that includes a long sought after patriot defense systems and precision bomb kits. cnn s jessica dean is with us now. zelenskyy is going to address a joint meeting of congress tonight just ahead of a political shift in congress. what are we expecting to hear from president zelenskyy? reporter: well, victor this evening, we re expecting to hear more after what we heard from him in the oval office. thanking them, the president, congress for helping ukraine in what has been the last year. we re coming up on the one-year anniversary of this war in ukraine, and we re also expecting to see him try to bolster support for ukraine s efforts. you just laid it out. there is a changing tide here on the hill. of course, the house is about to be taken over by republicans in the next congress, and there have been some republicans, especially house republicans that have indicated they are not willing to just blindly sign checks to send over in ukraine funding, and that is a bit of a departure as to
over the last 300 something days. we think he will be speaking to that audience as well, and this comes as the warm moves into the winter of the season, and western europe especially reliant on russian oil. there s a lot of dynamics at play here, and one additional one of course, is as zelenskyy will be speaking, the senate is seeking to pass this massive funding bill for the next year with $45 billion included for ukraine within that bill that would then pass through the senate and go to the house. so there are so many dynamics at play as this historic moment happens just several days before the christmas holiday, before so many of these lawmakers head home for the holidays. it s quite a busy day here on the hill. victor what we do expect this sense of history tonight as zelenskyy addresses this joint meeting of congress, and it is interesting too, one last thing to note. pelosi sending out a letter to house members trying to get them all to be in the chamber for
completed, and that was only begun at the time that the chairman neal put in the request to have insurpection of this aut program. are you seeing any cooperation from your republican counterparts on the committee that if it doesn t get done, this congress, that they ll pick up any of this as it relates to the presidential audit program in the next congress? well, republicans some are signaling that they are, in fact, concerned about this, but what we are also concerned with is the fact that for almost a decade, republicans when they were in power, gutted the funding for the irs, and have said that they planned to do the same when they take control of the house. that is one of the primary reasons this audit program was, in fact, broken because there are specialist auditors who are needed to audit tax returns of really complex individuals. one of my colleagues, stephen
i m joined now by our washington correspondent, barbara plett usher few ditto5 coming through right now barbara but what can you tell us? the us media is reporting that if president zelensky doe5 the us media is reporting that if president zelensky does come he would meet congressional leadership and leaders from both parties and president biden at the white house. we have heard from the house representative who cochairs the congressional ukrainian caucu5 and she said there have been ongoing efforts to bring him to the capital to address a joint congress. and nancy pelosi has written to her colleagues seen there will be a special message on night though she didn t say what that message would be about. if m5. president zelensky doe5 addre55 congre55 it will be the second time he did so right after the russian youth invasion in february. we have to stress that this has not been officially confirmed and that security concerns
course, congress is about to change and democrats don t control congre55 now and republicans taking over and some of them have been reticent about whether they would continue with the level of aid that democrats have authorised. presumably if president zelensky doe5 addre55 congre55 he will make forcefully the case that that level of age should continue. ., , ., ,, , ., ., continue. robert thank you for keein: continue. robert thank you for keeping us continue. robert thank you for keeping us up-to-date - continue. robert thank you for keeping us up-to-date with i continue. robert thank you for| keeping us up-to-date with the keeping us up to date with the details of that story. (sing to the uk now and leaders of the uk s to the uk now and leaders of the uk s national health service are expressing fears that patient safety can t be guaranteed, during the industrial action by ambulance workers in england and wales on wednesday. the public is being asked to use 5ervice5 wisely