have a great morning. thank you very much. [applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2019] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> both chambers of congress return from their two week recess next week. the house gavels and tuesday with votes scheduled for 6:30 p.m. eastern. the chamber plans to vote on a bill that curves the outsourcing of u.s. jobs by requiring a publicly traded companies to disclose where workers are located by state and country. on committee works continues legislation that aims to lower prescription drug costs. follow the house live on c-span. the senate also returns tuesday where lawmakers plan to work on the nomination of barbara barrett to be the next air force secretary.

the chamber plans to to debate several u.s. district court nominations. see the senate live on c-span2. bob cusack with us to take a look at the week ahead in congress. the impeachment inquiry really ramped up with the hearings from trump administration officials. who is set to testify in the coming week? bob: we are going to have a number of people. fiona hale is one. she used to be a diplomat for the trump administration. she will testify. that is of concern because she europehat is going on in and it follows on the heels of marie yovanovich testifying today. we are just learning the state department, the trump administration tried to block her. she is a current state department employee. she clearly wanted to testify.

she was subpoenaed and now house democrats say the subpoena forced her to testify but it seems like clearly, she wanted to testify. so the testimony going forward of hill and sondlund, another one whose texts were released recently, he was a trump donor and the state department blocked his testimony, but it looks like he will testify next week. host: are we getting a timeline from house democratic leadership on an impeachment vote? bob: no, great question, something our reporters have been asking about. i think you will see something this year. and it is not only timing, but it is going to be about ukraine, obstruction, will it be larger, financial issues? how broad will impeachment be? i think you will see it in all likelihood before thanksgiving, but speaker pelosi has not given any timeline.

but covering her for many years, i don't think she wants this to drag on, certainly not into the 2020 election year. remember democrats won the house not talking about impeachment, but talking about issues, health care, so i think she wants to get this vote done sometime in 2019. host: during the two-week break, the president announcing the withdrawal of troops from syria, then turkey invading syria, and some strong proposals on sanctions on capitol hill. one by liz cheney, the conference chair for republicans. what else will we see on capitol hill? bob: it is a really big issue because it is one of the rare issues that has actually split republican leaders from the president. mitch mcconnell has been very critical of this move. you mentioned liz cheney, member of the house republican leadership, and the other top

two above her, steve scalise from louisiana and kevin mccarthy are backing the sanctions bill. so, it is going to divide republicans who are torn between supporting their president and they just did not like this move of leaving syria and abandoning the kurds. you are potentially going to see votes next weekend beyond that would admonish the white house for making this move. and that is going to be a tough vote for some republicans. host: it seems the president seems the withdrawal is a political winner for him. bob: that is right. he has made the case that the country is very war weary. that has rally last night, he repeatedly mentioned we needed to stop the endless wars. it triggered some applause. some republicans will support him and i think some democrats also will support him, if they are forced to vote on it. but, a vast majority of

republicans and democrats don't support this move, and i think the white house has been a little surprised about how much republican pushback they have gotten, especially from leaders. that is just so unusual in this congress. host: back to potential floor action, last month, speaker pelosi introduced her prescription drug plan. what is the status of that? when we might see floor debate and votes on that? bob: this is a big issue for house democrats. it is what they campaigned on when they won the house in 2018. speaker pelosi unveiled her bill. not surprisingly, the prescription drug industry is not pleased with this. they have come out against it. you will see a lot of tv ads, recently going after the pelosi bill and supporting what the trump administration has done on administrative policy. mitch mcconnell is not a fan of this nancy pelosi bill. nancy pelosi had to strengthen

the bill to get progressives on board as to how many drugs can be negotiated and to bring down drug prices. it is unclear when it will go to the floor. there is going to be a hearing in the ways and means committee, and a number of committees have jurisdiction in the house, energy and commerce as well. so you will have the hearings, which are going to be very partisan. and then i would think you will have markups, moving through committee, then going to the floor sometime in 2019. host: a quick yes-no question. will the house and senate take up the u.s.-mexico-canada trade agreement before the end of the year? bob: it is on a knife's edge. i think the slight answer if i had to pick yes or no would be yes. but impeachment really brings a problem with this because of the politics of it. but nancy pelosi wants to get to yes, and republicans want yes,

so i think there is a little bit over a 50% chance this is actually going to pass congress this year. but don't bet a lot of money on that. host: editor in chief at "the hill," bob cusack. thanks so much for joining us. bob: thanks. >> now president from to speak at a campaign rally in lake charles, louisiana. this is live campaign 2020 coverage on c-span. ♪ ♪