Democrats celebrated the passage of their climate, health and tax package, but debate over the partisan measure now moves to the campaign trail. CQ Roll Call's David Lerman, Laura Weiss and Paul M. Krawzak examine what the new law could mean for the midterm elections and how both parties could use it to their political advantage. They also discuss the upcoming fight over a stopgap funding measure to ward off a partial government shutdown. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
August can be a strange month, especially in a place like Washington. On one hand, things are slow. Congress goes on recess. People take vacations. On the other hand, kids head back to school. It’s peak political primary season. How different is it from other places? Brandon Wetherbee of Recommend If You Like magazine drops by to riff on the dog days, the Cubs’ microphone system, Michael Keaton, Dan Snyder and lost movies, among other topics. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Amanda Becker is a veteran political journalist. The Washington correspondent for The 19th News has covered a variety of beats here in The Swamp over the last decade-plus for her current newsroom, as well as Reuters, and, once upon a time, for Roll Call. She is about to move to the Boston area to start one of journalism’s most prestigious fellowships, the Nieman, was kind enough to discuss some of her reflections on the job of political reporting, what she hopes to get out of her fellowship and any other odds and ends at this inflection point for her career. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Democrats appear to have the votes they need to pass a revised version of their health, climate and tax package along party lines in the evenly divided Senate. CQ Roll Call's David Lerman and Peter Cohn outline the changes that led to a new agreement with Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema and explain the procedural hurdles that still await the package. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
President Joe Biden will soon sign legislation that will give easier access to health and disability benefits to more than 3.5 million veterans who were exposed to toxic substances on overseas deployments in Iraq, Afghanistan and more. It wasn’t easy to get through Congress. The Senate passed that bill after weeks of delay, and not before high-profile advocacy from comedian Jon Stewart and others. But underneath those bigger headlines, folded into the bill, is a provision allowing families poisoned for decades at the Marine Corps' Camp Lejeune to get compensation from the federal government. Todd Ruger, legal affairs editor at CQ Roll Call discusses this story with Mike Magner, an editor at CQ Roll Call who has followed the stories of families from Camp Lejeune. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
A surprise change of heart from the West Virginia Democrat put a revamped "Build Back Better" plan back on the table. CQ Roll Call's David Lerman, Lindsey McPherson and Laura Weiss examine the twist of fate and the challenges awaiting Democrats in trying to pass the measure.They also discuss microchip and veterans benefits legislation and the latest on appropriations. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Peter Kerstens and Eva Kaili join the podcast to discuss the EU's new rules for crypto. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Before their August recess, lawmakers hope to pass a major funding package to bolster domestic semiconductor manufacturing and a measure designed to lower the cost of many prescription drugs. CQ Roll Call's David Lerman, Aidan Quigley and Lauren Clason outline the challenges awaiting Congress to pass those bills. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Richard Bookstaber, author of the End of Theory and Demons of Our Own Design, Demystifies Fintech Market Volatility Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
We are at a pause in the congressional primary season, with several major states having selected their nominees for November’s general election, including Texas, Ohio, Pennsylvania and North Carolina. In August, things ramp back up, with more than a dozen states holding primaries and in battlegrounds like Arizona, Michigan and Florida. So what have we learned so far from the elections that have taken place? And what might we expect as the general election match-ups become clearer? CQ Roll Call Politics Editor Herb Jackson joins Political Theater to discuss. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade raised many questions on the future of abortion rights in the United States. With search histories and health apps possibly used for tracking, how can data be protected and kept private? Will the health-care outcomes of African-American women, already three times more likely to die from a pregnancy-related cause than white women, worsen? In this month’s episode of Equal Time, to shed some light on life in a post-Roe world, host Mary C. Curtis talks with Amie Stepanovich, Vice President for U.S. Policy at the Future of Privacy Forum, and a nationally recognized expert in domestic surveillance, cybersecurity and privacy law, and Kwajelyn Jackson, Executive Director at Feminist Women's Health Center in Atlanta, Georgia, an independent, non-profit, multi-generational, multi-racial reproductive health, rights, and justice organization. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin III told fellow Democrats he could no longer support climate provisions or higher taxes as part of any budget reconciliation package that comes to a vote before the August recess. CQ Roll Call's David Lerman, Lindsey McPherson and Laura Weiss examine how Democratic negotiations unraveled, what can still be salvaged, and what it means for their broader legislative agenda. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The new documentary from filmmakers Betsy West and Julie Cohen “Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down” comes out amid a nationwide debate about gun safety, the animating crusade of the former congresswoman, and as her husband, Sen. Mark Kelly, runs for re-election in a race that will be key in this year's midterms. It also tells a good story and has a rockin' soundtrack. West and Cohen talk about their film on the latest Political Theater podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Robby Greenfield shares how Umoja Labs are leveraging blockchain-based tools to deliver financial inclusion in Africa and beyond. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Senate Democrats want to pass a downsized "Build Back Better" reconciliation package before the August recess despite a threat from the Republican leader to hold up a bipartisan chip manufacturing and economic competitiveness bill in retaliation. CQ Roll Call's David Lerman and Peter Cohn examine the legislative options for what could be a chaotic and unpredictable July work session on Capitol Hill. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Supreme Court justices have it made: Not only do they get to remake American society with a few opinions, they get to take three months off afterward! Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. has joked that ”only Supreme Court justices and schoolchildren are expected to and do take the entire summer off.” So what do they do during that quarter-year break, and is it changing now that the high court has stepped into a more prominent political role? CQ Roll Call Legal Affairs Editor Todd Ruger joins the Political Theater podcast to talk about the life jurisprudence. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Author of “The Field Guide to Global Payments, Sophia Goldberg, joins Amias Gerety to answer the age old question: Are payments companies getting paid too much (or too little) for the value they provide? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The walls sure are thin in the West Wing. That is just one takeaway from the testimony of former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson to the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol. CQ Roll Call Editor at Large John T. Bennett covered the presidency of Donald Trump in sometimes very close quarters at the executive mansion. He joins Political Theater to discuss things you can overhear and see first hand at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
As Pride Month ends, celebration is tempered by setbacks across the country, from laws that ban transgender athletes from competing in school sports to efforts to remove books on the LGBTQ experience from library shelves. And with a Supreme Court willing to overturn precedent, many wonder if LGBTQ rights will be next. What is needed, culturally and legally, to insure forward movement on the path to equality for all Americans? What can organizations and corporations do to be more intentional in supporting the LGBTQ community? Equal Time host Mary C. Curtis explores what comes next with guests Sasha Buchert, a Senior Attorney in the Washington D.C. office of Lambda Legal, and Kendra R. Johnson, Executive Director at Equality North Carolina. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Hyun Song Shin, the BIS economic advisor, joins the show to talk about recent disruptions in crypto markets, and the advantages of CBDCs Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Washington's professional football team has a long history of controversy, and Congress and local governments spend a lot of time picking apart its foibles. Would this happen in Jacksonville, though? With us to discuss in Brandon Wetherbee, managing editor of District Fray. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Two major congressional committees have now spoken on the fiscal 2023 Pentagon budget. Peter Cohn and John M. Donnelly discuss how the Armed Services panels will keep the pressure on appropriators to add tens of billions of dollars more to President Joe Biden's defense proposals. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
A bipartisan Senate defense authorization bill upped the ante on defense spending for the coming fiscal year. CQ Roll Call's David Lerman and Peter Cohn explain the new battle lines over defense spending that could stall appropriations. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Amias Gerety interviews M1 CEO Brian Barnes on relationship investing and automation in the fintech economy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
This week marks the 50th Anniversary of the Watergate break-in, a scandal that eventually led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon. This is one of history's great dramas, and we're still telling and hearing great stories about it. Case in point: "The Martha Mitchell Effect," a new Netflix documentary about one Watergate's most colorful, and tragic, characters. Directors Anne Alvergue and Debra McClutchy discuss their project in all its colorful and poignant archival glory. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
House appropriators are about to begin their markups on fiscal 2023 spending bills after taking a shortcut on a budget blueprint. CQ Roll Call's David Lerman and Paul M. Krawzak outline what lies ahead for appropriators and assess the latest effort to resurrect a "Build Back Better" reconciliation package. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
"Top Gun: Maverick," the legacy sequel to the 1986 movie "Top Gun," has soared at the box office since its Memorial Day weekend opening, making more than 550 million dollars and counting. People might just be going to see Tom Cruise in action, but there might be something more going on here. The first "Top Gun" is an iconic piece of pop culture, a product of its times: a hot movie that came out at the coldest point of the Cold War. This "Top Gun?" It’s also a product of its times, a weirder, more asymmetrical one for geopolitics. With us to discuss in CQ Roll Call Editor at Large John T. Bennett. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mary Ellen Iskenderian, the CEO of Women's World Banking, talks about her new book and the opportunities and challenges facing women entrepreneurs in developing countries. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
May, Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, has special significance in 2022, as both acknowledgment of contributions and reminder of a resurgence of xenophobic rhetoric and violence. Civil rights groups, academia and businesses have responded with action, education and activism, part of a “Stop AAPI Hate” coalition. Mary C. Curtis speaks about the past, the present and future solutions with Anne Lee Benedict, active with MCCA, a national organization dedicated to advancing diversity, inclusion and equity in the legal profession, and Dr. Joanne L. Rondilla, an assistant professor in Sociology and Interdisciplinary Studies and Asian American Studies at San José State University. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Senate spending hawks blocked a $48 billion aid package for restaurants and some other small businesses. CQ Roll Call's David Lerman and Lindsey McPherson assess the fallout and prospects for any future aid attempt. Recorded 5/20/22 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices