Barbara Sprunt
Appearances
NPR News Now
NPR News: 02-19-2025 6PM EST
Senate Republicans argue Congress should start with one bill that provides new funding for the military and the border and do a second bill later this year that would address tax cuts. House GOP leadership, aware of its incredibly narrow majority with factions hard to keep satisfied, has pushed for a one-bill path that would encompass border funding and taxes together.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 02-19-2025 6PM EST
Trump took to social media to offer support for the House's proposal in order for his full agenda to be implemented, not, quote, just parts of it. Barbara Sprunt and Peer News, Washington.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 01-07-2025 7PM EST
Vice President Kamala Harris, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, and House Speaker Mike Johnson delivered eulogies that emphasized Carter's values of service and citizenship. Here's Johnson.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 01-07-2025 7PM EST
Harris detailed Carter's creation of the Departments of Education and Energy and his efforts to put people of color on the federal bench. Members of the public can pay their respects through midnight and again on Wednesday. Barbara Sprint, NPR News, the Capitol.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 03-05-2025 6PM EST
The study looked at nearly 80,000 butterfly surveys across the contiguous United States. Butterfly declines were most severe in the southwest, where increasing heat driven by climate change is a likely factor. Elizabeth Krohn is an ecology professor at the University of California, Davis, and one of the study authors.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 03-05-2025 6PM EST
Other factors harming butterflies are pesticide use and habitat loss. For NPR News, I'm Barbara Moran in Boston.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 12-20-2024 8PM EST
The legislation includes $100 billion in aid to communities recovering from natural disasters and a one-year extension of federal farm policy and aid to farmers. It does not increase the nation's borrowing limit, something Donald Trump demanded, but House Speaker Mike Johnson says the president-elect is still satisfied.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 12-20-2024 8PM EST
Trump and his advisor, billionaire Elon Musk, undermined a bipartisan agreement reached earlier this week, causing Republicans to spend several days intensely negotiating a new bill to appease Trump, their own members, and the Democrats whose votes were needed to approve the bill. Barbara Sprunt and Peer News, the Capitol.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 03-15-2025 2PM EDT
Schumer had said Republicans didn't get input from Democrats when drafting this bill, and and so they wouldn't get the Democratic votes they'd need to advance it. Instead, he wanted to pass a one-month funding bill to give them more time to negotiate a deal. But on Thursday, he made a U-turn, and he said he was going to vote to advance the bill.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 03-15-2025 2PM EDT
Schumer and the nine other Democrats who ultimately voted alongside him argued the bill was bad, yes, but a government shutdown would be worse.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 02-21-2025 6PM EST
The resolution would provide $175 billion for border security and $150 billion in military funding. The Senate's adoption is an early step in the process, which requires committees to work out the details of spending, as well as any offsets to help pay for the additional funds. The budget resolution is at odds with the House's approach.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 02-21-2025 6PM EST
The House wants to pass one bill that addresses spending for the border and extends the 2017 tax cuts. The Senate wants to break those elements into two distinct bills. Both chambers ultimately have to be on the same page to get the legislation across the finish line. Barbara Sprint and Peer News, Washington.
The NPR Politics Podcast
Dems Face Pressure To Fight Trump
A lot of Democratic lawmakers were there sort of talking how terrible this is. And they were interrupted by chants of the people in the crowd saying, like, what are you going to do about it? Do your job. And the reality is there's a huge disconnect because their job is very limited. There's very few things that they can do to thwart the will of the majority.
The NPR Politics Podcast
Dems Face Pressure To Fight Trump
There's definitely like debate about the messaging strategy going forward. And the tape that we heard of Leader Jeffries is from earlier this month. I think House Democrats have tried to sort of sharpen their strategy. They have a new task force out that's sort of aimed at. a new messaging strategy, particularly around the sort of legal efforts that are being fronted in various spaces.
