Washington Wednesday: News roundup and an annual Senate tradition

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s March 1st, 2023 and we’re glad to have you along for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher.

First up: Washington Wednesday. We’ll hear about a special tradition in the US Senate, but first, a news roundup with our reporters in Washington.

REICHARD: Right and let’s jump to the Supreme Court that heard arguments in two cases with enormous public interest…. Of course, we’re talking about President Biden’s plan to forgive student loans. We’ll cover those oral arguments in Monday’s Legal Docket, but today we turn to Carolina Lumetta and Leo Briceno from WORLD’s Washington Bureau.

Carolina, let’s start with you. Could you give us a summary of what’s at stake?

CAROLINA LUMETTA, REPORTER: Well, $430 billion. So the Solicitor General, representing the Biden administration argued in front of the justices that President Biden does have the authority to forgive billions of dollars of student loans. And the challenge is brought by a coalition of six states led by Nebraska. And they're saying, No, this should be congressional action, this needs to be voted on. And it's an overstep of authority for Biden to try to do this. A big question that the Justice has also brought up was this separation of powers and trying to narrow down whose responsibility is it if we need to forgive this amount of debt? Critics say that nobody should be forgiving this debt; that if this happens, all that money is going to suddenly become the responsibility of the taxpayers, and it's already a pretty rough economic time. So it's really iffy on like, which way that they're going to vote. I will say for a bit of ground coverage, there are a lot of student organizations who had a band out in front of the Supreme Court last night, they were playing a bunch of music, a bunch of people camped on the sidewalk to wait for this morning to get one of those coveted first come first serve public tickets to watch the arguments. There have been a lot of Democratic lawmakers that have also come out and given speeches, saying this is legal, we need to forgive all this debt. So it's a pretty exciting time here.

EICHER: Yeah, and it’s about to get even more exciting. Today (Wednesday) is the first day of CPAC…the Conservative Political Action Conference. It is one of the largest gatherings of conservatives in the world, and the speaking lineup features a who’s who of Republican governors, members of Congress, and presidential hopefuls, including the three Republicans who have jumped into the race so far… the former president, Donald Trump, Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor and UN ambassador, and an interesting political novice venture capitalist Vivek Ramaswamy. Now Leo, we are really early here, but do you see any impact on the Republican field for 2024?

LEO BRICENO, REPORTER: You know, for an event that really isn't passing any laws, isn't really setting any political agendas, and isn't really doing anything concrete, CPAC gets a lot of media coverage. And that's for a good reason. It gives a litmus test for the direction of the Republican Party as a whole. So there's several questions coming into this week, but probably the biggest one is, will the Republican Party coalesce around former President Donald Trump, who is the last leader of the party? Or will they look for someone new? And that's a question that's been, you know, played out in the individual states? Some time ago, the Berkeley Institute for governmental studies, did a poll for registered Republicans in the state asking them, who do you want to see lead the ticket and 2024? Well, it turns out the DeSantis won that poll with 37% Answering that they'd like to see him in the driver's seat, whereas a minority 29% said they'd rather see Trump there. That's one view, right, but now, Emerson College just yesterday came out with a poll that said, look, 55% of voters want to see Trump win the nomination compared to 25% that would pick DeSantis over any other candidate—I think they presented respondents with 10 different candidates there—So there's a little bit of a seesaw, there's a little bit of a question of, okay, does the Republican Party choose Donald Trump or someone else? And CPAC 2023 will be kind of the starting point to figure that question out.

REICHARD: Indeed. And switching gears here…yesterday, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing revisiting the Equal Rights Amendment. Now, the ERA if enacted would amend the Constitution to prohibit any legal discrimination based on sex. Carolina, what do lawmakers hope to accomplish with this hearing?

LUMETTA: The hearing was designed to figure out whether Congress is going to move forward, a Senate bill and a companion House Bill, to declare it ratified. For quick background, Congress did approve the Equal Rights Amendment in 1972. And it gave it seven years to get three fourths of the states to ratify. It needed 38 states to sign on…it only got 35. And then some States took back their ratification. And at the start of the #MeToo movement back in 2016, and 2017, Nevada hopped on board, Illinois did the year later, and then Virginia ratified in 2020, making that the final third state, but it was already past the deadline. In 2021, the House of Representatives passed a resolution to get rid of that deadline for this particular amendment. And the thing is that some particularly conservative women's groups are saying that this is actually going to hurt women. So there was a news conference in one of the Senate buildings today immediately following the hearing. It was led by the Concerned Women for America Legislative Action Committee, who were saying, basically women don't need a new law to be equal—the Constitution already gives women full equality. And their concern is that this amendment would erase any sex based distinctions in a harmful way. So for example, any limits on abortion, any rules for keeping bathrooms distinct between men and women could be seen as sex discrimination and removed and that could actually backfire on women's safety. So it is all debates that happened in the 70s, and now they're happening again.

REICHARD: Now to wrap up today, we’d like to share a special tradition from the US Senate. Back in 1862, Congress publicly read George Washington’s Farewell Address to both chambers to commemorate the first president’s birthday. At the time, they wanted to boost morale during the Civil War. Thirty-four years later, the Senate started an annual tradition of reading that address.

EICHER: Republicans and Democrats take turns choosing the person who reads it, and this year it was a Republican named James Lankford…Senator from Oklahoma.

On Monday afternoon, Lankford opened by reminding senators about George Washington’s leadership … and humility in giving up that leadership after two terms as president.

LANKFORD: We don't think about a military leader taking over the United States, that's unthinkable for us. Because of the path that George Washington laid down behind us, he did a lot of firsts in a lot of his leadership. He was our first president. He was a civilian leader. After one term, he wanted to be able to step down. In fact, he and Madison actually wrote together a letter to be able to go out to the American people after his first presidency. But so many people came to him and encouraged him to be able to run again, that he relented and ran again. But at the end of his second term, he would not relent and had determined he was not a king. He was not the only person that could lead these new United States. But it was time after 45 years for him to step aside. … [1:29] This was to be the end of his presidency and of his public service.

Washington’s address covers a lot of ground in 45 minutes, explaining why he wouldn’t seek a third term and warning fellow citizens to guard against factionalism, but let’s listen to the way it concludes. Back to Lankford:

LANKFORD: Though in reviewing the incidents of my administration I'm unconscious of intentional error, I am nevertheless too sensible of my defects, not to think it probable that I may have committed many errors. Whatever they may be, I fervently beseech the almighty to avert or mitigate the evils to which they may tend. I shall also carry with me the hope that my country will never cease to view them with indulgence, and that after 45 years of my life dedicated to its service with an upright zeal the faults of incompetent abilities will be consigned to oblivion, as myself must soon be to the mansions of rest, relying on its kindness, in this as in other things, and actuated by that fervent love toward it, which is so natural to a man who views it in the native soil of himself, and his progenitors for several generations. I anticipate with pleasing expectation, that retreat, in which I promised myself to realize without alloy the sweet enjoyment of partaking in the midst of my fellow citizens, the benign influence of good laws under a free government, ever favorite object of my heart, and the happy reward as I trust of our mutual cares, labors, and dangers. United States, 19 September 1796. George Washington.

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