Washington

U.S. Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-South Dakota, attends a February 2023 congressional committee hearing in Washington, D.C. (Rep. Dusty Johnson/Twitter)

Congressional Roundup: Johnson aims for national consistency in pesticide labeling

BY: - June 25, 2023

U.S. Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-South Dakota, and Jim Costa, D-California, have introduced a bill that would prevent states such as California from putting their own labels on pesticides and herbicides.  In a news release, Johnson said “political agendas” in certain states, such as California, have driven labeling decisions that are unsupported by scientific evidence.  Johnson […]

Harleigh Walker, a 16-year-old transgender girl from Alabama, testifies before the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary about how the Equality Act would protect transgender kids. (Screenshot from Senate Judiciary Committee webcast)

‘Lobbying for my right to exist’: US Senate panel examines how states target trans kids

BY: - June 23, 2023

WASHINGTON — Harleigh Walker wants U.S. senators to understand she is a typical 16-year-old girl. She likes Taylor Swift. She enjoys being on her school’s debate team. And she listens way too loudly to music in her room. “I’m just trying to be a teenager in America,” she told senators on the U.S. Senate Judiciary […]

The U.S. Capitol (Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)

U.S. Senate spending panel sets funding levels for annual bills

BY: - June 22, 2023

WASHINGTON — A group of U.S. Senate Democrats on Thursday approved funding levels for dozens of federal departments for the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1 — setting up a likely clash with House Republicans as a deadline approaches later this year. The move to advance the spending plan was essential if Congress is going […]

Activists gather in Washington, D.C., to call on Medicare to cover two Alzheimer's drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration. (Courtesy of Alzheimer's Association of South Dakota)

Medicare denial for Alzheimer’s drugs sparks push for congressional action

BY: - May 7, 2023

Deaths from Alzheimer’s disease jumped 177% in South Dakota between 2000 and 2019, and the state’s mortality rate is higher than the national average. Those are some of the reasons Jon Carroll went to Washington, D.C., recently to decry an action by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The agency decided that Medicare […]

An aerial view of the American flags flying over an international bridge as immigrants line up next to the U.S.-Mexico border fence to seek asylum on Dec. 22, 2022, in El Paso, Texas. (John Moore/Getty Images)

Democrats in Congress condemn Biden administration expansion of Title 42

BY: - January 26, 2023

WASHINGTON — Nearly 80 Democratic members of Congress sent a letter to the White House expressing their “great concern” that the Biden administration is walking back on its promise to restore migrants’ access to asylum. In the letter, they also condemned the administration’s expansion of a controversial policy that immediately turns away migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border, […]

Poll workers check in a voter at a polling station at David R. Cawley Middle School on February 11, 2020 in Hookset, New Hampshire. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

National Dems give New Hampshire, Georgia more time to change 2024 primary dates

BY: - January 26, 2023

WASHINGTON — New Hampshire and Georgia will have a bit longer to implement key changes to when and how they hold Democratic presidential primaries, under an extension a Democratic National Committee panel approved Wednesday. Election officials will have until June 3 to move New Hampshire’s 2024 Democratic presidential primary to Feb. 13 and Georgia’s to […]

Bags of heroin, some laced with fentanyl, are displayed before a press conference regarding a major drug bust, at the office of the New York Attorney General, Sept. 23, 2016, in New York City. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

U.S. House GOP takes aim at fake pills containing deadly fentanyl sold on social media

BY: - January 25, 2023

WASHINGTON — On a June 2020 morning, Amy Neville entered her son’s bedroom to wake him for an orthodontist appointment. Fourteen-year-old Alex didn’t wake up. He died of fentanyl poisoning after taking a counterfeit pill he bought from someone he met on Snapchat, Neville told GOP lawmakers Wednesday during a roundtable discussion of the role […]

U.S. President Joe Biden speaks to mayors from across the country during an event at the East Room of the White House on Jan. 20, 2023, in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

White House says DOJ had ‘unprecedented access’ to Biden home during search

BY: - January 24, 2023

WASHINGTON — Department of Justice officials had “unprecedented access” to every room in President Joe Biden’s Delaware home Friday during a search that followed several days of disclosures that classified material from the Obama era had been found in Biden’s garage and think tank office, White House officials said Monday. The historic 13-hour search of […]

An American Airlines plane takes off from Los Angeles International Airport on Oct. 1, 2020, in Los Angeles, California. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Aviation turmoil shifts attention to stalled confirmation of FAA chief

BY: - January 23, 2023

A breakdown in the federal aviation system earlier this month threw a spotlight on the absence of a Senate-confirmed leader of the Federal Aviation Administration, prompting Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to push for the chamber to confirm President Joe Biden’s choice to lead the agency. But key Senate Republicans have raised concerns about that nominee, […]

Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) talks to reporters following the weekly Senate Democratic policy luncheon at the U.S. Capitol on December 14, 2021 in Washington, DC.

Congress heads back to D.C. for a hectic lame-duck session

BY: - November 14, 2022

WASHINGTON — Congress returns to Capitol Hill and a lengthy to-do list this week, following a six-week midterm elections break that saw Democrats outperform expectations and Republicans barely inch toward the U.S. House majority. On the agenda are same-sex marriage legislation, a huge defense bill, changes in how presidential electoral votes are counted and more. […]

U.S. President Joe Biden hands a pen to Brielle Robinson, daughter of the late Sgt. First Class Heath Robinson, after he signed The PACT Act in the East Room of the White House August 10, 2022 in Washington, DC.

Biden student debt relief plan thrown out by Texas judge; new applications halted

BY: - November 11, 2022

WASHINGTON — Late Thursday a federal judge in Texas struck down the Biden administration’s student debt relief plan, ruling that the program is unlawful, in a blow to 16 million student debt borrowers already approved for relief. The U.S. Department of Education now is no longer accepting applications for the program, according to the student […]