♪ host: good morning, welcome to the washington journal on this friday, january 3, 2025.

today is opening day of the 100 19th congress. republicans will have a trifecta in washington with control of the house, the senate, and the white house. before they can get to governing, the party must elect a speaker of the house. it is the first order of business when they gavel in at noon today. the question is, can speaker mike johnson get the vote? there are a dozen republicans who are undecided how they will vote. c-span cameras will be in the chamber as the drama unfolds. watch minute by minute at noon today. before we get to the speaker vote, we want to know, what is your message to lawmakers as the 119th congress begins? democrats, dial in at (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. remember, you can text at (202) 748-8003.

include your first name, city, and state. we will get to the conversation with all of you in a minute. we are live at the nation's capital this morning. just a few steps away from the capitol dome. we will be here throughout the morning, right up until noon eastern, when the speaker vote takes place. before the vote takes place, they will gavel in a couple of times on the house side. before they close out the 118th congress, they do that minutes before noon before they gavel back in for the 119th. we are simulcasting on c-span 1 and 2. when the senate gavels and later this morning, we will show you that coverage. at noon, we will break off. on c-span 1, we will have coverage of the house minute by minute. our cameras will be in the chamber for that speaker vote. on c-span2, you will be able to

watch our coverage of the senate. at c-span headquarters throughout the morning, we will be joined. here he is with what you need to know about the speaker vote. guest: the one thing that you need to know is math when it comes to if johnson will win another speaker of the house. it is not too far parity between the republicans and 215 democrats. that is one vacancy because the former florida representative matt gaetz resigned in november. it is because of those numbers that speaker johnson can only lose one vote and retain his speakership. if he loses more than that, his job, or future job, could be in jeopardy. one person has spoken out directly saying he won't vote for the speaker. that is representative tom massey of kentucky, republican

from that state. he said several times he won't be casting about for speaker johnson. it was on matt gaetz's show yesterday on which thomas massie talked about some of the reasons why he wouldn't vote for speaker johnson. [video clip] >> if chip roy was asked to service chairman of the rules committee, with that be enough to get your vote for mike johnson? >> no. you can pull my fingernails out, shelled bamboo and then, start cutting off my fingers, i'm not voting for mike johnson tomorrow. you can take that to the bank. host: that was yesterday. he is the only one who has spoken out against speaker johnson, as greta said at the top. it is yet to be determined if they will vote amongst the republican caucus. axios has a story listing some of the people to watch during the day as they vote. 13 on this list from axios. the story published in the hill

this morning talks specifically about some of the reaction of some who have yet to say whether they would vote for speaker johnson or not. they include chip roy, the republican from texas, saying on tuesday that he remained, as of then, undecided. because we saw so many failures last year that we are concerned about that may limit or inhibit our ability to advance the president's agenda. another person to watch for is representative victoria spartz, republican from indiana, saying that she was considered the biggest wildcard. she met with johnson telling reporters she would decide on her vote today. "we had a good conversation. i think he is agreeing with a lot of stuff, but it's tough to deliver." host: recorded this morning, the conversations will continue in the speaker's office, according to punch bowl news.speaker johnson will be meeting with those soft no's as his office is saying before the vote takes

place at noon eastern. c-span cameras will be in the chamber for the vote, giving you the sights and sounds as they read off the members' names in alphabetical order. they will stand up and say a last name of how they plan to vote. don't miss any of it. stay with us on c-span throughout the morning right up and throughout the day at noon eastern. we will see if mike johnson has one round of votes or if it has to go more. your message to these lawmakers as the 119th congress gets slated to begin today. let's go to our first call from michigan this morning. help me with your first name. i democratic caller in -- hey democratic caller in hawaii. are you there? caller: yes, yes i'm here. host: good morning. caller: this is not the opening

day for the 119th congress. i'm looking forward to seeing how this is going to play out today. as far as the election of the speaker, i'm thinking -- well, i'm not really sure, but what i'm looking to see and hoping is mike johnson loses the gavel, for whatever reason. i'm not too sure how it's going to go, but i know i'm looking forward to standing behind someone i've always trusted. that is leader hakeem jeffries of the state of new york. i know he will make a really good speaker. i'm looking forward to see how this is going to play out throughout the day as they gavel for their first day. host: democrats are all slated to be here. all 215 are slated to be here.

from news reports on capitol hill, they will be voting for hakeem jeffries is what has been reported. all 215. however, they comes down to the other side of the aisle. what will republicans do if they vote present? if more than one votes present, that could throw the math to hakeem jeffries. that is an unlikely scenario. republicans who are holding out on voting for speaker johnson, they don't want taking jeffries as their speaker. they want the majority in washington for the 119th congress. they want to have control of the house, senate, and white house. we will see what happens at noon eastern. it is the first order of business when they gavel in the 119th congress. the only -- only the houseboats for speaker -- house votes for speaker, in the house can't do

anything until they get a speaker in place. no debates, no votes, no governing. keep your television here on c-span throughout the day to watch the speaker vote. you can follow along on c-span.org or our free video mobile app, c-span now. our next call is george in canyon lake, texas, republican caller. caller: yes, good morning. i want to talk about havana syndrome, a.k.a. anonymous health incidents. this is deja vu. we have to look at the markers that have been around for years and years. you have to start with the moscow signal, ronald reagan star wars, and president bill clinton's nonconsensual human experimentation. host: what is your message to these lawmakers of the 119th congress? caller: we need some kind of laws to protect us from being

experimented on by our government. we are being tortured, we are being coerced -- host: we will move on to jared in wilmington, delaware, democratic caller. jared in wilmington, delaware. democratic caller. hi, jared. one last try for jared. all right, roberto, houston, texas, independent caller. roberto? caller: thank you, greta. we must consider our relationship with israel. the world considers it a terrorist state. we have to consider what it is actually doing in gaza, the golan heights, and the west bank. we in the united states will end up having to pay reparations along with israel as to its behavior. it is a terrorist state and we must consider, reconsider our relationship with israel.

please, congress, consider that. host: were -- roberto's message to washington as the 119 congress gets underway at noon eastern. before that, the 118th congress will gavel in and gavel back out. stay here on c-span, c-span.org, or our free video mobile app, c-span now, throughout the day for our coverage of today's opening day of the 119th congress. trisha in chandler, arizona. democratic caller. what is your message to these lawmakers? caller: good morning. i would like to see them get rid of the 450,000 americans illegal wireless surveillance they have been doing on citizens. they need to shut that down. it is affecting me and a whole lot of people. they need to shut that down. people coming into this country illegally, not to do wireless

illegal surveillance. it has happened to over 450,000 americans. shut down the visa 702 act. host: patricia in arizona, democratic caller. that is her message to washington. back to pedro with more on how today will unfold. host: if you watch on television, the app, or online, here is the plan for the start of the 119th congress. it starts with a call of order. to the chamber by the clerk. that is followed by the prayer and the pledge of allegiance. then, they will establish what is known as quorum, if there are enough members to conduct business. then, the election of the speaker, which we have been talking plenty about this morning. at that point you have to pause. if they elect a speaker they go on to remarks from the speaker elect and swearingen by the dean of the house, and then the oath

of office for the newly elected and reelected members, and then the rules package that will guide the house of representatives as they do legislative business in the 119th congress. we will talk about those details and a little while. after that, they will adopt what is known as unanimous consent agreements. and then the announcement of the speaker's policies on floor practices. this is available at the congressional research service if you're interested in following the nuanced details of the house of representatives and their plans on this first day of congress. you heard greta talk about house democrats. talked about the slim margins. according to politico, all of the house are expecting full attendance today when it comes to the vote for the speaker. in fact, former speaker nancy pelosi posted a video on social media thursday from her flight back from washington ahead of what will be her first public appearance in the capital after she underwent hip surgery after

being hospitalized last month for an injury traveling in luxembourg. host: all democrats will be in attendance today. we are expecting 219 republicans with one vacancy because matt gaetz was nominated by president elect donald trump to serve as attorney general, so he resigned his post even though he won reelection to the florida state. this morning at noon eastern, the vote will take place and we will see how many republicans vote for mike johnson. that is the question this morning. the storyline that folks are watching in washington. frank in new london, ohio, republican caller. your message to lawmakers? caller: yeah. in order to see what we put in, and everything, what these people need to do is vote on single issue problems.

everybody in the united states is tired of they vote on a package. the package don't work because there are good things in the package, but they want to trash it up and they vote it down and we get nowhere. vote on single issues. thank you. host: you are referring to specifically what happened in december, the large spending package that was negotiated by speaker johnson with the democrats. the first iteration of it. more than 1500 pages. republicans and the president-elect and elon musk rejected it. they go back to the negotiating table. they have a bill that is much thinner, much more narrow, but in the end 38 republicans voted against this, even after the president-elect and elon musk supported it. you are tired of that kind of governing in washington? caller: yes, i am. if the electric bill needs paid,

you pay the electric bill. you don't say we will pay the electric bill if we do this in this. stop it. enough is enough. the american people are tired of it. host: isaac in arlington, virginia. democrat. caller: thank you, ma'am. i think my message to the next congress coming up is to pass a budget so that services can continue. there is no room in american politics to play games as far as who is in control. it is the american people who are needing the help, who need the budgets passed so things can work in america as they are intended. we have to get past the ridiculous partisanship all around for america to succeed. if we keep down the road of a divided republic, divided we

stand, divided we will fall. host: john, an independent caller in north carolina. we want to hear from you. go ahead. caller: yes. i think republicans ought to do like the democrats do. they say, you vote the way we want you to, or we will run someone against you and you won't get no dmc money. i think that is what they ought to do. it works for them so it ought to work for republicans. host: the president-elect said when representative chip roy was opposed to the latest spending package, the president-elect said, we should have a primary fight against chip roy in the republican primary. someone should challenge him. that didn't seem to sway chip roy. why do you think that doesn't work with those in the republican party? caller: i don't know, but it should.

it has worked for the democrat party. don't give them any money next election and they will think twice before they pull something like that. host: how do you respond to the republicans who say, we are standing up for spending. we are tired of the amount of spending that happens in washington. this is not about support for certain leaders or support for president-elect donald trump, this is about our principles and we are tired of the amount of spending that happens here? caller: that's right. it is like the guy who said before me, they ought to vote on one single thing and quit putting all this other junk in there that is nothing. we will come together. host: john, it sounds like you support mike johnson for speaker? caller: absolutely. he is a good man. i don't believe nobody in there

could do it no better. host: mary in fort washington maryland, democratic caller. caller: good morning, c-span and america. first of all, i think this is the worst congress we've ever had. they are clueless. they only work for their donors. they know it and we know it. my message would be, actually do something. this is kevin mccarthy time all over again. stop the proxy war in russia. how many people do you want that, young people dead over there? stop the genocide right now. take the defense budget and put it towards the american people. we don't need the infrastructure wars that keep going on. this congress, they are a joke to me because they don't do anything. they haven't done anything since 2008 except mix around, have ridiculous settings where it takes 30 times to get a speaker.

this is dysfunction to the max. i have no, no support for this congress at all. i don't care what they do. it's going to be the same thing. we will have the gaza genocide going on, killing kids every day. we still have a russia proxy war going on that doesn't need to be. this war was supposed to last 30 days. where into three years. they don't have more people to fight in russia. they are calling a pregnant women. this congress -- host: mary reminds us of what happened two years ago when the 118th congress gaveled in and they went to the first order of business, electing the speaker. kevin mccarthy was their leader. as she reminds you all, it was c-span cameras in the chamber then and will be c-span cameras in the chamber today. two years ago they did not elect

kevin mccarthy on the first round. it took days and 15 rounds before the republicans elected kevin mccarthy as their leader. nine months later, they rejected him and ousted him from the top post after several other people were put forth. it was finally mike johnson who was put in the top leadership position. he has been in it ever since. today, will he get the votes to lead in the 119th congress? this is what speaker mike johnson had to say on fox news yesterday about the pending vote for his reelection as speaker. [video clip] >> how much confidence do you have that you will have the necessary votes to retain the gavel? rep. johnson: we will get this done. i'm honored to have president trump's endorsement for the role as well as leaders across the conservative spectrum and republican party. all of my colleagues standing with us. we will get this done.

the things we're talking about this morning are an illustration that we live in serious times. we can't afford any palace drama. we have to get the congress started, which begins tomorrow, and we have to get immediately to work. we have to certify the election of donald j. trump on the sixth and we have many important things pressing on us. we have to stay unified. the american people gave us a mandate. president trump got 77 million votes. we got almost 75 million for house republican, the largest ever. they sent a message they want us to fix this, we will come and we are excited to do that. >> some members within the house freedom caucus say they won't vote for you. have you talked with them? had private conversations? have they reversed that decision? it is a numbers game. rep. johnson: it is a numbers game. we have the smallest margin in u.s. history, probably two votes.

can only afford to lose one or two. i think we will get it done. i've talked to every one of those friends and colleagues over the holidays and we will talk about process reforms in the house. i think the reason they will vote yes is, we are shipping into a brand-new paradigm. we have unified government beginning tomorrow. we have the white house, senate, and the house, a different situation than since i have been speaker. we are excited to deliver on the america first agenda beginning on day one beginning here tomorrow. host: speaker mike johnson predicting victory when the house gavels in for the 119th congress. we are live on the washington journal from a few steps from the nation's capital in the cannon house office building. joining us is congresswoman debbie dingell, the chair of the democratic policy communications committee from michigan. thank you for your time. tell our viewers, what is your role as the chair of the

democratic policy and communications committee? guest: it is good to be with you and the viewers this morning. it is an important day. the first day of congress is an important day where we should be coming together. congress means coming together. as the chair of the dpcc i am in charge of coordinating the message, doing a better job of delivering our message and then maybe we did last year, and looking at issues that matter and making sure we are hearing with the american people want us to be working on and helping make sure that -- host: where do you think the party fell short last year? guest: i am a pretty blonde person. by the way, i predicted donald trump -- pretty blunt person. by the way, i predicted donald trump would win in 2016. i think, again, i think it is

not one person's responsibility for what happens. i think all democrats have to do a better job of listening to what people are telling us they are worried about. i go to kroger on sunday mornings. i have a routine. when i am in the store, people know i will be there. they talk to me about what -- the price of eggs is really what is still not quite down. how they are worried about their grocery bills. people cannot afford to buy a home and rent is going up. everyday issues that matter to working men and women across the country. we have to show them how we are addressing those issues. do you need to vote with republicans on some issues? what are those issues? guest: i am somebody who always works across the aisle. i think that a bill is stronger when you can build a bipartisan

coalition of people supporting the bill. i do that from many health care issues, telehealth and pharmaceutical. buddy carter and i on pharmacy benefit managers, he comes from a pharmacy/drug background, buddy, i am angrier about this then you are. manufacturing national security. all of these issues. we can work together. we need to be working together. host: how about on the border? that is the first order of business. republicans want to deal with what is happening on our nation's border. will democrats vote with them? guest: we have needed immigration reform in this country for decades. republican presidents and democratic presidents have tried to deal with it for decades, but it's hard. it's very hard. i think what we have to try to

do is, you can't take politics out of it, that is what this world is, but we need to make sure that those who shouldn't be coming over aren't. we shouldn't be having criminals. none of us want criminals in this country. the debate with musk about the engineers and others, but what about our farmers and small business workers? during covid i had grown men crying with me who own 7-eleven's and couldn't find people to work for them. it is a complicated issue. a complicated issue inside each party. we need to work on it. i won't tell you it will be clean and smooth. host: where are the red lines for democrats on immigration and border security? guest: i think it's complicated.

neither party on swearingen -- swearing in day. it is monolithic. compromise is not a dirty word. immigration and the border may be one place where we can find compromise. host: top issue in november as well as the economy. what can be done on the economy? where can there be agreement? guest: we have to be protecting our farmers, we are growing the product and lowering prices in the grocery stores. we are competing with foreign companies -- that i worry about, by the way, will lower prices. when they have a monopoly and we are not producing any more, they will increase prices. we need to keep our economy

strong. i am one of those democrats that believes tariffs are a tool in the toolbox. you won't use them across the board. china subsidizes its corporations, its manufacturing. it lowers its prices. we are not paying workers. i worked with donald trump closely on nafta. nafta was a bad trade-off. now, we have to make sure china does not come into mexico to build a plant and tried to bring it in as a north american product. host: if president-elect donald trump and the speaker for republicans in the 119th congress and the senate majority leader put a tariff bill on the floor, it sounds like you would be open to voting for it? guest: it depends what is in it. you can't make blanket statements, but i would work with them. i believe tariffs on china, may

be manufacturing, industry, is an economic and national security issue and i will work with them. i've made it clear to my leadership that tariffs are a tool in the toolbox we need to use. host: what would it do for michigan? guest: protect our auto industry. today president biden is expected to make an announcement on the nippon steel offer. i don't think we should sell to a foreign manufacturer. these are complicated issues. we have to work together. host: for the speaker vote today, when the 119th gavels in at noon, it is the first order of business. nothing else can happen until the speaker is elected. what did your leadership tell you about how it will play out today? guest: our leadership has not told us. i don't think anybody totally knows what is going to happen today. i will tell you democrats will

be united. we will all vote for hakeem jeffries. a number of democrats won't vote present, they will vote for hakeem jeffries. we don't know what will happen among the republicans. everyone knows that thomas massie is for sure a vote against. chip roy and i don't agree on many issues, but his office is across from mine. we are friends and we talk about many things. that is important. you can disagree but we learn host: what did he tell you? guest: i haven't seen him. i went into his office one night. republicans are going to have a challenge trying to bring their caucus together. what happens today will probably

be what will happen for the rest of the congress. it is not a smooth ending to getting the budget done at the end of last year, and we will have to think. host: what is it like in the chamber when the speaker vote is taking place. describe it for our viewers. you are one of the house members sitting in the chamber. our cameras will be in there today. normally the cameras are operated by the house of representatives. they have given us permission to have our cameras in there. do you think that's important? describe what it is like when you're sitting there. guest: the first day of the new congress is always emotional for everyone to be there. there are new members on both sides. they are excited. it is an honor to have been chosen. they represent 800,000 people. they worked hard to get there. their family and friends are there. they are celebrating this

historic moment in their lives and in the lives of their districts. two years ago, four days of voting 15 times took on its own drama as each went on. this is my guest this morning. there will be attention as the rollcall begins. there are a number of house republicans in the early letters that may or may not. burchett will be one of the first two will vote for the speaker or not for mike johnson, vote present or vote for another member. that will add attention to the climate. i think many -- what was sad last time was people traveled from all over the country to see people who cared about their loved ones sworn in. it took four days. by the time that many of these

members were sworn in -- republicans and democrats -- many of their family members had left. they had been there to celebrate but didn't see the actual moment of swearing in. it will be a feeling of excitement, of let an honor it is, and tension at the same time as to what will happen. host: nothing can happen until the speaker is elected. members cannot be sworn in. nothing happens, including a vote on the rules package. what do you make of the rules put forward by republicans for the 119th congress? guest: i am disappointed. i think you will see all democrats vote against them. one, it is the first time you see -- the last rules package one member makes a motion to vacate the speaker. this time it would be a motion with a cosponsor, but only republican.

congress, the speaker is the speaker of all of us. even though we didn't vote for them, i respect the office and the role is important. that is a disappointment. also, the top 12 bills that will be expedited don't do, for me, what i want to see. which is how we will lower the price of eggs or take care of housing issues, how we will address lower prescription drug problems. some of them are just message bills. look, i don't even know how i'm going to vote because i haven't seen the bill. i do not want to see any police officer ever assaulted. the men and women in new orleans that we see in our communities every day keep us safe, and we need to honor them for what they do. the men and women in this capital are putting their lives on the line and do every day to keep us safe. we don't want an immigrant here

he was responsible for crime, but how do you make sure there is due process? what they are trying to do is make it look like democrats don't care if a police officer is assaulted. we do. it is a complicated gotcha vote. i am someone who thinks that you need to be a u.s. citizen to vote, but there are ways to show it. i haven't seen the bills. the bills haven't gone through any process. all of a sudden they aren't going to be able to vote. military men stationed overseas, moms. we have to look at these bills, but some of these are got you b ills, and i would like to see us work together to deliver for americans. host: all democrats voting against the rules package is your prediction? guest: that is my prediction. host: today, we will be watching. guest: it is good to be with you

and we will see what comes. we will see if you will be on the floor for one day or four days. host: pedro back on the rules package that will be voted today if they can elect a speaker first. host: congresswoman dingell expressed concerns about the rules package. this will be a guiding document, post on how the congress conducts business. you heard the congresswoman mentioned that it would raise the threshold to introduce the moment to vacate. it took one member to do so, but under the rules package it would require nine republican members instead of a single member to back making the motion to vacate the motion to oust the speaker. it would dissolve the congressional diversity and inclusion office. it would eliminate the term accountability from the

oversight committee's name. the word was added in the 118th congress to reflect the flurry of investigation taking place in the biden administration. it would authorize subpoenas of attorney general merrick garland and other department of justice officials. and then, as you heard congresswoman dingell say, it would put up votes on a dozen republican bills. that would include bills on strict border security requirements, sanction the international criminal court, and requiring proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections, and more. axios has a follow-up story on how democrats, including the congresswoman, are reacting. top democrats. it includes the top democrat on the house rules committee saying, this makes clear that they have no intention of working together to find common ground. he adds, that instead of electing a speaker of the house, they decided to elect the speaker of the republican conference held hostage by their most extreme members.

democrats are likely to close ranks against the package, according to a senior house democrats, telling that to axios. host: the package that will come to the floor today, if the republicans in the house can elect a speaker, in the rules package as pedro was talking about, if speaker mike johnson or another republican gets the gavel, at some point in the next congress it will take nine republicans in order to oust the speaker this time around. your reaction 12 of this end your message to lawmakers in the 119th congress -- your reaction to all of this and your message to lawmakers in the 119th congress. robert, we are listening to you. thank you for hanging on the line. caller: elvira. host: i will go to nixon in fort lauderdale, florida.

nixon, welcome to the conversation. what do you want to say to lawmakers in washington? caller: thanks, greta. i want the congress to focus on everyday americans like myself. we get up every day. we go to work. we pay our bills. we pay taxes. help out the community. be good christians, or whatever religious background we have. we do all of that and still find time to vote for our election officials. no matter what is going on in our lives, we do our job. all we want as americans is for them to do their job. keep their word. host: what do they need to do for every day americans? what does that look like? what policy? caller: we are not democrats, we are not republicans, we are americans. host: you want to see bipartisanship. on what issues do you think

there could be agreement? caller: every issue. nobody gets their way all the time. every issue that comes up, give me five democrats, five senators, let's work together to come to our common ground. every bill should have republicans and democrats sign off on it. it shouldn't be one bill strictly republican and one strictly democrat. it should be bipartisan going forward. we are the ones who lead the world. everyone is looking at america saying, what is america doing? how will we follow america when they cannot follow themselves? host: do you remember in the last congress when there was a bipartisan senate proposal on border security before the election? president-elect donald trump, then-candidate, said that he was opposed to the bipartisan legislation. a republican helped negotiate it. would you like to see that

legislation brought back up and may be renegotiated? at least have it at the starting point for this congress to deal with immigration and border security? caller: most definitely. congress has to tell president trump, excuse me, mr. president, this is a bill that is bipartisan, republicans and democrats. nobody gets everything they want. we can't just say no going forward because we don't want to have that guy or this guy get the win. one side wins, we all win. it is a win-win. host: nixon in fort lauderdale calling for bipartisanship. that is his message to lawmakers as washington wakes up this friday, january 3, and they prepare to be sworn into office if they elect a speaker and the speaker is sworn in. all of that taking place at noon

eastern. we are live on the washington journal bringing you coverage from capitol hill until noon eastern. then, we will continue with our coverage throughout the day for however long it takes. c-span cameras will be in the chamber. you will be able to watch on c-span, c-span.org, our free video mobile app c-span now, as the vote is taking place. each member will be called by their last name and state who they want to vote for for speaker of the house. will it take one round or multiple rounds like it did two years ago? joe in roseville, michigan. caller: how are you? host: good morning. caller: i am calling about a problem with the veterans administration. i was hoping to be able to speak to representative dingell.

veterans, unless they are 100% disabled, they can't be seen at the dental clinic in the hospital. you can go to any other clinic. i've had two major surgeries paid for by the v.a.. hearing aids, glasses, everything. for some reason, unless you are 100% disabled, you can't be seen at the dental clinic. i wish that congress, the v.a. committee, would do something about that. i have to many congresspeople, and they have all said, it is not our problem. host: joe wants the 119th congress to take up veterans affairs issues. congresswoman debbie dingell joined us this morning from capitol hill. we will talk to, coming up, congressman french hill from arkansas who will be the chair of the financial services committee. he will be sitting here this morning.

we will talk to reporters as well leading up to the speaker vote at noon eastern time. pedro echevarria with more on today. host: we have said the name thomas massie several times, the republican from kentucky. at this current point he is the only republican saying he won't vote for speaker johnson. he put out on x a poll he conducted on christmas day. on january 3 we elect the speaker of the house. 7% responded saying someone else. 93%. thomas massie responded saying i conducted this a week ago. everyone knows from his 18 month history teeming with the democrats that johnson is not the right guy. if he fails on the first round of better speaker can be elected in a few hours or over the weekend. if you go to thomas massie's x feed he had a back-and-forth with newt gingrich about the speaker vote. speaker gingrich posing the

question, i don't understand what the contrarian house republicans think they will gain by opposing mike johnson. they have no one else who can get more votes. thomas massie responding, challenge accepted. the vote for my camp isn't trying to make the case that mike johnson is out with the quality to lead our conference. even if you limited yourself to procedural justifications for his speakership rather than telling us why he is a good or capable leader. under the question that massie asked of no one can get more votes, somewhat ridiculous to assert that mike johnson is the only member of congress electable the speaker. he was only electable the first time because he hadn't held any leadership position or fought for anything, so no one dislike him and everyone was tired of voting. he won by being the least objectionable candidate and he no longer possesses that title. there is more of the back-and-forth between thomas massie and newt gingrich that you can find on thomas massie's x. host: pedro echevarria with more

on the speaker vote. learning more about thomas massie's rationale. he is the hard no. there are a dozen republicans who could vote against speaker mike johnson. they haven't said, definitively, other than thomas massie, how they will vote. many meeting behind doors with speaker mike johnson. johnson telling reporters that he is open to the changes they are requesting. we will see what those are. punch bowl news reporting this morning that the republicans who are holdouts will be meeting with the speaker again this morning leading up to the vote at noon eastern. let's hear from jonathan in salem, oregon, democratic caller . what is your message to washington? caller: good morning. huge c-span fan. listen every morning, 4:00 in the morning in oregon. love you guys. you are my heroes. two things.

everyone talking about immigration. it bugs me to death. my community in salem is 80% mexican, and it doesn't bother me. it never bothered me. hugely disappointed by the election. my main issue i was calling in about is cost-of-living adjustment for disabled people. i have been disabled since 2008. back then rent was $700, and that is about what i got from disability income. now, rent is $1200 and the cost of living adjustment has only gone up by $100 since 2008. so, i'm sure that there are a ton of people out there who are disabled who are hurting and poor. my main message to congress this

time is, will you please look at the poor people around struggling and try to do something about it? host: jonathan in salem, oregon with disability legislation as his message to washington. cindy in tarpon springs, florida, independent. your turn. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. host: you bet. caller: as a single person looking forward to my retirement, i am so tired of hearing about social security is going to die. i would love to see this congress continue to revamp social security. i think, just being a pla -- a plain old person, if they just

removed the cap where you don't have to pay after you make ex-amount of dollars, and let these millionaires and professional sports players and entertainers pay in. host: cindy, as you know, social security and medicare reform, those are the big drivers of spending in washington and they are also the third rail of politics. lawmakers tend to not want to touch the issue. how do you respond? what is your message to them? caller: the majority of the people in this country do not make more than $150,000 a year. we don't own businesses, and hotels, and make billions of dollars singing a song. host: understood, cindy, but what you tell them about the

resistance to tackle a complicated issue? caller: they need to get over it and do something for us, for the people. not be afraid of hurting some millionaire's feelings. host: mark, ohio, republican. we are live from capitol hill this morning and we are getting your message to lawmakers for the 119th congress. what do you have to say? caller: first of all, officeholders need to follow the code of office. i will support the constitution of the united states against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

i take this obligation freely without any mental reservations or purpose of evasion. that i will well and faithfully, faithfully, discharge the duties of the office of which i am about to enter, so help me god. how many of you have elected officials following those? how many people follow the constitution? that is my question. host: mark with the oath of office. the members elect and the incumbents, they will all raise the right hand today and take that oath of office. in the house, that will happen if they can elect a speaker. they will have to go round after round to get to a speaker before the other members can take the oath of office. on the senate side, they will take the oath of office when they gavel in at noon eastern. that's followed by other procedural business before the 119th congress kicks off over there. we are simulcasting here on the washington journal on c-span 1 and 2. at noon eastern, we will take you to the house floor. the first order of business, as

we've been saying, is the speaker election. on c-span two, you can watch gavel-to-gavel coverage of the senate proceedings over there. c-span cameras will be in the house chamber for that speaker vote. you can watch here on c-span, c-span.org, or our free video mobile app, c-span now. let's hear from greg in washington state. independent. caller: thank you for taking my call. good morning. i would like to tell congress that they better watch their tails because i think that the american people are getting really upset with the games that are going on. the one thing that i agree with the gentleman from oregon and the disability rights, things like that, he's right. they should be taking stuff like that. the middle class is going away. i hope that the democrats -- i used to be a democrat. now i am an independent. i hope that they actually stand

up for us for a change. because, all of the talk about 2025, where is that now? it's going on. 2025 has been going on for the last year. even trump said, the rich don't want tax breaks, they want no regulations. now we have elon musk, who is probably going to be our next house speaker, believe it or not -- i think that is where they are aiming. oligarchs going on. vivek ramaswamy, sorry about the pronunciation, he says that banks should be allowed to fine us for overdrafts. how far back are we going to go? people don't listen to this stuff. if congress wants to do this country a favor, they should instill civics in high school,

grade school, and college. we have the most stupidest civilized civilization in this country right now. the most uneducated when it comes to how a country is run. host: greg in washington state with his thoughts, predicting that elon musk could become the speaker of the house. mike johnson is looking for the votes this morning before noon eastern, before the 119th congress gavels in. there is a lot of transition that happens in washington between an old congress and new congress. a lot of preparation. in weeks of time. new members are elected in early november and then they come to washington right away. there's a lot that happens behind the scenes. months of planning goes into effect to make sure that office space for new house members and their staff are ready to go on day one of the new congress, today. that transition is spearheaded

by the office of the chief administrative office of the house. c-span got a look at their work, including moving and repairing furniture, some of which are antiques. [video clip] [indiscernible]

>> we are a group of 11 individuals. we restore and service all of the original house furniture. all of the buildings has furniture designed for it, and we maintain it. >> all of the original furniture in the house office buildings were designed with horsehair. horsehair in the turkish chairs, sofas, and executive chairs. watch your step. sorry, guys. horsehair doesn't break down like the foam products of today, so we have our original horsehair. i will show you with the turkish

chair. we turn it on. when we take it out of the chair, from 1907, it doesn't break down. we fluff it back up and reupholster. it doesn't break down or rot. we are taking it through this massive amount and all it does is fluff it back up so we can reuse it. so, it didn't hurt the horses. it is from the mane and tail. i always tell people that. the only thing that wears out is the leather, so we are just recovering them. we just keep doing it.

[indiscernible] it comes out looking like that. [indiscernible]

>> it is opening day of the

hundred 19th congress. we are live from capitol hill. -- the 119th congress. we are live from capitol hill. when congress gavels in, it is the first order of business, nothing can happen to until a speaker is elected. joining me is congressman french hill. you are shaking your head because something else can happen until a speaker is elected. what can you tell us about those from your party who are undecided? there are in your party those who are undecided. guest: mike johnson has done a good job as speaker. he has was dealt a tough hand when the speaker of the house kevin mccarthy was kicked out. i thought he was a very

effective speaker so it has put us on a course of not an orderly course of a business. we can't start our work for the american people without a speaker. that is why i will vote for mike johnson today. i think he brings the party together and the house. while there are some people who differ with how they may do something, it is important to think of the big picture which is we have the house, senate and president trump has been reelected. that is an opportunity for republicans to demonstrate their priorities and how they can govern and that starts by electing a speaker and that is why i believe mike johnson is the right choice in the right choice for the senate and for president trump. host: c-span cameras will be in the chamber for that boat. normally it is operated by the house of representatives. we got permission to be there so

we can show viewers how people are voting in different angles in the chamber. what is your prediction for how it unfolds today? guest: it is my hope that 218 republicans can support mike johnson for speaker and that it will be not as dramatic as when c-span pioneered new form of governance in the house with governor -- with kevin mccarthy. and getting our work started with the incoming work administration. host: do you think it goes more than one round? guest: personally, i hope not. i have no reason to believe it will. i think people over the weekend tried to reach that conclusion. i don't president trump was making phone calls and explaining in his view as the incoming president that mike johnson is the best choice to be a speaker. it is the best way to get our agenda started in the right way.

we can't begin oversight or introduced bills that will benefit the american people on the energy strategy or border or the deficit until we can form congress. and that is why i say i am a supporter of mike johnson. he has been a consensus leader of the house for the last 15 or 16 months since he was elected in october 2023. host: there are reports that there are meetings with the holdouts today. where do you meet? guest: if i were an aspiring journalist and i saw the conference was not meeting before noon, that would be a good sign. host: ok. that is an interesting insight for us. you are going to be the chair of the house financial services

committee. tell us about your agenda. what is your responsibility for that committee? guest: i think the house financial services committee is the oversight function for the american citizens of the security markets, venture capital, the banking system. it is important for all families to recognize where the access to capital committee and try to provide affordable home mortgages, tackle the housing affordability and try to make sure the banks and capital markets are safe and sound and secure for the american people and that we preserve the united states as the most sophisticated, most liquid, most effective capital markets in the world because that is important to our well-being in the united states from the economic point of view. my agenda is to right size the regulatory burdens that i believe the biden-harris administration led with. i think we can have a safe and

sound market and banking that offers protections but does not burden that we see greater consolidation in the industry and we see companies not doing as well as they could and customers not getting the products and services they should do to too much regulation. secondly, i want to make sure we have a market structure for digital assets. a lot of americans are involved in following cryptocurrency, looking at innovation with watching for the future innovation on the web, by writing applications for blocked chains and that includes digital payments, tokenized payments. we don't cover that in existing law. in the past congress, we were able to draft legislation and passed with bipartisan support for a tokenized payment which we call a stable coin in a new regulatory structure for digital assets.

access to capital both in the banking system and capital formation and creating a market structure for digital assets are important objectives. host: a recent wall street journal report said franchot wins top financial post. cryptocurrency cheerleader. do you agree with that? guest: i don't view it that way at all. people keep talking about cryptocurrency like a some of the neem coins out that don't have any real value to society -- the meme coins that don't have any real value to society. look at the formation of bitcoin, this is much broader and about the future of peer to peer decentralized finance which is writing applications on a block to an operating system which is no different then you have an ios in your iphone or you use windows on your desktop.

block chain isn't operating system and it is going to lower costs for consumers and for businesses and make our system much more accurate financially. that is why i think it is important. an aspect of using block chain is using a tokenized payment and that is what people refer to as cryptocurrency and i think that sometimes what i am a cheerleader for is america leading the world in innovation and financial technology. we have done that for our whole existence and web three and the use of a block chain in financial and other businesses i think is critical for our economic and technology future. one quick point. a lot of people don't understand what watching is. we will give you an example from outside the united states. saudi aramco, one of the biggest

oil companies in the world in saudi arabia as accounts receivable in all accounts reese -- payable on block chain to schedule and receive supplies. they have shrunk the money that they are owed by at 40 days to 15 days. so you see the effectiveness of using this new operating system but we don't have a regulatory structure for innovation. we made a and i hope we will make progress for a dollar baptist stable coin that will benefit the united states internationally and a regulatory schedule. host: it sounds like you believe cryptocurrency is here to stay and respond to that and should there be one cryptocurrency? guest: block chain innovation is here to stay and the use of block chain both in financial services and other forms and i

think tokenized and assets is here to stay and i see those experiments all over the country in business. i think we will set up a regulatory framework for a dollar back stable coin and it wouldn't be one and it wouldn't be issued by the government but regulated by the government. you could have a bank issued dollar back stable coin or a bank issued dollar backed stable coin for use on their particular block chains. so saudi arabia could have a dollar backed stable coin they use in their economy for settling international transactions. i don't see it as a one-size-fits-all solution and i don't support a federal reserve central bank digital currency being issued by the federal government. i don't think that is the way to go. it is not needed in our very sophisticated, developed economy. host: thank you very much for talking to us on opening day of

the 119th congress. c-span cameras will be in the committee room when you are taking up those issues. thank you. guest: i appreciate it. host: we are going to go back to the c-span studio. host: talking about the opening day of the 119th congress. joining us is molly reynolds, the senior studies fellow and also jason dick. happy new year to both of you. what are the scenarios for mike johnson today? guest: this could be much ado about nothing and we could get the first balanced election of the speaker. there is an old saying that democrats have to fall in love and republicans have to fall in line.

we can see this happen with republicans. that is the ideal scenario probably from mike johnson's perspective. and then there is the extreme other side is that we could go 15 rounds or more as we did with kevin mccarthy two years ago and it would take that long and several days because we need a majority of those present and voting. we don't know exactly how many people may show up. there is always a little bit of a variable. somebody might get sick and somebody who said they won't take their seat will show up. but it could take a little while. then there is the scenario of may be some of mike johnson's detractors or members who want to show him they have a say in the process and maybe they deny him on the first ballot but let it go through on the second or third, just to show him who is boss. host: molly reynolds, we are at this point again. what does it say about the

current state of the house? guest: it reminds us just how narrow the republican majority is. you are staring down the narrowest majority in the house in about a hundred years. there is very little room to maneuver. that is before you get to the divisions in the conference and the idea that there are distinct factions who want different things and when you make concessions for one of those factions means you have done things that may well make the other faction frustrated. so time to thread the needle before we get to questions of legislating and figuring out how to get these folks on the same page host: host:. -- page. host: as far as negotiating and making promises, how much of it is part of the process overall? guest: in much of u.s. history,

the elected speakers on the first ballot but in recent decades, that is been not necessarily going to a second round but we have seen the individual trying to get votes for the speakership from his or her own party, but that can be a tricky process. it happened to nancy pelosi in advance of her second speakership in 2019. it happened to john boehner. it happened to come in mccarthy. -- two kevin mccarthy. it happened after mccarthy was deposed in johnson was elected. i don't think johnson was very high on people's list on who was going to be the new speaker after that happened. and this is not unprecedented. but for republicans to be going through this process repeatedly each time they need to elect a

speaker reminds us just how fractured the conference is. host: we have heard people upset with johnson maybe not giving him the speakership but who would take his place? guest: the name that frequently comes up a little bit is jim jordan. he ran as the speaker on the ballot a couple times in october of 2023 after kevin mccarthy was removed from the speakership before mike johnson was elected. jordan got up to 200 votes at one point and then his totals started to fall a little bit. it doesn't seem like there is any ground swelling. jordan has a lot of loyalty in the house republican congress but doesn't have the infrastructure mike johnson has. and he does not at this point have the endorsement of president elect donald trump. he came out strongly for mike johnson and saw that it could complicate the counting of the electoral votes and

certification of his win on monday if there was no house speaker and no house. and so we haven't really seen a lot of alternatives and dimensions. every once in a while you hear, what about elon musk or matt gaetz? and it is amusing and sort of a power game and trying to imagine your favorite nba player playing for someone else but it doesn't really have any momentum in the same way that mike johnson who has the office currently in than someone like jordan who has a lot of support. other than those two names there doesn't seem to be a lot of front runners. host: if you had to boil it down, what is the largest beef some republicans have with johnson? guest: at this point it is usually about spending. those in the freedom caucus have the opinion that johnson has too

often instead of aligning himself with them and their desires to cut spending has sort of said, ok, i don't have the vote so i will go to the democrats and we will work with them. some of this is just a reality. in the last congress we had a democratic senate and democrats had to be a part of the negotiation to get an eventual measure to the president who is the democrat. it usually resolves around spending. it is hard to find someone who doesn't like mike johnson. seems very genuine and seems like a nice diet so it doesn't seem like a personality thing. previous speakers there have been sort of's personality conflicts. we saw this remarkably with kevin mccarthy. some people looked like they genuinely didn't like him. i don't know if there is a lot of those personality conflicts. this is usually about spending. host: molly reynolds, is that

the main reason or are there other reasons? guest: somewhat ironically mike johnson's need to go to democrats to negotiate with them, not just on big spending bills but also frequently on the terms of getting legislation to the floor in the last congress are driven in part by the fact that some of the hard-liners in his party when they dig in he has no choice but to go to democrats and the effect of that is to drive the policy close it's the center. so kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy in some ways. i agree that this notion that johnson works too much with democrats and he works with chuck schumer and hakeem jeffries to get these deals done and they are bad for republicans

but that is the sort of principle of the conflict right now. host: are guests for joining us about the opening day of congress. if you have questions, (202) 748-8000 for democrats, (202) 748-8001 for republicans, and (202) 748-8002, for independents. molly reynolds, the speaker race and who the speaker is the opening of what happens to the agenda. what is for the republican agenda? guest: they can't get started on legislating until they have settled the speaker. there is the question of counting the electoral votes scheduled to happen on monday. they think the easiest and most direct way to get to having that happen smoothly would be to elect a speaker before then.

i think there are a number of actions available to them to have a temporary speaker if they needed to. i tend to think that the deadline monday will be in action mechanism in the way there really wasn't one for kevin mccarthy in 2023. there wasn't something particularly because they were looking down at the big thing we need to be doing to help for some -- to help them on the speakership. they have big plans on taxes, additional spending on immigration and energy. they needed to at least come to some sort of temporary peace in the party to get to some of those agenda items. host: jason did, same question to you. -- jason dick, same question to you. guest: molly and i did some

podcasts and she really hit the nail on the head with the idea that when there is unified control of government by one party that all the debate is within one party itself. not to -- there are so many debates within the republican party over so many different policies. some of these are just degrees, not huge differences but the degree of heart for they want to go. they just have to compromise within the party. so they are their own worst enemies at this point because they can't blame democrats anymore for anything and this is all there show and they have a little bit of a cushion. it is remarkable to think this is more of a cushion in the senate than there is in the house for the majority party. they need to get the officers of

the house elected and then they need to decide how they want to proceed on tax cuts, immigration, energy production, and on beefing up defense. they want to use the budget reconciliation process and haven't decided whether they will do that in one tranche or two. all that administrative stuff you do that as part of your job. that has to be done and is important because it will set in motion but they agree on and then they can have the debate about this is how much we are going to cut taxes and this is how many miles of the border fence we are going to construct. we have to get to step a before we get to step let's hear from jimmy in buffalo, new york.

caller: thanks for having me. i wanted to make a comment. things are not going the way they should be and as far as i am concerned, nothing makes sense. we haven't even started it this new congress and they can't even agree on one thing or the other. my topic, the previous caller mentioned social security and disability and things of that nature. my question is to one of your guests, what decision can trump

or congress in terms of making changes to social security, whether it be regular social security, social security disability, does he have to get authorization from congress, does he have the ability to do it on his own? host: molly reynolds? guest: for the big changes in the programs you are looking at a need for congressional action. one of the things to watch about president trump's political career is on things like spending on social security, medicare, big entitlement programs that are causing a lot of long-term budgetary challenges. president trump took a turn from the republican orthodoxy and it

has been clear that he himself is not interested in cutting spending on these programs and not interested in the paul ryan style budget moves on these things. so depending on any number of things shaking out, i could imagine this being a place where we see conflict between congress and president trump. i think this is a place where there are some republicans that are much more interested in making cuts to things like social security and medicare. up until now, trump has been at a very different place. host: jason dick? guest: i agree, social security is not called the third part -- for no reason. the first party was to change the way social security worked

to make it more part of private markets but it was dead at the gate. it was the quickest way to squander political capital. trump knows that his voters that it is very important to them. it is one way that he could jeopardize that solid support for him, particularly among retired people and those in rural areas depending on medicare and social security is to jeopardize that into be thought of as open to jeopardizing that. there is very little trump can do unilaterally on social security. he would need authorization from congress and congress to pass legislation on almost any significant change. i don't see anything happening because once the pressure starts, decades ago congress agreed on starting cutting little by little medicare payments to doctors.

every year or every three years whenever that comes up, they always revert it to the original formula. even small changes like that are almost seem insurmountable to change. i don't see a lot coming up on social security. guest: one of the last things they did before going on holiday is to clear a small expansion of social security benefits for public retirees. that suggests there is not a huge appetite for cutting those kinds of programs. host: let's hear from the democrats line, everett in florida. caller: i think the 119th congress should take up the farm

bill help the farmers and help the social security people. i feel that they should be -- host: you're going to have to stop listening to yourself and move caller: on. -- and move on. caller: i was trying to think about what i was going to stay -- to next. host: let's leave it there. talk about the farm bill. guest: they have extended authorization of the last farm bill they passed and then they signed the continuing resolution and then bought themselves another year. this may actually expedite it with republican control. with some of the conflicts we see over and over again in the farm bill typically line up

along hunger abatement programs like snap versus subsidies to farmers. it is a constant push and pull and they get close but never quite get it to the very end of the line on a deadline. i would expect they get it done, but if nothing else, it is more of a republican debate now where is the previous administration and previous congress was a democratic senate and republican house. host: there is the issue of funding. guest: we were talking before about the republican agenda of taxes and immigration spending and energy programs, we didn't touch the fact that at the beginning of march, congress will need to again raise the question for funding for the federal agencies. they presented this again before

christmas. it is a quite contentious process. they have a deal and bring a lot of other cars out of the station. president elect trump has inserted himself into the last minute and called for them to address the debt limit and all kinds of things. they managed to keep the government open but this is sort of a looming thing the republicans are going to have to work on. we have examples from the past that tell us this can be a challenge. and have been in the beginning of 2009 when democrats had a much larger majority than republicans have. he had to come in with the new president and majority and try to finish up the previous year appropriation work. it was a little bit of a nuisance hanging out there trying to get momentum for other

things they wanted to get done. guest: the debt ceiling will likely need to be addressed even before the march 14 expiration of the continuing resolution. the treasury secretary, janet yellen, said the extraordinary measures they used to avoid breaching the debt limit, meaning maybe they don't put in as much of the money toward certain maintenance of u.s. securities and so forth, might start as soon a january 13, before trump is inaugurated. the treasury department will try to meet maneuvering around the debt ceiling. the slimness of the majority, once trump is inaugurated, michael wallace, the republican from florida becomes the national security advisor. and my guess is a least a phonic will be a very popular pick in the senate -- elise stefanik

will be a very popular pick in the senate. democrats might lose and could be motivated on that and that means there is less and less margin of error for mike johnson to advocate the debt ceiling as well as everything else. host: joining us is jason dick, and we just heard from molly reynolds from the brookings institute. let's go to patrick in south carolina, independent line. caller: our standard of living, inflation, primary concerns of the americans today. we don't have three branches of government, we have four and we know who the fourth is, it is the federal reserve in jerome powell. he has taxing power and with the inflation, they lowballed the

actual inflation rate into everything in government. how much we were going to get an increase in social security and until he comes to bear and get inflation in the purchasing power of the dollar at zero, this 2% target, this was dreamed up to 15 years ago which allowed them to go ahead and print more money. the only way we are going to arrest inflation is we've got to stop throwing the money around. we are trillions of dollars in debt. the train has left the station. we are on a collision course. mike johnson, i don't know if he is the man to do it. we need the freedom caucus. i like jim jordan. i want to have a hand and the spending to be more realistic.

host: thank you very much. so the economy was a big issue in the election and democrats have said that whatever that republicans want to keep it front and center, can they find ways for common ground on specific matters of the economy? guest: if you think about inflation, it is also true that a number of things the republicans said they want to do are unlikely to bring inflation down. it is unclear where they land on tariffs what president trump during the campaign was very clear that he wants to pursue an aggressive tariff strategy. some of the things in the tariff space he can do himself without going to congress. some of them he would totally

need to go to congress for. congress may well if the republicans help him adapt an aggressive tariff policy, that is not likely to help inflation. depending on where things land with the administration's plans for immigration and border enforcement and deportation, we could see disruptions to certain sectors of the labor market which may have consequences for inflation. i agree that i think democrats want to talk a lot about the economy but when push comes to shove, republicans and particularly president-elect trump have been at odds with the policy. guest: tax cuts, a lot more money into the economy. what we saw with the last round of tax cuts in 2017 was people

went out and spent the money and that added to some of the inflationary pressures. a lot of money was put into the system and increased inflation to the point where it was difficult to get it back under control. jerome powell has said that he doesn't see a ton of interest rate cuts on the horizon for the coming year because he started to see inflation creeping back up. for the colors purposes, powell is probably going to try to keep them as even as they can and probably not cut rates unless something unforeseen happens peer but molly is right, from an economic perspective, these different priorities the republicans are pursuing have the potential to break open inflation again. host: in the 119th congress, hakeem jeffries is expected to

remain the minority leader. what do democrats do going forward in response to the congress under republican control shakes out? guest: if you get people in unguarded moments in the minority they will be honest saying that being in the minority is more fun because it comes with the ability to criticize what the majority is doing and with the house having no obligation for running and crafting legislation, especially in a situation like this where the republicans are largely debating among themselves. democrats have a platform right now where they basically can have free shots if they want. the way they craft their message and whether they are disciplined about it is up to them. it seems akeem jeffries and his team seem to work fairly well with chuck schumer who will be the minority leader in the senate. how much they coordinate and what they emphasize, whether

they want to put the emphasis on someone like trump or on senators or nominees or the economy, they have a rich sort of pallet they can work with but whether they can develop the discipline for a coherent message that will resonate with the american public and voting public is yet to be seen. host: i suspect whoever is the speaker will have to come for legislative purposes and gives him a bargaining chip. guest: jason was talking about the budget reconciliation process, that legislative procedures that allow for legislators without the threat of a filibuster in the senate. for that bill or bills depending on the strategy, that will be on the party line basis. democrats will be involved with that in those negotiations. but for those things that are subject to filibuster in the

senate, including the appropriations bill and whatever it is that they do to wrap up this year's appropriations work, that will require democratic votes in the senate and the filibuster is still around. to go back to where we started with the divisions in the republican conference, that has places where there johnson or whoever is speaker will have to go to democrats for the votes they need. host: let's hear from land and florida, democrats line it. -- landon in florida, democrats line. caller: i am a business owner and first of all, i agree, that we have seen huge changes.

host: let's go to mike in grand rapids, michigan, republican line. caller: a couple points. my immediate family has needs that are met and my neighbor has kids that don't have milk and eggs and i lent him support, what does that say about me. if i am living by a credit card and have insurmountable debt and in my backyard i have a bunch of hardwood trees, should i not sell those trees to pay off those debts? the congressman i think from arkansas was concerned about the block chain and crypto wallets and tokens, i think maybe we need to be focusing on more priorities than that. host: if republicans now that they have power are looking for

ways to cut spending, what are the obvious targets going forward? guest: there is a canard that there is a lot of waste. but that is sort of thrown around that we are going to go after waste and fraud and abuse. that target would probably get you one half of 1% of the daily debt the federal government runs up. the biggest drivers of federal debt are as molly alluded to, social security and medicare entitlement programs. those are kind of untouchable and roughly 60% to 70% the federal budget. the pentagon and defense department consumes a lot of the discretionary spending that congress does have control over. there are frequently people will

note that do we need this fighter that we started developing for combat in the 1990's that has not produced anything of use to us? do we need to continue production of that. the answer is usually yes, because it belongs in congress is backyard -- congress' backyard. i apologize for being glib about this but the reason there are no real easy targets is because everybody has a constituency. in order to get to a point where you have congressional funding, your patrons and people whose jobs rely on a lot of the spending programs. that is not to say there isn't a lot of glut in some defense programs but it is hard to cut because they are is always a human consequence that comes up

to the people who are most affected till quickly. host: molly reynolds? guest: as jason identified, most of the big entitlement programs, social security, medicare. i think those are politically unpopular to try to make cuts to those. i think we may well see, because i think there are elements of the republican congress in both chambers who are interested in trying to make cuts to entitlement programs. so medicaid for low income adults, possibly things like snap. you can easily see legislative efforts and also work requirements. in the long-term budget outlook, it will not make a huge difference. a lot of the larger entitlement programs is interest on the debt itself.

but for americans who rely on these programs, think an attempt to make cuts in them would be significant. host: this is from vincent in california, independent line. caller: as an independent, my message to the lawmakers as i hope that both sides are able to work together. the lack of bipartisanship with the recent new politics is ridiculous. nothing will get done unless we work together. the american people are tired of this and it is required -- causing a deep divided line. host: calling into the program, follow the questions or comments for our guests and let's keep it to the 119th congress read this from president-elect trump just coming out saying, speaker mike johnson, find man of great ability who is close to having 100% support.

a win for mike today would be a big win for the republican party. yet another acknowledgment of our most consequential presidential election. and then the big affirmation indeed. even as he puts those out, what do you think is the reason for some of the republican holdouts even though the president elect is strongly backing mike johnson? guest: is back to the conversation we were having earlier about why they are worried that any commitments he makes to them, even with the backing of president trump, he will not be able to keep and he will have to keep working with democrats. it has been interesting to see are there limits to president trump's power with republican members of congress? is he always willing to follow all the way through and use the

necessary political capital to get the rings -- and things across the finish line? before christmas he came out with the demand talking about the debt limit. that didn't happen. so a potentially interesting development looking ahead toward the question of can president trump's support work as effectively as when he comes out in opposition to something as was all repeatedly during his first administration. host: jason dick? guest: after the initial round that produced the end of year spending package. president-elect and elon musk and allies said go back to the drawing board and strip it out and raise the debt ceiling. more than three dozen republicans voted against that debt ceiling raising or to get

rid of the debt ceiling for the foreseeable future so that trump wouldn't have to deal with it. it is not just a couple of holdouts. it is people who feel very deeply that this part of the nation needs to be addressed. let's say you whittle that in half, there is not enough of a portion to work with. it only takes a couple members of mike johnson's congress to vote something down along majority lines. i think the very simple reason about defying donald trump is just about if you have power, exercise it. some people are not afraid to exercise it and some people do want to get in line and they know we have a mandate and they want to get to work on trump's agenda. some people are saying, not so fast, we are on an unsustainable

path fiscally with the country and it only takes a couple to make a difference in that. some people would say that is foolish not to exercise that kind of power if you are a publicly elected official. host: molly reynolds, there is something called the congressional review act and could deal with acts done under the biden administration. can you explain? guest: the act allowed congress to revisit regulations issued by the executive branch for a certain period of time. at its most powerful, when we see a transition in the white house from one party to the other and when the new congress is unified in control with the party of the new president, that the circumstances for going back

and looking for how regulations were finalized at the end of the previous term. it is roughly 60 working days, the last 60 working days of the previous congress, those would be ripe for review. we are looking at going back to the beginning of august. we will see how extensively republicans use this. we saw it at the beginning of 2017 with the first trump administration. in some ways that was in part because everyone was a little surprised that republicans had unified party control and that trump had won and were still trying to figure out the legislative agenda. this thing i think they have done more work in advance to imagine with the agenda would look like. so for example they have not settled on a strategy for are we talking about one or two

reconciliation bills and how are we timing them. you can imagine some of the congressional review acts being something they can work on while they are doing some of the other stuff. we also know we haven't talked too much about the house rules package but one thing that is part of that is additional consideration in the house, 12 bills all of which are on things that are republican led issues, immigration, transgender athletes in schools, around abortion, that sort of thing. we have some sense of where they would like to go from a messaging perspective right out of the gate while they figure out what else they are going to do next including on reconciliation and spending and potentially the congressional review act. host: jason dick, and even how you oust the speaker of the house if it goes through. guest: it is perhaps the biggest

change in the rules package. every two years the house needs to adopt new rules package because they basically start over from scratch. if it is the same majority, they sort of tapped on a few things to the previous rules package. this would raise the threshold for how many people need to sign off on a privileged resolution to oust the speaker from one to nine and it has to be republicans. it is a narrower path to oust the speaker that it was when kevin mccarthy was ousted in october 2023. host: letter from billy in texas, democrats line. caller: i just want to say that america is a nation of god and i

didn't vote for trump but i don't have anything against him. america is a nation of god. we have crazy people here but we don't have people in total power who are crazy. the majority of americans are god people could we believe in god and keep strength in god and we will lead the nation. across the nation we have a lot of crazy and evil people but we have more god people then crazy people here that is why at the end of the day, america will be number one because we will keep staying in nation of god. host: republican line, carol, florida. caller: i am going to say, i am hoping for a congress that can actually function. i sat here and listened to the

whole conversation and all i hear is republicans this and democrats that. you are working for the united states american people, not your party, so please keep that in mind. speaker johnson is the best you are going to get. there isn't anyone else in your part of the democrat party that is better than him. he is fair and open minded and gets things done. the far -- if the far right republicans would work with him instead of against him like you do all the time. please tell me you could put an end to that. when taxes were first started to be collected to support the military, not the government. so you give away all of our weapons and we expect you to put them all back. i have family in the military and i will be darned if you will send them to war with nothing to work with. you keep saying social security

and medicare are the biggest expenses, no it is not, congress is. we pay your paychecks, and we pay your retirement and your health bill. i am on social security and i ate my own medicare, $174 a month out of my paycheck. you can't say that and you are giving it to everyone else and not paying into it. i paid my social security my whole working life and you are handing that out to everybody. now you just passed a bill that a federal government worker can retire and they can collect federal retirement and social security. so that is two checks from one treasury. host: that is carol in florida. i want to take her first part of the question, a, functioning

congress. guest: it is important to remember that even in our congress that is probably dysfunctional, it has the big divisions between the big parties and within the parties as well. but they still get things done and a lot of things that get done are not flashy or things that grab headlines. so we want to give credit where credit is due. if you talk to members of congress, they will say the same thing the color set about they are frustrated away -- frustrated and many will say this is not why i came to washington. i came to solve problems and work across party lines and i feel frustrated and the ways in which the institution and partisan politics make it harder for us to do that. i think we do see some members doing their best to work around

that, particularly members who have decided to retire. they will say things that this is not why i came to washington, i am frustrated like you are about the inability to get things done. guest: one of the things that we see if we go back to go decades when it seem like congress did function better, the two primary parties, democrats and republicans, were less homogenized. we had very conservative democrats particularly in the south with very liberal republicans in the northeast. we had a weird libertarian strain of different members in the mountain west. we had a much more diverse set of members of congress regardless of whether they identified as a democrat or a republican. that helped coalitions together. when richard nixon was facing

impeachment and corruption charges, he was really attuned to wear democrats in the south were and where they were at landing on this, even more sometimes than his own party, which was in the minority at the time. those coalitions were more diverse among the parties and among the chambers and it made things a little more solid because it was harder to pull the coalitions apart. we are much more homogenized now. the democrats are much more alike than they were and republicans are much more alike than they were just a generation or two. it is made for growing pains in the last couple of decades where they have settled into these sort of pools, if you will and it is easy to associate with only your own kind. so people are not listening to each other the same way they did when they had to listen to

someone in their own caucus of congress -- conference who had a different view of abortion or a spending. guest: it reaches a point where both parties look at the next election and think, if i'm in the minority now i could be in the majority at the next election. it is very narrow and i only need to pick up five seats on that. that level of competition shapes people's behavior. if you think you are in the minority now you could be in the majority the next election, that this incentivizes working with the majority party because you don't want them to be successful or have them to have accomplishments they can run on and you want to be able to say when it comes out, elect us and that is a dynamic also added to it. host: let's hear from eric in montana, independent line. caller: my question is, are we

going to see any democrats today showing any form of bipartisanship? they have the potential to not only take the minority leader but maybe around 20 votes, they could also influence the majority leader. without a true democrat leader right now or an election in front of us at the moment, would there be any bipartisanship shown from any moderates, progressives or far left democrats? this would be their time to step forward to show that they want to also work for the best purposes of our country. host: it's a scenario, but what do you think? guest: it is unlikely. again, the democrats know they are not going to have the

speaker and the speaker is most likely going to be a republican. so their incentive is to sit back and let the republicans work this out themselves. that is not to say that things didn't go very sideways that we wouldn't find some way of working and the congress would find some way to work together and the house would come together and say what about a consensus? we saw some of this in october of 2023 when they were kind of deadlocked and jordan was at 200 and jeffries was holding at 212. that is when democrats had the most say over it -- because it was apparent they were not going to move down from it. there was discussion. it was lacerating. it is not inconceivable, but it is unlikely. host: important thing to

remember here is that being elected speaker -- you have to win the one vote. it is not really one vote. you need a durable political coalition that will keep delivering votes for you on the things that you want to do. so any kind of coalition speaker elected by a group of republicans and a group of democrats -- it is hard to imagine how that person would be able to keep going back to that specific well, and certainly not to a well of just members of the republican party. at that point, probably would have alienated some of your own members. so you are really not going to be able to deliver. many of mike johnson's headaches -- they had come across these headaches before that. in some ways, it is a one-shot game. but if you intend to have a durable coalition that is going to keep you in power as speaker,

it is hard to imagine how that would work in a coalition environment. host: from kentucky, milo, on the democrat line. caller: first, i have to say only c-span would take cameras to an upholstery shop and do interviews with people working there. you are a national treasure. now i'm done with the fan boy stuff. on to business. thomas massie -- i don't know him. i've never met him. i know people who know him very well. they keep him in pretty high regard. i keep them in high regard. and he seems like a fair guy. do you know or have you heard something -- do you feel like he might be trying to make some type of play for the speakership? i am in kentucky. but i don't live in the district he represents. that is up in boone county. i would consider voting for him, but i would have to move, so i don't think that is likely. thank you for the good work you

do. i would be interested in your opinion. guest: i have not heard any indication. as far as i know, the people i work with in the newsroom have not heard that this is an intent, for incumbent thomas massie to put himself in the race for speaker. he is an interesting guy. he is an interesting member of congress. he is an inventor. he has an off grid house in kentucky. he has got this little pin that shows the national debt on it. he is interesting. and he is an intellectual member of congress. particularly -- he gets reelected. he is doing enough right for his constituents that they feel like he should be returned. he does not have the kind of broad level support to really get more than probably a handful of votes for speaker. and i think that he knows that. it seems to me his opposition to

johnson is more founded in his own principles and his own position than something that would make him sort of a viable candidate. i would not think that he would consider himself a viable candidate. host: jason derek -- dick is the editor-in-chief of roll call. and we are joined by a government studies senior fellow. thank you to both of you on the opening day of congress. guest: thanks for having us. >> our coverage of the one hundred 19th congress continues here on "the washington journal." we are live from capitol hill this morning and up until noon eastern time, and the 119th congress will gavel in. they will take their first votes on who will be there speaker of the house. you have been learning all morning speaker mike johnson

does not have the votes, or appears to not have the votes at this time. will he by the time the gavel comes down at noon eastern time? he is working behind closed doors to try to get them. president-elect donald trump is doing the same. here is more reporting for you. melanie sonoma, who reports for punch bullnose, has this on x this morning. she has more details about a phone call between president-elect donald trump and congressman chip roy, who has not said if you will vote for speaker mike johnson. he said trump did not try to pressure roy over his speaker vote and roy told trump johnson needs to change things to win the gavel and/or to be successful if he does wind up getting the votes. roy also warned trump there are other likely no votes sides himself. that conversation taking place between congressman chip roy, a republican in texas, and

president-elect donald trump, as he tries to get those republican holdouts to vote for speaker mike johnson. the president also posting on true social "good luck today" for speaker johnson, a fine man who is close to having 100% support. a win for mike today will be a big win for the republican party, and yet another acknowledgment of our 129 year most consequential presidential election. maybe affirmation indeed. that is what the president-elect said. mike johnson responded to him, saying thank you very much to the president-elect. he said it is a new day in america. there is also this from speaker mike johnson today. this is a post on x with video from scripps news. mike says that speaker mike johnson told reporters that when

asked if he would be open to making representative chip roy chair of the rules committee, speaker johnson said i'm not making deals with anybody. the chair of the rules committee would give chip roy power over what comes to the floor and how it comes to the floor, how it is debated, and how it is voted on. so he would be the gateway to any speaker and legislation that gets voted on the house floor. that is the latest from capitol hill reporters here in washington. and we are live here. we are a stones throw from the capitol dome. we are live this morning. you to the house floor on c-span1. we are simulcasting washington journal on c-span two at noon eastern time. we will bring you over to the senate where there appears to be less drama. they will take the oath of office and they will continue with a procedural vote, and then

you will hear speeches on the senate floor from the leaders of the parties there in the upper chamber. john thune taking over the top position from mitch mcconnell, who stepped down from leadership but continues to serve in the senate. and senator chuck schumer will be the leader once again for the democratic party. it will be in the minority. republicans with a trifecta in washington. they will have control of the house, the senate, and the white house. first, they need to elect a speaker, and it is only the house that elects the speaker. we are getting your thoughts this morning and your message to lawmakers as we are just hours away from them convening the 119th congress. michael in hawaii, republican? caller: hello how -- aloha. i think marjorie taylor greene could be our speaker.

host: she says she is going to vote for mike johnson. caller: if you know a little bit about politics, johnson is barack obama, i think. i think president trump is trusting the wrong person. i think he, this guy johnson, is a hypocrite. and i am not the only one who thinks that way. host: a hypocrite in what way, michael? caller: in always. he says he is conservative, but he is not. he says he wants more money to ukraine, of all places. number two. number three, my powers in hawaii does not trust him. i'm 82 years old. hawaii is a democrat cesspool. and i believe people like tulsa gabbard, who has got more balls than any democrat -- i know mike

really well, and i know carol, her mother. lived here 55 years. there is hope for conservatism over here. we have to start in our congress. we have to have a conservative speaker. and they are going to have to vote down johnson and they are going to have to find out really fast that marjorie taylor greene is the most erudite woman in congress. host: all right, michael. listen to what artery taylor green had to say when she posted this on x. [video clip] >> you have seeming disagreed with johnson and fight against him. you know something else? for the past four years, all of you and myself included, have put blood, sweat, and tears into electing president trump. you want to talk about blood, president trump himself actually was the one that shed blood

after an assassin shot him in the face. here's what i know. all of you are sick and tired and fed up with all of the garbage that comes out of washington, d.c.. and after two terrorist attacks on our nation, where innocent people were killed, and after four years of unbelievably horrific government policy, and now that we are $36 trillion in debt, all of you at home and myself included are ready for the drama to end. here is what i'm asking my colleagues to do. let's put aside our pride. let's put aside our egos. and let's put aside the infighting. it's time to come together as republicans, and it is time to do whatever it takes to make sure that we deliver the mandate that the american people told us to do. that is why i am excited tomorrow. i cannot wait to get started. i will be voting for mike johnson. i will be looking ahead

incomplete hopefulness, and working as hard as possible. we are going to elect a speaker and then we are going to swear in as members of congress. and then, on monday, we are going to certify the most historic election in our nation's history when we certify donald john trump's election as 47th president of the united states. we are going to spend a few weeks working hard on preparing for his agenda, and then on january 20, we are going to inaugurate donald john trump as the 47th president of the united states. it is 18 long days until we get to that important date. [end clip] host: a video saying we need to stop the drama. you will recall that the congresswoman threatened speaker mike johnson in 2024. the rules for the 118th congress allowed one member to offer a privileged revolution --

resolution on a motion to vacate. they will change the rules in the 119th congress. it will take nine members to do so. but it can only be republicans. that is in the rules for the 119th congress. they will vote on the rules today if they can get a speaker. that comes first, the speaker vote at noon eastern time. this -- the c-span cameras will be in the chamber. they will call for members to stand up so we will know exactly how many members are present for the vote. that is determinative because that number will dictate the magic number, the outright majority. what number will speaker mike johnson need if he were to get the speakership in that first round of votes? if he cannot, it will be round after round. we will see what happens in washington on this friday, january 3, 2025, opening day of the 119th congress.

let's go to stephen in west palm beach, florida, independent. hi, stephen. guest: hello, greta. i hope you can hear me because they are drilling. host: we can hear you. caller: they are drilling on my condo here, the concrete. feel free to ask me any questions to clarify what i'm saying for the viewers. i am an international investor. my biggest investments right now are in south africa, chile, brazil, and emerging market bonds. the only thing i have left here is my real estate. what is happening in the congress is simple. it happens in many western countries. the congress, and the people that we elect, do not run the government. i have learned the last half decade or so. the government runs them. and i'm not talking about the bureaucracy. the legal quagmires that have to get into, the spiders web of

mandatory spending, domestically speaking, and international treaties, give them effectively no powers of the purse at all. they just have to approve what has been there before. a true congress, a true legislature, has power of the purse. that is gone, all right? there is no such thing. the second thing -- there is no such thing as a conservative anymore. the libertarians were thrown out of the republican party in the late 1990's by baby bush and compassionate conservatism, all right? and this has occurred in many countries. you are going to have many callers call in that have moved here from other countries. in canada come up with a man named aaron o'toole. in the united kingdom with a man named boris johnson. in australia with a man named malcolm turnbull. these are all people who run right and govern left.

why do they govern left? host: let me ask you this. what is a conservative to you? define it. caller: a conservative is somebody who believes in small government, effectively. if you were going to be a true conservative right now, you would expect the budget to shrink by roughly 25%. that would be conservative. i'm picking a number out of thin air. you can pick a number. 25 percent. host: so why doesn't chip roy, thomas massie -- why don't they fall into that category for you? caller: why doesn't who fall into that category for you? host: chip roy, thomas massie. they are saying they want changes. caller: i'm glad you brought that up. those 40 members -- it is so illustrative. those 40 members of the freedom caucus, although we have to be careful, because don't forget mick mulvaney was part of the freedom caucus until he became the budget director under trump. then, all of a sudden, he was perfectly willing to sign any

budget, no matter how much was spent. if you take these people at their word, they are what you would call conservatives from a fiscal point of view. and i'm not talking about gun control or any of that stuff, or bible builders or whatever. notice this is only 40 people out of a legislature in the house of 435. in the senate, the last true conservative we had in there was jim demint, and he retired a decade ago. host: let me ask you before i go to other calls. do you think mike johnson should serve a speaker of the house? caller: i have no clue. like i said, it is not going to matter. it's not going to matter. host: all right. stephen with his thoughts in florida, independent caller. bobby is in oklahoma, a republican. what is your message to lawmakers? caller: get in lockstep, the

same as the democrats do with their speaker. everyone is in line on the democratic line and backs their speaker and it is done. we have done this before. it took four times to get johnson. he has done the best he could do in a split government. we have all three governments now. we voted. reelect mike johnson. let him do his job. get things done. that is what trump was elected for. host: spending too much? go ahead. caller: spending too much time on government, not doing the appropriations bill for a year. and every year they do it at the last minute. they go spend billions of dollars of pork spending for different personal projects instead of getting the 12 spending bills done per year which should be done by july or september at least, and they

cannot ever seem to get them done. host: you are saying they should elect speaker johnson. put him in place so that they can get going with the president-elect's agenda. however, that is exactly why some of these republicans are saying they are undecided or may vote no against speaker mike johnson, because of what you just said -- spending. they are not bringing these bills to the floor one by one. some of these members are saying they want a guarantee. they want change in how washington runs. they want to see individual spending bills debated and voted on. they don't like these big packages. caller: i understand that. but look on much problem they had last year when they tried to replace kevin mccarthy. how long did that take? do we have time for them to be squabbling when they cannot find a speaker? they don't have anybody there they are even talking about replacing him with. host: bobby reminding us of what

happened two years ago at the start of the 118th congress on january 3 when the new congress moved to elect kevin mccarthy. he did not win. and it took 15 rounds and days before they finally elected kevin mccarthy as their speaker. a lot of negotiations and a lot of tension on the house floor. you will remember c-span cameras were there. we brought you the sites and the sounds as the votes took place over those many days. c-span cameras will again be in the chamber today. we have been given permission to have our cameras in their. as you all know, those cameras normally, for the house chamber, are controlled by the house of representatives. but today, it will be c-span cameras bringing you the vote as it unfolds. you will get to see. does mike johnson have the votes in the first round, or will it take more? as should the caller also reminded us, nine months later,

republicans dethroned kevin mccarthy. and it took many more nominations of different people before the republican party landed on mike johnson. he has retained the top post since then. today is the day when he finds out if he has 218 votes to be the speaker of the 119th congress. crystal in philadelphia, democratic caller, it is your turn. caller: thank you so much. america, what a joke. it's a joke. johnson is a kool-aid drinking clown. standing outside the courthouse up in new york with his red tie circus of folks, trying to get the guilty jerk off. republicans are a bunch of hypocrites, liars. the democrats need to stand up for america and stop this stupid clam show, the ridiculous arguments.

dumb fools. trump is a crooked creek, rapist. host: you said democrats need to stand up for america. what do they need to do in this 119th congress? where do they not agree? caller: tired, silly sideshow of trying to put johnson back in. it does not make any sense. i mean, the future america is at stake. if trump gets back in, ok, ok, with his ridiculous nonsense, back and forth. he is here. he is there. and america -- some of america -- bought the foolishness. democrats, throw some monkey wrenches in their. help us. host: crystal in philadelphia saying she wants democrats to stand up for america and throw a

monkeywrench in the republican agenda. the republican agenda -- the governing cannot begin in washington until they elect a speaker. that will take place in the house chamber. c-span cameras will be there. that begins at noon eastern time. we are simulcasting right now on c-span and c-span two. on c-span, we will bring you to the house floor at noon eastern time. and at noon we will bring you over to the senate on c-span two, as they gavel in the 119th congress for the upper chamber. pedro echevarria with more on what to expect. host: they have their own agenda in the senate and their own procedure. you can see that play out, like greta said. today, the swearing in for newly elected and reelected senators. approximately one third of the senate, as it currently stands -- they will establish the

precedent does the presence of a quorum. they will also agree to debate when bills and joint resolutions may begin to be introduced as part of their legislative process. and they will elect a new president pro-trump or. that comes from the chance that if the senate sits in the absence of a vice president. that position was originally conceived as a temporary replacement. the new senate will nominate a republican from iowa. with john thune now being the senate majority leader, fox news has excerpts from his first speech that he will present later today. he says one of my priorities as leader will be to ensure that the senate stays the senate. that means preserving the legislative filibuster, which

has perhaps the greatest impact, preserving the founder's vision of the senate. and preserving the senate as a place of discussion and liberation. that includes empowering committees to engage in extended debate on the senate floor. all members should have a chance to make their voices and the voices that their constituents heard. that is expected to be part of the speech of john thune, now the senate majority leader in the 119th congress. host: senate majority leader john thune expected to say those are marks on the senate floor when they gavel in for the 119th congress, promising to keep the filibuster in place. we will see if president-elect donald trump agrees with him when this congress begins. and as the legislative days go by, does he continue -- does the president-elect agree with the senate republican leader there to have a filibuster? nomination hearings will begin for president-elect donald trump

's cabinet picks in the senate, shortly in the coming weeks. we will see those hearings begin for those that are going to serve in the cabinet. the defense secretary, etc. those will get underway in the senate. they will have to advise and consent. confirmation hearings will be held in that chamber and you can look for our coverage on c-span.org, or our free video mobile app, c-span now. we are live from capitol hill on "the washington journal," and we are going to be here until noon eastern time, when the house dabbles in. we will then bring you to the house floor on c-span, and on c-span two, bring your to the senate floor. in the meantime, a conversation with all of you. what is your message to lawmakers in this 119th congress? caroline and washington state, independent. caller: thank you for taking my call. good morning. morning. i don't know what the winter is

like there. for us right now in washington, it is kind of calm. host: it is a little chilly here. i will say that. [laughter] caller: i guess i would tell you that i am a teacher. i was a teacher, and i taught in appalachia, in west virginia. and i taught in -- i taught kids in deming, washington. i taught kids in alaska. i was a teacher. that was what i did. and it was a good thing. anyway, i don't really have much to say. host: do you have a message to lawmakers here? caller: i don't really have much

to say about mitch mcconnell or that topic. i'm sorry. i'm sorry. host: all right. we will it there. she said she does not have much to say about mitch mcconnell. mitch mcconnell will not be serving and leadership in the 119th congress. he retired from that post but he remains in the senate. he will still serve, representing the state of kentucky, and we will see what role he plays with president-elect donald trump's agenda. let's go to steve in fairview, oregon, republican. hi, steve. morning to you. caller: i am a city counselor where i live. the position i hold is a nonpartisan position. a few callers ago, you had a guy

by the name of bobby who you spoke with, and i agreed with everything that bobby said. mccarthy, i liked him a lot. i like johnson a lot. and when mccarthy did not make it, he ended up quitting. i would hate to see the same thing happened to johnson. but for me, i have bigger fish to fry. we have spent a lot of money in this country on immigration. currently, about a year ago, i married a young lady from kenya, and i am 70 years old. well, in watching her talk to her daughter on the phone in kenya -- excuse me -- she would be happy when she is on the phone talking to her, and all of a sudden after the phone call is over with, it would turn to sadness. and i could not stand it, so i

turned around and told her -- i said, honey, i will petition for your daughter to come here. my problem is we have a lot of people that are going about immigration the right way, but we have 10 times more that are going about immigration the wrong way. and it is costing this country a lot of money because of that. host: so steve, in the 119th congress, the speaker of the house gets to define the first 10 bills, one through 10. what should hr one look like to you? caller: for me, immigration is a prime issue, the top number one issue. our country is hemorrhaging our cash that we are just giving to people. a guy walks up.

here is 20 bucks. host: steve in fairview, oregon, a republican caller. in miami, florida, democratic caller. caller: i'm calling about johnson. johnson is going to need to be speaker of a house. but to do what he do with trump and elon musk, there is conflict of interest. i don't think trump really represents florida at all. host: henry in miami with his remarks. a little history on this january 3, 2025. why does congress convene? why does the constitution say congress must convene on january 3? it comes from the 20th amendment to the constitution that specifies that the changeover for members of congress occurs on january 3 at noon. it also states that congress itself should convene on that

date unless it established a different date by law. congress passed the 20th amendment in 1932 and states completed ratifying it in 1933. prior to that, after an election, it was four months, march, before the new congress would take over, and the president and lawmakers back then felt that that was too long of a time for there to be a lame-duck congress and president. and so the congress change the law in 1932, and the states, two thirds, ratified it in 1933. so here we are, january 3, 2025, opening day of the 119th congress. tom in raleigh, north carolina, republican. good morning to you. caller: good morning. i think speaker johnson is going to get it. at the end of the day, there is no alternative. i have not heard names floated out there. here is what concerns me on both

sides. when they do that continuing resolution, i don't understand why they wait to the last hour to past -- to pass it. they've got the entire 4, 5, 6 months to pass the budget, but they always wait to the last minute, and that is so first rating. both sides, democrats and republicans, do it. host: it does apply pressure, because they are facing a deadline. so you have people who are holding out on saying how they are going to vote. but when they are faced with a deadline, perhaps that is what makes them say one way or the other. or it puts them in a position to start to negotiate. caller: yeah, but they have got all that time to negotiate. they wait to the very last hour to pass it. to me, that is just uncalled for. i mean, we have to have a budget in our household and we have to pay bills, but they wait to the very last hour to pass this.

anyway, i enjoy c-span. i'm glad y'all carry all the committees. i spend 90% of my time watching y'all and you do a good job. have a good day. host: thank you for that. thanks for watching and things for calling in to share your message to lawmakers. frank in california, democratic caller. it is your turn. caller: thank you for taking my call. appreciate it. thank you for c-span being there. you carry the vote this morning -- that is great. i will be watching for sure. i appreciate this, but you know what i have to say is i am talking about the gun control issue, and the fact that the speaker of the house, the present one, will not allow it to come forward. you talked about the first 10 bills that come up. for the house, why can't they --

why can't we have a bill to improve control of guns when our kids are being murdered by these, excuse me for the expression, idiots who come into our schools and plan the murders and then kill themselves? and that is all i have to say. thank you. host: frank' us message to washington -- you want to see lawmakers here act on gun control, gun violence in our nation. we go to cornell in colombia, pennsylvania. your message to lawmakers? caller: my message to lawmakers, whomever they may be, would be to diversify the media. what i mean by that is every single morning i wake up, right? i have programs i watch. my wife leaves for work at 5:30 every morning. i am up early in the morning.

i don't see african-americans or any other covenant let's say, native american, or any other image of any other race on the television. it is like an identity thing for me, you know what i'm saying? i don't get inspiration in the morning from our media, from you guys that are giving us the information in regards to the way the government operates and all that. i don't see myself in society. they don't show, you know what i mean, what it's like where i come from. host: would you say that about congress as well, you don't see yourself in those that represent americans? caller: right, hakeem jeffries is from brooklyn, new york, but i am from pennsylvania, so it is a little bit, and that in new york to see black excellence, but i am from a small town in pennsylvania, a small town.

i never see anything black. host: continue watching here. let's go back to pedro echevarria because he has got statistics for you on the demographics of this congress. host: we at c-span do love a good demographic when it comes to the breakdown of the house and the senate. we have the 119th congress. let's start with the house. median age of house members coming into the 119th -- the youngest was born in 1997. the oldest was born in 1936. 68 representatives are millennials. 12 representatives are 35 years or younger. that information from rutgers university. when it comes to the senate, the median age is 63.63 years. the youngest senator is jon ossoff, democrat from georgia, born in 1987. senator chuck grassley of iowa was born in 1933. he will become the president pro

tem in the new congress. and five senators are millennials. there are also some standouts when it comes to new members of congress in both the house and the senate, starting with representative elect sarah mcbride from delaware. she is the first openly transgender member of congress. in the senate, a democrat from new jersey, andy kim, will be the first korean american senator. senator elect moreno, republican of ohio, be ohio's first latino senator and the first senator born in south america. a democrat from maryland will be maryland's first black senator. and representative lisa blunt roberts, democrat from delaware, we democrats first female and first black senator. and the two black women will serve together in the senate for the first time. senator ruben gallego, democrat from arizona, will serve as arizona's first latino senator. host: the demographics of the

119th congress. you will see some new faces in washington, and c-span will be there to bring it to you. gavel-to-gavel coverage of the house on c-span1 and the senate on c-span two. you can watch major hearings that are taking place on c-span3 and the other networks as well. you can also follow along here, the 119th congress, on our website, c-span.org, or our free video and mobile app, c-span now. we are live this morning and we expect at noon eastern time that the new congress will begin. what happens next is up in the air. will speaker mike johnson get the votes to retain the top post? we are asking you this morning to deliver your message to lawmakers. what do you want to see them act on first? do you think there should be bipartisanship? what do you think about the speaker vote? who should lead each party? let's go to robert in south carolina, republican.

good morning to you. caller: good morning. how are you today? host: i am doing well. go ahead with your message to lawmakers. caller: so many. so many, so many. but anyway. the first thing i would like to say is to the republican congress. if you don't come together and elect a speaker, you can't get anything done. you have to get a speaker first. if you want to change it later, change it later. but you need to come together right now today at noon and vote for mike johnson to come in their -- there and start the process. you need to certify trump's election victory. and then if you want to change the speaker at a later date, then knock your socks off.

right now, you need to. host: robert is right. nothing else can happen here in washington until they elect a speaker. that is at noon eastern time. robert is saying he wants one round. he wants mike johnson to continue to serve as speaker of the house. republicans in control here of the house chamber. and they will have the majority in the senate, and of course the white house as well. what will be their agenda? none of it can happen until they elect a speaker. as robert was saying, they cannot certify the election results, president elect donald win, which they are supposed to do on monday. they cannot do that until they have a speaker. greg in pendleton, indiana, a republican. we are on capitol hill this morning. you can hear it is getting louder around here. more people come to the nation's capital. lots of media here. they are setting up around us.

to cover what is happening here on this opening day of the 119th congress. lawmakers are making their way to their offices. they have brought their families to washington in hopes that they get sworn in today. they will do so on the senate side, but will they get sworn in here on the house side? greg, go ahead. caller: thanks for taking my call. i have been alive for 68 years. and i have watched all this bull for a lot of years, and i tell you what -- the republicans, if they don't get their act together, there is going to be another party to look at down the road. and if they don't get this past, this is what america was crying about. if they can't do the job, we

need to know who these guys are and hold them up. we need a list. we need to know what states they are from. and we need to get them out of office. enough is enough. people are sick and tired of it. host: you have heard the names this morning on the washington journal. thomas massie said he is a hard no. don't even try to change his mind is what he told news reporters throughout the days leading up to today. and then you have people like chip roy, who talks to president-elect donald trump today, and tried to convince him to vote for speaker johnson. according to news reports, chip roy told the president elect there is more than just him who are opposed to speaker mike johnson. we will see who actually votes for someone else or votes present when their name is called in the house chamber.

c-span cameras will be there to capture it all. normally, those cameras are operated and controlled by the house of representatives. not today. c-span cameras in the chamber, like we were two years ago when many rounds took place for before their publicans elected their speaker. brenda in lexington, kentucky, and independent. hi, brenda. brenda in lexington, kentucky, independent caller. are you there? caller: i am here. can you hear me? sorry, i don't know what happened. i can hear, by the way -- this is what i'm tuning in for come is this fight, because that is the only gratification we can get from this congress. that is the only gratification we have gotten in the last 20, 30 years, is to see these people actually wake up and fight each other. it is like a pay-per-view that

my taxes pay for. i really do think that unless congress gets thereabouts going -- gets going and gets things passed that will benefit all people, they should not be paid. they should not be paid. host: no salary for these members elect, these new members? this is the first time in washington. you are saying you do not get paid until you elect a speaker and start governing. caller: and if you pass bills, if you stop bickering, if you stop posturing in front of the media, no offense. but we are paying for them to do a job. if you were doing your job and you stop doing your job, would you continue to get a paycheck? host: that tees up speaker mike johnson with reporters at the capital after the government funding vote on december 20. he talked about president-elect donald trump, elon musk, the agenda, and the job of speaker

of the house. [video clip] >> i was in constant contact with president trump throughout the process. most recently, about 45 minutes ago. he knows what we are doing and why, and this is a good outcome for the country. he is happy. elon musk and i talked about an hour ago, and we talked about the extraordinary challenges of this job. i said, do you want to be speaker of the house? i don't know. he said it is maybe the hardest job in the world. but we are going to get through this. we are going to unify this country and we are going to bring the america first agenda to the people. we cannot wait to get started. [into video -- [end video] host: they avoided a government shutdown. fast-forward to today, january 3, 2025.

will speaker mike johnson retain the top post? go back to pedro echevarria with more details about today. host: olivia beaver's from the put on her feet that a group of conservatives and potential opposition votes against mike johnson are circulating a document which they are calling a scorecard that lists the multiple failures of the 118th congress. according to olivia, the author remains unnamed. talking points have been shared by some conservatives about mike johnson's tenure. that is making the rounds on the house side, leading up to today's vote. this is from nbc news on the senate side. mitch mcconnell's nameplate being removed from the leaders suite in the capital, the changing of the guard. senator john thune's name will go up soon. they also have the new name already on the whip's office down the hall. that is from nbc news.

the white house says the president and first lady billboard -- joe biden are expected to go to new orleans monday to grieve with the committee members impacted by the tragic event. host: pedro echevarria with more on what is happening on capitol hill. joining us this morning is stephen newcomb. he is the co-author of axios's hill leaders newsletter. the speaker mike johnson have the votes? guest: it remains to be seen. we know he has one hard no, thomas massie. this has characterize his whole tenure as speaker -- slim margins. he can only afford to lose one other vote at this point. his allies say he will remain speaker. there is no real alternative that anyone has put forward. the question is, how long does that go on? we have our first round around noon and we will see. host: everything starts at noon

and we will see how this shakes out. c-span cameras will be in the chamber before that. is speaker mike johnson meeting with these holdouts? guest: yes, he has been making phone calls over the last two weeks. they had a long break with the holiday. they said they want process changes, and that is exactly -- what those changes are is unclear. the conservatives were upset with how he handled the government funding fight right before congress left for christmas break and the new year. that could be playing a part into it. but it really remains to be seen what concrete proposals some of the holdouts -- the problem is we don't know exactly who the holdouts are either yet, until they go to the floor today and vote. host: could there be more than the dozens we have heard about? guest: there could be. the public vote -- we know the president elect has thrown his support behind mike johnson to be speaker. the problem with the public vote is come up when you vote

publicly, the president-elect knows who you are voting for. obviously, the sort of mega-machine -- maga machine can turn out some pressure campaigns, and that is something a lot of our percentages are thinking about before they take this vote. host: explain what viewers will see. our cameras in the chamber, the first thing that happens is you get an idea of how many lawmakers are actually here. guest: that's right. you understand what the math is going to look like. the math could change for speaker johnson depending on how many folks are here. as far as we know, it will be the attendance they need, 344, or -- or 400 -- host: 430 -- yes. guest: they will need to figure out what the math is. but then the cameras -- you are getting unprecedented access. we know that when the speaker fight went on last time for former speaker kevin mccarthy, there were some iconic moments.

hopefully for viewers -- it is a very intimate look at the house floor that really only reporters get on a day-to-day basis. host: normally, cameras operated by the house of representatives. with c-span cameras in the chamber, you will see the huddle that takes place. people are having side conversations while the procedure votes are happening. this is something that other reporters -- you can go into the chamber and watch this happening. you can see who is on the floor, who is not. if members are sometimes talking to just themselves in the chamber -- but today, it will be a full house. guest: they go to the house floor and the clerk will call the roll alphabetically, and everybody has to stand up in the house chamber and announce who they are voting for. the democratic side i think were unanimously have everybody vote for house minority leader hakeem jeffries. if it goes to multiple rounds,

expect to hear a lot of names over the next however long it will take today at the very least. and obviously a lot of republicans will vote for mike johnson, but the ones to look out for our -- you are they going to vote for? folks like thomas massie, and the freedom caucus coalition, very conservative folks can be very dramatic as we go through the roll call. host: it is in alphabetical order, so biggs comes first. that is one of the dozen that folks are watching to see, what does he do. what is his option? what can he say when he is called? guest: you can vote for whoever you want. literally anyone. the speaker does not have to be a member of congress. during former speaker mccarthy' is fight to become speaker, we heard votes for people who were not in congress, former members of congress. you can vote "present" as well. what they are going to say -- it

will be interesting to see the names they came up with as an alternative, whether it is a serious alternative or a vanity name. host: will we hear the name elon musk? guest: it is possible. i don't know. i think that musk responded politely to it. i think some people take it more seriously than others. as somebody who is not a member of congress, he is not going to be the speaker of the house. you can vote for elon musk or a former member. that person is not going to become speaker. host: we learned that president-elect had a phone call with chip roy. what does chip roy want? has he said who he is going to vote for? guest: he has not said who he is going to vote for. he has not been a concrete know. he sort of teased. he wants some process changes in the house of representatives. he talked about it being more member driven. he wants more individual feedback on the legislative

process. he does not want it to be as top-down as it is, as he sees it. the government funding fight we went through right before congress left was a big part of some of those feelings being hurt. no specifics really have come out on what he is asking for. but put him in the room with folks who want procedural changes. host: there were some reports of a push by folks to have him serve as chair of the rules committee. why would that be important? guest: having control of the rules committee is powerful with the way the house of representatives works. to get any bill onto the floor in the regular order, the house speaker has to go through the rules process. the rules committee has to vote on a rule that will govern the amount of debate time on the floor. so to go through that process, if you are the chairman, you have a pretty powerful check on anything the speaker and house membership wants to do, if they want to get it through your rules committee. the speaker can bypass the rules committee and put a bill on the

floor which is considered under suspension of the rules. at any bill that goes onto the floor under that procedure needs a two thirds majority to pass. so it makes the lift much higher if you don't go through the rules committee. it is a simple majority. host: whoever is the speaker would need democrats signing onto the legislation. he would need to know that if he is bringing something up on the floor under suspension of the rules that he has enough votes from democrats. guest: and that has been a lot of the criticism from his republican conference, is that hakeem jeffries, the minority leader, has delivered a lot of votes in a lot of critical moments on government funding, the debt limit, ukraine funding. it has been bipartisan. he has had to count on to -- on democrats to provide sometimes the majority of the votes, losing half of his conference. that is why speaker johnson is reticent to go through that suspension of the rules, because it plays not well politically within his own conference.

host: even if you get past the rules committee, it has been described as a read them -- r eed-thin majority. how does he get legislation voted for on the floor? guest: given margins and given what they need to accomplish in the new year, especially a lot of government spending stuff -- they pushed the funding fight into the first 100 days of the administration. it is going to be really difficult for him to control that conference. to his credit, he has done it before. that is the second half of the last congress. he went through a lot of these fights. he went through a lot of the same situations that saw him be criticized already, that threatened his job. those are the things that are coming up again, on top of the fact that republicans have a very ambitious legislative agenda that they want to get through congress.

if they fall under that bar, there is only a few people who are to be blamed in congress. host: congressman french hill was sitting here with us on capitol hill and he said if you do not see a conference meeting call before the 12:00 p.m. vote, then speaker johnson is in a good place. guest: that's right. if he does not have the votes, they are going to have to schedule so they can leave the house floor and go immediately into a conference meeting to try to hash out where they are at. if speaker johnson does not notice a meeting before him, they will feel confident they are not going to lose another vote besides thomas massie. host: and if it goes more than one round, if people just want to -- these republicans -- what is the likelihood they would want to have opposition first, but then they are going to come around? guest: your leverage is at an

all-time high when you are the one standing in the way of what someone wants, right? if you are the 1, 2, or three people who are standing in the way of johnson becoming speaker, you are going to be able to win some concessions. if they want to vote no on the floor at first, just to stake out a position, get into a room with the speaker, talk about the things they want -- put the money where their mouth is and vote no on the floor. see what they can win from the speaker behind closed doors. host: we learned earlier from pedro echevarria that the office plaque for senator mitch mcconnell's leadership office is coming down. a new one is going up for senate majority. what are you expecting today in the senate? guest: they will present the vote on certifying the election. they will go through that process. and the handing over of power -- senate majority leader chuck schumer will no longer be in the majority. he will go into the resistance

of the first to trump years and trying to win back the majority. some majority leader john thune, his first time as majority leader. a long time with mitch mcconnell. they have a lot on their plate that they want to get done. want to start very ambitiously. the schedule for the first 100 days in the senate has passed. today and monday, they really get the ball rolling on particularly a border plan and a spending plan. host: what do you make of the matchup of senate majority leader john thune and minority leader chuck schumer? chuck schumer with many more years than john thune, playing chess with the other side, the parliamentary moves you have on the senate side. guest: thune watched mitch mcconnell for a long time. he learned form -- from him and was his number two.

mitch mcconnell is still around. a lot of his leadership team is up in the air. but a lot of the experience will still be around john thune. he has a leadership team already that has been in the room, sort of knows how to deal with not only schumer, but the senate in general. i think they will probably hit the ground running. it is not like when speaker johnson became speaker, after kevin mccarthy was ousted. he had no experience at all in leadership. it is not that type of situation. host: what role will senator mitch mcconnell play in the 119th congress? he is still serving and representing kentucky. guest: serving. a lot of folks look at him as somebody who has a ton of experience. he will be on the subcommittee of appropriations for defense. he will have a lot of say over defense spending which a a huge priority for him throughout his career.

how much does he get out of the way and let john thune be john thune? i think the parallel is hakeem jeffries and nancy pelosi in the house for democrats and if you talk to some house democrats they will tell you they are frustrated nancy pelosi is not all the way out of the picture to let leader jeffries do the job. we will see how that plays out on the republican side. host: she will be here today even after she had to undergo surgery after a fall. she said she will be here today. talk about the agenda for the democratic leadership in the house and their ability to keep everybody in line. our viewers will note speaker nancy pelosi was masterful at that. republicans even say i wish the republicans would be like that. does that continue under hakeem jeffries? guest: he did it in the last congress, he did it pretty

effectively. somebody who learned closely from nancy pelosi. i think their agenda is trying to pick their spots, figure out where you have the most leverage to message against what they think are the most egregious trump agenda items. message them publicly to the american voters. there is an election in two years they will try to take back the house. it is also trying to find out who your new superstars are. there has been a generational change in house democrats. a lot of elder folks are leaving the ranking positions and more junior members are coming in. who are your superstars and who do you lean on to communicate the democratic message ahead of the 2026 election. host: stephen neukam writes the hill leaders newsletters. we appreciate you and your reporting. back to our calls with all of you this morning. we are asking you what is your message to lawmakers at the

beginning of the 119th congress? we go to curtis in des moines, iowa. thanks for hanging on the line. what you want to say to these decision-makers? caller: what i personally have to say is even though a lot of their constituents are very scared were very excited about what is going to be passed in this upcoming session, i think there is not really going to be anything getting done because we have seen in the past years, even in this last session that congress cannot really work within their own party, let alone reach across the aisle to pass something meaningful. we see the house pass a few things but i think the senate is going to be as usual where a lot of those bills go to die. republicans have a slim majority and i think their chances of getting the democrats to agree to pass a bill are even more

slim. host: in the senate you're talking about? caller: yes. host: you have 53 republicans and 45 democrats, two independents, bernie sanders and angus king who caucus with the democrats. there is speculation you could see jd vance sitting in the chair of the senate chamber breaking tie votes as vp kamala harris has done in the 118th congress. rocco in georgia, republican. good morning to you. good morning. caller: we are in a very critical juncture in this country. the enemies of our country look at everything we do and if you look at the calendar, we have a presidential funeral coming up, we have presidential inauguration coming up, and a

presidential parade coming up, which means millions of americans will be exposed and all of the bad decisions joe biden has made over the past four years are coming to fruition at the same time. the events in new orleans over the weekend shows how exposed we are. they have not -- they cannot play games today. you cannot let the perfect be the enemy of good. we have to take it step-by-step. get a speaker and then get things done as you go along. to delay everything is just putting american security and safety at risk. host: what do you say to republicans like chip roy and thomas matthew who are upset about how washington works? they want to see more control over how spending is done, more control over the pursestrings. that is the responsibility of congress. caller: i understand that but at

this juncture when things change , all of the sudden your perspective should change. when you see americans getting ran over by a truck because the security was not there you know you have enemies of this country. all of your complaints does not bring any of those 15 people back that were killed in new orleans. host: rocco in georgia talking about all of the events happening in washington today. today the opening day of the 119th congress. certification of the election is supposed to take place monday, january 6. that proceeds a busy week in washington and there are funeral memorial services for the late former president jimmy carter and we will have coverage of all of that as well on c-span. follow along on c-span.org, and our free video mobile app c-span now. we will have coverage of the

remains of the late president as they make their way from georgia to washington. he will lie in state in washington next week. you will see the public as well as dignitaries coming through the nation's capital to pay their respects and you can watch it all on c-span. suue in grand rapids, michigan, independent. your message to lawmakers? caller: first of all your guest just said agree just trump agenda. -- said agree just -- egregiouos trump agenda and i guess we know what his agenda has been. i want to say it has been horrible the last four years and i'm all for president trump agenda to protect this nation of ours. trump's enemies, even internal as well as external.

i guess what i want to say is i do not like the leverage that can be had by the big money over all of these representatives of ours who are supposed to be representing the people but in fact are not. i want to see marjorie taylor greene become speaker. she would be excellent and she is not afraid to speak and she is representing actual policy. host: she said she will support speaker mike johnson today. do you think she should do that? caller: i don't. i think that is a leveraging issue. i think that if your body is strongly representative with dual citizens, that is a big problem. we are no longer representing the u.s., we are representing outside interests, other

countries, big money, bankers, people that have leverage. this is the problem. chip roy, go for it. host: sue in grand rapids, michigan. we are less than two hours away from the speaker vote. pedro has more. host: there has been congressional media reporting on where people are. this is michael snell of the hill saying that when it comes to representative rich mccormick of georgia telling her it looks like he will support johnson on the floor. when asked if he will vote for johnson, saying mccormick's boat to johnson -- mccormick spoke to johnson yesterday saying i feel like he is listening. i do not see a better alternative. we start wasting and we get into the infighting we had last time we will get right back to where we were last time and that is a weak position. the more we realize it is about

the congress and not just the speaker the faster we get the job done. that is mychael schnell. reporter from fox news has this on a representative from tennessee, one of those who are not committed to speaker johnson, in a recent interview saying "i am not committed to speaker johnson. still waiting on some conversations. i would like to think if we would get on that point we could go. get on with the american agenda which is why people elected us to do. every time the speaker meets with us i think it is productive and shows he cares. he is listening and he is attentive. he has 435 egos he has to deal with so i get." then frank thorpe, we showed you a picture of the former offices of senator mitch mcconnell, now a new nameplate on that office. saying senator john thune's name is placed on the suite by the

architect of the capital working to replace mitch mcconnell's name who is been there for 18 years. host: a change in leadership in the upper chamber. john thune will take over the majority for the senate, for the republican party over there. that happens today at noon eastern. we are simulcasting the washington journal this morning here on c-span at noon eastern when the senate gavels in. we will bring you over to that chamber on c-span2. on c-span one we will stick with the house floor because c-span cameras be in the room when the vote takes place. it is the first order of business. the house and only the house needs to elect a speaker today for business to get underway. no votes, no debates, no governing until they get a speaker. we will see if speaker mike johnson has the votes to do it in one round.

michelle in niagara falls, new york, good morning. democratic caller. what is your message to lawmakers? caller: i hope mike johnson does not get the votes to remain speaker of the house because he tends to just do what the maga and the president elect want and often times that is not what is best for america. i feel like the republican party is breaking into two, maga and regular republicans, which is a good thing, because the regular republicans align more with the center leading democrats which will finally get our country together and stop all of this side and that side and i feel that will help get things done right for the people. i also wanted to say rest in peace to jimmy carter. host: michelle's comments there. cheryl in alabama.

republican. caller: good morning. i would like to say i support representative johnson remaining the speaker. the american spoke loud and clear on election day and we want work done so there is no time to waste getting a new speaker. leave johnson in and if they don't let's put elon musk or vivek in and let them deal with those boys. host: if it goes past the first round you would have your representative say the name elon musk? caller: maybe after a couple rounds, yes. if they want to play, let's play. another issue i have is with all these illegals. i am looking forward to those being dealt with and i think what the government needs to tell them is if you are here illegally you need to contact a legal representative and say this is where i am located so if

the government has to come search for them they should lose any chance forever of ever entering or becoming a citizen. if they turn themselves in and say this is where i am they leave the door open. host: cheryl's message to lawmakers on this opening day of the 119th congress. we will hear from sean in jacksonville, florida. independent. caller: i have to tell you 40 years ago i was sitting where you were sitting as a c-span staff member. host: former c-spaner on capitol hill? caller: that's right. one thing i have noticed in congress and the last several years, you do not hear much talk about a balanced budget amendment anymore. i know there was a business cycle balanced budget amendment introduced last year by the chairman of the committee but i

would love to see that get some shrink. i think our deficit is at such a point where we have to start addressing the deficit. even president trump only talks a little bit about paying down the debt. it is like an afterthought. i just do not see how we can move forward as a nation if we do not address this. i think our debt is at 98% of gdp at this point. host: sean, that is his message to lawmakers. he wants them to do with the debt and deficit. today is the opening day of the 119th congress. the first thing these lawmakers have to do is elect a speaker. republicans are in the majority. they have the majority in the house. there is any dozen or so republicans who we do not know how they will vote. there is one hard know from thomas massie. all of the democrats expected to vote for keim jeffries.

-- for hakim jeffries. let's listen to what he had to say in december talking about republicans. >> what we have seen repeatedly amongst my extreme mag a republican colleagues as they say one thing to the american people before the election and they do something different after the election. house republicans said we will protect social security and medicare and so did their presidential nominee. now we learn after the election that house republicans are planning to try to cut medicare and social security and end it as we know it. house republicans said before the election that they were focused on improving the quality of life of working class americans. after the election their focus on tax cuts for the wealthy, the well-off, and the

well-connected. for years, up until this election, the incoming president elect has said that we will build a wall and mexico will pay for it. after the election house republicans are planning to use budget reconciliation process to force every day americans and hard-working taxpayers to pay for their so-called border wall. we all support a strong, a safe, and a secure border. we have a broken immigration system and we need to fix it. we need to enhance our border security. we need to do it in a sensible bipartisan way, and democrats are prepared to do just that. host: hakeem jeffries,

democratic leader in the house in december talking about the republican majority. republicans take over in washington and the 119th congress for the house, the senate, and the white house. we are live from capitol hill on the washington journal and joining us this morning is the top democrat on the house armed services committee. let's talk about the terror attacks, the terror attack we saw in new orleans and the bombing, the explosives that took place in las vegas. both of these gentlemen with military background. your reaction to that? guest: we have had threats to this country for some time from a variety of sources. we do not yet know what the demo -- what the motivation was behind the las vegas attack but it is clear that radical islamic extremism was the motivation behind the new orleans attack. we also had the no lives matter group where we discovered a cachet of weapons at some place

in virginia from someone who is also intending to do harm. we have extremists all across the spectrum. what that means is we need law enforcement and the fbi to be tracking that and to make sure we fully support their efforts to protect this country. keep in mind that at various times republicans including cash patel, the guy picked to be the head of the fbi, have undercut the fbi, talked about the funding at, talked about how they are part of the deep state. they are part of what protects us. what he to support domestic law enforcement to root out extremist before they attack, which by and large they have done a good job of stopping a number of attacks. the terrorists only have to be right once. it is going to be a major challenge going forward. caller: -- host: is there a problem in our own military that folks who have served can become

extremists? guest: i don't know for sure. 99.999% of us who served in the military never have this problem. we also have a large number of attacks, shootings that have been people who have not had anything to do with the military. i think making a link to the u.s. service members at this point, i do not think it is warranted. i think we need to root out this type of extremism all across the country and across the world wherever it threatens us. host: you are the top democrat in the house armed services committee and served in this role for many years. what is on the agenda. what does your committee need to tackle and this 119th congress? guest: we have a clear agenda. it will be challenged by what is going on in the white house and the budget reconciliation process, but it is four items. number one, the pentagon has to get better at buying new technology.

we have seen in ukraine as the pace of warfare has picked up drones, the ability to jam incoming missiles, it is basically sicker -- they sickly secure communications, drones, counter drones, missile defense. the pentagon is too slow to buy that. you cannot be innovating on a two to three year budget cycle. chairman rogers and i are in complete agreement we need to speed up the process. it has become clear we need to be able to produce critical munitions in much greater quantity and much faster. we have to figure out how to speed up that process. number three, recruitment. we have to recruit and retain the best service members so we continue to have the best military in the world. how do we get people to join and stay so we can meet the numbers we need? we cannot do this on our own. the threats are coming from multiple places, russia, china,

north korea, various transnational terrorist organizations, we need partners and allies, whether it is nato, south korea, japan, wherever we can find partners to meet these challenges. those are the priorities we have on the armed services committee. host: when it comes to support for ukraine, additional weapons, what is your confidence level that happens in the 119th congress with republicans controlling washington? guest: it is not high. i'm worried about the approach donald trump his supporters have taken. we need a negotiated settlement in ukraine. this war cannot go on forever. it has been devastating to ukraine and devastating to the broader world in many ways as well. you do not get to a negotiated settlement if you do not find ukraine come if you do not give ukraine the power to defend itself. if a vladimir putin sees a defenseless ukraine he will not stop.

when candidate donald trump said he opposed an additional supplemental to support ukraine he was basically handing ukraine to the russians. has he changed his mind on that? will he give ukraine the power to defend themselves? if ukraine is strong in ukraine has security guarantees that forces prudent to the table. that forces him to negotiate. then if donald trump the great dealmaker wants to make that happen good for him. there will be no deal to be made if we do not give ukraine the power to defend itself. host: you will not vote for speaker mike johnson today but our speak mike johnson and senator john thune the best leadership for republicans to enact, to get aid to ukraine? guest: that is a very low bar you just set in that question. the best as compared to everybody else? certainly both speaker johnson and majority leader thune have

said they support ukraine. i have many conversations with speaker johnson that have pressed him on this point and he insists he does not want to abandon ukraine. it gives us an opportunity. are they the best? i don't know about that. i think there is an opportunity with both of them to make sure ukraine does get funded. we will press them on that issue. caller: -- host: what did you want to see this committee do? it sounds like you have a good relationship with the chair. given the agenda you outlined you think you can put something on paper and get it on the house floor quickly? guest: we have a shot. there is a challenge. the great thing about the armed services committee as we are bipartisan and we pass a bill every year, 64 straight years. we are the most bipartisan committee in congress, the only committee in congress that gets its work done every single year. it is because we understand the

importance of national security and we see it as a bipartisan issue. there is a culture in our committee. the culture is we work together and get it done. you will see other committees where the culture is seek every part of an advantage you can get , insult the opposition every day. we do not do that. matt gaetz served on the armed services committee and even matt was a reasonably productive member of the committee. he did not blow things up there the way he did elsewhere because he adapted to the culture we have on the committee. i believe that culture is fraying because on the house floor the freedom caucus is insisting on a partisan defense bill before they will consider voting for it and who knows if they will vote for anyway. will we be able to maintain the bipartisanship? the bill we passed this year i did not vote for because it included partisan poison pill at the insistence of the freedom caucus. mike rogers was public he did

not want those things in there. speaker johnson caved to the radical right wing freedom caucus. it wants it to be partisan for the sake of it being partisan. which of those things wins out? we will work very hard to maintain that bipartisan tradition to keep going forward. it will be tested as it has never been tested. host: you said your committee passes a bill every year. it is no small bill. it takes hours for your committee to markup this legislation. what is it? guest: it is the national defense authorizing act which is oversight and authorizing funding for the pentagon. this year it was $888 billion and then a lot of policy provisions and then because the difference bill passes every year we typically take on authorizing legislation from other committees. the intel authorization bill, frequently the coast guard authorization bill was in there.

the foreign bill was in there. it is typically about a 4000 page bill that is put together exactly in the how a bill becomes a law think, the schoolhouse rock thing, we go through committee, we have a long markup, we mark the buildup, it goes to the floor, we offer amendments to the senate, occasionally they do not pass it off the floor, but then we conference with whatever we've got and we produce a product that is bipartisan, bicameral, and the president signs it. it is the legislative process the way the legislative process was supposed to be. host: sometimes into the wee hours of the morning this committee has been marking up legislation. you said after the november election that "the democratic party brand is broken and we need to fix it if the party will have any hope of appealing to a majority of the people in this country." explain. guest: 100%.

there a lot of different reasons why democrats do not win has been he reasons that they should have. i think there are four. certainly i think the biden harris campaign and biden's decision to try to run again for as long as he did was catastrophic and certainly the way they approached it put us in a whole. i do not think we use the new media as effectively as republicans to and i do not believe -- donald trump does a better job of presenting himself as an outsider. he does it in a bizarre way. the democratic party has become thought of as too much status quo. all of that being true, the fourth reason we lost is because the extreme left of our democratic coalition has come to dictate too much policy that is out of touch with the american people on immigration, on criminal justice, on drugs, on homelessness come on radical identity politics. these are ideas that are pushed by the far left and they insist

the rest of the coalition go along with it. sometimes we do and sometimes we don't. when we do we alienate a significant chunk of the country. when we don't we alienate that coalition. we need to do with that. think of the number of states democrats are longer competitive in. montana, iowa, florida. i'm not talking about states like michigan and pennsylvania. i am talking about the states that barack obama won. barack obama won indiana. you see any democrat winning a race in indiana anytime soon? we have taken ourselves out of the ability to be competitive and a huge part of that is because of a far left agenda that has poisoned the brand of the democratic party. we have to fix our brand if we will be able to win elections. host: democratic congressman adam smith, top democrat on the house armed services committee, we thank you for your time and spending some of it with our c-span audience.

thank you very much. we are live on capitol hill talking about the opening day of the 119th congress. we are getting your message to lawmakers. we will continue with that conversation but first and update on today's events. host: just to give you some latest news from political reporters, this is commenting on comments made by representative tom massey, he is the one loan no vote registered when it comes to the speaker votes. saying representative mceachin's reporters he "expects more members will commit to voting against johnson's soon." jake sherman of punch bowl speaking with the congressional web, here's part of that with mr. emmer. " your job is to report all this stuff."

a bunch of people saying they are not sure about him. jake sherman saying besides massey, and then emmer saying he will be fine. a shorter back-and-forth with the republican whip saying he is confident johnson has the vote. this from matt gaetz, former member of congress, on x today, saying mike johnson will be elected speaker today. host: matt gaetz, former congressman, now with his own show, saying he believes mike johnson has the votes. it sounds in the air. does he have the votes?

first round or not? will there be more rounds today? c-span in the chamber will capture it, the 119 congress will gavel at noon eastern. live on capitol hill, before the action begins, simulcast washington journal on c-span, c-span2, your message to lawmakers in the 119 congress, the question with all of you. huntsville, alabama, republican. caller: hi. i would like to remind the house, everyone knows president trump was delivered a mandate to execute his agenda, the house were also given a mandate. sometimes after elections the house seems to forget the

primary objective. the message for thomas massie is, please stop silly theatrics. mike johnson is the only representative who can possibly get elected on a timely basis. i want thomas massie to remember the fourth district of kentucky will remember how he votes and behaves here. 2026, people have to account for his behavior. host: thomas massie and chip roy say they are doing what they believe their voters sent them to washington to do, that their opposition to mike johnson is reflecting their voters because they are upset with how washington spends money. caller: by obstructing this vote, they will not change anything. there is not another who could

get votes to become the speaker in a timely manner, to start working on this agenda. to the democrats, can i give a message? host: go ahead. caller: the democrat congressmen who would rather see trump fail than america succeed, they need to please rethink that attitude, and there are lots of cases where they can try to do what is best for america and work with republicans and i would ask they think about that. host: calling and all republicans, she says she believes they were sent here to washington to do just that. huntsville news reports the freshman republican members of congress elected in november are all behind mike johnson, that is from punch bowl news this morning.

the dozen or so that have not said how they are going to vote, we will see what they do when the gavel comes down noon eastern time. c-span will be in the room, you can watch it on c-span, www.c-span.org or c-span now. you can watch the senate gavel for the beginning of the 119th on c-span2. mark, ohio, democrat. caller: good morning. host: good morning. caller: how are you? host: well. your message to lawmakers? caller: two bills i would like to see. first, flat tax on all campaign donations. school board to president. second thing, flat tax on all religious communities, entities. they get away with not paying taxes.

it's not fair. host: ok. lawmakers slated to begin the 119 congress. johnny, independent. caller: i would like to see congress do something about the elderly homeless epidemic. the fastest growing demographic in the homeless community. 55 and older, being displaced from their homes, whether owned or rented because they can no longer survive the housing market. it is not because of immigrants. it is because of corporate ownership of property. there is plenty of housing space available but people cannot afford it. it's a personal thing with me because i will join their ranks at the end of the month and it is terrifying. i have been renting the same place for 30 years. there has never been a problem. i worked for 40+ years and paid

into social security but a simple one bedroom, studio apartment here would take my entire social security check. as far as getting subsidies, it's almost impossible. the wait list is seven years. those of us as old as i am, 73, we are probably not going to live that long. as far as section eight, they are not even taking new applications. i would like to see congress address that issue. host: housing is atop the agenda for johnny. william, sparta, tennessee, republican, what do you want congress to work on? william? you have to listen and talk through your phone. caller: yes ma'am.

this is glenn. i'm calling for unity in the gop. for them to step up and be strong. have a backbone and stand behind our president. host: why would you like that to happen today? why is it important to you? caller: i have two children. i want to see their future right. this turmoil going on, it is not good for the country, the future of our country. host: william wants his party to get to work. to get to work, they have to elect a speaker, the first order

of business when the house gavels at noon. nothing can happen until they elect a speaker. no debate, votes, governing. they cannot put the rules in place for congress. the members who were reelected or elected for the first time, those that continue to serve in the senate, the incumbents, they are all supposed to get sworn in today. on the house side, if they don't elect a speaker, those returning, coming to washington for the first time, do not take the oath today. their families have come to washington to be part of the experience. some of them will be in the chamber today as well. c-span will capture it all. travis, texas, democratic. caller: hi. how are you? host: morning. go ahead. caller: johnson is not elected

as the speaker. he's unreliable. i don't know who else might be available. i expect the democrats to not put forward anyone radical like that. the agenda is only for the rich. the poor will suffer. host: democrats said 215 will be here today including nancy pelosi who just underwent surgery, they say their party will show up in all their numbers, 215, and according to reports, democrats are united and will be saying the name hakeem jeffries when democrats are individually called in alphabetical order to stand up and say how they vote for speaker of the house.

mesa, arizona, independent, good morning. caller: good morning. when i think and i see that thomas massie and chip and anyone who wants to not vote johnson for speaker, seems like because they want to be speaker. to me, seems like getting in the way of a lot of things that need to go on. it would be nice if they would sit aside their own wants. johnson has been a good speaker so far. i appreciate what he's done. host: deborah voting for mike johnson. the vote will take place noon eastern, simulcast washington

journal on c-span and c-span2, when the house gavels and for the 119 congress, we will bring you c-span on the house floor. c-span2, we will bring you to that chamber as they gavel in. speaker mike johnson if all republicans show up today for the voting, he needs 218 votes. outright majority is what he will need. if republicans and democrats show up, democrats have said they are here. we will see how many republicans vote and how many vote for mike johnson. stay on c-span, www.c-span.org or c-span now to watch the vote unfold. steph, new york,, republican. caller: good morning. i hope, i live in one of the national swing districts this

year. we spent time with congressman emmer, the whip, and speaker johnson appear, and i think the speaker has shown he can work with a complex, sometimes problematic caucus. he can maneuver and handle it. he is willing to put investments in place, where we have seen win s, along with our great county chairman here in nassau county. i hope republicans will come together, make sure he gets through on the first ballot, no longer not have again, 15 rounds last year, 2023, then again we had to dispose of a speaker. it is problematic. we voted for this republican congress because of a sense of urgency of things, economy, immigration, continuing turmoil in the middle east, it is

changing by the day there. i hope we can start january 3 to make sure we can address these issues and i hope, listening to hakeem jeffries talk about border security, we have a new member of congress from south shore, a supervisor who spent a lot of money sounding like a republican. the one thing the left seems to be able to do is have a big tent, and none of them are threatening to not vote for hakeem jeffries. aoc goes up with pat ryan to upstate new york. that's the same type of mentality and method and offensive tactics we need. mike johnson will continue to invest in races across the country where we can grow the majority hopefully two years

from now, a lot of bills to deliver to president trump's desk. host: back to pedro for more on the new congress. host: this comes from polling organizations, ugov on what people think of the effectiveness of congress in the next two years. 32% of all citizens said this congress coming up with accomplish more in the next two years. 17% saying they will accomplish the same amount. 31% not sure. democrats, 10% said this congress will accomplish more. 64% of republicans say they will accomplish more. independents, 23%. the pew research center took a look at the religious composition of the 119th congress. christians will make 87% of

voting members in the senate and the house combined. that is down from 88% in the last session. 92% one decade ago. there will be 461 members of congress compared with 469 the previous congress and 491 during the 2015-'17. the lowest number of christians since the 2009 session. host: 119 congress by the numbers, live on capitol hill, washington journal, a conversation with all of you -- what is your message to lawmakers? we are less than two hours away from the gavel on a new congress. we are approaching the top of the hour on the east coast. we will continue with the conversation until they gavel in

and out, they will do that a couple times on the 118th congress, then they will officially gavel in at noon eastern the 119th congress. until then, we continue with you and your thoughts on washington and the 119 congress. annie, chicago, democratic. lawmakers are watching. they have gathered on capitol hill. many offices tuned into c-span and c-span2 watching us this morning. what is your message to these lawmakers? caller: going back to basic civics lesson. the congress is not there to just survey president. it is there to serve constituents. the 118th was one of the most ineffectual congresses on the house side. i would like to avoid that repeat. i would love to see more

moderates, left or right, come to the center. i'm not confident about johnson. he's a puppet of the incoming president. it scares me a little. i hope they listen and civicly apply their job which is to represent us. that may mean going against the president at times. host: andy wants to see bipartisanship, legislation passed and sent to the president. busy washington in january begins today with opening day of the 119 congress. monday, january 6, they are slated to certify the electoral results in congress. it is written out in part of their responsibility here for the federal government. that cannot happen until a speaker is elected. no business happens in the house

until they have a speaker. following today, if they elect a speaker, following the certification of the election results, then you have in the coming weeks, nomination, confirmation hearings for donald trump's cabinet. you have the inauguration of donald trump on january 20. in between not, services for the late president jimmy carter happening in georgia next week, continuing in washington when his casket will lie in state in the nation's capital. on c-span, coverage of everything, all of that wall-to-wall, find it online at www.c-span.org, our free app c-span now. glenn, california, independent. caller: good morning.

i would not vote johnson. sorry. he was horrible. he held up all the financing. he's not a good speaker. nobody trusts him. i don't trust him. i was a republican. i am independent now. i would never vote for the man. host: what made you switch to independent? caller: donald trump. sorry, i cannot support an insurrectionist. i just can't. i would love to see democrats and independents do an insurrection on donald trump. host: rome, georgia, republican. good morning. caller: les. i want to see unity in congress. one thing democrats have done,

they work together no matter what, whether strong-armed by nancy pelosi or whatever but when they vote they vote in unity. i want to see republicans work together that way this year to get something done with the majority they are given, and to support our president's agenda that will be great for this country if they will support them. chip roy this morning talking about he was sent there to make change but if you have three people like him that want to make change, do they not realize when they do things they are trying to do now, stir the pot, because the problems that when they want to get these items through, that they want to make the change, they have to have the support of the people they are going against today to buck the system? host: hang on the line. i will go back to pedro with an update on chip roy and i will come back for your reaction.

host: thanks for the segue on chip roy, les. "ahead of today's vote, trump tells me he is confident in johnson's success." he has been in touch with chip roy and other holdouts. he said he is not eyeing anyone else for speaker. that is kristin holmes. don bacon saying "in light of calls from some saying chip roy should be ahead of the rules committee, putting chip roy in charge of the rules committee is like putting stalin in charge of amnesty and diplomacy. if you want an idea of how unpopular chip roy would be." host: rome, georgia, you just

heard donald trump predicting he believes chip roy will fall in line. caller: i sure hope he does. the others too. until we get a speaker, nothing happens. we've got to have a speaker that works with both sides of the aisle. johnson has shown he can do that and be effective if they will work with him and get things done. when we went through this fiasco, trying to elect a speaker, and we put up with all of that and i watched it time after time, and the frustration as a voter i see, the party i have been supporting for many years cannot work together to get things done in our congress, and that is what i want to see this year. i want to see unity in the republicans, to be able to work

with some democrats to get things done, to make this country better than it has been over the last four years. host: he wants mike johnson to get the gavel today at noon eastern. c-span will be there to capture it and show you the conversations happening on the floor, during that first round in any rounds that may follow if they cannot elect a speaker on the first vote. adrian, new york, democratic. caller: good morning. i stand with chip roy. i am a democrat. a few months ago, he asked the gop on the floor, name one thing you have done. gop couldn't name one thing they have passed.

he needs to stand by his decision, by not voting for johnson. i don't think mike johnson would be a good speaker. he's a puppet from the previous caller. the agenda will not pass. i stand with my democrats. host: let's listen to chip roy earlier this week laying out concerns about mike johnson. >> i remain undecided. we saw so many failures last year. we are concerned mike will inhibit our ability to advance the president's agenda. i like mike. he is a good friend. the week before christmas, we violated the 72 hour rule twice. we had to have elon and the

president and jd come in and kill it. there is $110 billion unpaid for. we passed $200 billion, taking money out of social security, which will hasten the bankruptcy by six months, all the week before christmas. that is not how we should do business. we spent $1.7 trillion last year with more democrat votes than republican votes. giving $61 billion to ukraine after mike johnson failed to do the border first -- that's a problem. the speaker needs to speak to it if he wants our support. host: chip roy this week talking

about concerns with electing speaker johnson. the top post for the 119th congress. he said we need a plan before january 3. here we are, it's opening day. chip roy, we don't know how he will vote today. he expressed opposition to mike johnson as speaker in the 119th. thomas massie is a hard no. there could be a dozen republicans opposed to johnson serving the post. it will unfold at noon eastern on c-span. washington journal live from capitol hill, a few steps away from the capitol dome, one of the house office buildings, the canon rotunda. the media has gathered. it is getting noisier on the hill.

lawmakers have arrived. they are staffed. the media watching washington and capitol hill to see what happens with this speaker vote. your thoughts on the 119th congress, and your message to the lawmakers. peter, bolton, massachusetts, independent. caller: hi. thanks. there should be unity to get a good conservative speaker in in place of johnson. challenge yourselves, see if you can do it congressmen and get going. the thing that has to stop is chaos marketing. all these cabinet members being submitted by humpty dumpty

trumpty are not good. get great people like liz cheney to do the job, and watch servant of the people on netflix that tells the story of zelenskyy. that's what's happening to our country. host: you are a conservative? caller: i am an independent, formerly democrat. i was raised around a bunch of republicans. the values happening here these days are nuts. i like the way the democrats work. they get things done. they should clean out these chaos marketers and get moving. do their jobs. every time i see a congressman local in my state i say please get in and do your job. that's what i want congress to do. i hope everyone heard me. host: peter says formerly democrat now independent,

watching from capitol hill. what happens with the speaker wrote? -- vote. the house will gavel in in a few seconds. we will bring you to the floor when they do. the house floor door. we expect this to be quick. we will come back and pick up the conversation with you. on c-span2, you will get live house coverage as well.

le you, o god, made the moon to mark the seasons and the sun knows the time of its setting. and now as this 118th congress sets down its last gavel, and the journals are sealed and archived, we give you thanks, that in your eternal mercy, you

have allowed us your goodness to pass over us. and privileged us to call on your name for the strength we have needed to sustain us in these years. you have been exceedingly gracious to us and have shown us your steadfast loving kindness time and again. grant then that all who labored in this vineyard, who gave of their countless hours and unwe have aering energy -- unwavering energy, would receive your own, well done. the silent champions of the clerk's office. the stalwart sentries of the sergeant of arms staff and the capitol police. the unanimous artisans and authors. the unheralded men and women whose patient dedication to the people's house has kept the lamp lighted and the nation's business principled and proper. receive, o lord, the work of our hands and grant us the rewater of your blessing on the leg -- reward of your blessing on the legacy of this 118th congress. in your eternal name we pray.

amen. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to section 3-z of house resolution 5, the journal of the last day's proceedings is approved. the chair will lead the house in the pledge of allegiance. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. under clause 5-d of rule 20, the chair announces to the house that in light of the resignation of the gentleman from north carolina, mr. jackson, the whole number of the house is 429. the house lays before -- the chair lays before the house a communication. the clerk: the honorable the speaker, house of representatives. sir, as i prepare to be sworn in as governor of puerto rico, i hereby make my official resignation from the u.s. house of representatives effective

11:59 p.m. on wednesday, january 1, 2025. enclosed is the letter i transmitted to governor pedro r. per lucy of puerto rico. it has been an honor to represent the people of puerto rico in congress for the past eight years. it has also been a privilege to serve with you and our colleagues in the house during this time. i look forward to continuing working together in my new role as governor. signed, sincerely, jenniffer gonzalez colon. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to clause 12-a of rule 1, the chair declares the house in recess subject to the call of the chair. host: we are in the closing minutes of the 118 congress. we will gavel and at noon and

then close out, they will gavel back in for the beginning of the 1/19 congress. live on capitol hill, awaiting the beginning of the 119th congress. first-order business is electing a speaker in the house, only the house votes for speaker. will mike johnson have the votes? you will hear from members, how many are in the chamber. c-span will be there to capture the faces and voices as they stand up to elect a speaker. what name do they shout? mike johnson? in unity from the republican party? democrats in unity, 215, will say the name hakeem jeffries. we are watching in washington and around the country to see what happens. before that, we are getting your thoughts on this 119 congress

and want to know what your message is to this congress? david, democrat. caller: historic narrow margin the democrats, minority, have a chance to influence legislation. unity is important. i have concerns as a centrist who became a democrat preceding the 2016 election. i am still a centrist and have concerns over the squad and their allies in the house that sometimes make it difficult for democrats in other areas of the country like iowa. i would like to have them and others in the party of that persuasion to hold down the rhetoric. if we don't, i am afraid four years from now, we will be listening to a president elect jd vance.

host: what do you mean hold down the rhetoric? which rhetoric? caller: we have heard from various members of the squad. when they start spouting something very left of center, it turns off the people, particularly in the upper midwest. specifically, i remember when representative omar said defund the police prior to one of the elections. specifically i can point to certain congressional districts in the upper midwest, wisconsin and iowa where democrats lost seats because of that statement. host: david in cedar rapids, iowa, democratic. more calls coming up on washington journal. mike johnson in december spoke

with reporters about the mood in washington and the legislative road ahead. >> palpable sense this is a new day in america. we sense that everywhere. american families are ready to see america first agenda. we are excited. you hear talk about the agenda. we are working on that now. house republicans are working to enact that agenda. last week we brought elon musk here to discuss how we cut waste, fraud and abuse from federal government. it was very productive. we had a small group and a larger one and the congressional auditorium. thank you for being here for that. we are laying the groundwork for our aggressive 100 day agenda in congress we have been planning for a long time. host: speaker johnson in

december. live on capitol hill, joining us , the chair of the appropriations committee. you are close to leadership and support speaker johnson. does he have the votes? guest: he will get more votes than any other republican could. if you cannot vote for johnson, you are saying you are not going to have a republican speaker. everyone knows mike, likes mike, respects mike. can't vote for him, i don't know who you would vote for. host: does he get the votes on the first-round? guest: hope so. some people may reverse on the second. in the end, there is one possible alternative. we are not going to elect a democratic speaker. if you cannot vote for johnson,

you will push us toward a coalition speaker. host: what do you mean? guest: you would have to have someone who could get democratic votes. republicans who cannot vote for johnson do not have a candidate. there is no one they are pushing. you are saying i want a republican, i won a coalition. that would be in a norma's mistake. -- that would be an enormous mistake. i would urge colleagues on the fence to recognize and vote accordingly. host: what's happening behind the scenes? guest: people are trying to leverage the speaker, attract concessions for themselves personally or some ideological point. the speaker has been consistent,

saying i am not making backroom deals with anybody. this is different from two years ago. . that's the appropriate stance. you've had a year plus to see johnson is speaker. he's delivered and gotten things done and kept the government open. he's prepared to work with the president. the president said this is the guy i want. i don't know what else you need unless you are holding out for yourself. host: chip roy and others opposed, some would like him to serve as chair of the rules committee. guest: the speaker, i trust the speaker. he said i'm not making backroom deals. i don't think he has. he will make that decision after he is elected. that's appropriate. any advice i have for speaker, i deliver in private. host: what about spending?

guest: we have a spending problem. no question. most of it on the budget. social security, medicare, medicaid. we need reforms. doesn't mean we need to cut. i think doge will give us good suggestions. long-term we cannot balance the budget, it's not large enough. $1.7 trillion, crazy to say only, but we spend roughly $6 trillion per year, most of that on social security, medicare and medicaid. it's not in the appropriated budget. the appropriated budget, half of it is defense. i don't know anyone who wants to cut defense. a big chunk is on the southern border, don't know anyone wants to cut that. most people think we ought to keep our commitment to

veterans. host: some of those opposed to speaker johnson say it is the way he passed legislation for spending in washington. they want to see appropriations come to the floor one by one and get voted on individually. guest: we had all of them out of committee. they were all at the fiscal responsibility act level. somewhere below that. the package was less spending than speaker mccarthy agreed to. people still couldn't vote for that. at some point you have to decide if you want to be part of the solution or the problem. i suggest people who cannot commit to voting for mike johnson have decided they would rather be part of the problem. host: why do they always pass continuing resolutions and take

it to the 11th hour? guest: they are not following the rules of the congress they belong to. these things are supposed to be settled. there is nothing wrong. host: who is not following the rules? guest: the republicans? that's right. we picked our nominee. he got overwhelming support. you are supposed to express disagreement. if you disagree, fine. put up a candidate and vote. once we make a decision as a congress, you are obligated as a member to support that decision on the floor. we have members that don't understand that this is a team sport. when the team makes a call, the president has made a call, you want to be supportive. host: what do you mean they don't understand? guest: it's relatively new. we've seen it beginning with speaker boehner, when we had

people trying to use the motion to vacate as leverage against him. the majority didn't want to do it. same thing with speaker ryan. eventually took out speaker mccarthy. people have to decide, and my part of the team or not? if you are part of the team, you vote for the person the team overwhelmingly want and the incoming president said he needs. simple. if you are holding out after that, you are asking for something special for yourself or something the majority of the conference has not agreed to. that's inappropriate. the conference gives you your committee assignment. if you're going to be successful, the conference has to buy into it. we will honor the rules of the conference and the conference is selecting mike johnson. host: tom massey says he is a hard no. victoria spartz, republican from

indiana said i don't want a committee assignment. guest: they have to make their individual decisions. i respect that. they are there decisions. on the other hand, if you are going to run for office, as a republican, you ought to respect the rules of the republican congress and vote accordingly. if you don't want to be part of the conference, you should tell that to your voters ahead of time and say i don't want to serve on any committees. you're giving up the influence of your district on important areas of legislation. i don't understand the approach. the numbers are small enough, a few characters can exert a lot of leverage. we will see what happens. mike johnson is the overwhelming, has the overwhelming support of republicans. republicans ought to adhere to that. host: it's a small margin today

when the boat takes place. -- vote takes place. guest: depends on how many people show up. i suspect most will show up. if you don't get sworn in, you don't get paid. that's a powerful incentive. i assume each side will have all its members here or most of them. if they are not here, there is probably a good reason. illness or crisis in the family. we have to live with it the next two years. the magic number is if everyone is here, probably 217, because we don't have a receipt filled. we cannot afford to lose more than one member. host: if thomas massie is a no, who are you watching? guest: it's the usual suspects. the people that like drama, like to be on tv, want to exert leverage.

it's the same group. congress didn't work as well as it should have last congress because of that. i hope this is different. if we are going to pass an aggressive agenda by president trump,, we have to work together. sometimes you have to vote for things that are not 100% what you would like. i have never seen a bill 100% what i would like. that is part of the nature of the beast. you have to learn that. you don't accomplish anything positive as a loan actor. you can do a lot of disruption but you cannot do any good for the american people or your constituents. you owe your constituents and the people better than that. host: congress cannot get to the agenda until they elect a speaker. guest: we don't have a speaker, we cannot do anything else. that was one of the dangers for three weeks in the last congress.

shortly after we vacated the chair, we had the attack on israel. literally, we couldn't do anything to help israel for three weeks. it took longer before we knew. we got things done thanks to speaker johnson. same thing could happen now. we live in a dangerous world. the inability of congress to act is a danger to the republicans. anyone should want to have a speaker. host: will leadership call a meeting before the vote? guest: a lot will depend on what happens in the first ballot. the stakes couldn't be more obvious. you either support president trump or you don't. you support the conference you are part of and abide by its rules and its chosen leader or you don't. if you don't, you owe an explanation to the people as to why you cannot do what is expected of you and tell us who

you think would be better. no one has done that. honestly, whoever it is, they will not get as much support as mike johnson. it's blindingly obvious. you would have to be deliberately obtuse not to know what to do. host: the agenda. what will republicans in the house to? you have the majority. guest: we have a national mandate expressed through the presidential election. president trump, the first republican to win the popular vote in 20 years, the first republican to win this level of electoral votes since. 1988 he said clearly what he wants to do. secure the border, i suspect that is job number one. he has people in place to do that assuming the senate act, and i think they will. he wants to be reconciliation that will secure the trump tax

cuts from 2017. he wants physical discipline. in the end, that will take not just dealing with appropriations but the larger issue of mandatory spending. the people looking at that on doge and in congress know that it will take some tough decisions. it will have to be bipartisan. long-term those are things the president wants to accomplish. host: emily brooks saying with less than one hour to go, one well-placed source says if speaker johnson doesn't win on the first ballot, the house will likely move into one more vote. guest: i would hope so. that would give people who did not vote. this is the republicans problem. give them an opportunity to do the right thing and hopefully they will do that. it would be easier if they did it on the first ballot.

host: tom cole, thank you for talking to c-span. guest: you guys are the best. thank you. host: thank you sir. back to pedro with an update on what's happening in the senate today, day one of the 119th congress. host: part of the job of the vice president on days like this is to swear in new members of congress and other members, this is from time magazine as of today, kamala harris swearingen senators, who don't even say her name right. when vice president kamala harris arrives to swear in the new class of senators, many of the smiling politicians will be the same ones who for months have been telling crowds that she was a threat to the american way of life, falsely claiming she wanted to ban christmas or

rig the election by undocumented immigrants. of the four senators taking notes, they spoke at the republican convention in milwaukee last year, they took moments to ridicule her. it is a reality every vice president faces and their role as president of the senate, still particularly raw. there is more there from time magazine. other events on the senate side, we told you how chuck grassley, republican from iowa will become president pro tem. "i will be sworn in once again as president pro tem.

last time and i went was president pro tem was senator cummings, 1999-19 25." as of today tim scott, republican of south carolina becomes the longest-serving black senator in u.s. history, appointed to the senate in 2012 by governor nikki haley. he was the first black republican senator since 1978 and the first black republican senator from the south since reconstruction. senator scott putting out his own comments on the milestone saying this milestone reinforces the progress we have made in america. south carolina, people consistently judge not on the color of one's skin, but by the content of your character." host: live on capitol hill, we

heard from emily brooks about the latest on the speaker race. she is joining us now. thank you for being here. what have you learned? guest: going into this vote, which will happen in a little over an hour, we still don't know if speaker johnson can lock up the vote. it seems likely he will fail the first ballot, barring some surprise on the floor with these dozen holdouts. they are looking for concessions on spending issues and process commitments, even throwing out the idea of making chip roy chair of the house rules committee, which speaker johnson said he doesn't want to wheel and deal like speaker mccarthy did two years ago. with that in mind, it's highly likely he will fail the first ballot. if that happens, i'm told likely it would go to a second ballot

immediately. leadership would have a better idea at that point if this was someone needing to voice their opinions or is this going to require more negotiation and then we will figure out where to go from there. host: c-span will be in the chamber to capture the vote, then the movement after if they go to a second vote, who would you be watching in the chamber? where should our cameras be? what should they be showing? guest: chip roy. he is looked at as the house freedom caucus member who historically has been a negotiator on tricky issues with leadership. somebody elevated by the house freedom caucus. house freedom caucus chairman andy harris, he has an important position there. victoria spartz is another

undecided who has not committed to speaker johnson. she is the biggest wildcard. we don't know how they will be voting. she's had a history of taking positions that are a little bit odd. has a history of making a decision, and then reversing decisions later. she is hard to predict. host: there are a dozen. are there more than 12 possibly against speaker johnson? guest: it's possible. these are people who we haven't gotten an answer one way or the other however it was just holiday break. members left after being frustrated by the short-term spending bill. maybe there are members who have

not said specifically they would vote for speaker johnson but they are still unsure. the 12 mostly the freedom caucus along with victoria spartz are the people going in and out of speaker johnson's office yesterday. there are some members of the freedom caucus who say they will support him on the floor, including anna paulina luna who was one of the members two years ago who withheld support for speaker mccarthy. that's probably a good sign for the speaker. host: marjorie taylor greene will back speaker johnson. she threatened to oust him earlier this year. guest: her support for speaker johnson now, she not only made, tried to force a vote to oust him, she was extremely critical of him for months. she was one of his biggest

antagonists, even bigger than thomas massie at one point. her support for him now is an indicator of the influence president elect trump has on this process. above all else, marjorie taylor greene will be a team player for trump. she put out a video on x last night reiterating her desire to stop infighting, have republicans coalesce and not delay republicans taking control of congress in implementing the trump agenda. host: how deep does that influence run with folks in the freedom caucus? define with the freedom caucus is. talk about their influence. guest: the freedom caucus created in 2015 was designed to be an antagonist to leadership and get the most conservative policies possible but not

through other tactics like being more of a think tank or exchange of ideas, but using aggressive legislative tactics to try and put pressure on leadership in order to extract those concessions and things they want. historically, the freedom caucus has done things like been leaders in negotiations on spending issues. they were key in pushing out speaker john boehner many years ago. and of course, many of them would help support speaker kevin mccarthy two years ago. that group is very individualistic. there is a lot of variety of the members when it comes to what exactly they are looking for. it was concessions kevin mccarthy made to folks in the freedom caucus that put in a

rule that allowed just one member to offer a motion to vacate. now, this rules package for the 119th congress, if they get to it today, and if it passes with republicans because the democrats won't vote for it, now it would take how many republicans to provoke an ouster of the speaker? guest: the threshold would increase significantly to nine members. it is to get nine members willing to trigger a vote to and -- oust a speaker and with the margin now it would mean the speaker was automatically ousted. host: how did that come about, the nine? you guessed: the number was --guest: the number was

negotiated. there were more governance minded anti-chaos republicans in the republican congress who for a long time after speaker mccarthy was ousted wanted to raise the threshold to prevent that exact kind of situation from happening again. in november, when, after the election, there were a number of internal house republican rules, suggested anti-chaos measures to do things like punish members by taking them off committees, things like that, if they went against the vast majority of the conference on things like leadership, or voting down a procedural vote. the house freedom caucus and the main street caucus leaders along with speaker johnson negotiated this agreement concession to raise the threshold to nine members. it's very interesting. two years ago, as you mentioned, this was a very key ask of the

holdouts on speaker mccarthy. this time it seems like a settled matter. every what i am talking to a saying that the nine seems pretty locked in. speaker johnson doesn't want to change the rules package or deliver any kind of side deal. host: what sort of concessions is he willing to make? he did tell reporters he was open to ideas. guest: it is difficult because it is a lot more nebulous. speaker johnson doesn't want to do things like committing to changing the motion to vacate threshold. he does not want to do things like committing to put chip roi as chair of the house rules committee. but what the members are asking for is things like commitments on spending reduction. if you have new spending, offset that with a vote on spending reduction. if you have votes that are controversial, do not rely on democratic support to push them through.

if there is a big bill coming and being designed, these members want to be more involved with the process. they don't want to be blindsided by what was largely negotiated by staff on something like the continuing resolution budget agreement in december. that was very much a point of frustration for those members. those are the kinds of commitments they are seeking. it is hard for speaker johnson to fulfill those requests. if he is not going to makes ideals, -- side deals if these are more like promises and commitments about how he will operate rather than something tangible other members can go to to say yes this is something that will be happening. host: what does the conference want the speaker to bring to the floor as the first piece of legislation? what will that look like? guest: there are a number of bills that in the rules packaged will be authorized to be brought

up quickly. one of those is something that representative thomas massie said he didn't like, sanctioning the icc for how it hindered -- handled matters regarding israel and gaza. there are a number of republican pieces of legislation that passed the house of the last congress they will quickly bring up for a vote. really, it is not so much the first piece of legislation that will be the marker for house republicans. it will be the major reconciliation bill that will include a lot of trump agenda items, potentially, tax cuts, border policies. even, as they were talking about in december, potentially, a debt limit increase coupled with $2.5 trillion in spending reduction. that's a huge piece of legislation.

it will bypass the democratic filibuster in the senate. it will need a unanimous republican support almost and it has to pass there. it will be very difficult to get there. host: emily brooks, will you be out of the chamber for the speaker vote? guest: i will. host: what is it like in the chamber for a consequential vote like that today? guest: it is interesting because you can see, as your viewers can see on the c-span cameras, everybody talking to each other. i will have a pretty good vantage point of the republican side. i will be looking at who is speaker johnson talking to? i was just remembering back two years ago. kevin mccarthy was sitting in his seat as he was going through ballot after ballot. that failed. he was sitting down letting it happen. he was not looking frazzled. will speaker johnson be talking to people as he is doing that? will he have deputies or people negotiating on his bow for him?

that is what i will be looking for. host: will we see arms being twisted? guest: never say never. host: emily brooks we will follow your reporting's with the hill newspaper. follow her on x at emily brooks news. thank you very much. we appreciate it. we will continue on the washington journal until noon eastern time. we are simulcasting on c-span one and two this morning. the senate will come in quickly around 11:45 a.m. eastern time. we will go to that and then come back. then when he expected the house together in close to noon and then gavel out of the 118th congress and a few minutes later they will come right back and gavel in for the 119th. we will split off at that point with a live coverage of the house on c-span and live coverage of the senate on c-span

two. follow along at c-span.org or on our app c-span now. back to calls. dean in pennsylvania, and independent. your message to lawmakers. caller: good morning. we just have to listen to donald trump. that is the bottom line. he made the gracious decision of appointing elon musk and vivek ramaswamy. that was amazing. host: ok. you are saying get behind speaker mike johnson? caller: 100%. i come from pennsylvania, a small town called clarion. the community has my back. they would respect every decision i make. host: you think the republican party needs to be more like your community, get in line? caller: yes. but respecting the democrats.

we need to respect each other and at the bottom line work together to make nation better. host: in arkansas, witton, a republican. your turn. all right. caller, are you there? next, arkansas. republican caller. are you with us? caller: can you hear me? host: we can. good morning. caller: i agree with the other colors with regards to the 119th congress. there has to be unity with the republican party. however, i do understand where congressman chip roy and others are coming from hesitant to vote in mike johnson. congress was attempting to pass a huge spending bill a few weeks ago with money going to all kinds of absurd places. mike johnson can't let them get their way with everything. but i believe that donald trump will keep mike johnson under

close observation with this and ensure they are both on the same page. having said that i are to the 119th congress to vote in mike johnson so they can get to work and certify the presidential election and swear in new members. they potentially only have two years to do so with republicans holding both chambers. host: all right. a civics lesson from our caller in arkansas. the selection of the speaker make -- must take place first at the beginning of the congress. nothing else can happen unless they elect a speaker in the house. only the house votes for the speaker. at the and it in the 119th and go about their business today. the vice president kamala harris will be swearing in the members of the senate for the 119th congress. watch that on c-span2 today gavel-to-gavel. we will have the ceremonial swearing in. coverage of that on c-span3 on the senate side.

look for that as well today. the house, if they can elect a speaker, will then carry on with their business and have the swearing in of members on the house floor it also have ceremonial swearing in, putting their hands on the bible with their families into. many of them have their families and friends here in washington on this opening day of the 119th congress. we are about five minutes away from the senate meeting to formally gavel out of the 118th congress and prepare for their new session around 11:45 a.m. eastern. the house will follow suit closer to noon. then at noon, we will split off and bring you live coverage of the senate on c-span2. stay right here for coverage of the house floor. c-span cameras will be in the chamber when they go to vote for speaker of the house. lucy in mobile, alabama, a

democratic caller. good morning to you. do you have a message for lawmakers in washington? caller: yes. thank you so much for taking my call. i agree with the other kroner a while ago. even in alabama, it's red state. i am a democrat. i have analyzed mike johnson's demeanor. he is a wonderful person trying to do his best to bring the nation together. so i think that, like the other caller, it is important democrats and republicans come together and work together for the nation. thank you so much. host: lucy in mobile, alabama, democratic caller. let's go back for more in today's agenda. focusing on the senate. what to expect when the senate

does gavel in starting the work of the 119th congress. it will start with the swearing in of newly elected and reelected senators by the vice president of the united states, kamala harris. once they establish the presence of a quorum they will adopt their administrative resolutions, their standing leaders and then the process of legislative work happens when they agree to dates when joint bills and resolutions may be introduced and then the election of the president pro tem, the senator from iowa, chuck grassley, the oldest member of the senate, and now the president pro tem of the 119th congress. host: the senate, that is what you will see when they gavel in at noon eastern. before that, in just a couple minutes, the senate will be gaveling in for the closing out the 118th congress. you are watching here on c-span and c-span two. we are simulcasting washington journal. we will bring both networks to the senate floor in a few minutes when they gavel in.

we will come back and continue on in washington journal until noon eastern time. at that point the house will gavel in and take the speaker vote. we will hear from benny in illinois, and independent. good morning. if you cannot make it quick we expect the senate to be gaveling in. we have a couple minutes. caller: i saw your interviews with mckinley and osha and they were fantastic. you got them to say a lot of things i don't think they were supposed to say. i think they should just go ahead and get johnson in and then fight down the road just so we can to get this over with. it is terrible to see them in fighting. when did we elect must and vivek ramaswamy? i don't remember talking about them before. anyway, happy new year.

guest: you said you wanted to do the speaker vote in the first round so then they can get to their business. what should be the first thing they do what i washington in the 119th congress? caller: i looked up the icc thing. host: i will leave it there because, as we said, the senate meeting to formally gavel in the 118th does gavel out the 118th conference -- gavel out the 118th congress and begin the new session. we take you live on c-span.

>> the senate will come to order. guest: that's it --. host: that's it. the senate gaveled out. a quick pro forma session from them. they are expected to come back at noon eastern time. watch gavel to gavel coverage on c-span2. here on c-span we are simulcasting on c-span one and c-span2 this morning. washington journal on c-span. minute gavel-to-gavel coverage of the house floor. c-span cameras will be in the chamber. we will be controlled and what you see and how the vote unfolds. will speaker mike johnson get the vote? he can only afford to lose one

is all those we expect to show up today do so in the house chamber at noon eastern with the vote will take place. if they can elect a speaker, then they can go about their governing business. then they will vote on a rules package for the 119th congress. you learned this morning that the rules package includes language that says the speaker of the house can -- a resolution to vacate the chair cannot be brought forward unless there are nine republicans in support of doing so. the threshold for dethroning the speaker has been raised from a one in the 118th congress to nine republicans in the 119th congress. that stay one of the house of representatives. -- that is day one of the house of representatives. there you can see the order of what you will see when they gavel in the 119th congress.

let's go to margarita in florida, democratic caller. we are taking a handful of calls, margarita, before we get to the house. go ahead. caller: yes. regarding the 119th congress, i would like them to leave social security and medicare alone. i worked for 50 years. that was a trust i paid into. it is easy for them to fix the problem because all they have to do is raise the cap of social security. that is all they have to do. because, no matter how much you make, you are entitled to social security. you are entitled to medicare at age 55. leave us alone. i do believe if the 119th congress does anything to

negatively affect social security and medicare that in two years, a lot of republicans in office now will be kicked out because those that are 65 and older i believe are the largest voting group. >> margarita and a florida saying don't touch social security. she doesn't want that on the agenda for republicans. in washington they have a trifecta. they control the house, senate, and white house in 2025. we will see if they can retain control after the next midterm election two years from now. in the meantime, minutes away from the vote on who will lead the republican party in the house. it will become speaker? will it be mike johnson? does he have the vote? the first round begins shortly after noon eastern.

c-span cameras are in the room. you will be able to see the conversations that happen as the vote takes place in the chamber. keep it here on c-span, online at c-span.org, or watch on the go with our free video and mobile app, c-span now. start in morristown, tennessee, a republican. scott. good morning. caller: good morning. i would like to say the republicans need to quit fighting with each other to try to get something done for the people. meanwhile, the democrats keep wasting money. putting more in their pockets then they are in the american people's. they say it is what the american people want. but it's not all of the american people that are tired of their

money put in think that are overseas, things like that. we all have different outlooks on that. they need to come up with an idea to make things better for all american people. not just one side. >> scott in tennessee, a republican caller. robert, and independent in norfolk, virginia, minutes away from the speaker vote and the opening of the 119th congress, day one. what's your message to lawmakers? >> i want to see them get together tonight to go ahead and vote in mike johnson. the election is over. we need to get the country together. i want to see congress get to work expanding tax cuts. get the prices in the stores down. food and everything is too high.

i want to see them get into deregulation responsibly. and also, get back to it independence. we need to use everything we can use to get -- use and use it responsibly. those are the few things i really want to seek about early this year. host: robert with the to do list for this republican majority in the house and senate and control of the white house. chuck in connecticut, democratic caller. hello, chuck. caller: thank you for taking my call. there is a problem solvers caucus that i am very supportive of. the caucus has an opportunity to use some of the democrats ability to vote for the speakers , for speaker johnson is a way of encouraging bipartisan republican party. it will keep president trump and the republican party from voting

for extremists on the republican side and i think it will usher in the beginning of a bipartisan effort by president trump and the democrats to work closely together. that is my hope. host: a close watch her of congress referencing the problem solvers caucus in washington. a group that works for bipartisan agreement. veronica, a kentucky republican. caller: i am wanting representative nancy to vote yes. -- representative massey to vote yes for johnson. they need to come together. we are from kentucky. we put representative massey in there. we want him to vote yes for johnson. host: veronica putting her

support behind mike johnson. it he have the votes first-round to become speaker? emily brooks of the hill has been told they will right away go to a second round to see if then speaker mike johnson has of the vote to retain the top post for republicans in the 19th congress. there are about a dozen or so republicans that will be watching in the chamber with our c-span cameras today if you get to follow along on c-span to get online at c-span.org or our free video and mobile app c-span now. the conversations happening, the huddles in the chamber, and commit actual vote itself all live, part of our c-span coverage. robert in roger city, michigan, and independent. hello, robert. caller: i just wanted to say elon musk and vivek ramaswamy are lobbyists. they have no actual position to influence mike johnson. mike johnson is not bipartisan.

the democrats are bipartisan on the bills for ukraine and all those type of things. he broke his word there. he is not reliable. everybody keeps forgetting about the 2025. they never speak about the people. they speak about donald trump. that is all i have to say. thank you. host: robert in rogers city, michigan, and independent caller. we believe that house will come in to formally gavel out the 118th congress in just a minute, or maybe less as we simulcast here on c-span one and c-span two. you are watching the washington journal. we have been live from capitol hill this morning. at noon eastern here on c-span we will bring you live coverage of the house and the speaker vote and then we will go to c-span2 for live coverage of the senate. this and it go about gaveling in

the 119th congress and their business, their legislative business and procedural agenda they have to do to get the 119th congress underway. on the house side, we will see what happens. nothing gets done until they elect a speaker. no debate, no vote, no governing. keep your channel here. if you are interested in watching the speaker vote on c-span, live gavel-to-gavel coverage of the vote with c-span cameras in the room. mobile -- lowell in illinois, democratic caller. caller: obviously, i am calling on the democratic side. i have no problem with the unity function. i have heard a couple people that i agree with. vivek ramaswamy. obviously i am not a donald trump fan.

if we remember four years ago what happened, january 6 some of the insurrection. that was real. for anyone to not say that, that does not sit well with me. i have no problem with unity. but, it's not helpful to the united states when you have a cultlike mentality. i think there should be bipartisanship. host: the house is gaveling in to close out the 118th congress. live coverage on c-span and c-span two. host: pursuant to the 20th amendment . host: there was the speaker

gaveling down the 118th. we expect the house will come back in just a minute or two to gavel in the 119th congress. micah shoulder is reporting speaker mike johnson says we think we are there, feeling confident he will have the votes to be speaker on the first ballot. he adds, it says nothing if he loses the first round. if he loses the first round, we have learned from emily brooks they expected to go right away to the second round. if he loses that round, we will see what happens. stay on c-span. our cameras will be in the chamber for the vote. they will gavel in the 119th congress at noon eastern. we are just a few minutes away. on c-span two we will bring you the opening day of the 119th congress of the senate for those of you watching on c-span, we will take you live to the house floor.

c-span has received permission from the speaker to use our own cameras and a house chamber for the speaker's election. as many of you know, cameras are otherwise controlled and operated by the house of representatives, not by c-span. the major storyline of the day we have been talking about all morning all the washington journal, the election for house speaker. president-elect donald trump-endorsed current speaker mike johnson last week, but johnson still faces opposition within his own party to retain the post. it like last time, there could be multiple rounds of voting. at that will be the first order of business. when the house convenes for the 119th congress in just a few minutes, stay here on c-span for a gavel-to-gavel coverage. and as i said, for those of you watching c-span to, you will be taken live to the senate floor. vice president harris will preside. senators will be sworn in. we will hear from the new senate majority leader john thune and

it leader chuck schumer. -- and it democratic leader chuck schumer. we are waiting now for the house to gavel in as well as the senate. you have been watching the washington journal here simulcasting on c-span and c-span two all morning live from a capitol hill. the house. we are seconds away. they will gavel in the 100 19th congress. the speaker vote will take place -- 119th congress but the speak of it will take place. c-span cameras are in the chamber. stay here to watch as the vote on -- unfolds. will it be more than one round that it takes to enact the speaker in the house? live coverage on c-span. tune in to c-span two for live coverage of the senate. opening day of the 119th congress.