Category: Updates

Mark and Josh talk with Professor Tony Madonna about Kevin McCarthy’s unusual speakership, among other things. Tony is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Georgia and author of numerous studies of House and Senate procedure.   https://media.blubrry.com/twobeersin/gai.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/tony-madonna-podcast.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | Download (36.7MB)Subscribe: RSS |

Dear Friends, It has become commonplace for us to greet September with a long congressional to-do list and some degree of concern over whether the federal government will be funded come October 1. The main difference this year, unfortunately, is the intensity with which the shutdown speculation is ramping up.

In Federalist 78, published in the spring of 1788, Alexander Hamilton famously referred to the judiciary as “the least dangerous” branch of the federal government. A fair question 235 years later is whether it has become the least accountable branch, at least at the top level. Unlike lower-court judges and

Laura and Josh talk with Georgetown Professor Michele Swers about abortion politics after the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision and a bit of Nancy Pelosi’s speakership. https://media.blubrry.com/twobeersin/gai.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Swers-interview.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | Download (58.8MB)Subscribe: RSS | More

Dear Friends, As the House and Senate settle into August recess, let’s take a quick look at where things stand on the Hill and what looms ahead in September. Despite a lot of promises from both sides of the Capitol, the appropriations process is barely inching along, raising fears of

By Matthew Green, Professor, Department of Politics (The Catholic University of America) The past seven months have made it abundantly clear that the House speakership is one of the most difficult jobs in Washington. In January, for the first time in a century, the majority party’s nominee for speaker –

Matt and Josh are joined by special guest Philip Wallach from the American Enterprise Institute to discuss his new book, Why Congress. https://media.blubrry.com/twobeersin/gai.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/CBI-Wallach-edited.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | Download (47.5MB)Subscribe: RSS | More

Dear Friends, Washington may be starting June with wildfire haze and sonic booms, but thankfully at least not a debt default. I hope you’ll read on for Senior Fellow Laura Blessing’s fascinating look at the many similarities between the debt limit negotiations of 2011 and 2023, and some important cautions

Normally, we remember what we were doing when great triumphs or tragedies take place on the world stage. Fiscal policy is not typically on that list of events. And yet, I remember clearly what I was doing in the lead up to Treasury’s “X date” in 2011. I was in

Matt and Laura are joined by special guest Michael Thorning from the Bipartisan Policy Center, to discuss the debt limit negotiations, modernization of Congress, and the FY24 Legislative Branch Appropriations bill. https://media.blubrry.com/twobeersin/gai.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Congress-Two-Beers-In-with-Michael-Thorning.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | Download (54.1MB)Subscribe: RSS | More