response to the pandemic. live coverage on c-span.org. then thursday, on c-span3, health and human services secretary javier becerra and miguel cardona are before a senate committee to discuss school reopenings in the coronavirus pandemic. watch on the c-span net works listen on the c span radio app or head over to c-span.org for scheduling information, or to stream video live or on demand any time. c-span, your unfiltered view of government. she covers congress e hill, obviously here to talk to us about the week ahead in congress. good morning. guest: good morning, thanks for having me. host: let's start with the moving of this infrastructure vote, the headline of your peace published overnight, this headline says pelosi sets

thursday vote on bipartisan infrastructure bill. that boat had been planned originally for today. why was it moved? guest: right now, democrats don't have the votes to pass it. for months, house members were holding that they would not vote to pass the bipartisan protector bill unless the larger -- bipartisan infrastructure bill unless the larger spending package was ready to go. as of this morning, that larger package is still far from ready, so late lesson, leader pelosi announced the vote would be by today, she last night said the house will start debate on the floor today, but they won't actually vote until thursday which incidentally is when a number of key programs expire. host: that is unusual, starting debate several days before you

have the vote on a measure. guest: exactly, but leadership is trying to cut it oath ways, where they will start the house floor debate and say they started the floor process on the day they originally committed to the moderates but if the votes are simply not there right now while this larger social spending package is still being worked out, that is an acknowledgment that they need a little more time to get the votes rounded up. host: that infrastructure package, remind our viewers, it passed in the senate with some bipartisan support. guest: that's night -- that's right, 19 republican senators were on board for this infrastructure bill last night. of course that is the minority but it includes the senate, mitch mcconnell. on the other hand, over in the house, house republicans leadership is actively whipping against this bill, they are rallying to vote against this.

there are at least half a dozen house republicans who have indicated they plan to vote for this bill but it indicates how there is a division among republicans whether they can support this bill policy wise, many of them find palatable but at the same time, do they want to give president biden a legislative victory, when they are eyeing taking control of congress next year? host: you mentioned a moment ago, what had been a $3.5 trillion social spending package, the budget reconciliation package which includes climate change measures, and you said that is far from being done. where are they? is there any talk about -- is there a new dollar figure in that measure? guest: not yet. one issue is that senators like joe manchin said they would not support the $3.5 trillion but the challenge for democrats in

the senate is trying to figure out what would be a more palatable number and how exactly they could trim down the package. it is not clear exactly what provisions would be cut to make up for some of these -- to make it a little smaller in a way that the centrists would still vote for it. host: you probably know this, our capital producer is tweeting that house are planning to meet today at 5:30 this afternoon to discuss the week ahead, government funding, reconciliation legislation. what is that meeting for? guest: this is a way to get them all on the same page before this jampacked week in the house. normally when the house is in session, they don't have votes until 6:30 and then they meet the following morning at 9:00. because we have such a packed week ahead of us, government funding runs out thursday night, democrats have a lot to do and

they are trying hard to get on the same page here. host: our guest is cristina marcos, who covers congressional issues in congress for the hill at thehill.com. (202)-748-8000 is the line for your comments and questions if you are a democrat. (202)-748-8001 for republicans. (202)-748-8002 for independents and all others. let's move to the continued resolution that passed the house last week. this measure would keep government funding through december, and it will continue the debt ceiling through next year. it has passed in the house and now it is the senate's turn. what are the challenges ahead in getting it passed? guest: the house passed this bill last week, combining avoiding a government shutdown with -- there was not a single republican in the house who voted for it and we are not expecting many senate republicans to vote for it either.

democrats seen at least 10 republicans to join with them to get past the filibuster. right now, it is looking like that vote is going to fail in the senate, as long as we publicans insist they won't take any -- as long as republicans insist they won't take any action because republicans are insisting that democrats include eight measure to address the debt limit in their -- include a measure to address the debt limit in their spending package because that is a bill that can use the process where they can evade a republican filibuster. it appears there could be another week or two for congress to address this but time is running out and they are going to have to figure out how to avoid a debt fall. host: the info sector package, $1.2 trillion passed in the senate as we mentioned, 19 republican senators on that.

will debris any republican support on the reconciliation -- will there be any republican support on the reconciliation package? guest: no, democrats are not engaging with that measure because they know they don't need republican votes in the senate. it is not expected that republicans will back that bill. we may see some republican support for the bipartisan bill, but democrats are choosing to go with the social spending package because the budget reconciliation project is one of the only things where they can pass something in the senate with a simple majority. as long as the filibuster is blocking almost all other bills that address legislative priorities that otherwise can pass in the house, they are going this route, and a way that they know they can pass in both chambers. host: we have heard a lot from callers and reporters about the role of joe manchin, not only in

this but other situations in the senate. the wall street journal this morning, democrats find sinema to be an enigma. saying the package is too high and has not made her priorities public. what is your take on senator sinema's role in the debate this week? guest: she is just as influential as joe manchin. manchin tends to be more -- he is more like the to speak with the crowd on the capital. that is the culture of the capital where it is very unique for reporters to just approach members of congress in the hallway. joe manchin is more likely to engage with that. sinema tends not to go that route. she prefers to keep things in private negotiations with leadership or when she wants to issue a statement.

that is why she can see more behind the scenes then joe manchin she is also coming from a place where she doesn't want the filibuster to be eliminated. she wants the social spending package to be somewhat smaller. her demands are also going to be a huge factor, where because democrats have such a razor thin majority, the thinnest possible, it can come down to just one person that could make or break legislation. host: kind of ping-ponging between the house and senate, there was reporting this morning about the votes again, the progressive side back in the house, against the infrastructure package, being at about 60. where -- what are you seeing in terms of progressives who would

vote against the infrastructure package? guest: right now, we do have our whip list and in the senate, democrats cannot lose a single vote. in the house, democrat leadership can only afford three defections and still pass a bill on their own without support from republicans. right now we have half a dozen republicans who have said publicly that they will vote for this bipartisan bill, and we have at least nine or 10 house progressives who said they will vote against it. clearly that is not enough to make up for any progressive defections. the progressive caucus has warned that there are at least 50 progressives willing to vote against this bill and there is no way that republicans voting for the bipartisan bill can make up for that. it is clear that progressives could easily tank this bill if they wanted to. host: we talked about that

meeting later this afternoon, speaker pelosi running out of options in terms of being able to swing votes? guest: not necessarily. speaker pelosi is known for coming up with all kinds of creative ideas. in some ways this is a really unique set of circumstances going on here. all within the same week, macarthur hoping to address this bipartisan infrastructure bill, the social spending package, as well as avoid a government shutdown and a debt default, all in this week. it is a lot of pressure going on all at once. there is a lot of competing interests happening. this is going to be one of the challenging problems that she has faced. host: let's go to calls and hear first from david in charleston, west virginia, democrats line. caller: thank you.

i think that the bills they are passing that are thousands of pages long should be outlawed. you should not have a bill to come before congress or the house or the senate that is over 50 pages long because the rest of it is just throwing in everybody's fork and we don't need the fork. we need term limits on all of these idiots up there, just get rid of them. thank you. host: the particular length of bills in the amount of time members in their staff have to absorb them and read them. guest: but is often a challenging congress, where there is often very little time for lawmakers or their staff to observe what is in a bill. last week for example, because democrats were faced with a problem having to pass the government spending bill which includes measures to extend the debt limit, because her publicans were vowing to oppose

it, democrats didn't have any votes to spare on their time -- on their side because of the $1 billion allocated for the israel iron dome, there were a lot of tensions when it came to israel -- when he came to the israel/palestine conflict. democratic leaders removed that iron dome funding and took it up as a standalone bill days later. even though it was a couple of days afterward, some of the progressives were complaining that there was not much time to view the standalone bill and it was very rushed. especially when there are bills where democrats are trying very hard or either party -- this is bipartisan -- we congressional sleep -- when congressional leaders need to get something done, they strike while the iron

is hot. host: by doing that, did the democrats hand republicans and issue in terms of republicans being able to accuse democrats of not supporting israel when that funding was removed? guest: that is something republicans absolutely jumped on last week. that is something that republicans have been trying to highlight over the last couple of years. during the floor debate last week, you could see tensions on display when she did to leave, currently the only palestinian-american member of congress -- when rashida tlaib, currently the only palestinian-american number of congress, spoke about why she opposed this iron dome. moments later, a jewish democrat from florida immediately abandon

his prepared remarks and would at lengths to respond to those remarks -- went at length to respond to those remarks and was clearly very upset about this. when you can see those tensions on display, that is always another challenge for democrats, especially when they are trying to present a united front. host: i'll remind our viewers, that debate and all house debate is available on our website, cspan.org. let's go to dominic in new york. caller: good morning. host: you are on the air, go ahead. caller: hello? host: you are on the air, go ahead. caller: my name is dominic. host: go ahead. caller: my question is,

[inaudible] i don't like to see on the television, the republican party . host: we will go to liz in new jersey on our democrats line. go ahead. caller: i'm calling as a democrat. i think both parts of this agenda can get past this week. i am a little disturbed as a democrat with the so-called moderates who are painting the second part of the agenda as progressive. i consider myself liberal but i

don't think this is really a liberal bill. it is more or less in the mainstream, and i think that both bills should go to the floor at the same time, and be voted together. for 40 years, basically since ronald reagan, we have not paid for anything. these bills are being paid for and we have not done anything with infrastructure. there is no need to rush it by a week or two. they can go down and have a vote on the same day. that is what i would like to see happen. thank you. host: ok. cristina marcos. guest: in many ways, the caller is correct that the larger social spending package is

largely what democrats ran on just to name a few of the provisions in a wide-ranging bill, guaranteeing universal access to paid family leave, universal pre-k programs, all kinds of things to address the childcare gap. it expands on a lot of things many democrats have campaigned on. also lower prescription drug prices by allowing medicare to negotiate prices with drug companies. these are a lot of things that many democrats ran campaigns on but the issue is because of the filibuster in the senate, it prevents all bills from passing a less there is more widespread bipartisan support for something. democrats are essentially trying to cram their entire legislative agenda, or at least as much as they can, that can comply with

the budget reconciliation rules. they are trying to cram their entire agenda into one bill and because of that, there are so many moving parts in this bill, it makes it harder to keep all of their ducks in a row, when they are trying to pass this, just because -- and especially while they have the majority. if you have even a couple members raising objections about something, that immediately complicates the calculus for being able to pass a bill. when you have these razor thin majorities and some any moving parts, it makes it more difficult to get it all done. host: how many members would be considered part of the moderate caucus, compared to the progressive caucus? guest: in terms of the groups that negotiated the date with leadership and part of the agreement last month to commit to a date to hold a vote on the bipartisan for structure bill,

that was around nine or 10 moderate democrats. there are a number of other moderate democrats out there who agree there should be a vote as soon as possible on the bipartisan bill but don't agree with the logic that the bipartisan bill should be linked with the reconciliation bill, but they also agree -- they want to get the reconciliation bill done. a democrat from pennsylvania who represents a competitive district is -- a lot of things in the reconciliation bill are things she campaigned on. there is division among the moderates about how progressive they should be in their tactics but meanwhile the progressives have 96 members and they intend to be more unified when it comes to this strategy. they want to have the reconciliation bill completed and ready to go before they

allow the bipartisan bill to pass. host: why did democratic leaders insist they want to get the infrastructure package and the budget reconciliation package this week? why did they set a deadline for this week? guest: thursday is when funding for the federal government runs out at large but there are a number of transportation programs that also expire at the end of this school year. -- this fiscal year. parts of the bipartisan bill are dedicated to physical infrastructure. democrat leaders have made the argument that because a lot >> you can watch the rest of this on our website, c-span.org. we leave to take you live to the house floor the speaker pro tempore: the question is on the motion to adjourn. those in favor say aye