Hi, and welcome to the your good news podcast with me your host, Katherine Getty. Each Thursday, I'll give you the scoop on the good news coming out of Washington, and how you can get involved with this thing called democracy. Welcome back to another episode of The your good news podcast. We've entered the slog of May in Washington DC. I say slog because the months of May, June and July in Washington are typically very busy seasons for Congress. And it's also a slog, because there aren't a ton of recess weeks or weeks where members of Congress are back in their districts. So it HS feels long and sloggy. And not great. And layer on top of that the debt ceiling continues to suck up all the air and oxygen laying on top of the aforementioned slog. You know, in Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen announced that the Treasury Department would lose their ability to do extraordinary measures by June 1, it hit into hyperdrive, the need for negotiations on the debt ceiling, as a reminder that a few episodes on the debt ceiling. The debt ceiling is essentially the US is credit card, for lack of a better terms, it's what has already been spent. You have seen it raised a number of times over the life of our country, I think, mainly in 2011 is when it started to kind of inter to enter the chat and be more of a tool that minority parties would use to get the majority party. So maybe the majority party is obviously the President whoever is going to sign the legislation. Maybe the majority party has the other chamber, basically meaning they have more air quotes, more control. You started to see that being become more the debt ceiling vote become more of not just kind of routine, but more of a let's debate how you're spending and how we're getting to this. So with the slog of May, the fact that the debt ceiling continues, feels like nothing else is really happening in Washington and obviously, there are committee hearings, there are oversight hearings, there are you know appropriators are working on the budget, energy and commerce and Senate HELP are working on reauthorization of big bills, transportation and infrastructure is working in on FAA reauthorization, things are happening. But what everyone comes back to what staff focus on what members focus on is the debt ceiling. And I think you'll see more to come in the next few weeks. Obviously, given that June 1 deadline, as of this week, on Tuesday, the President held a meeting with House and Senate leadership. So for the Senate, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, democratic New York Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, on the House side, its speaker Kevin McCarthy, Republican, California, and house minority leader is Kim Jeffries, democratic New York. So the President had a meeting with those four leaders that hope the hope of the meeting, I think, probably has different their different hopes for Republicans and Democrats. But I think overall for Americans, I will say for myself, the hope is that we do not risk default that we get to finding some path forward. You know, Democrats have a point of view, Republicans have a point of view. But what really happens in Congress, what should happen in Congress is, let's meet in the middle, will that happen this time, time will only tell but that is really what has been happening in Washington. And I'll be honest, as someone who is trying to give you the good news coming out of Washington, trying to keep you engaged, trying to help you understand more about our government, it's been a little harder to dive into different topics. And I think that's why I'm going to be doing this series on committees, because I want you to understand who are the people doing the work in Congress? You know, committees are the opportunities for members to dive into an issue. And they may be assigned to a committee based on interest based on their profession based on insert reason and those committees do a lion's share of the work before it hits the floor. So more will be coming on committees in Congress last week, episode 92. I did Senate Health Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. I went through the history, kind of what their jurisdiction is, what are they working on? But that will continue this summer while we're kind of in this waiting to see what happens with the debt ceiling. And that will not only happened until June, but I think throughout the summer when you know, members are really focusing on Appropriations. There are a ton of newsworthy items. I'll also turn my attention In the weeks to come on the Supreme Court, the Supreme Court session ends in June. So you that's when a lot of the decisions come out, that's when the decisions come out. So, during June, I'll also cover okay, what are some of those big decisions coming out, you'll see the student loan repayment. So when President Biden announced that student loan repayment program, it has worked its entire way up to the Supreme Court has been argued that decision on if it's legal or not, will come out in June. So I'll dig into that more to come on what other big decisions are coming in to the Supreme Court. So that's just a preview, committee hearing Supreme Court, I'll give you more on the debt ceiling. But today, I want to cover the Congressional Budget Office. It's probably one of the most little known entities in Washington. And I think, you know, since 1975, the Congressional Budget Office or CBO, because Washington can't do anything without an acronym, has produced independent analyses of the budgetary and economic issues who support congressional budget process. So the agency's economist and budget analysts produce dozens of reports and hundreds of cost estimates, on proposed legislation and also forecasting for 10 years, you'll see, you'll kind of hear it in the news of a new report says, blah, blah, blah, about the debt, or this is happening with this piece of legislation, it's going to cost the government X over 10 years, that's coming from the Congressional Budget Office. It's a little known, but really, really important for politicians and for leaders, elected leaders will not see politicians when they are actually doing their job, their elected leaders, when the elected leaders are doing their work to understand what is the impact of this piece of legislation. And why call out the CBO. It's nonpartisan, in a town known for partisanship, this entity is in my mind a bit of a unicorn, you know, you'll hear it. And I said this a little bit earlier. You'll hear it on the news. But you also hear elected leaders, maybe they use the CBO analysis of their, you know, opponent, the opposite parties, piece of legislation as a tool to say why they don't want to support it, or you'll see an elected leader say, you know, I support this because it saves over 10 years, and it has a positive impact. That's it kind of is adds another justification for any piece of legislation, any policy change. And that's really important. It's important that we have you know that our elected leaders are having a financial basis in some of their decisions. Now, not every bill is going to have a score. But it does for the ones that do have a budgetary impact, they will be scored and it will help it's not like a you get an A it's you impact the economy in this way. I referenced earlier to the CBO does projections of budgetary and economic outcomes that are based on the assumption of current laws about federal spending and revenues within a space. And those projections over a 10 year period are often used in the congressional budgeting process. I know that we are so accustomed to the budgeting process and the appropriations process being a continuing resolution or an omnibus at the last second. But these projections that CBO does have 10 years of what is happening and what could be happening are and should be used for the budgeting process. My hope, and sharing a little bit more about CBO is that when you see something on the news, you have a little bit more context of okay, it's not a partisan organization. It's an organization that has that is full of economists and budget analysts that are simply looking at what is the impact based on everything else in the in the university that currently stands? What would this piece of legislation do? It's my hope that when you see an elected leader, utilize that information may be pro or against you have a little more context of why they're doing that. And I hope it kind of gives you a peek behind the curtain of who is the CBO and what do they do in DC and for our country. So I it's a quick episode today. I'm going to continue to give you updates on what's happening in Washington it'll probably be pretty heavy debt ceiling for the next couple of weeks that will move into more. Committee series will cover more of what's happening in the Supreme Court give you some more context of what happens when when those decisions are being made.