CSPAN - Washington Journal Sean Michael Newhouse

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Oct. 28, 2025 23:24-23:52 - CSPAN

27:53

Washington Journal Sean Michael Newhouse

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john mcardle

cspan 07:38

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mimi geerges

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john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		I'll focus now on who is and isn't being impacted by the government shutdown.
		Sean Michael Newhouse is a staff reporter for government executive.
		He's combed through several recent reports on that topic.
		And one of the key findings, Sean Newhouse, is that political party affiliation plays a big role in whether people perceive that they've been impacted by the shutdown or not.
		Explain that.
unidentified		Absolutely.
		So let's start with the organization who conducted the survey.
		The Partnership for Public Service is a nonpartisan, nonprofit, good government group.
		And as part of their duties, they conduct surveys regularly on how the public perceives government.
		So shutdown is happening.
		They did a survey on it.
		And I should note this was in the second week of the shutdown.
		We're now in the fourth.
		But what they found, they asked the respondents if the shutdown impacted people in your community.
		And 48% total of respondents said that their community was impacted by the shutdown.
		Big partisan difference.
		So we've got 69% of Democrats agree with that statement compared with 27% of Republicans and then 38% of Independents in the middle.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		And we can put those numbers on the screen for our visual learners out there.
		You mentioned that's the second week of the shutdown.
		Is government executive following up on that?
		How do they expect when we have these kinds of surveys?
		You get a better understanding when you see them move over time.
		So is there a follow-up survey coming on this?
unidentified		Yeah, that is a very good question that I will probably have to ask the organization after this interview ends.
		But I did, when they first released this survey, you know, I saw this big partisan split and I had a couple thoughts on why that might be.
		But I asked them, you know, why do you think this happened?
		And the research manager responded to me and said, basically, that personal politics impact how you perceive government.
		So he pointed me to another recent report that the organization did and that I cover.
		Every year they look at trusting government.
		So 2024 compared to 2025, 2024, last year of Biden, 10% of Republicans said they trusted the government.
		2025, first year of Trump, that number has increased to 42%.
		There's been a similar net then decrease with Democrats.
		This is not an exclusive one-party phenomenon.
		So again, how one's politics perceives how you impact the government.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		And also one's zip code perceives how much you've been impacted by the shutdown.
		Wallet Hub with another report on that topic.
		What did Wallet Hub find?
unidentified		Yes, and I thought their methodology was really clever.
		So they looked at to determine which states were most impacted by the shutdown.
		They looked at the percentage of workers in that state who were federal workers.
		And they looked at federal contract dollars spend per capita in the state, which made a lot of sense to me.
		But they looked at some other factors that I didn't initially consider that I thought was rather clever.
		They looked at the percentage of individuals in the state who rely on SNAP food stamps.
		We know that that benefit is set to expire at the end of the month.
		They looked at real estate as a percentage of the state's gross economy.
		The shutdown affects any housing agency.
		Their operations might be completely shut down.
		Or at the very least, it's probably just that their work has been slows looked at that.
		And they also looked at the number of national parks in the state because whether a park is closed varies park by park.
		At the very least, most of their operations have been affected by the shutdown.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		And you mentioned the SNAP news, the administration announcing that there wasn't going to be additional money for that when those benefits run out.
		We'll see if that holds.
		But I think the number is something like 47 million Americans who make use of SNAP.
		Here's from Wallet Hub: the percentage of families in each state that receive SNAP benefits.
		The states with the highest percentage of families receiving SNAP benefits, New Mexico, the District of Columbia, Louisiana, West Virginia, and Oregon, the states with the lowest percentage of families receiving SNAP benefits, Kansas, North Dakota, New Hampshire, Utah, and Wyoming.
		New Mexico comes up as one of those states that if you live there, you're feeling this government shutdown more.
		What are some of the other states?
unidentified		Yes, so unsurprisingly, DC was the state that, well, not state, city, Wallet Hub determined was the most impacted because DC has the highest percentage of workers who work for the government, also the highest amount of federal contract dollars per capita.
		You mentioned New Mexico.
		They determined that was the third most affected.
		It is the state with the highest percentage of its residents who are SNAP participants.
		Also, it has one of the highest numbers, federal contract dollars per capita, New Mexico.
		And then number two, you might think Maryland or Virginia would be number two, number three, but actually was Hawaii was number two.
		That's because they have a relatively high percentage of workers in Hawaii work for the federal government.
		Fourth of its economy relies on real estate, and then unsurprisingly, Hawaii has a lot of national parks.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		What's your read on why New Hampshire, Nebraska, Indiana, Iowa, and Minnesota are the states with the lowest level of impact, at least according to this set of statistics?
unidentified		Yes, I wouldn't say I have any particular read.
		I did notice looking at the states that were least impacted, they did tend to be in the Midwest, but it's just because of the factors that Wallet Hub determined to use, determine which states had the most impact.
		They just had lower scores.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Federal contract dollars per capita is another one of those factors that Wallet Hub used here.
		The states with the most per capita, the District of Columbia, unsurprisingly, number one, Virginia and Maryland, right around the federal government capital, New Mexico and Connecticut, the states with the lowest federal contract dollars per capita, Nebraska, Arkansas, Oregon, Minnesota, there it is, and Delaware.
		Asking you, our viewers, this morning, are you being impacted by the government shutdown?
		Give us a call.
		Sean Newhouse joins us for this conversation.
		He's been following some of these different reports on it.
		Here's how you can join the conversation.
		Republicans, it's 202-748-8001.
		Democrats, 202-748-8000.
		And Independents, 202-748-8002.
		As people are calling in on that, switch gears for me.
		Another topic that you've been following, agencies, inspectors general.
		For folks who haven't been tracking it, what's been happening to the executive branch core of inspectors general in the second Trump administration?
unidentified		Absolutely.
		So let's start with what Inspectors General are.
		So several agencies have inspectors general, and they lead offices of offices of staff ranging from dozens of employees to hundreds.
		And their job is to root out waste, fraud, and abuse in the agencies.
		So they issue reports that look at the effectiveness of agency programs.
		Individuals can submit whistleblower complaints.
		They may investigate those.
		And I covered Congress before this current job, and it was very rare that you would watch a congressional markup where a member of Congress, either side, would not bring up information referenced by an inspector general.
		They were really heralded as kind of the pinnacle of nonpartisanship.
		And what has been happening to your second question?
		So the first Friday of Trump's second term, he fired 17 agency inspectors general.
		The month after, in February, he removed the inspector general for the U.S. Agency for International Development.
		That's an agency that has been effectively eliminated.
		It's been folded into the State Department.
		That Inspector General had warned that the layoffs at that agency were going to make it harder to perform oversight of foreign aid after that memo was issued.
		They were removed.
		And then just two weeks ago, the Inspector General for the Export Import Bank was fired by the President.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		What is the Export Import Bank?
unidentified		Yes, the Export Import Bank.
		I'm actually glad you asked that question because I knew the name, but I didn't actually know what they did until I was reporting this.
		They help companies with exporting.
		They provide financing.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Why is Chuck Grassley the photo that went along with this latest story on the XM, as they call it, bank Inspector General firing?
unidentified		Yes, so Senator Chuck Grassley, a longtime Republican Iowa senator, has also been a longtime defender of Inspectors General.
		He was the person who, for the most part, publicly announced that the Inspector General for the XM Export Import Bank was fired.
		And in his ex post, he said that the president, like the firings early this year, did not notify Congress as required.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		So is he saying what the president did is illegal?
unidentified		Well, that's a question that I actually just covered in the Inspector General confirmation hearing last week, and a senator asked nominees that question.
		So let's start with what the requirement is.
		So in 2008, Congress required the president, so the president can remove the inspector general.
		Let's just be clear about that.
		But in 2008, Congress required that the president had to give Congress 30-day notice before removing an inspector general.
		And then in 2002, they expanded that requirement to say the president had to provide the substantive rationale for the removal.
		So it wasn't enough to just say, hey, I'm firing this guy in a month.
		I have to explain why to Congress.
		So that did not happen.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		And why would Congress want to know that?
		What does that do for Congress?
		How is this?
		I imagine it's Congress sort of protecting the legislative branch powers, but how?
unidentified		Absolutely.
		Well, I think it gets to controversy.
		So agency inspectors general are political appointees, but they're not political appointees in the classical sense.
		They are, well, legally required, but also kind of traditionally expected to have some independence from the administration.
		They perform oversight on the administration, so the expectation is that if something critical or bad would come out about the administration, that they would still report that information fairly and accurately.
		So when it gets to if an inspector general removed, then a lot of questions is, okay, why were they removed?
		You know, what might the administration be trying to cover up?
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Who do inspectors general report to?
unidentified		Well, I guess they would probably say Congress, the president, and the American people.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		But not the head of the agency of which they are the inspector general.
unidentified		That gets into kind of thorny legal issues, but they are, again, expected to have some degree of separation between the agency head.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		What has been President Trump's reaction to criticism?
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Is that a fair way to describe from Chuck Grassley?
unidentified		I would say it goes beyond Chuck Grassley.
		Certainly most congressional Democrats, many good government groups.
		You know, every time I write on Inspectors Generals, I have to reach out to the White House for comment.
		And I mentioned that Inspectors General used to be heralded as these kind of pinnacles of nonpartisanship.
		The Trump administration, this term, has called them partisan, corrupt, said they lied to the public.
		So certainly a rhetorical shift on the part of the Trump administration.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Which we know about the appointed or nominated Inspector General for the Departments of Defense, Labor, and the Small Business Administration.
unidentified		Yes, so that was actually the hearing last week that I covered.
		I think the most notable is the nominee for the Labor Department Inspector General.
		That's former Representative Diaz Bosito.
		He was a New York Republican one term, lost his reelection race.
		So just the fact that he is a former congressman is surprising because, again, it is expected that inspectors general are not political figures.
		Historically, they have served across terms.
		If a Democrat's the next president, if Diaz Posito is concerned and if a Democrat is the next president, I have a hard time seeing him staying under that administration.
		But also, Diaz Posito had been accused of an ethical lapse when he was a congressman.
		The New York Times reported that he allegedly hired his fiancé's daughter and also a woman with whom he was having an affair.
		So both his political history and that kind of ethical scandal definitely played a role in his in that hearing.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		A lot on the table there.
		Inspectors general and also these reports on the impact of the government shutdown.
		Sean Newhouse, our guest of government executive, a staff reporter there covers all of this.
		It's govexec.com if you want to see his and his colleagues' work.
		Or you can give us a phone call like George did out of the Garden State of New Jersey.
		Independent, George, you're on with Sean Newhouse.
unidentified		I'm here.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Go ahead.
unidentified		I'm here.
		Well, my comment is on the impact of the government shutdown.
		And it seems to me it's a political move just to take care of the Obamacare situation, possible increase.
		Now, I'm a retired 81-year-old, and my wife is 79.
		We do live on a fixed income, but we pay for our own insurance.
		And it costs us over $12,000 a year out of pocket for a supplemental program and ABCD, I'm sorry, for D, for pharmaceuticals.
		So I'm paying a lot of money with no supplement from the United States government.
		My son at one time was on Obamacare and found it totally, totally inadequate to take care of him.
		Fortunately, he's a younger person and didn't have any health issues.
		My point here is: why are they holding us hostage for $1.5 trillion, $1.7 trillion, whatever the figure may be, to support a program provided by people who give donations to politicians?
		And I feel that's what it's all about.
		If they would only remove the boundaries from states and make the health care companies compete with each other for my dollar, we'd be better off.
		That's my point.
		Now we shut down the government because one side wants to keep their little boondoggle going because they're supported by health care companies.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Georgie, are you feeling the government shutdown's impacts where you are?
		What is it?
		Bogota, New Jersey?
		Am I saying it correctly?
unidentified		Yes, yes.
		I see it.
		I see my neighbors.
		I have two neighbors who are air traffic controllers.
		They're not going to be paid.
		They did tell me they're going to go to work, but they say their colleagues are up in the air whether they should report in, whether they should call sick.
		And air traffic control is a critical thing for this country.
		We live near Keterborough Airport.
		I have aircraft flying over my home all the time.
		That's the backbone of industry.
		That's keeping people working.
		All those airline employees that are going to be affected by reduced schedules, the airport employees that will be affected by reduced schedules because they'll all be furloughed.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		George says.
unidentified		This is all to keep this Obamacare boondoggle going.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		George, thanks for the call from New Jersey, George.
		I want to let Sean Newhouse jump in.
		Have you covered much on air traffic controllers and kind of where what happens in the next couple weeks, if this goes another couple weeks on that front with the shutdown?
unidentified		Yes, so I haven't, but my colleagues have.
		And there was a detail and a story.
		It was about how federal employees are, and government executive, we cover federal employees.
		This is our bread and butter.
		It was how federal employees are responding to this financially, not getting paid, many of them.
		And my colleague interviewed an air traffic controller, and he said some of his colleagues, they're working six days a week.
		Again, they're not getting paid for this work at the moment because of the shutdown.
		And then on their day off, they're Ubering.
		You know, they're driving for Uber.
		So that's definitely not a situation you want people to be in.
		I know in the 2019 shutdown, it's been widely, I believe it was 2019 shutdown, it's been widely said that when air traffic controllers started not showing up for work in greater numbers, that kind of prompted Congress to come to a resolution.
