c-span3 at 10 come the senate tradition rehearing on migrant farmworkers. >> c-span is your unfiltered view of government. we are funded by these television companies and more including wow. >> world has changed, fast reliable internet connection is something no one can live without so wow is there for our customers to speed, reliability and choice. now more than ever, it starts with free internet. >>wow supports c-span as a public service along with these other television providers, giving you a front row seat to democracy. a front row seat to democracy. >> this morning on washington journal, republican congressman tim burchett of tennessee on infrastructure spending and the biden administration's approach to foreign policy. also, texas democratic state representative shawn thierry on her delegation's protests to

legislation in texas to restrict voting access. later, the head of the government accountability office, gene dodaro, on the agency's 100th anniversary and coronavirus spending oversight. ♪ host: president biden travels to kentucky today and will mark six months on the job with a televised town hall tonight. he will be asked about how his administration is responding to the covid pandemic. cases of the more dangerous delta variant on the rise almost entirely among the unvaccinated in every state in the union. with vaccinations slowing, ongoing vaccine misinformation. good morning. it is washington journal. welcome to the program.

we will spend the first hour asking you about your confidence in how the administration is responding to and handling the rise in covid cases across the country. the lines are divided by region. in the eastern and central time zones, it is (202) 748-8000. in the mountain and pacific time zones, (202) 748-8001 is your number. you can text us at (202) 748-8003. please include your name and where your texting from. we will look for your posts on facebook and @cspanwj is how you connect with us on twitter and on instagram. we will show you some of the hearing -- one of the hearings yesterday on the administration officials testifying on the response to the pandemic and responding to the rise in cases among the delta variant. the washington times, their headline in the newspaper, dramatic rise.

the centers for disease control and prevention tuesday said 83% of sequenced coronavirus samples in the u.s. are the dreaded delta variant that spreads rapidly and is fueling fears of a major setback in the pandemic fight at home and abroad. this is a dramatic increase, up from 50% of the week of july 3, said the cdc director. they also write in the biden administration is hoping to raise vaccination levels that are stuck at about 50% of the u.s. population. they think people owe it to their communities to get immunized. here is the cdc director, testifying at yesterday's senate hearing. [video clip] >> areas with limited vaccine coverage are allowing for the emergence and spread of the delta variant. the cdc has released estimates of variants across the country and predicted the delta variant now represents 83% of sequenced

cases. this is a dramatic increase, up from 50% of the week of july 3. if some parts of the country -- in some part of the country, the percentage is higher, particularly in areas of low vaccination rates. to date, our data indicates vaccines are available to neutralize circulating variants in the united states and provide protection against severe disease, hospitalization, and death. the message from cdc remains clear. the best way to prevent the spread of covid-19 variants is to prevent the spread of disease , and vaccination is the most powerful tool we have. we must continue to expand vaccine coverage by building trust and confidence in covid-19 vaccines. this is particularly important in communities of caller, rural communities, and other population groups at risk. host: we are asking you about your confidence in the ministration's risk -- administration's response to the rise of covid cases across the

country. (202) 748-8000 for those of you in the eastern and central time zones. (202) 748-8001, mountain and pacific. here is a story about confidence in vaccines themselves from usa today. confidence in vaccines is slowly rising. a survey reveals growing public confidence in the safety and effectiveness of covid-19 vaccines. out of the 719 u.s. adults surveyed, -- 719 -- 1007 hundred 19 adults surveyed, 70 believe it is probably true that vaccines are effective, an increase from 74% in april. 76% believe it is definitely or probably true that it is safer to get the vaccine land to get covid-19. a report this morning -- states are sitting on millions of

surplus covid-19 vaccine doses as expiration dates approach. they say millions of unused covid-19 vaccines are set to go to waste as demand dwindles across the united states and doses are likely to expire this summer. several state health departments told staff they have repeatedly asked the federal government to redistribute their supply to other countries, many of which are facing a third wave of the covid-19 pandemic. officials in washington have rejected those requests, citing legal and logistical challenges. let's get to your calls and comments on your confidence in the administration's response to covid. here is cindy in connecticut. caller: good morning. thanks for taking my call. i am very angry about the response to this for a number of reasons. we want to ban people from facebook about misinformation

when the administration is giving misinformation. this is because of the unvaccinated. when you look at israel, europe, and u.k. -- i just saw on article about cape cod. they had a huge surge in covid, and they are all fully vaccinated. the majority are fully vaccinated. maybe they are not getting it as severely, which is a good thing, but it is not just the unvaccinated. the unvaccinated, i hate to say, are probably mostly biden voters, democrat voters, but whatever. they are not queuing people. -- qanon people. why are we letting all these people come in the border if we are so worried about covid and the spread of covid?

in the rio grande, covid cases are up 900%. i guess democrat voters are ok to come in with covid but not the cubans because they are primarily republican voters. host: cindy's concerns reflected in a tweet by john cornyn, the senator from texas. he is saying covid cases around migrants and rio grande valley sectors surged 900% as border numbers continue to rise. he also says that study after study shows two doses of an mrna vaccine remain effective at preventing infection from the delta variant and symptomatic illnesses or hospitalization even more so. here's a headline from the washington post. a growing number of republicans urge vaccinations amid the delta surge. they write particularly that, among the notable voices, was representative steve scalise,

the number two republican in-house leadership, who received his first dose of the pfizer vaccine over the weekend and urge others to follow suit. he had long resisted vaccination, claiming protection from antibodies and sing earlier this year he wanted to ensure his constituents had a chance to be vaccinated first. let's hear from margaret in kansas. good morning. caller: it is very upsetting, trying to make this political when it is people. i cannot tell you -- i live in public housing. it is a mandatory thing that you have to be vaccinated. i have had cancer and i have chemo. i have a repressed system. i have no idea that the lady in the laundry room or in the elevator would not get the vaccine. so selfish. i do not blame the administration.

i blame people pure and they are so lucky to have a vaccine -- i blame people. they are so lucky to have a vaccine. let your kid get measles, polio. what the hell is wrong with people? i feel like i am a sitting duck. i cannot move. i am poor. i will never be able not to wear a mask. it is really -- i hope i live. people are so selfish. it is not the administration. america, what the hell? i have my smallpox vaccine scar. when you are older, you know what happened with polio, how happy we were. this is not any administration. this is the surprising stupidity of a lot of people. host: we go to john in brooklyn. your thoughts on the administration's response, how they are doing so far with this? caller: i think the president is

doing very good. it is the people that has not been -- there are certain diseases you can give other people that harm them. people took the polio, the chickenpox. if you got chickenpox got you cannot go into school and give everybody chickenpox. there should be penalties for this. you have to wear seatbelts. you cannot drive a car without insurance. when it comes to this virus, you can infect other people. you should not be able to walk around infecting other people. use common sense. i live in new york. during the winter, 1800 people a day died in new york. no one got the vaccine. we took it way down. this is all over the world. look at what is happening before

they had the vaccine and look at the things and the condition now with the vaccine. what is wrong with people? thank you very much. host: one of the headlines from the hearing is from cnbc. delta variant now accounts for 83% of all sequenced covid cases. part of the hearing yesterday, a conversation between tommy tuberville from alabama and dr. anthony fauci on the politicization on the issue of vaccination. here is part of that. [video clip] >> dr. fauci, we have made this way too political. this has been tough on the american people. everybody has worked hard to get through this. politics has played a huge role in this. we have all watched it from close and far. i think people need a unifying message from all of us. in my state of alabama, we do

not have everybody taking the vaccine. we are having outbreaks as we speak. we have had operation warp speed . he took a beating, saying how poorly a job he did. the american people saw that. a lot of people voted for donald trump. a lot people in the south, in my state. we have to have a unified message. we cannot be blaming this or that. we have to go north with this. we cannot go the other direction. can you understand unless this administration acknowledges the efforts of the last one, a large part of americans are going to continue to feel like nothing is positive? they are not going to take the vaccine. you understand what i am saying? >> i understand exactly what you're saying. that is an appropriate question i would be pleased to answer. having been present through the

last year, which was the year when covid began, the last year of the former administration, i can tell you that the former administration deserves a considerable amount of credit for the effort that was put into operation warp speed that was able to allow not only the rapid development and testing but also the implementation of the vaccine. there is no doubt in my mind as someone who has been on both sides of the fence to say that is the case. with regard to your unifying message, if i might, sir, i think what we need to appreciate his we are dealing with a common enemy. the common enemy is the virus. the virus does not know if you are republican, democrat, or independent. the virus just knows it makes people ill and kills people. we have an extraordinarily efficient tool against that

common enemy. what i would hope the message would be, a unifying message, is let's all pull together and utilize that tool, vaccination, to really crush that common enemy. i think we have it in our capabilities to do it. i would hope that would be the message. >> positive attitude plus effort equals performance. if we keep that positive attitude, we can get through this thing. we just need to quit fighting in the media and get everybody bleeding -- believing in the same thing. we are all on the same team. host: dr. fauci, one of several administration officials testifying before the committee. other information that came out of that hearing reported in the washington post. federal emergency supply stockpiles are stronger. the federal repository of emergency supplies is better

equipped than during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic , when states desperate for material were stymied by a beleaguered stockpile. compared with the start of the pandemic, the national strategic stockpile contains 35 times as many in 95 respirator -- n95 respirator masks. appearing tuesday for her first current -- convert -- congressional hearings is being sworn in, o'connell said the stockpile has 17 times as many protective gloves and 18 times as many other masks, all made in the united states rather than relying on imports subject to global competition. our question for you, your confidence level in the ministration response to the rise in covid cases across the country. (202) 748-8000 for the eastern and central time zones.

