Federal government

The U.S. Capitol. (SkyNoir Photography by Bill Dickinson/Getty Images)

U.S. House approves debt limit package, sending it to Senate days before default deadline

BY: - May 31, 2023

WASHINGTON — The U.S. House took a broadly bipartisan vote Wednesday night on the debt limit package, sending it to the U.S. Senate where lawmakers are expected to vote quickly to clear the measure. The bill would suspend the nation’s borrowing limit through Jan. 1, 2025 and set caps on discretionary spending for two years. […]

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IRS slated to hire thousands of workers, boost audits of wealthy taxpayers

BY: - April 6, 2023

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service on Thursday detailed its plan to spend $80 billion in additional funding that Democrats approved last year as part of their climate change and health care package.  The plan says the agency will boost tax enforcement by increasing its “focus on segments of taxpayers with complex issues and complex […]

Former U.S. President Donald Trump arrives for an arraignment at Manhattan Criminal Court on April 4, 2023, in New York City. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

Trump hit with 34 felony counts of falsifying New York state business records

BY: , and - April 4, 2023

Former President Donald Trump pleaded not guilty Tuesday to 34 New York state felony offenses related to what prosecutors say were hush money payments to an adult film star. In a brief but historic appearance in a Manhattan trial court, Trump, the first former president to face criminal prosecution, learned he was charged with falsifying […]

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Social Security trustees predict benefit cuts in 2033 without congressional action

BY: - March 31, 2023

WASHINGTON — Social Security will no longer be able to pay full benefits in 2033, a year earlier than previously expected, according to a report released Friday.  The updated projections, in the annual trustee report, mean that without action to stabilize the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund, Social Security would have enough money to […]

An oil pumpjack casts a shadow on a wall as it pulls oil from the Permian Basin oil field on March 14, 2022, in Odessa, Texas. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

U.S. House passes sweeping energy bill pushing back against Biden climate policies

BY: - March 30, 2023

WASHINGTON – The U.S. House on Thursday approved a bill packed with Republican energy priorities meant to counteract the Biden administration’s approach and boost U.S. oil and gas production. Numbered H.R. 1 as a signal that energy policy is the House majority’s top legislative priority, the bill includes a package of GOP proposals, ranging from […]

The sun sets on a wetland northwest of Hartford, South Dakota. (Joshua Haiar/SD Searchlight)

U.S. Senate clears measure to undo Biden WOTUS rule on wetlands

BY: - March 29, 2023

WASHINGTON — Both Republican and Democratic members of the U.S. Senate voted Wednesday to repeal the Biden administration’s intensely contested expansion of what qualifies as wetlands that the federal government can regulate. The Senate approved a resolution, sponsored by West Virginia Republican Shelley Moore Capito, that would revoke the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s definition of […]

The U.S. Capitol. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

U.S. Senate in bipartisan vote repeals decades-old Iraq war authorizations

BY: - March 29, 2023

WASHINGTON — U.S. senators revoked their approval for the Gulf and Iraq wars on Wednesday, taking a broadly bipartisan vote to repeal the Authorizations for Use of Military Force that have stayed on the books years after the two wars ended.  The 66-30 vote sends the measure to the U.S. House, where Speaker Kevin McCarthy […]

U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Alabama, speaks during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing at the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Sept. 28, 2021, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Alabama senator blocking military promotions over abortion policy says he’ll ‘work it out’

BY: - March 29, 2023

WASHINGTON — Sen. Tommy Tuberville insisted he will smooth things over with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin after the top Pentagon official said Tuesday that the Alabama senator’s continued hold on 160 defense nominees will affect U.S. military readiness. “We’re gonna work it out,” Tuberville told States Newsroom on his way to the Senate floor Tuesday […]

COMMENTARY
The South Dakota Capitol building in Pierre. (Getty Images)

$3 million is on the table for climate action, with only days left for SD to act

BY: - March 24, 2023

A new federal program has the potential to transform South Dakota’s approach to climate change — should the state be smart enough to take it. Earlier this month, the U.S. EPA launched the first phase of the Climate Pollution Reduction Grant (CPRG) program, an initiative created by last year’s Inflation Reduction Act to fund local- […]

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 […]

U.S. Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-South Dakota, questions witnesses in a hearing of the House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, in the Cannon House Office Building on Feb. 28, 2023, in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

South Dakota congressman advocates expansion of work requirements for federal food aid

BY: - March 14, 2023

WASHINGTON — Republican South Dakota Rep. Dusty Johnson introduced a bill Tuesday aimed at expanding work requirements for federal nutrition aid, reigniting a perennial conflict over how Congress navigates both the farm bill and federal spending.  “Work is the best pathway out of poverty,” Johnson, who in his home state has talked about growing up […]

General Motors Co. announced plans to double revenue by 2030 with new battery-electric vehicles and hopes to surpass leading electric carmaker Tesla with the release of a new $30,000 electric SUV. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

States to receive $2.5B from feds for electric vehicle charging infrastructure

BY: - March 14, 2023

The federal government will send $2.5 billion over the next five years to states, local governments and tribes to build electric vehicle charging infrastructure, Biden administration officials said Tuesday. The new Charging and Fueling Infrastructure grant program, which was authorized by the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law, will spend $2.5 billion over five years to build […]