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including charter communications. >> charter is proud to be recognized as one of the best internet providers. we are just getting started. we will be creating 100 thousand miles of new infrastructure to reach those who need it most. >> charter communications supports c-span as a public service along with these other television providers, giving you a front row seat to democracy. by luc broadwater, congressional reporter for the new york times with us this half hour to take a quick look at what is ahead in congress, what is supposed to be the last week in the house and senate before the august recess. let's start with the house. what are some of the main issues? guest: scheduling is a little bit in flux right now. the main thing i am watching for is whether the house republicans can get two of their appropriations bills moving

across the house floor, as your listeners probably know. kevin mccarthy, one of his priorities has been to not just pass a big omnibus budget at the end of the year, but to pass the appropriation bills one by one, all 12 of them. this is a promise he made when he was attempting to become speaker. it is something the republicans want to see happen. they might try to move two of these this week. we will see if those can get ready in time. one is agriculture and the other would be for military construction. they would be the culture war debates we have seen in this congress, about whether abortion restrictions should be in, dei restrictions, things like that. that is going to be the first two they try to move. host: you said potentially those would be the first two this week and he made the promise to get

through all 12. each time, he exposes himself to potentially losing votes from his caucus on those pieces of legislation, correct? guest: right. this is a difficult task. congress has gotten into the habit of passing one huge omnibus at the end of the year and i don't think anyone really believes it is going to be an easy task to get all 12 done. there is just not a ton of time. it takes a long time to get these bills. there are so many policies involved. there is sort of a gun to the head of this congress. in the debt limit deal, if they don't get these done, there will be a 1% cut across government. all government spending will be cut by 1%. none of the republican policies would go into effect. they would be stuck with nancy pelosi's policies from the last congress. there is pressure on both sides. democrats don't want to cut and republicans don't want hello see's policies -- don't want

hello see's public debt pelosi's policies. guest: the national defense authorization act, every year, this is one of those must pass bills that has to go through congress. what it does is it really sets the roadmap for how the military can spend money when it is appropriated. a version of this bill has already passed in the house. it had all of these extra provisions added in, culture war issues. fanning the military from using dei officers -- banning the military from using dei officers, strict and's for paying for travel for abortions and another -- and a number of other issues. we are headed eventually if this

does pass the senate, for a conference committee and that could be quite contentious as well because kevin mccarthy has already said that he wants to have marjorie taylor greene, one of the more far right members of congress, on that committee. it could be interesting to see how those appropriations go. host: tell us about the hold that senator tommy tuberville has on military nominations and how this may come into play, this week with the ndaa discussion. guest: this is probably the second biggest issue if not the biggest right now that the senate is encountering. close to 300 promotions or nominations in the military are being held up for admirals and generals by a single senator, tommy tuberville of alabama. what he is objecting to is a policy that the pentagon has put in place recently that would pay for travel, out-of-state travel for abortions, if a military

service member wants to have an abortion. this comes in the wake of roe v. wade being overturned and inferring state laws going into place. he say it -- he says it violates the hyde amendment and federal law that can't pay for abortions, but paying for travel is akin to paying for the abortions. he is putting a hold on all of these promotions and is angering the democrats and the biden administration. they are saying it is hurting the military at a deep level. tempora ville is demanding they change -- cover ville -- tub or erville is demanding they change the provisions. host: -- a vote on the abortion issues in exchange for releasing his hold. guest: it is interesting. schumer is offering a vote on two possible -- to rebuild policy -- tuberville's policy. what he wants is a vote on the

other so that they put -- proactively saying this is our policy. it is sort of a war of words, and neither side seems like they are winning. host: that language did pass in the house version, right? guest: but it could not pass the senate. host: we are talking with luke broadwater, congressional reporter for the new york times. we welcome your phone calls and comments. (202)-748-8000 is the democrats line. (202)-748-8001 for republicans. for independents and all others, (202)-748-8002. you may have heard luke in the last half hour, nancy pelosi on this potential vote, the issue of the house expunging, the proposal by mortgage -- marjorie taylor greene and elise stefanik to expunge the impeachment decisions against former president donald trump.

what do you think will happen? guest: kevin mccarthy has said he is for this. we know elise stefanik and at least three republicans are for this. my understanding is it does not have the votes, that there is some skepticism within the republican conference in the house. it would be a largely symbolic effort. unlike say a criminal record which can be expunged, you can band the box -- ban the box. this happened publicly. everyone knows about it. there is no come in the record to expunge. it would be a purely symbolic act. if they are going to go forward with it, right now they don't have the votes. maybe at the fall at the earliest but that is not something we will see this week. host: in addition to the work in the house this week on the two

appropriations bills and other measures, what hearings are you watching for, this final week before august? guest: the big one from my perspective is a leon drove mayorkas, the home and secretary will be on the hill wednesday in front of the judiciary committee. as you know, the house republicans have been ramping up a potential impeachment of mayorkas, doing a five-part investigation on his handling of the border. i expect him to be grilled intensely about the situation at the border. i do think he has some facts on his side. it looks like some of the biggest fears about record border crossings are starting to come down. not as bad as they once were. he has some positive things you can point to. there is the issue about whether or not he lied to congress. he says he did not. they are using a legalistic definition that does not really match operational definitions. i expect there to be a fight about that as well.

this is a precursor to see whether or not republicans will try to go forward and impeach him. host: the house to dish your looking at impeachment charges against the attorney general, merrick garland. what is their allegation? guest: for those who watched the irs whistleblower last week in congress, there is this key dispute about whether merrick garland lied to congress or not, when he said that he had basically deputized a u.s. attorney in delaware to have full authority to make charges anywhere he wants on the hunter biden case. what you heard from the irs whistleblower last week was that that was not true. he did not have full authority and that he was limited in where he could charge and what his powers were. there is a bit of a dispute. garland is telling the truth or the whistleblower is. what kevin mccarthy said was, if it is proven or we do find out substantial evidence that

merrick garland lied to congress, then he would begin impeachment proceedings the next day. it feels to me right now that it was a little bit hot right now. passionate anger on the side of the republicans. maybe that will change on wednesday at this hearing. the republicans i'm talking to over the weekend were really fired up about garland. host: our guest is luke broadwater who covers congress for the new york times. we welcome your calls and comments. (202)-748-8000 for democrats. (202)-748-8001 for republicans. for independents and others, (202)-748-8002. you can send us a text if you like, that's at (202)-748-8003. a comment from -- he says that hunter's former business partner will testify under oath. hunter got his vice president dad on the phone 24 times to talk business.

guest: my understanding is that the oversight committee has been working for weeks to try and schedule this business partner to come in. i'm not sure if that is happening today or not. some who talked over the weekend said he is trying to postpone again. i'm not sure where that stands. i did hear some rumblings that might be postponed. he has delayed that interview several times. the oversight committee is pressing forward with this investigation. they are giving lots of bank records, they are bringing in lots of witnesses and trying to get people close to hunter biden on the record in the committee. host: are you getting a sense of their timeline of when they want to wrap it up? the reality is that this investigation goes back to even when james comer was the ranking republican. that investigation began during a democratic congress but they have continued.

are you getting any sense of when they think the investigation may wrap up and be able to present their findings? guest: they are pressing forward. i think they are digging deeper than they initially thought they might. some of these bank records have led them to other bank records that led them to other bank records. . this could be a lengthy investigation. obviously they need to finish by the end of this congress. that is key. they will want to keep going for as long as possible, as long as they keep getting more information. host: let's get to calls. first up in louisiana it is darlene on the independent line. good morning. caller: first of all, marilyn garland couldn't live his life depended on it. the people are watching everything.

