by the hlth and human services pament in january of 2020. the white house has announced it plans to extend the emergency declaratiotoay 11 of this year. the other measure on the oo today would end the covid-19 ccation requirement for medicare and medicaid health care prode. members will take up additional pandemic reledills later this yankee. watch live coverage of the house when members return here on c-span. >> preorder your copy of the congressional directory for the 118th congress. it's your access to the federal government with bio and contact information for every house and senate member. important information on congressional committees, the president's cabinet, federal agencies, and state governors. scan the code at the right to preorder your copy today for early spring delivery. it's.95 us shipping and evy purchase helps support our nonprofit operations at c-span

shop dot-org. we're going to enr program how we began our program -- host: we are going to end our program how we began our program, looking at american views on the top problems facing the country. what do you think is the top issue facing the united states? here are some of the numbers from the pole, just released yesterday. 21% of respondents saying the government or poor leadership is the top problem facing the country, that is up six points since november. the number of americans who say inflation is the top problem, 15% of the country. immigration 11%, economy in general 10%. that is down six points since november. american saying unifying the country as the top problem, 6% of respondents. we will go through the poor a little more -- poll a little more. democrats, (202) 748-8000,

republicans (202) 748-8001, independents (202) 748-8002. about 40 minutes until the house comes in at 10:00 a.m. eastern, we will take you there live for gavel-to-gavel coverage at 10:00 a.m. on c-span2, the senate will come in on c-span3. you can head over to the house, energy and commerce committee that begins at 10:00 a.m. eastern. a full plate of offerings this morning from c-span networks, until then, what is the top problem facing this country? michael in new jersey, democrat. you are up first. caller: good morning. am i on? host: yes, sir. caller: i find the biggest problem in the united states today is wall street creeping into every sector. we know they got into education, now we have got predatory loans.

they've gotten into health care, people get older and need more medical care, they go bankrupt. now, they are getting into rentals. they are buying up trailer parks, apartments, causing maintenance fees to go up in condos, making people homeless. they have the lobbyists that got the ear of our politicians and are getting away with it, because you do not hear about a lot on the news is much as we should. host: michael in new jersey. this is paul and south carolina, independent. what is the top problem facing this country? caller: for me, the border crisis. it's been going on and accelerated since biden has been in office. there is not anything that the

republicans or democrats do to support them. i believe the reason why, i believe all these people coming over here for two years is ruining the country. i believe the democrats and republicans want them here and they are getting paid by the cartels to do that. thank you. host: a big difference in the numbers when it comes to democrats and democratic leaning independents and republicans and republican leaning independents who responded to the poll, especially on the issue of immigration. 18% of republicans saying immigration is the top problem facing this country. among democrats, just 5% naming immigration is the top problem facing this country. another place where there is a difference on race relations as the biggest problem in this country, 2% of republicans

naming race relations, 9% of democrats. 6% of democrats saying the environment is the biggest problem, essentially zero when it comes to percentagewise of republicans naming the environment is the top problem. jim, republican. good morning. caller: great show this morning. my opinion is we have a problem with the government. it is not democratic or republican. people come on and complain about democrats if they are republicans, republicans complain about democrats. by the time they get to where they are in office in washington, d.c., they are owned by big political backers, big-money men, both democrats and republicans. they do not care about what they did to us. the other thing i would have left a gotten on with val demmings being from florida, my opinion of what we have going on

with this country with guns and violence is the fact that when a 16 or 15 or 14 or, in the past couple of weeks, a six-year-old takes a gun and shoot somebody, the parents are not held responsible for what has gone on. that is our problem. if some kid gets his hands on a gun when he is not of legal age, the parents are responsible for everything he does. those are the two major things i have. host: can i ask about the first one? you talk about politicians, people hate congress but like their members of congress. they hate politicians or like their politicians. do you like your members of congress and the senate? do you like your governor in florida? guest: rick scott -- caller: rick scott with the biggest piece in the health care system, he has been the state

senator. i do not like him. i do not like any of the house representatives. matt gaetz should not be there. these people, they get this political money, this backing. as far as i'm concerned, i like ron desantis. i think he is a rogue, he's been able to keep the wolves from our doors in florida when it comes to education, when it comes to unionizing. president biden is pushing unions. i was in a union 30, 45 years ago. it was the worst case scenario. i could give you a whole story about the things they did that were illegal and ripped us off. it was a waste of time. i really like ron desantis, i wish we could get donald trump out of the way. we do not need a split in the republican party. we need somebody who can come in

with young, vibrant, educated positioning. i think ron desantis is the proper person for it. those are my answers to your questions. host: to the pine tree state, democrat. good morning. caller: good morning. i think the biggest problem facing the united states is concentrated wealth. the golden rule, the one that has the gold rules. it is a downright shame. concentrated wealth. a push to distribute money evenly would be called communism or socialism. i do not know what to do if all they care about is short-term game -- gain and not thinking about the consequences of what they do. we have to begin to think long term. it might be too late for everything.

