this episode of book notes plus, available on the c-span now free mobile app or wherever you get your podcast. >> at least six president's recorded conversations while in office. here many of the conversations during season to of presidential recordings. the nixon tapes. part private conversation, part deliberation, 100% unfiltered. >> the main thing is it will pass. my heart goes out to the people who were overzealous but i am sure you know, i tell you, if i could have spent a little more time being a politician last year and less time being a president, i tell you, i did not know what they were doing.

: joining us now, emily wilkins who covers campaigns for bloomberg government. good morning. guest: thanks for having me. host: how much time does congress have before they go on break? guest: if you are in the house, you have until friday. if you are in the senate, you have longer. they are hoping they will not be in for an additional week but there is a lot to get done and there is the potential that we could see the house stay later and even see the senate stay later if they need to get certain components done. they have the semiconductor bill. we will see that this week. there is potentially reconciliation if democrats can figure out what they are going to do, if they can craft legislation and start moving it through the process. those are the two big things but there are lots of smaller things that congress is looking to in the next few weeks.

host: let's start with reconciliation. how much of that has to be repackaged because of senator manchin's decision not to support anything in it? guest: they are looking at two healthcare provisions. one would extend medicare subsidies and the other with lower some drug crosses -- drug prices. democrats and republicans argue their case that it should be in reconciliation. not everything can be, but we are waiting for the parliamentarian to give her decision on that. that could happen as soon as today. it is a matter of writing the bill, getting a packaged. when we talk to democrats, there is a disappointment that they are not able to get more of what they wanted into this overall reconciliation package. at the same point, they feel like they have something they can run on, they can talk about it to voters, and it can help them for the election. host: remind people the scope that reconciliation was supposed to take before the actions of the last couple of weeks

especially with senator manchin. guest: looking at trillions of dollars, pre-k, housing, climate provisions, tax provisions. even recently they thought they would be able to get them in the bill and at the last minute you have senator manchin say we will not be able to do that. they were looking at a tax on the wealthiest americans. all of that is not going to be able to be included in the overall package. healthcare deals as well as measures that should help reduce some of the budget deficit. host: it gives them something to look forward to into august and november is one of the sites as well for campaigning on these issues. guest: absolutely. you have a number of americans who are joining healthcare during the pandemic and got to do so through some of these subsidies. if these subsidies expire, americans will see their insurance amounts go up right

before the november election. that is something democrats are hoping to avoid. one of the reasons that a lot of them are looking to pass this bill. host: our guest is with thousand 28:30. if you want to talk to her about the events in congress, you can call (202) 748-8000 for democrats, (202) 748-8001 for republicans. if you want to text questions, you can do so at (202) 748-8003. usually this time of year they are spending bills that have to be approved and usually they are never done in time. what is the status of those bills? guest: it is not looking good. we the -- we did see spending bills past the house and we heard from leaders that they were hoping to bring another three bill to the floor this week but that is not on the agenda right now. it does not seem poised to happen. a lot of these bills you have various positions -- various

provisions and disagreements. there will be continuing resolutions where we continue government funding from what it has been. a lot of washington has gotten used to this at this point where there is an effort to pass these bills but ultimately something more similar to what we currently have goes through and much letter than the deadline of september 30. if the government does not pass something by then, it could shut down and no one wants that in an election year. host: certain levels would stay frozen until they can change those? guest: that is the option that we are moving toward. host: we saw last week debate in the judiciary committee amongst -- about assault weapons ban. what is being proposed and what is the vote on this? guest: this would be a ban on assault weapons, not ones that are currently there. it has been a controversial issue. this bill has been introduced and introduced to previous

