if you know Georgia voter, give him a hug, give him a call. And then in Arizona and Nevada, what happened so Friday, we learned that Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona would win reelection against his challenger, Blake masters. And then on Saturday, we learned that scenario, Catherine Cortez Masto would real win reelection from her challenger, Adam Laxalt. Both of those races were so close, as I discussed last week, but it was I mean, very, very close. And I think it's important that we reflect on these races are really close. I'll talk a little bit more about that. And what I'm hoping to see comes out of that. But I will also be a realist in this podcast. So the Senate we know the Dems are going to take control just covered that. The house though, is another story. I'm recording this on Monday of this week. So November 14, as I record this, it is like 212 to 206. I think it is very close to get to a majority in the House, you need to get to 18. So do I think that Republicans will still eat get across the line? Yeah, but I think more so than ever, we need to realize this is the second Congress where it is essentially a 5050 Senate. And it is essentially a house majority that is razor thin. I think hopefully, if I want to be idealistic, will this inform how each party kind of deals with the issues and how they address the policy matters that are most important to voters and the people that they represent? Yeah. Do I think it's going to be some pretty tough votes? And they're going to have to figure out in the house. All right. Are we doing messaging where all the Republicans vote together? Or are we going to do a bipartisan bill to try to get something across the desk? Maybe that's in the opioid crisis? I know I think it's I'm always a pretty big fan of divided government, because I think that we are all more similar than we are dissimilar. And I think oftentimes a divided government kind of makes that bipartisanship be forced a little bit. I don't know how that's going to turn out because fun little reminder. next election will be a presidential which is always an X factor. Starting maybe this week, we will hear people starting to say they're throwing their names in the hat to be in the running for president. We'll see what happens with that. I hope that we can maybe take a breath but I I doubt that's gonna happen. You know, I, I've always believed in this podcast is built on the idea that we are more similar than we are different. We all want to live in a safe, happy, thriving community. We all hope for the best. But we just simply disagree and vehemently sometimes we disagree on how do we achieve that and this next Congress will have their fair share of disagreements but I hope If the both parties maybe after a second, really close election night that they will realize, okay, we got to work more from the middle. The polls of both parties are not what we want. But we'll see. And we're going to have to Kimbell that we're going to have to continue to call Congress, you know, get involved with your grassroots organizations continue to be active, continue to get people registered to vote, continue to be a part of the conversation, because we're a better society when we are engaged in our democracy. So let's switch gears a little bit and discuss what's happening as Congress returns this week. You know, they're coming back after a busy election season, and they've got some pretty big end of year items to cross to cross off their list. For starters, government funding, yes, you heard that, again, feels like a perennial thing that they talk about. But they had kicked the can from that fiscal deadline, it's September 30. Towards Friday, December 16. It is typically a CR when there's a midterm, or when there's election, it is basically based on maybe it's an you know, an election year, they can't get the things across the line, because it's too divided. Maybe it's a leverage piece. Maybe it's a lot of a leverage piece. But they're going to need to get some government funding done. And right before I recorded this, I saw that Senator Leahy, who's retiring from Vermont, who has been a part of the Senate, he's a Chair of Appropriations Committee said they have agreed a top line numbers. And basically that means, okay, this is kind of where we can max out on our spending. And then they basically split it across discretionary and mandatory spending. So it's going to be interesting to kind of see where the funding levels end. If I was guessing person, I think that maybe there will be a second car, maybe December 23. Yes, right before Christmas. Maybe it'll be a little bit longer. And to March or February of the next year, it's going to be I doubt very highly, that they get to a full fiscal year. So it will be 2023. September, there is the 2023. I doubt that they get that far. But maybe, maybe we'll see. So Congress is coming back with that they also need to do National Defense Authorization Act. This is basically, you know, I've talked about there's authorizing and appropriating committees and Congress authorizing. The easy way to remember it is they create programs appropriating as they give the money for those programs. So they gotta go hand in hand National Defense Authorization Act is a bill that's been passed every year since 1961. It is no one wants to be seen as not supporting the troops if I'm going to boil it down. And so it's going to be something that sets the policies under which the appropriating can get done. I see that as something that's going to be must pass, I think some lesser known items, maybe they'll do something with additional user fee agreement, items that have fallen out. I'll give you a rundown if that starts to pick up seem, I think that there's some taxes, tax extenders that may get included at the end of the year package. But I mean, time will tell I think this this week is going to be interesting, not only from Okay, we gotta get this done before the end of the year, but I'm gonna layer on top of that there are leadership elections. So for Republicans this week, they are going to be voting on their part on their leadership in the House. And in the Senate. There had been calls that the Senate Republicans would postpone similar in the house from a group called the Freedom Caucus or more of a conservative group, kind of think of the Tea Party. But even more conservative, I could probably say, we will see kind of where that lands. The Senate also is kind of in a similar path where there are some senators who want to delay elections, given that they don't know what's happening in Georgia. I think both of those move forward, I will clued in I will include an Editor's Note in the show notes and on my post, if they get these delayed to any degree. On the DEM side, though, they have until early December, so a little bit more time. But I think those kind of leadership conversations suck a lot of oxygen up in Washington. And so you'll probably have seen on the news. It felt like the election happened and now it turned to who is going to be running those, the House and the Senate. It's really important, but it has sucked up the oxygen on some good policy that could be getting done. But I digress. Poke ramming notes. And then I'm gonna finish the episode today with a little programming note. You know, as I think about the podcasts, where it's been, what we're going to tackle in the future, I'm going to continue to give you updates on what's happening in Washington, some history, some context, some features of our government, some more of the good that's coming out of Washington, and my goal is to continue to be your updated version of Schoolhouse Rock that actually tells you how a bill becomes a law. If you haven't already, please go ahead and subscribe so weekly, each Thursday, an episode where you stream podcasts will already be there. Also leave a review, share with someone you know post about it. Find me on Instagram, my handle is at Katherine Getty. I'd always love to hear your feedback on this episode, what you'd like to hear maybe what you want to hear less of. And as always, I share more about myself on my Instagram on my website, your good news podcast.com. And thank you again for joining this week and tune in next week for another episode of The your good