everything is converging in one big pop. thank you, bye. host: new york, independent. good morning. caller: good morning. the biggest problem we have facing this country's honesty and half-truths by politicians. just because you take the debt limit argument today, they do not mention the fact it is all related to covid. it was primarily passed by the democrats and some republicans. whenever they say things, we get half-truths. nobody is talking about the shortage of gasoline coming up this summer and everything like that. people aren't educating themselves before they vote. they do not research what is really going on. thank you. host: this is roger in

indianapolis, republican. good morning. caller: i think the biggest problem we got is the corruption we have. we have so much corruption. we do not have an inventory, they do not inventory anything. trump tried to bring some sense back into the white house, and they had to get rid of him, about the corruption going on. he knows, because he was involved in the corruption himself. he has seen it all coming down, how the people get tax breaks, give money here and there in tax breaks. the corruption that is going on, still -- stealing all of our social security money. we have to get rid of the corruption in the white house and get people back into the white house to go to work.

not on their phones, not at their houses, but in the white house working like they are supposed to. covid totally got everybody out of the white house, emptied the white house. the president, we do not know where he is at. no idea where his office is. we've never seen him in his office around his staff. it does not make sense. it is not smelling right. the smell tests don't pass with this government. host: the president will be in new york today, talking about infrastructure projects. the hudson tunnel project is what he will be specifically focusing on, but has been on a bit of a tour when it comes to infrastructure projects. yesterday was in baltimore to tout a $4 billion federal infrastructure plan to replace the baltimore tunnel, a crucial piece of the northeast rail

network, a source of delays for the northeast corridor. the tunnel is 150 years old, seen from the front page of the washington post metro section as the president talked about the investment through the bipartisan infrastructure bill. back to new york, staten island. democrat. good morning. caller: good morning. this is the first time every caller, i agree with them on almost everything. i am talking all three parties. i feel pretty good. the sunshine state, i feel as though a lot of the things they said were kind of on point. my concern is the pattern of mass shootings. these people are hired, they are criminals but they are hired.

the right to bear arms, the nra, the connections to putin on what the report said. unfortunately, the doj, bill barr was not helping that held accountable for lying. -- bill barr was not held accountable for lying. who knows? host: are you saying trust in government is your biggest concern? caller: yeah. corruption, the key word. more from an independent standpoint, i feel as though -- the fall out, we knew it was going to happen. it is not backed. too many people have been taken. the christianity movement, i've been catholic all my life. i feel as though even our own religion has been taken hostage.

host: we will continue with your calls in just a second. we've been asking what your top problem is, what you think the top problem is facing the united states today. democrats (202) 748-8000, republicans (202) 748-8001, independents (202) 748-8002. go ahead and keep calling in. as you do that, we are going to chat with a health reporter with bloomberg government, a focus on house republicans and various pandemic response probes and legislation expected to be on the floor this week when it comes to the pandemic. good morning to you. guest: good morning. host: we found out yesterday from president biden that the president expects to formally end the national health emergency when it comes to covid in may. we found that out in response to legislation that republicans are putting on the floor this week. explain what is happening. guest: so, at the very beginning

in early 2020, the trump administration declared a national emergency. it allowed the federal government to have certain powers they are not normally allowed to use, flexibility, regulations and rules. the department of health and human services declared a public health emergency, which gives them a lot of flexibility. it allowed states to put more people on medicaid, the federal government could give them more money. it allowed telehealth flexibility. when none of us were going to the hospital, you could access your doctor online. we did a lot more of remote care . a long host of things that allowed. those have been in place since early 2020 and, early last year, republicans began to press on the question of, when will this end? again, with the new powers is new spending. the biden administration has been, for quite a while, a little bit cautious about

preparing to end it. there's been discussions, at least in the summer from people we spoke to, thinking about when they could wind it down. they are careful not to give it a date until this week. they were sorta forced by the fact republicans are trying to pass a series of bills that will end a lot of these emergency rules, declarations, to really come out and say we will end at may 11 of the last day will keep it. republicans have been touting it as a win, that is what they have been asking for a year now. they have not been getting an answer until now. host: are republicans excepting the date, or are they pushing for to happen sooner? guest: they are going to try to advance the legislation this week. the house, it looks pretty clear. it is about four bills. not to be too technical