continue work on the nomination of the deputy transportation secretary. the number to post undersecretary pete buttigieg. later in the week, senators begin working on more nominations, including wendy sherman to be deputy secretary of state and gary gensler to be deputy chair of the securities and exchange commission. the house returns april 13 for legislative business. speaker pelosi announced she expects the house to work on equal pay for women legislation as well as the suspension for the across-the-board cut to all medicaid payments. president biden's infrastructure and jobs package is not expected on the house floor until later this spring or early summer. watch live coverage of the house on c-span, the senate on c-span2, and follow our coverage any time at c-span.org or listen on the free c-span radio app.

(202) 748-8003. thanks very much for being with us. this is the headline from the associated press. vaccine passports are the latest flashpoint in covid politics. they are being developed to verify covid-19 immigration status and inoculate people to travel and dine, the latest flashpoint in the perpetual american political wars with republicans host: again, that story from the

associated press. on one of the sunday shows, a doctor from minnesota was asked about the possibility of a fourth wave, he called it a category five, comparing it to a tropical storm. [video clip] >> at this time we are in category five hurricane status with regards to the rest of the world. we will see the highest number of cases reported globally since the end of the pandemic. in the united states, we haven't even really begun to see this surge. over the course of the past year we have had a surge of cases in the upper midwest, the northeast, big increases through the southern sun and it subsides. northeast, midwest comes back again. we are in that cycle where the upper midwest is just now beginning to start the fourth surge and it was a wake-up call yesterday when michigan reported 8400 new cases and we are seeing an increasing number of icu

hospitalizations for individuals between 30 and 50 who have not been vaccinated. host: that from "meet the press," one of the five shows that we re-air on c-span radio. this from twitter, what's wrong with carrying a card that says you are not fully vaccinated? the headline from usa today, our question is whether or not there should be vaccine passports. dr. scott gottlieb responded to michael oser home on the threat of a fourth wave in the country. >> i don't think it will be a true fourth wave. we have delayed the point where we can get this behind us. with the rate that we have right now, 4 million people a day,

that will reach 5 billion people per day. level of immunity, we have probably infected about 130 million americans. i think that there is enough immunity in the population you won't see a true fourth wave of infection. we are seeing pockets and younger people who haven't been vaccinated. also school-age children. michigan, minnesota, its outbreaks in schools and infections in social cohorts who were maybe doing a better job sheltering and now they are out and about eating exposed and infected. the infection is changing its contours. host: this from jim on twitter, we are open to discussing the passport, you had to be asleep at the switch not to see it coming. carol is joining us from texas.

you oppose the idea of passports. why? [video clip] that's because -- caller: that's because, steve, there are a lot of people who have decided not to take the vaccine. the real reason i call, steve, i watch every morning and when i heard your voice i said that's steve, that's steve. steve is back. god bless you, steve. i miss you every sunday, steve, glad you are back. host: thank you. more on the idea of vaccine passports, they are typical, typically an app with a code that verifies whether someone has been vaccinated or recently tested negative and they are in use in israel and underdevelopment and parts of israel -- parts of europe. they mirror measures already in place for schools and overseas travel that require proof of

immunization. lawmakers are already taking a stand against the idea. in pennsylvania, they write that the associated press -- they write that -- they are writing legislation to prohibit travel passes from being used to bar people from routine activities. next, bill, orange park, florida. caller: what good is that going to do, to know when we all had our vaccines when the biden administration is letting in all these people that have the virus? do the democrats think it's only going to kill republicans? i don't believe this. thanks for the call. stephen is next from massachusetts. what about this idea of vaccine passports? caller: i oppose the idea. host: why? caller: it's not necessary.

host: thank you for the call. if you support the idea of a vaccine passport, call (202) 748-8000. if you oppose it, (202) 748-8001 . you can also send us a text message at (202) 748-8003. catherine, you are next in tennessee. good morning. caller: good morning. good morning. yes, my comment is just about the passport. i do think that we should have something to identify that we have had the vaccines and what i did was i had both of mine two months ago i guess, both of them. i just use my phone, of course it wouldn't work for people without a smartphone, but i used my phone and took a picture of the finished card that has the date i got my vaccination, the county in my name. the second date has a little stripped down below that tells that.

and it's on my, it's on my phone. i have my drivers license of course to identify that i am the name of the person on the card. host: thank you for the call. robert has this on twitter, saying vaccine passports, are you kidding me? democrats don't believe that you need an id to vote. calls and comments in a moment. elena train covers the white house for axios, thank you for being with us. guest: thanks for having me. host: this centered on the sunday shows yesterday, the infrastructure plan outlined in pittsburgh by the president and whether or not it will be bipartisan. will it look more like the covid-19 relief plan or will there be bipartisan support? caller: steve, having covered the current congress, seeing the way it's operated the past year, i find it hard to expect any

republicans to jump on board. particularly the way the plan is now. $2 trillion in spending for this infrastructure package, republicans across the board are already ramping up their counter programming on the bill. calling it a progressive wish list, saying there's far more than roads and bridges. the plan for president biden is to still try to find some kind of compromise. senator kunz this morning said he didn't think any republicans would vote for the entire package but they could vote for some part of it. that is how the white house is looking at it, splitting it up to get to get the bill passed with bipartisan support where it addresses climate change in a reconciliation package. host: of course, a big part of

that is raising the corporate tax from 21% to 28%. guest: it's a big push. a lot of republicans are also criticizing that. it's interesting that over the past few years, raising the corporate tax rate or raising taxes on the wealthy in general has become much more popular and we are seeing progressives really pushing for that and trying to pay for this by raising taxes on the wealthy. janet yellen, the biden treasury secretary will announce today in a speech that she is working on a global minimum corporate tax rate that could provide biden with some cover for the bill. there is going to be a lot of criticism about this. president trumper lower the rates from 35% to 21% and he said he wanted to make the u.s. more competitive when other

countries have a lower rate. i know that the biden administration is going to take some criticism for it in the way that he thinks he can pay for the bill. moderate democrats have to get on board. joe mansion -- senator joe manchin said that he's not comfortable raising it and he needs to get on board if they want majority votes. he would be a key person to pass it that way and there will be a lot of negotiations happening in the weeks to come as they continue to roll out different aspects of the bill. host: let me go back to that corporate tax rate. if it has risen to 28%, based on

the timeline, the infrastructure plan would take 15 years to pay for assuming the tax stays in place. guest: that's the assumption and that's another part of the criticism and it is ambitious, you know. normally when you look at paying for a massive package like this you try to factor it in over 10 years or so and the biden administration is looking to go further than that. you are right, of course, another president can come in and reverse that. that's a lot of the internal discussion in the administration and the top lawmakers on capitol hill are discussing it. corporate tax rate is one of the main things that the administration is driving home and it is going to take several years to pay for this. at the same time you have people on the left like congresswoman because io cortez --

congresswoman oh because io cortez -- congresswoman alexandria ocasio-cortez calling it emergency funding right now that's being pumped into the economy and we should be doing more over the next several years . that is where progressives are. of course the moderate stance amongst the rest of the democratic party and republicans are not on her page with that. a lot of factors that the administration needs to factor into the negotiation and that is what the bill, what the president rolled out last week, it's intended to be an opening offer, not the final thing. there will be a lot of talks about how they can change this to make different parts of the democratic party and even some republicans happy with the bill to see how they can get on board.

it's -- host: this headline, "the capital target all the time." how will lawmakers be addressing capitol hill security? guest: it's tough. my thoughts and prayers will out to the family of the slain police officer. but also, following the january 5 insurrection, it has been, the security the past several weeks, they had initially taken down the fencing and the barbed wire surrounding the capital complex very recently and of course we saw the attack on friday with the driver who drove his car into one of the barriers. what a lot of people are paying attention to is does capitol police insecurity have what they need in place?

a rehired officer yesterday said that they will need more manpower, more police officers on the job and they will need the national guard to stay in place a bit longer. as a capitol hill reporter who has covered congress for many years now. it's not normal. the capital is supposed to be a place where people from all over the country are supposed to be able to come in. we haven't seen that as much since covid but it has been accessible in public and most lawmakers want that to remain in want people to access congress freely but in a way that is safe. right now, with so much heightened tension on capitol hill following the january six attack and the political nature of the environment and the united states right now it makes some of these security concerns a bit more worrisome so i think they will have enhanced security in place for a longer time after

what happened. but who knows how long the presence will remain. finally, if tradition were to hold true, the easter egg role would seem different today because it would only include remarks from the president. guest: you are right, normally we would have the easter egg role. we are not having that because of pandemic, talking about easter. president biden is a very religious man and he was at camp david to celebrate the holiday. a different kind of celebration, given coronavirus. tomorrow he will be giving a speech in virginia on the vaccine rollout plan. the president has said that by may 1 most adults in the country should be vaccinated. we have seen the numbers

increasing steadily over time. there's a lot of potential on that, something that everyone is looking forward to, having a more vaccinated population. later this week he will be giving remarks on infrastructure and we will be hearing that over and over again from the president and other senior administration officials over the several not just, but months. this bill will take a lot longer to pass. i think it will be several months to get the parts of this plan through. he will be trying to sell that package to the american public and get as much popularity as he can. host: have a great week, thanks for reporting with us on this monday. guest: you, too. host: steve on twitter says it's one more tool for opening the economy and lessening their spread of the virus. that it need not be a government run program.

mark joins us next from minnesota on the idea of a vaccine passport. actually, new hampshire. go ahead, mark. caller: i've been on homework -- on hold for a long time. i'm opposed to the vaccine passport. i don't understand why i need to prove i had a vaccine but i don't have to prove who i am to vote. this is topsy-turvy, completely crazy. i have a question, with all the numbers of deaths that we have reported from covid, what happened to all the malpractice deaths that happen every year in this country? 300,000 people die from malpractice every year. where does that number fit into the covid numbers? everything that we hear on a daily basis is opposite, upside down, and changes every 24 hours. host: thank you for the call.

this text message from maryland, and says she supports the passport and that it will allow for the safest and most responsible reopening. only a vaccine passport can put the pandemic you hind us. jim joins us next from illinois. welcome to the conversation. caller: good morning. i support the passport but i have a few concerns. the way people are getting vaccinated right now, it's kind of staggered. everybody's going to want to get renewed at different times. how do you know when to get renewed? have they decided that it is nine months? a year? my concern is that it is going to be all year-round. if you forget are like a week late on your passport, i can just think there's going to be huge problems in the fall and winter of next year.