these two guys on the irs agents. they discriminate against hunter biden. because they were for the republican party. i'm sorry, i'm a little nervous. all of this conflict needs to stop. mcconnell is a snake. clarence thomas needs to get out of there. i'm very embarrassed about the republican party. host: luke broadwater, anything you want to add? guest: i couldn't really hear what she said. host: we will go to kansas city, missouri and hear from paul on the republican line. caller: hello. i work in the government for almost 40 years and if it is not in writing, it didn't happen. i think the attorney general, if you would just produce the appointment orders, giving the special authority to go outside his district, it's got to be in

writing that merrick garland appointed him, jack smith has appointment orders, that is a simple thing. just produce the document that told the u.s. attorney of delaware that he could go outside his district. appreciate the show, and great dialogue. host: luke broadwater, will there be such a document, is there such a document? guest: i think the u.s. attorney in delaware said in one of his letters to congress at least he strongly implied that he reached out to prosecutors in the district of columbia and in california and spoke with them about potentially partnering on a case against hunter biden in those jurisdictions. from our reporting, we know he was turned down and there was no interest in the partnership. the next step and this may be some of where the dispute is, is both weiss and merrick garland

said he could have asked garland for special attorney status and then take those cases himself, and he did not do that for whatever reason. whether he was blocked or whether he made the independent decision that those prosecutors don't think it was a strong case. weiss has said he will testify on the hill at some point. i think we need to hear from him directly, and merrick garland directly before we can know what happened. host: will he testify on the record at a public hearing? guest: in one of his letters, he offered to testify when appropriate. i guess when the hunter biden case is in court. we know there is a court date this wednesday. . if that wraps up, we could potentially hear from weiss on the hill. host: i asked about some of your most recent reporting on the organization that has brought some of these whistleblowers.

the headline on your piece published yesterday, former republican aides shepherd whistleblowers through congress. a group of lawyers including former aides to senator chuck grassley, part of a constellation of groups facilitating gop investigations in congress. what led you to do this -- what led you to this story? guest: when one of the irs whistleblowers wants to come forward initially with his allegations about what he was seeing internally on this investigation, he knew that he might be potentially committing a felony, that these tax records are so secretive, you can't just give out somebody's tax returns, you can't just share tax information. he had to figure out a way to do this legally. he approached the former federal prosecutor he had worked with in the past, who is now in private practice. they needed someone who could help them get through the

byzantine rules of congress, understand how to get this information to the hill legally. who better to do that then a former staffer for chuck grassley, who in some cases wrote the whistleblower statutes and understands the way congress works? there was this very technical process they had to go through. some had to be deputized as agents of congress of the could receive tax information. then they had to arrange for an interview behind closed doors, only the ways and means committee could handle it. they had to authorize a vote to release the information and only then could they do these interviews. need a high amount of technical knowledge and skills about how congress works with legal codes to begin the whistleblower process. that was the part of the story that interested me. host: do you think this group is unusual or that there are similar groups out there working, for example, during

democratic congresses? guest: absolutely. any time you have a divided congress, oversight becomes pretty premium. legislating becomes less important, because basically they can't get together. when oversight becomes the number one game in town, you see more groups working on it and that is true of democratic congresses and republican congresses. what makes this group unique is they have represented four whistleblowers have gone before congress and they do have this unique skill set with their connections to chuck grassley. host: were all of those whistleblowers related to the biden investigation? guest: two are with the fbi, speaking out about things they saw and the justice department. two are with the irs, specifically with the hunter biden case. host: about 10 more minutes with our guest. we go to the nation's capital,

democrats line. caller: hello. good morning c-span. i just want -- i'm a little speechless because there is a lot of american business that is not being dealt with under this congress. this congress reminds me of -- it is almost like you are watching a reality tv show. i think that if more people like jason lee or those bloggers actually investigated political parties, this country will blow up. the same way they investigated athletes and entertainers. they need to start going after politicians. i'm so sick and tired of knickknack patty wack give the republican a bone and the democrat a bone. i have not heard one positive

thing going on in our nations capital since this morning. i'm so sick and tired of it. what is going on in texas, with the school system is a hot mess. you guys need to start investigating -- stop investigating things like biden. look into the $2 billion that trump's son-in-law got from -- you know what i'm talking about. host: several things there. guest: she is raising a point that democrats often raise, which is that there is all of this intense focus on hunter biden and his business dealings but we are talking about a fraction of the kind of money that some of the trump family members were able to bring in through their work with foreign countries, especially in the middle east. a huge investment fund that jared kushner has, president

