Reopen the government but how to get towards a pathway of resolving our most dysfunctional aspects of the senate. How to get an appropriations process moving again. How to get a negotiation that could actually hold out hope of funding our domestic needs, addressing disaster relief, opioids, addressing Community Health centers. We have many things that are not resolved. Reporter do you trust leader mcconnell to move forward . Senator coons we cant move forward if we dont trust each other. I will trust both that leader mcconnell will keep his commitment of a date certain and we now have a window of opportunity where this group has to show we can Work Together and build a bipartisan consensus that produces a product worthy of time on the floor. Reporter take leader mcconnell at your word here . Senator coons i trust a lot of the folks i have been listening to, not just the last two days but seven years i have been here. If you have a Bipartisan Group that trusts each other that are committed to a process the easier it is that will trust that the leader of that caucus will also carry through on commitment. Reporter you promised protection for dreamers would be part of any spending deal. Do you feel you kept that promise . Senator coons we dont have a spending yet, do we . Reporter what changed between sunday and today to make you believe Mitch Mcconnell more . Senator coons i have greater confidence than ever in members of the Republican Caucus who are committed to making progress on this. And i think its important that both leaders, publicly, say things that move us forward. We have a window of opportunity here and i want to contribute to it in a constructive way. Reporter [inaudible] senator coons part of the challenge is the senate being the senate. A lot of what created this impasse is President Trump rejecting strong bipartisan offers that he had invited and then fairly famously blew up with a vulgar exchange and rejecting what i thought was a very reasonable offer by senator schumer. I mean, he put on the table things i didnt think he would put on the table in order to move forward. If President Trump would let the senate be the senate and work for the next three weeks, think hed be encouraged and surprised. Thank you very much. [inaudible] reporter how did this happen . What the reporter the deal . How did you get here . Senator flake three days of talking. Friday is what we started what we ended with but just a firmer commitment than we had initially. Reporter did you promise to hold mcconnells feet to the fire on this . Senator flake we did talk to the democrats and said we feel we have a commitment. I did go back to the Leaders Office and said stronger language would be helpful he did give stronger language, particularly to the fairness to the process. How to proceed with work. And that with a convincing to the democrats. Reporter do you trust leader mcconnell . Senator flake i believe with such fanfare and what will happen three weeks from now, i think we can count on it. Reporter is compromise possible . Senator flake i hope so. We had these meetings and to collins office, it was really good to see. Reporter compromise senator flake it would be nice to see a process on the senate floor that we havent seen for a long time. Really, since the bipartisan immigration bill we did before where we went through regular order and dealt with amendments and everybody had their say. This would be much like that. Reporter what makes this different . Senator flake what has been difficult is dealing with the white house and not knowing where the president is and that was what was holding this back and holding Mitch Mcconnell to reporter how has this changed . Senator flake i dont think it will change. I hope it does. I hope the president will say this is what we need and this is what well stick with. What we said well come to the senate floor and the senate will be the senate again and well pass something and then see if the president likes it. Reporter what do you tell dreamers today . Senator flake we want to get a deal before march 5. The worst outcome would be to get to march 5 and then try to jam something through which would look Something Like the legislative equivalent of daca where we make it constitutional but its no more certain for these kids and they have to wait for something more certain again. Thats not good. Im convinced a deal will be done. It just wouldnt be permanent. Reporter do you believe in is a victory for President Trump . Senator flake victory for i think everybody when the government opens back up. Were just climbing out of a hole. Lets get it we havent done anything yet other than open up the government hopefully at about 2 30 when we have a final vote today. Reporter can a deal be done without the president s leadership . Senator flake ultimately the president will need to get onboard in order for the house to vote on it. The house still very much much more so than the senate relies on the backing of the president. Reporter have you talked to speaker ryan about this . Senator flake i have. Thats his message as well. Its going to be very difficult to pass anything through the house without the president s support. We acknowledge that. What were saying, we cant wait for the president to indicate his support before starting the process here. If we can pass a bill, obviously if it passes the senate, its a bipartisan bill by definition. It will have at least 60 votes, i think closer to 70. If that gets to the white house im confident will the president will say i like this. And it will move to the house. Reporter has the president said he will put the Senate Immigration bill on the floor . Senator flake no. He could put another bill and we will deal with it in conference. Thats how we usually work it. No, he doesnt have to put the senate bill i do think if the president gets behind it, then its something theyll want to put on the house floor. Reporter what are the next steps for the Bipartisan Group of senators . Senator flake well, to make sure we have a bill if we do go to regular order where you somewhat regular order. We wont go through committee. If we bring something to the floor, keep in mind if everybody offers amendments and you deal with the process under the senate rules, it can be a long, long, long process. So were still going to need some consent and some kind of agreement to move ahead and to do that you got to have a product that has wide support and thats what were hoping to do is broaden the support that we already have with the bipartisan bill. We have seven democrats, seven republicans. Absent Border Security elements that people on my side of the aisle want, the democrats will want some things as well but if we can broaden that product, the support for that product, we can have an easier time when we get to february 8. Reporter when you talk about Border Security, how much of that is a physical border wall . Senator flake well, senator schumer indicated willing to give additional money. What is on the table so far and what we have in the bill so far is what the president has requested for this next year. If additional commitments need to be made in terms of a mix of authorization and appropriation beyond that time well do that. But is it going to be a wall . The president said not all of it is a wall. Some is fence. Most is fence actually. Its a border wall system, i guess you could call