Eye on Congress

The election of Speaker Mike Johnson for another term underscored how difficult it will be for Republicans to govern with a razor-thin majority. CQ Roll Call's Jim Saksa and David Lerman recount what it took for Johnson to win the gavel and explain what it may mean for the legislative battles to come. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A funding package that averted a partial government shutdown left Republicans bitterly divided and chastened. CQ Roll Call's Aidan Quigley and David Lerman examine the political fallout from a week of GOP infighting and what it means for President-elect Donald Trump's ambitious agenda next year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What's an "off year" in politics? There is no such thing, according to Nathan Gonzales, Roll Call's campaigns analyst and the publisher of Inside Elections. We run through the top developing political stories of 2025.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Is the United States Senate The World’s Greatest Deliberative Body, or is it the world's most inefficient waiting room, where senators kill time before a flurry of inefficient activity? Part 2 of our discussion with Brookings' Molly Reynolds about ways Congress could function better. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Republicans are preparing to use the budget reconciliation process to push border security, tax cuts and more on party-line votes next year. CQ Roll Call's Caitlin Reilly, Aidan Quigley and David Lerman outline what GOP leaders have in mind and the challenges they face. They also have the latest on plans for a stopgap funding and disaster relief measure needed by next week. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With a recently concluded global climate summit with challenging takeaways, an incoming president who vows to again remove the U.S. from international climate agreements, and increasing weather disasters that defy what went before, a look at what is being called an existential crisis could be grim. But that’s not the kind of book Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson has written. “What If We Get It Right: Visions of Climate Futures” is a provocative mix of essays, interviews, data, poetry, and art, as Johnson guides the reader through solutions and possibilities at the nexus of science, policy, culture, and justice. She is a marine biologist, policy expert, co-founder of the non-profit think tank Urban Ocean Lab and a guest on Equal Time. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It happens every December: We ask ourselves, is this the best Congress can do? And the answer is no. They can do better. And there are a number of ways the legislative branch can function better by implementing some very simple, common-sense proposals. Molly Reynolds of the Brookings Institution joins the podcast for the first part of a two-part series on Congress and how it works. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

President-elect Donald Trump's new Department of Government Efficiency isn't really a federal department, but it promises to take a meat ax to federal spending and regulations. CQ Roll Call's Peter Cohn and David Lerman assess what the outside agency can and can't do and what to expect from the new DOGE effort. We also look at President Joe Biden's push for new Ukraine aid and disaster relief as Congress prepares for a stopgap funding measure. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lawmakers are torn over the size and shape of a disaster relief package headed for a vote next month. CQ Roll Call's Aidan Quigley and David Lerman discuss the latest on disaster aid, overdue appropriations, a new Senate defense budget writer, and a House firebrand's new role in curbing government spending. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you're paying attention to the Senate, you know they're voting on a lot of judges, as happens during lame duck congresses. There are also a lot of partisan broadsides being fired about it all. How did we get to this point and why? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

President-elect Donald Trump has picked several current and former members of Congress for his Cabinet and senior staff. Here’s a quick and dirty on the roster, which includes former Democrats, former critics and one avowed dog killer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Congress returns for a lame-duck session with a major decision to make on fiscal 2025 spending: whether to pass an omnibus package by Christmas or punt spending bills into the new year. CQ Roll Call's Aidan Quigley, Caitlin Reilly and David Lerman assess the political ramifications of the choice, the crowded lame-duck agenda, and the challenge for Republicans in their quest for tax cuts next year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

So, we have questions in the aftermath of this election. Who is the leader of the Democratic Party? What lessons do Republicans take from their victories? Do we have to keep calling it a "Blue Wall." And more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Roll Call looked under every nook, cranny and poll to round off the Most Vulnerable Incumbents lists for the 2024 cycle. Find out how and why who got where! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sports and politics don’t mix. In truth, that has never been the case. Sports, in fact, reflect every issue, every conflict in society from civil rights to equal justice. Melissa Ludtke knows this from experience. In the 1970’s, when she was trying to cover Major League Baseball for Sports Illustrated, her path to doing the job – which required equal access to the players – was blocked by a powerful and inflexible commissioner. The battle mirrored America’s burgeoning women’s movement, and ultimately ended up in federal court, presided over by a judge with her own civil rights experience. Ludtke tells the story in “Locker Room Talk: A Woman’s Struggle to Get Inside,” and on this episode of Equal Time. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For many film buffs, October is Scary Movie Month, when we go to the vault to watch "Last House on the Left" or head to the theater to catch "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice." It is also election season. So does "The Apprentice" fit in here? It’s a biopic about the relationship between Roy Cohn and a young Donald Trump and how Cohn helped shape the future president’s no-holds-barred approach to business, politics and life. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The 2024 campaign is in the home stretch, and there are several races that are defined by a high degree of instability. How do we mean? It starts with the campaigns themselves not even agreeing on the basic contours of the race. From there things can get weird. Nathan Gonzales walks us through a few races that fit the bill — and that are incredibly significant in determining which party will be in the majority in the Senate and House. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What happens when a veterans organization conducting an unscripted role-playing simulation with real political figures about an attempted coup on Jan. 6, 2025 joins forces with filmmakers who have “Dr. Strangelove” and Nathan Fielder on the brain? The experimental but highly relevant documentary “War Game.” Co-director Jesse Moss and Vet Voice’s Janessa Goldbeck talk about their project. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Supreme Court starts its new term this coming Monday, October 7th, and while the docket does not include such high-profile cases as the last two years, when the justices overturned Roe v. Wade and granted presidents wide immunity over official acts, the high court will still consider matters of constitutional rights that could reverberate for years — and also might be called upon to referee any lingering fights over the current election season. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices