Shows / CQ Roll Call Policy and Politics
CQ Roll Call Policy and Politics
This is CQ Roll Call Policy and Politics, formerly CQ on Congress, which has all of the audio content from the CQ Roll Call newsroom.
Episodes
- CQ Roll Call Policy and Politics
CQ Budget: Immigration funding impasse
A glide path for a final fiscal 2026 spending package suddenly evaporated after the second fatal shooting of a Minneapolis citizen in an immigration crackdown…
- CQ Roll Call Policy and Politics
CQ Budget: Close to the finish line
The House has passed all 12 spending bills for the current fiscal year and the Senate is on track to clear them by the Jan. 30 deadline to avoid another…
- CQ Roll Call Policy and Politics
Political Theater: Contempt for the Clintons?
Jason Dick and Todd Ruger unpack the politics of a congressional committee's pursuit of Contempt of Congress charges against Bill and Hillary Clinton, how the…
- CQ Roll Call Policy and Politics
Equal Time: The state of voting rights in a critical midterm election year
November 2026 is closer than it may seem, with candidates already campaigning for the midterms. But are enough Americans paying attention to current action in…
- CQ Roll Call Policy and Politics
Political Theater: ‘All the pieces matter’ in politics, just not equally
Jason Dick and Mary Ellen McIntire look at the biggest political news of the new year and discuss how big a deal it is for the 2026 midterm election cycle…
- CQ Roll Call Policy and Politics
CQ Budget: Homeland Security punt and reconciliation talk
House and Senate appropriators had to punt on a compromise Homeland Security bill as they race toward a Jan. 30 funding deadline. And behind the scenes, talks…
- CQ Roll Call Policy and Politics
Political Theater: The good, the bad and the meh: What we're watching in 2026
In politics, there is a lot going on, it can be hard to focus. But some polling and economic indicators are good guideposts for what is shaping the electorate…
- CQ Roll Call Policy and Politics
CQ Budget: Appropriators get busy
Congressional leaders have big hopes for the new year: passing all the remaining, long-delayed spending bills by a Jan. 30 funding deadline. But can they pull…
- CQ Roll Call Policy and Politics
Equal Time: Advocacy and recognition lead to action for the disabled in sports -- and beyond
As an aspiring equestrian facing obstacles, Jack Goldberg learned that even with good intentions and legislation, follow through can be uncertain. So, as a…
- CQ Roll Call Policy and Politics
Political Theater: A most consequential year for Congress
The first session of the 119th Congress has been consequential: the legislative branch ceded much of its constitutional responsibilities to the executive…
- CQ Roll Call Policy and Politics
CQ Budget: Last chance for the year
House Republicans face a showdown vote this week over health care affordability as enhanced insurance subsidies are set to expire at the end of the month. And…
- CQ Roll Call Policy and Politics
Political Theater: Buy the 'Shadow Ticket,' take the ride
Thomas Pynchon's latest novel, "Shadow Ticket," has a lot to say about politics, so Jason Dick checks in with Sean Carswell, the official Pynchon scholar of…
- CQ Roll Call Policy and Politics
CQ Budget: Defense spending uptick
A new compromise defense authorization bill calls for a higher level of defense spending than President Donald Trump requested for the current fiscal year. CQ…
- CQ Roll Call Policy and Politics
Political Theater: Can Congress save itself?
Despite its propensity for making itself look bad, some of the inner workings of Congress reveal lawmakers who are finding ways to work together. Can they cut…
- CQ Roll Call Policy and Politics
CQ Budget: Two months to go
As appropriators aim to finish the nine remaining fiscal 2026 spending bills ahead of the Jan. 30 deadline, CQ Roll Call's Aris Folley and Aidan Quigley…
- CQ Roll Call Policy and Politics
Equal Time: Despite DEI pushback, a corporate culture of belonging is possible
The Trump administration’s war on DEI, diversity, equity and inclusion policies, has left many companies that value a welcoming workplace more than a little…
- CQ Roll Call Policy and Politics
Political Theater: The re-re-redistricting chronicles
Jason Dick and Nathan Gonzales talk about how multiple rounds of redistricting congressional boundaries and the lawsuits surrounding them are making a weird…
- CQ Roll Call Policy and Politics
CQ Budget: Appropriations back on track?
Now that the partial government shutdown is over, can Congress make up for lost time and get long-delayed appropriations bills moving again? CQ Roll Call's…
- CQ Roll Call Policy and Politics
CQ Budget: Politics of a shutdown
Enough Senate Democrats finally broke ranks with their party to clear a path for ending the longest partial government shutdown in history. CQ Roll Call's Aris…
- CQ Roll Call Policy and Politics
Political Theater: There is no such things as an off-year in politics
Jason Dick talks with Daniela Altimari and Mary Ellen McIntire about the new Roll Call Most Vulnerable Incumbent list, Tuesday night's election results and the…
- CQ Roll Call Policy and Politics
CQ Budget: Shutdown pressures on the rise
The Senate is under growing pressure to find a way out of the partial government shutdown that is set to become the longest in history. But President Donald…
- CQ Roll Call Policy and Politics
Political Theater: Taking the ‘Vineland’ express to ‘One Battle After Another’
Jason Dick and Sean Carswell discuss how Thomas Pynchon’s novel “Vineland” led to Paul Thomas Anderson’s movie “One Battle After Another,” the conversation…
- CQ Roll Call Policy and Politics
CQ Budget: Shutdown pain growing as November nears
The largest union of federal employees has called on Congress to pass a "clean" continuing resolution as crucial Nov. 1 deadlines for the start of health care…
- CQ Roll Call Policy and Politics
Political Theater: Immigration, race and ‘One Battle After Another'
Jason Dick and Chris Johnson talk about how immigration and racial issues frame the action and plot in the Paul Thomas Anderson movie "One Battle After…
- CQ Roll Call Policy and Politics
CQ Budget: 'Power of the purse' at stake
President Donald Trump's decision to divert Pentagon research and development funds to pay the troops during the partial shutdown has ignited a fierce debate…
- CQ Roll Call Policy and Politics
CQ Budget: Shutdown stalemate
Neither party shows any sign of blinking in the standoff over a partial government shutdown that enters its third week. CQ Roll Call's Aidan Quigley, Aris…
- CQ Roll Call Policy and Politics
Political Theater: An Orwell movie for Orwellian times
Jason Dick talks with filmmaker Raoul Peck about his documentary "Orwell: 2+2=5," the importance of stepping back from the news cycle to keep things in context…
- CQ Roll Call Policy and Politics
CQ Budget: Trapped in a shutdown
A partial government shutdown enters its second week with both parties dug in for a protracted fight and congressional leaders unwilling to negotiate. CQ Roll…
- CQ Roll Call Policy and Politics
Equal Time: College Leadership in Turbulent Times
Being a college president has never been the easiest job. But today, it seems an impossible one. The campus may still be a place that encourages students to…
- CQ Roll Call Policy and Politics
Political Theater: The great 'meh': Scenes from a shutdown
Jason Dick and Mary Ellen McIntire talk about how the government shutdown hasn't created much urgency on Capitol Hill, even though the effects could be…
- CQ Roll Call Policy and Politics
Political Theater: Let’s get existential
Jason Dick and Molly Reynolds talk about the most significant things Congress has done this year and what kind of ripple effects could follow, as well as how…
- CQ Roll Call Policy and Politics
CQ Budget: Health subsidies standoff
A partisan divide over extending health insurance subsidies that expire at year's end threatens to trigger a partial government shutdown next week. CQ Roll…
- CQ Roll Call Policy and Politics
Equal Time: A moral call-to-action on climate and energy policy
There had been progress on the issue of environmental justice, with the contributions of citizen-activists, who spurred the government to protect historically…
- CQ Roll Call Policy and Politics
Political Theater: They seem fine: Life After Congress
Poetry readings, brewing beer, helping out kids: Jason Dick and Jessica Wehrman talk about Roll Call’s revived Life After Congress feature and what former…
- CQ Roll Call Policy and Politics
CQ Budget: Search for an end game
With barely three weeks to spare, Congress and the Trump administration are struggling to settle on a strategy for a funding extension that would avoid a…
- CQ Roll Call Policy and Politics
Political Theater
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- CQ Roll Call Policy and Politics
CQ Budget: 'Pocket rescission' showdown
Democrats are warning that Republicans risk a partial government shutdown next month if they don't resist President Donald Trump's plan to claw back $4.9…
- CQ Roll Call Policy and Politics
Equal Time: Closing the opportunity gap in education
It’s back to school time, with excitement mixed with uncertainty and anxiety. News from the Department of Education is primarily about cutting its budget or…
- CQ Roll Call Policy and Politics
Political Theater: How Democrats hope to flip the script on energy as a campaign issue
Jessica Wehrman talks with David Jordan of CQ Roll Call about how energy affordability could become a sleeper issue in next year's midterm elections. Learn…
