Negotiations, iran did ask about that letter. And last night, the one who spearheaded that that letter took to the floor to express concerns over Irans Nuclear program. When it comes to the role congress should have in this process in doing with the wrong nuclear program, we want to ask our first 45 minutes how much influence congress should have over the process. The numbers are on the screen. You can make this conversation happen on our social Media Channels as well. The New York Times highlights negotiations currently taking place with the p5 plus one as it is known. According to this headline out of switzerland, iranians did ask secretary kerry about that letter. Here is the response from the Iranian Foreign minister. An organization known as you gov put out a survey about the letter. Never asked whether it was appropriate or not for those republicans to write the letter. 42 responded that it was not appropriate, 20th percent said it was, and 31 said they were not sure. 28 said it was and 31 said they were not sure. And there was division on who could be trusted more with 36 saying they trusted the president more, while 31 prefer republicans, and about 33 of those undecided. When it comes to congresss role in the negotiating program the negotiation over the nuclear program, how much influence do you feel they should have . The numbers are on the screen. Again, you can post on twitter and facebook and send us an email. The council on Foreign Relations in the briefing paper was talking about the current role congress has in treaties. The executive branch negotiates treaties and it must be approved in a two thirds vote for can be ratified. There you go as a matter of a set up as far as the process. We want to get your thoughts on the role of congress in the process. Peter, good morning. Thanks for calling. Go ahead. Caller the comment i want to make is if the Congress Really wanted to make a statement reflecting the feelings of the American People to the iranian government, they could have done it in two ways. Take a fullpage ad in the New York Times publishing that letter, or number two reconstituting the draft for boys and girls over 18. That will let the iranian government know the United States was really serious about these negotiations. Host let me ask you for followup on that when you talk about the page ad, iraq why that route . Why would that be effective . Caller because the New York Times is situated is distributed throughout the world. It is serious commentary and political and social and geological terms. Incidentally my grandfather was a representative of china to the versailles treaty conference. Host so youve heard of the senate role even back then. You mentioned the draft. Why would that be an appropriate route . Caller it would solve a lot of social and economic problems that the United States suffering now. I was also drafted as a tourist visa student in 1948 in the korean war. I think it had a very supreme effect on my life as a student and as a young person. Host that is peter from mechanicsville, maryland. This is oral on our independent line. Go ahead. This is earl. Caller i generally agree with most republicans on this issue on these issues, but i think it was inappropriate for them to send a letter to iran for the president was able to finish negotiating that treaty. Host do you think it has a lot of influence as farce the process concerned . Caller obviously, because they are putting their nose in it and iran has already sent a letter back. I was a, it has put something in there obviously, it has put something in there to mess up the deal. Host los angeles, California Republican line. Here is jack. Caller good morning. Im jack strickland. First of all im calling from bel air california, but im originally from philadelphia specifically west philadelphia. I was discussing this issue with a friend of mine recently while i was in philly. Some point during the conversation, a couple of guys who were up to no good essentially causing trouble in my neighborhood. Got in one little fight and my aunt and my mom said i had to move to bel air. Host again the iran nuclear negotiation. Call if you want to give your thoughts in the process. The numbers are on the screen. If you want to reach out to us on twitter, or email or a post on our facebook page. One of the things also coming out of papers today aside from Foreign Policys domestic policy. This is robert pear talking about the numbers released by the federal government when it comes to those who are insured. The headline says a large drop is reported in uninsured. President obama recently did an interview with an organization known as vice media. They talked about a lot of things, particularly about iran, and they talked about the process and his thoughts on the letter on the process. [video clip] im committed president obama the absolute best result vision is a diplomatic resolution. And if we do get that, itll be that i can verify they do not have a Nuclear Weapon and i will be working with the International Community to verify that. We can have that debate. For them to address a letter to the ayatollah, the Supreme Leader of iran, with they claim is our mortal enemy and their basic argument to then is, dont deal with our president because you cant trust him to follow through on an agreement, that is close to unprecedented. Host again that is an interview that was conducted with the vice news. You can find more on their website. Darrell is in alabama, independent line. We are talking about the role of congress in these iran negotiations. What do you think you what do you think . Caller good morning, pedro. Thank you for taking my call. Americans forget that these negotiations are being done under the off as of the un security council, which we ratified. And all agreements that are made under such negotiations are binding on us. In my opinion, it would be great, i think, for congress to have some say. But legally, they really dont have any say. Host lamonts in ohio, democrat line. Thanks for calling. Caller good morning. My comment is this. Its not really about the different parts of government having to follow each other. The real issue is that president obama is a black man. As far as congress and the president not on the same page, its really about race. Anything that he tried to do, theyre going to make sure that entails. Host a tweet this morning saying Front Congress has the final say on negotiating the treaty. Missouri, independent line. Cap, go ahead. Caller good morning. We were just watching tbn commenting on whether or not the senators shouldnt send the letter should have sent the letter to iran. We have kind of bounce back and forth. But its things like everybody has gone out of because additional lines it seems like everybody has gone out of the constitutional lines. This is such an important situation to educate the world let alone the people of the United States about half of us have no clue as to what is going on. I think the attention brought it to the top, and everybody now is at least talking about it. If we dont get this one right our kids are in a lot of trouble. Host what do you think about this letter . I know you were talking about it. Ultimately, how much do you want to see congress involved in this . Caller i Want Congress involved in everything 100 . I dont think the president has the final say on something so important. I think hes doing a lot of good things, but i dont he should be going around congress. Our government was not set up that way. Everything now, judicial congress, president ial, every new so political and everything is falling apart and nothing is getting done. That is what these elections are about now. We are teeter tottering on whether or not our nation is going to survive. I spent three years in the navy during the vietnam war. 58,000 of us got killed and nobody could care less about that. And here we have the kids getting killed in iraq afghanistan, etc. And nobody seems to care about the politics on both sides. They seemed to bounce back and forth. If it was their kids and their families getting killed, i think things would be a little different. Anyway, there is my two cents. I hope everything turns out all right. Host task from missouri that was passed from missouri. Here is another tweet from rick. You may agree or disagree or weigh in on the role that congress should play. Even as this goes on overseas plenty of activity here on capitol hill. Particularly the senate. Neil laszewski from cq will call joins us. He is a staff writer. Good morning mr. Liszewski. Guest good morning. Host what happens in the senate this week echoed this week . Guest when it comes to the war authorization for isis, were kind of in the waiting point in the senate. The big action on that one come i believe, is in the house this week. There is scheduled to be a hearing at the House Armed Services committee, as best i can recall. We are waiting in the senate to figure out exactly how we can possibly put together, if the senators can, some kind of agreement where we can actually get the votes that are required in order to be able to put together any sort of plan that can even get out of the committee on Foreign Relations with bipartisan support. At the hearing last week, there was very little evidence of that. What we are kind of looking for this week, and probably people on the senate side will be looking for it as well, watching to see if anything goes differently tomorrow at the House Armed Services committee when general dempsey and secretary carter are over there or if it is sort of a repeat of what we saw in the senate last week. Host is there a significant amount of distance between both the senate and the house on their approaches to this issue . Guest there seems to be significant amount of distance between democrats and republicans and the white house generally. While it is plausible, i suppose, that you could see some sort of authorization that could come out of the house with a partisan vote, there doesnt seem to be anything that could get a broad consensus. I dont know that whatever might be originating out of the house wouldnt even be too broad for the Obama Administration. One of the big problems that theyve had so far is this question of whether or not Ground Troops should be excluded from the consideration as part of this authorization. Many people do not want, particularly republicans, to tie the hands of the president in this affect . In this affect. Host one of the editorials in the New York Times this morning goes on to the loretto confirmation the Loretto Lynch confirmation mess. Where do we stand on this . Guest theres a bit of a knot right now. I dont think people saw it until over the weekend when the jordin leader Mitch Mcconnell made an appearance of one of the sunday morning news programs the majority leader Mitch Mcconnell made an appearance on one of the sunday morning news programs. Speaking of the effectiveness of the trafficking bill, which was something that was initially thought to have broad support was able to move to the senate and off the floor. Today, coming up about 11 00 a. M. , we will see senators having a procedural vote, a debate cutting off a filibuster on the democratic side in this case on that bill to address human trafficking. But theres no sign that the vote will get the 60 votes that are needed, because of this debate going on over a provision that bars the use of funds provided in the bill for abortions. And once you get abortion politics into the pot on just about any issue, it seems, you will run into a problem getting the 60 vote magic number. Its possible that these cloture votes, in fact, they are expected to fail today, which would leave open the question as to whether or not Loretto Lynch loretta lynch, the current District Attorney in new york gets called up for a vote at all. Looking ahead on the congressional calendar, next week is, in fact, consumed by the budget resolution, as it is expected to be, as my story in this mornings rollcall notes. And if thats the case, then congress is gone for two weeks for the spring recess that has easter right in the middle of it. And then theres the possibility that lynch does not see the light of day on the floor until mid to late april. Host the Senate Budget, how does it compare to what republicans are expected to unveil today . Guest the Senate Budget resolution has been is going to be somewhat different from what their house counterparts are offering up. Although the key, i think, in the Senate Budget is going to be how they handle this question of how the caps on spending for defense might potentially be elevated. There is some significant concern with a segment of republican lawmakers that the budget numbers for defense and National Security are simply not high enough. They were all sorts of proposals about how to be able to plus of that number, whether it is borrowing from future years, spending in effect, or using some other maneuvering in the fed balance sheet. That will be the big question, because of course, with republicans now in control of the senate, they need to find at least 51 republicans ultimately by the end of next week, who will vote for the budget resolution. That is the new challenge for the Committee Chairman. Host mr. Love new ski, thanks. Our talks have been on the role of congress and how much it was they should have on negotiations with iran. Joe from democrats line. Caller hi, so disrespectful to interrupt the negotiations. Im sure congress should have gone a about it in a different way. I wish they would at least have the respect to contact this president , who is played by the rules from day one. Who tried his best and has continued to try his best to dig out of a hole that a lot of republicans and the last president got us into. It was disrespectful and disruptive. It shows the first africanamerican president to appear weak by americans. That is my opinion. Im just so sad by this. Host artie is next, from new york, democrats line. Caller pedro, how are you . Host fine, thanks. Caller ive got the feeling that this is personally, churchbased. You know, these evangelical extremists in our government today is a serious threat to our security. Its a very dangerous move by these senators. There should be repercussions. Host michael from atlanta, georgia. Caller good morning to you. My point is not about republicans, you know, a budget for cakes and racist haters. My point is about democrats white democrats. Host michael, are you there you go are you there . Caller yes, i was just saying, my point is about the democrats. Im a black president. They should be standing behind the president and not being torn apart. Host would you think about the iran process. Do you think they have taken enough of a stand on this process . Caller what im saying is that they have left him in the wind. If it was george bush republicans would be up in arms. Host next call from new york, independent line. Caller good morning, pedro and good morning listeners. Im an american of iranian heritage. First, i would like to say that the republican senators really went way beyond their bounds to establish directly a song with the ayatollah oh direct liaison with the ayatollah over there. They should not have done that. They should have allowed the president to do is Due Diligence to the end. As far as the Prime Ministers concern, its really not called for. He went beyond interfering in internal affairs. Its the only superpower in the world and he should not have been invited. I hope we will get this Nuclear Issue behind us. Because ironically, as unpopular and undemocratic the current government is in iran domestically, they are the only ones that have done anything in the past 35 years. It is the effort led by republicans that has put us into two wars that are not ending and cost trillions of dollars, thousands of americans dead, and hundreds of thousands of locals are dead or injured. Host if youre from kc on our republican line. Westminster, massachusetts. Caller good morning. Firsttime caller, super excited to be on cspan. I just want to remind the nation, and anyone else, congress is a coequal branch of government. I think of seen the president lately asked acting with total autonomy and little respect for the bounds of power in the country. Host casey, do you think ultimately congress should have a say in these talks, even if there is not a deal that comes out of it . Caller without a doubt. People elect congress and it is a coequal branch of government. The president needs to be reminded of that. The letter may be partly that reminder. Host you heard our guest talk about the Senate Version of a budget. According to this write up in the New York Times, the store reports that it was spending a medicaid cuts substantially over 10 years. That is scheduled for release at 10 30 a. M. Today and we will stream it at our website www. Cspan. Org. Lets hear from janice from colorado on our independent line about the role of congress, how much influence they should have. Janice, high, go ahead. Caller i think they should all be working handinhand. This is some of the most ridiculous politics that is played all the time, i guess. The president for policies are not that terrific. Somebody needs to be keeping an eye on them foreign policies are not that terrific. Somebody needs to be keeping an eye on them. And i get so tired of people saying that they disagree with his policies because hes a black man. Guess what, hes half white. I think congress should be involved in it. Its like with health care.