(202) 748-8001, mountain and pacific. on twitter and instagram, we are @cspanwj. a tweet here says, i did my part when all this happened last year and got vaccinated as soon as i was eligible. there is only so much the government can do. it is up to the people to do their part. let's hear from michael in texas. caller: good morning. my question is you gave fax earlier about data about reporting from people. when i was in college, i asked my professor of environmental economics class, these polls that they are given, that you mentioned earlier, i do not know anybody -- has anybody -- we asked the class, has anybody here been polled by anybody or know anybody who has been polled?

the statistics given to us, how can that be -- how can we identify the fact that you are giving us -- the facts your giving us our true? that is my question. the information you are giving us, how can we verify that. host: our job is reporting what is being written about the pole and usa today, a poll done by the annenberg center. we reported to you and let you decide how you think about that. appreciate your input. in maryland, jd. caller: good morning. i love how you quote them polls they were talking about with everybody agreeing that this vaccine rollout is great and all that and how biden is doing a great job. i think he has done a great job

of rolling out operation warp speed, the trump vaccine, and my opinion. he has done a great job, taking a lot of credit for something he did not do. i am skeptical of the vaccine. i think i have a right to the -- to be coming from the military perspective in the 90's come out with government rolled out a vaccine for operation desert storm and three to five years later found out it had an adverse effect on soldiers and so forth. host: did you get that vaccine? caller: i would rather not say what i got. i appreciate you asking, but i know several people have had issues with it. it is said the government would not take response ability for it. that makes us skeptical and i

think people ought to respect that. i am skeptical now as well, especially when you hear people talking about adverse effects to those who have gotten it. you had a doctor on last month who talked about the adverse effects of it and said there would be. you can look it up in your archives, i am sure. hopefully we get through this. i think he has done a great job of rolling out the trump vaccine and we appreciate that. host: los angeles, hello there. caller: hello, sir. i do not approve of the way the biden administration has handled this issue. at the same time, i cannot really say that it could have been done any better because there seems to be this incestuous relationship between

the biden administration and the media in terms of vilifying people as ignorant or whatever. i do understand the science behind the mrna vaccines, and i am reluctant to take that vaccine. not only do i have the antibodies for covid, the way it was rolled out, the rapidity in which it was rolled out, the fact that the manufacturers of the vaccine went in the dark of night and got protections from the federal government to not be sued in case of adverse effects or worse makes me skeptical. on top of that, being a black man in the united states and the horrendous history of medical malfeasance in this country when it comes to black people and

research and vaccines makes me even more skeptical of this whole thing. i wonder, because this is the trump vaccine, and i am no fan of mr. trump at all, i wonder what this would look like, had trump won the election, however you feel about that. i wonder how the democrats would handle this. and vilifying people, calling them names, anti-vectors -- anti-vaxxers, it seems to be at -- counterproductive. host: to joseph in new york. you are on. caller: good morning. i think the biden administration is doing as best as it can dealing with all the misinformation, the propaganda put out there, especially from

the right, fox news and so forth. you do have to give credit to the trump administration. however, after the election, what did you hear? you had the highest cases of covid explosion january, december. into february. ok, biden came in. trump is the one that politicized it. the right are the ones who politicized this. he could have easily won the 2020 election, had he told people to wear masks, had he led. now you're hearing from these people, the guy from alabama, scalise from louisiana, now he

is going to get the shot? he is going to lead from behind instead of being an example and showing his constituents get the vaccine. now he is getting his first vaccine? i got mine in february, as soon as i could. i understand skepticism, but 50% of the population is fully vaccinated. the reason why now it is spreading, this delta variant, is because 89% of people who are on vaccinated are getting the delta variant. it was politicized immediately. as soon as you started hearing about it. that is from mr. trump. he could have grasped this he could have led. he would have easily won the 2020 election. host: thanks for that, joseph. variant complicates battle against the virus is the headline from usa today.

they say everyone wants vaccines to be perfect and the covid-19 ones nearly are. only a fraction of those who are vaccinated end up seriously ill from infection. some will pass on the virus and a small number will die despite shots. the efficacy of the vaccines in preventing hospitalization and death is unbelievable, said an epidemiologist and a stingless professor of medicine at emory university school of medicine in atlanta. it is not 100%, but nothing in this world is 100%. some comments on text -- (202) 748-8003 is how you send us a message. our grid in maryland says the administration has done all they can do. you cannot fight pull us as him and ignorance. please continue to mask up and keep your distance. the senator from colorado had a question with the cdc director about masks.

here is part of the conversation. >> we saw yesterday the pediatrics academy talk about kids older than two wearing masks. we know kids 12 and older should get vaccinated. to give you a platform to talk about that message, what should schools be thinking about and who should they be talking to to get ready? the more kids we can get over 12 and older, the more we get them vaccinated, they will be protected by the time they get to school in the fall if we start now. what does that message look like? dr. wilensky, why don't you start? >> first, i want to lean in and say i think it is important that our schools be open for full and person learning in the fall. we have learned enough over the

last year to understand what we need to do to keep our children safe. we believe based on the science we can keep them safe in those settings. how are we going to keep them safe? the best thing would be to have everybody vaccinated who can be vaccinated. surround children who are not yet eligible with people who are vaccinated to protect them. that is the most important thing. for children who are not able to be vaccinated, they can and should wear a mask in school settings. we have said that in our guidance. i want to comment on one other thing that i think is critically important in the school year ahead, the role of testing. we have talked about the importance of other viral syndromes. we are going to see upper respiratory infections in these schools in the fall. these kids have not been in school, have not in with each other, and i am worried about upper respiratory infections. we are going to have to understand what is covid and

what is a simple cold among children. host: as we have been doing throughout the pandemic, regular ly checking in with you and your confidence in the administration ? response to the -- and ministration's response -- administration's response to the pandemic. in the mountain and pacific region, (202) 748-8001. on text, it is (202) 748-8003. a text hear from chris in birmingham, alabama, who says biden administration officials are not the vaccine police. as a remaining public health emergency, we all have a personal responsibility to protect each other by getting vaccinated. in kentucky, this is rachel. caller: i want to say the cdc director, i was impressed with

her yesterday. for me, i have been vaccinated. the children -- i would have a hard time vaccinating one of my children before it is fda approved. host: marian pennsylvania -- marion, pennsylvania, frank. caller: no one is bringing up the fact that all these illegal immigrants are coming in. none of them are being tested. there is probably new diseases coming in. that is what is making all these new variants. nobody is talking about it. trump was doing something like that, it would be all over the news. you do not hear nothing about it on any of these channels. host: we addressed it earlier in the program in a tweet from john

cornyn. it is on the front page of the washington times. they write the border crisis is worsening, undercutting president biden's earlier assurances that the chaos at the border was a seasonal blip. border patrol reported the most action in 21 years in june. defying predictions that activity at the border would cool off in the summer. tuesday marked six months into mr. biden's 10 year -- tenure. deaths of migrants are up and migrants would be worse but for a record-setting year of border patrol rescues. we go to robert in arkansas. good morning. caller: thanks for taking my call. c-span is great. i agree with the caller just ahead of me. that is what i was calling about.

thousands of people coming in, unvaccinated. no restrictions. they are coming in by the thousands unvaccinated. go, c-span. they are great. host: canada announced they were opening the border with the u.s. as of august 9 to vaccinated individuals. alex is in ashburn, virginia. caller: why people who are vaccinated are worried about -- you are vaccinated not to have the disease. it should be a free choice. that is what i think. i prefer that before doing the vaccine we do a test, antibody

test, to make sure -- maybe people do not need the vaccine. thank you. host: next is jr, maryland. caller: i probably would not get it because of the fact the gentleman said about the army and all the experiments that have gone wrong, the tuskegee experiments where black people were injected with civil is on purpose. that is all i had to say. host: this is from the -- civil list -- syphillis on purpose. that is all i had to say. host: this piece says that as the vaccination campaign progressed through the spring and summer, the white house touted predictions that the u.s. economy would roar back to life as consumers returned to pre-pandemic spending. biden has stressed the economy

is set to grow the fastest paste and -- pace and almost four decades. the delta variant may threaten the recovery along several dimensions. the ongoing pandemic could dampen consumer spending if fears reemerge about the safety of returning to some activities. the variant's proliferation abroad has hurt u.s. supply chains and shortages could exacerbate inflation by increasing the price of production. a jump in hospitalization and death among the unvaccinated posed a challenge for the biden administration and conservative part of the country, where resistance to new restrictions is strong and federal relief aid is starting to expire. back to your calls and comments in your confidence in the administration. here is mary. caller: good morning. i was hesitant also about

getting the vaccine. i went ahead and got one this last weekend. it was because of the variants. the other thing is i think, if we are going to prepare for our children, maybe they could get the masks doctors use in the hospital. we could order those earlier. there is a lot if we put our heads together. we are americans. one reason i did get the shot is , when i first heard about the eastern indian population, i was so ashamed because i am an american and i do have -- i can get this shot. but these other people that really want it in these other countries cannot. all of us christians or

so-called christians, it makes me wonder. i was so ashamed of myself that i thought, if you believe god will protect you -- he will. i wanted to thank you and i do not have anything bad to say. i wish people would look to the good side or to whatever they believe in and more people would get -- try to put our heads together and get things together and help each other. that is what america is all about. thank you and have a great day. host: shirley, new york city. you're on the air. caller: i want to say i do not understand why people do not want to get vaccinated.

i do not believe people -- when someone close to them passes away from this disease. to give trump any praise and string the vaccine -- in starting the vaccine -- biden took over and was the one that has gotten so many people to get vaccinated. i have been vaccinated. many of my family members have been vaccinated. when you lose a friend or child, you will get vaccinated. trump got vaccinated. he would not tell the people he was vaccinated until much later. they still believe in this man. it is about our country.

host: we are talking about the administration's response and your confidence level in it. we talked about vaccine efforts and mask wearing. here is an avenue we have not talked about got personal behavior. this is out of a website from the university of california davis. they write that covid-19 has been headline news for over a year. although the virus is still out there, new cases every day, a new study finds the public is starting to tune out coronavirus updates. researchers from the university of california davis say society is becoming desensitized to the health crisis especially when it comes to following safety measures. the study looked at covid-19 articles and reaction to updates on twitter to see how public attitudes are changing since early 2020. researchers say, despite the death toll continuing to increase, people are showing less concern about covert related news.

it is a change from where the world was over a year ago. in the spring of 2020, many people started to hoard essential supplies like toilet paper and are generally reacting with anxiety on social media. communications doctoral student says that is no longer the case. findings reveal people are now shifting back to risky social behavior and are less fearful of ignoring pandemic measures like social distancing. here is glenn in florida. caller: how are you doing? host: fine, thank you. caller: i think president biden is doing a great job. he has only been in office for six months. this vaccine situation did not start until he became president. you had the situation where trump pushed vaccines because the only thing he was concerned

about was being elected. everything he did was political. joe biden for six months has done a good job. before vaccines were available, trump already put in the mind of everyone that supported him that it was all political. that is what we are dealing with now. it is about the new variant being out here but people have the same attitude when he was in office. i am not going to wear a mask, do this, that. republicans say, we do not want to blame anybody but you have to blame them because they are doing the same thing they did before vaccines showed up. take a look at the senator that was talking to dr. fauci from alabama. we need to get together and work together. where was he at and every republican when trump was saying i am not going to wear a mask, when he said liberate michigan? where were they last year when everybody could have been told

that supported trump, do the right thing? by the time the vaccines got here, everyone that supported him would have had on a mask and would not have a problem. republicans need to stop playing the selective memory game and understand the reason things are going backwards now are because of what they still do. host: part of the hearing yesterday was a heated discussion between dr. fauci and senator rand paul of kentucky. here is the headline. if ouchi -- fauci, senator paul does not know what he is talking about. the issue was about the funding of the lab in wuhan china. [video clip] >> knowing it is a crime to lie to congress, do you wish to retract your statement that you claimed the nih never funded gain of research -- gain of function research in wuhan? >> microphone.

>> senator paul, i have never lied before the congress, and i do not retract that statement. this paper that you are referring to was judged by qualified staff up and down the chain as not being gain of function. let me finish. >> you take an animal virus and increase transmissibility to humans -- you are saying that is not gain of function? >> senator paul, you do not know what you're talking about. i want to say that officially. you do not know what you're talking about. >> from the nih -- this is your definition you guys wrote here and it says scientific research that increases the transmissibility among animals is gain of function. they took animal viruses that only occur in animals and increased transmit ability to

humans. how you can say that is not gain of function -- it is a dance and you are dancing around this because you are trying to obscure responsibility. >> now you're getting into something -- if the point you are making is that the granta that was funded as a sub award from eco-health to wuhan created sars-cov-2, if that is where you're getting cut let me finish. >> we do not know. the evidence is pointing at came from the lab and there will be responsibility for those who funded the lab, including yourself. >> i totally -- i totally resent the lie that you are now propagating, senator. if you look at the viruses that were used in the experiments, that were given in the annual report, that were published in

the literature, it is molecularly impossible -- >> no one is saying those viruses because the pandemic. what we are alleging is gain of function research was going on in that lab and nih funded it. it meets your definition and you obvious getting the truth. -- obvious ge -- obfuscating the truth. >> i want everyone to understand if you look at those viruses, just by qualified virologists and evolutionary biologists, those viruses are molecularly impossible -- >> no one is saying they are. host: that is part of a hearing we covered yesterday. it is all available at c-span.org. our conversation this first hour, asking you about your confidence in the administration's response to rising covid cases. john is next in washington.

caller: good morning. i have not had a chance to talk to you. i think you are one of the best moderators there. it is hard to get angry with you. i think you treat people well. host: i'm glad i'm not making angry. caller: i think you treat people well. i want to make two comments. yesterday, you mentioned the small border towns, specifically by canada having some issues. you went to a paper talking about it, for the border to be opening in towns that are suffering. i live 50 miles from the border. -- 15 miles from the border. we have been shut down with the rest of the country. i have a lot of friends down here that have different businesses.

to be frank, most of them were to do with tourism from people coming and going and vacations. a lot of beautiful country appear. we have not seen anybody in a year and a half. we have businesses shutting down and food prices now up to five dollars. gas is near four dollars if you can even get the cheap stuff. host: is this opening of the border by canada too late to help businesses in your area? caller: some of them, for sure. especially if it is recreational stuff, whether camping, fishing, just travel in general. we have a lot of national parks and state parks that are empty. with that, it has been tough.

we have watched our prices go through the roof. bread, gas, food. all kinds of stuff. we need help up here with that. i also wanted to touch on one more thing about the vaccination. i was born with a blood clot in disorder. i did not learn about that disorder until i was 29 by having a pulmonary embolism. my doctors recommended i not have the shot right now because a concern is blood clots. my question is, i know i am not going to get one anytime soon, but it is a hereditary disorder. it does not give everyone blood clots, but i am concerned about people who do not know that you have factor five or other disorders because it is an expensive test they do not just hand out. i got mine after i had an embolism.

i am concerned of maybe some of that has to do with some of the people who might be getting blood clots. i have a son who is 11. he has not been diagnosed with factor five. you do not just go get diagnosed because the testing is so expensive. that concerns me in some of the kids getting sick and getting blood clots and whatnot. i am not necessarily saying they have disorders, but people need to realize there are people out there that may feel one way or another. it has to be a personal decision with your doctor. host: to cincinnati, president biden will be there this evening for a televised town hall on cnn. caller: a poll i saw yesterday had 47% of republicans not taking the vaccine and only 6% of democrats.

if you could put that pool up, i would appreciate it. -- paul -- poll up, i would appreciate it. all you have to do is look at the delta variant. it is in rural missouri. it is in alabama. it is in the republican areas. it is self-evident that it is republicans refusing to get the vaccine. host: appreciate your call. the house is in at 10:00 for its morning hour and then legislative business at noon at the senate also in this morning. they will vote this afternoon on moving forward with the bipartisan infrastructure plan. we will talk more about that later in the program.

this is from politico. their headline, reckless spending spree the gop battle plan takes shape. the majority leader defending the timing of the procedural vote set for later today. >> for decades, both parties have shared a desire to invest in infrastructure. it is one of the few issues in washington where our two parties can consistently work together. it has been years since congress passed a significant standalone investment. we hope to change that this year. nearly a month ago, a bipartisan group of senators came together along with the white house and agreed on framework for a bipartisan infrastructure bill. last night, i moved to set up a process for the senate to consider that framework. wednesday, the senate will take the first procedural vote. really a vehicle to get the process started.

it is not a final deadline for legislative text. it is not a ploy. it is not a attempt to jam anyone. it is only a signal that the senate is ready to get the process started, something the senate has routinely done on other bills this year. all i yes vote on the motion to proceed means is the senate is ready to begin debating a bipartisan infrastructure bill, no more, no less. we have waited a month. it is time to move forward. host: politico writes about that bipartisan group. they write that on tuesday night the bipartisan group met over tacos and wine to hammer out the final sticking points. they think the final text will be ready to go by monday. mitt romney emerged from the

meeting and said, i think it may be done tomorrow. it will be a long time. that qualifies as days in that context, before we have a full bill of text. we may have issues resolved by tomorrow -- he means today. a senator of montana said, i believe tomorrow it will be done. we are close. political rights, moderate senate democrats have been working on this deal for months. given how close they are, it is unlikely they walk away because a procedural vote on an artificial deadline fails. schumer needs people like kyrsten sinema to move on to a massive reconciliation bill. that is the other deadline today. the budget measure that the majority leader needs his conference to agree to buy later today. robert is next.

in the final 10 minutes here, we are talking about your confidence in the biden administration's response to the pandemic. go ahead. >> all i have to say, when there is an earthquake, you have tremors that last hours or days, depending on the size of the earthquake. we are human beings made out of blood and bones and whatever. this pandemic is similar in a different way. how long is this tremor going to last with human beings as the tremors with the earthquake? it is going to last more than six months. doctors are, everybody down. now it is 14 months. is it going to last another year? that is what i have to say -- doctors are calming everybody down. now it is 14 months. is it really going to last another year? that is what i have to say. caller: i am deeply concerned

with these illegal immigrants coming to this country. if 10% have this virus and then he turns around and sends them through the country, destroying the budgets of each community, the man is spreading the virus himself and criticizing others for not getting there shot. this does not make any sense to me at all. host: i want to take a look at the front page of the health section of usa today, two stories involving the nation's health. heat intensifies the plight of the western u.s.. nearly 60 million people in the west are enduring a drought. nearly 95% of the region is in drought.

the highest percentage in at least the past 20 years, according to u.s. drought monitor. the other story being reported is a report that came out from the cdc center for health statistics on american lifespan. expected lifespan drop is massive. the united states saw the largest one-year drop in life expectancy since world war ii during the covid-19 pandemic. hispanic and black populations saw the largest declines according to data released wednesday. life expectancy at birth declined to 77 .3, the lowest level since 2003. the centers for disease control and prevention found that you can read that at usa today. one more piece behind the numbers in the life expectancy, this is the washington post. i will jump over to that. related story is overdoses cut into life expectancy.

they write the drop in life expectancy also reflects the pandemic's broader impact on health, including a record high number of deaths from drug overdoses. there were more than 93,000 overdose deaths in 2020, largely driven by opioids, those deaths from methamphetamine and cocaine also rose. an estimated 11% of the decline in life expectancy is due to increase in deaths from accidents and unintentional injuries and more than one third of unintentional injury deaths were drug overdoses. doug is next in newport news and virginia. caller: how are you doing? all i want to tell you is all these people complaining about this country, that it is racist, this, that, why are these people coming across our borders to get into this country?

why don't the people who are complaining leave? if they cannot figure out this is one of the best countries you can live in. don't tell me a country is going to pay you to sit at home and not work. let the mexicans come up here and go to work. americans are so lazy. all they want to do is draw money from the government and sit at home. host: do you think the federal government is responding to the pandemic in the proper way? caller: no, i do not. we have interpreters that supported us. i'm a veteran. they are the ones that should be given first rights to get in here. they put their lives on the line , same thing people did in vietnam, world war ii. why are we doing what we are doing? bring this country back to what it was. host: the u.s. house expediting a bill that would expedite -- passing a bill that would expedite visas for those interpreters and their families.

caller: i'm confident in the way biden is responding to the increase of the virus. people that voted for trump should go ahead and get shots. if they got the shot -- biden is bringing in 200 to 300,000 people with the delta virus, spreading it all over the united states. if trump's voters get the shots come biden voters will be dead. -- get the shots, biden voters will be dead. host: ventura, california, pete.

caller: i have absolute no confidence in the administration . when you look at joe biden, he barely can respond to any question. him being the leader of the party and the president of the country, the history of what he has been accused of from the right before the election, i believe it is ridiculous. with the new variant that has been out, my son recently was vaccinated. he is young, healthy. he got a positive test yesterday. i think a lot of the american people are wondering how many times do you want to get vaccinated? people have been vaccinated who are healthy, young, but they are

coming up positive. host: here is a story in the washington post. a oxo's rights, if you have the chance, get the shot. eight fox host rights, if you have the chance -- a fox host writes, if you have the chance to make it the shot. the host of the strongly right-leaning fox and friends. the white house press secretary was asked about their conversations on vaccine messaging. [video clip] >> my colleagues reported discussions between white house officials and fox news about coverage related to the pandemic and vaccines. can you elaborate at all in terms what those detailed and if you feel like you have had an effect on coverage of those issues? >> we have been in touch with every network and many media outlets about coverage of

covid-19 to make sure people have accurate information. we are never shy when we have an issue with a story. that is really the frame we are looking at. we understand also the importance of reaching fox's audience about the covid-19 vaccines and their benefits. we are in regular contact and make efforts to have officials on a range of networks to talk about covid-19. we do not see it as a partisan issue. we do not see vaccines as a political issue. it is an issue about keeping americans safe. host: on our opening topic, let's get one more call from ann in illinois. caller: ok. on the topic of getting the shot, last night i was watching our news, local news. we are not seeing the delta here. what we are seeing is s strand.

i was wondering if that is because we have a lot immigrants coming over the border because of our sanctuary city. that caught my i thought, that is not what i was watching with dr. fauci yesterday with all the representatives. i watch that whole hearing. we were talking yesterday -- they were talking about israel and how they are giving the booster shot already and they are ahead of the game. they kept repeating it over and over again. why aren't we getting the booster shot? this is spreading so fast. why don't we follow them because their data is already out there. they kind of scuffled around the point. they did not answer the question. host: thank you for your call and your comment.

there is more ahead here on "washington journal." up next, we will be joined by representative tim burchett. he will be talking with us about infrastructure spending. texas democratic state representative shawn thierry talks about her delegations protest of restrictive voting legislation in the lone star state. ♪ >> the senate judiciary committee will hear from tom vilsack and food industry leaders on immigrant farmworker issues. >> robert novak's nickname was the prince of darkness, named that by many of his friends and washington-based journalists.

in 2007, 2 years before he died, his autobiography was published about his 50 years as a reporter , television personality, author, and conservative commentary. he appeared on book notes at that time about his book. >> robert novak on this episode of notes plus. ♪ >> "washington journal" continues. host: we welcome back congressman tim burchett of tennessee who has quite the portfolio. foreign affairs committee. good morning. one of the reasons we are having you want is to get your thoughts on an opinion piece you have had in the washington examiner, the headline of which, i didn't continues to build a legacy of

foreign -- biden continues to bow the legacy of foreign policy failures. guest: i think china is always at the top of the list. china showed the bullies that they are. like a junior high school bully that shoves a kid in the locker. that is what they did with secretary blinken. they lectured us on human rights. it is seriously pathetic that we would even allow that to go on. it is the difference in leadership. some of your viewers might not like trump, but that would not have happened under him. they are allowed to berate us, for quite a long while, actually. host: news reporting that china

had been involved in hacking a u.s. pipeline from 2011-2013, chinese backpackers targeted and breached two dozen companies that own such pipelines. the fbi and dhs unveiled this yesterday. how do you think the administration should respond? guest: when we are negotiating, when he was negotiating with russia, he said, those are issues you have to keep your hands off of. we did not see this type of activity and i question their ability to negotiate. obviously, we are in some serious trouble. the bully pulpit, my gosh, that

is where you have to hit them, economic. we are not talking about bringing troops into the picture. we are a bunch of addicts to chinese goods. covid showed that time and time again, our supply chains are very weak mainly because it was a virus created in china and released to the world and now we are more indebted to the chinese than we ever were before. it is a continuous cycle and we have to break it at some point. we need to start focusing on that in our international negotiations. guest: you and your colleagues voted on a measure that would expedite visas for some of those afghans who served with the u.s.

and their families. the administration opening up a camp to receive some of those afghan refugees. i guess -- what else do you think the administration to do? what do you think about the announcement itself? the move to withdraw u.s. troops. guest: i think it is a positive move. not a day went by that i would drive by a bridge and see a person who was homeless and half of those are veterans. that is the long-term cost. they called it shellshocked. they give them a shot of morphine in the second world war and send them back home. i think you need to look at long-term effects, not just cheap gasoline when we are

talking about the middle east. i think we need to get our troops home. they taken note to uphold -- take an oath to uphold the constitution of the united states. it is not in the middle east. it is in america. under trump, we were an export nation. now we are back to being an important nation. we closed the pipeline down and then he allowed the russians to open there's backup. long-term effects, people need to start paying attention to what is happening in washington. the man we have in the white house is grossly incapable of doing his job and i think that will continue with every world event that we are seeing. host: tim burchett is our guest.

we welcome your calls and comments. for democrats, (202) 748-8000. for republicans, (202) 748-8001. for independents, (202) 748-8002. what are your observations on what is going on in the senate besides the package and how they want to proceed with a measure that would over base spending $600 billion. this bill is over 3.5 trillion in human infrastructure. a trillion of it is traditional infrastructure, type spending. i think the bill will be dead in the house. speaker pelosi is literally

sacrificing on the altar -- a lot of moderate and semi conservative democrats and she is doing that to satisfy her far-left base. it is really a shame. as a republican, we will easily take the majority next time. when i was in the state legislature in tennessee, and people run down tennessee, but people are coming in in droves from these northern blue states. the reason is because the crazy spending -- in tennessee, we have a balanced budget amendment and we have zero debt in our state. when we pass legislation, if it is about dog catchers, the final legislation is about dog catchers. it is not about pay raises for

legislators or bridge projects. that is the problem we have here. these projects have zero to do with infrastructure. if it is such good legislation, let's get an individual bill and vote it up or down. host: when it comes to the house, say the senate passes something, you talked about woke ness. give me an example that members would want in the bill that would not pass the house. guest: for me, what i want in the bill is roads, bridges, several dams that need work, railroads, airlines, things you would consider -- i could even go as far as internet coverage. a lot of our area are rural areas.

i could move the needle as far as that. for the rest of it, it is crazy. it is green new deal projects, it is virtual signaling -- virtue signaling. it has nothing to do with of indwells or solar -- nothing to do with windmills or solar. that is how you get these bloated bills and it is a gutless way to do legislation. yesterday, we passed a very large bill made up of about 24 or 25 amendments and we should have been voting on each of those individually. instead, they did a procedural vote and they combined them all together. that is a terrible way to do business. we get paid a heck lot of money to be here. the average american citizen does not get anywhere near that paycheck.

quit complaining. let's do our job. apparently, that leadership is not about that. it is about virtue signaling. we have to get out of here because we have to raise money. that is not what i was sent to washington to do. host: let's hear from viewers and listeners. james is on the independent line in myrtle beach. caller: i would like to ask you a question. republicans -- you had it for four years with donald trump. he only did one thing. you act like you are so concerned about what we need, but why aren't you reaching across the aisle and say, let's

quit all of this fighting and get this infrastructure going. let's get this immigration bill passed. guest: i love myrtle beach. i spent my formative years there. you are lucky to live there. first of all, i was not in congress than. i agree that there needs to be reach across the aisle. currently, there is not any in the house. the transportation bill that we passed, over 100 amendments, it went on a straight party line. i had amendment that made a technical correction. it was agreed upon and i was

told it was mentioned by democrats on the house floor. it was voted straight party line. they killed it because of being a republican. bipartisan is a myth. that is what -- politics and elections have consequences. i agree with you, we blew it. we had all three branches -- we blew it. i believe that people trusted some people and a lot of republicans are moderates that want to play ball and don't want to mix it up and make changes. i think that is wrong. elections have consequences and i believe that president trump would probably not agree to paul ryan being speaker. that is where it started.

he did not do anything about the wall. he did not pass a budget. we have not passed a budget and over 25 years. he did not fix obamacare. everybody was talking big and republicans were thumping their chests, but in reality, they did not do anything about it. if we ever get the majority again, we will remember that lesson and do something about those things. i am sorry i was not in congress to voice that opinion. host: tampa, florida, republican line. caller: the pipeline the president got rid of, i know they are trying to do agreed deal. -- a green deal. they let russia have their pipeline.

once russia gets with iran, they will be working together. iran is moving back into afghanistan, as we know. russia will use the oil to build up their military and power while the u.s. will be dependent on foreign oil. our gas prices are going to go through the roofs and take our economy down further. i think it is a slap in the face. guest: i agree with you. nord stream 2, the pipeline that you're talking about that we agreed to with the russians, and they closed hours off. i thought that was a cheap shot. can you imagine if trump had done that and the medias outrage -- media's outrage will be over the top?

gasoline prices have already gone up over 40% this year. we will have to address these things. when you cut off our supply of fuel and we become a debtor nation, under trump, we were exporting fuel. it is moving in that direction. we need to move gradually and we need to be conscientious of people's jobs. they are doing it under the guise of protecting the environment. when our adversaries, like china, we get under these environmental protection acts -- the paris accords, for instance -- the chinese do not have to do it for another 20 years. yet, we will do the honor system and follow the rules. the other side is not.

do you think that when this thing is up, they will fold up their hold -- their whole energy plan? heck no. they have a bigger plan. they will put us out of business. we will be indebted to them. we will be enslaved by them economically. host: that caller mentioned iran. there iran negotiations -- the iran negotiations, with a new president taking over in august, what is the role of your committee in overseeing these talks? guest: we better put a strong foot forward. if iran gets nuclear devices, it is very clear what will happen to israel. they would wipe them off the map. we do not need to do negotiations with iran. as of this past couple of weeks, i tried to kidnap an american citizen in new york.

where's the outrage on that? it is unbelievable that we are even negotiating. they are a bunch of thugs. we have to start treating them like that. quit treating them with kid gloves. this diplomacy, handshaking, and wringing of hands -- we are the strongest nation on the face of god's green earth, and we need to start acting like it. if they want to play ball, they better get in our ballpark. what they are doing is definitely not. the tail is wagging the dog when it comes to iran. our committee needs to's send a strong -- needs to send a strong message. we need to look at our economic impact overseas. until take it serious -- they are laughing at us right now. they are laughing at us. we show weakness, that is when

these leaders overseas, they fill up the vacuum. host: this is beverly on the democrats line. caller: hello. good morning. i do not appreciate you calling the president this man. have some respect. he is the president. do you understand? have some respect. just because you love trump, this man is the president. joe biden. do you know how to say joe biden? have some respect. that is all i have to say. guest: thank you, ma'am. to get respect, you need to gain

it. we do not have any respect worldwide. our enemies no longer fear us and our friends are a little skeptical right now. we need to step up. i am afraid that president biden, i do not think he is well. if you watch any of the interviews. he is incoherent. the media has to have preapproved questions. in what world, any journalistic venue, is that acceptable host: host:? republican line -- acceptable. host: republican line, kelly. caller: i would like to ask about the 2030 agenda. i am curious -- what is the 2030 agenda about? thank you. guest: i do not know. i'm sorry. host: we will hear from -- i

have a question for you on twitter. steve says, this representative state would still be in the dark of the federal government did not create the tva, but does not support the infrastructure built. guest: the dams and the projects are part of traditional infrastructure. it absolutely would support it. the tba has to accept some responsibility, too. they pay their headman over $8 million a year. i daresay, highest paid person -- he is a friend of mine -- he is the highest paid person in the federal government, anywhere in the world of any democracy.

