tv Washington Journal Scott Wong CSPAN September 12, 2022 11:05pm-11:36pm EDT
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featuring your unfiltered view of what is happening in washington. keep up with the days biggest events from u.s. congress, white house, the courts. all at your fingertips. you can also stay current with the latest episodes of washington journal and find scheduling information. c-span now is available at the apple store and google play. download it for free today. we have scott long exceed congressional reporter. congratulations on the new gig. a week ahead in the look in congress and a month ahead the sprint to the expected break before the midterm elections in
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the top of legislative priorities is keeping the government open, keeping the government funded. where are we with government spending bill? guest: as you know, funding was out on september 30. we are weeks away from a potential government shutdown. this time around, things looked to be a little bit easier but again it is a difficult time for lawmakers. they're thinking ahead to the election, nobody wants a government shutdown right before the election but these things are never easy. there is a number of intelligence -- challenges that lie ahead. one of the top challenges his joe manchin was able to get a deal with chuck schumer and the congressional leadership when he passed the inflation reduction act. he was able to secure a bill,
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one of his bills that would reform and ease permitting for domestic energy projects around the country. things like oil and natural gas pipelines. progressives are pretty upset with any possibility that permitting proposal would be attached to the government funding bill. mansion and schumer have this in agreement schumer has allowed but now progressives are up in arms and they are not threatening a shutdown but they are very upset. they have sent the letter to pelosi saying separate these two items, don't package it together this is just one of the potential hiccups that are coming down the road. host: an article picking up on that topic. the headline of one of the
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editorials democratic candidates can't block it can they make them shrink it? that's a piece of legislation that is being looked at here. the reason why is the continuing resolutions that are kind of must pass legislation. if you want to keep the government open you have to pass the so everybody wants to attach their legislation to that. wells could be possibly attached? guest: the white house has their own set of priorities. $47 billion supplemental package that would cover things like additional aid, military aid, economic aid for ukraine. an issue we have seen come up time and time again. the biden administration wants to send them an 11 -- an additional 11 million dollars. things like covid relief, pocket
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parks relief this is a big portion of the $47 billion. republican saying we don't need so much money right now for covid we have already passed billions of dollars during this post congress and that is an area of contention. $6.5 billion for disaster relief that includes things like helping folks who experienced flooding. places like kentucky and around the country, wildfires out in the west. this is natural disaster relief money. it is uncertain whether any of that will be attached to this but mitch mcconnell is representing kentucky, has talked about the flooding issue before he knows his people are hurting i'm sure that is one of his priorities, to be able to help his people in kentucky. host: how many votes are needed,
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folks may be confused because we have done this budget reconciliation process sort of as an alternative on how a bill can become a law. for continuing resolution to be passed what needs to happen basically in congress? guest: we have the filibuster and for any major piece of legislation barring the reconciliation process which only needed 50 democratic votes most pieces of legislation need 60. in the senate, you need all the democrats to hold together, you need at least 10 republicans to join those democrats. if somebody like bernie sanders peels off and says i don't want to support this because you have attached the joe manchin energy legislation to that then you will need additional republicans to join in. that is where, that's where
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chuck schumer's job becomes quite a difficult task. what can actually, which lawmakers can come together and to enhance and pass this and etiquette sent over to the representatives were you need a simple majority. it should be an easier lift for nancy pelosi but again nothing is very easy in this united states congress. host: and of course the president's signature to put it into law. we are talking about the road ahead on capitol hill and we are taking ahead a few weeks, cheating a little bit. if you want to join the conversation you can do so for lines are open democrats (202) 748-8000. republicans it is (202) 748-8001 . independents (202) 748-8002. another item on the to do list
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as you know the protecting legal same-sex effort explain what that is and/or democrats are on that effort. guest: this is in response to actually the roe v. wade decision by the supreme court to overturn the roe v. wade long-standing decision and, so senators democrats and a handful of republican safe we may need to, if the united states supreme court can overturn something like roe v. wade and perhaps they can overturn other long-standing precedents. like the protection for the use of contraception, like gay marriage. so this bill sponsored by tammy baldwin she is teaming up with susan collins basically in
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shrine to protect same-sex marriage as well as interracial marriage as a right. this is a priority of tammy baldwin. she is the first openly gay senator to be elected. right now, things are a little bit in limbo. there were discussions that things would be attached and use that as a vehicle to move it forward but what baldwin and chuck schumer have said in recent days as they want to move that separately. they think the best chance for that is to hold a standalone vote on that bill and there are negotiations happening. there are concerns on the right about protections for religious freedom whether or not religious freedom would be infringed by the tammy baldwin bill. so there are bipartisan negotiations and they're looking for the middle ground. host: what is susan collins saying to you? is she saying nine or 10
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colleagues will join her? guest: they're saying they're hopeful it can pass. when you go ahead and count, you thom tillis is a yes, that does not get you to 10 republicans as we discussed to overcome a republican filibuster. there are a number who are opposed to doing anything they just don't feel like it's necessary. they don't feel like there is any sort of movement by the supreme court on that issue and so they are not quite there yet. there are still a lot of behind-the-scenes happening in regards to this religious freedom, concerns but we should know in the coming days we should perhaps see language on religious freedom. host: this is why we have you here.
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election reform legislation is time runs short to act as the headline of your story from this we can. explain. guest: election reform we are talking about this in the context of january 6. the attack on the capitol, the attempt to try to encourage or pressure the vice president and members of congress to overturn the election of joe biden. there has been a discussion happening again involving these folks in the middle. a number of the same individuals who have, joe manchin and another one. joe manchin and susan collins working on election reform. they have two bills, one dealing with reforming the electoral count law from 1887 which walks you through the process of how the vice president and the congress certified and count
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electoral votes sent from the states. they want to make sure it is airtight, that there is no room for any funny business that we saw after the 2020 election. that is one of the bills. the other deals with election security, enhancing penalties for people who are pressuring, intimidating, election officials and enhancing security for any sort of electronic voting systems. that is the main focus of the 2020 election. these are in response to what we saw on january 6 and the run-up to january 6. right now it looks like these are going to be in the session there is not enough time to do cr as well as election reform. host: with all that, we have some callers. again if you want to join the
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conversation with scott wong. robert is in massachusetts. good morning. caller: i think the most important thing we need to do, is post that bill h1, the voting rights bill. without that bill we aren't going to get anything done in this country because we have the progressive party separated by the democratic party. all these young kids college, do this, and give me that. then you have the tea party considering themselves the republican party. so we have people trying to the on the committee.
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bernie sanders and elizabeth warren, again what's the, there were on the campaign. we had elizabeth warren running against scott brown. what we did, we ran elizabeth warren on the same ticket as obama. that's how she got that job we were some edit scott brown. host: we will take the comment. i think you met the january 6 committee when he referred to the committee. they are expected to meet again with televised hearings where we on that? guest: the january 6 committee has already said they were going to hold additional hearings. they have held eight hearings in
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the course of june and july. he said when they return from the summer recess which is this week, they will begin to hold additional hearings. we expect at least one of those to happen later this month. there could be additional hearings in addition to that just one but some of the members of the committee, they want to focus on key issues heading into the fall one of those being what happens in the wake of the january 6 attack on the capital in the days that followed leading up to the and operation. so that sort of window, what was happening? we know that cabinet members were discussing invoking the 25th amendment to forcibly remove then-president trump from office. at the same time we know their discussion about impeachment. but when the vice president and the cabinet decided not to, we
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saw the house of representatives move to impeach donald trump. that will be one of the areas we are told from committee members that they could be looking at in some of these additional hearings. host: question from cynthia on the topic we mentioned and it got a lot of attention. we want to know why donald trump is in d.c.? is it deposition time where you know or have you heard anything? this photo was taken last night by an independent journalist of former president donald trump landing. guest: i did see the photo. i know reporters are aware of it especially at nbc. i have not lead into it so i do not have any definitive answer why the president might be here. it could be fundraising. it could be something a little more serious than that.
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certainly not he was back in d.c. this week. host: the headline, is something up? we will see if there is more to come. david in south carolina, and dependent good morning, your next. caller: good morning, john. whatever they do, it's going to dental and --diddle. they are under by corporate america people how to understand this. they are not going to do anything that's going to benefit anyone except corporate america. they get money from them, they are all in league with the military to get money into their states for ridiculously bloated pentagon budgets. it is bankrupting us all. we have put our social advantage for the last 50 years fighting the communists in russia and we
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still don't have proper health care for our citizens. we just passed a law that a senior doesn't have to pay more than a certain amount for diabetic medicine what about the babies that have diabetes? nobody talks about that. that doesn't matter does it? what matters is corporate america's bottom line. wall street's bottom line. good day, sir. host: david in south carolina. at that white house this week president biden expected to talk about achievements the democrats are claiming for people when it comes to health care and climate change as well. this money for the inflation reduction act, that is happening this week as well, right? guest: was interesting, john i have been doing a lot of necking about this congress and how toxic it's become. we have seen threats against
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some members of congress against their lives whether through phone call or people snooping around their homes back in their home states. at the same time john, i think it has been pretty remarkable house this congress has been one of the most productive we have seen probably in our careers starting from last year the bipartisan infrastructure act. this year, we saw the passage of the chips and science bill which you have heard the president talk about. you mentioned the inflation reduction act that is probably going to be president biden's signature achievement just like obama care was for president obama. just this summer, gun reform for the first time in a generation as well as the packed act --pact act for veterans exposed to brian pitts. it is quite consequential.
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certainly democrats will take issue with the caller being able to get things in for the american people. they would probably say it's too much money we're spending too much money and that's why we need to change direction for the midterm election. host: i think you started about the same time. scott wong with the paper in california and then the arizona republic. politico, the help for a long time. now senior congressional reporter at nbc news. always a friend of this network and we appreciate that. about 10 minutes left if you have questions as we talk about the week ahead. catherine, new jersey, good morning. i think we lost catherine. gary massachusetts. good morning. caller: i have three things are but like to ask. i heard 9/11 was yesterday.
