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Welcome to Talking Feds. A round table that brings together prominent figures from government

law and journalism for a dynamic discussion of the most important topics of the day.

I'm Harry Littman. Stage combat Washington DC style was on vivid display in the nation's

capital all week, with moderate Democrats taking on liberal Democrats in the House,

Republicans taking on Democrats in the Congress, the legislative branch taking on the executive

branch, and at weeks and everyone in the political branches piling on against President Joe Biden.

$2 trillion spending bills, one huge and the other humongous, were proceeding a pace when a block of

liberal members in the House declared that they would not support the smaller infrastructure bill,

which already has passed the Senate and is on a glide path to becoming law,

until work on the larger reconciliation bill has been finished.

But a group of moderate Democrats, including one Joe Manchin, have taken the precise opposite

stance and secured speaker Nancy Pelosi's assurance that the infrastructure bill would come up for

a vote in the coming week. For her part, Pelosi dismissed the sermon drunk as part of the process

and calmly insisted both bills were on track to pass. The January 6th select committee went from

first to fourth gear in one move last week, issuing subpoenas to four of Trump's closest insiders,

including former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, and other executive branch officials,

and serving notice that it had Trump's possible role in the insurrection and its aftermath

at the forefront of the investigation. Trump himself already has promised to go to court

to claim executive privilege, a stance that is silly on the law but serious in its potential

to stall out the clock until after the committee needs to wrap up its work.

...