congresses. this one is notable because you are seeing more lawmakers sign on this bill as cosponsors who you have not seen before. a lot of moderate democrats, some from rural areas, some of them with difficult elections. you are at that point where leadership is pretty close to having the vote to go. ahead and pass this bill. you have democrats who have said absolutely not, we will not support this but you have the potential that some republicans might actually cross the aisle and vote for it and i am thinking of chris jacobs, the republican from new york. he is from buffalo. there was a mass shooting there and he said he would be in support of an assault weapons ban. the question comes down to timing. will they have the time to pass that? are they going to have the votes as well because right now, if this does pass, it will be by the narrowest of margins. host: talk about the democratic hesitancy. what is causing the pause? guest: thick about the democrats

who said that they are a solid no. we know congers been jeered for men, these are lawmakers who are holding onto competitive districts and a lot of them say we know our districts. they know the district in texas, in maine, that it is a culture of guns, what people expect, what they want, how they view things that makes this a difficult vote. we talk to folks who support their second amendment rights. they would say that they worry that an assault weapons ban will become a slippery slope with the government taking guns away and that has been a redline on what can and cannot be done. with the most recent mass shootings, an outcry for government to do something has led lawmakers to say i think it is time to start supporting a ban on assault weapons. host: if the vote did passed, what is the potential in the senate? if it is not going to pass, why make the effort? guest: those are good questions. i do not see a way that this

bill can pass in the senate at all. 10 senate republicans would be a lot. all 50 democrats would be a lot on this bill. there is a sense that we see mass shooting after mass shooting after mass shooting and there needs to be something. congress wants to show they are addressing this issue, that they are putting proposals forward. we have seen the house passed bills all the time that we know will never go anywhere in the senate. some of the time the idea is to put pressure on the senate, to say there is a will among the american people to do this. sometimes it is for the house to go, we did our job, we passed this bill. if you are unhappy, look at your senators. host: emily wilkins from bloomberg government joining us for this conversation. (202) 748-8000, democrats. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents (202) 748-8002.

let's hear from john. you are first up for our guest. good morning. caller: can you hear me good morning. host: go ahead. caller: i had a question about the bills passed by the house. abortion, gay marriage, and contraception. i was wondering in the senate, for those three bills, what do you think the likelihood of them getting 60 votes is? guest: for abortion and contraception, that is not likely to happen at all for this congress. if there was an abortion bill or a vote, it would be mostly about messaging, about seeing where people are. the same-sex marriage one is interesting. i want to say 33 republicans, somewhere around that number, voted to pass it and that was a lot more than people were expecting. especially when you look at how the votes have gone on other bills. there is the hope that the senate might be able to find 10

republicans to band together with 50 democrats and get the votes to clear it. then the issue goes back to timing. things take longer in the senate. you have to have all of these procedural votes. it will not be passed by unanimous consent so it will take a while. at this point, that is the big impediment to pass the senate is there is not a lot of time left and there are so many other things that need to be done. host: you mentioned a couple of references to the chips bill. can you talk to viewers about that and what it does in china as far as how it addresses that? guest: this is about semi conductor manufacturing and having it in the u.s.. a lot of industries, automotive industry, the tech industry, these things were impacted recently because there has been impacted various industries around the gold -- around the globe from a lack of semi conductors. the need for manufacturing our own semiconductors and we should

not be getting as many of them from other countries. this bill would put $52 toward semi conductor manufacturers coming to the us. it would provide funding to the national science foundation as well as other research programs in the u.s.. this is something similar to reconciliation. we start off with a much bigger bill, particularly in the house with a lot of provisions that were much more directed at china and the u.s. relationship with china. we had trade provisions in there but all of that has been cut because we need to pass, congress feels they need to move things through quickly, that there is a limited amount of time and they need to get it through now. there has also been pressure from the national security industry. the commerce secretary has been on the hill as recently as last week telling lawmakers this needs to pass now. we have seen companies like