there is a huge responsibility. the tva needs to step up and take care of business. and i think they will under his leadership. host: he represents the second district of tennessee. what is the biggest issue locally for the eastern part of tennessee? guest: we have had a lot of violence lately in knoxville. a lot of shootings. folks are rightfully concerned. you have one side blaming law enforcement for some reason. we need to start looking within. we need to start looking at homes that have no fathers. we have a huge problem with that and personal responsibility will have to take effect. you had a shooting in school where the officer had to go into a restroom and there was a lot of back-and-forth and the

officer was cleared, obviously, because it was a justified shooting, as they say. the young man had a gun on him. some of the folks are not too accepting of that. the reality is the policeman did the right thing. it is east tennessee, though. we have a real independent streak. it is a great place to live, low tax area. our state legislature does a wonderful job. host: let's go to tom in illinois, independent line. caller: good morning. tennessee, one of my favorite states. i am from tennessee. you want to clear up the viruses and the malware and ransomware? you sue microsoft. they put out a faulty product.

if you buy a car and the accelerator sticks, you sue the manufacturer. i have a degree in electronics. they put these viruses, cookies and malware on your system because they want to track you. they want to know where you spend your money, who you talk to, what you are buying, etc. they do not have to have these cookies on your system. they could have it on their server. they want to track you when they are not -- when you are not on their system. guest: i think it is gutless. congress is gutless. we do not hold their feet to the fire. big tech, we rail on big tech but still we are like dogs at the trough and we take their

money. ultimately, that will be where it lies. if we could get some people with guts, you have people like rand paul in the senate who rails on stuff like that. he really needs some help. he needs some folks with technology backgrounds to articulate that position. i agree with you 100%. i have been in those arguments. they can control that stuff by turning the switch. the reality is what they are interested in doing is selling our information. these multibillion-dollar corporations. the chinese are notorious for that. while way -- who while way -- h uawei, they can do that. we have countries going online with them. it is the way it is now. we have to address it. host: let's hear from carolyn in

baltimore on the democrats line. caller: good morning. thank you for c-span. to the representative, i am one of the left-leaning thinkers that you talk down about. i would have to agree with the gentleman from south carolina that asked about reaching across the aisle. you talk about us being bullying and biden -- compromise is a good word. the environment has made compromise look bad. it takes more strength to agree to compromise, to reach across the aisle. we are expecting you. you said it is not possible, but it starts with you. i would ask that you make every attempt to compromise, reach across the aisle. that is what you are sent there to do. being a bully is not impressive.

being a bully is, to me, childish. we tell kids on the lot not to bully. guest: i am not a bully because i am in the minority. it is always interesting to me democrats always want to talk about let's negotiate, the republicans do not want to negotiate when we are in the minority and they are in the majority. they don't need us. all of these big bills dealing with international affairs, transportation, they have not negotiated one bit. we were not involved in any of the formation of it. i would suggest to you that it will begin with the majority. the minority is waiting. host: a couple of nominees on the senate side, article -- democrats are calling out senator ted cruz.

senator murphy said this about it -- ted cruz is making it very hard on the president. he is holding up every single state department nominee right now. the republican strategy is to try to make it as hard as possible for president biden to manage crises around the world. guest: that is a bogus argument. ted cruz has a philosophical problem. you have people who will be heading up these organizations. one was involved in environmental terrorism thing. you have to dig deeper into who these people are. you have a lot of problems in the state department. that is one of the areas that should've been cleaned up before. they are what is running this government. host: here is esther on the

republican line, ohio. caller: good morning. thank you for c-span. one of the things that your program does is to bring truth out of the media. congressman, i thank you for the work you are doing in our nation. my father was a world war ii veteran. to see all of the stuff happening in this nation, i am very disappointed. we were coming together as a nation, but i see such a divide here. our god does not see color. i would pray that we could get it together. i am for life and we need to repent on abortion in this nation. then we need to get back to god and our constitution that this country was founded on. i am sorry, we will be -- god will forget that we are here. host: i will give you some final thoughts this morning. guest: i agree with basically

what she said. i believe the lord is going to enact his judgment if we are not very careful. we turned our back on him. we could easily become a third world country if we are not careful if we do not assume some responsibility. i am pro-life and i appreciate that. it is always good to hear from folks like-minded. host: tim burchett of tennessee, thank you for being on with us. guest: thank you for having me. host: we will open up our phone lines to hear from you looking at issues of public policy and politics that you are keeping an eye on. what is ahead in the u.s. senate today. (202) 748-8000 four democrats. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents and others, (202)

748-8002. go ahead and start dialing and we will get to your calls right away. ♪ host: we will open up our phone lines on issues of public policy and politics that you're reading about, following on television and elsewhere. (202) 748-8000, democrats.

(202) 748-8001 is the republican line. all others, (202) 748-8002. up until 9:00 eastern, we will keep the phone lines open. this is about the foreign relations committee in the senate and measures they are proposing, bill aims to reassert congress's national security power. a bipartisan group of senators unveiled legislation tuesday to give congress a more active role in -- in approving arms sales and declaring national emergencies in an effort to clawback national security power from the executive branch. the bill aims for the first time to define what type of hostilities require a president to seek congressional approval before committing military resources, establish expiration dates for national emergencies and military authorizations, and automatically curtail funding for any operation president

continues without explicit congressional support. let's get to your calls and comments and issues that are important to you. we hear from tim, first up on the democrats line in wisconsin. caller: yes, thank you, sir. i would like to say that i hear all of these people talking about gas prices and so on but we have to remember that oil went to zero last year during the coronavirus, which i believe trump completely mishandled. he was marching run india having a parade. -- marching around india, having a parade. he put us $8 trillion more in debt. these deficit hawks. i do have concerns about the border and a few other things that i think biden should be doing better at.

i am a more centrist democrats. the republicans have been running these red states for 40 years and they seem to have the poorest wages and poorest health care. we are all one country. i do not understand how people keep reelecting them when they keep talking about the people, the people, but they don't seem to pick them up as far as wages and so on. not to mention, taxpayers paying far less in income tax. they are always bashing the federal government, this and that and the other. i wish we could all come together as a country. i would like to congratulate the milwaukee bucks for their win last night. host: it is their first win nba championship in 50 years in milwaukee.

st. petersburg, florida, is next up. this is robert on the republican line. guest: good morning. regarding the effort to get these afghans who helped us with our military personnel in afghanistan regarding the work to get them visas, which seems to be a problem, why not use the huge military transports and fly them to the mexican airport and they could walk right in, no visa required. host: here is the story on that for military.com in terms of the visas that were approved by a house -- by the house. pentagon to bring afghans. the pentagon is planning to house afghans who served at

stateside locations after they are evacuated from afghanistan. in fayetteville, new york, diane is on the independent line. good morning. caller: good morning, sir. i appreciate how fair-minded you always are. i have not had good experiences with other people. i am 64. i was brought up by a chief master sergeant for the international guard reserve, one room schoolhouse in oklahoma. we discussed things all the time. he was fair-minded. he was not a political man. i forgo voting for at least 30 years. after losing my business and covid, i started watching the news and i was so discouraged.

i started watching c-span in the legislation and these actual things and i saw how pathetic the government, congress, they are acting. it is like high school cliques. it is so disheartening. i do not think they are watching the actual congress, the actual house and how people talk. as far as the impeachment, i was appalled when democrats stood up and left at the president's attorneys. i am an independent. i am independent to her i will

vote republican or democrat, whichever one i think is the best person. i'm appalled by people who, in an -- who come in and talk about how the representatives are speaking to them and they are not getting the facts. i am ashamed of the american public. i think you very much for listening -- thank you very much for listening to me. i do appreciate you. host: on a typical day, how much c-span coverage do you watch? caller: actually, sir, i am working an eighth of what i did for my business. if i am at home, i am an early riser, i don't go out.

i watch it and i watched c-span, c-span2, and i do watch everything. i will make my own decisions. that is the way my father was. he got put down because his parents did not speak english. all of these stupid points, stupidity, people ought to make up their own minds. sir, you are a wonderful moderator. host: i appreciate you calling in this morning. diane in new york. one of the many headlines this morning covering this issue -- inside schumer's infrastructure gamble. let it go.com and there congressional -- politico.co's

political reporter joining us next. good morning. there is a key vote coming up today on the senate on the infrastructure package. tell us about that vote, what it means. the likelihood of it being approved, of the building forward. guest: this vote this afternoon is not the vote on final passage. it is this keys procedural vote to move it forward that may be more of a test of how durable these negotiations are. it is expected to fail. it requires 60 votes to move forward and republicans are indicating that they will not move this forward. it does not mean that the senators are not negotiating or that this is a deathknell. host: your colleagues and i am

sure yourself contributing to the playbook talking about the meeting last night on capitol hill, working through dinner on this package. what do we know about what they have agreed to? guest: it seems we mostly know what they still have not agreed on. a lot of the specifics of this plan. how you pay for it. the split between labor versus transit funding. last night, coming out of this dinner, senators said they could have a deal today or later in the week or next week. there is a lot left to be resolved. host: it seems like senator schumer is dead set to have this vote happened today. on the republican side, it seems the messages, hold the vote -- message is hold the vote offer a few days.

what is his response to that? guest: he is trying to put these negotiations on a live path to a conclusion. the senators have been moving for quite some time. as democrats see it, without some sort of benchmark to start closing things off. they keep dragging on. that is why we have a deadline on the infrastructure plan. host: what is the dollar figure on this bipartisan infrastructure plan and how much of that is above and beyond the baseline federal spending for many of these issues? guest: the number is shifting around. it is somewhere around the $700 billion range, which is still a significant investment, only if members of congress can come to an agreement on it. the house transportation committee is to working on its

own bill and a number of other infrastructure bills coming out of congress that are left in limbo. host: this procedural vote is likely to fail, correct? what happens next >> -- what happens next? guest: schumer has held his cards pretty close. it really depends on how negotiators say they want to proceed. is this going to be something that causes this group to break away and say they have had enough? or will this be something that spurs some sort of compromise and moves the needle forward? host: it is a busy day for democrats in the senate in general, not just because of the floor action but it is a deadline day that senator schumer has set for the 3.5 trillion dollars budget

proposal. what does he want to know from democratic senators. guest: schumer wants all democratic senators to come to an agreement on this $3.5 trillion reconciliation. we still do not have legislative paths. this is part of the democrats' true track strategy. in theory, it will keep those moderates and more progressive democrats on board. it is unclear if that will actually happen. this is another artificial deadline. host: the senate on c-span2 today, so follow the floor action today. thank you so much for the update. guest: thank you for having me.

