medals for the capitol police and those who protected the capitol on january 6. the senate is back in tomorrow and expected to work on the nomination of marcia fudge to be secretary of housing and urban development. other nominations being considered this week include michael regan to be epa administrator and judge merrick garland to be attorney general. live coverage of the house when we returned at 8:00 eastern here on c-span. the senate live tuesday at 3:00 p.m. eastern on c-span2 . christina marcos, thank you for joining us. guest: thanks for having me. host: take us back to the senate final action on saturday. what did it change about the $1.9 trillion bill that the house will have to wrestle with this week? guest: there are two major changes that were made in the senate.

the first one being the restrictions on the direct stimulus payments, that is a central part of the previous pandemic relief bills. rather than the maximum amount that one can qualify for to get a check is still incomes of $75,000 for individual. they used to be people up to 100,000. now that will beat cap to $80,000. a number of moderates were concerned there were some higher income people who were getting these payments when they didn't really need them. so that's one major change we will see. this does mean there are some people who got stimulus checks last year who won't get them.

the weekly insurance -- unemployment insurance supplement. additionally in-house bill that passed a couple weeks ago, that would've been $400 per week. but now it's going to remain at the status quo of $300 which was another change pursued by moderates in the senate. >> how much work will the democratic leadership, does the speaker have to do and perhaps the white house to get this finally passed we think tomorrow in the house. ? >> guest: we've been seeing some progressives expressing displeasure at the two main changes, the on a plumbing insurance payments and the restrictions checks. i will no longer support this bill.

the congressional progressive caucus said they weren't -- they weren't pleased terribly. they argue the change made was relatively minimal. they are willing to support this and go forward even if it's not their ideal bill in this case. host: phone numbers on the bottom of the screen. for democrats, 202-748-8000, republicans 202-748-8001. independents, 202-748-8002. we will also take comments to social media. we know the house rules committee plans to meet we think that tomorrow to prepare this final bill for action in the house. we will see what part of the day this bill will come up.

who are you watching? we talked about the progressives. who are you watching from this point forward? guest: the progressives, some key members to watch our lawmakers like alexandria ocasio-cortez who's been relatively quiet in the last 24 hours. late last week when senate democrats first began the change the stimulus checks like the maximum amount -- maximum income in order to qualify for anything is now down. she tweeted restricting the number of stimulus checks and having fewer checks go out by democrats is an own coal by the party. which is how she complemented -- which is how she commented. whatever signal she gives will be key for how progressives in congress and from the country will perceive the spell. we are also watching centrists as well.

is this a victory for them. do they see this going forward for how their approach on this relief bill. host: the democratic senator from west virginia making a whole lot of news yesterday into today with some comments about the filibuster. we know this covid bill avoided the filibuster through special procedures but the hell headline says he is firm on support of the filibuster, making it more painful -- but open to make it more painful to use. >> the filibuster should be painful. we have made it more comfortable over the years. maybe it has to be more painful. maybe you have to stand there. things we can talk about. whatever you take away in the senate, the ability for the minority, however it may be to have input, why do you have two

senators in a rhode island in two senators new york or california? why is there one body the treats everyone hopefully the ability to intervene and be involved, the ability to represent no matter how large or small. so the bigger person doesn't take advantage of the smaller person. that's what this is all about. >> but just to be clear you would consider making it harder to invoke the filibuster so that you don't just automatically have 60 votes that you need for any legislation. >> i would make it harder to get rid of the filibuster. i'm supporting the filibuster. i will continue supported. i think it defines who we are is the senate. but it should be painful if you want to use it. you should make sure the place works to the point where i want to work with you. my republican friends are not my

enemies. and my democrats are my colleagues, together we have to make this place work and it should be harder. don't make it painful for the other side. host: the future of the filibuster. what you think? >> it sounds like he is a little open as to some reform. non-illuminating it altogether as many progressives are asking, but as he explained there maybe there's a way to make it so rather than just you would need 16 order to overcome the filibuster, right now senators don't have to stand there for hours on end in order to hold up a bill. there may be other ways to do it , essentially put their money where their mouth is so it wouldn't be quite as easy for senators to hold up bills, to physically drain them.

>> christina marcos is a congressional reporter. first call for her is james in atlanta. caller: thank you. with the democrats need to do is start playing hardball politics. they have an equal rights bill. they need to put this bill with the payraise and anything else they want. joe mansion's estate is full of drugs and addiction he needs for treatment. they need to put these bills altogether so everybody gets what they want. denying people the men wage raise. they are stopping what 99% of

america wants. even republicans get the welfare checks, they get the unemployment checks. everything the democrats want. this is a bipartisan bill for everyone. if they don't want to work with democrats, they need to be ostracized because they are stopping progress because we put them in office to move this country forward. host: a little bit about the internal dynamics there in the senate on the democratic side. what do you make of that? guest: i think james is sitting on an important point that a lot of progressives are making. as it stands now, the equality act, that's another thing house democrats passed recently and something they also passed in the previous session of congress when mitch mcconnell was the majority leader and republicans

controlled the senate. and what happened to that bill, it did not get any action from the senate. republicans did not want to bring it up in the first place. now the democrats do control the senate, democrats are warning they could see the same result even though they are in charge of the senate now were house democrats passed all these bills that are top legislative priorities that then go over to the senate but then don't become law. they are doing how can we go back to voters who gave us control of both chambers on the white house and say we control all congress and the white house but we still couldn't get everything done because of the senate rule. that is weighing heavily on democrats right now and starting to move the needle a little bit in the senate where there is talk of changing the filibuster rule because otherwise they do risk effectively seeing the same

results as they did while republicans were in control of the senate. host: that caller also managing -- mentioning the minimum wage. there's a push for a bipartisan conversation on the minimum wage. what is next for the minimum wage? >> progressives are calling on the white house to present a plan for what they will do next because the white house hasn't said at this point how it plans to get that priority done. there are some republicans in the senate who've expressed openness to raising the minimum wage, not to $15 an hour, but for example is mitt romney in comp -- tom cotton introducing a bill. that would raise the wage to $10 overtime and index it to inflation. so it's higher than the current 7.25 dollars but not as high as

