Biography Yahel Tamir is a junior from Boston, Massachusetts, studying Political Science and Modern Middle East Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania. He is particularly interested in diplomacy and public relations, with a regional focus on the Middle East, and hopes to pursue a career at the intersection…
Has Congress now fallen so far into dysfunction that its Members are ready to do something about it? That is the question posed by three excellent columns that have appeared in recent weeks following passage, on a party line vote, of Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill that many Republicans acknowledged was the deeply flawed product of a…
Biography Celeste Wallander is the Executive Director of Penn Washington, the University of Pennsylvania’s office in Washington, D.C. She also serves as a Senior Advisor at WestExec Advisors and is an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Center for a New American Security. Additionally, Celeste is a Visiting Scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. With over…
The always perspicacious Jonah Goldberg has a new column at The Dispatch, which he edits, that could easily serve as the mission statement for Fixing Congress. “The abdication of Congress’ role as the arena where political fights happen has turned the House and Senate into a stew of de facto pundits and lobbyists of…
This story was originally published on April 29, 2025 in Penn Today Wallander will assume leadership and operational management of Penn Washington, and its mission and bridge Penn research with policy discussions on pressing issues, beginning June 1. Provost John L. Jackson Jr. and Vice Provost for Global Initiatives Ezekiel Emanuel have announced that Celeste A. Wallander will join the University…
Some Democrats believe the only viable strategy for slowing and eventually halting the Trump steamroller is all-out resistance on every issue in every forum. Others prefer giving Trump plenty of rope, confident they will pursue radical policies that will prove so unpopular that Republicans will lose the next two elections. The first approach is likely…
Brendan Buck, a top aide to former Republican Speakers John Boehner and Paul Ryan, posted an eloquent essay in the New York Times today recounting the many ways in which Congress has allowed its legislative muscles to atrophy and its power to be usurped by a succession of presidents. The essay echoes many of the…
Many Americans have been shocked recently as Republican senators set serious concerns and supinely vote to confirm patently unqualified and inappropriate nominees for the most powerful positions in government. For secretary of defense, a philanderer with a reported (and unrefuted) drinking problem and a well-documented disrespect for females in combat. A political henchman who promises…
Contact Steven Pearlstein is the Robinson Professor of Public Affairs at George Mason University and Senior Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Washington. For 35 years, Pearlstein wrote about economics and business for the Washington Post, winning the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for commentary for columns anticipating and explaining the recent financial crisis and global…
Contact Coralyn Maguigad is the Events and Administrative Assistant at Penn Washington, where she supports the Executive Director and all aspects of Penn Washington office administration and events. Coralyn joined Penn Washington from Nadia’s Initiative, where she assisted the organization’s president and special advisor with events and advocacy projects. She graduated summa cum laude from…