- CQ Roll Call Policy and Politics
CQ Budget: Rough-and-tumble September
The effort to avert a partial government shutdown next month could be uglier than usual after Congress left town for its August recess with partisan tensions…
- CQ Roll Call Policy and Politics
Political Theater: Off to the redistricting races
Mary Ellen McIntire and Daniela Altimari discuss how a potential new congressional map in Texas could set off a race among other states to redraw their own…
- CQ Roll Call Policy and Politics
CQ Budget: Politics of appropriations
The appropriations process is under threat from a poisonous political climate as Republicans seek cooperation from Democrats while pursuing partisan…
- CQ Roll Call Policy and Politics
Political Theater: Six months in, a gut check on Trump 2.0
Talking Epstein, congressional chaos and the Senate races to watch with Nathan Gonzales of Inside Elections. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit…
- CQ Roll Call Policy and Politics
Political Theater: Rush job: Life in Congress
Jason Dick and Mary Ellen McIntire talk about what happens when Congress tries to do too much in too short a period of time, how Republicans and Democrats do…
- CQ Roll Call Policy and Politics
CQ Budget: Big test on rescissions
The Senate will take up a bill to claw back $9.4 billion in foreign aid and public broadcasting funds that Democrats warn would blow up the bipartisan…
- CQ Roll Call Policy and Politics
Equal Time: ‘Accidental activists,’ the local heroes who expose government secrecy
In “Backroom Deals in Our Backyards: How Government Secrecy Harms Our Communities and the Local Heroes Fighting Back,” Miranda Spivack tells the stories of…
- CQ Roll Call Policy and Politics
Political Theater: 'We had time back then'
Jason Dick and Chris Cillizza talk about the time needed to produce quality sourcing, good work and journalism, how the news business continues to change, for…
- CQ Roll Call Policy and Politics
CQ Budget: Political fallout of 'big, beautiful bill'
President Donald Trump's new budget reconciliation law is already starting to define next year's midterm elections. CQ Roll Call's Daniela Altimari and David…
- CQ Roll Call Policy and Politics
Political Theater: The ‘rock and roll poetry’ of Joe Iconis’ Hunter S. Thompson musical
Jason Dick talks with Joe Iconis about what led him to write "The Untitled Unauthorized Hunter S. Thompson Musical," how much the world changed during that…
- CQ Roll Call Policy and Politics
Political Theater: A short history of hoping people will change their minds
Jason Dick and Jessica Wehrman talk about how unpopular the “One Big Beautiful Bill” in Congress is, why Republicans will likely pass it anyway and the short…
- CQ Roll Call Policy and Politics
CQ Budget: 'Beautiful' bill picked apart
The Senate parliamentarian has been busy throwing out key provisions in the GOP's reconciliation bill, ruling against measures affecting food stamps…
- CQ Roll Call Policy and Politics
CQ Budget: Medicaid and 'SALT' divide GOP
The release of the biggest portion of the Senate GOP's reconciliation bill triggered internal party clashes over the scope of Medicaid cuts and the size of the…
- CQ Roll Call Policy and Politics
Equal Time: What is ‘the way forward’ after violence born of hatred?
It’s been 10 years since a 21-year-old gunman murdered nine church members who welcomed him to Bible study. The attack on Charleston, S.C.’s historic Emanuel…
- CQ Roll Call Policy and Politics
Political Theater: It’s déjà tea party all over again
Jason Dick and Jim Saksa discuss how easy it was to be angry in 2010, tea-party infused town halls, astroturf versus paid protesters, the Koch Brothers and…
- CQ Roll Call Policy and Politics
CQ Budget: 'Big, beautiful' bill on the line
Senate Republicans are struggling to produce text of their reconciliation package this week despite disputes over Medicaid, food stamps, tax policy, Medicare…
- CQ Roll Call Policy and Politics
Political Theater: The 'predicament and necessity' of documentary movies
Jason Dick talks to Sky Sitney, co-founder of DC/DOX, about this year's documentary festival, as well as how grants being canceled and studios pulling back on…
- CQ Roll Call Policy and Politics
CQ Budget: Reconciliation headaches in Senate
Republican senators want changes to the "big, beautiful" House reconciliation bill, from Medicaid to tax cuts and more. And House appropriators begin writing…
- CQ Roll Call Policy and Politics
Political Theater
Jason Dick talks with former Roll Callers and current journalism professors Christina Bellantoni and Neda Semnani about the value of just talking to people…
- CQ Roll Call Policy and Politics
CQ Budget: 'Big, beautiful' bill heads to Senate
The House-passed reconciliation bill containing most of President Donald Trump's agenda won't clear the Senate in its current form. CQ Roll Call's Caitlin…
- CQ Roll Call Policy and Politics
Political Theater: That's a lot of Supreme Court there
Jason Dick and Todd Ruger discuss their (and some public officials') race times at the ACLI Capital Challenge, then delve into the Supreme Court's internal…