as well as the infrastructure bill. it starts today when the rules committee meets to work out the structure of the debate. watch their work live at 11:00 a.m. eastern on c-span, online at c-span.org or listen live on the free c-span radio app. ♪ ington journal" continues. host: "wall street journal" congressional reporter kristina

peterson is with us to talk about the house coming back for a brief amount of work this week. good morning. guest: good morning. host: it is supposed to be august recess, what brings them back to session? guest: the house is only scheduled to be in for two days, but it could be very suspenseful days. earlier this month, the senate passed a roughly $1 trillion structure bill, and the budget resolution, which is the first step in the process known as reconciliation that will allow democrats, if they can stay united, to pass a larger $3.5 trillion budget package. and so, what we have developing now is a standoff between house speaker nancy pelosi and the group of nine moderate house democrats. and on the surface, it is a disagreement about which of those bills comes up first, but

really this is a big fight over the overall strategy for democrats on passing both of these bills. and we have been at a standoff for a week and a half, and it will all come to a head tonight and tomorrow when the house takes its first procedural vote on advancing the two bills, and then tomorrow is scheduled to have a vote on passing the budget resolution. that is where those nine house democrats have said, we are not going to vote for this unless we vote first on the infrastructure bill. host: the nine democrats wrote a letter to their colleagues, and they published an opinion piece, and we will show that in a moment, over there disagreement with the speaker and the order of the vote. why do they want and that vote on the $1 trillion infrastructure package first? guest: because it has passed the senate and the argument is, let's pass this now.

the president supports it. so they just want to be as quick as possible in getting that signed into law to start the process of getting the projects underway. they argue it will be a boost for job creation. they say there is no reason to delay. but the strategy that democratic leaders set out was to wait and not bring it up until the larger bucket patching -- budget package had passed the senate. effectively having the house act as a backstop, keeping these democrats onboard for both pieces of legislation, to keep everybody invested in the outcome. that the centrists wants to pass the bill -- want to pass the bill that is their priority first. but the top democrats say they want to maintain leverage in the process by holding that piece until both bills already. and the budget package could

take a long time. $3.5 trillion is a huge piece of legislation, and the committee chairs and lawmakers are working now on unpacking that, but it could take months to be done with that. host: as we look at the policy measures in that three-point tribe -- a $3.5 trillion, including establishing universal pre-k, extending the child tax care credit and more policy goals of the liberal side of the democratic party in congress, and the president, is the liberal wing and progressive wing saying the same thing, we will not vote on the the infrastructure bill unless we take up the budget package first? guest: yes, the congressional progressive caucus, released a survey where they said more than a majority of its members would vote no on the

infrastructure bill unless the full budget package had passed the senate, so we have two wings staring each other down and it is not clear if they will have the votes to move forward. host: you are right about the strategy. after a khairat a quick, -- after a chaotic week, focusing on the taliban in afghanistan, the week got more extensive with the news in kabul this morning. guest: there is a limited amount the president can do. his domestic policy is something he potentially has the ability to help put back on track. i think there is widespread expectation that president biden himself may get more involved in discussions with these lawmakers and see if there is a way to persuade them to come on

board with the strategy that the leaders have in place. host: what are you hearing about any potential hearings? i know it is a short session, but hearings on afghanistan? guest: nancy pelosi has requested a briefing and at that there are several other briefings that lawmakers have requested and will be happening this week. they have questions about the continued evacuation of americans and allies out of afghanistan. host: our guest, who covers congress for the wall street journal, we are talking about the budget package and more. 202-748-8001 is the line for republicans. 202-748-8000 for democrats. independents and others, 202-748-8002. there will be a voting rights bill, the john lewis advancement act, that would extend his formula used to identify

discriminating voting patterns. tell us about this legislation. this is different from things that have passed before hand, correct? guest: the house has passed broader, sweeping voting legislation that also includes things about how you draw congressional districts and campaign finance laws. this is a more pared down version that really focuses on federal oversight of state voting procedures. the broader package did not advance in the senate. joe manchin has concerns with some of the provisions. so this is an effort to try to get a more slimmed down piece of legislation through both chambers. they are looking to see if they can secure republican support for this. host: they have already gotten support from lisa murkowski, correct? guest: yes. it is interesting to note the rules coming up in the house would also procedurally advance this voting bill, the john lewis

