Eye on Congress

The United States is amid a period of self-reflection and contentious debate on race relations and President Joe Biden is leaning into it. Rashawn Ray, a scholar at the Brookings Institution and sociology professor at the University of Maryland, College Park, discusses Biden’s practical and personal approach to race relations, from executive orders to listening, from promoting legislation to grieving. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

States and the federal government are trying to stop the COVID-19 vaccine equity gap from growing as vaccine eligibility opens up to all adults — but officials don’t have much time. CQ Roll Call’s Ariel Cohen has more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Venture capitalists Ben Savage and Jonathan Whittle join Korefusion’s Alejandro Gonzalez Sanchez to break down investing in the immense region, and how it differs from the rest of the world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A debate is raging among some top infectious disease experts as calls are growing to administer as many first doses of two-dose COVID-19 vaccines as soon as possible. CQ Roll Call’s Emily Kopp reports on questions facing the White House about why it’s not redirecting vaccines to hot spots as some U.S. regions see surges of the disease. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Biden administration’s fiscal 2022 defense budget request would eliminate the so-called Overseas Contingency Operations account, a seemingly bottomless box of money that had become emblematic of Washington’s fiscal flimflammery. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Biden administration underscored its focus on climate change in the first glimpse of its fiscal 2022 budget proposal, calling for tens of billions of dollars in new spending from Congress and framing the warming planet as a pervasive threat that seeps into daily life in myriad ways. Ben Hulac reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

President Biden proposed a 16 percent increase in federal spending Friday on domestic priorities, including a hefty raise for education. CQ Roll Call's Jennifer Shutt and David Lerman report. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Biden administration on Friday released its wish list for discretionary spending for fiscal 2022. The proposal would boost non-defense spending by 16 percent and defense spending by 1.7 percent over current funding levels. CQ Roll Call’s Jennifer Shutt and David Lerman discuss the details of the plan, the winners and the losers.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After a heated and contentious presidential election in 2020, voting rights are under attack. Georgia just passed a law that makes it harder for those who may be disenfranchised to cast their ballots. Other states are following suit. Mary C. Curtis speaks to Rashad Robinson, president of the social justice organization Color of Change, on what is at stake and what is being done to curtail the rollback of eligible voters to make their voices heard.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rep. Mike Johnson is emblematic of the Republican Party of which he is now, in his third House term, and a leading member. He joined fellow Republicans in January in backing the former president's campaign to overturn state election results. More than 60 percent of voters in his northwest Louisiana district voted for Trump and Johnson views Trump as the party’s most important voice. He sits down this week with CQ Roll Call's Shawn Zeller, in for Jason Dick, who originally had this conversation for CQ Future. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Frederik Mijnhardt, CEO of Secfi, joins Fintech Beat to explain why 80 percent of startup employees don’t exercise their stock options — and what that means for drivers of wealth in the innovation economy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Biden administration says its $2 trillion infrastructure plan would boost the economy, fight climate change and address racial inequity. But Republicans are already pushing back, arguing that an increase in taxes to pay for the measure would slow down the economy. CQ Roll Call’s Jennifer Shutt and David Lerman discuss the ins and outs of the bill and the likelihood of it being a bipartisan effort versus Democrats going through the reconciliation process. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

President Donald Trump is ensconced at Mar-a-Lago and everyone — on all sides of the aisle — is curious to know what his influence will be on the GOP. We turn to Rep. Mike Johnson, Republican of Louisiana, who has risen fast in the party ranks since his 2016 election. He is a former lawyer, defends religious liberty and opposes same-sex marriage. He is vice chair of the House Republican Conference and joins CQ Roll Call's Shawn Zeller to discuss the future of the Republican Party. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The president is on a spending spree and is asking for an additional $85 billion for surface transit. CQ Roll Call's Jessica Wehrman has details. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

President Biden's $2 trillion infrastructure plan includes money to repair roads, bridges and beef up transit, but what it doesn't do is mention the gas tax. Not everyone is happy. CQ Jessica Wehrman has more on what's in the plan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Unified control of the White House and Congress does not happen all that often. We are in one of those periods now, with President Joe Biden and his fellow Democrats in the majority in the House and Senate. And they are pursuing policy like they know they know their time is limited. Political Theater host Jason Dick discusses why unified control is so rare and what are the political consequences with Molly E. Reynolds of the Brookings Institution and CQ Roll Call Politics Editor Herb Jackson. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tax season is upon us, so Fintech Beat wanted to take the opportunity to look back at an episode with one of the IRS’s top crypto cops to discuss how the agency views crypto and what it does with crypto seizures. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Semiconductors are necessary for our economy and our national security and the pandemic has reemphasized a pre-existing issue in the U.S. supply. CQ Roll Call's John Donnelly reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Biden administration has reached out to key lawmakers and the criminal justice community for guidance on a slate of appointments to revive the sentencing commission, a move that also could influence congressional efforts to further change the nation’s criminal justice system. Todd Ruger reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Democrats are working to build support around a set of proposals, some legislative, that would order a series of structural changes to the State Department with the goal of increasing diversity. CQ Roll Call's Rachel Oswald reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices