politics. >> c-span now is a free mobile app featuring your own children -- unfiltered view of what is happening in washington. keep up with the biggest events with live screens of floor proceedings and hearings from congress. white house events, the court, campaigns, and more from the world of all it takes at your fingertips. also the latest episodes of washington journal and scheduling information for c-span's tv networks and c-span radio, and compelling podcasts. c-span now is available at the apple store and google play. c-span now, your front row seat to washington any time, anywhere. washington journal continues. host: we are back with andrew desiderio, senior reporter,

talking about the agreement in the senate. how quickly could the upper chamber take this up? >> they could get started as soon as today and finish if they want to do. that is unlikely. but it has been the overwhelming nature of the houseboat last night, it got over 300 votes and there is optimism. the senate could finish this before the weekend. but obviously any individual senator can grind the process to a halt. without consent, it would take until the middle of next week to pass it. that is past that date the treasury department has set. we will be watching closely. host: what should our viewers be watching for? guest: the first thing is whether leader schumer files closure. that means they have not reached an agreement yet. i expect that is what he will deal because it is early in the process. what he has to do at this point

is basically get out amendment votes to senators. there are senators on both sides of the aisle who are demanding votes to change the bill. his goal is to make sure none of those boats clear the threshold. you change the bill, you got to send it back to that house and schumer said that would mean an automatic default. host: there would be not enough time on the clock for the house to approve it. guest: exactly. host: who should our viewers be watching for, which senators want to? guest: a lot of them. the minority whip on the republican side has heard from a dozen republican offices that want to offer a minutes. a number of democrats want to offer amendments as well. the main ones we are looking at our first and foremost from senator rand paul who wants even more strict spending cuts to the topline numbers over the next five or 10 years. second, senator mike lee who

does not like the deal wants to eliminate some of the authority that the white house has with regard to the provisions. the big group of republicans, defense hawks, who are not happy with the fact that the defense spending is capped at the president's budget request. that will be with a lot of republicans, they have said the -- there was a cut after inflation. this is something they're going to try to change. even mcconnell, who was for it raising the defense cap in the budget legislation is going to make sure the amendment does not pass. if any of the a minutes pass, you've got to the house. host: referring to mitch mcconnell, what have the talks been like between the majority leader, senator schumer, the minority leader senator schumer,

-- with regards to the urgency to pass this bill, the need to get it done as soon as possible, the need for senators to pass amendment requests, to get them on the table quickly, vote on them, then you'll back the time they have been granted as a result of the amendment. they have been on the same page -- we expect they would be at a 60 vote threshold. host: we're talking about the outlook of the debt limit agreement. it could come as early as today in the upper chamber. your thoughts on this, the debt limit deal. what the prospects are for the senate, democrats dial-in at -- republicans first this month,

republicans (202) 748-8000. democrats (202) 748-8001, and independents (202) 748-8002. texans as well, include your city and state, at -- texts as well, include your city and state at (202) 748-8003. and tweet at c-span wj. there are progressives as well. senator bernie sanders is one of them. any more? host: -- guest: only a few, the one from oregon, and the senator from massachusetts. we expect it to grow. this is a group of progressives who have been saying the president has the authority under the 14th amendment to raise the debt limit unilaterally without congress and he should not be exceeding

these republican demands to spending cuts, tied to raising the debt limit. the progressive opposition in the house last night was not as much as we anticipated for it to be. it was almost a free vote, a way for them to say i do not like the bill but it is better than defaulting on our debt. i expect it will be the same for a lot of progressive senators. they will make sure it clears before some of them end up voting no. but for many of them, it will be a free vote. they can express their displeasure by voting against it. host: we heard the speaker promised 150 votes. that he would deliver the 150 votes for this deal. one vote shy of 149. what if any conversation has been had about what senate republicans deliver for the

votes and democrats? guest: you need to give or take 30 from each party. republicans architecting at least half of their conference, at least when he five members. the opposition we are seeing from hard-line conservatives and progressives is very loud. there are a lot of passionate feelings about this legislation on both sides. both republicans and democrats, with the leadership, are going to have to make sure that there caucus has put up enough votes to get to that recession. host: you mentioned that will be the first step by the majority leader. explain for people who are not watching the senate every day. guest: it is the first procedural step the majority leader needs to take to limit debate. in the senate, everything has to be debated for 30 hours.

