The Beltway & Beyond

Eric Adams - a former New York City police captain, state lawmaker, and Brooklyn Borough President -distinguished himself in the Democratic primary running on public safety, economic inequality, and making the city feel orderly, functional and fun again. In his first 100 days in office, Adams projected an aggressive confidence as he announced policies aimed at combating an image of NYC as hobbled...

On Thursday, the Senate confirmed Ketanji Brown Jackson as the 116th justice, making her the first Black woman to join the Supreme Court. It was a history-making moment for Judge Jackson, but also for President Biden, who served as vice president to the first Black President, selected the first Black woman to be named vice president, and is now linked to another groundbreaking first. Public Strate...

The nine words about Vladimir Putin that President Biden ad-libbed in his speech in Warsaw last weekend seemed to imply the U.S. seeks regime change in Moscow, causing the White House and the State Department to quickly clarify Biden’s remarks. On Thursday, Biden ordered the largest-ever release of oil from the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve for the next six months, in an effort to tamp down...

On Wednesday, Judge Ketanji Brown-Jackson’s nomination to the Supreme Court moved forward with the conclusion of her confirmation hearings, which featured tense exchanges over her sentencing record and the recognition of the historic nature of the proceedings. On Friday, House Republicans wrapped up their annual retreat in Florida, during which they sought to project unity and cobble together key...

The FY 2022 $1.5 trillion omnibus spending legislation moved at the congressional version of warp speed last week, passing the House less than a day after it was introduced and clearing the Senate 24 hours later. On Tuesday, President Biden signed the massive package, providing a substantial increase in spending for domestic spending and national security and $13.6 billion in emergency assistance...

On Friday, the U.S. moved to revoke “most favored nation” trade status for Russia, and ban imports of its seafood, vodka and diamonds, as it joined the EU and G7 countries in ratcheting up economic pressure on Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine. The day before, in an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote, the Senate passed a $1.5 trillion spending package to fund the federal government for the current fi...

On Tuesday, President Biden delivered his first State of the Union address at a precarious moment, after a year marked by continuing struggles with the COVID-19 pandemic, declining political fortunes for him and his fellow Democrats, the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan and, now, Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. The speech offered Biden an opportunity to try to pull some discontented vo...

Russia’s President Putin shook the world this week by sending troops into Ukraine and ordering its full-scale invasion despite fervent, months-long diplomatic efforts by President Biden and other western leaders to dissuade him from doing so. On Friday, Biden made history by announcing he would nominate federal Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Breyer. If she is...

Last week, on a nearly party-line vote, the House of Representatives passed the America COMPETES Act of 2022, a nearly 3,000-page legislation aimed at increasing U.S. production of semiconductor chips, strengthening the supply chain to make more goods in America, and investing in scientific research and new technologies. The bill is the House’s counterpart to the Senate’s U.S. Innovation and Compe...

As Democrats look ahead to what will be a challenging midterm election, the party is publicly and privately gauging how to handle the violent insurrection. Many describe discussing the events of that day as a moral obligation. Others, without dismissing the gravity of the attacks, argue that the party needs to prioritize economic issues immediately impacting voters’ daily lives. Yet while Democrat...

On Thursday, Justice Stephen Breyer announced that he will retire from the Supreme Court after nearly three decades on the bench, giving President Biden a chance to fulfill his pledge to put the first Black woman on the Court. On Friday, major U.S. stock indexes rallied to finish one of their most tumultuous weeks in memory on a high note. Yet more volatility is expected, as the Fed pivots from st...

President Biden took office a year ago, promising to tackle four crises that were roiling American life in 2020: fight the coronavirus, restore the economy, combat climate change, and make the country more equal. Biden’s record has been mixed, however, leaving many who clamored for the changes he promised feeling that not enough has been done to this point. On Wednesday, in a nearly two-hour news...

After a year of promising to lower temperatures, seek unity and demonstrate competent leadership, President Biden has struggled. Unable to bridge the wide gap between moderates and progressives in his own party, he is ending the first year in office with arguably the worst week of his presidency: inflation hit a 40-year high; the Supreme Court blocked the centerpiece of his push to get more people...

