corridors, they zeroed that on t and insurance agencies couldn't come up with their money. so we don't look at regulations, but when they can't get a way around a law or passing a law, regulations help them find a back door into doing what they need to do. and then also, one last comment. because it's public, i mean, public comments, i worked on short-term limited duration as far as health care. the majority of people said, please don't back this away. but under the trump administration they pushed it through anyway. i'm like, do people really read regulations and know how much really power is in the regulations? because they can do whatever they want to and don't have to go through congress. and that's my comment. host: thanks for the call. less than a minute left. sarah hay, a chance to respond. guest: i think you're absolutely right that regulations are the

backbone of government and it's how government really implements all of these laws that get passed by congress. yes, fully agree there. host: george washington university's regulatory studies center. you can find gwu.eudu/regstudies. sarah hey serves as a policy analyst there. also on x.washington journal co. host: we like to take a look at we can congress. i want to start not necessarily on capitol hill, but certainly on a topic involving a member of congress. the democratic senator of new jersey, his trial begins today. what if the trial about. remind folks why he got involved

in this, his second trial as people may remember. >> the first one happened around 2015, 2060i believe. it took so long from initially breaking the news. essentially, the indictment involved him receiving gifts for colluding with foreign governments. this is all somewhat related to we assume a halal meat organization and him giving special privileges to certain companies. his wife is getting wrangled into this, so it is going to be very interesting. it all starts this week. host: the federal district court in manhattan is where it will be. you mentioned the story

originally about the investigation. guest: october 2022. it was very unclear what was going on, but big news was this is happening once again because we know that is under investigation and almost like the tribe of several years earlier. some of his colleagues are already calling for his resignation. we are not clear if he's going to continue along this path of seeking reelection. it's going to be very interesting. host: one of his biggest critics is john fetterman. guest: is very consistent. he just doesn't think this is appropriate, he should step down. i will add that bob menendez did step down as foreign affairs chair, which makes this indictment even more interesting, because he was the chair of foreign affairs

committee and senate. host: this taking place in new york, coming back here to capitol hill and sort of the week ahead business-wise on the legislative calendar. we saw the end of last week, the senate passing their versions of the faa authorization and then finding time for the house to take that up this week. is that said to be smooth sailing for the building the house? guest: at this point, yes. we've probably gone through our most contentious period of the house which was again passing that ukraine a on national security funding. i think it will eventually pass the house. host: the other issue on foreign policy is what we talk a lot about last, the biden administration pausing offensive weapons to israel. members on both sides of the issue who strongly disagree, is

there a legislative track that you are looking out for to either demonstrate or force the biden administration's hand? guest: here's the interesting thing. there's been some letters coming from republican leadership. it has strictly been a bunch of letters so far but the biden administration is asking for more aid to ukraine so i'm wondering if there is going to be some battle or negotiation there, some kind of exchange to see whether or not they are going to allow these weapons to go forward. host: it was late thursday that we learned that the republican of florida freshman said he was going to file impeachment articles against joe biden. what is going to come of that, if anything? guest: i've spoken to republicans and democrats and a lot of people said they weren't

taking it as serious. we don't know if she's going to push this motion, it would force a vote within two legislative days. it's not clear that's going to happen but we do know he is drafting legislation. host: for about the next 20 minutes or so, so go ahead and start calling in with your questions and comments about the week ahead in washington. this weekly segment that we do in congress is in session. the house expected to return tomorrow at new eastern, the senate in the 3:00 p.m. hour and of course, you can watch both on c-span and c-span c-span 2. other legislation for congress

breaks for the august recess and the campaign trails and everything involved with an guest: election year. guest:i spoke to chairman thompson a wild ago and he said that the legislation would probably be out of committee by memorial day. this is something that they have to take out. we are going to meet the extension later in the year. along with the defense reauthorization, and of course, we will probably need to fund the government once again. host: it is an october to october fiscal year. how far along are they? we saw how far behind they were by the time they passed legislation to fund the government through the rest of

