Eye on Congress

The House and Senate are moving in opposite directions on fiscal 2024 spending, as House Republicans seek deeper cuts than senators of both parties favor. CQ Roll Call's David Lerman, Paul M. Krawzak and Aidan Quigley assess the state of play as appropriators try to make headway before the long August recess. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Executive Order 9981. President Harry Truman signed it on July 26, 1948, creating the President’s Committee on Equality of Treatment and Opportunity in the Armed Services, mandating the desegregation of the U.S. military. As the Truman Library Institute in Washington hosts a commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the landmark decision with a civil rights symposium, there are questions, as well. Some of today’s elected officials have even derided the merit of diversity in the military and as an American value, making it a part of the so-called “culture war.” Yet the order changed the country – and lives. In a ground-breaking 35-year-career, Adm. Michelle Howard (Retired) was the first woman to become a four-star admiral in the U.S. Navy, the first Black woman to captain a U.S. naval ship and the first woman graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy to become an admiral. In this episode of “Equal Time,” she speaks with host Mary C. Curtis about not only history and her story, but also the importance of diversity in

The House and Senate appear to be on a collision course over fiscal 2024 spending, while pressure builds in the Senate for an emergency supplemental bill for defense, disaster relief and more. In a special hour-long webinar, CQ Roll Call's David Lerman, Aidan Quigley and Paul M. Krawzak discuss the state of the appropriations process, prospects for avoiding a partial government shutdown, and the coming battle over emergency spending. A chart showing House and Senate spending allocations that is discussed in the webinar can be found here: https://plus.cq.com/doc/news-7776770?3&srcpage=home&srcsec=ina Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What's the difference between launching a political campaign on June 30 and July 10? Does it really matter? Here to explain why it does is Nathan Gonzales, Roll Call’s Election Analyst and the publisher of Inside Elections. We also talk about sharks, ditches and an unlikely double feature of "The Skulls" and "Back to School." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Even with a bipartisan defense spending cap in place, the size and shape of a fiscal 2024 defense budget is still a wild card. CQ Roll Call's David Lerman and John M. Donnelly outline the factors that could make defense spending much larger -- or smaller -- than the budget caps deal envisions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Senate appropriators approved spending allocations for their 12 annual bills in a party-line vote, setting up a clash with their House counterparts. CQ Roll Call's David Lerman, Aidan Quigley, and Paul M. Krawzak assess the state of the appropriations process and a new push by Donald Trump to claim more executive authority over spending. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

June 24 marks the one-year anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that overturned Roe v. Wade and the federal right to an abortion. Amanda Becker, a former Roll Caller who writes about politics for the 19th and just completed a Nieman Fellowship at Harvard, is writing a book about the immediate fallout of the decision. She joins the podcast to talk about her work and reporting.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

House Republicans approved lower fiscal 2024 spending levels than provided in a bipartisan debt limit deal, while Senate appropriators pledged to stick to the higher deal-backed levels. And House GOP tax writers approved a package of tax cuts that Democrats said would increase deficits. CQ Roll Call's David Lerman, Aidan Quigley and Laura Weiss dissect the partisan battles over appropriations and tax cuts that show no sign of easing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Washington is a film capital, home to a diverse slate of festivals to match a diverse slate of interests and people. This week, the DC/DOX festival gets under way with dozens of documentary features on topics ranging from the war in Ukraine, the Supreme Court, Joan Baez, Steph Curry and more. DC/DOX co-founder Sky Sitney joins the podcast to talk about movies, creating a community and even Kim's Video. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A group of hardcore conservatives staged a protest that brought House business to a halt, partly over spending levels approved in a bipartisan debt limit package. CQ Roll Call's David Lerman, Peter Cohn and Aidan Quigley examine the protest and what it means for an already divisive appropriations process that is sending the House and Senate off in different directions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Good documentaries tell stories that work on multiple levels. Filmmaker Ondi Timoner’s “Last Flight Home” does this by portraying a family as it prepares for the loss of its patriarch, who has chosen to end his life, and documenting a very specific time in our history, when the most personal medical and health care choices are the sources of monumental political debate. The fact that the family is Timoner’s gives the movie an extra resonance, and she is sharing not just the movie but her perspective on the politics surrounding it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The bipartisan deal to suspend the debt limit into 2025 ended months of partisan wrangling, heated rhetoric and some contentious rounds of negotiating. CQ Roll Call's David Lerman, Peter Cohn and Lindsey McPherson dissect the deal's political ramifications and what it means for the appropriations process this year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The bipartisan deal to suspend the debt limit until 2025 is more complicated than advertised, with side deals constructed to let both parties describe the measure to their own advantage. CQ Roll Call's David Lerman, Paul M. Krawzak and Aidan Quigley explain the deal and its prospects for passage in the House and Senate. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"Yellowstone" and its related series are a cultural phenomenon, and have provided Native Americans a voice and platform that breaks boundaries. Two of the actors in the series, Mo Brings Plenty and Michael Spears, discuss their recent visit to Capitol Hill, Native representation in movies and pop culture and what makes "Yellowstone" different.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Surgeon General Vivek Murthy has described mental health as “the defining public health crisis of our time.” He has used his position and megaphone to highlight how the country is doing and where it falls short, particularly in the treatment of young people who are suffering. It’s a complex topic worthy of discussion, and not just in May -- Mental Health Awareness Month. How can the mental health of young people in America be protected from influences that could harm? Legislators are taking note; but is it enough? Equal Time host Mary C. Curtis speaks with Julie Scelfo, executive director of Get Media Savvy, a nonprofit initiative devoted to fighting media chaos and fostering media literacy, about what is needed from policymakers and the public to tackle the youth mental health crisis and rebuild “our civic fabric.”  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A bipartisan deal on a debt limit increase hinges mostly on resolving a fight over how to scale back discretionary spending. CQ Roll Call's David Lerman and Aidan Quigley explain what the fight is about and what it means for this year's appropriations process. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The annual Capital Challenge foot race is a unique gathering of the three branches of government and the journalists who cover them: a three-mile, mid-week, morning race of about 600 people that raises money for youth financial literacy. But there is more going on beyond folks pounding the pavement. CQ Roll Call's Health Team Editor Jessica Wehrman, a long-time runner of the race herself, coordinated our many teams this year and lets us know how it all went. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Pressure for a deal to raise the debt limit is building as President Joe Biden meets with congressional leaders for a second time this week. CQ Roll Call's David Lerman, Laura Weiss and Ellyn Ferguson outline the latest on debt limit negotiations and where things stand on the effort to produce a new farm bill by September. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It is a Roll Call tradition: identifying the most vulnerable House and Senate incumbents each election cycle. And for our first look at the franchise for 2024, we will discuss the 20 on the hot seat whom we have put on the list with Herb Jackson, Roll Call’s politics editor. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After months of stalemate, President Joe Biden will sit down with the top four congressional leaders Tuesday to talk about how to raise the debt limit to avoid economic calamity next month when the government's borrowing authority is expected to run dry. CQ Roll Call's David Lerman, Peter Cohn and Aidan Quigley assess the chances for a bipartisan deal, how long it might take, and what the standoff means for fiscal 2024 appropriations. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices