p.m. eastern. c-span's "landmark cases" explores the stories unconstitutional drama behind significant supreme court decisions. sunday at 9:45 p.m. eastern, watch gideon v. wainwright, where clements gideon was denied a court-appointed lawyer. the supreme court ruled that under the sixth amendment, the accused must be provided a lawyer if they can't afford one, or the opportunity to defend themselves. watch "landmark cases" sunday night at 9:45 p.m. eastern on c-span, online at c-span.org [indiscernible] , or listen on the c-span radio app. and with us here on washington journal is senior staff writer scott wong with the hill. great to have you with us. guest: great to be with you. host: it will be a busy week for you and your colleagues ahead.

let's start with the infrastructure discussions. it is pretty much in the hands of republicans, a bipartisan group of democrats and republicans at this point. they have a proposal before president biden. tell us about that. guest: this is the second iteration bipartisan talks. the first bill had to do with between president biden and senator capito of west virginia. this second group of bipartisan senators picked up the mantle and really has started to make quite a bit of progress and gain some momentum in recent days. the other day, they said that they now have 11 republicans on board, 10 members of the democratic caucus including the independent angus king of maine.

they are gathering more and more support as they move forward. i think there's really two camps here. one is the progressives that want president biden to go big with multitrillion dollar packages including infrastructure, but also other measures including health care and perhaps immigration. this group of bipartisan senators, they want a more narrow approach and they think they are on the cusp of something bipartisan, which is really what president biden has emphasized during his campaign and also during his presidency, is that he wants to restore bipartisanship to washington and they think they are really on the cusp of doing something. this would include about $1 trillion of infrastructure, more

traditional infrastructure spending. about $580 billion of that would be new spending. i think this is a pretty critical week to see what could actually be done on a bipartisan basis, or if the talks fall apart and president biden decides he's going to go big on infrastructure and do something with democrats only in the senate. host: it always seems like to hang up on these discussions has been in the so-called pay-fors, which includes taxes. where are they on that? guest: from my understanding, there is nothing that has been decided yet. they floated a number of ideas, one would be indexing the gas tax to inflation. that is an idea that has been kicked around washington for quite a while. congress has never really had the appetite to tackle that in the past. another would be to use some unused funding, billions of

dollars of unused funds from the relief package that passed congress earlier this year, because, i think the economy is starting to heat up. there is a sense that maybe not all of that money needs to be spent, some of that could be transferred over for infrastructure spending. those are some of the ideas that this group is looking at. nothing has been finalized at this point. there is still no final deal. host: i want to ask you about the status of investigations on the january 6 attack on the capitol. democratic clamor grows for select committee on the january 6 attack. remind us where they are. the senate rejected that, correct? the idea of a bipartisan commission, independent commission, 9/11-style commission, i should say. guest: exactly. a couple weeks ago, the senate republicans did reject that

house-passed bill that would have created the 9/11-style commission. what the house is doing right now and what nancy pelosi is doing right now is making a number of phone calls to her rank and file members to also meeting with her key committee chairman who have been already investigating the january 6 attack as part of their oversight responsibilities. pelosi has a few options here. it looks like the democrats have been consolidating around one specific option, that is a special, select committee. one of the more high-profile select committees we have seen in the past years was the benghazi committee that house republicans had used to investigate the benghazi terrorist attacks as well as come at the time, the

presidential candidate hillary clinton who had to testify before that committee. and so this committee, the select committee, if nancy pelosi chooses to go down that road, she would have much more control over that committee. she could unilaterally create that committee and put members that she wants to on that committee, kevin mccarthy, the house minority california would also get to pick some members of that committee. that would be a house-only committee and it would move away from this idea that president biden and a number of house democrats and even some republicans wanted, which was a bipartisan outside committee. this would bring it in-house, and nancy pelosi would have much more control over it because the senate has decided not to act on that initial independent committee. this looks like the most likely route. host: scott wong is with us, a

senior staff writer for "the hill," looking ahead to what is coming in the weeks ahead in the house and congress. (202) 748-8001 that is the line for republicans. (202) 748-8000 is the line for democrats. independents and others, (202) 748-8002. i want to ask you about the voting rights bill, the procedural bill. let me just remind our viewers of what we are talking about. that for the people act is what it is called. the bill would create automatic voter registration and strengthen early and absentee mail-in voting. it would create small, non-taxpayer funding for offices. it would call for a constitutional amendment to overturn citizens united decision, prohibit the coordination between super pac's and candidates, require states to use independent redistricting

commissions, and also to enhance the research to stave off foreign threats and cyber threats on elections. and at this point, joe manchin has another key role. his compromise that he has floated on this legislation, and that includes joe manchin's compromise includes voter registration automatically. election day would be a national holiday, mandating at least 15 days of early voting for federal elections, banning bipartisan gerrymandering, and it would support voter id provisions with a wider list of alternatives to prove a voter's identity like a utility bill. telus, first of all, about the vote that is coming up tomorrow and how the joe manchin alternative may play into all of this. guest: well, republicans including mitch mcconnell have said they are opposed to both of those pieces of legislation. there is a much more sweeping

bill that passed the house of representatives as well as for the pared down version, what we are calling the joe manchin compromise, which is something that he has been trying to reach across the aisle and get buy-in from republicans on. so far, not a whole lot of republicans are dividing on that offer. over the weekend as i understand it, my colleague has reported that senator schumer and joe manchin have been having conversations about what it would take to get manchin's support on tuesday on that for the people act. we are not quite sure if that is going to be senator schumer extending an olive branch to joe manchin and saying maybe we can really rally behind the joe manchin plan, maybe it is something in between.

but from senator schumer's point of view, he wants all 50 democrats to sit together on this issue. joe manchin said he is not further for the people act -- not for the for the people act. senator schumer's goal is to get all of his democrats to march in line and stick together on this vote. really put the onus on republicans to demonstrate to voters that if the republicans are blocking this voting rights legislation, not joe manchin, one of the democrats who has been in the way. host: in terms of the timeline, how important is it to the president's agenda and senator schumer's senate agenda that they get some of these things done? voting rights, infrastructure, before the august recess. guest: i really think it is a six week sprint to the august recess right now and a lot of those weeks, in fact, are going to be a race because we will

break for the fourth of july, the senate and the house are in on different weeks during the summer. so this is a critical stretch, i think, for joe biden. he is fresh off his first international trip to europe. that was hailed is largely a success with not a lot of missteps. i think now, you're going to start to see biden turning his attention back to his domestic agenda. this is really christ time for biden, the white house, and his allies in congress, the democrats. they have a lot on their plate. they have voting rights, they have police reform of the george floyd policing bill. infrastructure, obviously, just to name a few. the question is really, will they be able to get any of those things done? at the moment, where we stand today, that still remains an

open question, whether any of those will be turned into law by the end of this year. host: let's go to calls and we will hear first from our democrat line. john in brooklyn, good morning. caller: how are you doing? host: good, thank you. caller: i want to say that i think nancy pelosi and schumer is too old to combat mitch mcconnell. it's not like it was in the old days. i think we should have some new blood in their because if you look at it, the power is in the vote. if they don't straighten out this vote so everybody can vote freely, we could lose. but if they straighten out that voting thing and all the democrats can vote, we will win both houses. now, he just said nancy pelosi got options.

but she is too old. schumer is the same way. if we can get all the democrats voting without these restrictions, we will win. thank you very much. host: scott wong? guest: these leaders in the senate and the house, in both parties, the speaker mentioned mitch mcconnell who was in his 70's himself. there is something to be said about experience in this town. the more experienced members tend to rise into leadership levels. it does take time for people to make those relationships, to know how the building works and to figure out how to win elections and obviously, these individuals, nancy pelosi, chuck schumer, mitch mcconnell have been around for a long time and have been in power and have understood how to hold onto that

power for a long time. and so there is a clamor, yes, in the halls of congress as well as outside of congress, for new blood and new leadership. we are seeing a number of those voices stepped forward and raise their profiles both through twitter followings like aoc and others, but also having some influence in the building. i think if you ask democrats, nancy pelosi is listening to many of those younger members and she knows that her time here is not going to go on forever. it will be finite and this may possibly be her last term in congress if not the next one. eventually, there will be a changing of the guard in the democratic party. host: the president has appointed the vice president as his person for voting rights, among other things. is she expected to be in the

chamber on tuesday on that key procedural vote? guest: that's a good question, i don't know the answer to that. but she has been put in charge of some of the most prickly issues in washington from voting rights to the border situation. and so she is somebody who has a broad experience coming up as california attorney general, where she would have prosecuted a lot of those crimes on the border. obviously as a center of the largest state in the union, she has the relationships now obviously in the senate. i'm not sure if she will be on hand or what her schedule looks like. she is definitely somebody to watch. host: they have line of your colleague alexander bolton's piece says centrists gain leverage over progressives in senate infrastructure battle.

