fighting. as we approach the two-year anniversary of the route 91 thosere, we can show families touched by mass shootings that we are willing to act, that we can offer them something more than thoughts and prayers. let's actually come together and pass this bill to honor the daughters, mothers, sons, fathers, sisters, brothers, and friends we have lost to senseless gun violence, and let's get something done for the people in our lives we would do anything to protect and we could not bear to lose. thank you. iscaitlin emma appropriations director for the politico. let's start with the house and a tweet of yours saying house leaders are readying a continuing resolution likely through november 21 that would prevent president trump from holding up aid to ukraine,

freeze trade relief payments to farmers and reject a white house request for flexibility on border fencing. two things -- why do they need a continuing resolution, and what is so special about this date, november 21, other than being a week before thanksgiving? caitlin: if you are at all familiar with congress, you probably are familiar with the fact that they like to sort of put these spending bill deadlines up against a holiday to sort of force some action, some urgency. putting it right up against thanksgiving, hypothetically, everybody wants to go home. everybody wants to get this done, so that is the scenario which lawmakers are hoping for. you never know what is going to happen. there could be another short-term spending fix until christmas. very realys a possibility. like you said, house lawmakers are circulating a draft continuing resolution this week that would extend current

funding levels likely through that date, november 21, and that measure is something we could see as soon as early next week. it's possible the house rules committee could meet tuesday night. we could see some kind of, you know, ned -- midweek vote, and of the week vote on that measure, but essentially, lawmakers are preparing this short-term spending fix because the appropriations process at the moment is a little stuck. it's being mired in some partisan disagreement. we have already had the house markup. -- the house mark up a dozen spending bills they have to revisit in the senate just got started on its own process this week. government funding is set to run .ut really, there is very little time in which the house and senate have to negotiate to pass spending bills that will provide updated funding levels for the government, so it's very real that there will be the need for a short-term spending fix to buy time for

more negotiation. >> you wrote about the process, you've reported on it, senate spinning bill thrown into chaos over abortion policy, border well. tell us about the bills are trying to mark up. we see patty murray on the screen. how was she involved in some of the issues that came up this past week? >> the senate got started right away at the beginning of the week. they had two spending bills for the -- the department of labor, education, state, and other foreign operations. the pentagon and epa and water programs, so they had intended at the outset of the week to tackle those fiscal 2020 spending bills, and there were going to be individual senate spending committee markups, but just as things were getting off to fallnd, they started apart. senator patty murray essentially said she was going to introduce an amendment to the education

bill that would stop the trump administration from implementing this antiabortion title ix family-planning rule, and republicans right away were like , whoa, we consider that to be a poison pill, and that term is key because in the budget agreement that president trump signed last month, there was sort of this handshake agreement between house and senate lawmakers to avoid these so-called poison pills for overly partisan policy provisions. richard shelby right away said no, i'm going to pull this from subcommittee market. we are going to postpone it, so there was no action on that this week. we also saw the state and foreign operations spending bill also get sidelined by an abortion-related amendment. that an annual a minute senator jeanne shaheen has proposed. that was also tabled. right away, things kind of got

off to a rough start, but he senate appropriations committee did end up passing a spending bill for the pentagon and for energy and water programs just yesterday. those bills are moving forward, and the senate could pick them up on the floor. -- youare right about write about aid to ukraine, your article, the headline saying the trump administration backs off audits holds two ukrainian military aid. what happened? >> this has been a very controversial issue in recent weeks. essentially, the trump administration has looked at foreign aid as a whole with a lot of scrutiny. if you asked the administration why, they say, "we want to ensure this money is spent wisely" or perceive that other countries are paying their fair share. we broke the story last month when we received the tif the trump administration had frozen this $250 million pot of funds

in military assistant -- military assistance for ukraine. it's considered important to keeping russian aggression at bay in the region. there's obviously a lot of controversy around the trump administration and the president and russia. clearly, it brought up a lot of questions as to why the office of management and budget was holding these funds, an intense amount of bipartisan backlash. even of republican senators like senator lindsey graham, one of the president's top allies, worn you should not be doing this. we found out this week that the office of management and budget has lifted their hold on that part of funds, but that backlash senatorstense that felt it prudent to include a provision -- actually, there was a debate yesterday during the senate appropriations committee.

senator durbin wanted to put in an amendment to ensure the administration no longer tries ukraine, andaid to the track house continuing resolution we discovered earlier also includes a provision preventing the president from holding up further aid to ukraine, so this has become such a bipartisan swell of backlash that lawmakers in the house and senate on both sides want to put restrictions in spending bills to prevent the administration from doing that again, but as i said, the hold has been lifted. the administration does not explain their reasoning for lifting the hold, but apparently, they received the answer that they wanted in terms of how the money is being spent. >> as we wrap up, give us one or two key players you are watching as the appropriations spending debate continues. >> the focus is really on the

house and senate appropriations committees. appropriations chairman richard shelby, the house appropriations chairman, they will be key. the house and senate here has to negotiate on spending bills that will provide updated funding levels for the federal government, so there needs to be some kind of compromise there. they have to meet and get on the same page. that being said, they historically have worked well together, so they will be key players to watch. in addition to that, another key player for next week would be senate majority leader mitch mcconnell. how exactly is the senate going to proceed? will they start to take bills up on the floor or just head into informal consultation with the house? certainly the majority leader will be making decisions on that. financial emma covers

issues for the politico. politico.com is where you can read her reporting and follow her on twitter. >> the house returns tuesday at noon for general speeches and legislative work begins at 2:00 p.m. you can watch live on c-span. the senate convenes on monday at 3:00 p.m. live on c-span2. >> senator elizabeth warren is in new york city monday to speak to voters in washington square park. watch live at 7:00 p.m. eastern on c-span and live at 9:00 p.m., president trump holds a rally in rio rancho, new mexico, just outside of albuquerque. will be an order -- house will be in order. >> for 40 years, c-span has been providing coverage of congress, the white house, the supreme court, and public policy events from around the