amendment at 10 a.m. on c-span. on c-span two at 10 30 a.m., the senate resumes consideration of the nomination of the u.s. trade representative. later, the nomination of the dhs secretary. at 930 a.m. on c-span3, homeland security secretary a la hundred mayorkas testifies before the house committee and jerome powell then holds a news conference at 2:30 p.m. and on our website, www.c-span.org, at 10 a.m., but hearing on covid vaccination response. also at 10 a.m., the a senate hearing on drinking water and wastewater infrastructure. coming up in one hour, north dakota representative kelly armstrong on climate energy policy and immigration issues.

at 9 a.m., a feminist majority president looks ahead to today's planned house votes on reauthorizing the violence against women act and removing the deadline to ratify the equal rights amendment. ♪ host: good morning, it's wednesday, march 17, 2021. the fight over the senate filibuster escalated often on as joe biden and mitch mcconnell weighed in on the rules that allowed lawmakers to block action on legislation unless there are 60 votes to move forward. this morning we are turning that debate over to you, our viewers. democrats, now in control of the chamber, should they eliminate the filibuster in the senate? phone lines, democrats, (202) 748-8000.

republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. you can also send us a text, (202) 748-8003. if you do, please include your name and where you're from. you can catch up with us on social media. on twitter, @cspanwj, or facebook.com/c-span. we will get to your phone calls and just a second, but first the latest on that deadly series of shootings yesterday in atlanta. this is the story of the atlanta journal-constitution website from woodstock georgia was captured in south georgia late on tuesday night. a suspect in three metro atlanta massage parlor shootings that left three people dead, robert aaron long first identified as a suspect in cherokee county.

he's also a suspect into two more shootings at similar businesses in northeast atlanta that resulted in four more deaths according to a sheriff's spokesman. we will continue to look for the latest on the developments in that story throughout this morning's washington journal. back to capitol hill in this question, we are asking viewers this morning, should senate democrats eliminate the filibuster after increasing calls to do so? it was mitch mcconnell who took to the senate floor yesterday morning to defend the filibuster. [video clip] >> the pendulum, mr. president, would swing both ways. and it would swing hard. my colleagues and i have refused to kill the senate for instant gratification. in 2017 and 2018 i was lobbied

to do exactly what democrats want to do now. a sitting president leaned on me to do it. he tweeted about it. what did i do, mr. president? i said to the president at that time no. i said no repeatedly. because becoming a u.s. senator with powers and duties to steamroll any obstacle to short-term power. i meant it. republicans meant it. less than two months ago, two of our democratic colleagues said they mean it, too. if they keep their word, we have a bipartisan majority that can put principal first and keep the senate safe. host: that was mitch mcconnell on the senate floor yesterday.

the senators he was referring to, joe mansion of west virginia, who promised at the start of the year not to eliminate the filibuster. the reason mitch mcconnell headed to the floor yesterday to defend the filibuster idea by joe mansion, it included a change to the filibuster requiring senators to be present and talk on the floor if they want to actually block the vote. the talking filibuster is the one famously depict -- depicted in the film "mr. smith goes to washington." that's the story this morning in "the wall street journal." it is that idea of a talking filibuster that joe biden seemed to endorse in an interview last night, a wide-ranging interview with george stephanopoulos on abc news. he was asked about the filibuster in this is what he had to say. [video clip]

>> aren't you going to have to choose between preserving the filibuster and advancing your agenda? >> here's the choice. you have to do the filibuster like it used to be when i got to the senate and the old days when you were around there. in the filibuster you had to stand up and command the floor. you had to keep talking. you couldn't call for, no one could say quorum call. once you stopped talking, you lost that and someone could move to say question of. you have got to work for the filibuster. host: you are for that -- >> you are for the reform of bringing back the talking filibuster? >> that's what it was supposed to be. i making this number up, i don't know, but from 1962, there were like 50 filibusters. now there are 200 since then. the idea is almost to the point where democracy is having a hard

time functioning. host: president joe biden with george stephanopoulos. that total interview scheduled to air this morning on "good morning america." talking there about the idea of changing the filibuster, turning it into a talking filibuster. the numbers he was talking about in that clip, the use of the filibuster over the years, the brookings institution charting out of filibusters. the call for cloture votes that require 60 senators to end debate. you can see how often they were called. this chart started in 1917 and going through the 20th century and into the 21st century, you can see the increasing use of the filibuster in recent years. the use has led some democrats to call for an end to the filibuster. we are asking you this morning

if you think that would be a good idea. (202) 748-8000 for democrats to call in. (202) 748-8001 four republicans. (202) 748-8002 four independent -- for independents. tweets in recent days on this issue, calling for changes, elizabeth warren yesterday afternoon, they had more control . the american people voted them out and we shouldn't let mitch mcconnell and his desperate party keep the veto now. this from chris van hollen in maryland. from the floor speech yesterday, the obstructionist tactics blocking voting rights bills, universal background checks, it's time to support the will of the people and end the

filibuster. senator cortez in nevada saying that we can't let mitch mcconnell stop the senate from getting anything done. the american people need progress now and it's time to move forward with filibuster reform. filibuster is the topic of debate on and off capitol hill this hour of the washington journal. getting your thoughts. john is up first. independent, good morning. caller: good morning, thank you for taking my call. you know, i'm just a common person with a little bit of common sense hope after years. but my reading of the constitution, congress has the right to set their rules. if i recollect history correctly , it was harry reid that started out down the road of trying to

change the number of senators on certain votes and what have you. that idea, civics in high school, the filibuster was made to be like that jimmy stewart in that famous movie that he did. i don't know. it used to be that the american people at comes to impeachment and the constitution, it says that presidents, if these proceedings should be presided over by the chief justice, with federal judges that were impeached, their trials were not

presided over by the chief justice. host: bring us to today and the legislative filibuster. you're talking about the threshold being lowered. should it be lowered for legislation for bills? caller: i don't think so. the senate is the saucer, it's supposed to be the cooling thing. i tell you, watching c-span, it's so aggravating to see one senator being able to bring the entire senate to a halt. host: john and georgia. this is jamaal out of university park, illinois. good morning. caller: good morning, i hope you're doing well. about the filibuster, i have very mixed feelings about this. on one hand, i can understand senators trying to stop radical, nutty legislation and it was used effectively under the administration of the previous

administration. on the other hand, i also understand that it can be misused. here's what i would propose. i think that the filibuster should be modified whereby it can only be used as long as a bill does not deal with national defense or civil rights or voting rights, considered civil rights. then you could consider the filibuster. if it's a civil rights bill or a bill dealing with national defense, no. i like the idea of a talking filibuster. meaning if you filibuster, you have to be up there talking and the minute that you shut up, a majority vote could move it on. there does need to be some sort of altering of the filibuster. i don't think it necessarily

needs to be abolished, but altering it in such a way where there are exemptions for bills around human rights and national defense. host: that is jamaal, illinois. the first caller talking about the difference between the judicial nomination filibuster and legislative filibuster, referring to what happened in 2013. "the new york times," taking a focus back in 2013, when harry reid of nevada, then senate majority leader lined up a series of judicial nominees for vacancies on a procedures court to show that they were going to block the nominees no matter how qualified they were. they brought up the nominees repeatedly for four -- floor growth. the senators in their ranks said they had no choice but to lower the 60 vote threshold to nominees to prevent the obama

administration from being denied their right to seek judges. nuclear option on the judicial nominee filibuster, we are talking about continued filibusters on legislation. eliminating that 60 vote threshold to move it along, democrats, (202) 748-8000. (202) 748-8001, republicans. independents, (202) 748-8002. we mentioned mitch mcconnell going to the floor yesterday after dinner urban, the number two senator, the number two democratic senator went to the floor on monday to argue for changes in the filibuster and continued to talk about it yesterday. [video clip] >> 12 years ago, you remember when mitch mcconnell pronounced the beginning of the obama

administration of one term presidency and set up to deny any republican votes for anything obama wanted. it went on and on and on for months and years. it was frustrating to be a senator and even worse, an american looking to the senate for result. what plan to the republicans have in this round? it appears to be the same mcconnell ibook. we are not going to play. we are not going to participate. look what happened. we passed the american rescue plan without him and the american people now get a look at what mitch mcconnell and his senate republicans refused to support, addressing the most fundamental concerns families have across america. first, the pandemic. second, the economy. third, a myriad of other issues, schools for kids or individuals who receive enough cash to make it through the next few months. these are the bottom-line issues for americans. mcconnell stays on the sidelines and refuses to participate.

i hope he's wrong. i hope enough republicans decide that this is not the right approach and they will join us in bipartisan efforts. there are many things we can't do by reconciliation. we need bipartisan approach. i hope they see that it's in the best interests of those in this country to come together. host: dick durbin talking about the use of budget reconciliation , that's how the rescue plan was passed by simple majority vote in the senate but the process can't be used every time so now, more discussion and pressure on the idea of ending the 60 vote threshold in the senate. the editorial board of "the wall street journal" in the senate, saying democrats should not underestimate how much grass support gop would have if they break this out -- the filibuster in the senate to force civil

rights law's to pass the green new deal. host: the wall street journal does quote this morning. joey, oklahoma city. do you think democrats should eliminate the filibuster? caller: 101% they should. this is really not, this is very easy. back when it was done over

judicial nominations, they did that because the courts were backed up two years because of republicans not even letting qualified people through. they were eventually forced to reduce that threshold for those nominations. but the democrats being more reasonable decided to keep it for supreme court because they realize how important that was and mitch just tore that down so he could get the nominees through that he wanted. having said that, here's what really is, at the end of the day, there's too many serious issues. we can't let mitch mcconnell, the human blockade to anything resembling progress in america, block things like climate protection where the climate is causing massive damage all over the world, record storms every

month. we can't let a handful of people, republicans in the congress block what must be done on a simple, technical roulette they passed. host: are you ready for what "the wall street journal" calls the unintended consequences if and one rib -- if and when republicans take control of the senate, the house, and the white house? caller: let me make this clear, if the democrats get rid of that rule for passing laws that the american people overwhelmingly support, the republicans, the trumpets.,ists, -- trumpissts, the hate will never take office again. host: joey, good morning. caller: i agree that the

filibuster is being used as a weapon against we the people. it's being used as a weapon. the people want and the people should vote and decide whether they want the filibuster or not. not democrats, not republicans. we the people. host: did you think the filibuster was used as a weapon against we the people when donald trump was in office and republicans were in charge of the senate? caller: yes. host: you thought it should go then and you think it should go now? caller: yes. host: democratic line, alabama. caller: this has been a 10 year odyssey where when republicans get control of the senate, mitch mcconnell didn't need to abolish the filibuster during the trump administration. for half of that time he had a democratic house.

but he was able to block everything because he controls everything that comes to the floor. they should just get rid of the filibuster and make your means of government prove themselves. if people don't like the results, they will vote you out the next election. having this sort of blockade to certain forms of legislation, you show your work and after four years if your work is bad, the people will vote you out, it means they want something different. it's but having this in place impeaches progress on so many levels. host: republican line, virginia, good morning. caller: i think we should keep the filibuster and it's evident that we should, like the gentleman said, you should rule or oversee the senate and

legislature with the consideration of a minority in mind. that needs to be applied to both sides. host: did you feel that way during the trump administration? caller: absolutely. if the republicans had been in charge of the house i would still say you should lower the threshold to push things through because again, people think that the majority of americans want this to happen. well a fair majority, right? it isn't as if 75% to 80% of the nation supports the initiatives. it's just a fair majority. when you can force it through, just like they did with the covid relief bill, which had a lot of good things in it, but they managed to ramrod it through without taking into consideration any of the things the other half of the country once.

or wanted to be pulled out of their. i think it's just bad business to start ram rotting things through without consideration of the minority in mind. host: what's your view of how the house of representatives has worked, especially in recent years? a majority area and body, majority rules. there's no filibustering in the house. caller: it creates kindling for divisiveness and very heated arguments. whereas if they had to have a very super majority or not just a fair majority to pass things through the house as well, republicans or democrats being in charge, hopefully one of these days we get an independent middle-of-the-road party that can get in there and get things done, even though i have

generally voted republican i would consider myself more of an independent. if they would do that, you wouldn't have nearly as many extremely divisive bills and things that leave the senate or the house and then make it to the senate and die. i honestly honestly believe that they leave it this way so that they can create some sort of divisiveness. the house can say we did it and then the senate can say we stopped it. host: mark in philly, democrat, good morning, you are next. caller: good morning, john. i think we should go back to the talking filibuster of old, the jimmy stewart type. i don't know how we got away from it, but we need to go back to it. the simple reason is, ok, "wall street journal" calls it a double-edged sword. if republicans gain control again, so what? to me, why do we

vote? why do we go out and vote? we go out and vote to have things done. not to have constant gridlock like we have had where absolutely positively nothing is getting done. let's get rid of the old filibuster or put back in the old filibuster and get a new version, the mitch mcconnell version. if there are elections and things get through that normally wouldn't have gotten through, like the other callers said, the next midterm election you about that party out. host: more background on the idea of talking filibuster, recent history, we mentioned mitch mcconnell going to the floor after there was interest expressed in the idea of returning to the talking filibuster, mr. manchin's support for read -- reinstating the talking filibuster was not new he was one of 26 democrats

who waited in favor of a proposal from jeff merkley of oregon requiring senators to take the floor to make remarks to block legislation. no republicans voted for it then in the measure failed and if it had passed the senate would have been allowed to enter host: this is greg, mechanicsburg, pennsylvania. republican line. caller: yes, mr. mcconnell. i'm not opposed to the change of the filibuster rule. it was inappropriate vehicle used by the senate, which is entitled to set its own rules, back in a time.

if circumstances have changed and it becomes necessary to change the rules, everything changes. nothing stays the same. i'm ok with that concept. the problem is when people try to use, for example, what mitch mcconnell did back during the first term of the obama administration and he repeated the mistake this morning when you had the clip on senator durbin. what mitch mcconnell did back then, please correct the viewers who called about this. that was mitch mcconnell, saying that after obamacare got through, ran through, and president obama said elections have consequences, that is when mitch mcconnell said if that's how he's going to govern, we must said -- we must do what we can to make him a what -- one term president. please make that clear. that's a fact.

as to the opening of your show this morning. let's make sure that we report on the violence against everybody every day if that's what you want to do. host: that's greg and pennsylvania. west palm beach, florida, independent line, good morning. caller: good morning. what i want to say to the american people is we need to recognize that we are living in a democratic country and what's going on is the politicians will say whatever is expedient and they are inciting us and when we fight against each other they are the ones who oppose. the senate was designed where democrats and republicans could get together and compromise, negotiate to come up with bills representative of the american people. it makes no sense for people to be signing off on bills only if they are republican or democratic in nature. if you have a democratic

president, the bills are going to lean democratic. if you have a republican president, they will lean republican. but you have to incorporate the ideas from democrats and from republicans. i mean this is not a communist country. i don't want a country where the only ideas i'm hearing are the ideas of republicans or the ideas of democrats. we are supposed to be willing to sit and listen to each other's ideas. the thing about the filibuster, it seems like every time the republicans are in power, they won't negotiate on anything. they will only vote on those things that are completely republican and anything else is an utter failure. host: that's terrence out of florida this morning. here's a similar sentiment from connecticut. a valid policy with bipartisan support, he's saying keep the filibuster and force government compromise.

this from another viewer from twitter. change the filibuster but eliminate complaints about dr. seuss, time to get serious. a few comments from social media today. coming up on 7:30 on the east coast, asking you if senate democrats now in charge of the chamber, should they eliminate the filibuster? a deep dive on how exactly that might work from the brookings institution. they take a look at the debate over the years on ending the filibuster. here's what they write in their recent piece. the most straightforward way to eliminate it would be to formally change the text of the cloture rule that requires 60 votes to end debate on legislation. but ending the debate on a resolution to change the standing rules requires the support of two thirds of the members present in voting

host: the brookings institution, the headline, what is the senate filibuster and how it can be eliminated, if you want to check out that story. john, republican line. should democrats eliminate the filibuster?

caller: yes, sir. in addition to a lot of other things i see the filibuster rule is just more of a symptom. the only way to really deal with this on a long-term basis is to set term limits, one, and two, the line item veto. you saw what happened with the one point $9 trillion that was just approved, a totally partisan vote. and now it's just going to, it's been rammed through. there's no way to get around it. there's no way to pick out those things that are purely pork. people just really don't like paying for the mistakes of you know, people from oklahoma and other places that don't like paying for their mistakes in new york and illinois, california.

they've got to get a grip on things. that i think would help more than anything to solve a lot of different problems. host: that's john. joseph, compton, democratic line, good morning. caller: good morning, america. i would like to disagree with the individual who just spoke. 30 years ago we passed a crime bill and every senator signed on to it. republican senators signing on to a crime bill, willing to support locking people up, building prisons and doing all types of things, as the guy was saying, willing to support people in california and new york from doing wrong. but here they was willing to sign a crime bill. but here now when people need help, no support. nobody signed on to this. it's ridiculous. yes, we should get rid of this

filibuster. if republicans were in charge, mcconnell would be sure enough that if he needed you to do whatever he had to to get rid of it. it's host: to that point, yesterday mitch mcconnell said that he wouldn't get rid of it. saying that when republicans were in charge of the senate and then president wanted him to do it. here's more from mitch mcconnell on the senate floor yesterday. [video clip] >> some seem to think it would be a tidy trade-off if they could break the rules on a razor thin majority. sure, it might damage the institution. it's it's a new era of fast-track policy. but mr. president, anyone who knows the senate knows that that is not what would happen. let me say this very clearly. for all 99 of my colleagues. nobody serving in this chamber

can even begin, can even begin to imagine what a completely scorched earth senate would look like. none of us have served one minute in a senate that was completely drained of comedy -- comity and consent. they need unanimous consent to turn the lights on before noon. this bet -- the schedule committee does this. to move noncontroversial nominations for anything besides a snail pace. i want colleagues to imagine a world where every single path, everyone of them, requires a physical quorum. which, by the way, the vice

president does not count in determining a quorum. host: senator mitch mcconnell, yesterday on the senate floor. it was also yesterday on this program on "the washington journal" that we were joined by congressman bob scott, the chairman of the house education and labor committee. he discussed the idea of ending the filibuster as well. we have been talking with members in recent weeks and this idea has gained more traction and we have been talking with you about it as well. it's our first hour this morning that we have set aside to discuss the elimination of the filibuster. should the senate democrats do it? there have been increasing calls for it. if you think they should or shouldn't, call in on phone lines split i political party. democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001.

independents, (202) 748-8002. ohio, independent line, good morning. caller: i think they ought to overhaul it and make them stand up like president biden said and do that. it wasn't really there to start with, i don't know when it got incorporated, the filibuster wasn't there all the time regarding to what mansion says. anyway, i just don't understand it. seems like the republicans want to rule, democrats want to govern. it's been that way and the term limits to start with, should have house leaders, senate leaders. mitch mcconnell, he don't impress me with his talking yesterday. my god, he's the one who wouldn't even see merrick garland. the president has a right to, by god they put that last judge in for trump just like that.

they are two-faced, you know? he's been there so long he's just concerned about being in power. like every republican, that's all they are concerned about. they have nothing to offer. talking about the american people and what they are talking about is the keyword saying you voted for me, so you are american. host: that's great and in ohio on the history of the filibuster. a bit more on that brookings institution report. they note that the filibuster was not part of the original vision of the senate from the founders. rather the emergence was made possible in 1806 when the senate , at the advice of aaron burr removed from its rules a provision formally known as the previous question motion allowing simple majority to force a vote on the underlying question being debated .

host: john, arlington, virginia, good morning. caller: this doesn't sound very republican, i'm a republican but i believe in responsible government. some of our friends overseas, britain, canada, australia, new zealand, stuff like that, traditional democratic societies, they live with responsible government. you vote for somebody because you support them and they govern. if they don't do well, the other side votes, the other side, you go to an election on the other end and they do what they want and you have the courts's sort it out to make sure that people don't go insane and screw up

real constitutional rights. the founding fathers did not actually envisage party government. they believed, it was kind of shortsighted, that we would not have political parties. that disappeared in about three or four years. the filibuster was not a part of the original, like you just said. like i said, i think we should get rid of it and allow responsible government and if people don't like what they do in the government, they get a chance to vote them out. the solving of the problem of runaway single parliament government involved the states with the senate representing the state. where you had 10% of the people blocking everything, everything

they could. host: that's john in arlington. philip out of clarksburg, west virginia, independent, good morning. caller: good morning. i'm an 86-year-old bonehead. people are talking about getting rid of this. i seen on their yesterday i believe it was, they showed them two years ago hollering please don't do that, keep it, keep it. i'm an independent. seems to show them two years ago , the way they was, it just shows how quickly they change when they are in charge. host: what do you think democrats would say about this if they changed it and then republicans got back in charge down the road? caller: i wouldn't care. i don't care, really.

both parties are pathetic. but if they change it, it's like mitch mcconnell said. you will rue the day you did it. back to where we select supreme court judges and district judges and all that. remember, mcconnell is the one that changed it. everybody forgets about old harry. how slick harry was. he had so many bills to bring to front. it was pathetic. host: that was philip. david, you are next. caller: good morning. the american way for the past couple decades seems to be to jump from the fine -- frying pan to the fire, vote for one extreme to the other. we don't need to eliminate the filibuster. what we need to do is reform the

filibuster. force these senators at point of filibuster to stay on the senate floor. the intent of the filibuster is compromise. it have is -- it hasn't achieved it. the only substantive legislation that has passed has been since the filibuster through reconciliation or some other process. if we force them to stay on the floor until a compromise is reached, we will start seeing compromise again and that will benefit the american people. host: fort lauderdale, florida, democratic line, good morning. caller: the democrats should do everything possible, whatever they can do against the republican party that was rejected this year, get things done for the american people. the american people want to have things done and that's the end of it. host: diane, kansas, good

morning. caller: i read a forbes article recently that discusses the issue of the filibuster. mcconnell said that if the democrats did that, he would require a 51 majority senate sit in the house while this is going on, gumming up the works and stopping everything. i support that. two can play this game. if they try that, he's got his methods also. host: and that's what mitch mcconnell promised yesterday, saying that he would force votes even on the most nominal procedural issues in the senate, force votes on everything, saying he can play that game as well. we talked about it this morning

in the first hour asking if senate democrats should eliminate the filibuster. yesterday we mentioned that we talked to house democrats bobby scott, the chairman of the house education and labor committee, who mentioned this issue about the filibuster in the senate. here's the perspective of a democratic house member on the filibuster in the senate and how the senate has been operating. [video clip] >> the senate is in a situation where they are somewhat dysfunctional. the american rescue plan hold at about 70% and never got a single vote either in the house or senate from the republican side. you need 60 votes and you can't get a single vote for a plan that's running 70% in the polls, including majority of republicans. and then the senate has a problem that exceeds any of the recent bills being considered.

they've got to figure out how to launch them. host: congressman bobby scott yesterday on this program. if you want to watch that entire interview, you can do so on our website, c-span.org. one more column on this, we mentioned the editorial board of "the wall street journal, co--- journal," well this is the lead editorial column from "the economist," the latest issue that came out, how to renew american democracy, scrapping the filibuster would help. we will read that -- you can read that at economist.com. we've got about 15 minutes left to discuss this, if you want to join the conversation. joseph, san diego, democratic line, good morning. caller: if you look at every western nation, they don't model the american process and don't

have anything but assembling the filibuster. it has to go the demographics of the u.s. are now clearly in the democratic favor and they are going even stronger. i think the republican party. it has death throes embracing things like white supremacy, voter suppression, gerrymandering. even the structure without the filibuster goes against democratic principles. i'm from california. we have two senators. why do north dakota, south dakota, and wyoming have six senators? that's not enough? they want the filibuster on top of this? bc doesn't have any type of representation. puerto rico doesn't have any type of representation. this is insane. western democracies laugh at our system. the filibuster must go. host: democratic line, good morning. caller: good morning, john.

good morning, john. thank you for taking my call. the filibuster is a vestige of slavery. it was used to stop debate on civil rights, slavery to begin with. i think people are looking at this as things are just kind of business as usual flynn we are facing an existential threat of pandemic, climate collapse. we can't make any headway if we have got a bunch of recalcitrant republicans who just want to stop all progress. i mean that's what they believe conservatism means. to stop progress in its tracks and say no, go back. we can't go back. we have new alternatives. we don't have to listen to the

tinfoil trump hat trumpet whiners and sarcastic sycophants talking about scorched-earth policies. the earth is being scorched. we are losing animals. host: that's chuck in colorado. going up to michigan, independent line, good morning. caller: are you there? host: yes, sir. caller: i was just thinking about your last caller in didn't think he was right at all. but if you eliminate the filibuster and democrats go on and start passing bill after bill and eventually bankrupt the country, where do we go from there? our country don't have, you know, tons of money to keep going on and on with their spending. i think there should be term limits and i think that the filibuster should stay. host: staying in the wolverine state, grand rapids, good morning. caller: good morning, c-span.

my whole idea about the filibuster, i'm a tell you right off the front, they should get rid of it. remember, the man they called -- that called a few calls back, when he said that mitch mcconnell only said they would do what they were going to do with president obama after the president pushed through some bill, that's a lie. the night that the president was elected mitch mcconnell and a bunch of republicans went and strategized how they were going to make him a one term president and they wouldn't let anything that he put up come to the floor. host: bring us to 2021. the presidency of joe biden, do you think that this is something that needs to happen today? are you concerned what might happen down the road if there is a republican in the white house and a republican is in charge of the senate? caller: the thing about that is it's happening anyway.

just like they say. if they don't do what they say they going to do, throw them out. host: from michigan down to the yellow hammer states. republican line, good morning. caller: good morning, sir. this filibuster to me is just a waste of time of talking about it and too much paperwork. it's just ways to do much. i wish they would make up their minds about what they will really do to take care of our america today. we are in a very dangerous line of finances, jobs, and with a final stroke of the pen, shutting down the pipeline in these major industries, somehow someway that's got to stop. host: talking more about pipelines this morning, kelly armstrong of north dakota, we

will talk about that with her. you talk about helping the economy. does the american rescue plan in your mind to do that? caller: no. i watch a lot of c-span and what they are doing. fox news. it upset the heck out of me when a lot of things were being shut down after president trump got us back on our feet real good. i was looking at everything coming out real good until the stroke of the pen shut down a lot of things. host: president joe biden is on a tour around the country this week and in the coming weeks as well. we are expecting to talk about why he believes the american rescue plan is going to get the country back on their feet. president biden dropped by a

company, ford, in the suburbs of philadelphia on tuesday to promote the american rescue plan and talk about the various provisions, including the ppp loans to help small businesses, discussing that on the same day that the senate confirmed mr. biden pause nominee to the small business administration was confirmed yesterday by a vote of 81 to 17. we are going to be talking more about small businesses in this country in the last half-hour of the program today. at 9:30 this morning we will talk to small business owners and employees about what they need and what they received in terms of aid over the course of the past 12 months. the house coming in today, we will take you there for live gavel-to-gavel coverage as usual. for about 10 more minutes this morning, taking your phone calls about the filibuster. should senate democrats

eliminate the filibuster? mike, miami, independent, good morning. caller: you can illuminate the filibuster if you eliminate political parties. it's the only thing standing in the way of making the country a true democracy and if it's a true democracy that would be the end of the country like it was to begin with under the articles of confederation. every democracy that has ever existed has failed because it doesn't work. get 100 people to vote for something and say this is what we want, they could all be wrong. democracy is not a good word. host: why do you pin your help on the filibuster? caller: with democracy, they are already trying to put, democracy is working in front of your face right now. all of one party has got control and they are going to push all their agenda.

listen to what george washington said. the undoing of this country would be political parties. that's how the corruption gets in. everybody is controlled. get rid of the political parties. host: have you felt this way under republican presidents and republican leadership? caller: every one of them. it's been going on forever. host: republican line, maryland, good morning. caller: good morning. i am not for the filibuster. the democrat party, i was a democrat for 61 years. i seen their dirty tricks and the whole bit. this election turned to in. i registered republican. all they do is get down there and lie and lie and lie to the people. they don't, this country is going to end up to be a socialist country with a and

harris in their. -- in there. it was never like this when i was growing up. host: tennessee, democratic line, good morning. caller: the republicans, when they was in power, they did this to get their way. now they are sitting up there saying that the democrats want to get rid of it to get their way. that's the only way. caller: what would you -- host: what would you point to as republicans getting their way when they were in power? caller: everything that was against with obama. they wouldn't let anything that man put up go through for the country. same thing right now, it's they want to contribute with that

bill that would help white republicans, too. i don't understand that. host: do you think republicans felt that way when donald trump was president and republicans were in charge of the senate, that democrats were doing everything they did to block him and not backing legislation that might help? caller: i love to look at the senate and the congress. democrats are more easy to work along with republicans on bills. but sir, these republicans are not working on anything. even to help their own statuettes. how in the world could they set up a vote against a bill that would help the poor white people and everybody. they got rent to pay to live in their houses. look what they did down there in texas. these republican people, trump needs to wake up. only one thing they care about, the rich will [indiscernible]

host: republican line, good morning. caller: all you, all you people out there better stop and think, these bills that democrats are passing, we got to pay for all that stuff. we are up to $6 trillion in the last year. who is going to pay for that? we are. that money is not free, people. the only thing to stop the democrats from this spending spree, they are spending like drunken sailors, is the filibuster. or your kids and grandkids will have to pay it off. it's your choice. host: the spending spree that you're talking about, $1.9 trillion in the latest bill passed on a party line vote in the house and senate. but we are talking about over $5 trillion, the other part of that, everything else was passed

under the trump administration. caller: we are in financial dire straits right now and the trump administration, the economy was at 3.5 percent unemployment, lowest in 50 years. you have to remember, only 9% of that bill was covert relief. the rest of it went towards bailing out california, bailing out new york. look at the pension plans in the state of california. waste, waste, waste, mismanagement. hundreds of billions of dollars [indiscernible] host: philip, tulsa, oklahoma. democrat, last caller in this segment. caller: i'm a blue dog democrat, not a progressive democrat. they should not do away with the

filibuster. if they do away with it, the red states needed to secede from the union because all the things the red states are doing is paying for the blue states freebies that they want. host: that's philip in oklahoma and that will do it for the first hour of "washington journal." stick around, much more to come. up next we will be joined by republican congresswoman kelly armstrong of north dakota. later, two women's rights bills will be voted on later today. the violence against women's act and equal rights amendment will get a primer on each -- amendment, we will get a primer on each. stick around, we will be right back. ♪

>> american history tv, exploring the people and events that tell the history of american people. a discussion on sheridan's ride, the 1836 ride ending the confederate resistance in the shenandoah valley. four films marking women's history month. a recreation of events of the assassination attempt on president ronald reagan. at 8:00 p.m. eastern, the author of "what jefferson read," talks about how popular culture influences presidents. watch american history tv this weekend on c-span3.

>> "washington journal" continues. host: we welcome back kelly armstrong, a member of the house energy and commerce committee. it has been seven weeks ago that president biden took executive action and paused oil and gas leasing on federal lands. what has been the impact on the energy sector and commerce in your home state? guest: first, the impact is that you have to take in the world of covid. the oil and gas industry was doing well, and in the pandemic hit and demand went down worldwide. we recognize these things in north dakota a lot because we produce a lot of things we don't consume. secondly, you have both the keystone xl issue and federal leasing issue.

it does not stop existing leases, but it -- when you combine all of these things, it cools investment and growth. not a lot of people looking at doing big product -- projects continuing to move forward. people have to remember that the decline rate on any particular well is pretty significant. the only way production stays up and tax revenue and people stay employed is if they are not only producing what they have now but working toward future production. the ban on federally says has cooled companies' interest in doing that. host: explain what both the xl pipeline and original keystone, what that means for jobs. guest: i think that is one of the misnomer's. prior to covid, unemployment was essentially negative. we were one of the only economies that did not suffer

through the 2009-2010 economic crisis. the people working on those pipelines were from kenosha, wisconsin, suburbs in ohio, suburbs of chicago. what it does is stop temporary and permanent jobs in infrastructure investment. for us, we don't actually put a lot of oil in the keystone. our concern is mostly, if you take away the safest and most reliable way to transport oil and natural gas, you don't take that stuff from going to market, it just goes by truck or rail, which competes against our ad products for transportation costs and increases carbon emissions in the process. host: we have seen double digit increases in the average price of gasoline over the past month.

do you blame the biden administration for that? guest: partially. when you look at gas prices, you have to take it historically. we have a pandemic, so less production, less companies investing. at the same time, demand is slowly taking up. you have international reasons and global markets. opec said it is not going to increase production. there are a lot of reasons gas prices go up, but a significant factor is investor confidence in the future of an industry. there is no doubt the biden administration has made that a skeptical option for a lot of investors. host: congressman kelly armstrong is our guest this morning. if you want to talk energy, commerce, climate change issues, give us a call. one line for democrats, one for republicans, one for independents.

on the issue of climate change, you are a member of the house select committee on the climate crisis. what role should that committee be playing to respond to the climate crisis? guest: the committee does not have bill writing power or subpoena power. a lot of it is pretty ideological divides. i think we should be talking about technology neutral ways we should lower our carbon footprint. we have to have this conversation and we need to continue it moving forward, but we have to do it based in reality. one of the problems with the climate conversation that is far too often in the united states is it is mostly about outsourcing our guilt. the world is going to burn more oil next year whether we shut down on shore shale or not.

we have to have conversations about how we do this, but the atmosphere also does not stop at the u.s. border. if our goal is to shut down the economy in western north dakota and not do anything to reduce carbon emissions worldwide, that is terrible policy and will end up being terrible politics. we need to make sure we are working forward with real-world situations under existing or emerging technology. host: the biden administration is looking next at major infrastructure bills and also, a major client bill. there has been talk at perhaps doing those two things at once. there's a headline today that democrats insist on infrastructure plan in the form of green new deal. do you think those two things should be tied together? guest: i don't. if you look at the transportation bill that came through the u.s. house last year, the climate language was

intertwined completely throughout the bill. as somebody who comes from an area that has this, one of the most significant problems is the regulation put in place in those processes either requires you to utilize technology that doesn't exist yet or technology that exists at a cost and makes it completely uneconomical to produce the energy. host: congressman armstrong with us until the bottom of the hour this morning. joe is a republican. you are on. caller: hi. is the keystone pipeline still being worked on now, has it been totally shut down since he signed an executive order? i think they should still be working on it. if he wants us to stop the pipeline, to hell with him, keep

building it. second of all, our union president told us, you guys have got to vote for biden. in nine days, he screwed all of us workers on the keystone pipeline. host: got your question. guest: i will do the second part first, i think that is true. as asked majority of pipelines built across the country are built by unions. most people think republicans are antiunion and a lot of democrats are prounion, that is not the case. north dakota is pro dealing with allowing employers to do it however they see fit. it is the northern extension of the keystone. it is not being worked on and it is really difficult to have a company who has already invested millions and millions of dollars to continue investing millions of more dollars with one stroke

of the pen if the presidential permit is taken away. i wish they would keep doing this while they continue to litigate it or work forward. from a perspective of what it brings and how it safely transports a product we proudly produce in north dakota, i agree with that, but it is really unrealistic to ask a company to take that kind of financial risk. host: marvin, republican. caller: i just wanted to mention -- where do they stand today? i think they need to be repealed and i think we need to stop dealing with those tariffs that are no longer in place. they need to be back in place to protect our economy. what do you think? guest: north dakota is a

commodity-based economy. we produce a whole lot of things we don't consume and we like free and fair trade. i also think the second part of that is fair trade. any tools we can use utilize better trade agreements with anybody, i'm comfortable doing, but i think eventually, we have to get to a place. we have seen this through covid and other things, the united states has a china problem. at the same time, north dakotans want to sell their ad products. we need to make sure the united states does not continue to get disadvantaged too often in many of our trade agreements. host: patrick, independent. caller: good morning. the pipeline was stopped by republican governors because you

say oil, that is like the tar oil. it is not like the liquid crude. georgia, south carolina and florida have stopped any drilling by voter demands of federal waters. under the jeb bush administration in florida, which is always left out on c-span2m= , big company wanted to build a natural terminal gas in the anti-drill baby crowd showed up. i know this is your version of cancel culture where you don't specifically say where all the energy is in america and who wants to distribute it. thanks for taking my call. guest: we talk about this dirty

oil. if anybody ever has talked to or understands how the canadian government works when they're producing this, this is not a different oil. all oils are different. it is involved in a global market. when we continue to talk about energy independence and agriculture independence, we are always going to be talking about having relationships with our neighbors to the north versus some of our strategic adversaries in the middle east. that is a misnomer and a political point. even more importantly, remember, that oil is going to market either way. they are going to get it somewhere. the pipelines as far as governors, this thing has been going on for 12 years. the point is, there was nothing unique about the pipeline. there was duke and dominion.

the only unique thing about the keystone xl, it was the one thing the president could do with the stroke of a pen. obama got rid of the presidential permit after the game had been played. everybody had complied. they had dealt with all of the lawsuits, they had been going through this and had 12 to 14 years of dealing with this when they had met every federal, state and regulatory requirement. just because there was a new administration, they took the permit away. host: earlier this week in the senate, deb haaland confirmed as secretary of the interior. now, your former colleague in the house. do you think she will be a confident steward of the millions of acres of tribal lands in north dakota? guest: i'm skeptical. we had the dakota access pipeline issue in north dakota which was something i was the chair of our senate judiciary

committee at the time. she was down there protesting for the pipeline that actually met all of the romance and did all of those things. i am willing to give anybody a chance, but i will also say i'm very skeptical of secretary holland being good for the economies and industries in north dakota as a whole. guest: did you happen jenna racks and with her? host: -- did you have much interaction with her? guest: i did. she was very nice. she did not make things personal, necessarily. past performance of the best predicate or of future results and her past performances regarding industries that are near and dear to the heart of my state don't give me a lot of confidence. host: speaking of actions on the floor of the house and senate today or this weekend. we are looking for votes on two

immigration bills, the american dream and promise act, which would provide a path to citizenship for millions of young illegal immigrants including those with temporary protected status and the farm workforce modernization act. pathway for illegal farmworkers to secure legal status. will you be supporting either of those? guest: i won't and it is unfortunate because they are two issues i actually care about a lot. i think the dreamer conversation has to happen. if somebody has been here from brazil since they were four years old, they are now 23-year-olds, i don't think it is good public policy to necessarily deport that person back to a country. also, ag is a huge part of the economy in north dakota. we use ag labor significantly.

if you are granting illegal citizenship without dealing with the two things we care the most about, securing the border and amnesty reform -- and the reason it is important is because if we don't do those two things while we deal with the current crisis of immigration, we simply are going to have the same problem again in a generation. if we don't solve this, we are going to do this again in 20 years. we need a reasonable immigration policy both for temporary working and permanent immigration. that cannot happen if we don't deal with border security and amnesty reform. guest: baltimore, maryland. this is andy. caller: republicans are always talking about job loss and union jobs being lost because of the shutdown. can you please comment on the job creation from renewable resources and lithium mining? guest: sure.

i don't think we are going to mine any lithium in the united states anytime soon. this is one of the things on climate crisis i think lots of democrats and republicans agree on. we have to get better at putting infrastructure in the ground quicker while still protecting the environment. the world does not supply enough lithium. if we could just move our electric vehicle fleet, the world as it is does not mine enough lithium. more important, the places where it is our our strategic adversaries in the world which is china and russia. we keep talking about renewables, but the answer is that the raw natural resources we need to scale this up don't exist at a scale we can do it. more importantly, we are going to start a rare earth metal gold rush across the world. it takes about 250 tons of dirt

to be moved to make one electric vehicle battery. we want clean air and clean water and we want to reduce our carbon footprint. those are all realistic goals, but all we are doing here we talk about these policies is create environmental problems in other parts of the world and make economies like north dakota sufferer. host: what is the agenda for securing cleaner american energy? guest: any conversation about reducing our carbon that does not realistically involve natural gas and small-scale nuclear. there are a lot of very left-leaning environmentalist that would also agree with that. investing in technology that allows us to do things carbon free. we can get better at pipelines if we can get them in the ground. that is what is so frustrating.

also, investing in r&d, but making it technology neutral. anyway you can produce energy clearer, -- cleaner, we should be looking towards. caller: thank you for taking my call. i want to remind everyone why keystone is a no go. keystone pipeline had supplied the pacific states. there are some risk people are not willing to take and i would really hate to see what happened in the gulf and those estates lose their source of water. millions of people would die without water. guest: pipelines are the safest way to transport these products. also, i think one of the weird things about pipelines we don't

do well enough, go anywhere in whatever jurisdiction you are, anywhere in the world and try to find an existing pipeline map. it is the definition of seen and not heard. there are pipelines running all across this country. if you are going to be able to safely transport these products that do everything, that make the tv you are watching, the phone you are watching, your clothes, the computer, they are made by petroleum products. any pipeline moving from any significant distance is going to have those types of things. i just want to reiterate one more time that pipelines are without a doubt the safest way to transport these products. host: joe, north carolina. caller: i live about six miles away from the ocean. i used to be a builder of homes, seawalls and whatnot. if you put solar cells on the

roof, you are going to have to do reengineering to make sure the roof can take the uplift when a hurricane comes in. you are going to have to make sure the roof meets the bottom light with a rod to hold it in. that is the law down here. up north is the same thing, but you have a download and you put solar cells in and they only last, a battery pack, for two days. then, what are you going to do? reach for the sky? we have technology, but we have not educated ourselves. electric cars are 400 miles to a charge. where are you going to go that took you days to get there and what happens if there is no charging platform? these people are plainest, star trek happiness and it will not work. guest: i think that is true.

small-scale solar is something and also, an energy grid that takes an appropriate amount of renewables is ok, but one of the things we hear all the time is we will just increase the efficiencies and technologies. those are about the most efficient we can do under any existing technologies about 33%. solar panels are doing it at 23%. we don't really have under any existing technology, a way to do this. i think the storage thing he brought up is really important because our battery technology does not exist to store what we call intermittent power, which is solar and wind. as renewables are used to supplement our great, i think one of the things that has been frustrating is that somehow, we have started talking about these as state -- baseload power and they are not because they simply

don't provide power all the time. if the sun is not shining and the wind is not blowing, you are not getting that power. when it is 40 below zero, it is a conversation of life or death. host: you wanted a map of the pipelines in this country from the american petroleum institute. this is the map of the united states. these are the liquid pipelines in the country, crude and refined liquid gas pipelines. below that, you can see the map of the natural gas pipelines in this country. the blue ones, all of the interstate pipelines, the red dots and lines. 2.4 million miles of underground natural resource lines. some 1900 miles of liquid lines. guest: i am bringing you with me on the road and i think that is really important as somebody who

came through a huge shale boom and saw that we could not get our brains on railcars and our roads in both our -- got absolutely destroyed. if you want to see a success story inputting pipe on the ground in a reasonable and environmentally safe way, i will bring anyone in the world to north dakota. host: it is 190,000 miles of liquid petroleum pipelines in this country. all the available at api.org. richard, nashville, independent. caller: i would like the gentleman from north dakota where it is cold but beautiful, i would like him to explain to the american people right now

the oil industry, just what oil is. it is petroleum. do you realize how much product is made from petroleum? your roads, the pavement you drive on. your pipes and your house. all of this stuff is made from petroleum-based product. if you eliminate oil completely, which you can't ever do, but if you did, this country would be back to the stone ages because electric does not cover it. i would buy an electric car tomorrow if i could pull up to a service station and get a recharge. i ask you to stand your ground in north dakota where you have a big boom and talk about the jobs created. guest: that is another issue from where i come from. we talk about jobs like it is economic, like it is a formula put out there.

i was one of the only kids in my entire high school that stayed in my hometown when i graduated in 1995. nobody stayed around. small, rural communities have changed. instead of that, you can get a job if you are from williston or watford city. your grandparents are watching your kids and you're having family dinners at your house. this is bigger than just an economy and a good paycheck. this is what we do. every single kid that graduates high school in my state can go anywhere they want in the world and they have the opportunity to stay there if they want. that is how important it is to us and we provide a product the world absolutely needs. a clothing company -- every

single thing the gas company wanted to put their logo on with the clothing company was made for my petroleum product. host: any chance you can name the companies? guest: i can't name a company, but if anyone wants to see the colorado petroleum conference gave them an award video. it is a nylon puffer jacket with synthetic insulation. guess what all of that is made from, petroleum products. caller: with all due respect, just so you know, i am an american, not an american't. the technology is making progress in leaps and bounds. as soon as the battery technology comes to fruition,

there are plenty of other things that are coming. we have right now, the technology to produce if not all of your energy, at least some of your energy for your own house. people out there are continuously putting down why we can't do this and that. the longer we wait, the worse this is going to get. i can think of two plants right now that you can make all kinds of stuff out of. down south, we have a plant that grows fast enough to swallow a house. it grows over one foot a day and it has plenty of oil in it. guest: investing in r&d on those things are great. i am a huge supporter of hemp.

the reality is is that existing emergence r&d technology don't exist yet. under current technology, we are pretty efficient in renewables and under current battery technology, we don't have an ability to store energy. it is bad public policy to move things forward before the technology exists either to do it all or do it in a way that does not drive up energy cost at exorbitant rates for every citizen of the united states. i think we do need to invest in technology. i think battery technology and all of those things are viable and we should do that provided the investment dollars are going and energy neutral ways and we are just looking for outcomes. i don't think passing public policy on technology that doesn't exist yet is a good idea. caller: i had a comment and

maybe a question concerning the line that goes under the streets of mackinaw where it divides lake huron and lake michigan. i live in michigan, but anyway, the way the present line is, i have seen pictures of it and they show the pipe being exposed. i understand what he is saying about transporting oil. if you are going to do it one way or another. a lot of times rail is not the best because trucks, you have accidents. that line that goes under that lake, ambridge had a line that went under the kalamazoo river. that really contaminated the river and it is still trying to come back. guest: when you're putting in a

pipeline that is going and crossing state lines, you have to get permits, local permits, significant permits, but i will say one of the things i am concerned about, and this is not so much that part of it, it has to be done safely and has to meet the requirements. the pipe being put in the ground now is better than the one being put in the ground 30 years ago. we can't even replace existing lines now without 7, 8, 10 years of litigation, protests. regardless of how you feel, for far too many of the environmentalist, the answer is to try and keep the product in the ground. i don't think anybody can say replacing a new pipeline with an old pipeline does not make that line safer. they just want to shut down completely and that is a position i think is bad for the united states and my state.

host: north dakota has several state nicknames, the peace garden state, flicker tail state and rough riders. is one more correct? guest: i prefer rough riders because i'm from western north dakota and our nickname was the rough riders. if you ever get a chance to get up there, the peace gardens are fantastic. we have a lot of really cool things to see. i recommend coming spring or summer. we love to have anybody who wants to visit. we will take you there. host: congressman kelly armstrong. he represents the whole state. always appreciate your time. guest: thank you. host: up next, more of your phone calls, including a preview of the homeland security secretary's testimony later this morning on the surge on the southwest border.

you can start calling in with your top public policy issue. democrats, republicans and independents. phone numbers are on your screen. we will get to your calls right after the break. ♪ >> listen to c-span's podcast this week. a senior research fellow on the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill and how it impacts the united states' already growing federal debt. >> my big problem is that this is a massive bill which is totally disconnected with needs brought on by this pandemic. >> find c-span's the weekly where you get your podcasts. >> "washington journal" continues. host: about 20 minutes to take

your phone calls asking your top public policy concerns. turning the phone lines over to you. one line for democrats, one for republicans, one for independents. remember, you can send us a text. if you do, please include your name and where you are from. let us know what is on your mind during another very busy week on capitol hill. the house in today at 10:00 a.m. eastern. we will take you there when they return. you can wants gavel-to-gavel coverage on c-span and c-span2. we promise to keep you updated on the latest on the deadly shooting spree that happened late yesterday in the atlanta metro area. federal agents are joining the

investigation into the shooting spree at three metro atlanta massage parlors that left eight people dead including six asian women within a span of 45 minutes. the fbi arrived this morning where the 21-year-old shooting suspect was captured tuesday night at the end of a police chase. sheriff's deputies are on the scene as part of a sweeping investigation. authorities have not yet released the identities or suspected motives. we will keep you updated as we do learn more this morning. time for your phone calls. thomas is up first out of new york. a republican. good morning. caller: i called into the democratic line. host: go ahead. caller: i actually have two top

issues. one would be the border patrol and biden's handling. he said in a report that he would not go and visit those detention camps. from the news, if he had gone down there and looked, he might have a whole different opinion of a whole bunch of kids being trapped in these buildings for weeks or months at a time. host: you are calling on the democratic line, democrats have two bills on the floor this week dealing with immigration issues, giving a pathway to citizenship for certain illegal immigrants in this country including dreamers and others, farm workers. do you support those bills? caller: i don't know much about those bills, to be honest. i would think that they would want to go and check on this and

see it for himself and it might give him a little compassion. host: where did you see the report that he would not go? caller: it was on cnn. host: are you a democrat who supported joe biden in the election? caller: up until the election, he sounded like a very compassionate, real president, which we have never really had except for kennedy. wait one second before you disconnect me because the other one was about the stimulus checks. people on social security live $7,000 below the poverty rate. i still have not gotten any word on when i might get a stimulus check and i checked they get my payment website and it keeps saying they don't have enough information. i looked all of that up and it still does not help me out as to

tell me when social security people are going to get it. i don't file taxes because i don't have to. host: that is thomas out of new york. this is tony out of new jersey. caller: i have two issues. one is water quality. i think we should be developing a system to take ocean water. i know it is expensive. israel can do it, we can do it, too. the second thing is, maybe we need another energy source. lithium is a very lightweight element and packs a very powerful punch. i think it will get us into space and i think it is a clean energy source that we need to look into more. those are my two issues at this point. host: linda, good morning. caller: good morning.

i watch her program every day. you are fantastic. i have a lot to say, but i know you don't have much time. everybody that voted for biden should run for the hills. there is nothing going to happen by him. he does not know what he is doing. he should be checked by a doctor. then, we are going to have pelosi. fluid keep continuing to have schumer and pelosi and all the dumb people up there? we should be in their voting when they give us the money because they have so much -- in there. host: what is the top policy issue in your mind? when you vote, what do you vote on? caller: i vote on the best person in the best person was impeached for no reason whatsoever. we should impeached the whole white house, the democrats. they are killing our country. host: that is linda this morning

in ohio. >> good morning. my main issue is animal agriculture, which is causing genocide and animal agony, human disease such as heart disease, cancer, kidney disease. it is causing climate change, deforestation. it is a disaster. host: do you want everyone to go vegetarian? caller: to go vegan. even dairy products can cause ovarian and breast and prostate cancer and have animal fat, which can block arteries causing strokes, heart attacks,

aneurysms. host: we are asking for your top public policy issues. we also want to keep you updated on the various news stories you should stay on top of here in washington and around the country. we mentioned abc news interviewed president biden for his remarks on the filibuster. other news made in the interview aired this morning on good morning america. joe biden said andrew cuomo should resign if the investigation confirms claims he committed sexual harassment. i know you said you wanted the investigation to continue. the president replied he would probably end up being

prosecuted. several accusers have raised allegations against the democratic governor. one claim that he groped a woman. several lawmakers have called on cuomo to step down. caller: my top issue is immigration. i supported biden. i was never a fan of trump. on the immigration issue, i am afraid the democrats are making a mistake. i understand that people are

coming and crossing the border because they are running from violence and whatever the issues are, but america is not a place to seek refuge. there are other countries in south america. what other leaders in the south american countries, what are they doing to help the problem? it seems like they are doing nothing. maybe they are profiting off the situation themselves. my thing is this, the biden administration needs to do something to find a way to block the illegal entry into the country. they are sending the grown-ups back and keeping the minors.

that is kind of like the reverse of what trump was doing is separation of family. host: that is matt in germantown, maryland. a couple of immigration bills on the house later this week. the farmworkers modernization act providing a path for illegal farmworkers to supply legal status in this country. lockport, louisiana, independent. caller: my wife just showed me my account and i got my $1400. host: what are you going to do with it? caller: i don't know yet. i am probably going to take $400 and put it in my pocket. the other 1000, i'm going to pick you bank with other 1000's

have and make a cd where i can borrow off of it. host: what does that $1400 mean for you right now? caller: i was down to zero in my account. it is helping me a whole lot. host: this is elizabeth. caller: good morning. my biggest issue is immigration. i believe that until we do something with the country in central america like guatemala, honduras, el salvador and nicaragua, we are not going to solve this problem. that is where most of the people are coming from and they are coming because they are afraid. between the gangs and the government, we should be able to do something to force these

countries to do right by their people and make it to where their kids are threatened with death when they don't join a gang, that is why they come here. we should be able to do something to these countries to force them to do right because if they don't want to leave their homes or their friends or the family, they come here because they have to to survive. host: staying in the lone star state, this is cheryl, and independent. caller: my primary is medicare and social security. my husband and i are retired and i have kids, and i have a pretty good chance it is going to return at some point, so medicare is extremely important to me. i know because i watch c-span on all the budget hearings that

trump took a lot of money out of the medicare program to pay for his enormous tax cut. here in texas, i am worried about immigration. i don't believe the border should be completely open, but from what i understand, a lot of the children that have come over recently already have relatives in the united states. i think they should be allowed to be reunited with their families if they already have people here. i am also in favor of a path to citizenship for the dreamers, but you can't just let anybody come across the border willy-nilly. i think it is something that goes back to both the democrats and republicans have not wanted to adequately deal with the terrible immigration issues. thank you. host: to the steel city, this is nick, a democrat. caller: my top issue was covid and i'm really happy the biden administration took some

competent steps on that. my number two issue is climate change. if we don't do something about climate change in the next 20 or 30 years, we are going to be really screwed with the wildfires and extreme drought and hurricanes. we are going to see those kinds of natural disasters happening all over the country. i really hope the biden administration and congress can pass an infrastructure bill or some measure to address climate change. or else, we are really going to be out of luck. host: we talked yesterday about how the biden administration is eyeing tax increases on high earners, corporations in an effort to pay for some of those initiatives, infrastructure, climate change. is that something you would be ok with? caller: i fully support increasing taxes on high earners. i think the plan is raising for a family above $400,000 or

something like that. i don't know about raising taxes on corporations. i think maybe we should pass through the income to individuals, but i fully support raising taxes on the wealthy to pay for the things america needs. host: this is ruth in spencer villa ohio. caller: good morning. i am concerned about immigration and the border. my understanding was that we were paying mexico to keep them over there. i was just wondering why we couldn't pay mexico to stop them when they start into mexico. we can't afford to keep bringing all these people here.

my other concern is the elderly. my brother is on disability social security. he gets $850 a month to live on. $13 in food stamps. they are talking about the college kids, giving them help with their college. i feel like they have years and years to make big money, and the elderly are really suffering. $13 for food stamps? that is just unreal. another thing, i think that people in congress, they should not be allowed to lie to the american people.

host: how do you keep that from happening? what do you want to do to keep them from lying? caller: i don't know. in some way, we need to be able to help hold them. it is like we don't have ethics anymore. the people in congress, i always looked at them like these were people that were godly, i guess you could say. and now, it is just like everything goes. host: several collars bringing up the issue of immigration as their top public policy issue. i want to take a deep dive on that. we are joined via zoom by

rebecca who covers the white house and immigration for "usa today." president biden's homeland security secretary coming in front of congress. how tough of a grilling is he in for when he sits down for the committee hearing? guest: he is going to face a pretty tough grilling. he is probably going to be asked about his recent statement yesterday about the u.s. has seen probably the biggest immigration surge in 20 years. we also have seen quite a few republican lawmakers head to the border to talk and look and see what is happening. obviously, we are seeing this surge of undocumented, unaccompanied migrant children here at the border. the biden administration is kind of trying to play catch-up on

how to house these children, where are they going and kind of the process of getting them with the proper sponsors. host: in those appearances, republicans have blamed this surge on president biden pulling back on tough border policies that the trump administration had in place. what has been the response to that? guest: they continue to say the border is closed right now. for the most part, they are turning away the majority of immigrants through title 42, which is a policy that was set in place by the trump administration to curve covid coming into the u.s.. you have to travel thousands of miles to come to the border. the biden administration is still doing that. right now, they are talking about how the border is closed, they just don't want to turn

away children because then they would have to make that journey again on their own and they feel like that is not humanitarian for the biden administration. host: with this surge in crossings happening right now, is it complicating the messaging right now and the timing of putting two bills on the house floor that would provide a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants in this country? guest: right now, we are seeing republican pushback. the dream act legislation that is going to be voted on tomorrow , they want to make sure there is border security provisions in this legislation. this legislation passed in the house in 2019 and only had republicans vote for it. it is going to be interesting to see whether or not there is any

sort of bipartisan support for this. the modernization act had a little bit more bipartisan support. i think 34 republicans voted for that legislation. it is going to be interesting to see what happens and how they are going to vote tomorrow and whether or not this recent surge is going to kind of effect how republicans vote for this. host: before the houseboats tomorrow, we have the hearing happening today with the homeland security happening at 9:30 a.m. eastern. listen to it on the free c-span radio app. i assume you will be covering this hearing today as well. you mentioned several republicans and their comments. what republicans on the senate committee, what will you be watching for? guest: i'm going to be watching

for quite a few people. what is the sticking point and what are they trying to say? is the biden -- it is the biden 's arbitrations fall, we have heard this conversation. i'm going to be looking out to see who is talking about that, what are the elements that sort of support their hypothesis and statement and continue to see how that is going to affect future legislation. democrats really want to pass full, comprehensive immigration reform. i feel like a lot of what he says today will really affect how republicans want to move forward on the legislation. those are some things i will be watching out for. host: you will be able to read her wrap up at usa today.com.

you can follow her on twitter. we appreciate your time this morning. back to your phone calls. a few minutes left as we ask you about your top public policy issues. detroit, michigan, a democrat. go ahead. caller: all i am trying to say is this, we all are humans and we need to help each other in order to survive in this world. my top issue is racism. that is it. i think racism should be illegal against the law like a dui. if we come together as the human race, things will get better, but if we continue to divide amongst each other, things won't get better. host: germantown, maryland, a democrat, you are next.

caller: i just have to items. please tell the president to extend the irs deadline. marilyn has already done it. host: have you tried to tell the president or your members of congress? caller: yes. host: have you gotten any response? caller: no, but i know in the state of maryland, we are being delayed, which is great. which is great. we are still suffering in this world. when is the rape trial going to be for mr. trump, who if we never hear from again it will be a blessing. host: that's and in germantown, maryland. christie, an independent, good morning. caller: the issue i have is with the immigration and the statement i wanted to make is i believe that the democrats caused the crisis to force the

vote on the bill, for the immigration reform. host: why do you think this is helping them try to get votes on a pathway to citizenship? why would you think it's urgent the border would help that? caller: to cause a crisis. if they cause a crisis they will probably have more so ordered for some kind of reform quickly. host: if that was the plan, do you think it has worked? caller: i don't think it will work but i think that's what the plan was. it has done nothing but hurt the kids that are being transported illegally because you don't know what's happening to them. nobody is being able to report on that. host: s kristi in missouri. our last color in this hour of

the washington journal. up next we will be joined by the president of the feminist majority foundation to talk about two women's rights bills that will be on the house floor. the violence against women act and the equal rights amendment. we get a primer on each after our break. ♪ >> american history tv on c-span three, scoring the people and events that tell the american story every weekend. this weekend, saturday at 6:00 on "the civil war" a discussion on the october arrival of union general john philip sheridan and senior -- ending the federal resistance in the shenandoah valley. at 4:00 p.m. eastern on real america. for films marking women's history month including the 1980 seven film crossing borders, and women in the family of man from 1971. on american artifacts,

recreation of events in the assassination attempt on president ronald reagan. on "the presidency" the author of "what jefferson read, ike watched, and obama tweeted." talks about how popular culture influences americans. watch this weekend on c-span three. announcer: washington journal continues. host: in the midst of this women's history month we are glad to welcome back ellie smeal , president of the feminist majority foundation. remind viewers what the mission is of the feminist majority foundation? eleanor: equality for women and equal justice. we are fighting in many areas, two of the bills before you right now -- before the house today will be the equal rights amendment, which we have been a

major supporter of, well i have worked on this for over 50 years. our organization is not that old, only 30 years. it is, the final gate of the equal rights amendment, we need to remove the time limit. we think there should be no time limit on equality. the other bill is the violence against women bill, which is a reauthorization. it was first passed in 1994 under the leadership of joe biden, who was then a senator and chair of the judiciary committee. it has been reauthorized three times and been held up by a republican blockade in the senate. we are hoping we correct that and that it's reauthorized. host: ellie smeal with us for the next half hour. as folks are calling in, you mentioned your 50 years in this fight, talk about what

capacities you have been involved in in this fight over those 50 years. eleanor: i was an activist at the local level in pittsburgh. i used to live in the south hills of pittsburgh, and there were many chapters in the pittsburgh area, and we worked on everything you could think of. i then became state president, at one point we sued many corporations for equal pay and equal opportunity for women, worked on everything from integrating little league, or providing some opportunities for girls in little league, and dealing with a -- domestic violence. i became president of the statewide pennsylvania organization and in the late 70's i was elected president of the national organization for women. i served three terms and in 1987

we formed the feminist majority foundation, a group of us. in some ways it does the same work, but we are not chapter based, more project-based and we work closely with many other women's groups on various issues. host: where are we today when it comes to women's rights? is it where you thought we would be by 2021 when you first got involved in this movement? eleanor: it's taken longer than i thought. we have made gains, when we started we were like 3% of the members of congress were women, now we are in the high 20%'s, 27%. we have a woman vice president and many opportunities. this is the most integrated cabinet a president has appointed. i can remember when we were fighting for two or three women in the cabinet, now we have almost a parody and we have many

more women of color which is great. it's been a hard road. nothing has been easy. the violence against women bill should be a no-brainer and we should have ratified that automatically. now we are having trouble with the republicans on even an issue like that. the era we got through congress in 1972, i was there as a local activist. we came down for the vote and who would have thought we would still be fighting for it in 2021. we believe we are now on the threshold and we have passed, three fourths of the state but have required, 38 states have ratified. we are trying to remove the deadline and hopefully that does it and we get into the constitution. it would be a great advance for women and girls and will help us in all kinds of ways to advance to equality.

host: a senior fellow at the american conservative union would disagree with that assessment on the e.r.a.. here's what she wrote on it in usa today from earlier this week "the e.r.a. what he wrote the rights of women recognized in state and federal law by stating that the equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged on account of sex, the amendment would supersede and effectively eliminate statutes designed to protect women, think of the many legal frameworks that recognize the unique roles of men and women. from title ix which is extended opportunities in sports to many women, to state child support and alimony laws, the e.r.a. could place all of them at risk." your response. eleanor: nothing could be further from the truth. it would give a constitutional basis for title ix and would help with education and unemployment. it would help us in so many different ways and it's a joke

when she says alimony and divorce law. in so many areas we have been cheated in this. it would help us to get equal treatment in divorce, which would be a step up. most men do not pay any alimony after a very short period of time and don't pay much child support either. that is mythology. the reason so many women's groups support the equal rights amendment, and its hundreds really, is because it is an advance, it ends this whole question, this so-called protective legislation, most of which has been done away with because it limited women's opportunities and has been done away with for years. where we are now as this would give a constitutional mandate for equality and open the doors that we have and finish the job.

that's one of our promises, this has been politicized and there is so much erroneous information out there. for those of us who have worked so hard for this we are on the threshold of saying what is obvious, of course we are equal. let's not put a boot on, give us a chance. you see what has happened already, where we are. more women are in college than ever before. we are in all kinds of professions. the work that we have done has opened doors and improved treatment. but we have a way to go. >> the wording of the equal rights amendment fairly simple. section one the main thrust of the amendment stating, equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the u.s. or any state on account of

sex. taking your phone calls this morning. with us until the bottom of the hour, phone lines, we will the numbers on your screen. michael is out of california. good morning, michael. caller: good morning. my question to the guest would simply be, can you indulge where your finances come from, where your financial backing comes from, thank you? eleanor: sure, it comes from supporters, members, it comes from individuals, comes also -- it comes also from selling buttons and pins and various products and also the publishers -- we are very public and there is

no hidden -- i'm not quite sure what he was driving at. we have done a lot without a lot of money. the women's movement is in my opinion grossly underfunded, we are still only getting about 3% of foundation money. it's under 10% anyway. we work hard and we also have a lot of people who give us pro bono gifts of their services, they are essentially volunteers. we have many lawyers working with us and most of that is pro bono. host: plenty more information available at feminist.org. out of cleveland ohio, democrat, good morning. caller: my question is, do you think having nancy pelosi as speaker will help finally get be

e.r.a. over the finish line? eleanor: there's no question that nancy pelosi is a marvelous help on so many issues and she is a brilliant leader and has helped in many ways, right now she is prioritizing the equal rights amendment and the violence against women act. the violence against women act is to reduce violence and it has a very positive effect on fighting the full issue of domestic violence. speaker pelosi is showing the capability of women's leadership but she gets things done, i can't say enough about her because she is not only a historical figure the first speaker but she keeps the major interests of women, of poor

people, of working people, of children in her heart and they just passed the wonderful rescue bill which will reduce child poverty and cut it in half. i wish it would cut it 100% but that's a great step forward and that is her brilliant leadership that keeps getting things done. host: on this reauthorization of the violence against women act, this was the comments of wrong -- congresswoman debbie lesko on fox news from yesterday. she writes, historically the reauthorization of the violence against women act has been a bipartisan effort, but this version of the violence against women act introduced by house democrats is filled with partisan priorities like forcing women's domestic violence shelters to take in men who can temporarily identify as women, stripping away protections for religious organizations and eliminating second amendment rights without due process. eleanor: that's a lot that she

just said. it's definite that it has been bipartisan and we hope it will still have a bipartisan vote today. when she says it takes away second amendment rights, what that is about is the bill for some time has prohibited men who have been convicted of domestic violence or have a record of domestic violence, not man, whoever has a record of domestic violence from getting a gun, because a gun present increases the likelihood of murder. what this bill does, that's been in the bill for some time for married couples, for partnerships or for people who have a common-law marriage or who are in a steady relationship

