It's the Brian Laris Show on WNYC. Good morning, everyone. While the presidential race dominates the political headlines, there's a drama unfolding in Congress that at other times might be getting much more

attention than it is. The federal government's fiscal year ends in 10 days, and they can't agree

on a new budget. People's lives would be affected beginning October 1st if various government

agencies have to shut down. The hold up for now is an insistence by House Republicans on including a non-budget

item, a provision to require proof of citizenship to register to vote. This is even though

non-citizens voting illegally is a minuscule problem, according to election officials around the

country. We'll talk about that and more now with New Jersey Congresswoman Mikey Sherrill, including Donald Trump's new promise to reinstate the full

state and local tax deduction. Remember it was his own tax bill as president that severely limited

the so-called salt deduction and heard a lot of New Jersey taxpayers. and including a bill in this discussion, that

Congresswoman Cheryl did get through the House to award a unique honor to Billy Jean King.

That happened yesterday.

Mikey Sherrill is the Democrat who represents New Jersey's 11th congressional district,

which includes parts of Morris, Essex, and Passaic counties in North Jersey,

due west of Manhattan, including Montclair, Morristown, Parsipani, all around there.

She is also considered a potential leading candidate for governor next year.

After Governor Murphy's term limited, she told Axios and MSNBC last month that she is seriously considering Iran.

Congresswoman Cheryl, always good to have you. Welcome back to WNYC.

Well, thanks so much for having me. I appreciate it.

Let's start here. How would you explain to our listeners who haven't gotten engaged in this story?

What's going on with the budget? What's at stake?

And how did you vote on the budget resolution that came to a vote and was defeated yesterday?

Oh, okay. So we have an appropriations process, and it's fairly broken at this point in many ways, meaning we don't pass the bills in regular order.

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