The Congressional Budget Office released its latest 10-year budget estimates this week. The news is bleak. Of greater concern, however, is that few elected officials in Washington seem to care.

The report contains a number of unsurprising yet eye-opening nuggets about the inability of Congress to responsibly manage the nation’s financial ...Read more

WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump said that he could see negotiations with Iran stretching for as long as a month, as he seeks a diplomatic agreement that would roll back Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.

“I guess over the next month, something like that,” Trump told reporters Thursday when asked how long the talks would take. “...Read more

WASHINGTON — Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., slammed the Justice Department and Attorney General Pam Bondi for tracking the search history of lawmakers who reviewed files from the Jeffrey Epstein investigation, arguing the agency overstepped its authority and suggesting she will seek changes.

Photographs of Bondi’s notes during a ...Read more

In their bid to retake the U.S. House of Representatives, Democrats hold a strong hand this election.

They don’t occupy the White House, which in a midterm election year typically means they’ll win more seats than lose. They need only to overcome a razor-thin deficit of 218-214 in the chamber. Most importantly, poll numbers show President ...Read more

Conversations about Culver City — the vibrant enclave on Los Angeles' Westside often called "the Heart of Screenland" — usually include phrases such as "walkable" and "green spaces" and "Erewhon."

So when U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi insinuated the city of 39,000 residents as a crime haven during a heated exchange with Rep. Sydney ...Read more

To help voters learn which candidates are on their ballot and where they stand on important policy issues, The News & Observer is publishing candidate questionnaires in all state and federal races in North Carolina on the March 3, 2026, ballot.

Four people are challenging Rep. Brad Knott, a Republican from Raleigh in Congress. Three are ...Read more

WASHINGTON — National Transportation Safety Board Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy urged Congress to take action on safety recommendations prompted by the January 2025 crash at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport during a Thursday hearing, saying if a bill on hold in the House had been law, the accident would not have happened.

Homendy made ...Read more

MIAMI — Former Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro said Thursday he doesn’t want to be a witness for former Congressman David Rivera at his national-security trial in Miami, pointing out that he faces trial himself on narcoterrorism charges in New York.

Maduro’s defense attorney indicated in a letter filed Thursday in federal court that ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Lawmakers left Washington on Thursday without a deal on an immigration enforcement overhaul, virtually guaranteeing a partial shutdown of the Homeland Security Department when current funding runs out this weekend.

Unless progress is made, neither chamber is expected to return to the Capitol next week, when Congress is scheduled ...Read more

CHICAGO — Three Republicans seeking the party’s March 17 nomination for the U.S. Senate did what they could to avoid airing disagreements with President Donald Trump’s policies while still acknowledging some differences they have with the GOP’s national leader.

Don Tracy, Jeannie Evans and Casey Chlebek appeared Wednesday night at an ...Read more

As the Department of Homeland Security approaches an increasingly likely shutdown this weekend, U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) said reforms to ICE, including banning masks for federal immigration agents, should be a part of any funding extensions for DHS.

“I’m the only federal agent in Congress,” Fitzpatrick, who served in the FBI ...Read more

A federal judge Thursday blocked the Pentagon from punishing Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., for appearing in a social media video that urged U.S. troops not to obey illegal orders.

District Judge Richard Leon ruled that Pentagon officials violated the retired Navy pilot’s free-speech rights by taking steps to cut his retirement rank and pay over ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The Senate passed a joint resolution on Thursday blocking changes to the District of Columbia’s tax code, which will now head to President Donald Trump’s desk.

District officials warned it could cause delays during tax season and devastate the city’s budget, and suggested Congress had missed its window to intervene in the ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., slammed the Justice Department and Attorney General Pam Bondi for allegedly tracking the search history of lawmakers who reviewed files from the Jeffrey Epstein investigation.

Bondi appeared before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday amid fiery criticism that the she botched the release of ...Read more

Already fighting criminal charges that she used stolen COVID relief funds to win a seat in Congress, Florida Democrat Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick now faces accusations in Washington of an entirely separate campaign-finance scheme involving “shell companies,” local mayors and hundreds of thousands of dollars in oil money.

The latest ...Read more

Stephen Miller’s January 2026 announcement to Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers – telling them that they have “immunity to perform your duties” and that no “illegal alien, no leftist agitator or domestic insurrectionist” can stop them – may seem like an extreme statement outside the political mainstream.

And ...Read more

The Republican-led House of Representatives voted Feb. 11, 2026 to approve the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act – or SAVE America Act. The bill would require individuals to provide proof of citizenship when they register to vote and present photo identification when they do vote in federal elections.

This marks the third ...Read more

In mid-2023, around the time Elon Musk rebranded Twitter as X but before he discontinued free academic access to the platform’s data, my colleagues and I looked for signs of social bot accounts posting content generated by artificial intelligence. Social bots are AI software that produce content and interact with people on social media. We ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Five days after federal immigration enforcement agents killed the second of his constituents, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey had a message for his peers: Speak out.

“Mayors, we do not back down to bullies. We stand up for democracy,” Frey said in a speech last month in Washington, D.C., at a gathering of hundreds of mayors from...Read more

It is in the U.S. Constitution: States decide how federal elections are run, not the executive branch.

Yet over the last year, the Trump administration has sought to exert more control. In March, President Donald Trump issued a sweeping executive order requiring documented proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections. The order has since ...Read more