Director’s Desk
Kristin Nicholson | February 5, 2019
Dear Friends:
To all of those who were furloughed, working without pay, covering extra duties or otherwise affected by the shutdown, I hope your routine has returned to normal and your inboxes have been triaged. In this newsletter, Senior Fellow Matt Glassman lays out several reasons why we probably don’t need to worry about a shutdown reprise when the current funding deadline hits on February 15. Hopefully he can assuage some fears today.
Meanwhile, it’s (the delayed) State of the Union day, and I can think of a few members of Congress who are probably hard at work saving prime seats in the House chamber. FiveThirtyEight has a great piece today about why these speeches aren’t tremendously important – and why they still matter anyway. For more on presidential power (or lack thereof), don’t miss Matt Glassman’s exceptional op-ed in the New York Times on congressional Republicans’ use of their agenda-setting power to take control away from the president. Finally, I hope you’re keeping up with our podcast, Congress: Two Beers In – the most recent episode goes deep on the shutdown, committee organization and what’s on tap (beer joke, get it?) for the 116th Congress.
We’ve got a packed schedule of classes over the next few months, so check out our calendar here. It’s not too late to register for next week’s course on Executive-Legislative Relations, a topic which will be more important than ever in a time of divided government. And as always, if you’d like us to tailor something for your office or agency, reach out to me anytime. Hope to see you soon.
Kristin
Categories: Director's Desk, Media Center, Updates