CQ Roll Call Policy and Politics

When it comes to really geeking out about politics and campaigns, nothing beats redistricting. Jason Dick and Michael Macagnone break down how the pandemic-altered Census crashed into the decennial reapportionment of congressional seats, which sent the already typically crazy redistricting of House seats into a fine tizzy of gamesmanship, hard feelings, lawsuits and an out-and-out weird race again...

President Joe Biden's fiscal 2023 budget request, due Monday, will propose new spending levels for defense and nondefense programs at a time of soaring inflation in an election year. CQ Roll Call's David Lerman and Paul M. Krawzak preview the major elements of a budget package that Congress will wrestle with in coming months. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Christina Bellantoni, a former Roll Call editor who is now professor of professional practice at the University of Southern California, is training the next generation of journalists. Part of that is showing them how to report stories from out in the field, including congressional races in Texas and Virginia. Bellantoni discusses that and more, including the value of diverse backgrounds and sourci...

While the fiscal 2022 omnibus spending package steered clear of tax legislation, lawmakers are preparing to push for several tax measures in coming months, including breaks for charitable donations, research and development, employee retention and more. CQ Roll Call's David Lerman and Laura Weiss outline the congressional tax agenda and efforts to shore up funding for the IRS. Learn more about you...

The stakes for Supreme Court nominations have always been high. But starting in 2016, when Senate Republicans refused to consider the nomination of Merrick B. Garland, the high court confirmation process has been defined by deep partisan rifts, accusations of unfairness and hypocrisy and hard feelings. With that kind of background, what might Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson expect in her upcoming conf...

It came more than five months late, but omnibus appropriations for the current fiscal year made it across the finish line this week. CQ Roll Call's David Lerman and Lindsey McPherson explain what took so long, how a compromise was reached, and the sacrifices made to get a deal done. They also assess a new fight over additional pandemic aid. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adch...

For the remaining prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba detention facility, “time becomes elastic,” in the words of filmmaker Alex Gibney. One long-time detainee, for instance, Abu Zubaydah, just had his petition to get information from the CIA about his torture and treatment denied by the Supreme Court. But Gibney, in his most recent documentary, “The Forever Prisoner,” does interview key figures...

With one week to go before current government funding runs out, lawmakers are struggling to reach a deal on fiscal 2022 appropriations while accommodating a new White House request for additional Ukraine aid and pandemic relief. CQ Roll Call's David Lerman and Peter Cohn assess the state of spending negotiations and discuss a lower-profile bill offering a major expansion of veterans' health care b...

In the last 50 years, only six first-term presidents have been graced with their party in the majority in the House and Senate, and those majorities come under a lot of pressure in midterm elections. That brings us to Joe Biden, one of the six. Nathan Gonzales, publisher of Inside Elections and Roll Call’s political analyst, joins Jason Dick to talk about whether State of the Union speeches, or an...

Rep. Jamie Raskin was already embroiled in a political struggle of titanic proportions when tragedy struck in late 2020: the death of his son, Tommy. Madeleine Carter’s documentary “Love and the Constitution” tells that story, one of personal tragedy against the backdrop of the future of the republic. Raskin and Carter discuss the film on the latest Political Theater podcast. Learn more about your...

Ro Khanna, whose district lies at the center of Silicon Valley, talks about his book "Dignity in a Digital Age: Making Tech Work for All of Us" and how to decentralize opportunity beyond Northern California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Big spending increases for roads and other transportation projects approved in the bipartisan infrastructure law remain on hold until Congress passes an appropriations bill. In this episode of CQ Budget, budget tracker David Lerman speaks to experts Peter Cohn and Jessica Wehrman to understand what the hold up is and the political implications. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/...

This Super Bowl Sunday marks the conclusion of the one of the NFL’s mosts successful and entertaining seasons — and also one where its questionable business practices and work environment got amplified from the sports section to the halls of Congress. Jane Coaston, host of the New York Times podcast “The Argument” joins Political Theater to discuss the game she describes glowingly as beautiful, an...

The path to avoiding a government shutdown is changing by the hour. And if an agreement on spending isn't reached in two weeks, the government will come to a grinding halt. CQ Roll Call's Paul M. Krawzak and David Lerman discuss what may go to the House floor as soon as Tuesday and what the details of a deal could look like. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Black history is often celebrated as though it were not American history. So many presidents have held up proclamations on behalf of Black history month while their policies betray Black Americans. Mary C. Curtis talks with Boston Globe opinion writer Renee Graham about the need to expose hypocrisy and view Black history in a way that honors Black Americans as equals.  Learn more about your ad cho...

Voting rights is about as hot a topic as it gets in politics right now, with the debate centered around whether voting laws pushed by Republicans amount to discrimination of minorities. One thing FEC filings are showing, though, is that amid the debate, several high-profile minority candidates and lawmakers are raising a lot of money for their 2022 campaigns. CQ Roll Call Senior Writer Kate Ackley...

Brian Vieaux, the President of Finlocker, sits down to talk about the economy and how to reach prospective homeowners "before the point of thought." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Democrats have so much to do and so little time. Congress faces a Feb. 18 deadline to complete overdue appropriations but distractions are multiplying. That means as each day passes the chances for a revival of the "Build Back Better" package dwindles. CQ Roll Call's David Lerman and Lindsey McPherson preview what is coming up in a very busy next few months. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit...

There has always been a risk to being a public figure, particularly a member of Congress. Beyond the violence of events like the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol, members and their staff face threats all the time. CQ Roll Call’s own Jim Saksa reached out to every member of Congress to ask if they had received a death threat. The results were pretty shocking. Learn more about your ad choices. Vis...

Nic Carter, a partner at Castle Island Ventures, and Fennie Wang, the former associate general counsel of MakerDao, discuss and debate the value of stablecoins and what they mean for central bank digital currencies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

President Biden and others have spoken this week about breaking apart the behemoth reconciliation package known as "Build Back Better" to pass pieces of it. But as CQ Roll Call's David Lerman and Peter Cohn explain, this idea may be more complicated than it seems. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Emails made public by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School recently showed that officials under President Donald Trump tried whatever they could to rig the system for redistricting purposes. It and other government documents detailed clashes between the administration and the bureau’s experts in areas that had the potential of affecting the count and who gets elected. M...

On the one-year anniversary of President Joe Biden's inauguration, the administration woke up to it's fifth defeat in six months in passing legislation to ensure voting rights for all. Biden had promised to put voting rights at the top of his agenda, but the path appears more fraught than ever. Mary C. Curtis speaks with White House senior advisor Cedric Richmond on what comes next. Learn more abo...

The White House and Congress get a lot of attention for their proposals to change public law, but the Supreme Court is having an outsize effect on society with its decisions, from determining where women can get abortions, what kind of guns will be allowed in cities, how much money can be spent in politics and whether tens of millions of people will need to get a vaccine to protect public health....

Pierre Le Veaux talks about how Seed at the Table is transforming equity crowdfunding to create new opportunities for underserved entrepreneurs. Also: what regulation needs to do its job better for minority communities. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices