of the hour. noon eastern on this day 20 of the government shutdown. this week the house working on four spending bills to reopen parts of government. this afternoon they'll take up two spending measures, an agriculture bill which includes money for food stamps, and one, to fund housing and transportation programs. president trump issued a veto threat against all four spending measures yesterday. the president is on his way to texas to try and make his case for a $5 $.7 billion border wall. the president will visit mcallen, texas, meet with mator there. we spoke this morning to a reporter about the president's trip. host: with president trump headed to texas today we are joined now from boston by alana rocha from the texas tribune. walk us through what the president will be seeing today. what we know about the details of this visit. guest: we know he's going to the

rio grande valley. we have a reporter will be accompanying have who is based in -- him who is based in el paso. aside from that we didn't know many details. we did get more insight from some of the state officials that will be accompanying him including u.s. senator john cornyn who will be meeting with a number of mayors in the region to get a picture on what the situation is down there. aside from that we are not really clear. all we know from the white house this is the president will be meeting with several local officials to get a better picture of what's happening down there. host: we have heard mcallen, texas. guest: corrected. -- yes. saying he reaction hopes the president doesn't come

down and take his city as a lawless swath of america. but there is law and order and just to get an accurate picture of what's actually happening. guest: what should our viewers know about mcallen texas? guest: it's right across from the border. i have been down there several times for reporting. of people down there and a lot of officials as far as being border patrol. militarylso seen the and the legislature is sending dollars of 800 million to up the ranks and address different technological advances down there as well. patrolled and there is law and order. they will tell you the same in. expecting the president to leave the white house. if you want to join us in the

last half-hour of our program we are talking with alana rocha of about thetribune issue of border security and immigration in texas and about the president's trip today. you can join us in calling in. alana rocha, you had mentioned that john cornyn and ted cruz were going to meet with some local mayors down there. what are you hearing about what they are going to hear from those mayors and the reaction to the president visit? guest: there were several reactions to the president's speech the other night. it was a nine minute. i came downstairs thinking i had caught the tail end and it was already over. a lot of reaction from the fissile -- officials on partisan

lines. he didn't call for emergency at some expected to have him build the military build this walk-through congressman thornberry -- build this wall. congressman thornberry said the department of defense is not in the business of building walls and has parted with the president on that front. we have done extensive reporting on what we are going to hear local mayors and officials and they are just trying to squash the stereotype depicted in washington on what is happening there. heavy security. they call el paso the safest city in america. they want to convey that is not a lawless part of america. host: what about other members of congress district's are actually on the border in texas?

guest: you so one example congressman will heard who has the largest swath of the u.s. mexico border in his district. he cited with democrats the other day in voting for a bill to get the government back open and then maybe address border security. he is a republican who has broken with the president will times and he's not in support of letting hundreds of thousands of federal workers go unpaid. and what's ironic about this is the fact that this partial is resultingutdown in a lot of key services like the tsa where they see more terrorist come through versus the border on foot. positionserent staff not being paid. a lot of people calling in sick. they have seen two to three times more people calling in sick. a lot of republicans and

democrats say it doesn't seem to make a lot of sense. does what sort of allies president trump have when it comes to this shutdown fight? guest: the republican leadership maintains forhich narrow margins that day one of our legislative session happened tuesday and i was on the house or and in this and it and one noticeable absence was dan patrick we learned was actually in washington. he had gotten the call from the thee house to help president's team in drafting the border security oval office address that he gave tuesday night. he said when weighing whether or not to miss day one of the session, when the white house calls you respond. a lot of speculation if you could be up for a cabinet position and he squashed that yesterday before i even had a chance to follow up and ask him

and said, i'm lieutenant governor and going to be lieutenant governor. even the turnover in the administration anything is really possible. host: if you had to guess where dan patrick's fingerprints were on that 10 minute address where would you guess? guest: i don't know if i could exactly pinpoint it. they talked yesterday about the priorities for the session. they will have a healthy budget to work with for the next two years. they're planning to spend $800 million again of the states money on border security. what that looks like and what exactly that money will go to is not clear. lieutenant governor is among the state officials who will be with the president today. host: talk about the status of the border walls.