, but this one extends it to boyfriends, people that are baiting -- people that are dating partners. why do you want, for the person who is abusive why would you want them to go get a gun to escalated even more. this is not second amendment rights it's essentially to further violence. that's what's in this one. it takes away what is called the boyfriend loophole on domestic violence. right now we need the domestic violence bill. it's a reauthorization. it helps survivors, this also provides housing assistance and find -- housing assistance in finding housing and has a lot of wonderful breakthrough provisions, another loophole is on native americans where a

non-native american can go on a reservation and commit violence and then leave and it is not under any jurisdiction. because it didn't happen in the united states or in the non-reservation it happened on the reservation and so that person can escape prosecution. it covers native american women which we think is important. there are so many different provisions. all of them are aimed at reducing violence, violence doesn't help anybody. there should not be partisanship on this subject at all. the violence against women act has a record of helping survivors and it's a funding bill, funding authorization bill principally to fight this problem and it has had a record of reducing violence. we are in a spike in the pandemic that has led to more violence and we needed more than

ever. host: betsy is in novelty, ohio, a democrat, good morning. caller: as an employment lawyer i am concerned that we have rights in this country with no realistic remedies and one example is the chronic underfunding and understaffing of the equal opportunity commission as well as state civil rights commissions and i would like to hear your thoughts on how we get these enforcement agencies to do their jobs. eleanor: you are right, the funding is pathetic. another caller referred to title ix. title ix has a civil rights provision in it where you can take several kinds of cases. you can take sex discrimination cases, race discrimination,

disability cases from public schools, it doesn't have any money. when the obama administration went out of office there was 10,000 pending cases and not enough lawyers to deal with it. in the eoc the republicans have been slow in appointing people so it has been tough going. so many of the cases have to then go to private attorneys, a lot of it has been by organizations providing attorneys, but it's all underfunded and i think we should wipe out discrimination, it benefits no one except for those people who want to not pay for it. i say pay reduced wages because

of a discriminatory factor. it is not good for the economy and it's terrible for most people who are the victims of discrimination. host: spokane, washington, ken, republican. caller: i wanted to ask her, being a feminist and everything i was wondering how she feels with the transgender women competing against real women in athletics? i feel like there is a violence thing in this because it is a transgender man saying he is a woman competing with a woman in contact in athletics, i think that's violence against women and i would like to know how she feels against this transgender thing in athletics. eleanor: i'm opposed to discrimination, flat out, and transgender, how should i say

this? you can't just look at a binary of a man and a woman in a way that is not realistic in the experience of the human race, it's more of a continuum. we believe that a person should be able to self identify and sexual orientation should be covered in discrimination laws so there is not discrimination against trans people. in the long run it would benefit everybody. women, for example have been cut out of sports for years, for decades, for centuries. we are nowhere near treated equal now as you probably know. women and girls. nor are transgender people and the more people are treated equally, the more they are allowed to express their own identities and get more

opportunities, it's better for everybody in the long run. we are for equality, we don't want to leave anyone behind because we know one thing, that if we don't use we know of one thing, girls and women traditionally, i'm not talking about today, traditionally have been denied sports opportunities. they still don't have equal opportunity today and transgender people are pretending they donate -- they do exist and they deserve full equal rights. we should not be denying people on the false identities. host: jim on twitter asks this. "does she believe legislation can prevent domestic violence? it's been against the law for decades if not centuries." eleanor: it hasn't been, that premise is wrong.

when we first started in the 70's when we started having domestic violence shelters and up until then it was viewed that a man could do anything he wanted in his own house. he could beat a woman -- the rule of thumb was that you could beat a woman with something that was not thicker than your thumb. men were supposed to be the king of their own households. behind closed doors they could do whatever they wanted. we questioned that and we change the laws, violence is violence, it doesn't matter if it's in a private home or out in the street, it's a criminal act and it's been very hard to establish that. we know one thing, there are laws now, the violence against women act which is to end violence against women or help victims that are survivors of violence, only was passed in

1994. it used to be that the federal government didn't recognize it as a problem. they now know it's a problem, one of the biggest problems at various times there are more women calling 911 for violence against them by a partner of's -- a domestic partner of some sort them there is for any other crime. it's at 50% of 911 calls. we started challenging those laws, what we have done is brought it out in the public. we have reduced violence in some cases, certainly the title of the violence against women act has helped and more and more people now see it is wrong and they now know it is a crime and they did not know that when i was a child.

guest: -- i don't want to say that is if i have been a victim of anything, i have not been. it wasn't viewed as the big criminal problem that it is, it now has been revealed and yet we still have the problem and we intend to eradicate it. i think one of the reasons you want an equal rights amendment people from very early ages understand that human rights and equal rights are mandated and that people should respect each other and not injure or hurt each other and certainly not do it because they have some right because they are a man to do it. host: are you confident the violence against women act and equal rights amendment will pass on the house floor today and if so, what is the path in the senate? eleanor: i'm very hopeful both

of them will pass. i think a good margin, i hope they will be bipartisan, but if not, we believe both bills will pass. the pathway is that we have to break a blockade in the senate, and we know that it's going to be hard, and they held up the reauthorization of violence against women for three years, but we are hopeful. really, does the political party really want to be known for fighting against equal rights for women and not dealing with violent acts towards women? i think that is what is going to happen if they keep this up and make it so partisan. we are hoping we are going to get it more bipartisan, but we are also determined to pass those bills, we are determined

to pass both bills. these should not be partisan bills, everybody should be on board, this is 2021 for heaven sake, for equality for women and all people. when i say all people, because gender discrimination hurts men, it hurts women, and hurts trains people, there are no winners in this and we want to make sure that our country like many countries around the world understand that discrimination on the basis of sex injures too many people, it's an outrage, and it should stop. host: a couple of minutes left with ellie smeal. let's chat with callers until we lose you at 9:30. jd smith from crescent springs, kentucky, republican. caller: i am a professional woman and i was a supporter of the now movement when it started

but i have since pulled away, but i do realize there are some issues that need to be addressed. i guess the gentleman from washington took my question, i do believe that transgender men should not be involved with sports with women, because we find out that they are winning, the women do not have the muscle mass or the stamina that a man would have. i would like to ask another question. i know that violence against women by men is very prevalent in our society, why is that happening? i would suspect that we cannot defend ourselves because of our muscle mass and our ability, because of our nature, why is that happening and how are you going to make that stop? eleanor: one of the things that we know is we should respect each other and less violence. we do have to have respect, that's part of the whole equal

rights amendment, it's saying that women should be respected, they should have equal rights, and employment and education and every sphere. if you respect somebody you have much less chance of violence, but basically we have to end discrimination, it's very hard, this is not an easy problem, it was baked in, use of physical punishment has been too much in our whole society towards children and women, but what you are saying about the sports, this is obviously an organized campaign, and i want to say that instead of saying, you are not talking about men as much as you are talking about boys and men trans children.

we have this, this is not new, it's just that we are recognizing that there is not a strict binary in human beings and we are trying to give more opportunity to everybody and to allow people to be themselves and advance to their own potential and when you are saying muscle mass and all of this, organized sports started in college and in the 19th century at the turn-of-the-century, girls were not allowed to play tennis because they said the curvature of their body would make them become a foul ball and not stay in the court. they were not allowed to play vigorous sports because it was believed that if they did somehow the blood would not go to the uterus for a normal

period, because you would need to much brainpower. the most crazy things and this was not -- these were the iv leaks that were saying it, the more prestigious schools. they did not think that women should practice law because it took too much thinking and would somehow hurt their reproduction ability. we all know this stuff is all false, and even when i went to school a long time ago we didn't have hardly any interscholastic activity in sports. we had to fight for that, but it was always saying that they were protecting them, no one was protecting them, we were treated as a week species. we are not weak. we have done a lot. and we can do even more.

in fighting for equality and justice we should be fighting for all people. as long as you can pick on some segment of our communities it not only hurts that segment that is being picked on, it also hurts everybody, because you don't understand the beauty and the full potential of all people , diversity is a good thing. we know that it strengthens our country and our humanity. i'm very proud of the fact that the feminist movement has fought for women's rights, for civil-rights, and racial discrimination, to end discrimination against lesbians and gay men, and now transgender people, everybody. we don't want to leave any person behind.

people should be allowed to fulfill their full potential theory of host: just after 9:30. james in brooklyn, connecticut has been waiting to chat with you. james, can you make it quick? caller: yes, how are you doing? i just have two quick ones for you. at what point do we lose all of our rights between men and women, and second thing is, aren't there some concerns about women taking advantage of these amenities that you are adding on to these bills? after a while women will have complete control over the whole country. eleanor: what we are trying to do is stop violence on the violence against women act and on the equal rights amendment, its equal rights, not that we are getting dominant rights, not that we are going to be, that is not what we are talking about. that's why it's on the basis of

sex, when men are discriminated against on the basis of their sex that is also a violation. -- 27% of congress -- it's to try to recognize the fact that people should have the ability to fulfill their potential, i will give you an example. we are fighting a pandemic, they keep saying we have these vaccines. the science behind these vaccines, especially one of the vaccines from pfizer, was by a married couple in germany in which a woman and a man, a married couple found this vaccine, they had been doing research in this area and it was

one of the reasons it could move so fast. that was really good and it was good that both the man and woman worked on it together. you don't know who the next scientist is that's going to help more. we want people to be able to be who they are and to have opportunity and not to judge people, we don't want it so that women would dominate, who once domination? we are trying to get rid of domination and subsequent age -- subjugation and get decent treatment for all people. right now the violence against women is outrageous. last night eight women were murdered for god knows what reason, asian women. this was on the basis of race and sex, for what? why does that help anybody? it's terrible that we want to

divide people. that is not what our movement is about. it's about respecting people, loving people, and giving people a break on a decent break, not a dominant for a. host: ellie smail, president of the feminist majority foundation, feminist.org. we always appreciate your time. eleanor: thank you so much. 25 minutes left in our program. the house coming in at 10:00 a.m. eastern. yesterday, president biden's nominee for the small business administration confirmed by the senate president biden making the tour around the country going to small businesses to talk about coronavirus relief so we are asking small business owners what you need when it comes to coronavirus covid relief. if you are a small business owner in the eastern and central time zones call in at (202) 748-8000. in the mountain or pacific time zones, (202) 748-8001.

small-business employees, number for you, (202) 748-8002. your calls right after the break. ♪ ♪ >> you are watching c-span, your unfiltered view of government. c-span was created by america's cable television companies in 1979. today we are brought to you by these television companies who provide c-span viewers as a public service. ♪ >> washington journal continues. host: hearing from small business owners and small business employees. want to hear what you need when it comes to covid relief. how have the bills passed by congress impacted you. we will put the phone numbers on

your screen. yesterday president biden dropped by a flooring company in the philadelphia suburbs to promote the assorted measures in his aid package, that coming on the same day that the senate confirmed his nominee to run the small business administration, isabel guzman, by a vote of 81-17 the small business administration secretary now in place. when it comes to various relief bills for small business the ppp loan program helping to facilitate some 7.5 million loans totaling 687 billet -- 687 billion dollars as of march 7. according to government estimates it has saved an estimated 50 million jobs between april and august. the program set up as part of the 2.2 trillion dollar aid package passed back in march of 2020.

other programs in the most recent aid package when it comes specifically to small businesses, that package including an additional $7 billion for the ppp program on top of the 280 or billion dollars added for that program specifically back in december and then yesterday the house passing legislation to extend the deadline for applications for that program, march 31 to may 31st and allowing the small business administration another month to assess spending applications. just some of the programs that have been targeted for small businesses in this country. we want to hear from small business owners, if you are in the eastern or central time zones, (202) 748-8000. a small business owner in the mountain or pacific time zones, (202) 748-8001. small business employees, (202) 748-8002. with that, this is mary out of

nottingham, new hampshire. what kind of small business you run? caller: hello? i'm calling about the equal rights amendment and violence against women. host: we are talking about small businesses, do you work at a small business? caller: no i'm not. host: we are going to stick to that topic because we only have 20 more man's before the house gets in and we want to get to the callers focused on this topic, and yesterday on the senate floor the senate majority leader chuck schumer focused on this topic, touting the american rescue plan's relief measure, aimed particularly at small businesses. eleanor: provide staff sen. schumer: provides tens of billions of dollars in support for small businesses that have suffered during the pandemic. the american rescue plan is nothing short of a lifeline for main street businesses for one

end of this country to the other , main street businesses in rural america and suburban america and in our inner cities. it's a lifeline. the american rescue plan provides $30 billion for restaurants and bars through the restaurants act, the first bipartisan amendment added to the bill sponsored by senator sinema and senator booker. the american rescue plan also includes more than a billion dollars in additional some work for our nations small theaters and venues and it adds to a save par stages act, these independent restaurants, art venues, and places like that are the heart of cities. that's where people gather. they are not gathering, there is no income, whether it be the money they pay the small business, the check they pay at the restaurant or the money they leave in the collection plate when they are not there at

religious institutions. >> this is a good thing. host: chuck schumer on the senate floor, mentioning specifically money for restaurants, some 29 billion dollars included in the american rescue plan for a grant program to provide relief directly to restaurants. we want to hear from you this morning about small businesses in your community, small businesses you may work at or small businesses you might own, we want to hear what the impact has been when it comes to covid relief and what more you might need. (202) 748-8000 if you are a small business owner in the eastern or central time zone. (202) 748-8001 if you are a small business owner in the mountain or pacific time zones. (202) 748-8002 for small business employees. it was last week on this program

that small business committee member, republican dan you juror of pennsylvania was asked what he thought about the american rescue plan's measures specifically targeted at small businesses. >> i sit on the small business committee, $60 billion directed -- was it hard to say no to money for those businesses? >> we set up the ppp program, small businesses received $600 billion of give up a loans and there are still $100 billion sitting in that fund for small businesses. what i am for his extending the march 31 deadline coming up rapidly and we need the biden administration and democrats to get on board to extend that. that's $100 billion that will not be utilized if we don't extend that march 31. if it's targeted, restaurants, those businesses on the brink of going out of business, i can

work with. to add on another trillion dollars, we have absolutely calculated estimates for what state and local would need to be whole through their revenue loss for this during this pandemic. it's in the neighborhood of 150 to $160 billion. this bill gives state and local $350 billion. whoever is doing the math has an exaggerated sense of humor. the problem is it's not funny. this is going to lead to problems. sometimes i compare this to the making of the frankenstein monster. be careful what you are doing here. we will have inflation concerns, clearly skyrocketing deficits and payments necessary on our debt out of the general fund in the neighborhood of $500 billion a year. this is a dangerous game being played.

the unemployment compensation, we did what was needed to be done for a long time. small business businesses biggest problem right now, many, most that i talk to in my district, getting people to come back to work. that is part of the recovery. there is now a demand, there is a shortfall of worker availability. by us continuing to extend unemployment it diminishes the demand for go back to work and the desire to one thing democrats don't understand, a job means opportunity. a job means growth, it means career development. it means skills development. it means you will be better off in six months with a job than six months on them women. host: republican congressman dan user, we heard him talking about

the importance of extending the deadline for applying for ppp loans passed march 30 for the past the end of this month. the house voted yesterday to do that, to extend the application deadline to may 31 and give the small business administration another month to process their pending loans. the house coming in and about 15 minutes, we have set aside this last segment of the washington journal to hear from small business owners and employees about covid relief, what you have needed and what you have used in your part of the country. tony and fort lauderdale, good morning. caller: i have to confess, i listen on the radio app and you said it was open phones, so my call is not about your topic. i will call back when you have open phones. host: we do have open phones often here, we usually ask people about their top public policy issue.

we want to hear from small business owners and small business employees. those are the folks we want to talk to this morning, the color talking about the radio app, there is a lot going on today on the c-span radio app on the web, want to keep you updated on it coming up at 10:00 a.m., dr. fauci testifying before the house energy and commerce subcommittee on oversight and investigations on the biden administration's efforts to increase covid-19 vaccinations. we will stream that live at 10:00 a.m. on the web and if you want to watch it on your television we will show it at 8:00 p.m. tonight on c-span two. other happenings on capitol hill, this afternoon the federal reserve chairman jerome powell will discuss monetary policy at a news conference live at 2:30 p.m. eastern on c-span three, online at c-span.org, and that

is on the free c-span radio app. the house coming in at 10:00 a.m. this morning and about 15 minutes, the fed coming in at 10:30. we are listening to small business owners. we want to hear from owners and employees about what you can use and what you need when it comes to covid relief. kevin in lynbrook, new york. go-ahead. what kind of business are you in? caller: i own a bar. host: this restaurant bill, the money for restaurants, does that impact you? caller: i never got a dime. host: have any of the programs help you? caller: never got a dime. every time we send the application the banks give you the runaround and it's up to you to do all your own paperwork. they make it hard for me to get a loan. host: how much do you need? caller: $30,000. host: will but that mean for

your bar? caller: it would keep it open. i'm behind in rent and utilities. i have to close at 11:00. host: have you let people go? caller: i'm down to four barmaids, i used to have 13. host: what are you allowed to do, can folks come in and drink at the bar? caller: yes, they can now. i was close for almost six months. march 16 to july 9. host: if you don't get that help how much longer do you think you will last? caller: oh i'm gonna last. i refuse to give up. it's just a joke, it's a joke, they don't help, nobody helps you. host: do you mind saying the name of your bar in lynbrook? caller: my bar's name is carrie men's corner pub on central avenue. host: good luck out there. pat from newberry park, california.

you are next. caller: thank you for taking my call. just wanted to say i work for a small business that in the first round received a ppp loan and we were on the verge of going out of business, there were no two ways we could stay in business, sales have dropped off to nothing, so the loan kept us open and bridged us over to the summer to where things picked up and we are still in business. it was very valuable, i think we were a good case for the loan working and keeping people working rather than going on unemployment. host: do you know if this was one of those forgivable loans that if you use it and spend a certain amount on keeping the paychecks and keeping folks hired that it can be a forgivable loan, is that how it works for the small business you worked for? caller: yes it was and the

bookkeeper is very active in documenting that and getting the paperwork in for that. host: how many folks at your small business? caller: seven. host: what kind of business? caller: chemical sales. host: how have chemical sales been during covid? caller: actually it picked up. our chemical sales are related to hazardous waste cleanup, so it's a part of the environmental , it was considered essential, it was a matter of businesses figuring how to get their employees back to work and on jobsite safely, there were three or four months in which they were working that out and that was three or four months where there was not any income coming in. we were on unemployment for two

weeks before we actually did get the loan and then they brought us back. host: pat, thanks for the call. tim in lakeview, arkansas, you are next. caller: good morning. host: what kind of business? caller: construction. i didn't take any kind of loan. i don't want to be tied to the hoops you have to run through. people keep talking about covid. covid didn't shut down businesses. governors and mayors shut down businesses, and the reason was for health reasons. as we come to find out, none of the excuses for health reasons they gave pan out. we don't need six feet of distance, three feet is ok. masks don't really work, where two or three masks, it doesn't make a difference. everything that we did was based on alive.

i think every small business should just open up. if some authority says to close your business, they really don't have the right to do that in this country. just open up and keep fighting to keep your business open. host: eric in kennesaw, georgia, you are next. caller: i just wanted to say that first of all i received my stimulus check, i do believe that president biden and vice president harris are doing an awesome job, as far as the small businesses i have worked for quite a few, and i sincerely hope that they can receive their relief a little quicker, because i understand how difficult it is to run a small business and i hear the situation that many of the small business owners are in and i feel for them. host: that's eric in georgia.

if you are a small business owner in the eastern or central time zones, (202) 748-8001. in the mountain or pacific time zone (202) 748-8001. small business employees (202) 748-8002. the house coming in in eight minutes this morning so we will continue with your calls until they do. we mention that yesterday president biden dropped by a small business in the philadelphia suburbs. a black-owned small business that buys and sells flooring. here is a bit of joe biden from that event. pres. biden: the american rescue plan is going to do more than just provide for people who need it. one of the things was way past the cares act early on and what they did was they provided for an inspector general to make sure it was spent properly.

the first thing they did was fire the inspector general. we found only 40% of the people were small businesses that got a deal and businesses that were big on the lions share of the money. when we wrote this rescue plan part of the system we have we ensure it's going exactly where it should go. host: in making sure the money goes where it is supposed to go, some concerns raised about that when it comes to the ppp program. lenders making duplicate payments, paycheck protection program loans to more than 4000 borrowers totaling about $692 million, the small business administration inspector general found, the fda working to -- congress rushing to sign off on that extension and the house passed that extension yesterday through august 8. the fda issued these loans to

borrowers with the same tax id or address is another borrower. the inspector general report found that, that story from the washington times. hearing from small business owners and employees. you are next, what kind of business? caller: i'm sorry, i'm not a business owner. i had to make a comment on what the guys said about the virus is not real. if it's not real why have so many people died? host: this is jack in ray seen, wisconsin. you are next. caller: i do a small paint company and wisconsin you were told you cannot go to work because painting is cosmetic. we went to work anyway and the guys on the job site, nobody wore a mask or did anything, and they get the guys i hang out with, no one came down with covid. from the job site. the people that are talking

about the virus and everything, it is a virus, but right now we have two very good therapies. host: before we get into therapies, talk to me about the painting business, that's what we are focusing on, small businesses. what's that been like? caller: for me it didn't change too much. i had a couple of homeowners that wanted to hold off on their projects until the covid issue subsided. we said that's fine, we had a lot of homeowners that said, it'd, come in and get out. a lot of people have different attitudes on the severity of this as far as how can i say this, 99% of people that get

covid survive. yes we have lost 500,000 people from it, but in retrospect, we had 250,000 -- host: alright, we got your opinion. cj in minneapolis, minnesota. are you a business owner, a small business employee? caller: i work for a small business that's a restaurant that sells chicken and pizza. the biggest thing when the hit happened to them was the delivery department of it for doordash and uber eats and all of those different little companies started making them more accessible and that is what is making them survive right now, the doordash people, that part of the business is booming. the bad part about that is that

some of the drivers are unprofessional when they are delivering the foods. host: on the help for small businesses, 29 billion dollars in this latest bill for restaurants specifically, do you know if your restaurant is going to make use of that or if -- caller: yes they will, because when i worked for them, my car was insured, what they don't do is, because they need so much help and they can't keep people working for them on a regular basis is that some people come in and their car is not up to snuff like it's supposed to be where the restaurants don't have the luxury of screening them better. they do need the money for a lot of different reasons. host: thanks for the call. lawrence from lehigh acres, florida. what kind of business? caller: i run a business, a

mobile repair service for many years, i'm a disabled veteran that was not receiving any benefits as far as funds from the v.a. even though i had a medical discharge in 1968. i know what it is to be able to suffer through not having any credit because of the credit monopoly that we have on this country. my advice to all you people that have small businesses, take advantage of getting what you can, refit your business, make it better than what you had. i had to rebuild old trucks and use that for work because of this monopoly of credit. god help america, thank you. host: do you think now is the time to be rebuilding during this covid crisis? caller: it's not about rebuilding, it's refitting what you had and improving what you had and making it better with the opportunity to have the funds to do it.

that's what i'm referring to. host: that's lawrence in florida. the house about to come in soon. what kind of business? caller: i'm a freelance journalist. host: how's it going during covid? caller: it's not going at all. i have been denied the honor, i delivered my literature personally to several, to one of the news stations here, i was incarcerated for that. taking that honor away from me. what is equal rights amendment, what is the equal rights amendment? host: we will hear more about the equal rights amendment on the floor today for the house comes in, have any of these programs that have been passed in the past year help to you? caller: if you're asking me have i received any of the covid relief packages, i received two

of them. as far as them being a help for me, when you get them you are so far behind in finance is the only thing you can do is not the top of whatever that is off because you're never going to balance out because the debt will be too far in for you to balance out. host: franklin in ohio, our last caller. we will be back here tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m. eastern time, 4:00 a.m. pacific. have a great st. patrick's day. we take you live to the house floor [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]