intel planning on opening up a factory in ohio to produce some of these semiconductors and then they delayed some of the groundbreaking and said they were taking another look at their plan. a lot of urgency, a lot of pressure. the senate will be taking a procedural vote today and it is expect it for final passage tomorrow wednesday. the house will take this up as soon as possible. they will be aiming to pass it on friday. host: on a gentle story, nancy pelosi has expressed interest in going to taiwan. why is she interested in going and what pushback is she getting? guest: she would be the first speaker to visit taiwan in over 25 years. it really sends a message as to what the u.s.-taiwan relationship is as well as the u.s.-beijing relationship. speaker pelosi has not formally said that the trip is happening but it has been reported. we have heard pushback from the biden administration saying that

they do not think this is the right time for her to go, that they are worried about the optics. she had this trip planned for several months ago and got covid. for her, it would be a historic trip. it would send a clear message to china. at the same point, the biden administration, they are very careful about how they handle their relationship with beijing and careful about how biden talks and when he talked to president xi jinping and they are hoping to have another conversation soon. how this trip might impact the white house and the plans for that. host: emily wilkins joining us for this conversation. gary in kentucky on the republican line, go ahead. caller: the promises and promises they cannot fulfill, what you just listed that they are trying to pass, they will not fulfill those. we need government that can

fulfill the promises that they make. it is within the democratic party, it is your own party that cannot agree on things. there is nobody holding them back. it is just their own party. republicans -- trump will not run again because the simple reason is he sees that mitch is on the side of the democrats and that hurts him. that is a big thing that democrats need to get over his trump. host: thank you. guest: i cannot speak to whether or not trump will run again but i can speak to the sentiment that there is frustration at this point within the democratic party about how they are working right now and how they are unable to compromise on so many

things. some things like the chips bill would need 60 votes and republicans. reconciliation, you only need democrats. you have seen senator joe manchin, kyrsten sinema say we cannot agree to this, we cannot agree to that and whittle the package down. this is the reality of a 50-50 senate and the reality of having senators like joe manchin run a state like -- from a state like west virginia that really went for trump in the last election. if it was not joe manchin, i am not sure if there was any other democrat that could hold that seat. we would have had mitch mcconnell with being able to do everything they have been able to do with 50 votes even though it is not what they initially promised. when i talked to lawmakers, i hear about the overpromising and the under delivering. they have been able to do a lot from that $1 trillion covid care

act that the past in early 2021 -- that they passed in early 2021. even ketanji brown jackson, that was something that happened because mcgrath were able to hold senate -- because democrats were able to hold senate. host: this is brian in sacramento, democrats line. caller: good morning. i am a first time caller. i just wanted to say i am a democrat. i think we got a lot done. i think we could get more done if we had better odds in the senate. the bulk of my call is to complement ms. wilkins

on the fact that it is so nice to see young women out there explaining to us, her readers and her listeners what is really going on and allowing us to sift through massive amounts of information to make their own opinions. that is all i wanted to say. host: emily wilkins, on top of that we have a viewer asking why we are in the crazy scramble to get massive bills passed? what has congress been doing? guest: congress has been doing a number of things. these big transformative bills would be transformative for a number of americans and we have overlooked some of the smaller things we are able to get done. even when you think about the gun legislation that passed the house, it is the biggest gun

legislation in 30 years but when you compare it to what democrats initially wanted, it is just a drop in the bucket. that is the reality of governing right now in a senate that is divided 50-50 in the house where you only have a handful of votes at the margins, in a polarized u.s. our government reflects our country right now in the fact that it is very polarized. this is the reality of governing at this time. there are things we have gotten done but when you had biden lay out this huge addenda at the beginning -- his huge agenda at the beginning of his presidency and democrats thought they could be able to do it because we have 50, certainly they have gotten things done, but so much more was promised. host: is there a sense from congress what happens if the house changes hands after november and republicans take over in january, what happens as far as republican efforts on the house side and what that has to do with dealing with president biden? guest: republicans made it clear

they are prepared to launch investigations. i have heard republicans express interest in investigating hunter biden, immigration, and having a tougher january 6 investigation and investigating dr. fauci. we will see what they do or do not wind up investigating but that will be the bulk of what we see. even if republicans managed to win the house and the senate, a lot of it will be vetoed by biden. republicans will probably have the 50 votes they need to pass stuff through so that will be a limiting factor for some of the things they would like. we will return to a point where we will not see quite as much legislation actually getting through congress should republicans take the house in november, which at this point due to historical precedent and the polling we are seeing, does seem to be a very likely outcome. host: let's hear from todd in west virginia, republican line. caller: good morning. i want to let you know you guys rock. i love your show.

ex-military affairs. we are so crunched with the energy sector right now in the country after mr. trump left office. i have an idea for the present administration. i grew up in the 1970's and the carter administration. we had gas vouchers and gas lines because we dependent on the world for fuel and energy. they want to go so badly to electric vehicles here in our country. we are already trillions of dollars in the hole. why don't you guys give us a car voucher for an electric vehicle to get us off of the fossil fuels? host: that is taught in west virginia giving us a call -- that was todd in west virginia giving us a call. guest: the electric vehicle voucher is something they were

considering in the reconciliation bill that is no longer there. it is not a huge concern for voters. the time i have talked with folks, it comes up again and again. the biden administration knows this. the difficulty is how this is a problem that has to do with a really wide industry that made a lot of changes during the pandemic and is now having to come back online. so far you have seen a number of things from the biden administration tapping into the strategic reserve, allowing ethanol to be used more in fuel. that has not had a huge impact. it is like secretary buttigieg said, gas prices have been solid but still really high for a lot of americans and will still be an issue in november. at this point, i do not think there is a town that congress can do and the idea that has been floated before that it might wind up impacting inflation.

there is also talk about a gas tax holiday. you heard speaker pelosi say our concern is that if you were to get rid of this tax, there is nothing that would require these gas companies to pass those savings down to the store -- to consumers. that is her main sticking point. we have not seen that legislation moved to the floor even though president biden called for a. host: i want to ask you about ukraine but i want to show you from cbs yesterday, the ambassador to ukraine to the united states spoke about russia's attack on odessa and calls for continued support from the united states. [video clip] >> what happened is telling about what has been happening for the past eight years. for the past eight years ukraine always acted in good faith and tried everything possible and sometimes impossible to end the war and return our sovereignty, similar with the 151 days.

we are standing strong and defending our country. at the same time, we will find any options to resolve the crisis. this is a crisis that russia has graded for other countries, not only ukraine -- russia has created for other countries, not only ukraine. in russia's violation, they are clearly showing who they are and that they have to be stopped. >> is russia technically violating because unnamed officials are quoted as saying that they may not have because russia never pledged to avoid attacking parts of ukraine that are not used for grain exports. that seems like a pretty big oversight. >> let's call it what it is. everything russia is doing in ukraine is a violation of international law. taking over another country is a violation, it is a war crime. we have the deal with the u.n. and from turkey. we are fulfilling the duty.

they agreed with russia and they have the stop the war. they have to do everything without any initial signs. with this, they are just showing their true face again. the response to that should be more weapons to ukraine so that we can defend ourselves, we can get them out from our country, and we can unblock our ports. host: that is the ambassador of ukraine to the united states. emily wilkins, we have heard from congress a lot after the war started between russia and the ukraine. where is information that congress is getting about ukraine? guest: congress was briefed by the first lady of ukraine who came in person to talk to lawmakers. we will see the house and the senate get two separate briefings on wednesday about the situation in ukraine. this is something that when you saw congress passed that large sum of funding for the president , you knew that this was going to be something that was going to be going on for a period of

time, something they were thinking about long-term, strategically. congress is still very much involved in ukraine and paying attention to ukraine but it has gone to the point where other domestic priorities have superseded that, both in terms of what happens in congress as well as what the american people think about on a day-to-day basis. host: here is mike in california, independent line for our guest, emily wilkins. go ahead. caller: good morning. . my question is why was a constitutional amendment required for alcohol prohibition but none for drug prohibition, a simple statute was passed for drug prohibition. guest: i'm going to dig deep into my a peek u.s. history knowledge. i believe there are different ways you can have various bands on things, that you can make rules that apply to everyone. you can do it through a

