west side of houston. the first member to hold the seat was future president george h.w. bush. new congress, new leaders, watch it all on c-span. >> live wednesday morning at 7:00 eastern on c-span2 -- the british house of commons returned from holiday break for the first prime minister's questions of 2019. watch prime minister's questions live wednesday morning at 7:00 eastern, on c-span2. >> ahead of president trump's address to the nation, house republicans were briefed about security on the southern border by homeland security secretary kristin nelson and vice president mike pence. here are gop leaders. >> we had a very good meeting

with the vice president and secretary of homeland security, the acting omb director. the main message and focuses the crisis at the southern border. no one denies we have crisis at the southern border. is absolutely clear it is a tourity crisis of we have provide the resources necessary. the president continues to negotiate in good faith. is giving an address this evening, the first time he has given an address in the oval office. it shows you the importance of the issue. at the same time, however, we are in a situation where even though we provide the information the democrats have asked for in terms of detailing what resources are necessary, they have not responded. they have not come back to us. they have refused to negotiate. we are absolutely dedicated to making sure we secure the border and stop the political, partisan games. the vice president was received very warmly and was able to give everybody a clear idea of where the president stands in his commitment on this issue.

with that, i will turn it over to the whip. >> we have a clear crisis at the southern border. i appreciate the fact that president trump has a strong resolve to solve this crisis while working to reopen the government. what we have seen from pelosi and schumer are a refusal to negotiate. this goes back to weeks ago when we passed a bill out of the house to fully fund the federalg agents of the government while solving the crisis at the southern border. that bill went over to the senate. the president immediately started to offer a negotiation with chuck schumer. they started talking numbers through the vice president. yet not one day did you see a counter offer. vice president pence did a great job of addressing a conference to explain how serious the crisis is, and to talk about the numbers. the numbers are astounding. i'm sure president trump will go into some of that tonight, but just last year, over 17,000

people with prior criminal convictions tracked across the southern border and caught. those are just the ones we caught, by the way. how many more get through because we don't have a secure border? is all about.is we want to get the entire government reopened while securing the border. you cannot have one without the other. you cannot say you are for border security and he refused to support the very things is going to take to secure the border. numbers from the experts who are test with keeping our country safe, who want to keep the country safe but don't have the tools we need. howre going to see tonight serious the crisis is at the border but we've got to get the problem solve. we got to get the government reopen file securing the border. that is what this battle is all about. >> we just had an update from the conference. presidenttantly, this

from the day of the partial shutdown began, has tried to negotiate to an agreement to keep government open, but more important, solve our border problem. , we we met last week couldn't get to a point because we didn't have our leadership based on. we have had challenges. you watch a close some of the leadership races were. so we waited to come back on friday. we made some improvements. the improvement was made over the weekend, this is the time to actually solve this problem before we get to the point where federal employees do not get paid. the president is committed to that to try to solve that problem and keep the border secure. in those meetings at the white house, every single person said they are for border security. when i watch the floor, it seems there are depainls because are because those bills are going nowhere in the

senate. now is the time for both sides to come together, come to an agreement, especially if all sides say they support border security, and find common ground to make sure the rest of government opens back up and we continue to move forward and end the crisis on our border. the president will speak tonight. i look forward to hearing what he has to say. i hope the american people at the same time will be able to listen and find that this president wants to solve this problem. >> mr. vice president, did they give any indication whether the president was going to order a national emergency? >> they did not touch that topic. i think we will all be listening tonight to hear where president wants to go. >> and you have concerns if there were? under president obama, your side was saying we need to exercise our article one authority? would you be ok if this president went around congress? >> i have watched this

president in meeting with the democrats on the other time. i have watched the speaker of the house first interrupt the secretary, wouldn't let her give her own presentation. as we continued the meetings, when the secretary finally has the ability to give facts out, she sells i disagree with the facts. they are not the secretary as facts. they are the facts along the border. we have individuals who don't want to talk about anything even though they say they believe in border security. this is the time to put people before politics, stop playing political games. this president has worked day in and day out. he has stayed here trying to make sure people came to go to find common ground. this is something the president ran on, something the american public unders. we have a crisis on our border, and we have to solve that problem at the same time and make sure the government opens back up. >> i apologize. don't control the floor. >> is it possible to skura the

border workout a wall? >> the president has talked before. when you skura the border, it is not just a wall, but a wall matters. >> here is some of our live coverage wednesday. members debate and vote on a spending bill to re-open the treasury department ant i.r.s. that is live on c-span. on use at 7:00 a.m., british prm teresa may answers questions from the house of commons less than a week on the january 15th vote on leaving the european union. and a middle east security bill that would pay security assistance to isreal over 10

years and expand sanctions against syria. democratic senior harris of california talks about her book and how her upbringing informs her governing style. and there are more live events on c-span 3. the pentagon's chief financial officer talks about the need of financial oversight of the defense department. and eaders from the naacp, the national lgbt task force eet to voice their support for bill hr-571. at 6:00 p.m., democratic leaders swear in members of the hispanic con congressional caucus. >> c-span's "washington journal" live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. coming up wednesday morning we will discuss the government shut down's impact on federal

workers. and jerry conley weighs in. then another joins us to talk about border security. watch "washington journal" at 7:00 a.m. on wednesday morning. join the discussion. >> on day 18 of the government shut-down president spoke to the nation from the oval office about what he calls a humanitarian and security crisis on the southern border. this is about 10 minutes. >> my fellow americans tonight i am speaking to you because there is a growing humanitarian and security crisis at our southern border. every day, customs and border patrol agent encounter thousands of illegal immigrants trying to ter our countr