-- vice president mike pence, homeland, and acting chief of staff. the president we did he is meeting with top-level staff of house and senate leadership. meeting --e is tweeted he is meeting with top-level staff of house and senate leadership. announcer: ella nilson covers congress for vox. she joins us to discuss house democrats agenda for the coming week. it could include debate on the ethics reform package, hr one. what's in this resolution? >> there's so much in this resolution. it's a wide-ranging bill that deals with anticorruption and a strengthening ethics, but also reforms that include a lot of things that deal with voter rights. there is a provision for automatic voter registration, deals with partisan gerrymandering, and trying to end that.

there's also some pretty significant campaign finance reform. there is a lot in this bill, it's over 500 pages long. there's a lot. announcer: what is your take on why they wanted to start with this? it's not the first thing they are really working on as a new congress. >> i've been covering this bill for a while. on the campaign trail, i think a lot of these freshmen candidates, especially democrats that flipped more conservative districts, were seeing on the campaign trail or it campaigning on anticorruption is a hugely popular issue. we saw it in 2016 with the campaign of bernie sanders and donald trump. again in the midterms of 2018. rather than just messaging on

this, house democrats wanted to get really serious on doing something about it. representative john surnames has been working on these issues for a while. he's head of the democracy reform task force. he doesn't accept corporate pact money. this is an issue that's very near and dear to him. he has been consulting with a number of democratic colleagues for a while. this massive hr one package is a bunch of different bills that people have been working on. democrats really wanted to put the statement out there that they are really serious about trying to do bold anticorruption and pro-democracy reforms. this is not just talk and it's something they want to get done in the house. announcer: what are republicans saying? are they making arguments against it? it's tough to argue. >> it's politically tough to argue against. right now, it's thought that this must have a better chance in the democratic-controlled house. senate majority leader mitch mcconnell in the republican-controlled senate has already said h.r. 1 will not go anywhere, so it's unlikely to even be brought to the floor in

the senate, even though there is a senate companion bill being drafted. democrats are looking at the message, saying is that wants to be the message, you are against anticorruption and pro-democracy reforms, that's great for us. besides this package, representative saar veins and others are talking about breaking out individual pieces of this into smaller bills that could get more bipartisan support from republicans. announcer: besides trying to end the shutdown, they are working on a separate resolution to deal with a lawsuit over the health care laws. what's going on with this? >> house democrats both in their rules package and this afternoon filed a motion to intervene in texas versus u.s.. this is the conservative state

ag's lawsuit against the affordable care act that would strip out key parts of the aca, like the individual mandate and pre-existing conditions. typically, house democrats take the position and say that normally the u.s. justice department would be the one to step in and fight conservative ceg's and try to defend the federal laws. the trump administration has sided with these conservative agencies. house democrats are basically saying if the department of justice will not do anything, we will intervene. announcer: mention a couple of the top priorities for these new house democrats. where are they going to head in these coming years? >> there's a lot they have on their plate. in the coming weeks, obviously hr one --h.r. 1, in the rules committee, nancy pelosi announced a select committee to tackle climate change. expect committee hearings on climate change and the

environment. we will see if there's tangible legislation that comes out of that. one of the things mentioned today, there was going to be a universal background check bill introduced next week. something that deals with gun control, as well. a wide range of things democrats are looking at tackling early. announcer: as we follow this news conference, we will find best new congress, we will find you on twitter. you are reporting atvox.com. thank you for your time. >> thank you for having me. announcer: over 100 new members joined the house and senate for the 116th congress. electedkota voters kelly armstrong to represent the state in the house of representatives. mr. armstrong chaired the north republican party before his run for office. and also held a seat in the

state senate. he's an attorney and executive and his family's oil and gas exploration business. and dusty johnson joins the house from south dakota. he serves as chief of staff during his first term. mr. johnson then joined the south dakota-based telecommunications firm vantage point solutions. republican -- was elected to idaho after serving in the state senate. he had prior career as a sales and marketing executive at an electronics company. thecrat jared golden is elected to congress by runoff voting. which are taken into account if no candidate wins a majority. --has held a steeped in this a seat in the state house for years could he served in iraq and afghanistan as a u.s. marine before serving that before working as committee step --

before working as committee staff in washington dc. -- joinsr congressman -- he served from 2002 to 2007. before that he was a member of the state legislator -- later. -- state legislature. new congress, new leaders. watch it all on c-span. see --ekend, c-span's c-span's cities tour takes you to santa monica, california. today at noon eastern on book tv , a visit with journalists, author and professor saul rubin as he describes santa monica's culture, economy, and more. >> santa monica is a progressive southern california beach city.

it's a major tourist destination, most well-known for being a place where people might come and enjoy the day. is a popular place for young tech startup companies. at 2 p.m. sunday eastern on american history tv, santa monica. story and jim harris, author of "santa monica." : a century of the last great pleasure p are -- santa monica last a century of the great pleasure pier." >> there's a musas many different reasons to come to the -- there's the almost as many reasons to come to the pier. city tour ofan's said monica, california, today a new eastern on c-span's -- on

c-span two book tv. with our cable elliott's we explore the american story. -- cable affiliates as we explore the american story. >> much of andrew cuomo's's speech focus on immigration and he knew that president trump's grandfather immigrated to the u.s. ellis island. [applause] time, may we have chief judge of the court of appeals and the state of new york step forward and administer the of office to andrew m cuomo as the governor of the state of new york, accompanied by ms. sandra lee, mariah, carla, and kennedy, and mrsma