The NPR Politics Podcast
Dems Face Pressure To Fight Trump
But yeah, I mean, like some Democrats say, there's not a big upside to talking about what you can't do. Others like Vermont Congresswoman Becca Ballant, who I spoke with, she's a member of the Progressive Caucus. And she told me like, you know, we should probably educate the public a little bit.
The NPR Politics Podcast
Dems Face Pressure To Fight Trump
Yeah, I mean, the minority party can sometimes, particularly in the Senate, slow things down procedurally. But it can't, like, change the math and the makeup of the structure of power that is faced right now by Democrats on Capitol Hill.
The NPR Politics Podcast
Dems Face Pressure To Fight Trump
There's also something to be said for like, you know, there's a lot of opposition to what the Trump administration is doing, obviously, among Democrats and grassroots supporters in and outside of the Beltway. But it is like exactly what the president talked about doing in his campaign. And so Democrats navigating that space is. Right.
The NPR Politics Podcast
Dems Face Pressure To Fight Trump
Yeah, there's this big question mark about, like, who is the resistance figure here? And as you were saying, Domenico, you know, like, so far, it doesn't necessarily seem like it's Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Hakeem Jeffries, leader of the House Democrats, is still sort of, I think, finding footing on best messaging practices going forward.
The NPR Politics Podcast
Dems Face Pressure To Fight Trump
I think an interesting thing that we can all look for in March is when the joint address, when the president addresses a joint session of Congress is, There's always a Democratic response to that. And who they pick to give that response I think is going to be really telling about the type of messaging that they're looking to sort of sharpen going forward.
The NPR Politics Podcast
Dems Face Pressure To Fight Trump
Who the messenger is going to be there I think is going to be really telling.
The NPR Politics Podcast
Dems Face Pressure To Fight Trump
Yeah. And I think like, you know, for all this conversation about like, what is the messaging and who is the messenger from Democrats? You know, a couple of members I spoke with were like, you know, we could get a little grace. It has been a couple of weeks and there is a fire hose of information and action coming from Pennsylvania Avenue.
The NPR Politics Podcast
Dems Face Pressure To Fight Trump
I mean, it may not be going over well, but it is the reality that Democrats face. Elections do have consequences and the American public voted for a Republican trifecta in government. They control the House, the Senate and the White House. And that stark political reality is, I think, sort of like dawning on many grassroots supporters of Democrats sort of for the first time.
The NPR Politics Podcast
Dems Face Pressure To Fight Trump
I think it is going to take time for Democrats to sort of solidify a message. And a lot of that depends on what happens with the courts and also like what continued actions Trump takes by executive order. What happens with this budget reconciliation, which is a topic for another day, but that is also underway this week. And yeah, it's a long road ahead for Democrats.
The NPR Politics Podcast
Dems Face Pressure To Fight Trump
And they're navigating this sort of next chapter as Democrats have lost a lever of power. And there certainly is tension here. I mean, Democrats say that their phones are ringing off the hook with people calling their offices. Why can't you do X, Y, Z? There was a rally recently in response to the furlough of a lot of employees of USAID employees.
The NPR Politics Podcast
Roundup: Congress Works On Budget; Cabinet Meets; Good TV
Sue, television or otherwise, do you have something you can't let go? Mine's related to podcasts, so we'll stick with media for the week.
The NPR Politics Podcast
Roundup: Congress Works On Budget; Cabinet Meets; Good TV
Johnson and House Republican leaders held the floor open for an hour or so while trying to get all of the votes needed to pass this resolution. At one point, it looked like they weren't going to quite make it. They sent members home for the night. But wait, but wait. They quickly changed course, ordered the House back in session and voted on the proposal right away.
The NPR Politics Podcast
Roundup: Congress Works On Budget; Cabinet Meets; Good TV
You know, essentially, some of the GOP members who had said that they would not support it changed their minds and ended up supporting it.
