This week on Facing the Future, we begin with a status check on the stalled appropriations process on Capitol Hill now that a new Speaker of the House has been selected by the Republican caucus. Our guest for that segment is Tom Kahn who served as Democratic House Budget Committee staff director from 1997 to 2016. He now teaches budget policy at American University in Washington. Then we’ll talk with Richard Coffin, Chief of Research and Advocacy at USA Facts, a nonprofit, nonpartisan civic initiative that makes government data easy for all Americans to access and understand. That’s certainly a useful mission for anyone interested in things like the nation’s fiscal challenges.