trump's son-in-law which brings in tons of money from the middle east and other countries. if it is bad for hunter biden doing international business deals, why isn't it bad for trump's family members? that is a frequent point you hear from democrats. i think her broader point was that congress has really become sort of a bloodsport, fighting all the time. a lot of people would like to see more collaboration, less fighting, and working together. host: our guest, luke rod water -- broadwater, cut his teeth with the baltimore sun for 10 years or so and his investigative work winning a pulitzer, for several things. now in your role as a congressional reporter, do they give you time to do deeper investigations and take you off the daily beat or has that been set aside? guest: it depends.

there are times when the daily grind is so much that that is what you are doing. following daily news in congress and writing about things as they happen. i do have some leeway to do investigations as appropriate and that is the kind of reporting i love to do. i love enterprise stories, i love long profiles of people, i like to do deep investigations. that is what really motivates me. host: when did you know you wanted to be a newspaper writer? guest: i really wanted to be a baseball announcer when i was a kid. then i got into sports writing and started out in sports writing and overtime, through various jobs i've had, i shifted more into hard news reporting, covering trials and all of that stuff and then into politics. i have a passion for it, i love covering it and it is a lot of fun. host: onto pleasant view,

tennessee. good morning ray on the republican line. caller: good morning. these two young men, so-called whistleblowers, these people are working people. they were doing their job. the federal government is bloated with people. we need to cut them out and pay the deficit down. these people are afraid of their jobs. the democrats keep pushing more people, more money, put out, put out. you gotta stop and look at the money we owe. some to china. everybody else in the world. this government is bloated and this administration is crooked as anybody ever. host: your thoughts, luke broadwater? caller: i think ray is watching

the -- guest: i think ray is watching the whistleblower testimony. they are coming forward with serious allegations and we need to hear the other side. host: a comment from jimbo in california. can mr. broadwater explained the various methods the freedom caucus might use to sabotage speaker mccarthy's agenda this week? you touched briefly on it earlier, the appropriations process. guest: the freedom caucus is an interesting group. 35 people or so, but some of them have become more aligned with speaker kevin mccarthy. jim jordan for instance, one of the founders of the caucus. others have been more of the people who stand in the way and try to block certain things the speaker is doing. we saw this come to a head a few times in this congress when they have shut down the floor.

it really depends on whether they want something specific out of mccarthy before they shut down the floor, because they wanted a vote on legislation about this gun brace or pistol brace. if there is something they want out of one of these bills, they have the votes at any time to shut down the floor. they have enough votes to do that. i haven't heard any rumblings that they are planning to do that this week, but definitely the freedom caucus can use legislative tools and their votes to try and get certain demands out of the speaker whenever they want. host: onto california, and the san fernando valley, on the independent line. caller: good morning. what i want to say is, first i want to make this comment. i spoke on pedro's show once and he had a gentleman talking about the banks being backed up or whatever. this is just a comment.

it was concerning to me that wells fargo bought $40 million of gold? ok. think about that. all of this other stuff that they are playing games. they are not playing chess or chinese checkers. the people will come to an end when they find out that this is just going to get worse. it is not going to get better. because the things that are right are going to be wrong. host: going back to where we started with the appropriations process, what about the senate? when congress comes back in september, they better deadline. where is the senate in their process of appropriations? guest: one thing we've heard from the senate is that they also want to be considering individual bills, especially on the public inside.

that is big with susan collins, the top republican handling spending matters. she really wants these to be individual bills. they are chugging along and working through the process. as i said earlier, i don't think we are going to see all 12 bills ready to go by september 30. i don't think anybody thinks that is realistic. you will probably have a continuing resolution at that point which is a short-term extension. if not, we could see a shut down at some point. that would not surprise me. the house freedom caucus feels taken advantage of during the debt ceiling deal. they felt like they didn't get the bold policies they wanted. i could see them staging a rebellion at some point and us having some government shutdown at some point. host: you can read luke's reporting at nytimes.com.

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