host: we will continue with our conversation with you and your political and public policy issues that you are following on capitol hill and elsewhere. we go back to the calls and hear from julian in south carolina on the democrats line. caller: i am calling to say i was not thrilled with your representative. i could not believe the negativity coming out of his mouth. it is such a shame in this country -- look at what we have now. a new energy source with bezos taking off in the rocket. what is wrong with republicans that they cannot get, you know,

some sense about this? gas and oil are not the only products in the universe. thank you so much, and i will -- host: appreciate that. republican line. guest: this is the open forum, right? -- caller: this is the open forum, right? i wanted to respond to your previous callers who was talking about how bad the red states are and they have no jobs and they are just no good and everything about them is wrong. i would like to ask that caller why is it that there are so many people pouring out of the blue states and moving into the red states? if the red states are doing so badly, why aren't people from the red states and the conservative states pouring north if their economy is so

great up north and everything is so fine? i am sure a lot of people in the red states would love to move to seattle where they have to be armed because they would be shot at if they walked down the street wearing a red hat. host: there is a story in the new york times about the development in the west and the effect of drought. the mountain spring that pioneers used to water their hay fields and now fill people's taps flowed reliably into oakley, utah, for decades. when it trundled to eight -- when it dwindled to a trickle, officials took drastic action to preserve water. the real estate market in their city boomed as remote workers flocked in from the west coast and second homeowners state we can ranches -- weekend ranches.

this spring, about an hours east of salt lake city, imposter construction moratorium on new homes that connected to the town's water system. it is one of the first town in the u.s. to purposely stall because of water. could be a harbinger of things to come. next to florida, we hear from billy on the democrats on. caller: this is homeboy willie d. i just called to say, i watch c-span every morning religiously. i just want to ask one question -- all these callers and everything, the people calling in, think about this, did you

wake yourself up this morning? you did not. god woke you up. he woke me. i am a vietnam veteran. we have to come together and rise above your own idiosyncrasies and let's reach out to one another in love one another -- and love one another and respect one another. i think joe biden is doing the best job that he can do. can you do the job that he is doing with all the pressure that is on him? let's come together and love one another and we need to pray, too, and pray hard. host: next is paul in kansas city, missouri. caller: good morning. i am going to preface this by saying that i am not a christian but this is not an attack on

christians because this call is about a concern i have for hundreds of thousands of christians that are in dire straits and it seems like they are getting their backs turned upon and begging for help and begging for understanding. they have to be on the southern side of the texas border. there are millions and millions of people. if they were on any other continent on earth, the u.s. would say they are living in failed states and under dire straits. for some reason, these people are described -- and i listen to c-span regularly. they are described as everything but christian. inside that border of the country i am talking about,

united states, there is a group of christians, and it has been proven over time that is more likely -- although they are not the only ones killed by police -- african-american men, christian men are at times killed by the police and when african americans and white americans and latino americans and asian americans get together in the streets in protest -- and protest, there are people who called themselves christians that defendant the right of the police -- who defend the right of the police to kill christians. they say "all lives matter."

yet, when white people are killed by the police, there is no outcry. if you do not have outcry when one of your own white christian americans is killed by the police, but you are upset when people say black lives matter because they are upset because they are being killed by the police, does all life really matter? if you say you are christians, is it only white christians? host: we go to arnold in ohio. caller: yes. i have a couple of comments or questions, if you want to call it that. with the crying that is going on across -- the crime that is going on across the country in major cities, most of it --

people commit crimes and there is no justice. the police arrest them. they go in and see a judge. there is no bail anymore so they are just let go. you are training people that there is no justice, no penalty for committing a crime. that has got to stop. i do not know why these judges are letting people go. . all the killings in chicago and new york with guns, it is not the guns that are the problem. it is the people. and it is our justice system. it needs to be fixed.

you are losing police. how would you like to go to your job and everything you do is wrong? ok? with the police, it is the same thing. they go and they arrest somebody and all of a sudden this guy just runs that you -- there is a story about a new police chief on capitol hill. this is thomas mentor, he has been selected as the chief of the u.s. capitol police in the aftermath of january 6 right in which protesters storm the building to disrupt the certification of president biden's electoral win. michigan, this is bill on the democrats line. thank you for taking my call. caller: i just want to say about the vaccine.

we have all these people who refuse to take it. i want to know if those people smoke cigarettes, alcohol. they have no problem with that but they will not take the vaccine. they choose to do the other things. all these people that so were in love with the flag had no problem beating people and officers with the same flat -- flag, you know what i meant to say. i think that is ignorant. the republicans, i am sorry i went off on that last one. thank you for taking my call. host: herndon, virginia. caller: i just want to say that i think the messaging for -- i

think a lot of things with this pandemic have been underwhelming , to put it kindly. the trump administration, they were sending mixed signals. i don't think the biden administration has been vocal enough with masks and vaccinations because we are hearing in california that masks are being required, even for fully vaccinated people, which goes against what the cdc says. if we have a future pandemic in my lifetime, i hope the messaging continues to get better.

host: if you are confused by the messaging, who do you follow? caller: i follow a wide range of news. fox, cnn, the new york post, the new york times. it just seems to be inconsistent. host: thank you for the observation, john. let's go to rosetta, also in virginia. democrats line. caller: good morning. i listen to c-span every day. i hardly take my eyes off of anything going on. people saying red states and republicans and democrats, we are all god's people. until we actually act like we are god's people and surrender our whole life to god, this

pandemic, nothing is going to get better. the republicans put themselves on a pedestal. we all have sinned and come short of god's glory. thank you so much for taking my call. host: coming up, we will talk next to shawn thierry, a democratic state representative from texas. she will be talking about her delegation's trip from texas here to d.c. and their protest to voting legislation in texas. later, we will be joined by the u.s. comptroller general who heads the gao. we will talk about the examination of federal spending during the coronavirus pandemic. ♪

>> c-span shop c-span' -- c-spanshop.org is c-span's, and store. go to c-spanshop.org. ♪ >> robert novak's nickname was the prince of darkness, named that by many of his friends and washington-based journalists. his autobiography was published about his 50 years as a television personality and conservative political commentator. he appeared in book notes on his book " the prince of darkness." >> listen online or wherever you

get your podcasts. >> washington journal continues. host: shawn thierry represents house district 146 in texas. representative thierry is here with many of her democratic colleagues from texas. guest: good morning. thank you for having me. host: tell me why you and your fellow democrats left texas and came to washington. what was your purpose? guest: we are here to protect the voting rights of millions of texans, elderly texans, disabled texans, lower income presidents, -- residents, because the legislature seeks to turn the clock back on voting rights. host: the legislation being

considered in texas is happening in an emergency session in the capital called by the governor, greg abbott. is it your sense that you and your colleagues can write it out -- ride it out in the capital and the legislature will not have a quorum to take up that bill and others? guest: for those who are listening, we were not successful. we did what we called " reverse quorum," which means there were not enough senator -- representatives present. it is a valid procedural remedy. we had to pull out every tool in the toolkit. this legislation was too dangerous. we tried to work across the aisle, but we were not successful.

a republican colleagues were unwilling to bend and yield on some of the most restrictive voting rights we have seen in decades. now, the governor has called a special session. he called it without making changes to the bill we were hoping to see. once again, we are here lobbying congressional leaders, seeking federal relief to stepan and to stop -- step in and stop what is happening in texas. we know we are running out of time, but we are optimistic. host: here is what that proposed texas legislation would do. the proposed bill would require a new id requirements for people voting by mail. it would prohibit local election officials from sending unsolicited vote by mail applications. it would prohibit drive-thru voting and extended hours during

early voting. it would prohibit poll watchers from being removed for violating election law. it would expand what partisan poll watchers can observe during elections. it would create new requirements for those who assist voters at the polls or people planning to vote by mail. and new criminal penalties for election workers who " intentionally or knowingly refuses to accept a poll watcher." guest: there are two things that are just facts -- we had large turnouts during the last election, particularly in harris where i represent. there was march democratic turnout. -- large democratic turn.

-- large democratic turnout. love the provisions you enumerated -- the second thing that we believe, the strongest impetus for this horrible legislation is what we have been calling " the big lie," when trump kicked and screamed and said he won the presidential election and that there was better fraud even though state after state continued to say that there was no fraud and that he did not win the election until shortly after that we started to see house bills around the country start to appear. instead of maintaining equitable access to the ballot, we started

to see all these strange provisions seeking to penalize people for trying to vote. host: what is your stance on voter id? guest: we already have voter id in texas. we think that is aed herring. i have seen that on twitter. many people have gone on my page and said, " why aren't you for voter id?" those are not the provisions that caused us to break quorum. you mentioned something -- i would like to put it in context. you mentioned that mobile voting -- what that looks like is someone who has a disability or is not well enough, healthy enough to be able to stand in line for sometimes 6, 7 , 8 hours in some counties.

these bills restrict a county's ability to voting locations. that person is going to be deterred from voting, where before they could vote mobilely. we talked about the elderly and having someone help them go to the polls. now there is a deterrent to that. if someone perhaps a neighbor or granddaughter or friend decides to take an elderly lady to go vote, to help her, the bills can criminalize that person for doing that. it is so vague and broad, it does not even specify what the intent could be.

people will be deterred from trying to help. you cannot receive any source of benefit in helping that person. even if that person took you to lunch, that would be a crime. host: under current texas law, does the state allowed drop boxes for voting and does this bill change that? guest: we do have drop boxes. i am unclear because there have been so many changes. i have not seen the latest part of that, but i do know if we do not get preclearance, which is what we are here for, we are arguing to congress that we need a national bell that would make preclearance -- bill that would make preclearance the norm, drop boxes could be changed anytime. that is what we are trying to do. we are trying to stop this overreach by state into counties

because they know what works for them. they know what is best for their voters. in my county, we had 24 hour voting and it was very successful. it was during the middle of the pandemic, and it was necessary. think about those who have shiftwork. they should not be penalized in order to exercise their constitutional right to vote. host: why do republicans want to change that? is there some implication that something nefarious is happening with voting? guest: it is interesting. let's be clear -- they have never been able to articulate why. what is the harm? no harm, no foul. we know there was a large increase in turnout in the african-american community, in the latino community.

those people who as i stated are on the lower economic scale because they are hard-working texans doing shiftwork, hourly wage earners. they were able to go and vote without losing their pay, and ironically, that is why rep -- republicans are proposing to take that away. host: shawn thierry from texas. we welcome your calls and comments about the texas legislation and the efforts by representatives thierry and her colleagues to work with congress on this. (202) 748-8000 is the line to call for democrats. (202) 748-8001 for republicans. (202) 748-8002 for independents.

