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. It is with great joy that long last I can say these words, we have a deal, a debt ceiling deal that is in you heard it right, we have a deal. Now at the outset. Is everyone happy? Is every member of Congress happy with this deal? Not even close, each side is going to try to claim victory over the last over this bill. And over the last few days, you've seen that. And each side has members both in the House and Senate Republicans and Democrats that shall I say are less than pleased with how the deal turned out. So today's program top line, I want to give you an update on what the deal is. And the state of play in the house. I'm going to be dropping a special episode that I'll give you an update on Senate action because it has to go through house Senate get signed by the President. And Senate action is expected later this week. Reminder we have until June 5 to get this done. So time is ticking. So level set. If this is your first time listening to the your good news podcast, welcome. I aim to give you the good news coming out of Washington, like I said at the opener and I do it through the lens of what's happening in Congress calling balls and strikes. That debt ceiling as a reminder is essentially the nation's credit card. That is a super simplified way of saying it is what Treasury can borrow to pay accrued debts, ie expenditures that Congress has already approved. And earlier this year, even late last year, I became pretty evident we would hit the limit that was set in law. And subsequently, negotiations or lack thereof have been happening over the last few months. In April, House Republicans passed a package that it was pretty unpalatable to Democrats because it removed key provisions that Democrats had worked so hard to include in bills when they were in control both the House and Senate and the previous Congress. I would say that in earnest. The negotiation started a few weeks ago. It started with the President President Biden sitting down with a big for the leadership of the House and Senate for both parties. So House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, our Republican California, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Democrat of New York, moving to the Senate, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, started with them having conversations you'll see, in any negotiation when it comes to Congress. If it gets to that level, if it's a huge spinning Bell, or the debt deal, or something really big as happening, it is quite common that the President sits down with the Big Four to talk about, okay, where are your conferences for Republicans, your caucuses? And if you're Democrats, where are they at? What's the polls? How can we move forward? That is super common. So those started a few weeks ago. And I would say it went started with those principles, those those main people, and then it moved down to their staff and they were deputized, either members of Congress or other staff that were working on the actual negotiations of we want this, you want that? Where are we going to come? You know, I talked about earlier that this deal, there are wins, I would say for maybe both sides, things that Democrats protected things that Republicans got in. And I think that that's an important feature of this negotiation of, of what we should hope that Congress looks like. I mean, we should hope that bills come up somewhere in the middle. And I think that that's I'm trying to find the good news. And I think that's a good news piece for me. All these negotiations were happening over the last few weeks. And as of last Saturday, a deal was announced. So what's in the deal, the agreement will keep Dawn defense spending roughly flat in the 2024 fiscal year. So 2020 for fiscal year starts October one of 2023 and it would increase by 1%. The following year, as well as suspend the debt limit until January 2025. Past the next presidential election and thank God for that. For the next fiscal year. The bill would also match President Biden's proposed defense budget of 886 billion and a lot 704 For non defense spending. interesting caveat, the bill requires Congress to approve 12 annual spending bills or face snap back to spending limits from the previous year. So fiscal year 23 Which would mean a 1% cut. I think if you've been listening to the organist podcast for a while you have heard me talk about spinning legislation before. I have been in DC 10 years, I have never seen all 12 bills of the appropriations process get across the floor. Congress tends to like either continuing resolutions or an omnibus, the way this bill is currently outlined and what's going to likely pass within a few hours. it incentivizes, in my opinion, two things, one to get all 12 annual bills across the line. So they wouldn't get that 1% haircut or to an omnibus bill so that defense spending wouldn't be impacted. I don't have a crystal ball of what's going to happen, and what's going to happen once we get to spending but that's what's included in this bill. It raises the debt limit until January 2025. And it outlined some discretionary and non discretionary spending. The bill would also reduce the deficit by $1.5 trillion over a decade. In the bill Medicaid would remain untouched, but the age at which work requirements would be included for SNAP is raised from 50 to 54. Work Requirements already existed for most able bodied adults between 18 and 49. But the bill would phase in higher age limits, bringing the maximum age to 54 by 2025. And the provision expires bring the maximum age back down to 49 and 2030. The deal would also rescind or take back unspent COVID funds, it would restart student loan repayments as a reminder, repayment on student loans had been paused at the outset of the pandemic. This was a feature that Republicans had really pushed for the agreement would also fund medical care for veterans at the levels included in Biden's proposed 2024 budget, which we talked about earlier this year. And it would also have a myriad of other things that are included as well. I wanted to highlight some of those key things as student loan repayments, the work requirements, what it would do, actually to our deficit and what does the deal mean for raising the debt ceiling? So where are we as of now? The bill tax was released on Sunday of this week. If you're listening in real time, by Tuesday evening, the house was considering the package within the ever powerful Rules Committee. The Rules Committee advanced the bipartisan debt deal with a with a vote of seven to six, meaning it could be voted on as of Wednesday, the day I'm recording this. I will say I talked about earlier as well, how some Republicans were not happy with the deal. And House Freedom Caucus members, including Congressman chip Roy of Texas, and Congressman Roth Norman, of South Carolina, made an effort in the Rules Committee to block the bill. So that's where that seven to six vote was. It is a what nine to four committee. So Republicans have a have an advantage in that committee, but because, you know, there are different types of Republicans like there are different types of Democrats. Those Republicans linked up with Democrats who try to block the bill, but it was not successful went to the floor. My guess is that it passes the House, meaning it will move on to the Senate later this week. Like I said, Is it everything everyone wanted? No. But that is not how negotiation works. That's not how real life works. We all know that. And so I think we are on a path to hopefully this starts in negotiation. And there are some better conversations about our spending. I think I could delve into another episode of where is our debt. We have a lot of debt. It's not, it's not a good book. But house I expect to pass today. Senate I expect to pass this weekend. And I believe it will be signed by the president who has negotiated this deal before the June 5 X day. So that's where the lay of the land is. That's what's in the deal. That's where the state of play is in the house. I will drop a special episode on Senate action later this week. Thank you so much for joining another episode of the organised podcast. I am so honored that you spend your time with me to learn about the good news coming out of Washington, this little Schoolhouse Rock that we are trying to do. As always follow me on Instagram. My handle is at Katherine Getty. You can always let me know what you want to hear. I'm going to have some more interviews this summer. I'm really excited about that. As always, tune in next week to another episode of the your good
