"washington journal" continues. host: on monday when congress is in session, we like to look at

the week ahead in washington. we are joined by a congressional reporter from the hill newspaper. we've seen these statements from members of congress in the wake of this attack in jordan yesterday that killed three american service members. the senate doesn't come back until tomorrow and you will be heading up to capitol hill so what are your expectations? will there be hearings this week on this? what will you be looking for when you start your job today? >>■z guest: guest: there will be conversations about it and lawmakers will be asked to comment on the tragedy that happened over the weekend. in terms of hearings, it's up in the air. we are seeing statements from lawmakers right now expecting condolences to the families of the three service members. there will be a lot of questions of what the u.s. response looks like also in terms of oversight powers and looking into what happened. there are no firm plans right of how the reaction is on capitol hill but i expect there

will be a lot of conversation. host: just to add to the mix, an imrtant mix -- an important week for the border deal. where does that deal stand right now? guest: we are at the same place we were at the beginning of last week in the sense the top lawmakers and negotiates is saying this could be the week that we finally get moving on this border security deal. we haven't seen that yet and there is no firm answer but over the weekend, top negotiators were saying they are putting the finishing touches on his bipartisan border deal which has been in the works for months and they say texas chris murphy came out this week saying this could hit that senate floor. they say this is one of the key sticking points in recent weeks and still causing issues for the groups so not everything is buttoned up yet but top lawmakers expecting some optimism. we will expect lawmakers will

ask for significant time to parse through the details. we haven't seen a package like this in decades. lawmakers will want their due diligence to parse through the specifics. host: we will go through the text when it comes out. what is most likely in this deal chris murphy gave a preview yesterday during one of the sunday show saying the president would have the authority to shut down the border if crossings between ports of entry reached " catastrophically high levels." that was chris murphy's language and that's where we saw the president say that if he was given this power to shut down the border immediately, that got concern from some individuals. i think that's with this key piece of the deal is. chris murphy says the president would have that authority and it would reform asylum for some of

the folks coming into the u.s. those are some of the details that chris murphy has released. both the top negotiators, langford and murphy say there has been a lot of leaks in the process which happens on capitol hill especially when you're looking -- working on something that so high-stakes. they say don'listen to the leaks, follow the text. host: this is the headline -- some folks see this as more of a political football. talk through some of that process you are watching and who the main players are. guest: the border has always been a politically polarizing matter. that's why we haven't seen substantial border security or reforms in decades because it doubles lawmakers every time they bring it up area it just the politicization of this issue will be in overdrive because we are in an election year area the

primary caucus season is underway in the generae or,, en washington will be politicized but voters and americans are interested in the border and immigration reform. there was a poll just this month from harvard that found that immigration is now the top issue to voters. when they were asked which your highest concern in the election, 35 percent said immigration and 32% said inflation. a talking about the possibility of a bipartisan deal on what is the issue most salient among voters. you keformer president trump wop that list. he has railed against these negotiations and encouraged lawmakers and social republicans not to accept any border deal unless it's perfect and they get everything they want. when you have a bipartisan deal on capitol hill especially dealing with the senate which needs 60 votes so by nature

needs to be bipartisan, you will never get everything you want. there will be some give and take from both sides of the aisle so donald trump to manning's perfect will not happen. democrats say we you been hammering us on the border for months and coming to the table. but democrats are saying now is that you will not go through these negotiations because you want the president, the former president to campaign on this issue of immigration and the border. democrats are saying that republicans don't want to hand president biden a win which would help them in the polls. it would take away a chunk of an issue that the president wants to campaign on. he wants to campaign on immigration so that's the situation where we are. immigration reform was always going to be difficult and border security was always going to be a heavy lift and this makes it entirely more difficult. host: this is all happening at a time when the man in charge of