2024. >> i do hear often that this is speaker johnson -- one thing that he really wants to get done was avoid an omnibus. not sure how much legislature they have between now and september 30. host: looking at speaker johnson's job security amid a potential ouster from republicans who disagree with him. has that been put to bed? what is your estimation of where johnson stands right now? guest: marjorie taylor greene did not have the votes to move forward with this. i do not see any appetite to

push forward another resolution, however, she did kind of throw out this idea. she throughout this idea that former president trump did say maybe this would happen sometime down the line. if he is not reelected in the coming year, whether republicans are a majority were not. host: if who is not reelected? guest: speaker johnson, sorry. host: when it comes to facing -- facing the motion to vacate in congress, could marjorie taylor greene offer another of these? is there a limit on how many a member of congress can offer, and can she do it in the same way and everything sort of shuts down and wait for that to happen? guest: she can offer as many as she likes thanks to the rules

package republicans put forward. so yes, she can. when they were getting last week, thomas massie set i can't promise that it won't happen again, but what i will promise is you don't have to worry about it next week, but you can take a week off. host: (202) 748-8000 for democrats to call in. (202) 748-8001 for republicans. independent, (202) 748-8002. staying on marjorie taylor greene for a minute more, one of the things she called for as she was criticizing speaker johnson before this vote was a vote to special counsel jack smith's office with investigating donald trump. wherever that stand and how much support is there in the republican caucus guest: they

just don't have the votes to defund an entire investigation against a former president. host: in terms of who we found out our johnson's biggest critics, obviously marjorie taylor greene leading this, any other surprising votes that join them in their effort last week when they came to trying to out speaker johnson? we could imagine that this is all political and that they needed to go back to this district and say i certainly didn't vote to save this far right republican. it was more democrats who didn't go along with their party leader. host: when is the next time members are going to head home?

guest: it is one more week in may that they have an entire week off host: who is probably going to get the most of your full after what happened here? guest: i think nancy mace is in for a tough reelection. many people believe kevin mccarthy is behind her opponent, but then there's a very interesting election right here in virginia, facing a maga republican. bob good would say that he is extremely conservative, however he did not support former president trump during his primary. he backed ron desantis and i

think these interparty battles, and keeping an eye on these interparty battles. host: there's always one race that sneaks out every election cycle that nobody had on their radar. has there been a surprise so far? guest: a democrat from new york. his opponent was backed by a pack, a jewish funded pac.

the sentiment there is that because of his views against funding israel, there is this ever to oust him. but what i can tell you is that he focuses his attention on a primary trying to win back the house. it is kind of a distraction for them. host: is the campaign committee playing in this race? guest: i think people are going to be very safe, especially members of congress who are probably not going to talk about the race or not going to pick a side, which is again very interesting as well.

host: why is the trial taking place in manhattan, is the question> guest: that's a great question, i'm not clear. the federal district of new york are the people that actually -- this is ralph and washington, d.c., independent. >> why the is trial taking place in manhattan. >> it's the southern district of new york are the people that actually brought the charges. jal authority did not exist. by what authority does he become god? i could charge anybody with any crime i've decided i want to

skew them for and bring criminal charges. guest: we seen this in cases with president biden with the documents case and also with trump in various situations. pretty sure he has the authority to do what he is doing by the attorney general. host: we mentioned that the house and senate don't come in officially until tomorrow, but

key congressional hearings that you will be watching for are back in town on tuesday, wednesday or thursday this week. guest: key congressional hearings. that's a good question. the judiciary, i'm not aware of a hearing is going on this week but i'm pretty sure the judiciary has something coming but is escaping me right now. host: there is a question whether presence of universities are going to be back on capitol hill anytime soon. guest: not that i know of, unless the schedule has changed recently. i'm very curious now that school is over or ending how that turns out. there's going to be a clear distinction about student protesters and people who come from the outside to actually protest on college campuses toward the end of graduation time.

host: our first hour today we spent asking viewers whether they had protested and whether it had made a difference. have you ever covered a protest, and if so how does one cover a protest? host: i guess very carefully. i did cover the 2020 black lives matter protest. host: where did you go? guest: right outside of the white house. i had the pleasure of covering protesters, but also being a reporter at the same time when president trump crossed the street in front of the church. i was in the white house pool. i can tell you it feels very different when you're inside the white house as opposed to outside among protesters, but in

general, i saw a lot of families , generational protesting, but i also saw people putting graffiti on buildings. i think there is a clear distinction of people who come there to protest and people who come to cost strife. i remember someone specifically grabbing water bottles just to throw in the crowd and did not seem like they were actually there with cause. i think pointing those things out while you are in the crowd is very important. host: so you british reporter and donald trump walked off the street to the church and held up the bible? could you follow him for that walk after the protest, the police came and include this out? guest: i have this very, very famous pool report that talking to people doubled over at the

stench of the gas that was in the air. host: what do you remember from that walk and were you able to talk and ask that president question that all? guest: know, we weren't. .... outside of the white house d when we eventually got there, there was a gaggle out there. i think ivana trump was there, a couple of other people, and then he made the speech the biggest thing i remembered the smell of the area and how quickly they had pulled protesters away.

host: for you able to talk to any of the protesters that day? there's the image of the president holding up the bible at st. john's church. guest: i go back inside the white house. protesters didn't come back immediately. they didn't come back -- i don't remember this actually coming back. whether or not it was a toxic.

eventually the secret service did come out and say they did dispense this, but not actually anything toxic. people running while they are covering the president. host: coming up on the four-year anniversary of that walk in that photo. you mentioned that you knew some people were there to legitimately protest. you felt like there were other people who were there to cause violence. how do you choose who gets interviewed when you're trying to cover a protest and you try to interview both types of people and get their voices in? what was that like the day before you were doing that? guest: you interview everyone. i remember the defund the police

effort when i was put on the assignment and the assignment was go find out if people understand what the meaning of defund the police is. it wasn't clear at that point what people meant, and it was interesting because different people had different ideas. some people had no idea. some people had very scholarly answers about how they wanted to approach this. obviously talking to everyone including the graffiti poster and understanding why. host: thanks for waiting. north carolina, line for democrats, what is your question? caller: wind is everyone feel like trump can get away with anything he wants to? if i took papers from it and they asked for me to return those papers, if i didn't, why

does it feel like everyone says trump -- the united states into -- it should just be written off? host: the documents case i guess is the focus of the question. guest: that's the argument that everyone is having. many people will support trump. the question is why are we persecuting in former president and people understand and see that the justice system should not give any favoritism to anyone are arguing know, pursue every action you can even if he is a former president. it has been the debate since they started this entire thing. host: a useon twitter mentioning henry cuear talking about bob menendez or vice

versa. remind us of what happened last week with henry cuellar. guest: very similar to bob menendez, henry cuellar is facing charges for illegally taking an exchange or dealing with a foreign entity and exchanging favors for gifts. that is a very fresh indictment, we won't see anything for that for i imagine a year or so, but he is up for reelection and that is a very, very volatile see for democrats. actually, it's not really clear where democrats are going to fall on this. host: bill is sending a text from ohio saying guess what, we have another client and at the what mr. menendez did was we were thin with mr. trump did, asking the immediate they are

going to cover it as salacious lee as they cover the other trial, the donald trump trial, saying please do. less than two minutes left here. what did we get to yet, what stories are you covering this week? guest: i have a story out today about the nation's security, the woman who had national security background, how some of them are leaving. both of them come from very tough district or swing districts with democrats. they flipped those seats in a 2018 and now they are seeking higher office. abigail spanberger is running for governor and -- is running for senate. my question to some members on the hill was does this leave a gap in national security conversations when some people are, specifically in the republican party, the chair of

the intel committee are spewing russian talking points. some of these lawmakers are essential and articulating to their colleagues what is necessary and how things are unfolding even though their colleagues don't have the access that they do. host: the headline, democrats are about to lose their mob squad.

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