The NPR Politics Podcast
Roundup: Congress Works On Budget; Cabinet Meets; Good TV
Yeah, I think there's two big things, you know, that are different between now and when Republicans used reconciliation in 2017. And one of those is exactly what you're saying, the difference of Trump himself. He was fairly content to leave a lot of the procedural elements in 2017 to Paul Ryan, who was speaker. And now it's not even, you know, a full two months into his presidency.
The NPR Politics Podcast
Roundup: Congress Works On Budget; Cabinet Meets; Good TV
He's already put his thumb on the scale when it comes to a lot of the decision making between the House and the Senate, talking to members, doing some whipping of support. And then, you know, the second thing that I think is different, of course, is the margin, you know, that Johnson enjoys or does not enjoy rather some of the time.
The NPR Politics Podcast
Roundup: Congress Works On Budget; Cabinet Meets; Good TV
You know, in 2017, Republicans can lose, I don't know, 20 some votes. Now, you know, Johnson can afford to lose just one vote. That's that's pretty tight. Yeah.
The NPR Politics Podcast
Roundup: Congress Works On Budget; Cabinet Meets; Good TV
Yeah. And I mean, we've already seen some Republican senators say, you know, we're not cutting Medicaid. You know, there's conversations around, well, maybe it's not really cutting Medicaid if you're cutting waste, fraud and abuse within the program. But there's not $880 billion of waste, fraud and abuse. I don't think anyone is arguing that.
The NPR Politics Podcast
Roundup: Congress Works On Budget; Cabinet Meets; Good TV
And of course, like to Domenico's point about like, you know, just unified control is not does not a smooth journey make. Senate Republicans, as we've talked about, are in complete tension with their House counterparts when it comes to the best way to implement Trump's agenda. Senate Republicans passed their own budget resolution last week, and it doesn't matter that they both passed their own.
The NPR Politics Podcast
Roundup: Congress Works On Budget; Cabinet Meets; Good TV
This doesn't really work unless they all get on the same page eventually.
The NPR Politics Podcast
Roundup: Congress Works On Budget; Cabinet Meets; Good TV
Yeah, I think one thing that is easily conflated, and I totally get why, you know, people have questions about this, like appropriations and the continuing resolution, which is being debated now about, you know, how to avoid a shutdown of the federal government mid-March is different than reconciliation, right? They are different tracks.
The NPR Politics Podcast
Roundup: Congress Works On Budget; Cabinet Meets; Good TV
On the reconciliation side, you know, there has been a lot of focus on the competing budget resolutions between the chambers. But that is a very early step. And we're just now entering another tricky season of negotiations. The Senate Republicans are going to want to do things with the House's plan.
The NPR Politics Podcast
Roundup: Congress Works On Budget; Cabinet Meets; Good TV
Senate Majority Leader Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson need to find that compromise resolution. And I think that that is unlikely to happen until April. Yeah.
The NPR Politics Podcast
Roundup: Congress Works On Budget; Cabinet Meets; Good TV
No. And I think, you know, this is a big question that Democrats are chattering about on Capitol Hill and being asked a lot about. There is sometimes the framing of like, will Democrats step in to prevent a government shutdown? And the messaging so far from Democrats has been very much like we do not have the power to shut down the government. Don't put that framing on us.
The NPR Politics Podcast
Roundup: Congress Works On Budget; Cabinet Meets; Good TV
Remember, it is our friends in the Republican Party who control the House and the Senate and the White House. So please don't put that label on us. All right.
The NPR Politics Podcast
Roundup: Congress Works On Budget; Cabinet Meets; Good TV
Oh, wow. Well, how cool is that?
The NPR Politics Podcast
Roundup: Congress Works On Budget; Cabinet Meets; Good TV
What's the thinking there? That's right. Well, I mean, who the minority party picks to give the response to the joint address says a lot. As we've talked about on the podcast, it's not always a guarantee that that person goes on to become the heir apparent in the party. But it is a high profile platform.
