energy related issues including epa's new guidance on tailpipe emissis. at that we continue our discussion on the government funding deadline as well as military aid to israel and ukraine with kathleen. join in the conversation live at 7:30 eastern on friday morning on c-span, c-span now, or online at c-span.org. announcer: c-span is your unfiltered view of government. we are funded by these television companies and more, including charter communications. >> charter is proud to be recognized as one of the best internet providers, and we are just getting started, building 100,000 miles of new infrastructure to reach those who needém it most. announr: charter communications supports c-span as a public service along with giving you a front -- television

providers, giving you a front row5 seat to democracy. announcer: up next, house minority leader hakeem jeffries speaks to reporters on efforts to pass its $1.2 trillion government funding package ahead of friday's midnight deadline to ava leader jeffries also talks about the possibilitynyahu addressings and continued support for ukraine. this is about 15 minutes.

>> head's up. mr. jeffries: good afternoon. from the beginning of congress, the republicans made clear we'll find bipartisan ground on our colleagues on any issue wherever possible in order to take care of the business of the american people and make life better for everyday americans. we've repeatedly done it from the beginning of this congress and we're prepared to do it once again in■. final six appropriation bills are passed in the house, sent over to the senate, and on a path to be signed into law by b. under no circumstances can we

tolerate a government shutdown, which will hurt the american people. we have a responsibility to ke sure the government is funded and the six appropriation bills do so in a way that takes care of the health, safety, education, and the economic people.ing i look forward to the bills being brought to the floor for passage tomorrow. questions? reporter: you said the democrats were ready, willing and able to help pass the government funding bill. do you know how many democrats are readyhis, could it be over 200? mr. jeffries: substantial majority. reporter: can i ask you of loaning ukraine money for their aid package? i know you prefer the supplemental but could this be a mr. jeffries: i don't prefer the

supplemental. the only viable path forward is for house republicans to take theational security bipartisan and comprehensive bill that was sent over by the senate weeks ago and put itn floor for an up or down vote so we can provide the security assistance necessary to our democratic a■■?ásll ukraine, and in the indo-pacific, and at the same time meet the needs of palestinian civilians are in harm's way in gaza through no fault of their own and surge humanitarian assistance into the region and other theaters of war across the world. we are past the 11th hour at this in time and house republicans need to stop bending the knee to the pro-putin faction that is growing and

ascendant in their party and do the right thing in terms of the national security needs of the american people. the senate bill is bipartisan, it's comprehensive and the only viable way forward. reporter: do you support israeli netanyahu addressing congress and do you have concerns with the reporting leader schumer rejected the opportunity to speak to the democratic caucus? mr. jeffries: i've not been formally approached with respect to the prime minister speaking to the house of representatives or a joint session of congress. and until that formal approach takes place, i don't reporter: there's a lot of different policy riders in these appropriation bills, one talks about prohibiting the biden administration from prohibiting

gas stoves, for example, what are the democrats reaction to those and why do you think in the bill?ind of continue to mr. jeffries: as far as i can tell, the overwhelming majority of right wing policy riders have been rejected and are not part of the spending agreement, including in critical areas like it extreme maga republican efforts to undermine reproductive freedom, destroy diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, bully the transgender community, or detonate the progress that we made in the last congress connected to combating the climate crisis. every single one of the policy right wing changes sought by

extreme maga republicans in those critical areas are gone, a victory for the american peoplee way the speaker invited netanyahu to speak since a joint address would normally require the sign off of all lea mr. jeffries: speaker mike johnson has not raised this issue with me so there's nothing to talk about until we actually have a conversation about his intensions. intentions. reporter: has he had conversations with you about the he sort of made gestures to funding that needed to come from where he had been previously, have you had conversations about that? mr. jeffries: we continue to make the case including to speaker johnson that the national security challenges need to be addressed with urgency and we shouldn't real lt

addressing the needs of our democratic allies particularly as it relates to ukraine because there's a possibility that we could return i2 1/2 weeks and the situation in ukraine has dramatically changed and all of the progress that the people bravely have made in pushing back against russian aggression has been lost. why has house republicans and large parts of the republican party become so pro-putin? because that's not the pro american position. that's not the america first position to allow■ ukraine to fall. that's the putin first position. and it's a shame so many of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle refuse to recognize

the urgent need in terms of the safety and security of the american people and the free world in particularring to stand by the ukraine -- continuing to stand by the ukrainian people. reporter: if i could follow up on that, there are some republicans in the house who are pro funding ukraine and there's a discharge peti 185 people have signed off on the discharge petition that would move the bill the senate passed. are there any overtures to those republicans as well as some of your democrats who haven't signed that, if this is urgent and needs to get done before you leave and to your point things markedlies, there's a pressure point right there. mr. jeffries: the overwhelming majority of democrats have signed the discharge petition and there really are only a handful of republicans who need to step forward and join us and we could end this issue right now. less than 20% of the house

republican conference at this point in time is necessary to join house dem the discharge petition, and we can provide our democratic allies in ukraine and throughout the world with the assistance thathe contd democracy, freedom, and truth. less than 20% of the■1■ouse republican congress. so the question is, are the others all pro putin? we only need less than 20%. so even if everyone else is lost, and i don't believe that is the case that everyone decided to follow the other side of the aisle donald trump's pro putin position or tucker carlson's pro putin position or marjorie taylor greene's pro putin position. i know that's not the case with ery single house republican. and so either speaker johnson

puts the bipartisan senate bill on the house floor tomorrow or we're going to have to explore all available opportunities immediately upon our return in april. reporter: the light is finally at the end of the tunnel for fy-24 appropriations. can you talk about how it feels to be at the end of this process that caused a lot of dysfunction inongrs and the key focus? mr. jeffries: i'm thankful for the leadership of rosa delauro who is our top appropriator on the mocratic side as well as all of the members of the appropriations committee who has been involved in negotiating the spending bills over the last several months. and they've done it in a thorough and a forward looking way of the american people under circumstances where of course

we're constrained by divided government. it's a win for the american people that we are on the verge of avoiding a harmful government shutdown and meeting the needs of the american people in a way that lifts up their health,ion e economic well-being. reporter: when the speaker called for new elections in from an inflection point on your end in leaving the house democratic caucus or coalition, would it be easier for you in this position to hold the coalition together if someone other than netanyahu and how he's conducted the war was in charge in israel? mr. jeffries: i appreciate the way you endeavored to ask that question but i'll give you the same awer as relhing in this sp. what is in front of us right now is to make sure israel is able

to decisively defeat hamas, which is a brutal terrorist organization, and that is necessary to be done forgood of, palestinian people, the region, the free world, and for a just and lasting peace. the same time, we need to do everything possible to decisively get the hostages out and decisively surge humanitarian assistance,oo and water, into gaza so we can alleviate the conditions that innocent palestinian civilians are confronting as a result of being in the theater last question? reporter: there was data

released by the nontrac that deportation cases were thrown out because d.h.s. did not file the necessary paperwork in time. is that aconcern at all■"nd should that be addressed here? mr. jeffries: i can't address whether it's a concern or not because i haven't seen that particular report. the biden administration is working hard under the circumstances that they confront and the limitation of resources that have been placed upon them to make sure that we have a secure, a strong aum as democrats, we've made clear repeatedly that we believe that we've got a broken immigration system■% serious challenges at the border that need to be addressed incommonsed bipartisan manner, which unfortunately is not the approach the extreme maga

republicans have taken because at their of donald trump, the republicans would rather weaponnize the border issue politically in november as opposed to working with democrats in a bipartisan commonsense way to solve it right now. and in this country, in this congress, we need less chaos and more common sense. unfortunately, this do nothing republican congress has far too often specialized in chaos, function, and extresm, solving. but we're ready, willing, and able to work on this issue in a serious fashion. we just need traditional republicans to join us. thank you, everyone. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2024] : dir

bracket? mr. jeffries: i didn't fill one out. is that breaking news? announcer:us returns to consider a bill to reap deal the epa greenhouse gas redu f lawmakers also need to prove a one trillion dollars spending package to fund parts of the gont f the remaining fiscal year before a mt deadline. it needs to clear the house bet go to the senate. while senators wait to receive the bill from the house they ernest ge a unitednomination of states district judge for the western district of texas. follow c-span on c-span now or on our website c-span.org. ♪ announcer: american history tv

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