LISA DESJARDINS: Tonight on "PBS News Weekend," what's next for the country after the debt limit deal and what's happening with the fast growing field vying for president?

Then, some states are making it easier to put kids to work and pay them less when they do.

And the future looks how we hear from valedictorians around the country about their hopes.

WOMAN: I know that our world has a lot of like fixing to do, but I really like I really trust our generation, the our generation, generation Z and I feel like we have like a voice that we found and we're not afraid to use it.

(BREAK) LISA DESJARDINS: Good evening.

I'm Lisa Desjardins.

John Yang is away.

With just two days to spare before the U.S. would have run out of money to pay its bills.

President Biden today signed the bipartisan deal to suspend the debt limit, officially avoiding a potential catastrophic default.

In the first Oval Office address of his presidency last night he pointed to democratic priorities protected in the deal with House Republicans.

But in Iowa today, Republican presidential hopefuls refuse to give Mr. Biden the last word like former governor and UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, who vowed to make cutting the debt more of a priority.

NIKKI HALEY, Former Governor of South Carolina: When I'm president we will cut the spending.

We will cut the debt.

We will make sure that I will veto any single (inaudible) free COVID level.

No more debt once and for all.

LISA DESJARDINS: We will return to the effects of the debt deal and the 2024 race later in the broadcast.

At the Israeli-Egyptian border, an unusual shoot out last night with loss of both countries.

Israeli officials say an Egyptian officer crossed the border overnight and shot and killed three Israeli troops before being killed himself.

It's rare violence for that border area.

Israel and Egypt have been at peace for over 40 years and have strong security ties.

Egypt's military says the shooter was an Egyptian border guard officer who was chasing drug traffickers.

More devastating news in eastern India, where the death toll in last night's train disaster has climbed to at least 280 people, nearly 1,000 more were injured.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the crash site today and pledged to hold an investigation.

It's the country's worst train crash in over two decades.

Rescuers searched for survivors through the night clear and mangled train cars away.

The site is now a recovery operation, and the death toll is expected to rise.

And last night a federal judge struck down at Tennessee law that banned drag shows in public or in places where children could see them.

The judge ruled that the law the first one in the nation to directly target drag shows was a violation of First Amendment rights.

Another Tennessee law that bans transgender youth from receiving gender affirming care is also being challenged in court.

Still more to come on "PBS News Weekend."

The push to relax child labor laws across the country and we hear from high school valedictorians on their hopes for the future.

(BREAK) LISA DESJARDINS: After hammering out a deal to suspend the U.S. debt limit and avert a default disaster, we have a rarity in Washington compromise with leadership in both parties declaring victory but they like us are already looking ahead.

The debt deal pushes one political drama down the road, but another is heating up fast, with more Republicans entering the 2024 presidential ring.

The future of both the legislative and executive branches is the focus of our weekend briefing.

Erik Wasson is a congressional reporter at Bloomberg and Errin Haines is a founder and editor at large for the 19th.

Errin Haines, I want to ask you about the meaning of this deal.

What are your takeaways as far as who am Washington, which Americans could be affected by this?

ERRIN HAINES, The 19th: Well, I think there's definitely some concern among both younger voters and frankly, people that are closer to my age that are still paying off student loan debt because the student loan debt moratorium was one of the casualties in this debt ceiling deal compromised, that people who had had their student loans frozen during the pandemic are going to have to start repaying those loans in the next couple of months.

These are people who maybe are still struggling to do that maybe also people who were hoping for student loan debt forgiveness from this administration.

LISA DESJARDINS: Erik, who do you think gained and lost here?

ERIK WASSON, Bloomberg News: I think President Biden gains a lot with independent voters, people in this swing districts, you know, and swing voters really like dealmaking.

There was some polling that came out before the deal that said 60 percent is a CNN poll wanting to see spending cuts attached, as you mentioned, there are going to be some people of both student debt, you know, holder, yes, and those who receive food stamps, there's going to be an expansion of some work requirements for those in the 50 to 55 year old range and more paperwork requirements that quite frankly, could make it harder for them to find food.

But overall, it's a spending freeze, and it's full of more holes in Swiss cheese.

And I think we saw right before the Senate acted that there's a big bipartisan push to do it what's called an emergency spending bill to shoehorn and backdoor a lot of spending, both for Ukraine and for things on the domestic side that this could make these caps pretty meaningless pretty quickly.

LISA DESJARDINS: Now, also, during this week, Errin, of course, Ron DeSantis, became official candidate for president.

We've been waiting maybe since he ran for governor for that announcement.

But he has a very uphill climb, and maybe does everyone else in the Republican primary field.

What is the path here for someone other than Donald Trump?

ERRIN HAINES: You know, for Vice President Mike Pence and Chris Christie expected to be announcing imminently.

Look, I think, you know, after the former President Trump defining DeSantis for months, even before he became an official candidate, you now have DeSantis in this official candidacy role attempting to define himself, and even going from I think the culture warrior that a lot of people recognize him as, as somebody who maybe is willing to take on former President Trump, which a lot of voters who might be looking for an alternative to Donald Trump.

We're wondering whether he would do and whether he could do that successfully.

And so you see him on the campaign trail this week, bringing up the issue of term limits, and really questioning Donald Trump's assertion that he doesn't need eight years in office.

So how that's going to play out with voters.

DeSantis is clearly spending a lot of time in Iowa.

We're going to see a lot more of the candidates in Iowa, even you know, through this weekend, and so voters are going to have a chance to begin to get to know them.

But again, we're still 520 plus days away from election day, so a lot of time for all of these candidates to attempt to distinguish themselves and maybe, you know, knock Trump off of his front runner campaign pedestal that he at least seems to be pretty shit secure and holding for now.

LISA DESJARDINS: Erik, a lot of echo that we've heard in the halls of the Capitol than past couple of weeks.

What arguments are you hearing shape up for?

2024?

ERIK WASSON: Well, you know, I think this is going to be a big impact on House races of this deal.

I think, you know, Kevin McCarthy's future is very much in doubt, we'll see if he can hold on to the speakership.

But overall, I think the deal benefits the swing district, moderate Republicans, it makes them look like dealmakers, it could on the other hand, hurt McCarthy's ability to raise big dollars from donors.

LISA DESJARDINS: How soon do you think Speaker McCarthy could be in trouble?

ERIK WASSON: I think we could see it as soon as the coming week that they could try to bring a motion to oust him from the speakership.

I would suspect that would failed for several reasons.

But there are a group of Democrats who are willing to bail out the speaker on that vote.

It'd be a very strange situation.

We haven't really seen this kind of coalition, no confidence vote in U.S. politics, and we remains to be seen if that would hurt McCarthy politically, but I think he's got a backstop there where he is willing to call the bluff and so far he is he said, he's basically saying bring it on.

Try to oust me.

LISA DESJARDINS: This was major news this week on both these fronts, but yet I did not feel the electricity in any of this.

I think the American public is exhausted maybe just I'm exhausted.

But how would you both in just a few words assess the mood of the electorate right now?

ERIK WASSON: I feel like fiscal issues aren't as prominent as they were.

I covered the 2011 debt ceiling crisis where that was a big deal.

It was very pop big issue among voters and I think cultural issues right now for Republican voters.

Abortion on both sides is a big issue.

There's a lot of things about teaching racism and in classes.

I think that the motors are really not focused on the budget.

Budget, it's always been a boring issue.

But perhaps but I just thought the energy lack there that perhaps that allowed McCarthy to make a deal.

LISA DESJARDINS: Errin.

ERRIN HAINES: Yes.

I mean, I think there probably is a little bit of the been there done that feeling on the debt ceiling, maybe that's why they're - - there's kind of a lack of enthusiasm or interest around this issue.

Also, you know, maybe a lack of understanding about how this debt ceiling issue is not just a Wall Street problem, but also a problem for everyday Americans on Main Street, you know, what is the on the ground reality for them?

Maybe that connection was not clear enough, and so didn't really give them a reason to understand kind of what does this mean, for me.

Again, we're still over 500 days away from election day, not all voters are as locked into this as those of us who get paid to pay attention to this kind of thing for a living.

And so I think, you know, as the Republican primary field begins to come more and more into focus as the primary season these debates, the primary elections begin to get underway.

I think you'll see voters begin to pay more attention will see that they actually are quite engaged and interested in the outcome for 2024.

LISA DESJARDINS: Erik Wasson and Errin Haines, thanks to both of you very much.

ERIK WASSON: Thank you.

ERRIN HAINES: Thank you.

LISA DESJARDINS: The economy has been high in the headlines, but less so has been news about the youngest workers.

Last year, the U.S. government found child labor violations involving more than 3,800 minors, one quarter involving hazardous working conditions.

Both figures are up from the previous fiscal year.

At the same time, a handful of states say they think there's too much regulation of child labor.

Ali Rogin has more.

ALI ROGIN: So far this year, Iowa and Arkansas have passed laws to loosen child labor restrictions, and four other Midwestern states are advancing bills through their legislatures.

Last year, New Jersey and New Hampshire signed bills to lower age restrictions around child workers.

Iowa's law is the most expansive, it would allow some minors to work in jobs that were previously prohibited to them, like those involving demolition and power driven machines.

The other bills largely focused on removing requirements for work permits, and increasing the number of hour's children can work.

To discuss the state of child labor laws I'm joined by Katherine Walts, Director of the Center for the Human Rights of Children at Loyola University of Chicago.

And Dan Bowling, a Distinguished Fellow at Duke University School of Law.

Thank you both so much for joining me.

Katherine, I want to start with you.

Why is it that these laws seem to be all making their way through state legislatures at the same time?

KATHERIN WALTS, Director, Center for the Human Rights of Children: Thank you for having me.

I find this very interesting, in light of the fact that there is also a parallel increase in child labor violations under the Department of Labor.

So I think this is certainly a coordinated effort by industry and by Republicans to try to weaken federal labor laws, particularly as it affects children.

There is a gap in labor, and people are looking for more people to hire.

And unfortunately, children are being thrown under the bus.

ALI ROGIN: And Katherine sticking with you.

A lot of the most egregious child labor violations that we've seen, as you mentioned, which have been increasing over the past two years, they would not really be impacted by these laws.

So, where then do you see the through line between the efforts by lawmakers and companies to loosen these restrictions and the child labor the increase in child labor violations that we've seen?

What's the connection there?

Well, I think there's like a couple of things.

I wouldn't agree with the characterization that these laws wouldn't affect, like the health of children.

Our child labor laws exist very intentionally and have been developed over decades, even over 100 years with the knowledge that children's brains and bodies are different children are not adults in miniature.

So recognizing that they're -- they are more vulnerable to toxins in the environment to cleaning supplies to longer work hours, to less sleep.

This affects their brains and bodies.

This also affects their ability to engage successfully in school and an education.

ALI ROGIN: And then there are federal laws on the books of child labor -- the child labor provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act sets maximum hours for 14 and 15 year olds.

And in fact, some of these laws that have either passed or are being considered would run afoul of those federal regulations.

So what do you expect to happen there?

Are we going to see challenges to the state laws?

DAN BOWLING, Duke University School of Law: Right.

For example, two days ago, a federal court throughout a law or blocked application won the new state laws under what we call the preemption doctrine, meaning federal law, states can restrict child labor lawfully cannot expand child labor lawfully.

I agree with my colleague, Katherine on many points.

I disagree that there's some sort of consortium, big business.

Most of the violations I've been looking at when studying for this, were from what I'll call rogue actors or franchisees.

I was, as you may know, Chief HR officer for Coca Cola enterprises worldwide, and we had some rogue actors, it might send that signal to these rogue actors, that it's okay to do this till you get caught.

Because the fines are fairly minimal.

So that's one.

I don't think the laws will stand to the extent they loosened, like the one life at Wisconsin allows 14-year olds to serve alcohol.

And it's hard to imagine a 14 year old serving cocktail waitress and some hockey talk in Wisconsin.

So these won't stand.

But the signals they may send are, are bad ones.

ALI ROGIN: Katherine, if I can ask you quickly to respond to Dan's point about these being rogue actors as opposed to orchestrated larger attempts.

Would you like to weigh in on that?

KATHERIN WALTS: Sure, I think with any violations of any laws, you have both like rogue independent actors.

And then there are also larger systemic issues.

And I think with many of the recent child labor violations, these are violations that are happening across several states by large corporations.

I'm not saying youth and particularly adolescents shouldn't work.

These are jobs though, where they're expanding hours of work, hours outside of school that impact children's ability to sleep, ability to rest, and their low wage jobs, right, these are not high skilled jobs.

And they're also affecting and impacting children's access to school.

ALI ROGIN: Katherine, Dan brought up another point that I'd like you to weigh in on as well, which is about enforcement, that some lawmakers who have pursued these bills say that the existing Department of Labor regulations are simply not really being enforced.

KATHERIN WALTS: One of the reasons that the Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division isn't pursuing these cases is because it is one of the least funded governmental agencies, so it doesn't have the capacity to pursue these cases and the way that it should.

And so that is also, you know, a statement to look where our values are.

And just because they're not investigating these cases, or bringing them to the table doesn't mean that the act itself, these child labor violations isn't wrong, and isn't a crime and a law isn't being broken.

ALI ROGIN: And, Dan, there are efforts to revise the federal regulations on the books.

There's a bill from Congressman Dusty Johnson of South Dakota, which would expand working hours for children a year round, what's going to be the interplay that in between efforts on the federal level to change Department of Labor regulations, and what we're seeing on the state level?

DAN BOWLING: Well, I think the chances of that getting anywhere are about the chances of me being appointed Supreme Court tomorrow.

So, I'm not overly concerned about that.

But finally, again, the Department of Labor the fact they are finding more violations meaning they can they're doing their job.

ALI ROGIN: Katherine Walts and Dan Bowling, thank you so much for being here.

KATHERIN WALTS: Thank you so much.

DAN BOWLING: Thank you, Ali.

LISA DESJARDINS: For students around the country, this time of year marks something many years in the making graduation, while politicians get plenty of airtime debate in the future.

Tonight, we hear from some new voices, a few valedictorians and salutatorians, about this moment and what they see ahead.

VALERIE HENRIQUEZ, Brooklyn, New York: Hi, my name is Valerie Herniquez.

I am from Brooklyn, New York and I am the valedictorian.

ERICKA HENRIQUEZ, Brooklyn, New York: Hello, my name is Ericka Henriquez and in this feudatory.

PATRICK BAUGHMAN, Sioux City, Iowa: I'm Patrick Baughman from Sioux City, Iowa.

SHRIYA GARG, Rome, Georgia: My name is Shriya Garg and I'm from Rome, Georgia.

KEVIN GUARDADO: My name is Kevin Guardado.

I'm from Honduras.

MUNA ABANOOR, Boston, Massachusetts (through translator): Hi, I'm Muna Abanoor and I'm from Boston, Massachusetts.

I'll be going to Gallaudet University, which is the only liberal arts university for the deaf in the world in Washington, DC.

ERICKA HENRIQUEZ: I know high school fly by, but it was just like, I blinked and it was like I'm here.

KEVIN GUARDADO: I'm excited about going to Western University.

And that was my dream, to be honest.

And I really worked hard for it.

And now that I that I got it, I just feel so proud.

SHRIYA GARG: I'm very proud of all the hard work and all the effort that it took to get here.

But I'm also very proud of the people and the support system that also helped me get here.

PATRICK BAUGHMAN: My most proud moment was my Victorian speech.

I made a proclamation for trans rights and against banned books.

And I held up this book as gay, which is a book that was recently banned within my district.

And I gave it to the superintendent himself.

SHRIYA GARG: I definitely learned how to just be myself, focus on your grades and focus on the classes.

But also focus on things that you're passionate about, and things that you think are teaching you the life skills that you need to know.

ERICKA HENRIQUEZ: Our biggest advice for anybody is like tip to always be humble, and like never compare yourself, or your success, no matter if like, you want to be on top or on the bottom, but never compare yourself to anybody.

KEVIN GUARDADO: Get out of your comfort zone.

And that's where you can meet your real self.

MUNA ABANOOR (through translator): I want to become a social worker, and I want to work in schools so I can work with kids like me, kids with mental health issues.

I want to work with death, bipoc and minority people.

ERICKA HENRIQUEZ: Give me spread my wings.

VALERIE HENRIQUEZ: And fly.

ERICKA HENRIQUEZ: And fly, I guess, yeah.

PATRICK BAUGHMAN: Make the change you want to see.

Support, love, support, human rights, support, trans rights, support everything.

Because at the end of the day, we're the ones making the difference.

We're the ones who are going to find peace in the world.

KEVIN GUARDADO: Pursue your dreams, make mistakes.

VALERIE HENRIQUEZ: Like I know that our world has a lot of like fixing to do, but I really like I really trust our generation, our generation, generation Z.

And I feel like we have like a voice that we found and we're not afraid to use it.

PATRICK BAUGHMAN: We're not as interested in the idea of the workforce or making money to survive, or having families.

We're interested in the ideas of doing what we want to do.

And we're breaking the norms and that sense.

MUNA ABANOOR (through translator): I think a lot of people look at us and say we can't do it.

You're too young.

But I'm telling you, we will change the world.

LISA DESJARDINS: Sure they will.

And that's our program for tonight.

I'm Lisa Desjardins.

For all of my colleagues, thank you for joining us.

See you again tomorrow.