So we have some of the finest quality anywhere comes from this, from California and the U .S.
And also, some of the finest quality we have of staff that works on this floor, our Ella, will be leaving us pretty soon and heading over to a different building to work in a new member's office,
but we will still miss her and her high quality work and her thumbs up like an empress up there in front.
Ella, best wishes to you.
Good luck.
God bless you.
I yield back.
Thank you.
Pursuant to Clause 12A of Rule 1, the Chair declares the House in recess, subject to the call of the Chair.
And the gavel is down.
They are in recess, subject to call of the Chair.
The House of Representatives coming in this morning briefly while lawmakers and leaders meet behind closed doors to find a way forward on a year -end spending proposal to avoid a government shutdown.
The deadline is tonight at midnight.
Lawmakers are up early this morning.
Speaker Mike Johnson as well.
Vice President -elect J .D. Vance also on the Hill meeting with conservative members of the Republican Party in the House behind closed doors.
We told you earlier.
Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna coming out and saying that they've reached some sort of Plan C.
That's the headline in The Hill.
Shutdown looms.
As Johnson says, Plan C is reached.
She said a vote could happen around 10 a .m. Eastern time.
Here is the latest by Mika Solner of Punchbowl News.
She caught up with Congressman Rosendale.
He came out of the Speaker's office and said he's still a no on the CR.
Representative Dusty Johnson, a Republican, said he does not anticipate a 10 a .m. vote, which was floated earlier, anymore.
So, as it stands right now, we have to wait and see.
What do House Republicans do this morning?
They are hours away from that funding deadline.
Chad Pergram of Fox News tweeting this out.
Luna said earlier there would be no deal with Democrats.
So plan C?
We're good to go.
I think?
Washington State top Democrat, the appropriations chair over in that chamber, putting out this statement.
I'm ready to stay here through Christmas because we're not going to let Elon Musk run the government.
Put simply, we should not let an unelected billionaire rip away research for pediatric cancer so he can get a tax cut or tear down policies that help America out -compete China because it could hurt his Bottom line.
We had a bipartisan deal.
We should stick to it.
The deal that was already agreed to would reasonably fund the government, offer badly needed disaster relief to communities across America, and deliver some good bipartisan policy reforms.
It is your turn to be part of this debate in Washington.
Who do you agree with here?
Republicans who say we should pass Plan B that failed on the floor last night, which includes an increase in the debt ceiling backed by President -elect Donald Trump?
Or do you agree with most Democrats and Republicans who negotiated Plan A who say that's a bipartisan deal, let's bring it up, let's go forward with that?
Or should it just be House Republicans who pass a continuing resolution to keep the government funding?
And of course there's Plan D.
Shut the government down.
Barry in Georgia, Republican.
Good morning to you, Barry.
Good morning and Merry Christmas to all.
Merry Christmas.
Well, the one thing I think people were looking over on this Part A was there was a stipulation in there that they couldn't be looked into, that Congress couldn't be looked into as far as text messages and other stuff that they have sent.
So that was putting herself above the law.
From what I understand, nobody's above the law, are they?
Good morning.
I was calling.
I wanted to make a statement.
What I'm trying to say is that with Doge, that Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk are only there to overlook some of the spending things that the Both parties were trying to push through.
Now, I understand they basically suggested to the president, hey, cut this out, cut that out, cut that out, cut that out.
They were trying to reduce the spending.
And so now they came back with a less expensive bill, and then they presented it for it to be voted on or examined.
But the crazy part is, The bill, the first thing, was for like $350 billion, I think.
Now, they reduced what the expenses were.
But then all of a sudden, the bill comes back, a lot of stuff's been cutting out, and now it went back up to $350 billion or something to that effect.
Is that because they're voting themselves a raise?
Quite frankly, nobody, from either party, Okay, William, hold on, because Plan B,
which you're referring to, that failed on the floor last night, 38 Republicans objected to it, along with 197 Democrats.
What's in this legislation?
