President Biden grapples with urgent challenges as Congress struggles to pass a spending bill, risking a government shutdown, while Ukraine faces a critical shortage of munitions in its conflict against Russia.
Biden convened congressional leaders to resolve the impasse, emphasizing the economic risks of a shutdown and the dire consequences of inaction in Ukraine. Tensions persist over policy disputes within the spending negotiations, including proposed changes to food assistance programs and firearm regulations, further complicating the path to a resolution.
Faculty experts at the George Washington University are available to offer insight, commentary and analysis on a number of topics related to legislation being passed in support of averting a government shutdown. If you would like to speak with an expert, please contact GW Media Relations at [email protected].
Public Policy & Economics
Lang (Kate) Yang is a professor at GW’s Trachtenberg School of Public Policy & Public Administration. Her research interest is in state and local government finances. Her recent publications examine how states address local government fiscal stress through monitoring, intervention, and bankruptcy authorizations. Further, she examines the incentives and impediments to government financial reporting, disclosure, and transparency. Yang can discuss the impact of the proposed legislation on social security and various benefits.
Steven Hamilton is an Assistant Professor of Economics at The George Washington University. His primary area of research is public finance, where he studies the effects of taxes on behavior with a view to designing better tax policy. In recent research, he investigates the degree to which taxpayers should be allowed to claim tax deductions by measuring the extent to which taxpayers use deductions to avoid paying taxes.
Politics
Sarah Binder is a professor of political science. Binder's work focuses on the politics of legislative institutions, including their origins, development and impact on policy outcomes. Her areas of expertise include Congress, Legislative politics, American political economy, and political parties.
Peter Loge is the director of GW’s School of Media and Public Affairs. He has nearly 30 years of experience in politics and communications, having served as a deputy to the chief of staff for Sen. Edward Kennedy during the 1995 shutdown, a VP at the US Institute of Peace in 2013, and held senior positions for three members of the U.S. House of Representatives. Loge currently leads the Project on Ethics in Political Communication at the School of Media and Public Affairs and continues to advise advocates and organizations.
Casey Burgat, Legislative Affairs Program Director and Associate Professor at GW’s School of Political Management is an expert on Congressional capacity and reform. Burgat co-authored Congress Explained: Representation and Lawmaking in the First Branch and can speak to the legislative process behind getting stopgap legislation passed.
Matt Dallek, a professor at GW’s Graduate School of Political Management, is a political historian with expertise in the intersection of social crises and political transformation, the evolution of the modern conservative movement, and liberalism and its critics. Along with four co-authored books, Dallek is the author of Birchers: How the John Birch Society Radicalized the American Right, which explores the history and influence of America’s right-wing activism. He can discuss the House Republicans’ influence on the pending legislation, among other topics.
Steven Balla is an associate professor of political science, public policy and public administration, and international affairs at George Washington University. He studies government transparency and public participation in policymaking in China and the United States. He is currently working on projects on congressional oversight of regulatory policymaking, polarization in public commenting on proposed rules, transparency and participation in state rulemaking and commenting on midnight regulations.
Public Health
Leighton Ku, a professor of health policy and management and Director of the Center for Health Policy Research at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health, is a health policy researcher and public policy analyst. He is an expert in national and state health reforms, and how to improve access to affordable health care for vulnerable populations. He can talk about how the shutdown could affect Medicaid, Medicare and other health programs.
Law
Aram Gavoor, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs; Professional Lecturer in Law, is an expert in American administrative law, federal courts and national security. Earlier in his career, Gavoor served as Senior Counsel for National Security in the Civil Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. Gavoor can discuss what a government shutdown could have meant for the court system and the legal implications it would have had on Americans.
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