Hey everyone, John Howellman here and welcome to Hell in High Water, my podcast from

the recount and I Heart Radio with big ups to the one and only Rizza for our dope theme

music.

Last week, the United States Senate packed up and went off on its annual August recess,

not before completing a marathon round of legislating.

Yes, legislating, that included the passage of a $1 trillion infrastructure bill and a $3.5

trillion budget resolution, which together formed the beating heart of Joe Biden's domestic

legislative agenda, and whose fates, along with that of the American economy, the Social

Safety Net, and the Biden presidency itself, are inextricably entwined with each other,

and now face an uncertain future in the House of Representatives, which will return from

its summer vacation on August 23rd to begin the fraught and frightfully complicated

process of moving them towards becoming law or not.

With all this super consequential action and more unfolding in Congress, from legislation

designed to preserve and protect voting rights from an extraordinary onslaught by Republicans

and states around the country, to the release last week of census data, kicking off the

most consequential congressional redistricting battle in a generation, we thought it would

be a good idea to bring someone on the podcast who understands how Capitol Hill really works

and doesn't work often, as well as anyone I know, along with a whole lot more about politics

writ large in this country, all of it, from the unique perspective of a woman who spent

her career in politics blazing trails and breaking down gender-based barriers, a former prosecutor

in an era when crime and criminal justice policy is from the center, and a Democrat who

fought the good fight in a state that was once deep purple and now looks increasingly bright

...