constitutional amendment. that is a difficult process. if you are able to pass a law or have any sort of regulation, both of those have much less easier ways to go about doing it. host: this is from william in texas, democrats line. good morning. caller: good morning. i have a question for you, emily. you keep telling me democrats have not done anything and they are not doing anything and they cannot do anything. tell me what the republicans have done in the last five or six years? absolutely nothing for the american people. they built one wall and killed one million people with covid and you are telling me it is better to have a republican than a democrat? host: i will let the guest respond to that. guest: i hope that the guest has the opportunity to go back and listen to earlier in this program because i laid out a couple of things that the democrats have done this year. passing covid aid, infrastructure funding, passing the gun bill we saw the other

week. what the overall perception has been is that democrats have over promised. they have talked about doing a lot of things that they will now not be able to do. even though they have done a lot, that perception of you said you would be able to do this and now we cannot, that is having an impact on democrats across the country who feel that their party is not living up to what it needs to be doing, particularly because they have the majority in the chamber and the big asterisk is you only have a 50-50 majority in the senate, which makes it very difficult to get any sort of big substantial agenda passed. host: besides the things we talked about, what else should we look out for this week in congress? guest: we covered all the big things. if you are a fan of taggart king, carole baskin's law will get a vote of the house this week that is about restrictions on keeping lions and tigers, i know that was a big show.

that is an interesting bill. on a more serious note, the water resources bill, the water development, water safety, water infrastructure, an important piece of legislation. beyond that, we did hear a majority leader say he is looking at bringing safety bills forward. it is not clear if that is the assault weapons ban or other pieces of legislation dealing with police. a number of democrats within the house both in terms of centrist democrats as well as more moderate have been pushing pelosi to bring legislation to the four that shows that democrats do support this police -- support the police. they are really trying to push back on the defund the police narrative. host: emily wilkins covers congress and

on the news of the date and we discussed policy issues that impact you. coming up tuesday morning we talk about the recruitment challenges facing several military branches and what that means for all volunteer forces in the future with retired lieutenant general. and bonnie talks about her new pbs frontline film, facing addiction focusing on addictions that occurred during the coronavirus pandemic. washington journal live at 7:00 eastern tuesday morning. join the conversation with your phone calls, facebook comments and tweets. tuesday morning i hearing on the safety of law enforcement officers including the impacts of assault weapons and gaps in gun laws.

watch the senate judiciary committee live at and above eastern on c-span, c-span now or online at c-span.org. c-span has unfiltered coverage of the u.s. response to russia's invasion of ukraine bringing you the latest from the presidents and other white house officials and the state department and congress. also international perspectives and statements from foreign leaders on the c-span networks, the c-span now free mobile app and c-span the org/ukraine area our web resource page where you can watch the latest videos on demand and follow tweets from journalists on the ground. c-span's 2022 congressional directory.

go there today to order a copy of the directory. this book is your guide to the federal government with contact information for every member of congress including committee assignments. also, contact information for governors and the biden administration. order your copy today. or scan the coat with your smartphone. dashcode with your smartphone. every c-span shop purchase helps support c-span's nonprofit operation. here many conversations during season two of c-span's podcast residential recording. the parts private conversations, parts deliberations and 100% unfiltered. >> let me state that the main thing is it will pass. my heart goes out to those people who with the best of intentions are overzealous. if i could have only spent a

little more time being a politician and less time being president. season two on the c-span mobile apps or wherever you get your podcast. next, a conversation on the role of social media and democracy. it was part of the u.s. court of appeals ninth circuit judiciary conference in big sky montana. >> thank you caroline, thank you judge. you judge owens. thank you renc and all the ninth circuit staff for making this conference possible especially after our long pandemic. i'm so thrilled to be here with this unbelievable panel. you are in for a treat. these are