The NPR Politics Podcast
Roundup: Congress Works On Budget; Cabinet Meets; Good TV
And the messaging, I think, with Slotkin says that, you know, Democrats are trying to focus on, you know, economic kitchen table issues and Before coming to Capitol Hill, she had a career at the CIA and in national security roles at the Pentagon. She brings a lot of that experience to the table.
The NPR Politics Podcast
Roundup: Congress Works On Budget; Cabinet Meets; Good TV
She flipped a red district in 2018 and then launched this competitive bid for the Senate after Debbie Stabenow announced her retirement. In November, she won that seat by like a fraction of a percentage points, but she did outperform Kamala Harris in the state. And so it was seen as a really big win for Democrats.
The NPR Politics Podcast
Roundup: Congress Works On Budget; Cabinet Meets; Good TV
I think it's a it's a choice that makes a lot of sense for what they're trying to achieve in this moment.
The NPR Politics Podcast
Roundup: Congress Works On Budget; Cabinet Meets; Good TV
I think, you know, with the press pool also, I mean, it requires a lot of resources for organizations to be part of the pool. You know, you have to be able to sort of spring into action on a moment's notice. You have to have appropriate staffing. So there are also like logistical reasons that the White House Correspondents Association has made decisions around who's in the pool for decades.
The NPR Politics Podcast
Roundup: Congress Works On Budget; Cabinet Meets; Good TV
And one thing that I thought was interesting is a correspondent for Fox, Jackie Heinrich, did kind of weigh in on this. And saying, you know, the association has has not opposed the White House historically adding members to the pool, but that's different than sort of choosing it outright.
The NPR Politics Podcast
Roundup: Congress Works On Budget; Cabinet Meets; Good TV
And for people that are thinking that this benefits somehow, you know, the MAGA movement, she pointed out like this opens the door for a Democratic administration to pick its own pool. And, you know, that doesn't necessarily roll over well with folks either. Right.
The NPR Politics Podcast
Roundup: Congress Works On Budget; Cabinet Meets; Good TV
And there's so much partisan coverage to be done. Right. But the pool is really not the place for that. All right.
The NPR Politics Podcast
Roundup: Congress Works On Budget; Cabinet Meets; Good TV
Thank you. Okay, so I feel like there are seasons in life where you watch a little less television, and that's okay. I don't feel like I'm in that time of my life.
The NPR Politics Podcast
Roundup: Congress Works On Budget; Cabinet Meets; Good TV
And I'm okay with it. And so I just want to say, like, you know, my can't let it go is sort of a thank you note to the content creators out there because I feel like television is in a good moment.
The NPR Politics Podcast
Roundup: Congress Works On Budget; Cabinet Meets; Good TV
So I will say I feel like there's a lot of great content out there that I am appreciating frequently. White Lotus is back. There's a great show on Netflix called Apple Cider Vinegar. I don't know that. It's very good and features excellent Australian accents. And sort of like a take on what happens when the wellness industry kind of like sinks its teeth in a bit too much. Oh, that's good.
The NPR Politics Podcast
Roundup: Congress Works On Budget; Cabinet Meets; Good TV
That's right. Yeah. Big win for the speaker. There were plenty of holdouts in his conference on this budget resolution, which, as we've talked about before on the podcast, is an early step in using the reconciliation process to pass a lot of what President Trump wants to see happen. Tax cuts, sending more money and resources to the southern border. On Tuesday, pretty dramatic.
The NPR Politics Podcast
Roundup: Congress Works On Budget; Cabinet Meets; Good TV
Paradise on Hulu. Shout out to Paradise. It's a little soapy, but it's very, very fun. And Real Housewives of Potomac. The reunion has been very spicy. And then I'll just throw forward to a show that I'm expecting not to be able to let go, which is Meghan Markle's like Netflix lifestyle show. Oh, yes. And I just can't wait to find out what kind of like $300 dinner plate I'm missing.
The NPR Politics Podcast
Roundup: Congress Works On Budget; Cabinet Meets; Good TV
And I'm just can't wait.