15 the democrats are pushing. congresswoman uriah paul -- jira yapal was making the case there are five senate republicans on this bill but she questions whether they can deliver 10 republicans to pass the bill to raise them men wage in the senate. so that's a question of whether there is room for compromise their if it can bring more than five senate republicans on board or if democrats need to limited the filibuster. host: jim is in north carolina, independent caller prayed -- caller. caller: hello. host: you are on the air. caller: good morning. i want to make you comment. when obama was elected any of the house and senate and got

involved with a lot of smaller items instead of going for the big push, they need to understand let's get done what's most important first and then the little infighting we have going on in the senate and house is to go ahead and solve those other issues down the road. people do not like change. we all feel uncomfortable when something happens in our lives that's not the same. we can take a little bit at the time. let's take a little bit at a time and look at it is what it would do to the smaller business owners and whether or not they could go ahead host: host: with that cost. thank you for calling. before we go back to our guest, let's hear from the white house communications director who is on cnn yesterday talking about the minimum wage. [video clip] >> president biden supports

raising them in wage. he believes strongly that is the level at which people in this country who are working full-time can make a living wage and not be living in poverty. he believes that's a fundamental matter of values. >> but you don't even have 50 votes for that. >> there currently no active discussions about lowering the threshold. these are details that will get worked out. the senate just passed our american rescue plan, a massive effort to get aid to people who needed across the country. the conversation is going to turn to how we tackle the minimum wage and the president is looking forward to working with congress to determine the best way to do it. the president is committed to raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour. host: in what order is this? is the burning priority, will, up soon or is it months away? guest: we don't know at this

point prayed -- at this point. white house democrat of signal it would be an infrastructure package. that's another thing democrats are eyeing. to pass under the reconciliation process and that would allow them to evade another a public and filibuster on that front. maybe they can try again to push them in wage, but their skepticism that the senate parliamentarian would let it slide this time around when she wouldn't let it happen again in another reconciliation package. there's pressure on the white house to outline the specific plan for how and when they would have the minimum wage legislation go through congress. host: dan from new york, republican call. >> good morning.

i listen to all the soft science economic issues and social issues and these are all contingent on how we handle the virus and reality where we are now the virus what we know about the virus, three vaccines of dubious certainty at least, they have a lot of things going for them. there are some dubious certainty. it's unknown what their ultimate insight will be since we only have a few months of data. started which was testing. we are not doing the testing, we don't really know the pattern. we don't know or we get all these data on television where they got this data from. is not following any clear-cut rules prayed the consequent to turn out to be we are planning for something that's going to happen and we don't know when it's going to happen. we don't know if it's going to get even worse than it is now.

so how about getting back to the key issue directing your entire national attention now which is the characteristics of the virus, the characteristic so the vaccines and how long it is estimated for us to get out of this picture. several governors are ready now saying let's all dance together. we are going to fall into a bigger hole again. all these economic plans and congressional stuff going now will be meaningless. host: thanks for calling britain guest: -- for calling. guest: a big part of this relief package is about $70 billion in funding for coronavirus vaccine and distribution efforts. it is true there are limits to federal power. in texas and mississippi they are choosing to forgo mast

mandates and allowing businesses to reopen. it is true there are limits even if there are these federal resources, governors or not choosing to continue pandemic restrictions and so -- until there is widespread heard immunity it will be more difficult to reach that point of relative pre-pandemic normality. host: we keep using the figure $1.9 trillion, several folks are sending texts and tweets like greg asking why is it still 1.9 with recent changes that should've trimmed the amount of spending? how much have we trimmed off? >> there hasn't been an official cbo report to come out with that, but democrats have been pushing for that figure because they argue it's what necessary to get the economy back on track in the states and localities have resources.

the democrats pushing on the stimulus checks insurance benefits. host: chuck schumer did say over the weekend it would do it again. guest: it seems congress is most likely send this bill as soon as tomorrow. shirley before the unemployment insurance benefits expire. host: i wanted to read a quote from representative ill han omar . she talks about the senate and told the hill the democratic majority in the senate has to come up with a strategy. you're not in the majority just to sit and do the same republican majority did with all priority bills the democratic majority in the house sent to them. guest: she's making the point

democrats now that they have control that they need to deliver on these priorities that they campaigned on. otherwise she and the other progressives say they risk being unable to deliver on these things. allowing certain document immigrants citizenship, voting rights, the list is very long. so they worn they don't deliver on these >> you can watch all of today's washington journal online at c-span.org we will take you live to the white house for a briefing on the administration's covid-19 response. the director of the cdc will outline guidance for people who have been vaccinated in the u.s.. >> the $1400 for t m