Heritage Explains

The August Recess has been a staple of the congressional calendar for decades. In the 1960s the demands placed on the US Congress were changing. Lawmaking had moved from a part-time to a full-time gig. And as the pace of life intensified, so too did the workload on legislators. Looking for a way to balance their busy schedules with those of families, some members of Congress pushed for a defined summer recess. This they received in the form of the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1970. Now, every summer, the Congress takes a recess in the month of August, allowing members to go home, meet with constituents, or simply take vacation. But the political machine in Washington never stops turning, and when the members come back, more work is always waiting. So it is now, as Congress returns this week. Here to discuss what we might expect over this next session is Steve Chartan, Vice president of Government Relations, here at the Heritage Foundation.

Hello Heritage Explains Listeners! Mark Guiney here. It’s the first week of August and this month we are taking a short vacation. Until we return with our regular show in September, we are looking back at some of the greatest hits of the year so far.  This past April, Heritage Foundation Digital Content Producer Samantha Hince spoke with Dr. David Gortler about the concerns that many Americans have around our use of artificial food dyes and the policy changes we might expect around them. It’s summer, so maybe listen to this episode with some ice cream. Just check the label first to make sure it doesn’t have any red 40. Enjoy.

Hello everybody, we at the Heritage Foundation hope you are enjoying these last weeks of summer. We here at Heritage Explains are taking the opportunity for a brief rest during the month of August. Our regularly scheduled episodes will return in September, but until then, we are revisiting some of our favorite episodes from the year so far. Back in March, I sat down with Jeff Smith to discuss why we should not forget about COVID. Particularly, the way it exposed the rot inside our professional and managerial classes. It’s an eye-opening listen and well worth keeping in mind. Enjoy.https://www.heritage.org/public-health/commentary/the-lie-the-century-the-origin-covid-19

Hello to all of our loyal listeners at Heritage Explains. We are on break for the month of August and will be coming back with new episodes in September. But in the meantime, we’re rounding up some of our favorite shows from earlier this year. One of the key moments in the early Trump Administration were the cuts to USAID.  For the first time, many Americans got an up-close-and-personal look at the way that the sausage gets made in Washington. What most people assumed was an innocuous aid organization was actually involved in much more sinister activities. Check out this conversation with David Ditch, who breaks down why this moment mattered so much. Follow David Ditch on X: https://x.com/davidaditchLearn more about The Heritage Foundation: ⁠www.heritage.org⁠—Have thoughts? Let us know at ⁠heritageexplains@heritage.org

Hi everybody, and welcome back to Heritage Explains. We, like many of you, are enjoying a little bit of vacation this summer. We are taking a break from our regularly scheduled episodes for the month of August. In the meantime, we are bringing you some of our favorite shows from this past year.We have seen a lot of important moments come and go in that time. And one was the verdict delivered in the case of Daniel Penny, this past December. It felt like an inflection point in our national conversation on race and justice. I sat down with Heritage Senior Legal Fellow Cully Stimson to talk about why. Take a listen. Follow Cully Stimson on X: ⁠https://x.com/cullystimson⁠Rogue Prosecutors Book: ⁠https://www.heritage.org/rogue-prosecutors⁠—Have thoughts? Let us know at ⁠heritageexplains@heritage.org

We find ourselves in the midst of a new revolution: The AI Revolution. Complex computer models are now able to replicate human thought, making them capable of an entirely new realm of tasks. AI is going to affect the way we work, where we live, how we learn and process information, how we bank, how we write, even how we interact with people around us. Governments around the world are paying attention to the possibilities that AI offers, and ours is no exception. I sat down with Daniel Cochrane, senior research associate for the Center for Technology and the Human Person at The Heritage Foundation, to talk about what the Trump Administration is saying about AI. —Follow Daniel Cochrane on X: https://x.com/realdcochraneHave thoughts? Let us know at heritageexplains@heritage.org

In 1965, the Johnson Administration signed into law the programs we now know as Medicare and Medicaid. They were designed to provide healthcare to Americans who were particularly in need. But over the years, the programs have expanded hugely, and focus has shifted away from people who really need assistance to much larger groups of people. This can be a real problem for the people that Medicare and Medicaid were originally designed to be a safety net for. Here to explain why and to talk about the recent reforms to Medicare and Medicaid is Nina Schaefer, Senior Research Fellow at the DeVos Center for Human Fluorishing here at the Heritage Foundation. —Follow Nina Schaefer at Heritage.org: https://www.heritage.org/staff/nina-owcharenko-schaeferHave thoughts? Let us know at heritageexplains@heritage.org

Attacks on ICE agents are escalating nationwide, now up nearly 700% over the same time last year. Organized riots followed recent ICE enforcement actions. Investigations reveal coordination by known radical groups that also organized the 2020 BLM/Antifa riots and 2023 pro-terrorism demonstrations. These are not spontaneous uprisings—they are well-funded, highly-organized anti-American efforts.Here to explain why these attacks on are on the rise is Simon Hankinson, Senior Research Fellow in the Border Security and Immigration Center at The Heritage Foundation.—The Ten Woke Commandments You Must Not Obey: https://www.amazon.com/Ten-Woke-Commandments-Must-Obey/dp/1680533614Follow Richard on X at: https://x.com/WatchfulWaiter1Have thoughts? Let us know at heritageexplains@heritage.org

Rescissions It’s a word that we’re hearing a lot in the news today. A member of a family of words and phrases that come trotting out whenever folks in Washington start talking about money. Appropriations. Sequestration. Omnibus. Continuing Resolutions. Budget caps. Debt Ceiling. Earmarks. Baseline Budgeting. But it isn’t that complicated. Basically, the President can request that Congress return money that has been appropriated, but not yet spent. A rescissions package is making its way through Congress now, but it’s likely we’ll hear more about this process throughout the Trump administration. Here to explain why is Richard Stern, Director for the Center for the Federal Budget here at the Heritage Foundation. —Follow Richard on X at: https://x.com/richastern?lang=enHave thoughts? Let us know at heritageexplains@heritage.org

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal...How many times have we heard these words? Back in 2007, the Washington Post ran an article by Gene Weingarten called “Pearls Before Breakfast”. In it, he chronicles an experiment by the newspaper, in which world-renowned violinist Joshua Bell put on a baseball cap and a t-shirt, and entered the L’Enfant Plaza metro station in Washington DC. Once there, he removed his Stradivarius violin from its case, and began to play. This is the music you’re hearing right now. This an artist who has sold out opera houses and played for heads of state, playing a $4 million dollar violin. Of the approximately 1,000 people who walked past, only seven stopped to listen.  And so it is, sometimes, with our national identity as Americans. We are busy, we are desensitized, that it is an act of the will to stop, screen out the noise, and appreciate for a moment just how fundamentally unique and beautiful our country is. And the Declaration of Independence, the founding document of our country, has its own special music. In an effort to listen, I sat down with Brenda Hafera, Assistant Director of the Simon Center for American Studies, here at the Heritage Foundation. —Follow Brenda Hafera at Heritage.org:https://www.heritage.org/staff/brenda-haferaWashington Post Video of the Joshua Bell Experiment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnOPu0_YWhwFull Text of the Declaration of Independence: https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcriptHave thoughts? Let us know at heritageexplains@heritage.org