basically filing cloture means you are setting off an initial procedural vote. it would mean an initial procedural vote on saturday. there try to wrap this up before then. if there is no consent, no agreement, in terms of shortening the sign, first vote would be on saturday. there would be another on sunday, and you would have final passage tuesday or wednesday. that is the first case scenario for senate leadership. they're trying to make sure they can get the time agreement and you know ms. consent from all senators. and make sure they don't have to jump through procedural hoops. host: when the majority leader files cloture, which today, setting up two days from now, will there be a vote on cloture to start the debate? inset a -- is that a text

vvote? guest: it depends on the willingness of senators offering movements and demanding them, to yield back some of their time and agree to a quick vote. we could see initial procedural vote as soon as today. but it will depend on a lot of stars aligning. it will depend on kitchen mcconnell and chuck schumer getting this in mind to make sure they can get this over the finish line. host: who are you talking to next, what is key here? guest: the big thing is trying to get to a time agreement. anything in the senate takes unanimous consent. you need all 100 senators to agree on what to do and how to shorten it if you are. all of the senators so far who said they want amendments have indicated they are not looking to necessarily slow down the process -- they say they don't

see any benefit to holding it hostage and a couple of days for no reason when it is going to pass. many of the senators who want amendment votes are trying to make points and a lot of this amounts to an exercise in futility, political theater, as there always is in the knighted states senate. that is what it is going to come down to. host: what time today gavel in? guest: 10:00 a.m. host: 10:00 a.m. on c-span2, you can watch on c-span two, our website, c-span.org or follow along on our mobile app, c-span now. the tear from jeffrey in north carolina. caller: good morning, thank you for having me. i have a question that has been pondering a. i don't know about the american public, but this is important,

to take care of this matter. i pray to god it is handled in the right way. my question to the gentleman this morning is how is it behind closed doors, that they are spending trillions of dollars passing with no issue on going to mars, going to the moon. that money is necessary for mankind on earth. people are in dire situations. i'm very puzzled and in conflict that the government does this and spends trillions of dollars on who is going to benefit from that. it is considered -- confusing. host: andrew desiderio. guest: there is no argument against that in the senate. with the legislation does is

sets the budget caps for the next several years. it is not saying what this has to be sent on -- spent on, that is for them to figure out by the end of this fiscal year. but really, it is just about spending the caps, not necessarily allocating funds for specific programs. host: let's talk about kevin mccarthy and his future here. we were talking to a member of the freedom caucus, he voted no on the legislation. he did say he will give the speaker another chance before he works with others to vacate the chair. he did say others won't move more quickly. but he said the speaker has only been in this position for five months. i will wait to see what he does on appropriations. guest: that has been a balancing act throughout the debt ceiling saga.

it's the majority of this party voting for us, there were complaints from people like ralph norman, others who voted against the legislation but there were more democrats who voted for this bill than republicans. i was never a stipulation as part of the deal they reached when he became speaker in the first place. it is fueling the outrage on the right toward kevin mccarthy. they use the motion to vacate. what this would depend on is democrats joining with the motion to vacate. we are told democrats are not interested in the drama and chaos that surrounds the speakership vote. as we saw a few months ago. it was 15 rounds to get him installed. democrats have no interest in redoing that again and helping play into it. if it comes to that, it is likely the majority of democrats will act to keep kevin mccarthy

in place because they think the alternative would be even worse. host: we learned about the role minority leaders hakeem jeffries played in getting enough votes for the rule, a test vote in-house procedure. the rule has to pass in order to move to the final vote. what can you tell us about the deal he made or how he was able to get enough democrats to vote for the rule. guest: the entire thing that happened yesterday was that they did not need to go to the rules committee. when you look at the number of people who ended up voting for it, it was more than two thirds. in the house, you don't need to go to the rules committee if it is two thirds vote. it would be a suspension bill, suspension of the role. there are many pieces of legislation that passed the house on a daily basis, what is called a suspension process. >> we are going to take you live to the