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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. Little note, I am recording this with a cold reminder to take your vitamin C, get your flu shot, stay healthy. So forgive the raspy voice this week. But I still wanted to record I still wanted to keep you updated. So it is honestly hard to believe we are already in December of this year. And as I do, I wanted to give you a rundown of what's happening in Washington, and what to expect this week with additional context. So what's happening Washington, Congress returns after a Thanksgiving break with less than three weeks till government funding runs out. And if you're having a bit of deja vu, you're not wrong. This was a very similar conversation from September. But if you remember, Congress agreed to a short term funding bill otherwise known as a continuing resolution CR, to Friday, December 16. So as of Monday morning, as of the time I'm recording this, reports are suggesting that Congress may agree tweet nother short term CR through December 23. Happy holidays everyone. And this reporting would indicate the Congress so both Republicans and Democrats are working towards a fiscal year omnibus meaning they would fund the government through September 30 of next year. And there are some benefits to this one, we would have government funding through September 30. That would provide some continuity to the US government, but for Democrats politically with control in both the House and Senate, this Congress. So through January of next year, at the beginning of January of next year, they would have a little more leverage to maybe get some of their priorities for Republicans who will take control in the house, but not the Senate. It could give them some more work, if you clear the deck so to speak, and have them be able to focus on more of the oversight that they have stated they really want to focus on. So it's going to be interesting as the next couple of weeks play out to see what really happens. Are they going to do a short term week car and then a an omnibus through September 30? Do they do something shorter term to March or February of next year? To put the pressure on Republicans? It's going to be really interesting. I do believe that we will get to some sort of government funding. I don't think we're headed towards a government shutdown. But time will truly tell. And as all of this is happening as government funding is happening, there's also leadership elections for Democrats within the house. So I discussed a few weeks back, Republicans in the House and Senate have been jockeying for their positions for the next Congress or the Congress. It starts January of next year. But this week is House Democrats turn so in the house is expected that Congressman Hakeem Jeffries of New York, will become the Democratic leader or the Minority Leader in the House following the announcement of Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California that she would no longer seek a role in leadership. She had been in leadership for over a decade had been in Congress since I believe the early 90s. I would need to check that. But she has been a force and so with her announcement, it kind of created a cascading effect. And then the next kind of rolls up so Congresswoman Katherine Clark of Massachusetts, and Pete Aguilar of California would be a shoo in to get Minority Whip and Caucus Chair respectively, replacing outgoing Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Majority Whip Jim Clyburn of South Carolina. I will note that while Speaker Pelosi and Leader Hoyer announced they would no longer be seeking roles and leadership Congressman Clyburn will be seeking a role as assistant leader, so assistant leader to Congressman Jeffries in the next Congress, Senate Democrats will then do their elections next week. So it's kind of felt like for the last four weeks that everyone has been laser focused on the next Congress. But we have definitely some things to get done before the end of the year top among those government funding. I'll keep you posted on where everything shakes out there any surprises in the House Democratic elections, I don't see there being any. But when this is recorded, that's kind of where the lay of the land is. And I will include a notes on if anything changes in the podcast. Turning to some context of what's happening in Washington, I want to give you some feedback on a little known phenomena or something maybe known about but not really appreciated, which is staff changes. And with the election nearly behind us Georgians, don't forget there's a Senate run off Tuesday, December 6 between Senator Raphael, Warnock and his challenger Herschel Walker, everything is starting to kind of shake out so to speak in Washington and staff are really the lifeblood of Capitol Hill. And I want to give you more insights on staff because staff are the trusted advisors, the researchers, the understandings of the members, districts or committees or the policy issues they're focused on. And this context can empower you to better understand the folks who help these members create good policy. Staffers work long hours to help members, our elected leaders to be subject matter experts on just about anything. Staffers help members cover policy, from agriculture, to public health, to defense, to education to tech. To insert issue group, there is a staffer who is focused on it, they can have one issue set, or they can have many, and let's tackle personal office first, then we'll talk a little bit on committee staff. So in a personal office, you'll have some comm staff that help constituents understand what members are working on. Let them know when tele town halls or in person town halls, they're really the mouthpiece for that member making sure that member is engaging with their constituents, then there's legislative and policy staff. They can work on anything from funding levels to helping members understand bills to crafting bills with lawyers, it can kind of run the gamut. And then there's also operational roles. Operational roles are the scheduling team that helps ensure members are on time or helping a functioning office actually happen. And so these roles can really run the gamut. And a personal office is the members home office. So I'm going to give you two example Senator Chuck Schumer, his personal office is the Office that serves the people of New York. He is a senator elected to represent New Yorkers and for the house. Another good example is Congressman Steve Scalise representing the first district of Louisiana, his personal office works to aid them. This doesn't mean that you can't engage with these offices if you aren't from the district or the state. Rather, it is just representing the interests or should be of those people. And I reference both of these members because Senator Chuck Schumer also serves as the Majority Leader in the Senate, a role in which he works to coordinate and lead the Democratic senators. And rep. Scalise is the current House Republican minority whip, where he helps count votes. It's crucial in Congress to know where your members are at to have a clear understanding when a bill hits the floor where your conference or caucus is going to be. I will say in another episode, I'm going to break down what it means to be in leadership. So in Congress, a majority has major impacts on the size of staff or committees. And with the flip from Democratic control to Republican happening in the house. Many of them staffers will be looking for new roles, and many Republicans will be joining the hell in committee staff have such a unique role, because they are helping usher bills for committee process doing oversight of critical issues conducting hearings on problems facing the country. And committees tend to be much larger than personal offices.