he posted on his twitter page with nancy pelosi, the incoming speaker -- the likely incoming speaker. the speaker don young is expected to swear in as part of his ceremonial duties as the new congress gets underway. he said "as we prepare for the 116th congress, this morning's bipartisan prayer service was a wonderful start to the busy day ahead."

this teacher of senator mitt romney checking into his senate office, saying he is excited for let's do chapter, this. you see the brick surrounding mitt romney's office door, an indication it is one of the basement offices on the senate side, the freshman members of the senate do not get the prime office space on capitol hill. elizabeth landers, who is with this tweet showing incoming arizona senator kyrsten sinema, sporting a pink ensemble for her first day of the united states senator. and this tweet from rollcall, congressman ruben gallego of arizona says his news tweet about taking back the senate should be interpreted as a sign he is thinking about running for the senate. since been in congress 2015. he is talking with the democratic senatorial campaign committee, and she reports he will make a decision in the coming weeks.

, he would be run running against martha mcsally, the republican who has been appointed to fill the seat of the late senator john mccain. callersd back to our this morning, brad has been waiting in oklahoma, democrat. brad, legislative agenda -- what do you want them to work on here in washington? caller: hi, a big issue to me would be medicare for all. i also agree with the previous caller on discussing climate change. i am very, very happy to see alexandria ocasio-cortez agreeing to new deals. these are life and death issues. all, it was such an important improvement with the affordable care act, and i defending the affordable care act against any kind of attacks, but it is

insufficient mainly because it leaves the private health insurance companies in the game, and really they are the problem. brad, were you motivated this past election cycle because of the talk from democrats about medicare for all? yes, i am generally involved in elections regardless. host: what do you do? caller: i recently returned from living abroad in china, so now i am read acting. i was an english teacher in china. -- re-adapting. i was an english teacher in china. host: how old are you? caller: 43 years old. host: thank you for joining the conversation. karen in massachusetts, independent. caller: good morning, how are you? sibley put, my number one priority -- simply put, my

number one priority for this congress is to choose integrity in all of their actions, all of their deeds. host: ok, are you hopeful they can do that? caller: i am hoping that is what they choose. we elected them to represent us, officewe have people in who act and speak with integrity , then everything else can be solved. host: name some people who you think cap integrity, who have -- who you think have integrity, who have exhibited that. caller: completely? none. host: do you lean one way or the other? you are calling on the independent line. caller: no, i do not lean for others. personally, i vote for those i feel have the highest level of

integrity. hoping theyt bring good actions to one another, whether they are democrat or republican. host: you will see the reelected and newly elected members have around the house floor when they gather in for the 116th congress. we are close to the end of the final adjournment of the 115th congress. they will gavel in very quickly for the last meeting of the 115th congress, then they will go into the final adjournment of this last two year session here in washington. like coverage on c-span. -- live coverage on c-span.

conroy. chaplain conroy: let us pray, god of the universe, we give you thanks for giving us

another day. in the final hour of the 115th ngress, we give you thanks for your faithfulness to our nation. there have been many struggles, many sorrow, and yet we're still here and able to give you thanks that millions of our citizens live free. may the work of the new congress issue forth with legislation to the benefit of our nation and its citizens and where the efforts of the 15th congress have fallen --115th congress have fallen short, we ask your forgiveness and the forgiveness of all americans. may all that is done this day be for your greater honor and glory, amen. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to section 2-a of house resolution 1180, the journal of the last day's proceedings is approved. the chair will lead the house in the pledge of allegiance.

i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. pursuant to clause 12-a of rule 1, the chair declares the house in recess subject to the call of the chair. gavel in the senate. the republican print -- president and the white house. we ask you what you think they

should come together on, where the bipartisan legislation in the making, what do you want to see them do here. do this herenue to on c-span up until noon when they gavel in. at c-span2 today when they gavel and for the 116th congress. john has more on the new members. walk membersto through what i expect to happen and the timing on the house floor today after the house gavels and at noon. far.is what we know so at 12:40, there will be nominations for a new speaker. speaker vote coming after the nomination. 115th congress. take lacethe vote to

at 12:50. as planned. 155 p.m. this afternoon. the speaker elect in the afternoon. nancy pelosi make brief remarks the dean ofe house -- plenty of action in the afternoon. the final vote until about it: 30 tonight. long,y long, all morning here on c-span, reminding

viewers the stats on the 116th congress in the house, 235 ,emocrats, 199 republicans -- thearolina nine seats average age is about 59 years old. the 116th congress including the first two muslim women ever to be elected in the house and more one -- 88% diverse

are christian. the more unitarian universalist in congress, as well as members who declined to speak the religious affiliation. those unaffiliated with the religious group in the general public, 23% say they are atheist agnostic or nothing in particular. senate she is unaffiliated making a share of nuns in congress, .2%. >> there are 96 veterans in the 100 16th congress down six from the 115th congress, 30 are democrats and 66 are republicans. we spoke to one of the veterans,

jim there it of texas, who served in vietnam, lost his hand, excuse me, of indiana, first district of indiana, here he talked about why he ran for congress and how farming impacted him. veteran, all the things we have in the country and the freedoms we have, and i have children and grandchildren and constituents back in the congressional district that i think deserve the opportunity to live the american dream and have the opportunity we think is appropriate. do you go about this campaign? >> like doing all the other campaigns, it is my eighth year in the statehouse and i was a county commissioner for one term. you have to look at what the playing field is and what the weaknesses are anxious old

attitudes and districts are and constituents. letting people know. >> and you are a farmer, what did you find it for how long? collects coin soybean predominately. -- >> corn soybean predominately. family farm. it is a family farm we put together. yes. >> how do you think that shape learn how to satisfy

a commonsense solution. >> that was the republican of indiana, representing a district there in that state and be sworn in later today when the house gavels in. that is the question for all of you this morning. a little less on the conversation for all of you. here in washington, d.c., we're up on capitol hill. you.morning to >> thank you. bipartisan legislation for the upcoming congress, i'm hoping that the entire issue of the electoral college can be addressed. if you can't be completely taken , the laws that guide the elector votes are

counted, should be the same. as it stands now, the popular vote for president is totally beside the point. it has to be changed. anyone thing in our government. it has to be changed. for the good of both parties. i would like the lot -- caller: i would like the lawmakers to do their jobs.

they are there to represent the american people. and do what is best for the american people. not what is best for the republicans. that is their job. vote, places in the country are more populous will have more than places that are not so that negates votes from places where there are not as many people who live there. that is why the electoral college was put in place. do i think everyone can get with a want, no, is called compromise. the whole government would be around to -- down the toilet

that everyone has to have the set -- has to have a say and everyone has to work together. out on the capitol steps, this , a crowd following her, one of the new members of congress from michigan on the steps of the capitol, many new members bring with them family thiscipating with them, morning on the house floor, a themonial swearing-in where speaker of the house nancy taken, get the picture

we will have coverage on c-span3 today. let's hear from randall next in texas. republican. caller: i think the 116th congress needs to work on border security. it is one thing the federal government is mandated to take care of. the federal government gets into a whole lot of extra stuff. those are my feelings. [indiscernible] what do you do -- host: what do you do for a --ving question mark caller:

living? caller: high school teacher, math and science. host: why is border security important to you? is an immigrant and we followed the policies and did things legally or when you don't follow things legally, and laws tot choosing which enforce and which ones not to enforce, there is a lot of confusion. believe if the united states needs to change policy -- it is not that we will ignore this or that law. host: all right. in georgia, democrat. your turn, niles. caller: hello's it going this morning question mark -- morning? host: doing fine. caller: the 116th congress controlled by democrats, of

course they will restore oversight and checks and balances to the trump administration, but i would not mind if they found a way to onpromise with the president infrastructure. it is one thing the party seems to agree on. our nation's infrastructure is crumbling, just a couple of years ago in atlanta, one of our bridges collapsed on i-85. one of our bridges collapsed and i think that should be fixed or flint, michigan, they have water pipes. flint,till damaged in michigan pair that needs to be addressed as well. important, in the last two years of congress, they have refused to check the president and refused to be a check on the president. i think the new congress should

the a check on the president. folks like maxine waters, they will be a check on the president. i feel like legislating should be a priority and investigating should be a priority as well. impeachment, if look forward to seeing whatever special counsel mueller presented in his report, whether that warrants impeachment, i am not too sure. i'm looking forward to seeing how the democratic congress response to robert mueller's report. host: ok. independent. caller: good morning and happy new year, c-span. how are you, greta? host: i'm doing fine, thank you. caller: that is wonderful. how much do i love c-span, greta?

host: [laughter] every 30 daysy calling in and giving my perspective of what is going on in the united states. to answer your question, i have three priorities. the first 1, 100 16th congress, be responsive to the people, the citizens of the night's state spirit listen to your constituents and what they are saying and try to give your constituents, not everyone, because you can't please everyone, but you can please the majority of your constituents who sent you to washington, d.c., and give them what they are asking for p or don't be up there grandstanding and making it about you. therepresentative or senator. make it about the united states of america and what is best for the united states of america. opportunitiesthe for the citizens of the united states. do not overburden us with regulations. do not overburden us with.

keep making america great and thank you so much, greta, enjoy c-span and the new year. same to you. happy new year. we spoke to several freshmen in november about their legislative priorities as well as learning a little bit about their life stories. one of them was democratic congressman elect dean phillips of minnesota, who talked about the experiences he brings to congress. >> my political experience was serving as an intern back in 1988. now,an imagine coming back the humility and the honor is quite remarkable. i never anticipated i would run. forresting times bank interesting pursuits and this is one of them. >> how did you go about it and who did you talk to in washington and on the ground in minnesota? >> and you there was a better way to do it. i was tired of politics of the -- as usual. i know most of the country is.

i'm gauge with people in a different way. everyone is invited, that was my message in my motto and my egos. that meant inviting independents and republicans because a lot of us had enough of partisan politics p ryan engaged with those who looked at things differently. , that is what i hope to serve. >> a startup campaign. stranger -- you are no stranger to that it was your background? >> brands lability of vodka is a brand i'm proud of. more recently, gelato with my partners. coffee and conversation was another egos of my campaign. running for congress is like a startup. >> your family business, explain

what it is and how you came back to it. collects a family business. the other family business was the advice business. my grandmother was dear abby the advice columnist. quite an accommodation. >> they go together sometimes. have ofories do you your grandmother and how does she shape who you are today? >> my first political conversation was with my grandmother. from illinois, she came to my it -- my middle school to speak to my class. i remember remarks about money and politics corrupting prospects. i want to do with my family including my death i told her it was the man running for president who came to speak to the school. or aou a democrat republican and i told her, grandma, i am 11 and i do not know what they are p she said you are a democrat. was anointed a democrat by her in 1980 and we had wonderful

conversations over the years. very much inspired this run for congress. >> dean phillips is a new member of congress from minnesota, he and others made their way to washington today to be sworn in for the 116th congress in you can see many people outside on the capitol grounds. we are half a block away from the capital where the members will be sworn in. also on the senate side, you have got the 116th congress convening and you can watch our coverage on c-span2 of that. for more details, and all of this, you can go to c-span ductwork. what you have for us? >> a little while ago, the caller who identified as congresswoman elect's brother, mentioned she would be sworn in on the carano owned by thomas jefferson. more information on that, it was

translated into english in 1734. jefferson's copy resides in the library of congress being borrowed for the swearing-in. two, the twoof first muslim congresswomen, joining the 115th congress this year, -- 116th congress, the reason she wanted to borrow jefferson's chiron, she said it is important to me because a lot of americans have a kind of feeling that islam is somehow foreign to american history. there at the beginning she said. some of our founding fathers knew more about islam than the members of congress now. that quote was given to the detroit free press. incoming the congresswoman moran underwood, a democrat from illinois, sending out a picture of the house floor --m 2000 six as a

an intern for barack obama, she says in her tweet that a lot can change in 12 years p today, i am back to be sworn in to the house for illinois 14. tune in at 12:00 today to help bring in the 116th congress. until then, we taking viewers calls this morning. the republican, illinois. caller: hi, good morning. i like to see the members of illinois dell and -- delegation both on the senate and the house side come together and work across the aisle. them stand on the floor in both chambers and call each but a trueiend, friend is one that will stand up for it and support you. we need more of that. i think jim west, former u.s. senator from virginia, said it best that sometimes we have to reach question i'll to achieve goals and objectives. he may have been a reagan again, thomas

jefferson's famous saying was the tree of freedom is often blessed with the blood of a patriot. thank you. >> ok. all right dear nancy in nebraska, democrat. thank you for taking my call. i would like to see movement and discussion from new and old about health care infrastructures. we hear a lot about roads and bridges, but we are not talking about health care workers, service workers, and buildings. i live in a rural area and we are losing our nursing homes. our clinics and hospitals and no one is talking about that. i hear conversations about people who worked very hard taking care of vulnerable populations making barely minimum wage and with no

retirement. talking intrators the cubicles with the accountants, no one is asking the workers what is going on. >> in texas, independent. good morning. >> hi, hi. good morning. >> go ahead. we are listening. >> hi. i just wanted to call in. i'm a big c-span watcher and in this is my first time ever calling in. congrats to all of the people being sworn in today. i certainly hope they will do their jobs. my biggest hope as they get the immigration thing under control. president to the get everything accomplished that we, the people, want. maybe a little bit selfish, but

i did hear a woman earlier -- i'm sorry. it was a gentleman earlier talking about hr one, i believe. i would love to see voter id in their. ok p you want to see voter id legislation requiring voter id question mark -- id? caller: yes. i have been poor and i'm a minority as well. and i would definitely love to see everybody have to present valid id that shows they are a legal citizen and able to vote. -- everybody gets to vote on in the entire country, that is the president. i comes to house seats and congress, i really wish we could keep out-of-state money, in other words --

host: out of their races. caller: yes. quit having hollywood by texas and stuff like that. that is what i would love to see host: i am sure you know that every state controls their own electoral process. michael, republican. about that ao talk minute p or i'm 75 years old and both of my grandpa's were democrats. my father was a democrat. i was a democrat and union leader. ago, i started splitting my vote. the last five years i voted straight republican. i don't feel i have left the democratic party. i feel more or less that they have left me. some of my concerns about the new congress, i hope we don't have gridlock and that we can get something passed. ist of my pet peeves

prescription costs in the -- as a union member, i still have my union insurance. i'm a diabetic and take injectable pens and up until year ago, i got my prescriptions free, the cadillac plans, and last year, i started to have to pay $300 per prescription. i can now go to walmart and buy this stuff.ounter it is a shame a person would have to do that, whenever we have, we are to be the most advanced country in the world, maybe congress can work on prescription reform. i think we are deftly in need of it. it is one of the biggest lobbyist going in washington. it will be hard to do but when you are old and you have to decide whether you will eat or by a prescription, i do not think that is right. host: michael is there with prescription drug reform on his to do list. good morning to you, what do you

want lawmakers to focus on as they are minutes away from gaveling in the next congressional session? caller: i want to say congratulations to the change in congress. the next thing i want to say as a democrat, well, you know, i shouldn't say i'm a democrat. i just believe in doing things right. i don't want the 116th congress to come in with fire. and bethem to come in reasonable. he is the president of the united states regardless how we got here. he has to have some compromise on both ends. i as a democrat believe in securing our borders. i have a brother who just got back from afghanistan or thanks god, he is safe and everything like that. we do need security and our borders. we're thecountry, only country that stays over so we do need regulation at the borders.

we do need to protect america appeared i am the wall, i really am. i know my democratic party don't like it but i don't care. we do need to protect america. second of all, i believe everyone should haveas a registe care of people who are prescriptions,et especially our seniors. we do need to have a reform in health care. have a great day and a happy new year. an independent in texas. caller: i think they should bring back the office of technology assessment. we have a lot of geriatrics that are in congress that are andnologically illiterate there are a lot of issues that are coming up and they do not know what they are talking about.

newt gingrich took get away in the 90's and i think it should be brought back so that our are able to discuss and make laws that are feasible and pragmatic. host: caller: i don't think we should have gerrymandering anymore. they did have a policy where it , no bias or-based partisanship that could have gone into deciding these districts. this is a misunderstanding of tech. governmente have a that does not represent the people. not a true democracy.

is an issue that is not spoken about much. it should be brought up more. host: we are keeping one eye on the house floor because we are expecting them to come back in. they did not do the 100 -- the final gavel, and they need to do that before they can convene the 116th congress. when it happens we will come back if we can and take more the calls, your faults on legislative priorities for the new congress as we continue from the senate russell building on capitol hill. jim is next from kentucky, a republican. hello. , i'll to be a democrat

never vote for them again. turmoil, we have got a good president and i agree with everything he is doing. the main thing i like about him wet -- because he talks about sake news coverage. the wall, -- fake news coverage. nicholas, arlington, virginia, a democrat. caller: hi. congress the democrats need to be very careful in their use of oversight power. best when he does has a clear enemy to run against , something clear to talk about. if the democrats are seen as our --abusive overset

, they willower probably lose in 2020 because the president will be able to turn that around on them and the octaves will be -- optics will be terrible for them. also on immigration, maybe you get 5 billion for the wall in exchange for a permanent daca. this new general -- another thing i forgot to talk about was prescription drug control. fore is bipartisan support something of that sort. those are three things i would like to make sure happen. host: how old are you? caller: 18. host: who do you see as leaders of the democratic party? caller: my senator, mark warner.

i like cory booker and i like joe biden, he is probably my first choice if he runs. host: any new members of the senate or house you're watching? caller: i am not super impressed with the freshman classes. i'm middle of the road so i don't like progressives. alan in little rock arkansas and independent. caller: good morning. i think it's expecting a lot to think that anyone from the , i aml that are listening hoping there will be some c-span , an independent conservative that will keep

calling this year there ofresentative on this matter the corporate media. i think it should be of great , and i thinkspan brian lamb's reputation is on the line. host: what should be done? in --: to look at this immigration of the corporate media where you have communications companies that own the media outlets. comcast, which is the largest msnbc,ompany owns nbc, cnn.that owns yahoo!.that owns

i noticed the other day that google just bought the atlantic and c-span and a whole bunch of , letting them have channel.our cable it's the cable companies that are supporting c-span as you well know. saying thank you for taking my call. c-span should be saying thank forfor paying for service our producers here at c-span. it's the cable companies that the customers are forced bank. you have an obligation to us and i think people should be onto this. microsoft, msnbc, microsoft has a big search engine and they go

with the search that is much conservative points, i saw a few days ago where twitter is filtering out -- term, a legal immigrant illegal immigrant. this is a result of the congress media --the corporate cable communications companies to buy media outlets. to see morent regulation of media companies and communications companies. anniston, alabama, a republican. i have two things i am worried about with the democrats. today i am a republican. how -- why dois

democrats think that immigration is not a problem. just need our borders more controlled and a better way. be safety.at should another is how could they not say that we need to show voting ourion by president. it seems like anybody else that is trying to vote for a good , who will save our country. basically, trying to make sure that we have to have more faith in our country. is getting to be

a big problem, we just need to think about that. i hope the democrats see that. host: santa fe, new mexico. caller: even if we would make the wall it would not work. -- peopleake a wall will come in from canada and not so much from mexico. marijuana, weed

are getting a lot of these drugs from canada. controlnot be able to any of the people coming into the states. one of the reasons the immigrants want to come to the usa is because the employers hire cheaper labor. people to hire illegals. host: alicia and columbia, maryland, independent. we are waiting for the house to adjourn they need to the 115th congress for they can do anything. we are still waiting on information about what is happening here. we are on the senate side of capitol hill, the other side is the house of representatives. we will have coverage of the house throughout the day here on

c-span on on c-span to the u.s. senate. what is on your to-do do list for these members of congress? has protections .y law the native american woman do not have that protection. robert, thehat from -- representative who would not put that bill before congress before this time and i sure hope they take it up again and has said bill so that native women can have

protections from perpetrators. most of them are from outside the reservations. killed, women get murdered. abused to say right and and especially the young girls are very vulnerable. i would like to also say that please, when you do the health care over, get the insurance out of there. host: away are about 15 minutes before they gavel in. , it is reported about congressman jerry nadler

told him that matt whitaker the acting ag has not agreed for a date to come before his committee yet. asked if they will subpoena whitaker he said we will if we have to. democratictory about efforts in the coming days the democratic majority in the house we are hearing medicare for all legislation, a long time goal of the party. this is a huge step forward to .ave this continue to build support for this on the outside. excited to be welcoming strong women of color, writes the

congresswoman. looks forward to making history with you. missouri, afrom picture of him and his son getting ready to head to the capital this morning. abigail is in that tunnel "on our way to be swearing in. more, and 11 from ,ichigan, a democrat, his video showing the video of themselves walk into their offices for the first time. the flags on the walls and the welcome, come in. this is outside of all house office buildings. this is a scene from capitol hill this morning. call in and tell the lawmakers what you want them to do.

in pennsylvania, a republican. welcome to the conversation. my opinion on the new congress and what's going on at the white house. could askt they -- i hope republicans and democrats can come together and pass laws that are good for the people. hopefully, things will get pretty good. kenny, spring texas, a democrat. i just wanted to congratulate the 116th congress. it looks to be very diverse. up i think weg will see that more often.

one of the priorities that should be looked at is medical reform. when it comes to helping people and making sure they have the coverage that they need. i believe that health care is a right, and we have a right to be able to stay healthy and stay alive. i am thankful that. host: paul in fairfax, virginia. independent. caller: i am excited for the congress,he 116th where we elected a new crop of young and exciting people. i disagree with the caller earlier from virginia who said that they were too liberal. they don't seem to be very liberal at all. host: thank you. scott in florida, a republican. caller: good morning.

here,e on this thing which is a complex situation, i blame both houses left and right. i believe that the best we have two sets of rules in the u.s. are not underple the same rules as the people in washington. we need to have the wall bill. we have too many people in the u.s. that are coming in illegally and these people are receiving all kinds of money. people are going into hospitals having babies, whatever the case may be. we have americans here that are homeless, going to bed hungry, .ave no home i heard earlier a gentleman that was talking about the retirement only need fiveey

years to be vested and they receive $40,000. when they hit 65, then it is a full retirement. i retired from the federal government, a wall is to keep people in and to keep people out. i work for immigration and politicians views immigrants and refugees and people seeking asylum as ponds. -- we need to take care of americans and we should be able to take care of all of our citizens. we can find thousands of dollars to take care of people that don't live here, but the elderly may be in her 60's or 70's cannot even make ends meet on social security, but yet we have people like speaker pelosi that is worth millions and millions

of dollars, and she is not concerned about we the people. supporte you willing to republicans and the president if they were to agree to a comprehensive approach to immigration, that there would be added border secure -- security but i pathway to citizenship. i have personally had to remove people from the united states and my heart broke for them. , they came here as children so they really don't understand but i have seen cases highway patrol a officer in arizona and she applied to a passport and they found that she was not a legal resident. another individual that was here