A three -month extension of government funding at current levels.
There's your price tag.
A two -year suspension of the debt limit to January 2027.
It extends the farm bill, also adding to the price tag, and then $110 billion disaster relief package, and it includes $10 billion in aid for farmers.
So there was provisions in this Plan B.
What do you want them to do?
Jim?
Lakeland, Florida, Republican, Jim, what's your message to Washington?
My message to Washington basically is that they need to get the job done.
And we've got the wrong people being punished with a shutdown.
And who needs to be punished is the Congress itself.
They shouldn't receive a dime of a paycheck.
If they're not going to approve a budget before the deadline at the end of the fiscal year.
And that's basically my opinion.
Okay.
All right, Jim.
Sue in Lima, Ohio, Democratic caller.
Sue, good morning to you.
What do you say?
Yes, thank you for taking my call.
We had a bipartisan Republican -Democrat agreed upon bill to be taken to the floor that had the votes.
Had the votes.
We're good.
It did not require the deficit to be raised, and this is due till March.
In March, the Republicans can do whatever they want, but do not shut down the government to satisfy two people and leave these other people out there to hang.
It's wrong.
All right.
Sue in Ohio, Democratic caller.
We're getting your thoughts.
On the debate here in Washington, your take and you get to tell Washington what you want them to do and react to what you've seen this week in the halls.
of Congress.
A shutdown could have impact on millions of Americans.
This is from Newsweek.
Federal workers, and the estimate is around 875 ,000 that would be furloughed, not receive pay during a time of the year when many Americans take on more expenses due to the winter holidays.
Non -essential government functions would put on pause, but members of Congress would still collect a check regardless of whether the government is open.
Roy, Cincinnati, Ohio, Republican.
Hi, Roy.
Hi, Greta.
How are you?
Morning.
I'm just pretty happy to see these guys working hard.
They don't really work hard, and when actually a real leader gets put back in office, they work pretty hard, I feel.
And for the whole Elon Musk thing, he kind of works for us, the people, in my opinion.
So, Roy, what do you think of the negotiations?
And the actions taken so far by Speaker Mike Johnson?
I think he's going to be in trouble, to be honest.
And that's my feeling.
All right, so you think he possibly does not get the speakership in the next Congress.
Who do you think should be elected Speaker?
Would you support someone who's not elected to Congress, like Elon Musk?
That idea has been floated.
I would.
I would.
In my opinion, he's a hard -working guy, and he's working for us now.
And he put all that out there a few days ago, and we called our congressmen and our congresswomen, and we let them know how we felt.
Okay.
And that's how I feel.
And Greta, you have a great Christmas.
All right.
Same to you, Roy.
Rich is an independent in Selden, New York.
Hi, Rich.
Hey, how you doing?
Good morning.
Good morning.
One, if anyone ever read the bill throughout the 1500 pages, you would see why it shouldn't be accepted.
There was a lot of things in there that were, they tried to sneak past the American people, and thank God we have people that put on the brakes, that actually read like Vivek and Elon,
and read all this nonsense.
I don't really like that, you know, C -SPAN doesn't talk about the nonsense that's in the bill.
They only talk about the features that they want to highlight.
And I really don't think it's fair to the American people.
That's why we're having a conversation with you, Rich.
So what's some of the nonsense that you learned about through Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk?
Some of the nonsense is you can't get, it's a lot of the freedoms.
That they're trying to take away.
Like, we can't get the text messages from Congress.
We can't.
It's all these things that the government hides from the American people that were in there that are going to be law that you cannot change.
Just deal with the financial aspect of what's going on with the CR and don't add your nonsense.
Because guess what?
When Donald Trump gets in office, he is going to expose all the corruption, and then that's going to really shake up the government.
Okay, Rich, and as you said, lots of provisions in that first Plan A bill.
Over 1 ,500 pages.
A sizable bill.
And we showed you earlier, if we can get that picture of what that legislation looked like, all the paper as it stacked up.
Versus Plan B, which was put on the floor.
There it is on your screen.
Plan A is the larger bill, over 1 ,500 pages.
Plan...
This is from Congressman Mario Diaz -Bollard tweeting this out.
Plan B was around 500 pages.
It still did not get Republican, all Republican support.
38 opposed it because they did not, some of them, did not want to raise the debt ceiling.
You heard from Congressman Chip Roy.
He wanted spending cuts included as well.
We're good to go.
I think?
That the House, which is in subject to call of the chair, we not expect that we have been told by Speaker Johnson that there is a plan and that there would be a vote to avoid a government shutdown.
He said it would happen this morning.
Keep your channel here on C -SPAN, on c -span .org, or our free video mobile app, C -SPAN Now, to follow along.
Before we say goodbye in the Washington Journal here this morning, we're going to continue with a conversation with all of you, and you get to tell the lawmakers here in Washington what you think about the job they're doing this week, the debate that they are having,
and what you want them to do next.
James in Waldorf, Maryland, an independent.
Hi, James.
Good morning to you.
Good morning.
Good morning.
Thank you for taking my call.
Appreciate it.
And we're listening.
James, go ahead.
Absolutely.
Yeah, I think they should just go ahead and get to Plan D.
Go ahead and just scrap Plan C that's coming out and get to Plan D.
We know that's not going to pass just because it's only going to be Republicans.
Just basic math.
They get everybody to vote for them for whatever Plan C is.
and no democrats come to the table then that means it doesn't pass again it's it's it's like the republican party are trying their best their hardest to not see you know i mean they're trying their hardest to not see what's going on you know it's uh what we voted for i guess so they keep saying 77 million voted for trump 70 something million voted for kamala so it's like we voted for the return of chaos Four years ago,
chaotic.
Four years ago, pandemic.
Everybody shut down.
There's so much chaos with the government.
It seems like everybody wants the government to be efficient.
Everybody can agree on that.
But before Trump or he got back into office, chaos again.
More ineffective governing.
Nobody wants to see this.
Nobody wants to be in this position, especially during times like this.
Especially during times of Christmas and we have a lot of...
People want to spend money now.
Nobody wants to be furloughed.
Nobody wants to have the government shut down.
Nobody wants that.
So why are we going to Plan C where nobody is going to have an agreement?
We already know it's going to fail.
Versus just go to Plan D.
Just make sure that people that are in government positions make governmental decisions and let's trust the process.
I don't understand how...
All right, James.
David, Strasburg, Ohio, Republican.
David, good morning to you.
What do you say?
Good morning to you Greta.
This came across your show and pretty interesting.
Hey, I am a Republican and I've been a Trump supporter ever since he came around, and I am a disabled veteran from Iraq war, medically discharged in 2007, joined up after 9 /11 right out of high school and I am on.
We're good to go.
I think?
That's okay.
Vivek Ramaswamy.
Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.
That's who you're referring to?
Correct.
I think their plan is going to be super and I think that's the right move for our nation and I hope that...
It does all work out.
Okay.
David, thank you for your service and your sacrifices.
A veteran there, David, an Ohio Republican.
More of your phone calls coming up.
Join the conversation here on the Washington Journal as we wait here in Washington to see what lawmakers will do.
Joining us now is Meg Kennard, who's a national politics reporter with the Associated Press.
Meg Kennard, what have you learned this morning?
Hey Greta, it's always good to be with you.
This just seems to be a continually evolving situation.
We're used to seeing this when we come up on these government funding deadlines and this scramble to get things together.
But hearing that the Speaker does expect that there will be votes today, we weren't really sure what that situation looked like at the end of yesterday.
They're going to keep trying again and coming up with just hours to go now until that funding bill expires and a shutdown would begin.
It's down to the wire.
We've been here before, but sometimes Sometimes we talk about how these situations feel different, and I think that this one kind of does, particularly given the back and forth between Republicans, their incoming president, and the insertion of Elon Musk into this whole conversation.
Anna Paulina Luna saying there's a deal, we're going to vote at 10.
And then shortly after that, we heard from Rosendale, from reporters on Capitol Hill, Congressman Rosendale telling them, I'm a no still on CER.
Dusty Johnson saying, I don't think there's going to be a vote at 10.
So it sounds like, and Anna Paulina Luna saying any deal going forward won't be with Democrats.
So how are they going to pass this on the floor?
Yeah, that's a great question.
We will see what actually happens at 10 or thereafter if there are these votes coming.
But, you know, for these conversations to continue to evolve and for there to be this Disagreement and disruption within the Republicans whose votes would be needed to get something across the finish line.
As we saw yesterday, more than three dozen Republicans joining with Democrats to oppose that first take at a revamped bill.
So Mike Johnson knows that he's going to need to really get a lot of support from within his own party.
And at this point, you know, with the conversations happening and with the Republicans who don't just want to perhaps go along with what they're seeing as Thank you.
Perhaps having stuck to whatever they see as important issues to them, with Chip Roy voicing his disagreement with the bill as it was previously, and talking about what he thought should happen.
These are tough conversations for Republicans to be having, and there's been a lot of talk about how they're coming into...
If Speaker Johnson puts a proposal on the floor today that is only backed by Republicans, he needs 218 votes.
Does he By reporting so far this morning, do we know if he has 218 votes?
We don't know for sure that he does.
We'll continue to see because I think that it's important to know all of these members have different things that are important to them in the legislation as it comes together.
We saw a lot of conversation about the emergency funding related to hurricane relief and all of that in the first bill and then that came into it and then that bill still failed.
So it depends on what's happening in the new package with the members and if they're seeing things that really are important to them, to their community.
We're good.
What about Senate Democrats here?
Speaker Johnson put something on the floor today that gets only Republican support.
What do we know, Senate Democrats who control that chamber, what do they do?
They've got a tough conversation ahead of them as well.
We know from House Democrats, especially Hakeem Jeffries, after meeting with members of his caucus, saying, uh -uh, this is not going to work.
Y 'all need to do better.
But when it comes to Senate Democrats, there have been plenty of them voicing their opposition to this situation and seeming content to let Republicans kind of have it out among themselves.
But I think it is important to note, too, that...
So, it's...
Remains to be seen exactly what Senate Democrats would be doing after this, but it is one of those situations where they would like to wrap up their work and get out of here, provided that this is something that they could live with in terms of the bill.
If Speaker Mike Johnson puts legislation on the floor that Democrats say they will support, or he negotiates with Democrats to pass something and avert a shutdown, what happens to his speakership?
His control of the gavel when the new Congress convenes on January 3rd.
That would put Mike Johnson certainly in a tricky situation.
We are used to seeing, at least in a couple of recent years, these battles for the speakership be a little bit more contentious than in years previous.
And certainly, the first bill that Mike Johnson put forward was a bipartisan bill.
And that's why there have been a lot of House Democrats speaking out and saying, look, we worked with you guys once before on this.
You didn't like it, so now we're kind of back at square one.
So if that situation were to happen, if that bill were able to get passed with the support of those Democrats, Mike Johnson could say, yes, I was able to help avert a government shutdown, but I would imagine there are going to be some voices within his party,
which will control the House chamber and the new Congress, saying that he's too conciliatory, that he's too willing to work across the aisle in ways that they might disagree with.
And so that...
Always good to talk to you.
Thank you for your time this morning.
Always.
Thank you.
Government funding expires midnight tonight.
What do you think lawmakers should do here?
Well, I think obviously they should work together, which they did on the first package.
I think the critical thing to examine, honestly, is the fact that in the second one, Elon Musk and Trump said they wanted money, raise the debt ceiling.
Now, as Republicans, I listen as a Democrat, constantly they say we got to cut the deficit cut the deficit it's counterintuitive to think you want to raise the debt ceiling there's only one reason to raise the debt ceiling and that's because trump has promised his rich donors that he's going to cut their taxes including elon musk
Thank you very much.
But they are actually, they've got big skin in the game.
Because the 1 % that got the last one that they want to renew are those two.
So no wonder they texted.
I mean, I'd text if it meant billions of dollars to me.
How can you as a Republican At the same time, say, we've got to cut the deficit, but oh yeah, we want to make sure that the debt ceiling is raised, taken away.
You can spend as much as you want, because then you can give your 1 % friends their tax cut, the very guys that taxed it.
Okay.
Virgil in Richmond, Kentucky, Independent.
We'll hear from you, Virgil.
Good morning.
Good morning.
How are you this morning?
Doing well, sir.
So what do you think here of this debate here in Washington and where we are this morning with less than 15 hours to go before a government shutdown?
Well, quite frankly, it's silly.
It's unnecessary.
And it is as a result of the fact that the federal government has not passed 12 appropriation spending bills as part of an actual budget since 1997 fiscal year.
Now, if Congress would actually just do their job...
Stop worrying about funding their special interests, stop funding their big donors, and actually spend time, effort to actually come up with 12 appropriation bills and pass them.
This wouldn't be a problem.
And for everyone that's complaining about Elon Musk, all he's done is open the platform so that everyone can have a say so.
And people on X, which I am on at FedUp Kentuckian, has decided to use the platform to put pressure on congressmen.
How dare we do that?
You know, and Trump, President -elect Trump better get one thing through his head right now.
MAGA, or Make America Great Again, is no longer just about him and what he wants.
It's about America.
And bringing in this now
Good morning.
I think the answer is very simple.
Tell everyone That Joe Biden is still President of the United States.
Send Mr. Ramaswamy and Mr. Musk home.
Tell Donald Trump he is not going to take the oath of office until January 20th.
They need to approve the bill, the original bill, and let's go home for Christmas.
All right.
Arnita there in Ohio, Democratic caller.
Her message to lawmakers here in Washington as they face a deadline to fund the government and avert a shutdown.
Gary in Huntsville, Alabama, a Republican.
Hi, Gary.
Hey, good morning, and thank you for taking my call.
Morning.
I, too, am a retired military and disabled vet, so I have lived through a few of these shutdowns over the years.
None of them were fun.
However, another comment about Elon Musk being, you know, putting up his speaker, I totally disagree with that, is that he is not an elected official.
So therefore, you know, I would highly object to that.
Now, as far as him trying to help rein in the spending, And on the first bill, it was like out of Washington Stadium and several other private particular projects that were put in there.
Yes, take that out.
Take care of the farmers.
Take care of the people in North Carolina.
Get a decent CR.
Get it passed today because it's not fun to have to go to work.
And not know that you're even going to get paid, but yet, as an essential employee, you still had to work every day.
All right, Gary.
Gary's thoughts are Republican in Alabama talking about Elon Musk and Axios noting that Musk had a tweet.
This allowed Musk to have a tweet storm.
They say 150 plus posts on the defeat of the federal spending bill while sharing some demonstrably false information, including the size of a proposed congressional pay raise now dropped from the bill.
Musk also reposted a false claim.
This is from Axios' Good morning to you.
Good morning to you.
I'm a veteran.
I think, quite frankly, we made a very big mistake in re -electing this gentleman.
And I fear it's going to get worse than this.
Look at what we're going through right now, and he hasn't even taken the oath.
After he takes the oath, which you really don't believe in, what do you think he's going to do?
He's already told people he wants to be a dictator.
What do you think he's going to do?
All right, John.
Shirley, Fort Myers, Florida, independent.
Shirley, what do you say?
And Greta, happy holidays to you.
Morning.
Same to you.
Boy, oh boy.
This is the government shit show that we just can't seem to get through.
I really want the government to figure this out.
Leave the outside agitators, as on Elon Musk, out of the conversation.
They have no say so.
I really hope this works because America deserves to have the government functioning.
Thank you again and happy holidays.
All right.
Doug, Newport News, Virginia, Republican.
Hi, Doug.
Good morning.
Morning.
Good morning.
Yeah, I'm of that.
And I'm going to tell you, I want to thank C -SPAN for publishing and showing everybody the way our government works because these people get paid if the government shuts down.
Every congressman, every one of their workers should be the first ones to not get paid.
You cannot run a government like this.
You cannot tell us to go to war and we're not going to get paid.
They should be the first ones going on that front line when that happens and picking up a gun instead of sitting on their ass in Washington, D .C. doing nothing.
And that's all they've done.
Doug in Newport News, Virginia, a Republican with his thoughts this morning.
Midnight tonight is the government funding deadline.
At 12 :01 a .m. Eastern Time is when there would be a partial government shutdown if it is not averted today here in Washington.
Speaker Mike Johnson coming into the Capitol earlier this morning told reporters that they have a plan and that there would be votes this morning.
Keep your channel here on C -SPAN throughout the day to catch coverage of the debate and possible vote on avoiding a government shutdown.
If you have to go about your day, you can download our free video mobile app, C -SPAN Now.
You can watch online at c -span .org.
Carol in West Virginia, an independent.
Good morning to you, Carol.
Good morning.
We're listening to you.
Shut it down.
Shut it down.
Yep, shut it down.
If they can't come to an agreement, I mean, we've seen this how many times?
And as far as Elon Musk and everybody, they're no different than the lobbyists that they're lobbying all the time for money.
They're just lobbying against spending money.
I think they could do a clean one.
They don't have to raise the debt ceiling.
Just like, look, we're going to run at current levels in the discussion.
You either agree with it or you don't.
Everybody else has to live on a budget, and Washington seems they want to keep raising and raising and raising the budget.
And both sides is doing it.
All right, so Carol, when you say come together, who are you talking to?
All the Republicans come together and pass something with 218 votes because they control the chamber?
Or are you saying come together with Democrats and have a bipartisan deal?
I've watched both parties.
I've watched the Democrats pass spending bills and pass bills and not a Republican vote for it.
I've seen the Republicans pass bills and not a Democrat.
They need to grow up, put their big boys and girl panties on, and act like adults and say, you know what?
The people spoke.
They told us they wanted this.
They want us to quit spending money and put the American people first.
Neither party puts the American people first.
Alright, so Carol, who do you agree with here?
President -elect Donald Trump?
I don't agree with none of them.
I'm saying they need to, they can pass a clean bill if they really wanted to.
There's nothing wrong with just saying, look, we're not adding anything to this, we're not taking anything away right now.
We are going to fund the government on the...
All right, clean CR, Carol.
That's what Carol wants in West Virginia.
Independent caller.
All of you get to tell lawmakers what you would like them to do.
This morning, we have 10 minutes left in our conversation.
We'll see what happens at 10 a .m. Eastern time.
Jake Sherman of Punchbowl News tweeting this out.
One of the options of many being discussed would be for the leadership to hold...
We're good to go.
Thomas Massey, a Republican from Kentucky last night, he proposed that idea according to reporters who were watching the chamber last night after Plan B failed and Mike Johnson was huddling with conservative members of Congress in the chamber on the floor seeking a way forward.
Thomas Massey said he proposed separate votes.
We'll see what happens here.
Margaret in Santa Maria, California.
Democratic caller.
Hi, Margaret.
Hello.
Good morning.
I do agree with that other caller saying that Musk is a lobbyist.
Would any other lobbyist be allowed to come in on the floor and start doing what he's doing?
Anyway, the reason I'm calling is because to say that the Democrats have to stop helping the Republicans on this debt deal.
If the Republicans don't go for the bipartisan, if they do go for the bipartisan bill, maybe.
The Democrats have helped Johnson before and no quid pro quo before.
Well, they have to get a spine.
We elected them to work for us, not for themselves.
So I think that's the way that this should go.
So, anyway, thank you.
Okay.
And that is Margaret's thoughts there.