we talked a little bit about that bipartisan group pushing this so-called skinny infrastructure package. i want to give you a sense of what bernie sanders said about this infrastructure proposal yesterday on the sunday show he was on. here is what he had to say. >> i mentioned that the biden agenda is moving on two tracks. that bipartisan infrastructure deal which we are going to get to in a moment, and then there is the democrats-only effort that you are leading. the $6 trillion reconciliation package will likely include infrastructure like paid family leave, elder care. but you've also indicated that they could go beyond that. addressing the climate crisis, medicare, even immigration. i know you speak with president biden frequently. you have his blessing to go this big? >> i think what the president has done is given us a blueprint as to where we want to go and i think it is a serious and

comprehensive blueprint. i sometimes think we get bogged down in numbers and that is important, but we have got to look at what the needs are of the american people. and what is going on right now, obviously, the very rich are doing very well. and yet, we have come in terms of real wages for working people, it is lower today than it was 48 years ago. half of all people are living paycheck-to-paycheck. does anyone think that child care in america is satisfactory? it is a disaster. working families can't pay $20,000 per year for child care. we've got a housing crisis. how do you not deal with climate? you tell me. look at what is going on in california. scientists say we have a few years left before a disaster. of course you have to deal with climate, we are the only major country on earth not to have paid family and medical leave. meanwhile, large corporations avoid paying their share of taxes.

all that the president is doing, all that i am doing is taking a look at the reality for working families and understanding their needs that have been ignored for decades. it is time to create millions of good paying jobs addressing health care, housing infrastructure. >> told my coanchor that it is your job also as budget committee chairman to get input from the other 49 members of the democratic caucus. a number of them, i'm sure you have heard by now, joe manchin, jeanne shaheen, jon tester, they are already expressing deep reservations about what you just described which they believe is $6 trillion. are you willing to come off that number or scale back to follow how you describe your plan? scale back in some of what you want to do in order to get it passed? >> the process has just begun. that is what the process is about, channeling of the committee.

i intend to be meeting and discussing these issues with every member of the democratic caucus. i think that there is general agreement that the time is long overdue that we address many of the long-neglected problems facing the middle-class and working-class in this country. are there differences about this proposal, that proposal, the amount of money? yeah, there are. that is something we are going to have to work to hammer out and i intend to do that. host: sanders talked about the president's blueprint, seeming like the budget committee chair sometimes reads the blueprint differently than the biden blueprint itself. guest: i don't think so. i think the disagreement right now is over taxes, whether to start small and bipartisan with the infrastructure proposal and then sort of as a down payment for the president's american families plan which is more of that care economy.

for the bernie sanders approach, which is to go big and try to do everything in one fell swoop through the budget reconciliation process. now, senator schumer and nancy pelosi, they already are having these bipartisan talks. they are already moving forward with the reconciliation package with the profit which would allow senate democrats to pass something with only democratic votes. but biden has said both things. he has said we need to do something transformational in this congress as well as we need to restore bipartisanship to washington and so i think his allies on capitol hill are starting to figure out where those two things in which approach will really win out in this sort of debate over ideas as the crock -- clock is ticking down. host: oklahoma city is next.

charles, republican line. caller: i would just like to ask you a question. i hear some of the people say that it discriminates against people if they have to show voter id to vote. as far as i know, you have to have your id to get a covid shot, go to the doctor's office, anything that you do. so how is that discriminatory? that is my question. host: scott wong, how big of a sticking point is that provision? guest: well, you know, in the joe manchin plan, he has even said as sort of a middle ground that there should be some way of proving you are who you are by showing some form of voter identification. bill, i think you referenced it earlier, that doesn't necessarily have to be a drivers license.

