it is because of this history that i want israel to be always there, always prosperous, always strong, always free. my friends, we must never forget what israel and her freedom means to the jewish people and what the friendship of the united states means to securing that freedom. i will not forget. i know you will not forget and we fight to protect jewish people here in america and in the state of israel. in america and in israel. the people israel lives. thank you. god bless you. aipac, keep up the great work. [cheers and applause]

>> daniel neuhauser reports on congress for "national journal," in john's is for a look at the week ahead. let's start with senate rule changes. we could see significant change in the u.s. senate. what is majority leader mitch mcconnell attempting to do? >> mcconnell wants to change senate rules to limit the amount of time it would take to debate judges -- nominations, executive branch nominees to be judges or subcabinet positions. this would not apply to the supreme court or the cabinet, but mcconnell wants to limit hours down to just two hours, which would speed up how many judges or getnees president trump can through the senate. >> the senate has already approved about three dozen of the president's appellate court nominees. why does mitch mcconnell think this change is necessary? >> there's kind of two things

going on. one is that mitch mcconnell thinks there have just not been enough nominees approved. he has accused democrats of obstruction and not allowing president trump to have as many nominees by this time in his presidency as president obama did. on the other side of that coin, some observers believe that this is an attempt to go nuclear, to set up a vote on the entire nuclear option because mitch toonnell needs 60 votes approve this rules change, which he may not get because he would need a significant amount of democrats to vote with him, but if that does not happen, they have already threatened that they will change the rules of the senate entirely, to mean that they would only need 50 votes to pass -- to get nominees through. he would need 50 votes to get that done, and that might not happen, but still, he

has a much better chance at that than a 60-vote threshold. >> how are senate democrats responding to all of this? >> senate minority leader chuck schumer thinks this is an attack on minority rights. he has accused mitch mcconnell of essentially hypocrisy, saying that when mcconnell was in the minority, he cared so much about minority rights and now that he is in the majority, he wants to throttle the minority's ability to have any say in the legislation or nominees in the senate, so i do not expect that this will be handled amicably, and certainly if he gets to the point of invoking the nuclear option, this is going to be a really huge deal in the senate. >> over in the house -- let's switch gears a little bit -- they are set to take up reauthorization of the violence against women act. what does this law do, and why does it need to be reauthorized? >> this is a law that

eliminatey tries to domestic violence by setting up grant programs and other funding theprograms that handled mystic violence issues. it needs to be reauthorized because it expires in february. ofentimes, this becomes part a year-end spending deal package and republicans and democrats get together and vote on the to reauthorized this, but it actually expired at the end of last year over some disagreements about how to handle not just this bill but other issues as well, so now it is back. the problem is that, for republicans anyway, democrats added certain gun control measures to the bill and republicans and the national rifle association are very opposed to that. >> let me bring up your tweet

here. you say the nra will issue a key vote against the violence against women act over red flag gun provisions that democrats added. the house gop want political cover to vote against the bill. why do they need that cover? >> well, this is a politically dicey issue every year when this comes up. it is called the violence against women act and if you are voting against that, the political ads just write themselves. last time this came up, democrats had inserted certain provisions that would extend the toi-domestic violence issues undocumented immigrants, to transgender women, and other categories of people that republicans disagreed with. it became a heated political issue and eventually, republicans did back down to of themree, though many voted against it. democrats are trying to do this

with gun control. it allows them to highlight that issue, so they have added in red flag provisions, which would make it possible for authorities to confiscate guns from people who have been convicted of stalking or domestic violence. the nra says this is only misdemeanor domestic violence and we think it opens up a president we don't like, so that gives some republicans who are essentially force here to make a politically dicey vote either against the violence against women act or four gun control -- and a little bit more of a comfortable position because the nra can jet of supporters to call in to congress and urge them to vote for this or that and they are going to be grading members on how they vote on this bill. republican members could potentially now go back to their district and say they voted against the violence against women act, but not because the

violence against women portion but because of guns. neuhauser, -- daniel , today's rally in el paso, texas kicking off a presidential campaign. president trump distilling the medal of honor on a soldier who died in iraq in 2007. then, a circuit court argument concerning the president's twitter account. decideond circuit will whether the account constitutes a public forum. and interviews with new members of the house of representatives. ♪ >> c-span's washington journal live every day with news and issues that impact you. 70thy morning, the

anniversary of nato, the future of the organization, and comments by president trump regarding contributions. then the 40th anniversary of the three mile island accident near harrisburg, pennsylvania, considered the most serious nuclear accident in the united states. from the founder and chair of the three mile island alert. , and actingr director of the nuclear safety project edwin lyman. sure to watch c-span's washington journal sunday morning. join the discussion. ♪ q&a, aay night on biography of chief justice john roberts. >> however john roberts votes

gonehat anthony kennedy is , he will determine the law of the land. ant him tols wo inch over, but conservatives want him back where he was. you have this chief justice declaring there is no such thing as an obama judge, a trumped judge, a bush judge. he wants to project a bench that is not political when they all have their agendas of sorts. >> sunday night at 8:00 p.m. eastern. >> former texas a congressman better or work kicked off his presidential campaign. is his first event in texas since he announced to be running for president. he just wrapped up an 11 day trip across multiple states.