host: members are preparing to start a series of votes beginning with the procedural motion related to the bill to provide temporary funds for the homeland security department. this would mean no money set aside for the president's border wall. when the members return, we will have live coverage here on c-span. " continues. olivia golden is back in our desk and serves as the executive director of the center for law and social policy. remind us what your organization does. guest: it's great to be here, i'm these active director of law and social policy, national antipoverty organization and we are celebrating our 50th anniversary in 2019. we advocate for good policies that will help low income people

, people of color and we hold public officials accountable for bad policies. we may be doing some of that today given the shutdown. host: we have talked before about snap, the food stamp program. amidst the there shutdown, the status of that program. what will happen if the shutdown continues for another couple of weeks? is theadline shutdown is very serious and the impact is widespread and it gets worse every day or every week. program,nap supplemental nutrition assistance program which covers 38 million americans, seniors, children, puts food on the table, the usda and the states have worked really hard to put in place where they pay february benefits early. that averted disaster right now.

it has a consequence that people who are trying to put foot on the table with the help of snap often end up not being able to stretch it a whole month and now they have to stretch it six weeks or so at least until march payments. they averted a disaster this time but if we go far enough into february, the states will not be organized for march payments and we will have a major disaster. host: how many americans are on snap and how much does it cost the federal government per month? guest: it's about 38 million people who don't have the monthly cost which is a norm a of americans that depend on it in their lives at one point or another between jobs or when they are working and their wages are not enough. host: is it the largest social welfare program in the federal government? guest: health care programs are

bigger so medicare and social security and medicaid are bigger. it's one of the biggest of the remainder. host: what about housing assistance programs? have they been impacted? guest: housing assistance is another area where the consequences are bad right now and they will get much worse over the coming days. the housing assistance programs ,re affected both at the usda about 250,000 people in rural communities who get help thing wrench through usda and there is the department of housing and urban development which is also shutdown which has large housing programs to help people pay the rent and have a secure home. far are that so tens of thousands of people have been affected already. their landlords are worried they get their disbursement and they sometimes give people ultimatums.

they tell them they would have to pay the whole thing even including the federal assistance. host: is the government stepping in their or is there some recourse? in general, right now, the federal government has been able to step in but by early february or going further, it gets more dire. cases, they still have january money they can use but it's a delay in getting it but they can promise it's coming but once you get to the point where they can make promises, then the dollarsto fund and take care of it for a while does not work anymore. host: we have heard the stories from viewers who have called him. we want to invite viewers to join the discussion. if you are in the eastern or central time zones, these are

the phone lines. temporary assistance for needy families is another program. what is the status of that program at the shutdown? guest: that's a programmer states get dollars from the federal government and the use of both for tax assistance that helps the most vulnerable and these of her child care and other kinds of health -- help for low income families and no dollars have been going out from the federal governments of the states are covering that. it will have an effect on local and state governments and nonprofit organizations as well as families themselves. tanf is that the house and the senate have passed legislation to extend it so it's on the president's desk. that certainly should be fixed or could be fixed quickly.

what's been happening is that states have been paying for it. host: for some states more able to do that? states wereme unable to pick up the tap? guest: i think it's hard to know because the real thing that has to happen is it has to get fixed. we should not have states and cities and individual people covering for the federal government. shutdown,ime tanf was one state was affected more than others but so far there is none that there is a lot of worry going into early february and there was a letter from bipartisan governors saying states vary in their ability to take care of this and they are worried. tanf what happened when was shutdown? guest: they started to cut people off which was the terrible out come on after enough outcry, they restored it.

about paste talking economic support or a family with many kids are childcare or the other crucial help, it's not as though people can get by. host: when did the cut off happened? guest: kid was more recently, in one of the recent shutdowns. i think it was in 2013. when i was assistant secretary or commissioner for children, youth, and families, the shutdown was the longest before this one in the winter of 1995 -- 96. i was an essential employee working without getting paid like so many federal employees today. is theng i remember most casenity agencies, in that they were programs that took care of children and today, they case

they were programs that took care of children and today, they are the ones that are domestic violence and childhood programs and they should be thinking about taking care of people but they are thinking about having a line of credit in the bank or will i have to lay off staff because they can't deal with the uncertainty and what would i do if i had to find another place for those living here. some of thedamaging core community organizations we count on. host: executive director for the center of law and social policy. you can look them up on the internet or give us a call and chat with her. west virginia, good morning. caller: good morning. i want to know how many illegals are getting food stamps and welfare assistance? the key thing to know about those in the united states and undocumented is that they are not eligible for any of this help. american citizen children are and we know that's a good thing.

foodow great deal about assistance in health care and stable housing helps children grow up and contribute in all kinds of important ways. what i would headline about the shutdown is this is not about policy choices. the programs like the snap program, was reauthorized, congress decided with the big bipartisan vote to improve it and keep the snap program part of it the way it was with some additional funding. the present had a big signing ceremony in december so these are programs that have a very strong base of support and the reason they are not operating is not that there is anything wrong with them, it's that we have the programsation holding and millions of americans

different dispute. the issue is not about the programs, if anything, it's helping us see how central they are in our lives. host: springfield, virginia is next, good morning. caller: thanks for taking my call. i have a couple of thoughts. president kennedy is my cousin. i don't think is just the wall, i would call this the wall and the xl pipeline. the steel is coming from the everest corporation in canada and that has ties to russia and i also feel that people should have more discussion through the government accounting office administration office that there is a process when you go to bid for construction projects. it's my understanding that the process of getting the best bids for security or for this or that , that the process is not happen

that this is being done and this is what we will do and that's it. host: we will focus on some of the social benefit programs from callers on that topic. dave in maryland, go ahead. certainly want to say that by all means, i'm a firm believer in social programs and even as a young boy, my family used to deliver fuel oil through energy assistance programs and they used to ride along with truck drivers and i could clearly see the benefits that those type of assistance programs have with struggling families. speakersuggest to the the comment that was made earlier to suggest that these programs are operating just fine . i would challenge that wholeheartedly because if they were operating just fine, then

we wouldn't have as many people on the programs. happen what tends to with certain types of programs whether it's energy assistance or snap, the policies that are used to facilitate the actual execution of the programs do not do enough to facilitate motivation with any of these families to get themselves off the program. are the work requirements enough motivation question mark caller: i wouldn't say that's the motivation. i would encourage that one thing i saw a recently with respect to womanut down, there was a and i don't remember what state she was living in but she was a federal employee and the news

had to turn they off or heat but when she spoke, she said she had to turn down her heat. withg direct experience the energy assistance program, i will say that in today's technology, the government clearly could put a controlled thermostat in these home so that people do in fact get heat but maybe they wouldn't necessarily need to consume the energy to heat their apartment or their noneence to be 74 degrees the middle of winter time. guest: let me link of those questions to the shutdown. i will get back to your thoughts about the public programs. remember that right now, the suffering and damage goes far beyond the hundreds of thousands of people affected because they are not putting food on the table and i need help with housing and being able to afford an apartment in a high rent

area. it's also 800,000 federal workers. moreands and thousands contractors in low-paying jobs like janitorial services or housekeeping and food services, people whose businesses depend on those federal workers, childcare centers in the federal buildings, grocery stores, restaurants, the nonprofit organizations that are trying to help -- people who are homeless or women who have fled violence. their employees and local government and state governments so my overall headline would be that the impact is very broad. us thating, it reminds are a us were many of us paycheck or two away from needing help. there has been research coming out about that, 40% of americans

with $400 or less in savings and if you read about and hear about the impact on people who are either essential federal employees working like the tsa workers with no paychecks, they will miss their second one i think friday, that's not sustainable. people need to put food on the table and similarly, is not you lost your paycheck entirely as what happens with contracted workers. here isthe key message that any one of us might snap tomorrow. there is a lot of research on the subject you talk about. it shows that people who are getting help from food assistance or medical assistance , many of them arch older and and many of them are caregivers of young children and many are seniors, people with disabilities and a large share of them are workers. low wages economy, work often will not pay the

wages needed. i think what we are seeing from the shutdown is how much all of us need that effective support of those programs. host: wisconsin is next, good morning. caller: good morning and thank you for c-span. a quick correction from a previous caller -- it's the accountability office, not the accounting office. point was very well said by your speaker. that's the overwhelming amount of unnecessary government that we have. i have been in the private industry mainly in construction for the last 40 years of my life. andybody has technology everybody changes with the times but the government keeps getting bigger, more loaded with more why doand more reach --

we keep expanding the government with this new technology that we have that affects everybody? your speaker just said about all the ramifications and about how many people are being affected by the government shutdown from the low income to the food to this and that. good grief. we don't need this much government. we have great technology and wonderful management and people are smarter than we have ever been an healthier, why is the government getting this big? questions previously postponed. >> we'll leave this and return to live coverage of the u.s. house. mmit on house joint resolution 31. passage of house joint resolution 31 if ordered and agreeing to the speaker's approval of the journal, if ordered. the first electronic vote will be conducted as a 15-minute vote. pursuant to clause 9 of rule 20, remaining electronic votes will be conducted as five-minute votes. the unfinished business is the question on agreeing to the motion