bill, so there is pressure on centrists to support the movement tonight that they are not blocking this john lewis voting rights bill. that does not necessarily mean they will be on board with the actual budget resolution vote on tuesday, so the coalition we could see on monday night in procedural motions could be different from what we see tomorrow. host: we will remind viewers too about that vote. the rules committee is meeting this morning at 11:00 a.m., and we will have live coverage here on c-span, we'll stream that as well. as kristina peterson mentioned, they will vote on that rule this evening. we will have gavel-to-gavel coverage, beginning at 5:00 p.m. eastern and we expect that vote at 6:30 p.m. take us to that evening about, it is a procedural vote. it's essential in moving forward.

what will you be looking for? guest: the question is how many of the nine centrist democrats vote for the rule. that could indicate squishing this within the ranks. even though, at the lawmakers have noted, what they said they are unified on is not the procedural step, it is the vote on tuesday, and that is a key step the democrats need to take to advance in this budget process known as reconciliation. that is what will enable them to pass legislation in the senate with just democratic votes, otherwise they would need to clear the 60 vote threshold and get republican support, which they will not get on the budget package. host: how important it is to the speaker to get these measures passed before september, the budget package, the infrastructure package, and the voting rights piece? guest: i think that the congressional leadership has set september 15 as the deadline for committee chairs to finish their

pieces of the budget package. i think there is skepticism on capitol hill that that is really possible. this is a huge piece of legislation. they have also said it will be paid for, so they have to agree on how to raise that revenue, and things like raising the corporate tax rate, changing the temperature around capital gains, those will be complicated and challenging because you have joe manchin and others who have signaled that they will have questions and concerns about that and the overall price tag. so, finishing in september is going to be very difficult. host: let's go to calls. on the republican line, arnold in ohio. good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. i wish congress would reconsider on this $5 trillion plan. we seen just recently, and going on now, biden's plan getting out

of afghanistan, and it is a total disaster. and i do not think this president is capable. and i'm requesting that they would consider not giving him the money. i do not even know if this guy is going to make it as a president. guest: i think that does echo a lot of concerns we hear from republicans, tha congress has already authorizedt so much federal spending and week of the intimate. ther -- wake of the pandemic. there's concerns on spending another $3.5 trillion, that it could fuel inflation and overheat the economy. that is a concern we hear from gop lawmakers. host: you mentioned in the internal deadline for getting the budget ready on september 15, but they are also facing the end of the budget year, because of september 30, but we are also

approaching a debt ceiling deadline as well. guest: that is right. that is looking like a sticky situation. republicans have said they do not want to be involved in raising the debt limit. they point out that the democrats passed a relief package earlier this year without gop support, and therefore the democrats should be raising the debt limit on their own through this budget package. the democrats say, we spent a lot of money under president trump combating the pandemic, so this is not just on us. so there is no clear strategy for how they will increase the debt limit. and we will have to continue to fund the government as well, and that deadline is the end of september. host: it could be a long day on tuesday. i saw the email from the majority leader, the week ahead, its last of it predicted on tuesday has multiple question marks, so it could be a late

date in the u.s. house, but those are the only wo days they have -- two days they have scheduled, correct? guest: right, there is uncertainty around whether there is enough support to advance the budget resolution, and that is why those question marks are there. host: james in st. louis. you are on with kristina peterson. caller: good morning. i want to say something about what congress should talk about. one of the reasons why biden won, because they had their soldiers gone. and imagine how much -- the rest of the americans and -- had in order to get along each day. host: kristina peterson you spoke earlier about the potential gang of eight briefing, explain what that is. guest: those are for the top elected leaders in the house and

senate, and the leaders of the intelligence committee. so that is their chance to get the highest intelligence information from the administration. and it sounds like that will occur, but there will also be many other briefings for all lawmakers. they started last week, and they are expected to continue. there are questions and concerns about the evacuation. many lawmakers have been working to get individual constituents out of afghanistan, so there is a lot of questions and concerns on the hill about the situation there. host: before the august recess got underway, the speaker, based on the position of the house, extended the mask mandate on the house floor. at least until september. and notably, now four with the representative from texas testing positive, the restriction on masks and proxy

