washington journal, live, every day with news and policy issues that impact you. alex from the, cato institute examines the class of migrants known as special interest aliens. and association for career education's stephen dewitt will talk about workforce training. jackie siemon discusses the impact of the government shutdown on federal workers. washington journal live at 7:00 monday morning. join the discussion. host: with us is l.a. times congressional reporter sarah wire. the house next week plans to continue to vote on legislation to fund and reopen parts of the federal government. also planning to debate a $12.1 billion disaster relief funding bill. why is the house democratic leadership bringing up that

measure in the midst of their reopen push? >> this was one thing that didn't get accomplished last year. so i know there's a lot of pressure to get it done sooner rather than later. host: the new appropriations chair saying this about the effort coming up next week, this legislation is the first step to helping our fellow americans get back on their feet. i am pleased it includes important funding to strengthen resiliency against future disasters. especially those that are being made more frequent by climate change. what are the sorts of things that it will fund? reporter: it's going to include things like medication so it's easier to with stand major floods. same thing with levees. disaster relief when it comes to hurricanes and fires. just kind of more preparation for those things. host: your related story at latimes.com has this headline, california water projects could be shelved as trump seeks money

for the border wall. tell us about this and what the president's trying to do here or reportedly trying to do. reporter: these are some projects that were funded by congress last year in the disaster appropriations bill. the money has already been appropriated but it hasn't been spent yet. it's been allocated mostly for flood plain relief. the white house is looking right now for a place within the government where they can find unspent money like this that can be used to fund the president's wall at the border. this would allow him to declare a national emergency and potentially end this government shutdown. host: in a normal year, in be a un-shutdown-year, how would these unused funds -- that would happen to these unused funds? reporter: they would be contracted out or remitted back to the government to be appropriated again. host: there's pushback from the puerto rican governor who tweeted this, no justification should be considered to

reclassify money u.s. citizens will use to rebuild their communities. if anything the conversation should be how we get more resources to rebuild those impacted areas faster. what you have been hearing from the california delegation in particular about the reported plan from the president? reporter: they're very much against this. some of the projects being targeted in california are really necessary. you've got a lot of the flood plain in california comes down from the sierra nevadas and flows down toward central or southern california. that's where the majority of californians get their water from. there's also a constant risk of major catastrophic floods. the sacramento area is the second most likely city in the country to be flooded. host: there's also been tamping down of the reports of those, of that plan. mark meadows, the chairman of the -- former chairman of the house freedom caucus, democrats

continue to refuse to negotiate in good faith or appropriate any money for border barriers. if they won't compromise, the president should use asset forfeiture money or other discretionary fees to start construction. if not, he should not declare a national emergency -- he should declare a national emergency. it's time. is that the general sentiment among the republican side from what you're hearing? host: the idea of asset forfeiture or maybe other places to get the money, that seems to be fairly popular. this would be a way for both sides to essentially get a win and the government shutdown. i think the idea of using disaster funding, will whether it be to actually make repairs after a disaster or prevent future disasters, it doesn't seem to be too popular. i'm getting bipartisan pushback to the idea. host: the house democratic leader spent the opening days this past week actually in passing appropriations bills for the remainder of fiscal year 2019. is there any indication of a

compromise in sight? any thought that the senate will take up those measures that have been passed? reporter: at this point it doesn't seem likely. we're not hearing about a lot of negotiations happening behind the scenes. and senate majority leader mitch mcconnell has really said that he's not going to bring a bill up to a vote in the senate unless the president has signaled he's going to sign it. and that's kind of a high threshold to cross at this point. host: sarah wire covers congress for the "l.a. times." you can read her reporting at latimes.com and follow her reporting on twitter. thanks so much for joining us. reporter: thanks for having me. >> monday night on the communicators -- >> we are talking about fiber-optic technology. it is not new. it has been around for a decade. a very thin strand of glass unlimited amounts of

information to be pumped through it by lasers. it is used around the world to carry communications and countries are ensuring everyone of their citizens has access to a fiber-optic connection. >> professor susan crawford theusses her book "fiber: coming tech revolution and why america might miss it." are leaving behind a lot of the country when it comes to great communications capacity and as a nation we are following behind to be the place where new ideas come from. >> the communicators, monday night at 8:00 eastern, on c-span2. is in government shutdown its 23rd day, the longest in u.s. history. watch the house monday live at noon eastern on c-span.

the senate at 3:00 p.m. eastern on c-span2. >> pennsylvania's midterms included a number of special elections to fill the seats of members who left congress early, shifting boundaries, new names, and the addition of quattro women to a delegation that previously had been all male. entered ine women november ahead of the rest of their colleagues. when race included a special election to represent the seventh district for the last month and a half. there was also a general election to represent the new fifth district. was previously an attorney in private practice and had served on her local school board . susan wilde's race included a special election and a general

election to represent the new seventh district. prior to running, she was the first woman to be solicitor for allentown, pennsylvania. earlier in her career she was an attorney. voters in the fourth district elected madalyn dean who had served in the state house. she began her professional life as an attorney and later turned to academia, teaching english and writing. woman represents the six district. she is the former president of a nonprofit organization that promotes early childhood literacy and served three years in the u.s. air force. earlier in the decade, he was the head of the tax office. prior to that, he was an and his family's company that manufactures scooters and home medical equipment.

in the 13th district, john joyce was a little did. he is a medical doctor who has run a practice with his wife since 1991. and another congressman represents and before that a district judge in state magisterial court. earlier, the representative served as an attorney in the u.s. navy. new congress, new leaders. watch it all on c-span. announcer: the supreme court oral argument in merck sharp and dohme corp. v albrecht. it concerns whether a pharmaceutical company can be sued in state court after the fda rejects the risk label. this is about an hour and five minutes. >> we will hear argument first this morning in case 17 to 90, merck sharp and dohm