the bord facing impeachment. what to those articles, what will he be impeached on? guest: in the senate, you have bipartisan negotiators working with the biden administration. michael just mayorkas has part of the talks and they are trying to come to a consensus on the border security. on the house side, republicans are taking a crucial step this week toward impeaching the border security chief. it's a fastening way both sides of theital are addressing this politically charged situation. on tuesday, we will see a markup in the house homeland security commission on two articles of impeachment against mayorkas accusing him of willful and systemic review will to -- refusal to comply with the law. the second is breach of trust, accusing him of not

participating in the investigation and things of at nature. we will see a markup and a vote in the homeland security committee tuesday if that is successful in the articles are advanced out of committee, we will see a vote in the house floor and speaker mike johnson in a letter last week said he will bring was the floor as soon as possible calling it a necessary problem, suggesting it's a necessary priority so it's possible within the next days or weeks we could see alla handwrote -- alejandro mayorkas impeach. host: the house will be in at noon today. we are taking your phone calls as we take a look at the week ahead in washington. democrats, (202) 748-8000 republicans (202) 748-8001s, independent (202) 748-8002. we still don't have a fiscal 2024 plan and this is theear why

planning for the next year fiscal budget. what is the latest so remind us where we are on deadlines for that funding resolution. guest: the next government funding deadline because we talk two separate resolutions passed this month. march 1 is the next which will be for part of the government report for praise you -- for for appropriations bill rest will be march 8. ining process, there was a slight development over the weekend. appropriators announced allocations for each of those 12 appropriations bills. it's 302b that's for nerds. host: we like nerds. guest: it was lofty but significant because while we have the top line deal then go shaders announced come appropriate is need to know how much they had for each appropriations bill and they now have that so they can start parsing through the details to

figure out which programs and which department get how much money. we could see some boats on these appropriations on the floor because march 1 and march 8 may seem far away but in congress, that creeps up pretty quickly. host: let's take some calls, bob in palm coast, florida, republican. your first. are you with us? then we will go to gordon in laramie, wyoming, independent area caller: good morning. thanks for your service with c-span. i think i have a good border solution. there should be places along the border to vet migrants, immigrants similar to ellis island but a nicer inastructure, several places along the border maybe even a dozen. because we have a later shortage in this country, and social

security will run out of money until you get new citizens coming in, it will help social security. that's all i've got. will take your answer off the phone, thank you. host: we will have about a 45 minutes discussion on the future of social security in our 9:00 a.m. eastern hour on the "washington journal." we haven't seen too many leaks but when we've seen them, the new oceana is quickly say don't listen to what's leaking, don't listen to what's being reported because the devil is in the details when we talk about these things so politically charged. i think we are all waiting and that's been one of the most difficult parts of these negotiations. it's waiting for specifics and we've seen lawmakers get frustrated with this saying they want to know what's in the bill. we've heard all of this huff and

puff about the former presidents getting involved in saying you should vote against it but lawmakers want to know what's in it and then we will take the next step forward. host: this is from the hill newspaper -- guest: you see it right there, republicans are taking a lot of heat for this and james lankford has said time and time again, let the former president read this bill. let him figure out what's in it and then he can decide for himself saying that this prejudging and talking about leaks and reports is not helpful. you can see that donald trump is still the leader in the face of the republican party so has a massive amount of support on the ground. we saw that in iowa and new hampshire locking down those races quickly.

he's encouraging republicans not to support this emerging border deal and encouraging republicans to demand everything or nothing. you will see at home and on the ground, a lot of supporters of the former president get frustrated with the folks were supporting this. the fact that james lankford received his reviews at home, he has been the central republican figure so if anybody it would be him but a pretty stunning situation and fallout, the fact that the man leading border security negotiations is getting democrats to cave on some of their key things and put things on the table they never would have spoken about previously. james lankford has been the leading republican for this negotiation. it shows the pole that john --that donald trump has in the host: party. host:what about senator murphy? guest: it was a question asked earlier. they've been consensus builders. chris murphy played a key role in the gun safety bill passed

recently. they have worked across the isle before and they are now taking on one of their biggest challenges. kyrsten sinema is the third negotiator from arizona who is known for her work across the aisle. ■pthese are bipartisan negotiats who can work across the aisle together. host: on the line for democrats, tennessee, good morning. caller: good morning. host: what your question or comment? caller: my comment is i believe that as they come up across the border, you should have a place for them to go to and families, people that have family in the united states already should be able to come in first but the family needs to come to the border and pick them up and the ones -- the next ones are the children coming in they are so

much under age. the first up they make is to a medical clinic where doctors are available at the border. and they make sure they are healthy. once they are healthy, you find some way to connect them and as many people in the united states who would be willing to take them in to help them get started. just work down the line like that. everyone goes through a medical checkup first to make sure they are not bringing more diseases in. host: we will talk about that process of migrants across the border and some of the biggest concerns and what this bill might do to provide the resources and do some of what the callers talking about. host: we don't know the specifics in the bill. what i named off the top, giving the president the ability to shut down the border, silent

reform and speeding up work permits us all that we know that's concrete. in terms of what the process would be and changing that process for how migrants are processed and brought to the united states, that may be part of the legislation but we just don't know this might. host: let me get into the partisan bill that could help unlock font -- national security funding overseas for ukraine and israel. michael on twitter says -- guest: it's a good question. it does not have to buy any means but we saw this when the present first rolled out his national security supplement of over $100 billion in aid for ukraine and israel and indo pacific allies and then there was money for border security. essentially republicans have said, they've grown to be more skeptical of this continuous support to ukraine, number of conservative republicans said we

are not going to consider aid for ukraine unless it's paired with border security, sing the national security is u.s. securityfirst need to deal with the situation at the southern border before we go out and help one of our allies overseas. top republicans like mitch mcconnell was one of the foremost if not the foremost advocate for ukraine on capitol hill said fine, this is what we will do. this is how the senate bipartisan group came together to hash out details and come to an agreement on border security and it was meant to unlock aid foit doesn't have to be linked o one another but this was a demand that republicans have made which is why there's been a lot of questions about why republicans are now being skeptical of the bill and criticizing it. this is what they requested as art ■&of ukraine. we can get into the conversation about ukraine aiden how there are number concurrence -- conservatives in the house are not giving the border security deal look because they don't

want to advance it. it's become a very political mess. host: about 10 minutes left with michael hill. -- michael schnell. i want to ask about one of your stories, elise stefanik caesar's stock rise and trumps deep stakes. guest: this was fun to write. after the former president one iowa and new hampshire, they say he's on track to be the nominee and nikki haley is sticking in the race but she has an uphill climb which is an understatement. a lot of folks are asking who will join the former resident on this presidential ticket. we had that public split with vice president mike pence as his running mate after the 23 presidential election. her before years, we have this conversation in one of washington's favorite games to players who will join trump on

the ticket and one name that's been floated is elise stefanik. she's been a strong defender and ally of the former president on capitol hill, defending him through his legal entanglements. she spearheaded a number of legal filings supporting the former president and taking aim at some of the individuals investigating him. she introduced a resolution to expunge some impeachment filings on the january 6 right last year. she's been one of his foremost offenders in the speculation about her being running mate was kicked into high gear when she was on the campaign trail for him and new hampshire. for a lot of folks in the trump circle, is she a contender and what would she bring and the consensus is that she is close the former president and he sees her as a very loyal supporter and defender on capitol hill. there are questions about pros and cons you could bring to the ticket. she is a woman with many folk say the former president needs a woman on the ticket and she's

younger which is a nice contrast area former president age has come under scrutiny in this cle is also a question about electoral strategy. she comes from new york which is a democratic fashion and will not help trump in the race and there's been some questions about whether she would maybe outshine the former president. she's been seen as a rising star in the other thing i will know is that e pretty dramatic transformation in 2019. she is to be a moderate on capitol hill and then around the time of trump's first impeachment, she made a dramatic shift from moderate to maga. then she accerated that. host: was there a specific moment or incident that was the catalyst for that shift? guest: it really was during the first impeachment. that was involving accusations that the former president leveraged on joe biden for

aiding ukraine and the famous phone call with ukrainian president and it was during the impeachment hearings we started hein more and seeing her more. after that, she became a household name on the national stage and then she's taken that title and that symbolism and run with it. she become one of the former president's fiercest offenders and has been noticed by the former president for that. nbc news reported that during a dinner at mar-a-lago last month, trump called her a killer. she also got a lot of public praise for her questioning of those three university presidents about anti-semitism on campus which led to two of the president stepping down when they wouldn't say genocide was problematic on their campuses. she's been a lot in the press lately for her time with trump and at the hearing and her name is very much being floated in these talks. host: this is jason, independent out of alabama, good morning. caller: good morning.

couple of comments. it's hard for the republicans to have a good conversation about immigration or negotiating a deal for the past eight years. they spent their time feeding their base a consistent diet of fear and hate for illegal and legal immigrants. as far as what's happening in texas on the border, if i was joe biden, i would call his bluff. i would defund the national guard. i would diss honorably any national guard soldiers that defies the chain of command to do anything unconstitutional. if governor abbott wants to pick up the health care costs and personal cost of those people and make them texas rangers or whatever, they can do that.

i don't think biden can allow abbott and the 25 other governors in the lone star state to determine that they will unconstitutionally define what goes on at the border. host: we will take that point. what about the state of texas versus the federal government on the border? guest: it's significant we saw leader johnson leader group of more than 60 house republicans to eagle pass, texas at the beginning of the year which is seen as a way that house republicans were kicking off the year with a full court press at the southern border and holding a press conference there and doing -- and doing tours. republicans came back to capitol hill and spoke about their experiences and after that, we saw this acceleration in the process to impeach mayorkas during the impeachment hearings and the expectation there would be a markup and over the weekend, the unveiling of these articles. this week, we'll see come to fruition with that markup an initial boat on the homeland

security commission. this situation happening in texas and the trip that house republicans took their has been a key focus of this congress. republicans have been doing this full court press on the border. immigration is now the key top issue among voters so we will see republicans capitalize on that. host: this is the on the line for democrats. caller: good morning. i just wanted to speak to your guest and say something here. i'm concerned about what's going on in the united states. trump has encouraged all the republicans to call the border open so it will make biden look bad and it will allow him to get an office. he will not get there in people need to understand this man is causing chaos and problems for this country and what about the

papers he had that he gave to pruden and kim jong-un in north korea and china? all those papers that were never disclosed so they would understand what trump is trying to do. host: she comes back to the political value of a border fight. guest: which has become the central question and conversation. democrats ever but -- accused republicans of backing away from these negotiations and saying they won't accept anything because they don't want to hand the president a win in election year. passing legislation that addresses the border would be significant for both sides of the aisle because we haven't seen that happen in decades. democrats right now are accusing republicans of not wanting to hand the president that issue and it comes back to the fact that former president trump wants to center his campaign around immigration. it's been something that republicans have been talking

about a lot recently over recent months. by addressing the situation at the border through legislation, it would take away a talking point from the former president and democrats are now accusing republicans of putting politics but they are close to a final deal. host: i want to ask you about this story from last week you wrote. guest: yes, congressman from maryland is hanging up his hat after 11 terms in the house. he's been in the house for several years and this is part of the narrative we've seen in congress about this influx of law makers leaving congress. i think he's the 44th house member to announce they are leaving congress in this congress. he's either seeking higher office or to just retire from public office. it comes as we are in the middle of one of the more unproductive congress is we've seen in a

while. last year, we saw a few bills being passed maybe around 20. we did see two different speakers in the motion to vacate into potential government shutdowns. we are on the brink of these potential first ever economic defaults. there was a lot ofn the last year and this congress but not a lot of lawmaking. i'm seeing a lot of lawmakers leave congress maybe because they are tired of this. we are seeing less legislating and more politics and folks are saying i'm done with this, i've had enough. host: covering it all for the hill newspaper is michael schnell at the hill.com. it's easy enough to find at twitter.

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