voting, is that expected to continue past september? guest: i believe so. there is concern about the delta variant and the speaker referenced that in a letter she sent out to lawmakers on saturday night, urging everybody to get on board with the budget resolution and the infrastructure bill, and wanting to be able to pass this legislation. it was interesting about last week three senators all tested positive on the same day for covid, all three were vaccinated. the senate had not been in session for weeks. so it seemed like may be a coincidence, but reflecting the surge of the delta variant. host: watching from your reporting and colleagues there, the restrictions are off, but it still feels crowded. does that worry you, the groups

of reporters, some masked and some not? guest: everybody is a little bit worried. i have a two-year-old at home. but reporters have been wearing masks on the hill for several weeks and we are all trying to stay safe. and people are doing the best they can. host: let's hear from diane in new jersey on the independent line. caller: i have a question. i would like to know how much is in the bill for military expenses, $3.5 trillion bill? guest: i am not sure. i would have to double check the details. most of this is focused on expanding the social safety net through programs like he'd leave, subsidized -- paid leave, subsidized childcare, and there is a component on climate change. through the appropriations process, there will be the

normal defense spending bill and the nadaa, the policy bill that accompanies that. and that is generally very bipartisan. so, traditionally that sort of sails through congress with a few bumps. and we would expect that again this year, the only caveat being around the defense spending bill that all of these bills are running out at the end of september and if is a lot of policy conversations going on. host: they have moved some appropriations bills through, correct? guest: yes, but the house only needs to pass their bills with the support of the majority party, but in the senate they have to be bipartisan, so that is a was trickier. host: let's go to walter in butler, indiana, on the republican line. caller: thank you for taking my call. basically, nancy is holding everybody hostage on this infrastructure bill.

it is as simple as that. i have always learned when something is free, you lose the value of it. i remember going to college, it was going to be wonderful. not many people in my area were going to make it to college and i was so impressed with myself when i made it. now lately do is they say it is going to be free. college for two years is going to be free, but i think the value of that degree will plummet. and i am waiting, as an old sarcastic vet, i am waiting for them to say we will pass a gazillion dollars bill, because we do not have the money anyway and as far as i'm calculating it will be $4.4 trillion in debt. and this infrastructure bill, only 10% to 15% is actually for building roads and bridges. i hope they argue and do not do anything, because every time they do something they spend money we do not have.

i would like your input. host:host: he is referring to the two use -- host: he is referring to the two years of free community college in that measure. guest: some have made the same argument that nancy pelosi is holding that bill hostage. the other wing of the democratic party says if they pass the of structure bills, then the moderates would not have a stake in the outcome of the larger budget bill. i think one thing that is important to note is that many of the centrists do expected support the budget bill ultimately. for instance, the congressman of new jersey, one of the leaders of the group, has said he wants to support that. he wants to see tax changes that could affect new jersey. ultimately, this is more about the strategy, not necessarily that the centrists want to block the budget from passing, although i think we expected couple of them to probably ultimately block it. host: holding hostage is the

term they used in the washington post today chimeric and solution can wait, let's pass infrastructure now, saying we are opposed to holding the president's legislation hostage, risking the passage and the bipartisan support behind it. we will hear from teresa now in tennessee, good morning. caller: hi, good morning. i was going to call about something else, but you just said that nancy pelosi was so worried about the mask mandate and was really going to enforce it on capitol hill, and going to do the proxy voting because she is very concerned about the coronavirus. did you happen to see the pictures of her in napa this weekend with about 75 of her biggest millionaire donors having a breakfast with no masks whatsoever on anyone of them? except for the servants, they

had to be fully mast. -- masked. if they are dishonest, why hasn't washington journal not shown that picture at a super-spreader event? host: i have not seen it yet. if we find it in a publication, we will show it to you. anything to add? guest: the debate around proxy voting is interesting, some people think that it has been helpful to democratic leaders because they have such a narrow margin in the house on bills and that republicans are opposed to, and democrats can lose no more than three votes. there's speculation that this has been helpful to them in the close votes, that people who cannot make it to d.c. for whatever reason can still vote. republicans at the start of the pandemic did not engage in proxy voting, but over time they have started to do it as well. host: this is oje -- joe.

caller: i think that the guest probably has little credibility. she's really part of the same network of the left media that came together to intentionally downplay bernie sanders's campaign, both and 2016 and 2020. the same ones that said he cannot win, he will lose down ballot. and guess who won down ballot, joe biden. and you see this watered-down package, because it does not move the eligibility to medicare down to 55 or 60, which is what this country needs. we have early retirement at 62, but you cannot get health care at 65, that makes sense? every time she refers to joe manchin as a centrist, even fox news accidentally called him a republican the other night.

let's start talking about the truth. the democrats in congress need a fall guy to stop all the plans they claim they want, that is nancy pelosi. host: let's give our guest a chance to respond. guest: you raise an interesting point about lowering the eligibility age for medicare. that's being discussed. democrats have made clear one thing they plan to do is extend medicare benefits for hearing, dental and vision. many of those democrats are also pushing to lower the eligibility age, which is something that the president said on the campaign trail he wanted to do. bernie sanders has repeatedly said he hopes to do that. and some of it is a question on whether they can make the math work as they taper the bill. a key piece of that, a big source of revenue they hope to tap into is negotiating for drug prices in medicare.

at that is a question i have, to see how that shakes out. host: you mentioned the negotiating with the drug companies, how else is ways and means looking at raising the revenue for this package? guest: a lot will be through changes to the tax law. they aim to change some of what republicans do through the same process at the end of 2017 with their overhaul of the tax code. the president does not want to raise taxes on households making less than $400,000, so there will be changes to the corporate tax code and increasing taxes on wealthier americans. host: what happened to the proposition that they would expand the budget of the irs and go after delinquent taxes more diligently? guest: that was something the bipartisan group in the senate was looking at in order to offset the cost of the infrastructure package. ultimately, they could not agree

on that, so we expect democrats to use that as a source of revenue in their package. host: mark on the republican line. caller: good morning. you know, it seems to me that i t's weird that we are repeating history. we had a crash in 1929 and unemployment rose. i think it could be argued we would not have had a decade of the great depression had of the federal government not gotten in and messed around with it. unemployment was already going back down five months after the stock market crash, but fdr had to get involved and make things worse. after this last year and a half of closing businesses down, it just reminded me of the manic

state, giving everybody welfare. and there are a lot of things in these bills that have nothing to do with infrastructure and have a lot to do with registering illegals. and it says very specifically that no party will be responsible if illegal immigrants are registered, and actually get away with voting. there will be no penalties. this bill is a power grab. guest: that is an important part of the budget package that we have not talked about, which there is a part that would provide a path to citizenship for several groups of undocumented immigrants. it's unclear whether that will actually be permitted to stay in the final package. when you use reconciliation, there are limits as to what qualifies under that. ultimately, it will be up to the senate parliamentarian to decide

whether that could be included, or she will issue guidance. so the lawmakers have admitted they are uncertain as to whether or not that will be allowed to remain. that is one of republicans' biggest sources of concern. host: new york city, a caller on the democrats line. caller: thank you for taking my call. i have to confirm -- i think it is about 12 million americans unemployed right now. and, as you know, we're ready to fall off a cliff on september 6. with all this stuff with immigrants, will illegal immigrants coming in the country come all the afghanistan's -- i am not against helping those in the human race, but what about all the americans that will lose

unemployment? host: any talk of extending some of the covid benefits? guest: as we get closer to the date, i am sure that we will hear more. there's been concern about making sure that people can manage it through the rest of the pandemic and i am sure that delta variant will increase chatter around that. host: kristina peterson covers congress for the wall street journal, and you can follow her >> the u.s. house is expected to begin work on voting rights and a budget resolution as well as the infrastructure bill. it starts today when the rules committee meets to work out the structure of the debate. watch their work alive starting at 11:00 a.m. eastern on c-span, online at c-span.org or listen on the free c-span radio app. >> c-spanshop.org is