in service, worked for the retired, andsons, found out he was not an american. we have a lot of issues here and we are not properly setting -- vetting people. i have been to el salvador and homesgua, when i see the or the shelters that people living on the streets in los --eles, we have some tech, tent countries popping up all over the place. people came here, they didn't have a choice so yes there is a compromise there. but we have to have a wall. host: i'm going to leave this. kathy in irvine, california, a democrat. caller: thank you for taking my

call. to addresse something i have not heard people speak about. all of their concerns are legitimate and i back them 100%. if we really want to get to the root of the problem, we have to talk about the multi-conglomerate corporations that pay our politicians for their agendas. all of these problems that are being addressed stem from that very root, these big corporations that run everything. they are bought and paid for our politicians. they have to stop. if the people have to do it, then the people have to do it. if they have to boycott the products, they have to boycott. they have to have a voice. it is going to have to come from the people because i can see the politicians we cannot turn the

ship around. , too much andnt it has to come from the people. pennsylvania, and independent. i gary. caller: hi. i would like to see the republicans come up with some table that would explain to most people health care. the options that they have right now. democratsut with going to congress here in pennsylvania because the commercials scared the people into believing that the republicans were going to take their health care aware -- away. nothing but an

invitation for people to come into this country who were not supposed to be here. ,ou can call them immigrants but that's not really what they were. they are voter jumpers. uphink the obamacare was set to encourage that. if they can come up with some kind of intelligent thing that the average person can understand as to what their health care options are under whatever is now in place and whatever is being proposed, i think people will be less vulnerable to scare tactics by the democrats. remarks, the guy , of all places.

to cause back seem to know what he was talking about. pennsylvania, a republican. we are just minutes away from the house gaveling in. what is your message today? caller: happy new year. the -- to rewrite package. host: will go to the house right now. here ourwatching coverage of the 116th congress here on c-span.

we will be bringing you the vote for the speakership and they vote to reopen the government as well as -- and the swearing in of members of congress both the house and senate cooperate and

than they do a ceremonial one. go to c-span.org for all the details of coverage. and on c-span two you can be watching the u.s. senate day to 116th congress, we have nine new freshmen senators over there. taking the oath of office in the senate as well, the vice president is already on capitol hill, he will be presiding over the senate for ceremoniale swearing-in that takes place in the old chamber. for all the details and from our coverage go to c-span. or and you can listen in with the free c-span radio app cap. you what youasking think the legislative priorities will be for the new congress. we will wait for the cameras in the house to come back up that for us to be able to show you

the house floor and what is happening there. john next in cincinnati, a republican. happy new year to everybody. all my fellow americans. don't forget, you are equally important, equally significant and equally valuable and worthy to decide your own self-governing. right now we have to get our of our american people on the same page of what it means to be under a constitutional representative government. if i become your toresentative and i get burden you and encumber you against your will without your consent i just relegated you to a red -- legislative slave. now i get to burden and encumber

you and denied you your due process. we have to get rid of this process which is nullifying our right to be self-governing citizens. if it is continuing to do like it is now we are not self-governing nor are you free. this is fraudulent misrepresentation, fraud and failure of consideration, bullying because they will force it on you whether you like it or not. and extortion, they will take your money and spend it on the agenda they want to spend it on whether you like it or not. host: i'm going to try to get jake in, new orleans, a democrat. caller: thank you for having me on.

i have been listening to several , it is disconcerting to hear that the fake news -- i would like to see the new congress tackle immigration and they should integrate that doctoral -- dr. to get full citizenship. they deserve that. host: that was jake in new democrat. randy is next from illinois, a democrat. points,on that three need to bring the troops home to guard the border. donaldwe need to tell trump to keep his campaign promise. host: i'm going to bring it to the floor, the 116th congress is