Tim in Friendship, New York.
Democratic caller.
Hi, Tim.
Hi, Greta.
Morning.
I just wanted to say one of your earlier callers really nailed it.
Send Trump and his entourage home and let Congress get done what they need to get done.
Okay.
I think what we're seeing right now is like January 6th on steroids, whereas they're in and they are controlling the Congress where they should not be there at all.
They should wait until their turn.
Okay, that's Tim in New York.
Democratic caller this morning, Mike in Cragford, Alabama.
Republican.
Hi, Mike.
Good morning.
First, do you hear me?
Yes, we hear you, Mike.
Okay, first point I want to make is that politicians have gone to Washington and they have turned what's supposed to be a service to the people into a profession for themselves.
So they're not out looking to protect Americans or our country.
They're looking to protect their jobs, their future, and their income.
They're the ones who sneak in a 40 % raise for themselves.
And as far as voting for bills, if a bill can't stand on its own without sneaking in your pet project, it doesn't need to be presented for a vote.
All bills should stand alone.
If they can't stand alone, they don't need to be voted on.
All right.
Mike's thoughts there in Cragford, Alabama.
Republican Jack in Woodland, Pennsylvania.
Democratic caller.
Hi, Jack.
Hey, Greta.
Good morning.
This is the second time that they've come to bipartisan agreements to fix major problems.
And Republicans just can't get their act together.
It's bipartisan.
These people, they write the bill.
And then when it comes time to do it, they renege on the bill.
The last time they let Donald Trump at the last hour come in and derail the bipartisan border bill.
And now this time, a non -elected billionaire...
The richest man in the world comes in and gets to put his foot in the door.
You know, and people talk about, you know, Musk, he's lying on X saying about football stadiums.
What he did block is $190 million for cancer research for pediatric and children.
I mean, if they'll do that, they'll do anything.
All right, Jack there in Pennsylvania.
We are going to stick with this conversation this morning, possibly after the 10 a .m. hour here in Washington to see what happens on the House floor if Republicans bring so -called Plan C to the floor or not around 10 o 'clock.
In the meantime, though, I want to show you more from the debate last night.
Let's begin with Hakeem Jeffries, the leader of the Democratic Party in that chamber, followed by North Carolina...
Reasons are too numerous to articulate.
Though with my magic minute, I could do that.
But we've laid out the challenges with this bill, the phoniness in claiming that extreme MAGA Republicans are about working class Americans.
House Democrats are going to continue to fight for working families, middle class families,
all those who aspire to be part For the children of America, for the seniors of America, for the unions in America, for the veterans of America, for the least, the lost, and the left behind, for the poor, the sick, and the afflicted.
We are going to continue to fight for everyday Americans.
That is why we are voting no on this bill and to stop this reckless, regressive, and reactionary Republican shutdown.
Vote.
No.
Keeping the government open is critical to the district that I represent in Western North Carolina.
But I'd like to just take a moment and speak specifically to the disaster relief portion of this bill.
As most of you are aware, North Carolina was hit by Hurricane Helene on September the 27th of this year and we experienced unprecedented disaster.
It's going to cost North Carolina about $58 billion to rebuild.
This storm was the most deadly in North Carolina's history.
We lost 126 ,000 homes that were either damaged or destroyed.
Countless people are now homeless.
Mr. Speaker, I need to remind you that folks in western North Carolina have been.
They need the help of this body.
From the floor last night, Republicans and Democrats debating the way forward on averting a government shutdown.
We are now approaching 14 hours until the government deadline expires, 12 .08 a .m. Eastern Time on Saturday.
We have not heard what the plan is, but Speaker Mike Johnson says he told reporters this morning when he came in that there is one and that he expects the vote to happen.
Stay here.
We're good to go.
I think?
Where are you going?
Or 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.
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The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.
I believe that those countries which now oppose us will abandon their delusions.
We sense with all our faculties that forces of good and evil are masked and armed and opposed as rarely before in history.