Author

Jacob Fischler

Jacob Fischler

Jacob covers federal policy as a senior reporter for States Newsroom. Based in Oregon, he focuses on Western issues. His coverage areas include climate, energy development, public lands and infrastructure.

U.S. Rep. Dusty Johnson speaks on the House floor in September 2023 about his bill to protect land at the Wounded Knee Massacre site. (Courtesy of Rep. Johnson's office)

U.S. House passes Johnson’s bill to protect Wounded Knee land

By: - September 20, 2023

The U.S. House approved by voice vote Wednesday a bill that would help protect land at the site of the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre in South Dakota, where an estimated 350 Lakota were killed by U.S. soldiers. The site is within the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. The Oglala Sioux Tribe and the Cheyenne River Sioux […]

Low water levels are visible at Lake Powell on June 24, 2021, in Lake Powell, Utah. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

U.S. Senate panel grapples with how to ensure access to water amid Western drought

By: - September 20, 2023

Decades of drought in the West has made water quality and quantity a major issue requiring government funding and innovation to fix, members of a U.S. Senate panel said Wednesday. Demand for water in growing municipalities is stretching agricultural and tribal communities, while shrinking availability is leading to higher water prices, witnesses told the Senate […]

A Trump supporter holds a Trump flag during the attack on the U.S. Capitol Building on Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Former U.S. Capitol Police chief blames intelligence failures, not Trump, for Jan. 6 attack

By: - September 19, 2023

The FBI and U.S. Department of Homeland Security failed to share intelligence with the U.S. Capitol Police ahead of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack, leaving the Capitol Police under-prepared for that day’s violence, the former chief of the Capitol Police told a U.S. House panel chaired by Georgia Republican Barry Loudermilk on Tuesday. But Democrats […]

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., left, and South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds, a Republican, talk to reporters in the Senate Daily Press Gallery about congressional action on artificial intelligence. (Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)

U.S. Senate to examine AI’s wide-ranging impact, Schumer and Rounds say

By: - September 14, 2023

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and South Dakota Republican Sen. Mike Rounds said Thursday they’re part of a bipartisan and private-sector consensus about the need for government oversight of artificial intelligence on a range of issues. Schumer, a New York Democrat, and Rounds held an informal bipartisan news conference Thursday to discuss […]

A lesser golden plover sits in a section of wetland June 4, 2006, in Barrow, Alaska. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

New federal water pollution rule draws mixed reaction

By: - August 30, 2023

A federal rule limiting agencies’ power to regulate water pollution will severely restrict protections for waters and wetlands throughout the country, but could also be subject to challenges from conservative groups that maintain the new rule exerts more federal jurisdiction than the U.S. Supreme Court intended in a May decision. With the rule published Tuesday […]

The flags of tribal nations wave in the breeze in the Oklahoma Tribal Flag Plaza outside the state Capitol. (Kyle Phillips/For Oklahoma Voice)

Three years after landmark ruling, Congress silent on tribal jurisdiction

By: - August 29, 2023

After a 2020 U.S. Supreme Court ruling defined much of Eastern Oklahoma as a Native American reservation, limiting state jurisdiction over tribal citizens, Congress has taken little interest in addressing the issues the tribes and state officials say the court decision has raised. The 5-4 decision in McGirt v. Oklahoma held that lands the federal […]

Republican presidential candidates, from left, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former Vice President Mike Pence, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Vivek Ramaswamy, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, U.S. Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum participate in the first debate of the GOP primary season hosted by FOX News at the Fiserv Forum on August 23, 2023, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Trump absent but still dominates as GOP presidential rivals clash at first debate

By: , and - August 23, 2023

Eight Republican presidential candidates gathered onstage Wednesday night in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for a heated first primary debate heavily influenced by former President Donald Trump, though the party’s front runner refused to attend the two-hour event. Trump instead recorded a competing 46-minute interview with former Fox News personality Tucker Carlson that aired on X, formerly known […]

(Getty Images illustration)

‘The internet is no longer a luxury’: $667M from USDA for rural broadband

By: - August 21, 2023

The U.S. Department of Agriculture will spend another $667 million on rural broadband loans and grants, the department said Monday, marking the fourth round of Biden administration funding under a program that the 2021 infrastructure law invigorated. Nearly three-quarters of the funding, $493 million, will go toward grants, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said on a […]

Former President Donald Trump boards his plane at Reagan National Airport in Arlington, Virginia, following an arraignment in Washington, D.C., federal court on August 3, 2023. Trump pleaded not guilty to four felony criminal charges during his arraignment after being indicted for his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

The Trump indictments: a seven-year timeline of key developments

By: - August 9, 2023

EDITOR’S NOTE: This timeline is periodically updated. The last update was Aug. 15, 2023. Former President Donald Trump is a defendant in four criminal proceedings. Two cases are federal, brought after investigations by Special Counsel Jack Smith. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg brought the first indictment against Trump, charging him in New York state court. […]

Former President Donald Trump boards his plane at Reagan National Airport in Arlington, Virginia, following an arraignment in Washington, D.C., federal court on August 3, 2023. Trump pleaded not guilty to four felony criminal charges during his arraignment after being indicted for his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Trump pleads not guilty to charges he sought to subvert 2020 election

By: and - August 3, 2023

WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump pleaded not guilty to four felony charges Thursday in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., after a federal grand jury handed up an indictment against the former chief executive. Trump, the front-runner in the 2024 GOP presidential primary, was released under the conditions that he must not violate federal, […]

Former President Donald Trump waves as he makes a visit to the Cuban restaurant Versailles after he appeared for his arraignment on June 13, 2023, in Miami, Florida. Trump pleaded not guilty to 37 federal charges including possession of national security documents after leaving office, obstruction, and making false statements. (Alon Skuy/Getty Images)

‘Fueled by lies,’ Trump charged with seeking to overturn 2020 election

By: , and - August 1, 2023

WASHINGTON — A federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., indicted Donald Trump on Tuesday, alleging that Trump and co-conspirators attempted to subvert the 2020 election to keep the former president in power through a series of illegal actions that culminated in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. The former president faces four […]

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack speaks at an event at the World Forestry Center in Portland, Oregon, on July 31, 2023. (Jacob Fischler/StatesNewsroom)

U.S. ag secretary touts Biden climate agenda as boost for rural America

By: - July 31, 2023

PORTLAND, Ore. — U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack sees the Biden administration’s climate agenda as a boon for rural economies, he said Monday during a visit to Portland’s World Forestry Center. The U.S. Forest Service, which is part of the Agriculture Department, will begin accepting applications for a second round of grants from its Community […]