c-span3, c-span now our free mobile video app, on on lie at c spap.org. >> a healthy democracy doesn't just look like. this it looks like this. where americans can see democracy at work. where citizen -- when citizens are truly informed our republic thrives. get informed straight from the source on c-span. unfiltered. unbiased. word-for-word. from the nation's capital to wherever you are. because the opinion that matters the most is your own. this is what democracy looks like. c-span powered by cable. i'm joid appropriations reporter for politico caitlin emma. you wrote this article on saturday for politico. here is the headline where are we on the government funding?

guest: speaker johnson introduced something interesting. he kind of confused everybody a couple of weeks ago when he floated the idea of a laddered continuing lezz -- resolution. over the weekend, something that is the best case scenario for democrats in many ways is he's proposing funding part of the government through january 19 and the rest of the government including the pentagon and the big domestic programs into early february. he is setting up this two-tiered stopgap funding system to avoid a shutdown at the end of the week, november 17 at midnight. this is a clip -- a so-called clean cr which doesn't include spending cuts the freedom caucus wanted, an extension of the farm bill through september of next

year. in many ways, it's kind of a good outcome for democrats where some are coming out against the idea of this two-step plan but some of them are saying they are reviewing it and it will be interesting to see where democrats shake out on this idea. host: what about the conservative republicans? guest: we have already seen some early pushback from conservatives, marjorie taylor greene, congressman chip roy, warren davidson, several folks who are known as being hardliners. they are saying this is unacceptable. they say there are no spending cuts and this is not with the freedom caucus had hoped. essentially, it is similar to what kevin mccarthy paired up with democrats to pass and then lost his speaker's gavel. it sort of the same situation.

i'm not saying speaker johnson is in trouble but he has more trust in the republican conference right now but it's a similar scenario. i expect to see more pushback from conservatives. host: when does it hit the floor and when we we see votes? guest: the committee meets this afternoon to prep it and that will be interesting to watch because you have a couple of conservatives on that panel who will have two either vote for or against putting this on the floor. mr. roy is on the rules panel. the house is gearing up for a vote tomorrow. it will be really interesting to see who supports this. over the weekend, we saw how rosa delauro came out and said this is a bad idea. she does not approve of this

two-step process. she is upset that it doesn't include any emergency funding for israel or ukraine. maybe speaker johnson will need democratic help to pass this. it may be possible to get that but it will be interesting to watch who in republican conference, who among democrats will support this. host: is there a sense of whether this will pass? guest: we don't know yet. it's the best case scenario for democrats. there was an israel aid bill last week that made that funding conditional on cuts to the irs. democrats so that as picking a fight. why would you condition something as important as israel aid on cutting funding for the irs? this is not that. it's not picking a fight with democrats.

the two-step idea is not particularly popular but the funding deadlines he's setting up, january 19 and february 2 are only a couple of weeks apart. it's quite possible a lot of democrats support this. host: if you would like to ask a question or make a comment about government funding, give us a call, democrats, (202) 748-8000, republicans (202) 748-8001s and independence (202) 748-8002. our line for texting is different,202-7488903 there were problems with two gop funding bills this last week. explain what happened. guest: speaker johnson took over for mr. mccarthy and he made a promise to blow forward in

passing a dozen republican appropriations bills. he had some initial success there on some of the easier bills. as we've gotten through the week, the problems plaguing mr. mccarthy are now plaguing speaker johnson. it's just that you have this really unruly republican conference that cannot coalesce around these bills. the transportation housing bill was supposed to come up for a vote the other week. you had members who work in and around the amtrak northeast corridor saying they couldn't stomach $1 billion in funding cuts for amtrak. on the other hand, conservatives said they wanted to get rid of amtrak altogether. you had somebody like congressman tom cole who oversees that bill saying i've got eight or 10 members in both sides telling me they don't want to support this. i have to get the two of them to

vote for this bill. those problems are still in existence. the financial services bill last week which is typically not controversial ended up falling apart because you had democrats -- conservatives saying this includes gs anda they will fund the new fbi headquarters and we can't have that. there was related abortion issues that moderates at a hard time with. it speaks to speaker johnson's challenge where you just have so many members in different factions of the conference that cannot support some of these bills and it's not going to get easier, the idea passing these appropriations bill which will never become law. host: what's happening on the senate side? they come back in later today. what are their plans regarding a