the delegation is still in washington. you are remaining here through the end of the session, correct? you had a number of folks diagnosed with covid. tell us the latest situation on that. guest: first of all, we are committed -- i will start with myself. i am committed to honoring my constituents, which is tuesday until the end of this legislative session. that would be august 7. it could not be more fitting. august to six is the anniversary of the 1965 -- august 6 is the anniversary of the 1965 voting rights legislation. that would be the greatest -- it is also my birthday. that would be the greatest birthday present at all. it was difficult for many of us to leave our families, but i am

calling my colleagues to stay the course. we intend tuesday. the second part -- we intend to stay. we have had some infections in our group. what we believe that comes from is the breakthroughs can -- breakthrough cases. the good news is, every member of our caucus, was fully vaccinated despite the fact that the governor has not been pushing next scene with a message we feel is appropriate. we do not even have 70 for -- 70% of fully vaccinated texans. host: we want to make sure texas residents know we have a special number set aside for you.

that is (202) 748-8003. let's hear from paul in minnesota. on the independent line. mute the volume then go ahead with your comment. caller: ok. host: there you go. caller: how is that? host: it is still feeding back in the background. i am going to go to james and wilson, north carolina. james, you are on with representatives thierry. caller: good morning senator. i will stay -- with regards to the virus, i went to vietnam, 80 years old, black man, i got hurt over there, i got wounded over

there. i went to fort jackson, south carolina, retrained, came back -- went to vietnam. you stay in d.c. as long as you can. thank you for what you are doing. god bless you. guest: thank you for your service to our country. thank you for your encouragement. this is a difficult journey, i am doing this for exactly what you said, so all of us will have equal access to the ballot and to the polls. most people do not know that this is not just political. this is personal too. my grandmother told me how she had to pay for poll access. she was intimidated at the polls .

she could not stand next to white people waiting to vote. she was followed around at the polls. any old body can ba poll watchers -- be a poll watcher, follow you around. in texas we made it legal for anyone to carry a gun without a license and without training, empowering so-called poll watchers, who we already know in african-americans have a history of harassing us when we try to vote. host: let's go to sal in staten island, new york, republican line. caller: let's be honest and real about this ok? 2020 worked out so good for the democrats they want to vest

around the country every election season -- spread this around the country every -- my father passed away. he got 2 voter forms. what they want is they want to wait to election night to figure out how many boat to win -- votes you need to win. in new york, five weeks later -- this is what they want. they want to be able to go into nursing homes, get people who are not very well and just put names there. host: we will hear from representative thierry. guest: thank you for your call.

my condolences for your parents passing away. we do not have any evidence of making up names of people voting that do not exist. there are 29 million people in texas, and i think there are maybe a few hundred allegations of voter fraud. that is not even 0.5%. certainly people in nursing homes need to be able to vote. they are the people we are doing this for. there is no fraud there. there is nothing texas house democrats have said about that. as you stated we were successful in our election. i would say quite the opposite respectfully. it seems to be our republican colleagues who want a do over after they have lost. host: san antonio is up. we hear from kevin, a republican

there. caller: good morning. i wanted to thank the representative and the rest of the democrats for pointing out this situation, as someone who was born in 1965, this is not neil what is happening here. -- not new what is happening here. it is minorities and black people voting. if people know the history, this has been done before. i want to thank the down the -- representative and the democrats for doing what they are doing. guest: thank you for your call. i come from a family of activists, of civil rights activists i should say. my mom also grew up in texas and marched with the honorable barbara jordan. the first african-american teacher to integrate a high

school, she went to work with police protection. she had milkshakes poured on her head and thrown in her face when she sat in at the lunch counters in texas. with all of this jim crow, as we call it, coming back now, my mother and i can go to the lunch counter, but the same spirit behind african-americans rights in this country are tied together with this. i would be the third generation of black women in my family still fighting for this. i did not expect this to happen in my lifetime, but i have to do this now for everyone, and so that my daughter will not be the third generation of african-american women fighting for access to the ballot. host: a question for you from jason in honolulu.

" democrats seem to think current voting laws are perfect. why does your party not want any voting reforms?" guest: high, jason. thank you for calling -- hi, j ason. thank you for calling. i cannot say, jason, that we do not. we are open to reform, but we do not understand the need for a solution in which no problem lies. there has been no evidence of any fraud. the provision that our republican colleagues have put forth tend to be trying to fix something that does not exist. that is our problem, jason. why would we be limiting access to americans?

host: let's hear from our texas line again. this is linda. caller: good morning. how are you? i am so glad to see you all there. i am a texan from 40 years ago, and i agree with them. even this year, the heritage foundation went on tv. i saw them going to georgia and texas to change the boats -- vo ting system in their favor. texas has changed. texas is no longer like it was, independent. i agree with her that they are trying to limit voting for hispanics and minorities. greg abbott wants to be president or vice president so he is on the side of trump all the way. there is no problem with voting in texas. they just want to make it harder. guest: ink you for your advocacy

and your inc. -- thank you for your advocacy and your encouragement. i am trying to speak with our congressional leaders and ask them to please pass legislation as soon as possible to preempt what is barreling down our face in texas. host: when you here's -- hear people say " we want to make it easier to vote, harder to cheat" what do you say? guest: how does that make it easier to vote? there is nothing in it that makes it easier to vote at all, and there is nothing that even addresses cheating at all. it is a talking point, but it does not make it easier to vote if you are going to deter an elderly person from being able

to receive a mail ballot knowing that many elderly people, that is the primary way they vote. when you criminalize that and make state jail felony is on innocuous -- felonies on innocuous actions with no sign of criminal intent, people will stay away. otherwise why is it in their? there is nothing it -- in there? you're definitely not making it easier on the disabled community. host: let's go to john in san antonio, republican caller. caller: i just love how any time the democrats don't like the election legislation being presented they call it

suppression bills. this is not suppression. making it harder, making it easier to vote. that is a he said, she said kind of deal. this is insane. it is easy to vote in texas. we probably have the best early voting process of anybody anywhere. i have never had any problem voting in texas. i love that we require id and our voter registration card. i am not for mailing out ballots. i'm not for ballot drop boxes. that is where cheating will happen. host: we will hear from representative thierry. guest: i would love to have him defined what is ballot harvesting.

if it is easy to vote in texas, why do we have this legislation? he says he likes early voting. why did this bill attempt to restrict the hours for early voting? the fact that his county may have provisions, why would he want the state to come in and to supersede that and allow them to tell every county what to do, so they can change the hours that work for their county, knowing how big texas is, knowing that we have counties where there is a very large population and we have to extend hours to simply allow people to get through the line to vote. when you cut hours off, there are hundreds of people still standing in line. i would say to him, we agree, we should keep it easy, and nothing in this bill does that. why would he support a bill that limits hours for voting? host: lakeview, arkansas,

independent line. caller: good morning. thank you, c-span. as a texas state legislator, and to the legislation is the body that makes the election laws per the constitution, as a state legislator who left the state basically using a filibuster and going to washington so you can make hr one the law of the land and fight the republicans who are using the filibuster to block hr one, you keep asking " why do we need to change?" the democrats spent two years corrupting the voting laws in states like pennsylvania by

having judges and election officials change the rules before the election. when you mail out an extra 50 million mail-in ballots, where do all those ballots go? you want to say there is no proof of fraud. what i have proof of is unconstitutional election. swing states ran an unconstitutional election. this is an disputable. -- on disputable. you-- this is undisputable. you asked why. because the state exercises power to determine how elections will be run. that is the states' responsibility, not the federal government's responsibility. host: if this bill does not pass, what happens next?

guest: sure. we are hoping, as you said there will be a need for speed, that congress will feel the need for speed to pass hr1 so we will have uniform election integrity in every state. if that does not happen, then gregory -- governor abbott has said he will call us back for another session. we are aware that we will have to go back and fight. we do not have the numbers. we are realistic about that. our hope is that there will be something passed that would preempt this type of legislation. we never said that we were on the lam for the rest of our lives. we have families, we have businesses.

we intend to get back to texas, but we are exercising our constitutional right, and most of us will tell you that it is our duty to represent our districts. one thing about the texas house is that we always tell each other " vote your district." we are here, representing our districts, are constituents are the ones who would be disenfranchised by these bills. when i took my oath to represent them, i have to do all that i can. if we were to allow this to go forward, then we are overturning -- turning democracy on its head. we have no choice but to petition congress to act. host: this is mary in jacksonville. caller: i live in the 11th legislative district where the

travis clover early is foursquare for the suppression of voters. there are many in our area who are so proud for -- of our democrats. they bring me to tears every time i see them on tv. we will keep fighting. i want people to realize even if we somehow get beyond this voter repression legislation, we still have gerrymandering to deal with. that is one of the reasons why it is important for the act of the people to be passed so we can do something about this terrible gerrymandering. thank you to the press and media of washington dc to giving our texas democrats so much opportunity to express the feelings many of us have down here and is incredibly valuable for the whole nation. please, president biden and

congress, stand up for voting rights. we are desperate. caller: thank you -- guest: thank you for your support. host: representative shawn thierry of the 146th district in texas. thank you for being with us on washington journal. guest: thank you for having me. god bless you all. god bless america. host: up next we will be joined by gene dodaro who is with the government accountability office. he will be speaking about how the office is examining how spending is going and during the pandemic -- -- and pandemic specific spending. that is up next. ♪ >> weekends on c-span two are an

intellectual feast. you will find people who explore our country's past every week. it is television for the serious reader. learn, discover, explore weekends on c-span2. ♪ >> washington journal continues. host: our guest is gene dodaro.

gives head of the government accountability office. welcome to washington journal once again. guest: good morning to you and all our viewers. host: what is the role of the government accountability office and what sort of issues do members of congress ask you to investigate? guest: we are an independent organization, not a legislative branch of government to assure the independence of audit, and help support congress in carrying out its constitutional responsibilities and to help ensure the accountability of government to the benefit of the american people. the scope of our responsibilities are across the entire brett of the federal government -- breadth of the federal government's operation.

everything from transportation, the environment, whatever the federal government is in all over the world, domestically and internationally, we provide reports to over 90% of the congressional committees on a regular basis. i have authority to initiate work.under our own authorities we prepared -- we have a shared agenda of things we believe are important given our independent role and things that congress thinks are important and we respond to that . we do over 600 reports a year, 70 7% of our recommendations are implemented within a four-year period of time. as a result of our suggestions being implemented, there have been financial benefits to the american people of $165 for

every one dollar invested. we are a nonpartisan organization. the leader is -- comptroller is selected by a bicameral commission. the comptroller general is selected by the president, confirmed by the senate and you have a 15 year term to ensure your political independence. you cannot be removed by the president. host: we want to get into your investigation of pandemic spending momentarily. we mentioned in the lead-in, we see ed on the screen behind you, gao@100, your 100 anniversary at

gao. why was gao founded? guest: it was founded after world war i. congress was concerned about the debt. they created a budget process. they created the bureau of budget. then they created gao in the legislative branch. our job was to check the payments of the federal government to ensure that they were well supported and legal, given congress's process. we have come a long way from that over the last 100 years through a very multidisciplinary organization that functions now with the executive branch. while we continue our traditional financial auditor responsibilities, it is only about 10% of what we do.

