life coverage here on c-span. >> a federal judge is extending the pause on implementing the trump administration's federal buyout program after temporarily blocking the plan last week to hear a-- last week, to hea additional arguments from employee unions. e offer went out to more than two million federal employe promising to pay their salaries and benefs until the end of september if they agreed to resign by midnight last thursday. that was extended to midnight tonight based on the judge's orders. unions have urged members not to accept the buyout offer, saying the trump adminisation can't be trusted to honor it. nearly 165,000 employees have signed upper in buyouts as of friday. >> c-span, democracy unfiltered. we're funded by these television companies and more. including midco. >> where are you going?

or more maybe a better question is, how far do you want to go? and how fast do you want to get there? now we're getting somewhere. so let's go. let's go faster. let's go further. let's go beyond. >> mid coe supports c-span as a -- midco sports c-span as a public service along with these other television providers, giving you a front row seat to democracy. "washington journal" continues. host: joining us is stephen neukam co-author of axios's hill newsletter. we are talking about the trump agenda. thank you for being with us. we will start with congress and what they are working on.

number one is the budget. remind our audience what the fiscal deadline congress is facing our -- congress is facing are? guest: they have a funding deadline august 18. this is the deal they made last year that they would kick government funding into early in his first 100 days. now they are coming up against that. the short of it is they are just not on track to get this done by march 14. at least the regular order passed all of these bills. they need to supercharge this process over the next month and if they are going to reach the march 14 deadline we will need action from appropriators and from leadership in the next two weeks. host: a phrase will be hearing a lot of his reconciliation. this is a legislative maneuver

the gop could use, explain what that is. guest: the budget reconciliation process allows republicans in the senate to circumvent the filibuster process say they will not need 60 votes in the senate, they only need 50, which is a big hurdle for any party in the senate. what they are able to do there is move money around, change federal spending priorities, they cannot necessarily make policy for the reconciliation process, but they can allocate money differently for different priorities and different office so they are trying to take two bites of the apple, the house gop is. they want to do a border bill and another one that has to do with taxes and tax reform and extending those tax cuts. in the first year of the trump administration this is the biggest thing that is in front of them. host: something else we could be hearing is the phrase budget resolutions.

both the house and senate can use those. explain what they are and what role they can play in the process. guest: right now that is the big hold up on the resolutions and tried to figure out which chamber will go first in this process. the issue for republicans, the biggest issue on capitol hill as they have a very slim house majority. the challenge is to get anything through that house that most likely will get through the senate. they've been trying to figure out which chamber will go first. they want the house to go first. they have had major delays and the markups with their budget resolutions. the senate last week unveiled its first budget resolution ready to go. if they have to, procedurally in the senate it is slower to get that started and that is usually why they defer to the house. we will see how much patient senate majority leader john thune has with house speaker mike johnson to get the troops

in order on the house side and get a budget resolution done. host: it was senator lindsey graham who is the chair of the senate budget committee who announced the senate has their bill ready to go. the house does not. other than the approach to final passage, what we know about the house and senate, the differences in their priorities. guest: they want to do the same things. they have the same agenda. it is how they get there. mike johnson wants to do this in two processes, with one bill being for the border and energy and defense and another tax package that will go first with the border bill. on the senate side they want to do one big package, tax and border in the same package. mike johnson sees it as easier to get two bills through the

house, not packing everything into one. he says senate leadership does not totally understand the reality of politics in the house. senate leadership wants to do it in one bill, get it done, and again that is the tension. how much patience does john thune have with mike johnson and allowing him to try to do this? host: our guest for the next 25 minutes verso is stephen neukam, the co-author of axios's hill leader newsletter. you can start calling in line. republicans (202) 748-8001, democrats (202) 748-8000, and independents (202) 748-8002. it was last week that hakeem jeffries, the house to reporters and pushed back on the idea that

democrats could hold a passage of a bill. from meet the press, i want to share this clip, senator andy kim, democrat from new jersey. we will get your reaction on the other side. [video clip] >> you take me to my next question because your colleague said he is prepared to try to shut down the government over some of these sledgehammer actions he has seen by you on must. are you prepared to shut down -- he has seen by elon musk. are you prepared to shut down the government? >> you have to look at what the trump administration is doing. they are trying to dismantle the government. yes. if we have to take steps to hold them accountable, we will use leverage we have to force it. i cannot support efforts that will continue this lawlessness we are seeing when it comes to this administration's actions. for us to support government funding and that way only for them to turn it around to dismantle the government, that

is not something that should be allowed. >> you're open to voting yes to shut down the government to make this point? >> this is about whether or not they can get the votes. they are the majority and if they cannot govern that is for the american people to see. i work in government, i've worked through multiple government shutdowns, i would be the last person to want to get to that stage. we are at a point where we are on the cusp of a constitutional crisis seeing this administration taking steps that are slow clearly illegal and until we see a change of that behavior we should not allow and condone that, nor should we assist in that. host: the republicans do have control of both chambers. how likely is it democrats could shut down the government when it comes to these talks and the issues they want to act on? guest: the reality facing democrats as they do not have

many leverage points at all. republicans have unified control of the government. the one leverage point they do have is government funding. they have the leverage because in all likelihood house speaker mike johnson will have to call on minority leader hakeem jeffries for some democratic votes to get any funding resolution through the house and then senate majority leader john thune will aid a number of democratic votes in the senate to pass the bill. they need democratic support. the debate going on internally between democrats is whether it is politically helpful to shut the government down and can you blame on republicans. you've seen the senator making the argument it would be republicans fault, versus when they were in power, when democrats were in power they

were seeing a government shutdown was harmful and dangerous for america and national security. they need to look themselves in the mirror and decide if that is something they're willing to do in the first 100 days of this administration, not hoping to pass government funding. host: we have callers waiting to talk with you. andrea in illinois. good morning. caller: i was calling because i have not heard anything on the news about whether or not in shutting down all of these agencies those services are still available to americans? like student loans or any of the other things. i know some farmers are not getting cost-sharing, things like that. can he talk about what we know about whether the government is functioning at all? guest: it is pretty scattershot. there was a lot of orders that

came from the white house oval office. an array of agencies were affected and there has been an array of court decisions handed down, whether injunctions or the courts blocking moves. it depends on which agency and which area of government you are looking at of what is functioning. democrats on capitol hill have raised the alarm about the government funding spree -- the spending freeze, grants and loans and aid to community services. we know a lot of those in a lot of committees around the u.s. have been delayed if not canceled. i think that is what democrats will raise the biggest fuss about. that is what they are carrying into this fight about government funding. what they're are saying and democratic leadership is that in

any government funding conversation come in any agreement they make with senate and house republicans at the white house, the to express language in this agreement to rescind that funding freeze and guardrails so they make sure the executive branch spends the money the way congress has appropriated that money. host: members have reported they are getting calls in the thousands compared to the double digit numbers they may normally see. how have members responded to calls about elon musk and what they are seeing the doge team do . guest: they are in a hard position. they have constituents telling them they need results and they need to do something. we already talked about the futility of democrats on capitol hill. they cannot do anything concrete

except this government funding deadline next month. they have constituents telling them they want action, they want them to stand in the way, but there's only so much they can do to stand in the way. press conferences, raising awareness. democrats have tried to use social media to get this message across. again, they are hearing from folks that they want action there's not much they can do right now. host: let's hear from william in tennessee. line for republicans. caller: good morning. all i have to say is i think the democrats would go aboard the cruise liners and send the democrats out of the deepest part of the ocean and pull the plug. that is all i have to say. host: any response?

guest: i think the democratic party, if you take a big picture view in 2024, really a catastrophic loss for the party. they were cast into the wilderness in the white house come in congress, statehouses across the country. what they are trying to figure out now is how to get out of that wilderness. in some ways they have been cast out by voters. they have been thrown out of power in washington, d.c. and the internal debates going on within the party are what we need to focus on, what should our leadership look like, what should our message be and how we get that message across? who is it we need to be talking to. they lost the blue wall. they held the blue states in california and new york but lost the margins. it was pretty catastrophic for the party. host: let's hear from mark in cary, north carolina.

line for independence. how are you doing -- caller: how are you doing? host: we are doing well. caller: i have a bunch of questions. you have people showing up of different government agencies, the treasury and so forth and they are looking at what i consider to be secret documents or information. why isn't the media pushing to see the receipts? the federal government has everything in writing and they say we are here for read-only. how do we know that? that is my main question. guest: i think that is a question for the courts more than anything else. they have ruled against the read-only situation for the treasury department payment systems. the judiciary is trying to set up guardrails.

i think my colleagues in the media have done incredible reporting on not only what the department of government efficiency is trying to accomplish and what they are doing but who works there, how they have recruited those folks. i think there's a lot of reporting out there and if you're interested in oversight there is a lot of stuff out there and you should also read about it on axios. host: we may learn more about the work of doge. there is a hearing on wednesday with the subcommittee on delivering on government efficiency titled "the war on waste: stamping out the scourge of improper payments and fraud." two is going to be testifying at that hearing and what are you expecting to come out of that? guest: the number one focus of that hearing and the most fascinating for me is marjorie taylor greene. she is trying to transform herself from this right-wing

flamethrower, this person was on the outskirts of the party who is now becoming an establishment figure, having the chair of a powerful committee that will be in the spotlight for this first hearing. it is interesting to pay attention to her and from the democratic side, who on that committee -- a lot of these earrings are fought in the media, the social media clips. who has those moments of flair, who has the good back-and-forth's? host: a lot of media outlets do show you clips. you'll be able to watch the entire hearing here on c-span. let's hear from tracy in michigan, line for democrats. good morning. caller: i think this is a very dangerous time for our country and the gentleman that call just recently saying the democratic party should essentially be drowned in the ocean is

reprehensible. donald trump is spreading lies and he has demonized half of our country for over five years. people are not aware that usaid performs a vital function that causes the good name of the united states of america across the world. people are not aware there is drug resistant tuberculosis among poor african children, particular in the west cape and it will spread through africa and it will take off and it will come to america. shame on america for turning this back. donald trump is doing tremendous damage. we cannot continue to demonize half of our country. i think it needs to be called out every time we hear it on c-span because it comes up very often and it is dangerous. it is very dangerous. guest: on usaid, an argument

i've heard from democrats on the hill, especially those worried about foreign affairs, veterans like senator mark kelly, is the vacuum the u.s. may be leaving on the international stage with these aid programs and the fear it will be filled by china, by russia yielding the soft power the u.s. has done so successfully over the past century, the fear that adversaries will move into that space and fill the gap the u.s. has left in places like africa. host: the senate is gaveling back into session this afternoon. they are going to be working on confirming more president trump's cabinet picks. tell us who they are going to be looking at and what we know about the status of them being confirmed? caller: the biggest ones --

guest: the biggest ones are the headliners that are yet to be confirmed. tulsi gabbard, robert f. kennedy, jr.. kash patel, the fbi director, that nomination they will not get to. if you talk to republicans they feel better starting this week than they did two weeks ago, especially after the gabbard and kennedy hearings. they got good news from swing votes, phone folks they were not sure would work -- from folks they were not sure would vote for any of these candidates. they were able to pass their committees which is a good indicator of republican support. it will be close. i would not expect much if any democratic

a lot of businesses will be opening in the united states. we'll be meeting over the next four-week period, maybe on a weekly bay circumstances maybe a couple of them at different times and maybe together, but we'll be talking about other subjects like cars, we'll be talking about drugs and pharmaceuticals. we'll be discussing chips and we're going to be doing some other things in addition to that. all which will bring in a lot of

jobs into our country. cars is going to be a very big one. a very important one. america will be stronger than it ever was before. so are you finished with everything? >> we have aluminum still. with respect to aluminum, similarly to steel, a large number of exceptions an exemptions have been added into the law. the limits those around increase the tariff rate from 10% to 25%. pres. trump: mostly the last part is the most important. wouldn't you say? so basically this is aluminum. same thing. no exceptions. no nothing. and it's going to bring our aluminum business back and may go high eric frankly, may go higher. we're going to be also talking about -- talking about things over the next three weeks that i think will be amazing for our country. amazing for our jobs.

and will bring us to a new level of prosperity. and i think frankly our allies and our enemies all over the world expected this. really expected it for years. they really expected it sometime during the biden administration but they didn't do anything. as you know, i put tariffs on china. we took in hundreds of billions of dollars with those tariffs. biden wasn't able to get them out, he tried to, but it was too much money, couldn't do it. we're going to be doing a very con cease and you know very -- it's going to be good. i don't think -- if done properly and we're going to try to do that. we don't want it to hurt other countries. but they've been taking advantage of us for years and years and years. and they've charged us tariffs. most of us have charged us, almost every one, almost without exception, they've charged us and we haven't charged them. it's time to be reciprocal.

you'll be hearing that word a lot. reciprocal. if they charge us, we charge them. if they're at 25, we're at 25678 if they're at 10, we're at 10. if they're much higher than 25, that's where we are too. so that's having to do with everything, in the just steel and aluminum. we'll be discussing that over the next couple of weeks. we'll be looking at chips and we'll be looking at cars and we're going to be looking at pharmaceuticals. maybe a couple of other things also in addition. >> mr. president. mr. president. steelworkers -- what would you say to american consumers are worried that prices -- pres. trump: i love the steel makes. they want to save their businesses. u.s. steel will be a very valuable company. anybody that makes steel is going to be great. anybody that works in big steel is going to be very happy. >> what do you say to consumers?

pres. trump: i don't think -- you're going to ultimately have a price reduction because they're going to maybe the steel here. there won't be any tariff. these foreign companies will move to the utes and make their steel and aluminum in the united states. ultimately it'll be cheaper. but we'll also have jobs. many, many more jobs. we're looking at numbers. we'll be coming up with a number. but we have -- we make some of the pa finest cars in the world. some companies prohibit us from selling those cars in their countries. but they sell us cars, they send cars to us and we don't do that. we charge nothing or 2.5%. and they'll be charging 100%. they'll be charging much more than that if you look at some of them. so i think those days are over. but we'll be announcing on other things such as cars, got some other things we'll be doing. but the biggest thing is reciprocal.

we want tariffs to be fair. if they charge us, we charge them. we'll be doing reciprocal over the next, i would say, two days. don't you think? two days? >> the australian prime minister said an exemption for australia in steel. is that correct? pres. trump: just spoke to him. very fine man. he has a surplus. we have a surplus with australia. one of the few. the reason is they buy a lot of airplanes. they are rather far away. they need lots of airplanes. we actually have a surplus. it's one of the only countries which we do. i told him that that's something that we would give great consideration to. we have a huge deficit with the u.k. big difference. we have a deaf silt with argentina. almost with every country. but australia because of the

airplane, they buy a lot of airplanes. there's a little bit of a surplus. >> if other countries retaliate -- pres. trump: i don't mind. >> what's your plan? pres. trump: the farmers will be helped greatly. the farmers are going to be helped greatly because they're not going to be dumping everything into our country. this will be a great bill for farmers. and in terms of retaliation, if they're retaliating, it's as i said. reciprocal. so if they raise it a little bit, we ray it automatically. i don't think it helps for them to retaliate but also remember this. they cant really re-- they can't really retaliate. we're the piggy bank. if we don't do this, we won't be the piggy bank for long. >> [inaudible] pres. trump: i think it's -- i looked at the hostages that came in. they're emaciated.