Hi there. This is Cody from Nashville, Tennessee. Currently watching the

Groundhog in my backyard come out from underneath the shed where he has

apparently built a home. Many people have described their quarantine lives as

Groundhog Day, but for me that is literally true. This podcast was recorded at

155 pm on Monday, July 20th. Things may have changed by the time you hear it.

Alright, here's the show.

That is a great time stamp. Does that Groundhog mean there's gonna be six more

months of pandemic? I was gonna say it depends on what he does when he comes out of

his hole. Did it see its shadow? What does the shadow mean in this context? It all

depends on what happens with those vaccine trials, right? Fingers crossed. Yeah. Hey

there, it's the NPR Politics podcast. I'm Tamer Keith. I cover the White House.

I'm Susan Davis. I cover Congress. I'm Mara Lias and National Political Correspondent.

And Congress returns today from two weeks off and the pandemic is much worse

than when they left town. State budgets are a mess. It's not clear if it's safe for

kids to return to school in the fall, but there's a lot of political pressure to

make that happen. And the special unemployment benefits that were put into place

earlier in the pandemic could expire at the end of this month of Congress doesn't act.

So Sue, have they been negotiating? Is there something going on here? You know, there's

a lot of discussions going on, but no real bipartisan negotiations yet. House Democrats

laid down a marker for what they want about two months ago. They've already passed a

$3 trillion measure, very sweeping measure that would include a trillion dollars alone

just in a state and local governments. Senate Republicans haven't put up their alternative

...