Last week, the Library of Congress made an important announcement: The Congressional Research Service (CRS) is getting a new director. Karen Donfried will begin her 10-year term on Sept. 23. She takes over for interim director Robert Newlen, who has led the agency since July 2023. Little known off Capitol Hill, CRS is a hugely important […]
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A happy 50th birthday for the congressio...
President Biden’s White House recently delivered to Congress its “Mid-Session Review” of the federal budget. The bottom line was bad: the deficit for 2024 is projected to be $1.87 trillion and the nation likely will be $37 trillion in debt by the end of the year. This news arrived just one week after the 50th […]
Congress won’t tackle the debt unless Am
Earlier this year, Gallup pollsters asked Americans how much they worry about the federal government’s deficit and debt. Seventy-seven percent worried about our nation’s red ink “a great deal” or “a fair amount.” This result was not unusual. Every year since 2011, between 63 and 87 percent of the individuals polled have said they were worried…. (Read more)
Systemic election reforms: What’s going
Final Five voting. Ranked choice voting. Nonpartisan redistricting. Systemic election reforms are afoot across America. What are these reforms and why are they happening? Here’s my take… (Read more)
Fringe Benefits: A review of ‘Wide Awake
Marching Proud Boys wearing black Fred Perry polos and getting into fisticuffs with Antifa. Anonymous hacktivists wearing creepy, plastic Guy Fawkes masks and messing with the computers of law enforcement and other organizations they think corrupt or cruel. Oath Keepers proclaiming to be “Guardians of the Republic” and traveling to the U.S. Capitol with paramilitary […]
The end of Chevron deference isn’t the e
Last week, I had coffee with a wonk who works on immigration policy, a political moderate who is trying to get Capitol Hill to have a sane, bipartisan conversation about the topic and enact reforms. It is a challenge, seeing as how legislators frequently behave as if they would prefer to campaign and fundraise on […]