Seat to democracy. Host good morning. It is the last fiscal year 2023 and without an agreement government shuts down tonight. Federal workers will stop getting a paycheck. The house comes in at 10 00 a. M. Right after this program the senate, at noon. We are taking your calls on the possible Government Shutdown that is hours away. Democrats, 202 7488000. Republicans, 202 7488001. And independents, 202 7488002. We have a line set aside for federal employees, 202 7488003. You can also use that line to text us. We are on social media on facebook and x. Welcome to washington journal. I want to start with this article from capitol hill. Speaker Kevin Mccarthy on friday evening floated passing a clean continuing resolution without ukraine aid, marking a clear shift in the possibility he is willing to consider ending a shut down after being repeatedly undercut by his own party. The speaker did not commit putting a measure on the floor, and other republican said lawmakers are still exploring gop only possibilities to bring up a vote on saturday. Here is from late saturday talking about the latest on negotiations. [video clip] i firmly believe there are no winners in a Government Shutdown. That is the best way forward, to make sure that the government does not shutdown. Questions . What are you doing now . Are you open to a clean continuing resolution . We had a clean one with our ukraine on it. I think if the senate puts ukraine on it and focuses on ukraine over america, that could cause real problems. Our goal is to secure the border. As you remember the house is the only one that has passed with 70 of the discretionary. The senate has not. It is productive to keep the house open while we finish our work. What i have directed the members to do is they were supposed to be out next week. They will be. We are back care. Obviously, the government shuts down tonight at midnight. I dont think so at all. I think we can still move. Host host that was the speaker from last night. Theyre taking your calls this morning on the possibility of a Government Shutdown. Lets start with phil in long island. Caller good morning. I really appreciate cspans coverage of congress. I have learned so many things about what we spend our money on, and how messed up both sides are. Republican stuck in something about an abortion pam. That has absolutely nothing to do with anything. It doesnt belong in their. That is a hindrance. We talk about Border Security which the other side is no one a negotiate on. Were talking about spending money on things we cant afford. Common sense tells us that if you taken 5 trillion you can spend 7 trillion yearoveryear when we have a 33 trillion debt. With that being said, why cant they compromise on continuing resolution to fund all domestic spending and cut all foreign aid until we get this result . The lebanese government we fund has 87,000 soldiers. The United States has 2 million armed forces with 282 generals. Iraq gets funding from us. Theyre transporting their royals. Host do you think ukraine funding should be taken out as well . Caller there has to be tighter security on ukraines funding. For now we have to keep it up. If you look at the ue, other countries havent input in their fair share, 2 of their gdp. W our funding moste of the bill for that. Something has to be done. Everyone once the u. S. To pay for everything. If we keep spending money like this, we they dont love the dollar to be a global currency. Host michael is next in fort oaks. Caller this is michael. I love your suit this morning, mimi. It is good to see you again. I have faith in our leaders that there will be a resolution to the problem. It will take all day and most of the night tonight. We should have a correction under path forward to keeping governmentfunded and running. Unfortunately, there are a few people who want to hold country and apollos in a pause. They should not shut government down just to get a few more things that they feel they need on the bargaining table in their favor. Host that was on the front page of the wall street journal. It says the shutdown as likely as rebels defy gop leadership. Social media and online leadership and power polarizing members. Small group of House Republicans walking their leaders and pushing the government towards a shutdown would have carried a dismissive label and passive previous years. They would have been called gadflies. Today the gadflies are dominating the political scene. John is in detroit michigan. Good morning. Caller good morning. I wish the government wouldnt shutdown. Personally, i think the ukraine funding is just an abomination, an appalling thing. This war has been misrepresented. I believe the russian reasoning of denazifying ukraine. We had members of our senate sign the letter decrying White Supremacy but they dont want to talk about it. This ukraine thing is an abomination. Host next caller. Caller you do such a great job. Its wonderful what you do. Im a democrat but i have some republican leaning tendencies. I believe in those buoys on the southern border. I think on the one who invented the idea of putting up a wall, because im a low income earner. People who come across the border compete with me for pay. 20 years ago i called cspan about the wall. I thought trump the businessman was going to raise, was going to be a businessman. I thought he was going to raise the cap on the Social Security, whatever the cap was 13,000, just remove the cap. I thought he was going to come in and put a fee, maybe . 50 on every Stock Transaction to raise the revenue. I thought you would balance the budget. I thought the idea of taxing anyone who earns over 100,000 is the right way to go. Host think the solution is more revenue than . Caller fpr low income and middle income people like myself whether youre republican or democrat to go against to shoot yourself in the foot for not getting behind and i the alike raising taxes on those who earn over 400,000 a year, need more irs agents to go after rick tax cheats. The idea that you will have people all over the Country Living in mediocre means, in trailers, apartments, struggling, saying i dont want more irs agents to go after the rich people because it came out of a democrat, people have to be nuts to vote against their economic selfinterests. It is plain and simple. You have to get money from somewhere. Rich people used to pay so much more of the taxes in this country. Now with accounting and cooking the books, theyre able to whittle their taxes down, 50 , 10 , 5 . Host if you are on the line, stand by, we will speak to a reporter now. Senior writer for cq will call cq roll call. Tell us the latest. Yesterday the house failed to pass a shortterm funding bill. What are the options . Where is this going today . The house and senate guest the house and senate both come in today. The house may take up another stopgap spending bill. They may wait. We dont know. After the house defeated the continuing resolution on the floor yesterday, Speaker Mccarthy and the rep. Pocan conference got together and talked. They discussed a few different options. One would be conservatives stopgap measure, similar to the one they defeated. Another one would be a one o two or two weeks stopgap, which they called clean, meaning it would not have additional provisions like Border Security provisions attached. Another option would be ticking up the senate continuing resolution, which the senate has not passed yet, but will be working on today. Host what are the chances of any of those getting through both the house and senate . Guest the chances of that happening before the government shuts down are virtually zero. The government today is the end of the fiscal year. If a temporary spending bill is not passed by congress, signed by the president , the government will shut them. Shutting down over the weekend is not a big deal, but a shutdown would start on monday. Host the senate has their own version of a cr. How much republican support does that have . Guest the initial vote to towards the faa bill, which would be the vehicle for the cr has a lot of support, 76. Since then republicans have raised concerns over this. Republicans have discussed amending the cr with Border Security measures. Some republicans in the senate are saying they would like to try to take up a cr that could actually go somewhere in the house. Republicans and democrats were discussing adding these Border Security measures yesterday. They really are stymied at this point. It is unclear whether there will be an agreement to add Border Security provisions to cr or make other changes to it. Host what are republicans looking for . What is it that democrats are not in agreement on without . Guest it is a combination of things. If you look at the cr that did not pass in the house, it would split a silent eligibility for migrants coming over the border. It would increase penalties, it would restart border wall construction, and a number of other things. In the Senate Republicans one idea was to add about 6 billion in Border Security funding and also add some Border Security policies. It is not really clear, the details of that are not really clear yet, and it is possible that republicans will decide they are not even going to attempt that. Host there were some spending bills that were passed in the house. Tell us about those. How many were passed and what was the senate saying about those and what are those stakes in the senate . Guest a couple of days ago the house took up 4 spending bills, department of defense, Homeland Security, state, foreign operations, and agriculture, and actually passed 3 of the four. The did not pass agriculture. These bills have lower spending than the bills marked up by the Senate Appropriations committee. They have a lot of different writers, antiabortion writers and policies that democrats object to. There was a wide golf between gulf between these housepasse appropriation bills and what the Senate Appropriations committee has passed. The senate has not yet passed any actual appropriation bills. The house has passed 3 more this week, so the house is passed 4 appropriations bills. Host there have been rumors about the speaker losing his job, and there being a motion to vacate. What are you hearing about that . Guest congressman matt gaetz from florida has been routinely threatening to bring up such a motion. He said he even might bring it up soon. Speaker mccarthy has dismissed those threats. It is not really clear when it might be brought up, or with the result would be. Those threats continue. Host with the lead contender be for that job . Has anybody expressed interest in that position . Guest no one has as far as we know. When mccarthy first became speaker, it went through 15 ballots because of Republican Opposition. Some Republican Opposition to him. There were various jim jordan from ohio was a favorite of some of the opponents of mccarthy. Jordan said he was not interested in the job. A number of people have been mentioned as possibilities, Steve Scalise from louisiana is one person who has been mentioned. The wip has been mentioned. It is not clear that anyone is interested in the job. It is not clear whether anyone besides mccarthy would be able to get the votes. These rebels as they have been called, these republican rebels, they may oppose mccarthy, some of them, and prefer somebody else, but there are a lot of moderate republicans in the house, they would not necessarily support that choice of the rebels. Host the question often comes up about members of congress continuing to receive paid during a Government Shutdown. This was brought up by nikki haley during the last gop debate. Where does that stand . Our members of congress able nancy mays has said that she would not accept pay. Is that a possibility. Guest i dont know how that would work. Several members have said they dont want to collect paid during a shutdown because many government most Government Employees would not be paid. The military would be paid if Congress Passes the bill to pay the military during the shutdown. Congressional members, all of them would not lose their pay. Some are saying they dont want to collect their pay. Unclear how that would work out. Host paul gosar, Senior Writer at cq. You can find more of his writing online. Thank you for joining us. We will go back to your calls now about the possibility of a Government Shutdown tonight at midnight. Gary is calling from sterling, genia. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking my call. Shout out to bill om goshen in goshen. Im sorry mcconnell is going to have another head injury because of this. We went through this three times during the obama administration, and each time it was a failure. The last time i lost 12 of my 401 k , and i did not get it come back to equity for 10, almost 11 months. How many kicks from the mule in the head does it take mr. Mcconnell to have . Host you are blaming mcconnell in the senate, not the republicans in the house . Guest both of them. Mcconnell tom mccarthy about these thing mcconnell taught mccarthy about these things. We have 2 types of people in this country. Those who are fools and those who believe in common sense. You have half the population of the world you are going to let take advantage of you, and your saying i none of them will. That is a bunch of nonsense. Common sense would tell you some of them will. That is exactly what 4 teenage girls did. They all got pregnant. One went on to have two juvenile the link wents. Host we are getting a little off subject. Lets go to billings, missouri. Caller how are you . Host what do you think, barry . Caller caller i want to point out that the rules of government, rules is just another word for algorithm. We need to prioritize a dignified life above all else, so governments everywhere should provide food, water, shelter, clothing and health care, and that will cure capitalism. It will solve reparations. It will solve immigration. It will go very far to reverse climate change. There will be no more fear of stock market crashes or popping bubbles. The first leaders in the countries around the world that will enact this will go down in history as the first ones who did. Host we have a line set aside for federal workers. Lena is calling us on that line from illinois. Thank you for taking caller thank you for taking my call. I made government retiree. I am 90 years old and they keep going out bonaire utilities and everything. Going up on our utilities and everything. If electricity keeps going up, i have medicine and everything. I full have to figure out how to pay that bill. Republicans should be the first ones should not to pay their to take their checks. Host i was going to ask you about the last Government Shutdown. You might have been affected by that as well. Caller it is hard to catch up after a certain time off, and when you dont have nobody to help you, you might have 2 over the amount that you need to get help from the government w ell, from the state even. I cant even get food stamps because im 5 over. When my daughter died and i had her two kids to take care of, they offered me food stamps. Some of these older ones now, they dont even remember what they are doing. That man stood up there and didnt even know where he was. I think they should redo the whole government because this is getting ridiculous, and all the murders, and you are scared to go anywhere. Host we certainly wish you the best. Ray is in ithaca, new york. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking my call. I consider myself a strong republican, but mccarthy needs to do resolution. The panic is setting in. This will only backfire. I blame a lot of this on matt gaetz. I think mccarthy has done a good job. He has to work with the democrats. I dont think there is anybody who wants the job who can actually get the votes. You have to do what we have to do to stop it, dont make ourselves look bad, and move on. Host ray, there is a pro public interview with the president. Here is the headline from that. With shutdown looming, President Biden calls out Kevin Mccarthy. Lets take a look at a portion from that interview. [video clip] the speaker has made a terrible bargain in order to keep the speakership. He is willing to do things i think he knows are inconsistent with constitutional processes. Number two, i think it says that there is a group of megarepublicans who generally want to have a fundamental change in the way the system works. That is what worries me the most. Host said to be published tomorrow, if you would like to take a look at it. Richard is up next in buffalo, minnesota. Good morning. Caller morning. This is pappy benson in minnesota. I am 80 years old. I lived up on iron ridge in the early 80s. Back then democrats and republicans got along. We survived the 80s and 90s. I am a proud american. Right now, we are looking like this stupidest people in the whole world. We looked dumb. We supposed to be the shining light and we look stupid. That is all i got to say. Anyone who knows me knows who i am. I wish this country the best it can get. Host guarded. Look got it. Lets go to cedar rapids, iowa. Caller i sympathize with the republican moderates who have to face, especially those in marginal districts, have to face election next year. These radicals will cause the republicans to lose the house next year. Same could be said for democrats on statements like those of representative omar, senators and others. It just drives these moderates crazy. With as close as margins are these days, the radicals need to sit back and ask is it worth losing our House Majority because of this craziness . Lets talk to tom next to host host his a federal employee in the flam, pennsylvania host lets talk to tom next. He is a federal employee in bethlehem, pennsylvania. Caller i am a former federal employee. Host did you live through one of the former shutdowns . Caller i did. If you get two parties together and one party says this is dead on arrival when it hits the senate, and the other party says this is dead on arrival when it hits the house of representatives, should on the government until they reach an end to this dead on arrival stuff. Host next caller is lisa. Caller i had a couple of questions. My heart goes out to the lady who called a little bit ago. I just wonder who will be affected by this. I am on Social Security myself. Are we going to be affected . Host Social Security checks will still go out. There was a really good website here, if you go to factcheck dr. The work factcheck. Org. They have a piece on what Government Services would be affected by a shutdown. Lets take a look at House Freedom august member andy ogle. He was one of the 21 House Republicans who voted against a temporary spending bill, and mentioned the idea of a seven day temporary spending bill. [video clip] if you go back to january, we promised an appropriations bill. That was the deliverable we continue to work on, on of the appropriations bills. Have you spoken with your colleagues in the Freedom Caucus about trying to unify . I have spoken to some of them, but not all of them. With the sevenday proposal include all of the border stuff . It would be a pared down version of the 30 day. I dont know that the votes are there. It is worth having a conversation. We have until midnight, on saturday and we should stay late, get up early, and work late tomorrow. It would reauthorize it every seven days. If we were unable to obtain whatever deliverable that might be, we could come together as a congress to say we will head towards another sevenday authorization or maybe it is a shutdown. We have an obligation. We should have stayed here in august,. When you come back 00 when you leave when you leave in july 40 days to pass this shutdown. There was no way to get to anything but a cr when we left august 1. We should have stayed in august. The fact that we left is why our backs are against the wall. Some of my colleagues do not like it, but they signed up for this job. Should stay here and work. Host andy ogle, the representative from tennessee. The house will be in session today at 10 00 a. M. We will have that for you as usual. The senate will come in at noon. We are taking your calls about a Government Shutdown. Caller my name is matthew. I think the republicans and democrats, if they dont want to pass the budget and help the people who need help in this country, they should not get paid for doing their jobs when they dont show up. Today. Have a good day. Host lets go to gainesville, florida, independent line, good morning, christopher. Christopher, you have to mute your tv. Caller yes maam. Oh, mute the tv . Host go right ahead. Caller im calling because this is ridiculous. If you dont call your representatives and asked them what is going on, because that is what is going on with the lobbyists, interests going on at the own time. We should look out for our soldiers and their families, and the fallen soldiers. It is ridiculous. Yall cant take care of the veterans and widows. Their kids can go to college. Their kids can eat properly, while their mothers and fathers are overseas protecting their country. It is ridiculous for these politicians to play with this country over this issue that they have. This is exactly what is going on. I dont care what party you are in, if that person is of american citizens in this country, you need to vote them out of office, and get someone who will do the job and not go in there bickering about republican or democrat. America, get off your but, stop going after each other. That is one of the main problems that is going on right now. Get together and figure it out. Host lets go to ed in newcastle, pennsylvania. Caller my comment is very simple. Watching cspan last evening and through the morning here, watching them in person debate in the house was very interesting, and now coming to the simple conclusion listening to some of the republicans, it is pretty simple. W aree going to save this country or we are not. If we dont cut the spending, if we dont secure the border,i f we dont pull back on of the reckless spending of biden, what we have left . Host all righty. Jeff, alston, maryland. You are a federal employee . Caller i am a current federal employee. I was in the military for the 1995 clinton Government Shutdown. Host tell us about your experience. What are you expecting this time around . Caller we are expecting to be notified tomorrow morning what our status is. We we have a plan moving forward. Biden keeps his supporting all the other agencies in the government. It is frustrating how that is going. We are expecting we will be employed from the 14th through being furloughed monday morning, so there is still some questions up in the air. As an employee of the government, i think it is really frustrating that we havent figured out whatever Political Party is in power at the time, i think we really need to safeguard congress should fund the government. Your projects, your agendas, you pass after order word afterwards. It has been the same thing to up september 30 same thing come september 30. Do know if you will be expected to come into work or host host if you will be furloughed . Host do you know if you will be expected to come into work or if you will be furloughed . Caller we have a plan. I think the agency is still a little nervous, they are trying to brocade employees who will work and then be furloughed one week. It helps share the load. We have a responsibility to keep our organization running. Host im under the impression that the 2019 law only applies to federal employees who still have to show up for work, who were still working and the furloughed ones, it was not necessarily in law that they would get that back pay. Caller it was my understanding that it was the opposite. Prior to 2019 the employees who did show up would receive their backpay because of their exempted status. I dont have the whole bill in front of me. Host we have a guest coming at 8 00 a. M. Eastern, and i will be sure to ask her about that. Karen in virginia, democrat good morning. Caller to the young lady who called about the snap benefits, snap will 100 be affected, so you need to know that as a republican woman, that you are not immune. All of this is the classic stuck on stupid philosophy. Kevin mccarthy sold his soul to the devil for this position of power. Anyone who will put yo the job on the put his job on the line just so he could take the seat away from nancy pelosi, shows that he had no intention. My husband is a federal employee, and he is essential so he has to work. It is embarrassing. Everyone likes to blame biden. The point of the matter is we are supposed to be the most progressive country in the world, and we cannot even keep the government open for 30 days, let alone a year. We need to get off of our behinds stop being narrowminded. It is not about biden, it is not about trump. It is about living in american life. Pay attention. Shut downs happen in the democratic party. You can talk about aoc and omar, but they are not holding up the government. Host to be fair, there were shutdowns during democratic administrations. I hear your point. Christian is in arizona. Caller thank you for taking my call. First of all, my heart goes out to the folks who are going to be impacted by a Government Shutdown due to the inability to pass a budget or the fact that there will not be a continuing resolution passed by midnight. Secondly, i will say that all Political Party is inherent to the people. It does not blunt to the government. It does not belong to the government. Because the people in our country control the political parties, that means that if we tell our elected officials that we do not want something, they have to do what we say. The reason why most of the time, and im going to say most of the time, democrats do not have this problem is because most of the democrats power comes from the top down so they tell their voters what they are going to do. On the upside republicans, most of the republicans, the voters and the Precinct Committee inside the Political Party tells the republicans what we want them to do. I would say to the rightleaning voters and to the republican voters, the folks that fought hard in the last 2022 election, who got there u. S. Senators elected i would say be encouraged, keep doing what you, are doing keep putting the pressure on your elected officials to do what you want them to do, and the last thing i am going to say is if inflation continues to go up, the money that you get from the government will not be worth anything. If inflation continues to go up, when you go to the atm, you will not be able to get any money out of that atm. If people keep going over that border, not only will that drive up inflation as well, but you will have problems with your fire, your police, your school districts. Host christian brought up the border. Lets hear from matt gaetz. He talked on the floor before the house failed to pass that shortterm funding bill about the need for stronger Border Security. [video clip] the house of representatives has passed bills to Fund Border Patrol and state foreign ops. These are the core operations of government. The senate should pass those today but the role we are on now passes a continuing resolution that weakens republican positions on border policy. Last night we passed a department of Homeland Security appropriations bill that was lasted policy requirements. They had to do certain things to fix the border to get the money, and one of those things was everify. Last night we stood together and demanded that everify be included and mayorkas wanted the money. This continuing resolution that the rule we are on right now takes it out why would republicans overnight back away from such a strong and necessary position . I will be voting against of this resolution because i want House Republicans to have the strongest position on the border. The American People will come along with us on that. I know big businesses do not want everify, but host that was representative matt gaetz from florida. We are taking your calls on the possibility of a Government Shutdown. Lisa is in alabama. Caller i think we should sign before we fund another country. [indiscernible] with nothing else on it. We always have to add something. Host all right. Nicholas is in baker. Caller this is what i want to say to yall. Clinton, from clinton all the way to right now, we have been bailing out, democrats have been bailing out the republicans from what they have been doing. Towards the border concern, the way that was in the 1970s and 1980s, the businessman used to use everyone who came before. Now that they cant do it, they will come together to secure the border. You should be able to come together, but you have so much politics. We are not very good at being american. If you look back from clinton all the way to right now at the stuff that they have been doing, the republicans, clinton, all of the democratic president s, we had a shutdown. Every president that came in was some kind of problem. Host all right. Trevor is next. He is a federal employee in quantico, virginia. Caller good morning. I think matt gaetz makes a great point about the border. Americans all agree. I have not met anybody yet this is difficult for all of us federal workers. I im shutting things down on standby. Im not comfortable with the blame game. This is on all of them, specifically one party who owns two thirds of the power. Host you are in quantico so i can guess where you might be working. Are you essential . Will you be working through the shutdown . Caller i am. There are about a dozen or so of us who will be here. Host financially, are you ready for that . Caller you try to always be. It is still a scary thought. Particularly, some of my workers are not. Some of them are not in a position where they can handle this. Fortunately, i am but that is not the important thing to me. Some of these guys are not going to make it if this does not get done. Host what options do they have . Have you talked to them about it . Caller we have given them several options. There are Credit Unions who are able to fund things for them during the shutdown that they will reimburse. There are Employee Assistance programs. It is not something they look forward to. It will not cover their everyday expenses. Host trevor, we wish you the best. James in akron, ohio. Caller a few things here. First of all, we talk about the border. We have been for many, many years trying to get some type of an agreement on what to do with the border. We have no border rules. Therefore, the border is open because both democrats and republicans have not gotten together and put a border plan together. That is one of the problems. We keep talking about running out of money, but we have been decreasing the taxes ever since Ronald Reagan to the wealthy. The rich, if we tax them more, we could not text them enough to pay our back taxes. It is just like alone. Over a period of time if you do not pay the bill, it keeps getting higher and higher. Every times the democrats begin to get things moving again and get some of the tax money back, the next thing, it has been done five times. Everyone was on the republican party. Then they complain about not having any money to do anything with. It this common sense it is common sense. Sarah host sarah, next caller. Caller im very concerned about the Government Shutdown. Ive been hearing a lot of talks about security, namely securing the border. There is another Security Matter that is of particular concern. I had read that the senate was thinking of cutting the ncsb at 18 million. Host you said the ntsp . The National Transportation safety board . Caller the nonprofit security grant program. That money goes to securing various organizations security, like jewish organizations. It would Fund Security cameras, etc. Im not sure where things stand with that, but at this time with rising antisemitism, that is one fund i would oppose any cuts to. Other than decreasing the funds i would support increasing the funding level. Host all right. Tessa is in University Place washington. Caller how are you . Host im doing ok. Caller thank you for having me. Im a resident nurse. I work in the er. I came from brazil. I am a democrat. The citizens of the United States, they take it for granted a lot of things in here. Politicians are not thinking about the citizens. They are thinking about their own pockets. I can say one thing to my understanding why politicians are voting on this, their big check comes like nothing has happened, while the workers have their paycheck cut every single time every time they are fighting for funds. As people we should put the paychecks of politicians on the same level as the workers. Host lets take a look at White House Office of management. [video clip] more than 2 million Service Workers would not get their paycheck. Nutrition assistance for nearly 7 million women and children who rely on wi would be jeopardized. Smallc businesses would lose out on loans. What kind of choices that . In addition to the 2 million Service Members who will not get their paychecks, we are talking about more than 1. 5 million federal civilian employees by current estimates roughly a quarter of whom are veterans missing paychecks. Meat and food inspectors, Border Patrol agents, tsa agents just a small example. Federal contractors have no guarantee of backpay. None the thousands of federal contractors who serve the mission of this country to serve the American People, no guarantee that they are made whole. Folks i see around my office every day, people you see around your cleaning here cleaning who can least afford to miss a paycheck, no guarantee they will be made whole. Host that was the office of the omb. Just a few more minutes left in this segment to take your call about the possibility of a Government Shutdown at midnight. Our next caller is in randolph. Caller thank you for taking my call. My feeling is if we shut the border down only for entry of immigrants who come in legally, not illegals, not criminals, and shut down the funds that come into support them, we would have enough money to pay for everyone else that are currently suffering with this shutdown. I funding illegals. We are destroying our country. Host you said you wanted to end illegal immigration into the country as well . Caller illegal. I support the everify. I support immigrants who come in legally. I do not support the illegal, the criminals and so on. No one seems to want to address that. Susan host his and clarks host susan is in clarksville, tennessee. Caller i love this program. My nerves are a little rattled. Host youre doing great, susan. Keep going. Caller as far as the border you do not realize what we even achieved. It is the first time republican majority has passed that appropriation bill in more than 16 years. I do not want to stop that momentum of getting our job. It is the way we secure our border. If we shut the government down, the government agents do not get paid. The president wants to ignore this problem. We are not going to allow it. What has he done about keeping government open . We are putting something on the floor that will continue to if he wants to lobby against it and tell democrats to vote against it, the shutdown is on him. You can learn more about the authors. Book tv every sunday on cspan two features leading authors discussing their latest nonftion books. It lived at noon eastern, t author of survivthe richest joinedook tvs indepth to talk about the digital revolution and the consequences, human autonomy and more. At 7 00 p. M. On afterwards, New York Times reporter looks at the successes and failures in his book the times. Watch book tv every sunday on cspan2 and find a quote schedule on your Program Guide or watch online anytime at book tv. Org. Of the democracy doesnt just look like this, it looks like this, where americans can see democracy at work, a republic drives. Get informed straight from the source on cspan, unfiltered, unbiased, word for word from the nations capitol to wherever you are, the opinion that matters the most is your own. Cspan, powered by cable. Washington journal continues. Host welcome back. I am joined by molly wisner, a reporter for federal times. Lets start with how many federal workers there are and how many could be affected by a shutdown. Guest there are roughly 2 million federal employees across enteral agencies in the government doing all different kinds of jobs from tsa workers to d. C. Headquarters. All of them will be affected by a federal shutdown in some ways, not the same way. It is a large workforce and it includes untold number of contract workers who support them and other folks. Host ended 2 million also doesnt include the military, isnt that correct . Guest thats correct. There are civilian workers in the pentagon but Service Members scattered across the country and the world really are likely to be affected by this. Host so we are looking at somewhere around 3. 5 million is the number i have heard including the armed services. During a shutdown, federal workers will either be furloughed, accepted, or exempted. Lets go through each of those and if you could explain what that means. Guest for the average employee, you will fall into two buckets and we have heard essential and nonessential in the past. It is clear that every employees work is essential to an operation. Generally speaking, you are wondering what happens what happened next week, if could be basically accepted from a furlough meaning your work is critical to national security, the protection of life and property. Think of the folks working in air traffic control, federal Law Enforcement agents. They would be generally required to keep working during shutdown but that does it meet meaning they will be paid during shutdown. Those who work in research and development, hiring, training, audits, administrative support and contracting offices, those folks depending on how their office is funded may be more likely to be furloughed. Host we will put on the screen the accepted categories so that people can see them. They are employees necessary to perform activities expressly authoriz blaw, necessary to form necessarily implied by law, or necessary to discharge of the president s constitutional duties and powers and finally to protect life and property. That is according to the office of personnel management. For those who are furloughed and the paychecks stop, once hopefully the government gets funded and the go back to work, how long does it take for that to come back . Guest that is the big question and anyones guess. In years past we realize once the deal is reached and once employees are called back, there is a lag time. To have to get back to their offices and depending on how many offices it is a large number. You can look at 2018 and 2019, all told those working without pay was of the 800,000 number. There are a lot of folks that will be waiting on a paycheck putting pressure on offices to trim them out as quickly as possible. It is not just where it picks up. They will have to be subject to the resources they have and will do the best that they can but it is certainly not an immediate process. Host you can join us if you would like to make a comment, our lines are democrats 202 7488000, republicans 202 7488001 and independents 202 7488002 if you are a federal employee it is 202 7488003. What are the options for furloughed employees . They are not allowed to go to work even if they wanted to. Are they able to get Unemployment Benefits . Are they able to get another parttime job to make ends meet . Guest the short answer is yes. Those in this area in d. C. And across the area are somewhat accustomed to having to prepare for potential shutdowns annually. Number one, Unemployment Insurance. The important thing to remember is each state has laws regarding their own Unemployment Insurance programs. I encourage folks to brush up on that now and get familiar with what the specific eligibility requirements are for your program. You should find that readily available online. You can look to the department of labor and they have questions and resources available. That is a good place to start. What might to be true for you may not be true for someone else working in a different state. In years past municipalities and counties have put out resources and webpages. I would encourage folks to look at their local county and State Government sites for information and applications for those programs once they open. The other thing folks can do and not every fed has deep financial reserves, a lot of Credit Unions that have worked with military families and also federal employees, they have some programs. They differ, sometimes they can be no cost or lowcost loan or other programs you can inquire about because they recognize they are Civil Servants and this is a realistic threat every year. The advice a lot of Financial Advisors has given is explain your situation, whether that is through the credit union or you your utility company. It never hurts to be honest about what is going on and explain your status. It never hurts to ask and over communicate that. Host you have an article in the federal times, federal Agency Contingency plans lay the way for shutdown notices. Tell us about the contingency plans. What is in them and is every Agency Required to have one . Guest each agency has a contingency plan. They are publicly available and you file with the office of management and budget and there is a webpage. I encourage people who have questions on where they fall to check those out. They are pretty detailed. These plans are what they sound like, a plan b that agencies have on file well in advance of a shutdown or the potential of one and they lay out which Agency Operations would continue, which are funded independently some are feebased for example. You can take the Postal Service as another example. They dont take money from annual appropriations process. You can see where your office money comes from and these plans are supposed to be updated every year. They should have been updated in 2021. You will notice that not all of them are. The majority are updated. Those are very much changing and some are still outdated. For the most part, agencies will have all that laid out. Host will show that. It is that whitehouse. Gov. You can for the contingency plans in hear the agencies listed by alphabetical order. You can click on it and to see the pdf of their contingency plans. When do employees get notified of their status . How much notice do they have . Guest not a lot. Monday could be very unusual work date for folks. We wait for the supervisor and they will get the word from the agencies and the white house a memo was sent from the white house primary them and be prepared of the possibility. Come monday morning, some folks may have been told to come in to work and they may have been sent home if they have been furloughed. Every plan will tell you exactly how long it takes to basically trigger that. There will be folks in offices on monday to carry out those duties and close out the last remaining payroll functions. Any work that can be done is simply to put notices on email and whatever you can do to prepare for not being in your office. Host lets talk to callers. Eddie is in arlington. Caller i recently retired from the federal government and if you were to do a survey, most of us look at this as additional paid vacation time. It will eventually be settled and we will be given back pay. I think we are shedding crocodile tears. I know many federal employees are actually gleeful and are hoping that the shutdown takes place because they are going to get time off and they will get paid for it eventually. Guest i think some may be optimistic. Folks who have been through this before sort of have the approach of i will wait and see and then start worrying. We have heard from unions and employees about those on the lower end who may not be making as much money and have Student Loans to start paying back. The bills dont stop coming in because there paycheck doesnt. There are definitely some folks who are concerned that if it drags on for a long time those effects would be more felt severely. Host bernie is up in new york, democrat. Caller first i would like to thank the previous caller for giving me a different view of the proposed shutdown. My understanding is that donald trump has encouraged the republicans to shut down the economy. Can you confirm that . Guest i dont think we can definitively say either way. It is a very complicated situation. Several weeks ago we didnt expect to be here and all of this has happened and involved very quickly. What that comes down to in terms of cause and effect, that can be looked into. It is definitely a complicated situation. Even today we will see may be small developments but still very match and much an uptotheminute thing. Host there is an article, the headline from the New York Times, how trump is complicating attempts to avoid a shutdown. Former president has been pushing a shutdown but views are shaped by his own handling of the 2018 shutdown. That is in the New York Times if you would like to look at that. Remi in brooklyn park, maryland. Caller thank you for taking my call. At 707i am looking back over history here and where we at 77, i am looking back over history here and where we are you look from vietnam to afghanistan. We are looking at a 33 trillion national debt. The problem with that is it started with the bushcheney administration. Are we going to keep running this debt to 100 million and keep putting it on our kids and grandkids . At some point the implosion is bound to happen. What is it we are trying to do to circumvent that . That is my comment. Host any comment we will break away as the u. S. House gavel intercession. As and nays are ordered. The house will resume proceedings on postponed questions at a later time. For what purpose does the gentlewoman from texas seek