continuing resolution? guest: the senate will be interesting to watch today. the senate is expected to take its first procedural boat later this afternoon around 5:30 p.m. on a vehicle for a continuing resolution. they don't have one yet but it's getting the procedural gears in motion to pass one before the november 17 deadline. what's interesting is likely, we are just talking about a cr that speaker johnson introduced is kind of palatable for democrats and over the weekend, a senate democratic aide reached out to a number of reporters and left the door open for senate democrats to support this. they said this is not necessarily a bad thing. he is not looking for any cuts. he is comfortable with handling funding for the pentagon in the

second tranche. february be the deadline for funding the pentagon. democrats say they are ok with that. what's interesting today -- does the vote to proceed to the cr vehicle in the senate does it succeed? it's possible it won't and senators will be watching to see what speaker johnson brings tomorrow. if it's clear something will pass in a get sent to the senate, they may not advance their own vehicle. host: are the two sides talking? are senator schumer and speaker johnson collaborating or working independently? guest: i am not privy to any bicameral negotiations. as we've seen in negotiations, as we so with mr. mccarthy, a lot hinges on what can get through the house.

in many ways, senate leaders are waiting to see what speaker johnson can do. if it looks like something acceptable to the senate, that's great and they can move forward. chuck schumer wanted to be prepared with his own stopgap backup funding plan which is why they will take a procedural boat this afternoon. host: i will put up on the screen the house stopgap spending measure. anything surprising that you saw there? we've got funding for agencies covered by military construction, va and energy, water and transportation bills. there is funding for agencies covered by the other eight bills which go longer, february 2 and extending current spending leve. were you surprised at especially the piece about extending current spending levels without

cuts? guest: yes, i was surprised by that. speaker johnson had floated the idea of pursuing some kind of cr with cuts. that is something that is right flank really wanted. this is pretty much -- aside from the fact that he wants to do this in two buckets, this was a pretty straightforward continuing resolution. this is something that democrats would introduce on their own. there is no aid for israel noa for ukraine and no emergency funding whatsoever. that's a big problem for democrats and it's a big problem for many republicans as well who think every day that goes by that we are not doing something for israel or ukraine makes it less likely congress can get it together. as you said, the first four bills would have a january 19 deadline.

that would set aside the house republican conference issues with spending. some of those bills would hypothetically be some of the easier ones to negotiate with the senate and whether that bears out to be true, there are a lot of spending issues right now in congress and that remains to be seen. we are teeing up the first four and giving two extra weeks to do some of the hardest work. it's an interesting structure and it will be interesting to see how it plays out. host: patrick is in florida on the independent line. caller: hi and thanks for taking my call. it's not a republican state in this country that doesn't rely on funding. the florida budget is 22% federal money. joe manchin comes from west virginia in their state budget is $45 billion, 9 billion of

that is federal money. [no audio] [inaudible] israelis were marching through the street yelling death to all arabs. they elected to butcher [indiscernible] host: you are cutting in and out. were you able to get anything from that as far as federal funding for states? guest: it's worth noting that we have these shutdown fights several times a year over what is considered a pretty small part of the federal overall budget. the funding we are talking about with this particular shutdown

deadline is just discretionary funding. it is really like funding for all of the federal agencies across the government. it doesn't include social security spending in medicare and some of the biggest drivers of the debt and deficit. we are having these fights and we are talking about a very small part of the federal budget. i think you are right, a lot of this money ends up going to states for a number of different reasons. you have discretionary grant programs and things like that but we keep having these crazy spending fights over a very small part of the federal budget. host: what is the mood in the gop conference in the house? people have talked about a honeymoon period for mike johnson. guest: this will be a huge week for him and his ability to pass this on the floor. it will say a lot about his

first real big early test of his speakership. mccarthy was kicked out of the speaker's office because he teamed up with democrats to pass a continuing resolution that staved off a shutdown. he said he would do it again and he said shutting down the government is not a way to get what you want. mike johnson is kinda proposing the same thing here but breaking it up into two buckets. that avoids what republicans lo athe which is an omnibus. for years, lawmakers have been complaining about getting blindsided with a huge piece of legislation they have to pass at the last minute and is no time to read it. by breaking it up into two, he's trying to say we are not doing

things as normal. he said this is a his idea of addressing the concerns but not including spending cuts, that will be a problem for conservatives. it will be interesting to see who can support this among republicans and who can't. and whether they will cut speaker johnson some flack. they state they are starting to. some of these spending bills are failing on the floor. it will be interesting to see how they keep the government open. i think mike johnson can move on and everybody is tired and don't want to keep doing this over and over. famous last words. host: let's take a look at what democratic senator chris murphy said yesterday about the idea of speaker johnson's laddered

approach. [video clip] >> this is a two-tiered bill put forward by the newly installed house speaker. will you support it? >> this is no way to run a railroad. we should pass multiple continuing resolutions and in the senate, we can find bipartisan agreement on a budget that not only funds what the country needs but gets money to our partners around the world who are in desperate need of american support. we cannot have a government shut down this weekend. certainly not while we were facing in existential crisis for our friends in israel and ukraine. i don't like this laddered cr approach but i'm open to what the house has to say. we are reasonable in the senate and that's where most of the reasonable people are these days we have to make sure we are not

making the perfect the enemy of the good. >> i hear you say you're not there yet but you are not ano. what do you need to get to yes on this legislation? >> we will proceed in the senate on a clean cr without gimmicks. it worries me the house process requires you to come out and deal with have to budget one day and half the budget on another day. that sounds like a recipe for failure -- for failure. >> does this bill make it more or less likely there will be a shutdown? >> i don't think anybody can predict what happens in the house of representatives. that places a political dumpster fire now. until we get reasonable and thoughtful leadership that prioritizes bipartisan

partnership in the house come every day will be a nightmare for the american people. host: any comments on that? guest: as the moderator noted, he is not a yes or a no. he is an appropriate a nose spending and he knows cr's. he is very steeped in the notion of coming up with supplemental funding for israel and ukraine. he is a key lawmaker to pull on something like this. the fact that he is not dismissing it out of hand says a lot. he said the senate would move forward with his own thing and it will be interesting to see if that goes anywhere. i get the sense that democrats like senator murphy are potentially open to supporting this idea. host: let's talk to cutler in new hampshire, democrat. caller: good morning.

mike comment is we should never be in this situation again. it seems like congress just cannot get their act together. it's still very partisan. history tells us that the republican party which is driven up this national debt we have that's often not mentioned in that they are concerned we're funding others and it's an interesting scenario. i'm disappointed in the whole thing. we should be supporting ukraine and israel but basically our country is broke. we have to realize that. guest: you echoed the concerns many americans have and many people in washington as well is that it's insane how despite multiple times per year, the

federal budget process is essentially broken. congress doesn't follow it and it blows through the end of the fiscal year routinely. with these year and funding fights where everybody think the government will shut down for a couple of weeks and then it doesn't. a lot of folks feel this is no way to do business. .many lawmakers feel this is no way to do business. there has been legislation to the effect of making sure a shutdown should never even happen. that legislation has received amendment votes. it really hasn't gone anywhere. i think folks are sick and tired of having this fight over and over again. we are not doing anything for israel and ukraine and this is a major priority for members of congress and a major

international crisis. this fight will continue even if this legislation to keep the government open passes this week. i think folks are definitely sick of politics as usual. host: these cr's have become the rule instead of the exception. guest: it's been a long time since anything has operated as normal. maybe the last time all funding bills were passed was like the 1990's. i can remember the exact date. it's been long times as the appropriations process functioned as normal. cr's are sort of the rule. for the last few years, we end up with a giant government funding package that might not

bear its of of this year. st: we have attacks text from middletown, connecticut. guest: that's a great question. the debt is $33 trillion at this point. that has grown enormously over the last couple of decades. nothing serious has been done to rein it in. democrats and republicans have an ideological difference in what is the breaking point. how much debt is too much debt and when do we hear the tipping point when it becomes a financial problem. we don't know when that is so there hasn't been anything done

to curb it. you've had republicans talking about the need for a bipartisan fiscal commission. host: you mean the debt commission? guest: that sounds like there is interest in forming one. right now, some republicans on the house budget committee have formed their own working group to talk about that. this is not a new idea. it's been done before. host: has it worked before? guest: no. in the short term, yes it's helped raked in spending in the short term but long term, we are looking at decades. . something aggressive needs to be done in the long term.

everyone in washington lysed to say it's an easy solution we have long-term issues beyond discretionary spending and social security and medicare insolvency. those have to be taken care of in the next 10 years. that is not really on the table for discussion now. host: republican in florida, good morning. caller: good morning, i hope you can hear me ok. i've been watching what's going on with the current speaker and the last speaker. it seems that both of them were acting in a responsible and mature manner