not everyone has a drivers license, not everyone drives. it could be something like a bill that gets sent to your home, a utility bill, for example. this is still being discussed, but i think joe manchin has seen the benefit of having some way to prove, to show that you do live at a certain residence and you are who you say you are. host: let's hear from universal city texas, democrat line. caller: good morning. i would like to address the january 6 insurrection. commission. i think that nancy pelosi needs to assign an independent, her own independent counsel other than members from congress.

get some professional legal people in there. the congress police officers defending the that day testify. cnn had a special on last night that was very scary. that's just my comment. we need to hold those people accountable as well as elected officials. you very much. host: ok. scott wong? guest: i would just point out, nancy pelosi doesn't have the authority to create an independent outside commission. that authority would come from congress and as we pointed out, senate republicans at the moment are blocking the independent commission. the one person who does have the power to create an independent commission would be president joe biden, and that is an idea that we have heard from jerry conley, the democrat from virginia and a former biden

senate staffer who has said that biden is the best person to create an independent outside commission. similar to what happened after the assassination of president kennedy. lbj in the weeks afterwards created the commission that investigated the assassination of president kennedy. it would be a similar idea for biden. the white house is very cool to that idea. they want congress to take the lead and work out their problems. another idea that nancy pelosi is flirting with his having the chairman of the homeland security committee take the lead with his committee since he and the republican ranking member of new york came up with the initial legislation that created the independent commission. there was some bipartisan agreement. one idea is for the

investigation to remain in the homeland security committee and for bennie thompson to take the lead. there is one slight west to that. nancy pelosi is possibly creating host: i do not catch that. i'm sorry about that. we will go to don, in houston,

texas, on the independent line. caller: for the week ahead in congress, i would hope that congress, it's one of the three branches of the federal government. we have the judicial branch, but if you look at the eagle, this has the arrows and the olive branch. this week is about the palm branch, the branch of victory. the president, and congress, they are the victors the american people voted them in. and even with this stonewalling and filibuster, those representing the people, in republican or red areas, are voting in favor of this infrastructure bill.

they denied their own constituents their victory. we have to understand that it's time this week, we have tied -- we have tried. we have dealt with the pandemic. i think if the president and the federal reserve wants to get -- into other communities, they have to tied to economics and the equity of black-owned minority serving banks and tie that in as well. host: any response? guest: i think the caller was speaking to the urgency of the time. this is an idea being echoed not only from progressives in congress, but also from a number of people in the white house itself. they are trying to bend biden's ear and say we have this historic opportunity to do something really big, really transformative, and we cannot delay any longer with these bipartisan talks that seem to

just be going on and on and on. democrats have a long memory from 2009 when president obama's first year, they were trying to pass health care reform. because they continued to talk to republicans and those talks dragged out, a number of things happen, including the passing of senator ted kennedy in the summer of 2009, which deprived democrats of one of those key votes. anything can happen and i think there is this real sense of urgency among progressives who are saying we can't delay any longer. we have to press forward. as the caller pointed out, we were the victors of the 2020 election. now let's go ahead and spend that political capital. host: our guest, scott wong reporting from the capitol on january 6, trapped in the capital on the sixth of january. you have obviously been back in

-- and reported since then. what is it like back up on the hill now? guest: i have to say with the fence coming down around the perimeter, with some of the covid restrictions lifted, reporters and lawmakers no longer have to wear masks the building. last week was the first time it really did feel like things were back to normal. the gaggle of reporters around senators and house members, they are very crowded. there is access to the lawmakers. which necessarily wasn't happening before. and so it really did feel like things are easing back to normal. the speakers lobby, as i understand it is a beautiful space right off the house floor.

on january 6, unfortunately, is where one of the rioters was fatally shot, but that speakers lobby is where reporters and lawmakers interacted, and has been closed to reporters ever since january 6. and i understand they will be opening up that speakers lobby back to members of the press and allow those interactions to happen just off the house floor, which are obviously very helpful and beneficial to reporters like myself. host: we follow scott wong, and you can, too on twitter. senior staff writer with "the hill." guest: great to be with you. host: coming up here on washington journal, we will turn our attention to pandemic unemployment fraud.