		So yes, air traffic controllers have definitely historically been one group of federal employees who are looked at as far as the consequences of the shutdown.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		2018 to 2019, it lasted 35 days.
		We are at day 27 of this shutdown, the second longest in history.
		Taking your phone calls with Sean Newhouse of government executive govexec.com is where you can go for his and his colleagues' work.
		This is Ted in New Hampshire.
		Democrat.
		Ted, good morning to the Granite State.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Yes, I got a question.
		I live in New Hampshire.
		I have Blue Cross, Blue Shield, and Massachusetts has Blue Cross Blue Shield.
		The difference in coverage is based on zip code.
		Why can't it be universal?
		Why don't I get the same coverage as Massachusetts?
		And why can't it be nationally?
		And I notice when they do the ads on the bottom, it's all based on your zip code.
		Why do they do it in such a blurry small print on the bottom?
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Ted, how do you feel?
		We had a caller earlier today who was very concerned about the idea of a universal health care system, of a single-payer system, of the government running health care.
		You talk about why can't it be a universal price?
		How concerned are you about that?
		Is that something that you would support?
		We lost Ted.
		He hung up.
		But something you cover much at all or no?
unidentified		Healthcare, no, I do relate personally to the small print at the bottom of health care forms.
		But yes, like the previous caller said, I think his assessment is correct.
		The expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies are the main cause of the shutdown.
		I wouldn't say that's the only reason Democrats so far haven't provided the votes to pass the GOP-backed continuing resolution.
		But again, Wallet Hub's analysis didn't look at health care coverage.
		But if these subsidies for Affordable Care Act do expire, I think that would be another factor as far as determining which states are most affected by the shutdown or the consequences of the shutdown.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Taking your phone calls for another couple minutes with Sean Newhouse, a government executive, to hear from you about the impact of the government shutdown.
		Or if you have questions about inspectors general, a good guy to ask those questions to.
		He's been covering it rather extensively during the second Trump administration.
		202-748-8000 for Democrats.
		Republicans, 202-748-8001.
		Independents, 202-748-8002.
		As people keep calling in, what are you working on this week at GovExec?
unidentified		Sure.
		What am I working on this week?
		Well, I think with the shutdown, it is a day-by-day, you know, whatever the president announces obviously warrants coverage.
		More of Trump's Inspectors General nominees are getting through the confirmation process, so I'll be looking at those.
		Also, last week there was a deregulatory memo.
		I don't want to bring up a completely new topic to your audience.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		We've got some time.
unidentified		Sure.
		Trump came into office with a pretty ambitious goal as far as deregulation.
		Last week, his administration put out a memo that kind of looks at how that is going to work in practice.
		Anyone who's familiar with the regulatory process knows that whether you're making a regulation, deregulation, it usually prompts a lawsuit.
		So very, very complicated subject.
		I personally find it interesting.
		It's very important as regulations often are how laws, you know, actually take effect, how it actually impacts people.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		With regulation, whenever this would come up in the past, this act that has been around for a long time, I think it's called the Reigns Act.
		Regulations that have an economic impact, I think it was over $100 million.
		There was a law proposed that Congress would have to vote on those individual regulations.
		What's the status of that?
		Has that come back up in the second Trump administration?
unidentified		I was about to say I don't know what you're talking about, but as you're talking, I'm like, this is ringing a bell.
		And this was an act, you said, so not allowed yet.
		Actually, I don't think I have.
		You'd think if that was introduced, I'd get a press release about it.
		I haven't yet, but I'll have to look into that if that has been introduced.
		With Republican Congress, that I don't know if it probably wouldn't get past a filibuster in the Senate, but you'd think that might be a bill that congressional Republicans would be spotlighting.
		Yeah.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Certainly one that we have talked about in years past here on the Washington Journal, but it might be time for another segment on it.
		This is Linwood out of Beltsville, Maryland, Independent.
		Linwood, good morning.
		You're on with Sean Newhouse.
unidentified		Good morning to speak to you all.
		I have a comment in regards to Inspector General's, the Inspector General for the Department of Justice.
		Is there one in place at this point in time?
		As well as I have a comment, I've been reaching out to the United States Attorney for Washington, D.C., Pirro, as well as I would think she would pipe my information over to the Department of Justice because there's an employee with the Department of Justice for whom fraudulently used government funds on an absurd amount of occasions for which I propose to terminate.
		And she's an attorney with the United States Attorney's Office out of D.C.
		And in that particular regard, and unfortunately, I was terminated because I proposed her termination and I was retaliated against as a whistleblower.