Nearly two years into the coronavirus pandemic - with Omicron cases surging to record levels, hospitals overwhelmed, air travel disrupted, and widespread labor shortages - criticism and frustration are intensifying over the government’s Covid-19 response as the CDC’s muddy and often-changing guidance has only added to many Americans’ confusion. Meanwhile, recent surveys indicate that confidence in...

Build back … in 2022? Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) stunned fellow Democrats on Sunday when said he wouldn’t support his party’s ambitious climate and social spending bill, called “Build Back Better,” effectively striking a death knell to the centerpiece of President Biden’s economic agenda and sparking a blame game among congressional Democrats and White House officials for not reaching a consensus wit...

The Senate on Thursday voted to approve a one-time exemption to the filibuster on raising the debt ceiling, capping off a months-long fight over the nation’s borrowing limit. Earlier in the week, the House overwhelmingly passed a compromise version of the FY 2022 National Defense Authorization Act, amid a push to get the measure to President Biden’s desk. As the holidays near and Democrats feel an...

On Friday, President Biden signed legislation to fund the government at the previous year’s fiscal levels through February 18, giving lawmakers more time to hammer out their differences and narrowly averting a government shutdown. Earlier in the week, citing the new and fast-spreading Covid-19 Omicron variant, the Biden Administration imposed new travel restrictions, as scientists race to determin...

Ahead of the holidays, President Biden has some good news to be thankful for: the House finally passed the cornerstone plan of his agenda, the social spending and climate bill. On the other side of the Thanksgiving table, another huge challenge lies ahead for Democrats: convincing moderate Senators Manchin (D-WV) and Sinema (D-AZ) to sign onto the legislation. As Democrats fight over the scope of...

President Biden will celebrate a victory tomorrow, signing the bipartisan infrastructure bill into law. But as the President heralds his accomplishments, he has also been running into a new economic reality, as inflation has surged 6.2%, the largest increase in 31 years. Not only the inflation fight could make it harder for Democrats to pass their social spending bill, but it also calls into quest...

The results in Tuesday’s elections all but confirmed the Democrats’ tenuous control of government and promoted further soul searching among Democrats about whether they misread the public’s desire for sweeping change. Meanwhile, GOP lawmakers are feeling bullish about their chances next year with the House and Senate both up for grabs. Is the pendulum swinging back towards the GOP? What do the res...

As President Biden gathers with G20 leaders in Europe to tackle Covid-19 vaccines, supply chain woes, corporate tax issues, and the climate crisis, his domestic agenda continues to be in flux and candidates make their final pitch in Virginia’s race for governor. Public Strategies’ regular hosts Howard Schweitzer, Patrick Martin, and Kaitlyn Martin are joined by Jerry Kilgore, a former Virginia Sta...

Racing to negotiate, Democrats scale back their plans to upgrade the nation’s social safety net and combat climate change. Ending the month of October without anything close to a deal would land another blow on a president already suffering from falling approval ratings that have not been helped by the Democratic infighting over his agenda. As Americans’ worry about the supply-chain back up ahead...

Legislative standoffs are nothing new at the Capitol, but the scope and scale of the current stalemate is as dramatic as it is head-scratching: the drama over raising the country’s debt ceiling is over for now only, as the government faces another potential shutdown in December; House Democrats are holding up President Biden’s infrastructure legislation; and the Democratic Party is still at logger...

After a week of frenzy and public infighting - with Progressives holding firm and refusing to support the infrastructure bill and moderates pushing back on the price tag of the reconciliation package, House Democrats again delayed their vote on the Senate’s infrastructure bill as they failed to agree on the separate $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill. Desperate to find a compromise that can win fav...

With progressive Democrats holding firm on domestic spending bills, moderates trying to trim the cost, and Republicans largely out of the action, lawmakers on Capitol Hill are hurtling toward a political showdown over President Biden’s vast and ambitious economic agenda. Adding to the challenge, they have only a few days left to adopt a measure to fund the government, preventing a shutdown in the...