most of what we do is ensure that federal programs, policies, regulations are implemented properly, and we make recommendations for improving the efficiency of government. we have a wide range at gao. recently i found that a science and technology -- we are looking at artificial intelligence, quantum computing, given all of the advances to support the congress in that way. gao's 100 year anniversary is one of celebrating a very dynamic organization that has changed over time to meet the needs of the congress and country. host: boy did congress pile a boatload of the work on your plate asking you to oversee the ongoing pandemic spending. the number of measures passed by

congress in 2020 and 2021. i wanted to look at a couple figures in your latest report. in january 2021 the treasury began analyzing 9 million notices it had to non-filers who may be eligible for the first round of stimulus checks. the treasury does not plan on completing this analysis until fall 2021 after another round of payment -- more than six months after the third round of payments had been issued." guest: these are people who are among the most needy in terms of having the payment. these are people who do not

regularly filed taxes because they may not make enough money. the irs has no way to reach them initially easily. they conducted outreach activities through community organizations and others. we believe they should provide more interim analysis to provide help to these outreach organizations so they can help find these people, and encourage them to contact the irs. this is important. we have issued reports about payments that should not have gone to people for fraud or other reasons, but it is equally important to make sure that all those who should get payments get them in a timely manner. host: our phone numbers are up on the screen for questions for gene dodaro. if you are in the eastern time zone, (202) 748-8000 -- if you

are in the eastern or central time zones, (202) 748-8000. if you are in pacific or mountain time zones, (202) 748-8001. " gao continues to have concerns about overpayments and potential fraud in the unemployment insurance system including the federally funded pandemic -- which authorizes benefits to certain individuals not otherwise eligible for these benefits such as the self-employed." guest: there have been $12.9 billion reported in just over payments. the fraud part of this is very troubling. in the beginning there were not a lot of checks on people.

they eliminated some checks. there was tremendous pressure to get money out to people quickly. this was one of the first times in our history where we had unemployment across various sectors in the economy all at once. they emphasized speed over care, and now they have put some checks and balances in place. the pandemic brought out the best in humankind with our marvelous health care workers and medical professionals, the development of vaccines, but it also brought out the worst in humankind, of people trying to exploit the situation. the justice department has been focused on this, the department of the labor inspector general. i know this is a big concern. we have made some headway on

this. this program is administered in the state. every state has different information technology systems, many of which were integrated and were not able to be fixed to do automatic checks. on time we need -- automatic checks on time. we need to modernize our system so they can be responsive to people all in need and protect state treasuries, and the inshore and accurate program that is responsive, timely, but has good program integrity. host: being asked to do all this analysis, oversight, and investigation of covid spending during covid itself must have taxed your agency. how did you handle it?

guest: fortunately we have had experience with this before. i am very proud of the gao in implementing real-time auditing. we had to provide briefings to congress every month and reports to the public every two months. this started back in the global financial crisis, when we were asked to monitor the package to deal with our financial institutions and unfreeze the credit markets. over $800 billion recovery act that was spent to stimulate the economy back into thousand nine. fortunately ash back in -- back in 2009. we hired some to backfill for the people we immediately deployed to meet the timely requirements congress imposed on us.

at gao we have a professional, talented workforce with a deep knowledge across the federal government's operations. we are well-positioned to take on these responsibilities. we centralized our efforts, decided to reprioritize some work more quickly, working to meet these new statutory responsibilities. i am very proud of our organization stepping up to deal with national emergency's to help congress and the country. our job is to make sure that the money being used was actually benefiting, and helping improve public health and public safety and also deal with the economic turmoil brought by the, pandemic and we have done that. host: according to the data collected by the department of education, as of february 28,

states and territories have spent one billion dollars of the $75 billion appropriated through the education stabilization fund for states and territories' education needs." they're spending this on one time bonuses to teachers over the objections of teachers who say this violates the federal funding. guest: there is a lot of flexibility state and local governments have. we have not, to my knowledge, examined that particular issue, but we have a special effort to focus on the states and localities and their use of the money. they are also being audited by

the state auditors under the single audit act where state auditors audit on behalf of the federal government. we get timely guidance out to the states by the federal government treasury and omb in order to make it clear what the auditor should be checking in that case. i will make sure our team looks into that issue going forward, but there is a lot of flexibility that states and localities have. we will check to make sure that is being used appropriately, and only for authorized purposes. host:host: we go first to texas. this is randall. caller: i have a question. thank you both for the information. does the gao track, and if so, what by way of ratio the total

overall spending far coronavirus from the federal government from taxpayers or whatever go to overseas entities? in other words, we spend 10% assisting other countries with coronavirus relief whether that be, shots in the arm or ventilators. does the gao track that? if so, what is that break down to by way of percentage? guest: we do track that. our reports discuss that issue specifically. the amount of money, off the top of my head, it is a relatively small portion of the 4.7 dollars trillion that has been appropriated so far, but it is -- $4.7 trillion that has been

appropriated so far, but it is significant. the ventilators, they lost track of them. we recommended that they track the use of the funds. we look at the federal agencies that are responsible for tracking those funds that are provided to other governments to make sure that they have adequate accountable monitoring and accountability over the use of that money to make sure it was used for the intended purposes. you can check our reports on gao. our website, www.gao.gov. there is a section on coronavirus. we have appendices in virtually

all of our governmentwide reports on this very point, international assistance that was provided. you can check all the details there. host: let's hear from john in bentleyville, pennsylvania. go ahead. caller: you mentioned your organization started in 1921 to monitor the debt from the world war i. i wanted to ask, there was a guest on the program this morning from tennessee that said the federal government has not passed the budget in 25 years. it is law that they pass a budget. i wanted to ask you about the effectiveness of your organization, and is this something your organization is concerned with or are going to look into? guest: thank you for the

question. they do pass a budget every year but it is not passed on time. it is supposed to be appropriated, the decisions made before october 1. the federal government's fiscal year runs from october 1 to september 30. the budget process is supposed to produce appropriation bills for the government. most spending does not go through the appropriation process. as long as people are eligible, they get paid from those programs. roughly one third to 40% of the federal government's budget has not been spent on -- passed on time. congress uses continual resolutions by which agencies

continue their operations at last year's level until new appropriations are passed. sometimes it is a matter of weeks. sometimes it is a matter of months. we have talked about how the resolution process is not an optimal process. we have issued many reports on the consequences of using that process in terms of making it not efficient and effective. i know because gao is affected by this with our own appropriation from the congress so how to plan and manage during this continual resolution process. we also made suggestions on how to deal with the debt issue. there is a limit now on how much money the federal government can borrow. it is set at an arbitrary level and it doesn't really controlled the debt.

all it does is authorize the treasury to make payments the congress has already appropriated and the president has signed into law. the current ceiling expires at the end of this month and is due to be set at the appropriate level where it was suspended for the last year or so. if it does not improve on-time, then the treasury markets get nervous and the government and's up having to pay more premium for the money it borrows -- ends up having to pay more premium for the money it borrows. host: the viewers and listeners can read more on gao.gov, one of the latest delays --

jeff is next in michigan. jeff, you are on the air. caller: good morning, sir. i will share with you that i work at a military installation here in southeastern michigan. i will share with you that as a guest and employee and a contractual opposition, it is an honor and privilege to work at a guard base. sir, i will tell you i have always heard the words " waste, fraud, and abuse" hence my call today. i am calling as a whistleblower, regarding the coronavirus moneys being spent. in this instance, we have a company coming in to an office

building that is essentially being used by a handful of people, and the building is being treated with high intensity ultraviolet radiation on a daily basis. i am not sure if two buildings are being treated in this fashion or not, but back to the facts that i have never seen any more than 8 or 9 people at one time in this building. i find it offensive that those moneys are being spent there, when our government moneys could be spent with that sanitizing equipment for corona at our hospitals, nursing homes, or other medical facilities. host: we will hear from the comptroller general. guest: thank you, jeff, for that

information. if you go to the website, we mentioned, gao.gov, there is a special section called fraud net. you can report your allegation there, and we will look into it and refer it to the appropriate inspector general or look into it ourselves at gao. we have received hundreds of such complaints during the coronavirus legislation. -- legislation period and we are following up on all of those. please, submit it to fraud net at the gao website. host: this is one finding that does not have anything to do with spending per se. the gao report says that " the cdc had not developed a plan for

enhancing laboratory capacity that identifies objectives and responsibilities for achieving these objectives within the defined time frames. gao recommends that cdc develop a plan to enhance surge capacity for laboratory testing." is this in the aftermath of the failed test ec had -- teasts the cdc -- tests the cdc had earlier in the pandemic? guest: yes. it should be positioned here so you can produce these diagnostic tests. you can also increase the lab capacity to process the results in a timely manner. we were not well-positioned to

deal with this pandemic in that regard. the cdc were off to a rocky start. they rebounded, but this has been a problem plaguing us all along. our recommendations are to make sure it does not happen again. we have similar recommendations for the domestic supply chain. we have made recommendations about having a vaccine distribution and communication plan. we are still working to communicate to the public about vaccines, and the importance of vaccination in this whole process. these are among many recommendations that we have. one of the most difficult challenges of my job is getting the government to deal with these issues before they become a crisis. gao has a lot of

recommendations. we recommended the department of transportation develop an aviation safety preparedness plan for communicable diseases. here we are in 2020, still no plan. i recommend congress require that such a plan he developed. host: -- plan be developed. host: how often are you yourself in front of a congressional committee, would you estimate? guest: 10 to 12 times a year. more importantly, gao witnesses or senior executives testified before congress dozens of times every year. these testimonies are governmentwide in nature or when a particular committee would request my present, but most

testimonies are dealt by -- handled by our individual experts. host: those reports are available at gao.gov. we will feet -- cover future hearings with you and your colleagues. gene dodaro, the chief controller -- comptroller. guest: i want to wish you and the rest of your viewers a wonderful rest of the day. host: we are back tomorrow at 7:00 a.m. eastern. join us tomorrow morning, thursday as well. but first, the house is coming into session next. votes in the senate this