		So just reaching out and just trying to navigate the system is how difficult it is to just seek justice and particularly desperate impacts in this particular season, for which I'm actively pursuing.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		That's Linwood in Beltsville, Maryland.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		What do you want to follow up on?
unidentified		Yes, and I didn't immediately review this, but if my memory is correct, I forget his first name, but Horowitz was the Inspector General at the Justice Department.
		He is no longer there.
		The deputy then became the Acting Inspector General.
		Trump then put a different person in the Acting Inspector General position.
		That has been a separate controversy.
		However, in this case, I do not believe I'm relying on a Bloomberg article here, so cite my sources, but I don't believe there was anything particularly controversial about the current acting inspector general at the Justice Department.
		Michael Horowitz, the former, I was going to say Anthony, so Michael Horowitz, that's his name.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Process that the viewer was talking about in terms of whistleblowers and when and why they would go to an inspector general versus other routes.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Just how much can you tell us about the process of inspectors general and their interaction with individual federal employees?
unidentified		Absolutely so, I can't speak too much about the process, but I'm still really glad you asked that question.
		So, as I mentioned, inspectors general traditionally and also by law, are supposed to have some degree of independence from the agencies they work at or the agencies that they audit.
		So a whistleblower might be more inclined to go to an inspector general because of that independence, and the good government groups have warned that with these firings of inspectors general, it is probably they say or they argue is going to have a chilling effect on whistleblowers being willing to come forward.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		We try to get in one more, call out of Texas.
		It's Jim Line for Democrats.
		Jim, good morning, you're on with Sean New House.
unidentified		Yes, i'd like to uh speak about how all this is uh how in effective.
		Everything we're discussing here today is uh in effective.
		Donald Trump has already taken over the federal government and anything is muted.
		Sir, i'm listening to you Jim, Oh Man and I, and I think what uh the American public needs to prepare themselves for is uh a government controlled by uh Donald Trump and Donald Trump alone.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		That's Jim's thoughts out of Texas.
		Do actually have another call from Virginia.
		This is Eddie.
		Independent Eddie.
unidentified		Go ahead yeah, good morning.
		Hey, I just have a question for you guests.
		Hey, as it relates to inspector generals, how do we square 130 billion dollars being given anonymously for our military and also 40 billion dollars being given to Argentina during a government shutdown?
		I mean, how do we square that as as our government and the people?
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Thank you, Sean Newhouse.
unidentified		Sure so, I don't.
		I think the donor for the military has been revealed.
		I believe it's um Melon, but that that was anonymous for a time.
		But yeah, that is a matter where I I could foresee an inspector general would look uh into that to make sure that, because they weren't providing those millions of dollars, they weren't then receiving any favor from the government.
		And this is what the good government groups would say.
		Is that when you have, when the president has, kind of an adversarial relationship with, or I should say more adversarial relationship with, the inspectors general uh, that might make the people who work in these oversight offices less inclined to pursue those potentially high-profile cases and again, i'm not saying that any there's anything uh untoward about what happened just yet, but that I could see that being something an inspector general might look into, depending on the circumstances.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		But when it comes to a, a funding issue like that, couldn't Congress always uh hold hearings and investigations?
		They control the purse strings.
		Isn't this something that Congress could look into?
		It's not the the first job of the inspector general, isn't it Congress that that that's part of their job as the Legislative branch?
unidentified		Yes, that is a great point.
		And there's probably a joke here to be made about congressional experts say that Congress doesn't really hold hearings anymore.
		That might be a too niche of a joke even for a C-SPAN.
		But you're absolutely right.
		Congress absolutely can do oversight on their own.
		That being said, having done this for a couple years, many members of Congress describe the Inspectors General as their eyes and ears in the agency.
		You know, members of Congress have a lot of responsibilities, not just in their legislative role, but also as politicians, whereas Inspectors General and the teams that they leave are actually in these agencies, have a lot of influence and authority to be able to investigate these matters, and then Congress is able to use that information.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		For much more on Inspectors General, Sean Newhouse covers the issue for government executive.
		It's govexec.com to see his work.
		And we appreciate your time this morning.
unidentified		Absolutely.
unidentified		Thank you so much.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Joining us.
unidentified		We're going to leave this, but you can continue watching him.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		He's a Republican of California and a member of the budget committee.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Congressman, welcome to the program.
unidentified		Well, thanks for having me.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Politico is reporting that House Republicans are going to be meeting today or having a conference call, I should say, at 11:30 a.m. Eastern Time.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		What will you be discussing?

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