Eye on Congress

Another busy week awaits Congress with a slew of issues likely to tie up lawmakers, including how much to spend to combat the Zika virus and whether the Justice Department risks a budget cut over the transgender restroom controversy. CQ Roll Call’s Managing Editor Adriel Bettelheim, Appropriations reporter Ryan McCrimmon and Legal Affairs writer Todd Ruger spell out what’s at stake. Senior politics reporter Alex Roarty weighs in on how Bernie Sanders can use his new rock star status to sway the Democratic Party.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

CQ Roll Call's Managing Editor Adriel Bettelheim and CQ Magazine Deputy Editor Jason Dick break down how so-called ''poison pill'' amendments get the majority party in Congress to sink its own legislation. Yes, you read right. Though it's a time-honored tactic, such make-or-break amendments are flying with greater frequency in an election year with few viable pieces of legislation in either the House or Senate. And they are disrupting Republicans’ hopes of restoring regular order and transparency to the budgeting process.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Congress returns to face leftover debates over how much to spend to combat the Zika virus and whether aspects of Obamacare have legal standing. Also in the mix is how President Obama responds to Donald Trump.  CQ Roll Call’s budget reporter Jennifer Shutt, health care reporter Erin Mershon, White House correspondent John Bennett and Managing Editor Adriel Bettelheim set the stage for the week ahead. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Congress is wrestling with spending bills to fund the government by September 30, a goal likely to fall short. Managing Editor Adriel Bettelheim and Budget Reporter Kellie Mejdrich explain why. Legal Affairs Writer Todd Ruger weighs in on the legal and cultural battles over transgender bathrooms. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Congress is wrestling with a slew of tech issues from encryption to email privacy. Are lawmakers out of their league? CQ Roll Call’s Managing Editor Adriel Bettelheim and reporters Alisha Green and Ryan Lucas discuss. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As President Barack Obama heads to Japan for a summit of leaders of the Group of Seven, the world's biggest economic powers, CQ Roll Call's foreign policy reporter Rachel Oswald and Managing Editor Adriel Bettelheim dissect the significance of the visit, the president's stop in Hiroshima and why Japan worries more about Trump than China. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Arizona Republican John McCain is expected to shake up the defense policy bill heading to the Senate floor with proposals likely to meet fierce opposition, says CQ Roll Call's defense reporters John M. Donnelly and Megan Scully. Trump does an about-face, reports Kate Ackley, and will take establishment campaign money. Puerto Rico hangs on to a life preserver waiting to be rescued by Washington, says Jonathan Miller. Tune in to hear CQ Roll Call experts break it down with host Managing Editor Adriel Bettelheim. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Both the House and the Senate are considering emergency bills to combat the Zika virus that the Obama administration says is the next big public health threat. CQ Roll Call's Budget and Economics Editor Jane Norman and Managing Editor Adriel Bettelheim explain how politics this time may force lawmakers to reach a compromise over how much to spend to address the mosquito-borne virus, expected to spread in the coming months.     Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A big defense bill including making women eligible for the draft and approving new weapons will dominate a week of action in Congress that also features movement on 2017 spending bills, CQ Roll Call’s Defense Reporter John M. Donnelly and Budget Tracker Editor David Lerman report. And political columnist Nathan Gonzales explains how Speaker Paul Ryan figures in the post-election GOP hierarchy.    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

House Speaker Paul Ryan’s first face-to-face and likely awkward meeting on Capitol Hill with presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump could play a role in the remainder of the presidential campaign, says CQ Roll Call's Political Reporter Alex Roarty. Meanwhile, Congress looks like it's tackling the opioid epidemic with 18 different bills poised to pass in the House. Health Editor Rebecca Adams explains why this is just a modest effort.     Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lawmakers return from recess but Donald Trump will loom large in the halls of Congress. CQ Roll Call reporters Ryan McCrimmon and Andrew Siddons spell out the issues that will dominate the agenda, including spending bills, regulating e-cigarettes, funding to combat the Zika virus and displaying the Confederate battle flag. And political reporter Alex Roarty talks about why he’s getting thousands of press releases from Democrats about Trump. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In an unexpected move, lawmakers on a House committee backed a proposal to require women to register for the Selective Service, subjecting them to any future military draft. CQ Roll Call’s Jane Norman and National Security Reporter Megan Scully break it down and explain how likely this is to become law.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Political analyst Stuart Rothenberg explains why down-ballot Republican candidates could be in trouble because of Donald Trump's frontrunner status. Also, CQ Roll Call's budget reporter Kellie Mejdrich on inability of Republicans in Congress to make progress in funding the government on time and legal affairs writer Todd Ruger on the Supreme Court looking to define a line between political corruption and official duty.    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Showdown looms over efforts to dip into a special war fund to bypass spending caps. CQ Roll Call's national security reporter Megan Scully has the scoop. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our reporters and editors weigh in on President Obama's latest fight with Congress over dedicating money to fight Zika virus, the presidential primaries and why did little-known donor Donald Sussman spend $2.1 million on behalf of Maryland Senate hopeful Donna Edwards. And then there are the landmines that await Congress in pushing through spending bills before the government runs out of money Sept. 30th.      Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Republicans in Congress could immunize many electronic cigarette products from impending regulations by using a spending bill to shield not only e-cigs but vaporizers and hookahs from tougher federal oversight. It’s the second year in a row that the GOP is weighing such a move as a preemptory strike against the Food and Drug Administration, and it’s stoking a debate over public health, small businesses and the lack of clinical data on the products’ health effects.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tensions are rising between the Federal Communications Commission and Republicans in Congress who want to curtail its regulatory power. On one front, Republicans want to keep the FCC from regulating the prices broadband providers charge customers. Separately, they are trying to set a financial cap on the FCC’s Lifeline program, which provides phone and broadband subsidies. It’s all playing out against the backdrop of a continued legal battle over the FCC’s net neutrality rules, which seek to treat all Internet traffic the same. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A quarter of U.S. military facilities are falling apart, according to a new Senate report that comes on the heels of an unusually candid Pentagon document acknowledging that about a third of Army and Air Force infrastructure is unneeded.  The military could save an estimated $2 billion a year closing and consolidating facilities. But a base closing commission, or BRAC as it’s called, could trigger a huge, parochial fight in Congress over which facilities are targeted. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

New Hampshire Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte faces a tough re-election race and defending the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard could help.Ayotte is facing Democratic Gov. Maggie Hassan in what’s very likely to be a close race. Along with races in Illinois, Pennsylvania and a few other states, it could determine whether the Republicans keep control of the Senate. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The terror attacks in Brussels and Paris have given U.S. intelligence officials new insight into the tactics of the Islamic State – and underscored how its approach has veered away from al Qaida, its nominal parent organization. ISIS, it turns out, has become a more formidable adversary for the West because it has learned from what worked and didn’t work for al Qaida. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices