host: at our table we are joined y james thurber who is professor of government at american university and also ounder and former director of their center for congressional and presidential studies and from brookings institution. thank you both for being here. rate this current session of congress. we are coming to the close, the year of the irst 115th congress. how would you rate them? has it been a success? rate to the good to compared it other congresses. let's take the first year of the administration. in the first actually two years, few ills passed within a weeks a stimulus bill passed. dodd dodd-frank, the affordable care act pass the. this one will problems. a tax bill. there are a lot of things in the tax bill that are important but bill.x it failed in repealing the affordable care act. they have approved 12 district judges. that is good. the f course that is supreme court justice but they have not done very well. oversight ad some hearings but we have not seen anything from them on russia and election. so i would say i would give them, if they were in my class, give them a d.

james thurber's founder and former director of the american university center of congressional studies it was never a member of congress/ just to clarify that. molly reynolds, what about her sentiment though? president trump is new to washington, and the way washington operates, this year is the way it has operated for many years. guest: i think that is a fair point. it is something he talked about a lot on the campaign, the idea that he would come in and drain the swamp. one of the most important things to think about in the context of is how trumpgress has worked with congress and what he has been able to do with the swamp. one of the challenges republicans in congress face right now is it is pretty internally divided, particularly in the house republican conference. we would think or expect that a president of the same party would do a good job or try to kind of help the house and senate republican parties bridge those internal differences. for me that is one thing we have year asn as much this we might have expected under a different republican president. i think there seems to may

host: james thurber distinguished proffer of at american used and former director and founder of he american university senator for congressional presidential studies, thank you very much. fellow with s brookings institution. we thank you for the conversation. the house is gavelling in for their morning legislative any second. gavel-to-gavelyou service on c-span. this is where it will play out on the house floor. how will they vote to keep the government running and tune in havespan 2 because we will coverage of the votes over there as well. thank you for watching. live coverage of the house. the speaker: the house will be in order. the prayer will be offered by our chaplain, father conroy. chaplain conroy: let us pray. dear god, we give you thanks for giving us another day. bless the members of the people's house in these few days before so many americans gather with families and loved one in a season of good will toward all. may that spirit pervade these halls and chambers and may the work done and being done redown to the benefit of all, most particularly those whom you among us. least as

s far as people continuing to see how they are going to raise money, james thurber is old know david brinkley some of the maybe washington leaders should go out so let me hear them on that. molly first. guest: i think we have seen unfold in congress over the year is some evelation of how much of what we saw under the obama administration from on ressional republicans feewas and the deficit principle stand on opposition to and how muchending was seeing those arguments as a convenient and useful way to particularly to oppose a democratic president in the white house. cases have seen in some some of this rhetoric on fiscal republicans y from get walked back significantly. cases like in some the disaster relief bill the congress is currently considering some republicans to push for adjust sets in spending. important that is an thing. guest: there are probably 50 of the tae tea principled.hey are they went with the tax bill even hough it is generating a trillion plus debt because of other things in the tax bill they wanted. o, when you consider things on the hill, compromise has to occur.

coming up thursday morning, professor james thurber and molly reynolds on the -- significance of the 115th congress so far. and michael sergeant looks at u.s. infrastructure policy and spending following this week's amtrak derailment. washington journal, live beginning at 7:00 a.m. eastern. join the discussion. senate majority leader mitch mcconnell and mark warner will sit down with separate interviews with my gallon. they are expected to talk about the passage of the tax bill and the ongoing russia investigation. because it in a.m. on c-span2. announcer: the house of representatives approved a tax overall. vote, the house debated the bill and the overall rules. cuts and jobs act which i believe is in the interest of the american people. this is a bold, pro-growth plan that will overhaul our tax code

american university's professor james thurber and the brookings institution molly reynolds on the political significance of the 115th congress so far. >>> also, heritage foundation michael sergeant looks at u.s. infra structure policy and spending following this week's amtrak derailment in washington state. >>> c-span wash journal beginning life thursday morning. join the discussion. e thursday . join the discussion. ve thursday. join the discussion. >>> former john fitzgerald kennedy was born on may, 1917. they collected dozens of images that chronicled the life of the 35th president. >> my name is larry schiller and the smithsonian american art museum allowed me to be i guess what you would call a guest curator of this exhibit on jfk. see i was a photographer myself starting in the '50s and i photographed a lot of politicians. i started with richard nixon. governor brown in california. and then of course john f. kennedy. many of the events he was present at and tragically i was in dallas when he was assassinated. why this ex-here in the american art museum at this time? well, it's centenn

coming up thursday morning, american university's professor james thurber and the brookings institution molly reynolds on the political significance of the 115th congress so far. >>> also, heritage foundation michael sergeant looks at u.s. infra structure policy and spending following this week's amtrak derailment in washington state. >>> c-span wash journal beginning life thursday morning. join the discussion. e thursday . join the discussion. ve thursday. join the discussion. >>> former john fitzgerald kennedy was born on may, 1917. they collected dozens of images that chronicled the life of the 35th president. >> my name is larry schiller and

james thurber studied the presidency for over four decades and says the trumption's high t numbers make it hard to be production active. >> we don'ow going to respect to policy, with relationships with respect to the hill. john kelly is adding political staff inclu strategist in preparation for what's sure to be a toughrepubl 46-seat majority in the house, but each with such a big many republicans are worried they could lose control of the house next year. alex? >> chip reid with the president in florida. thanks, chip this, we tern political >> there's a little bit of a mix here. the white house certainly fielded e boldened. they still have the majority in all of the house and the senate. they still have the white house. they want to try to get tyeah, are looming and they have to figure out what they want to ge bill. marco rubio came out recently and s too far in helping corporations. you see lines of peohead on the taxes this year. is there going to be blowback on this next year? >> let's put it this way. i would be prettyrom marco rubi not in all sorts of democratic democrats are on o