Author

Jennifer Shutt

Jennifer Shutt

Jennifer covers the nation’s capital as a senior reporter for States Newsroom. Her coverage areas include congressional policy, politics and legal challenges with a focus on health care, unemployment, housing and aid to families.

The U.S. Capitol building is seen on Oct. 22, 2021, in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

U.S. Senate moves toward repealing authority for military force against Iraq

By: - March 16, 2023

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate took a broadly bipartisan vote Thursday to advance legislation that would end the 32-year-old and the 20-year-old Authorizations for Use of Military Force against Iraq.  The 68-27 vote moves the measure past the chamber’s 60-vote legislative filibuster and towards a final passage vote as soon as next week. House Republican […]

Contractors conduct groundwater sampling in March 2022 as part of an effort to provide alternative water supplies for areas affected by PFAS contamination near Ellsworth Air Force Base. (U.S. Air Force Civil Engineer Center)

Pentagon to halt use of firefighting foam that contains PFAS as cleanup costs mount

By: and - March 16, 2023

WASHINGTON — Battered by years of criticism from U.S. lawmakers and environmental advocates, the Department of Defense will stop purchasing PFAS-containing firefighting foam later this year and phase it out entirely in 2024.  The replacement for Aqueous Film Forming Foam has yet to be determined, and advocates are frustrated it’s taken so long to halt […]

Atlantic Council Senior Fellow Dr. Jamie Metzl, left, testifies before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic with former New York Times editor and author Nicholas Wade, Dr. Paul Auwaerter of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Dr. Robert Redfield, former director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention under former President Donald Trump, in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill on March 8, 2023, in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Congress unanimously votes to require declassified information on COVID-19 origins

By: - March 10, 2023

WASHINGTON — The divided 118th Congress approved its first bill Friday, after lawmakers in both the House and Senate voted unanimously to send President Joe Biden legislation that would require declassification of intelligence on the origins of COVID-19. The four-page bill, which the House voted 419-0 to clear, would require the Director of National Intelligence […]

President Joe Biden speaks about his fiscal 2024 budget request on March 9, 2023, at Finishing Trades Institute in Philadelphia. (Screenshot from White House feed)

Biden budget asks for 25% tax on billionaires, boosts in domestic and defense spending

By: - March 9, 2023

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden said Thursday he’s ready to meet with U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to hash out federal spending as soon as House Republicans release their budget, a challenging task without a firm deadline.  “I’m ready to meet with the speaker anytime, tomorrow if he has his budget,” Biden said during a […]

Dr. Paul Auwaerter testifies to the U.S. House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic. (Screenshot/subcommittee hearing video)

Lawmakers hear theories on COVID-19 origins in U.S. House hearing

By: - March 8, 2023

WASHINGTON — Democrats and Republicans mostly agreed Wednesday that scientists and the intelligence community should fully investigate the origins of COVID-19 without political interference over whether the virus emerged from nature or through a lab leak. Members from both political parties said throughout the U.S. House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic hearing that determining […]

Fireplaces inside the U.S. Capitol send smoke into the sky on Jan. 6, 2023. (Photo by Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)

Economist warns that ‘heightened dysfunction’ in Congress raises risk of debt default

By: - March 7, 2023

WASHINGTON — Economists on Tuesday urged Congress to address the debt limit quickly, cautioning that simply because U.S. lawmakers have successfully brokered deals before doesn’t mean they will be able to this year. “There is a temptation to brush off the developing debt limit drama, thinking it will end the same way as the others […]

(Getty Images

How the judge who could ban the abortion pill won confirmation in the U.S. Senate

By: - February 28, 2023

WASHINGTON — The U.S. District Court judge who could end more than two decades of legal access to medication abortion underwent extensive questioning about LGBTQ equality at his December 2017 confirmation hearing — and very little about his views on abortion. Matthew Joseph Kacsmaryk, appointed by former President Donald Trump earlier in 2017, spent much […]

The U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. (Getty Images)

Bipartisan group predicts U.S. debt default as soon as summer, depending on tax receipts

By: - February 22, 2023

WASHINGTON — A bipartisan think tank expects that the United States will default on its debt in the summer or early fall, if Congress doesn’t take action to address the debt limit before then.  The timeline is similar to one the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office released last week, saying lawmakers have until sometime between July […]

U.S. Rep. Don Bacon, R-Nebraska, outside the U.S. Capitol on May 19, 2021, in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Military records for Iowa, Nebraska congressmen incorrectly released by Air Force

By: - February 21, 2023

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Air Force unintentionally released military personnel records of at least two members of Congress — Republican Reps. Don Bacon of Nebraska and Zach Nunn of Iowa — eliciting frustration and concerns for veterans’ privacy.  “The recent targeting of Members of Congress’s personnel military records, the breach of sensitive data, and the […]

U.S. President Joe Biden delivers the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress as Vice President Kamala Harris and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy listen on Feb. 7, 2023, in the House Chamber of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.(Photo by Jacquelyn Martin-Pool/Getty Images)

Biden’s annual physical shows he is ‘a healthy, vigorous, 80-year-old male’

By: - February 16, 2023

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden received a mostly positive review of his health from doctors at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Thursday after undergoing his annual physical.  The official evaluation of Biden’s health comes as the former vice president and longtime U.S. senator from Delaware weighs whether to run for reelection in 2024.  […]

Fireplaces inside the U.S. Capitol send smoke into the sky on Jan. 6, 2023. (Photo by Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)

U.S. likely to default on debt between July and September unless Congress acts, CBO says

By: - February 15, 2023

WASHINGTON — Congress has until at least July to broker a bipartisan debt agreement if lawmakers want to avoid a first-ever default, according to the Congressional Budget Office.  The nonpartisan scorekeeper, which typically details how much legislation would cost, released a report Wednesday saying that U.S. lawmakers and the Biden administration have until sometime between […]

Teenage student Jose Lara studies his daily schoolwork on his laptop at his home in the slum of Catia during the second month of quarantine on April 27, 2020, in Caracas, Venezuela. (Photo by Leonardo Fernandez Viloria/Getty Images)

Lack of action by Congress to protect kids online criticized at U.S. Senate hearing

By: - February 14, 2023

WASHINGTON — U.S. senators on Tuesday voiced frustration and outrage that Congress has been unable to pass legislation bolstering protection for children online, including adding guardrails to social media platforms.  During a hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee, Democrats and Republicans pledged to keep working together to pass several bipartisan bills that didn’t make it […]