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the muslim extremists were badly said it's too bad but it's a -- it's ok to saymaga extremist. 1% is what we use for energy. we do exactly what california wants to do from now, right now all across the country every state until the 21 -- year 2100 will reduce the temperature. i love how you talk about the insurrection but nobody wants to talk about 2020 where they attacked police stations and set fires. the insurrectionists on january 6 is the worst day they ever had. host: gary in massachusetts. couple topics which one do you want to pick? guest: those are some challenging topics. in terms of the george floyd
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protests of 2020, that has been a republican concern whenever the democrats do talk about january 6. republicans quickly turned to the protests which many of them did turn violent. january 6 for many of us it was horrible to see. for me, it was horrible to experience. i was one of the many reporters at the capitol that day. wasn't really paying attention to what was happening outside the capital. there were thousands of people who had descended on the capit ol member trying to break in and did succeed to break in.
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i don't think the two things are on equal footing. one has to do with an election, a presidential election. the people had duly elected jill biden as president. --joe biden as president. this was the action. host: talking about election 2022 in the next segment but right now republicans are favored to take over the house and senate. more of a question especially in the last two months what happened to january 6 committee if republicans do take over the house and if republicans do take over the house and or senate what hearings how they promised? what sort of committees are they going to form? guest: a lot of reporters are
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looking ahead to the next congress at this point. we are expecting house republicans to put control of the house is because of what history has shown us. typically the party out of power does take dozens of seats. things are a little bit different right now because democrats have the wind at their back because of ruby way decision. gas prices and some food prices are coming down. that has been an argument for republicans. but the january 6 committee, jamie raskin had a great quote. he said we are like cinderella we expire at midnight and so at the end of the year that committee does dissolve, if you
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will, unless democrats are somehow able to hold onto power. they need to wrap up their work pretty quickly. they need full covering of the reports they have been working on all summer. they're still juggling a few things. the report is their main priority. host: is it going to be a select committee on hunter biden? what are they saying? guest: they promised to investigate not only hunter biden and some of his business dealings they have in fact said they are going to investigate the investigation of january 6. they believe it was for political purposes. democrats would clearly disagree but that is one of the areas. some members on the far right have talked already about impeaching jill biden --joe bid en. i'm sure that is not the
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direction he wants to convert of the bet. he is going to be hearing from some of the members on the far right. host: and other issue, david in south carolina can you explain how the college loan transfer proposal is being paid for? guest: that is probably a little bit beyond what i can speak to. host: tampa florida, two minutes left independent, good morning. caller: good morning, john. i just want to know with the election year coming around does anyone answer the question is donald trump was in office and that 1964 voting right act came up which most presidents and he had refused to sign it with flight people have the right to vote at that time if he had not
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signed it or sit wait to off to the election? i would like to know the answer to that. host: is underwater? -- is that a what if? caller: yes. host: what do you think would happen? caller: i would not blame him. i believe donald trump would have said no i'm not going to sign this until after the election and then we see but my question is if he had said something like that would black people, i didn't see people of color with black people have the right to vote at that time? host: if you want to take up a historical what if? guest: that's a tough hypothetical. a couple of callers have brought up voting rights and that is something that is not part of these election proposals in the
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senate but clearly members of the house of representatives who have passed protections for voting rights would like to see some of those reforms be much broader. we will see recommendations. we will see recommendations coming from the january 6 committee about what they view as proper legislation to address what happened on january 6, what happened in the run-up to january 6 to protect our democratic process. host: how long has the house been away? about a month? guest: it's been about a month. they have to come back into session for one day to pass the inflation reduction act that had passed the senate. they are typically, we don't see a lot of activity during a critical midterm election year but to go back to my earlier point this has been a
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particularly productive congress when you look back at past years and past election years. host: a comment on the time they are away, they shouldn't get a paycheck when they are campaigning, that is a thought this morning. scott wong senior congressional reporter you can find him on twitter has work at nbc news.com and >> everyday we take your call live on the air on the news of the day and discussed policy issues that impact you. coming up tuesday morning, director of the public policy center of the university of pennsylvania discusses importance of civics education.
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national chair of the election transparency initiative discusses voting laws, the electoral process and campaign 2022. what washington journal live at 7:00 eastern tuesday morning on c-span or on c-span now our free mobile video app. join the discussion with your phone calls, facebook comments, text messages and tweets. up next, on c-span, a conversation with john roberts then king charles giving his first address to the british parliament following the death of his mother queen elizabeth. later president biden talking about his initiative to help reduce cancer deaths over the next one years. -- 25 years. >> homework can be hard but
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squatting in a diner for internetwork is even harder that is why we provide a lower income students access to affordable internet so homework and just be homework. cox connected to compete. >> cox along with these other television providers giving you a front row seat to democracy. >> during his first public appearance, chief justice john roberts defended the authority of the supreme court to interpret the constitution. he also expressed concern. he spoke at the u.s. court of appeals for the 10th circuit conference in colorado springs.
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