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U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., speaks to the media at the U.S. Capitol on Sept. 30, 2025 in Washington, D.C. Thune was joined by Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., and Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images) WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate failed to advance two short-term government funding bills Tuesday when Democrats and Republicans deadlocked for the second time this month, with just hours to go before a shutdown that appeared nearly certain to begin at midnight.  Senators voted 55-45 on Republicans’ bill that would fund the government for seven weeks and 47-53 on a Democratic stopgap proposal that would keep the lights on for a month and included several health care provisions. Neither had the 60 votes needed to advance.  Nevada Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, Pennsylvania Democratic Sen. John Fetterman and Maine independent Sen. Angus King voted with GOP senators o...

U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Susan Collins, R-Maine, speaks with reporters inside the Capitol building in Washington, D.C., on Monday, Sept. 29, 2025. (Photo by Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom) WASHINGTON — The chairwoman of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee said Tuesday the Government Accountability Office should sue the Trump administration over its efforts to freeze or unilaterally cancel spending approved by Congress.  “I believe that GAO, which is empowered under the Impoundment and Budget Control Act of 1974 to sue in cases, should do so,” Sen. Susan Collins said. “The GAO has found seven instances in which the (impoundments) violate the act and it has standing to sue.” Collins, R-Maine, also told reporters that she doesn’t agree with the Supreme Court’s  decision last week on its emergency docket that allows the Trump administration to cancel $4 billion in foreign aid.  “I disagree with the Supreme Court’s temporary decision, but it w...

The U.S. Capitol is seen behind a barricade on Sept. 30, 2025 in Washington, DC. If lawmakers fail to reach a bipartisan compromise on the funding bill, the federal government shutdown will begin at midnight. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images) WASHINGTON — A government shutdown could have significant economic consequences, though an analysis released Tuesday by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said it’s difficult to pinpoint ramifications without knowing the length of a funding lapse or how exactly the Trump administration will try to reshape the federal workforce.  Director Phillip L. Swagel wrote in  a four-page letter the agency projects about 750,000 federal workers would be furloughed, leading to a $400 million impact per day.  “The number of furloughed employees could vary by the day because some agencies might furlough more employees the longer a shutdown persists and others might recall some initially furloughed employees,” Swagel wrote.  ...

An exam room inside the Planned Parenthood in Meridian, Idaho. It is the last Planned Parenthood in the state, following funding cuts during the first Trump administration and a near-total abortion ban enacted in 2022. (Photo by Kyle Pfannenstiel/Idaho Capital Sun) First in a five-part series. To some, the warning bells started sounding years ago.   When a Republican supermajority in the Texas legislature gutted the state’s family planning budget in 2011 and then in 2015 kicked Planned Parenthood — the country’s largest reproductive health care provider — out of its Medicaid family planning program, reproductive health advocates assumed they would one day see the same script unfold on the national stage. Other states followed with their own legislation to cut public funding to abortion-associated providers, including Iowa, Wisconsin, Indiana, Missouri and Kansas. In Arkansas,  more than 60% of the state’s counties no longer have maternal health services. By man...

Carolyn Foster, an organizer and leader, speaking at the Alabama Poor People’s Campaign Moral Monday protest on Sept. 29, 2025, on the front steps of the Alabama State Capitol in Montgomery, Alabama. The group of local clergy and pastors called on Alabama U.S. Sens. Katie Britt and Tommy Tuberville to restore funding to Medicaid and SNAP.(Anna Barrett/Alabama Reflector) With the federal government facing a possible shutdown , about 80 people gathered on the front steps of the Alabama State Capitol Monday to protest the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) and to call on Alabama U.S. Sens. Katie Britt and Tommy Tuberville to restore funding cuts to Medicaid and SNAP. The protest, part of the Alabama Poor People’s Campaign Moral Mondays, was organized by clergy and pastors from across the South, and led by Rev. Carolyn Foster of Greater Birmingham Ministries. The group sang a chorus while they marched from the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church to the Capitol. “Somebody’s kill...

The Trump administration has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to consider an executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship. (Photo by Jane Norman/States Newsroom) WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has again petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court regarding birthright citizenship, this time on the merits of the administration’s effort to rewrite the constitutional right afforded to children born on U.S. soil.  In two cases brought to the high court, lower courts kept in place a preliminary injunction against President Donald Trump’s executive order that ended birthright citizenship.  U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer  petitioned the court Friday to reverse those decisions. The high court case was docketed Monday. Responses from both parties are due by Oct. 29. Sauer is asking the justices to revisit the 14th amendment, arguing that it was meant to grant citizenship to newly freed Black people after the Civil War, not for the children of immigrants...

Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Ala.), left, hosted a panel Friday on immigration affecting Black communities during the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s legislation conference in Washington, D.C. Also on the panel from left to right: Haddy Gassama, Greg Jackson and Astou Thiane. (Photo by William J. Ford/Maryland Matters) For those who think the Trump administration’s immigration policies are only targeting Latino communities, Democratic U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost would like to set you straight. Maxwell said Friday that thousands of Black people, who like him are of Black and Latino descent, are experiencing fear as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and state and local law enforcement arrest people regardless of their legal immigration status. “I see it very prevalent in my community here from Orlando, Florida, with our Haitian community that is being targeted, and also with Black Latinos that are being targeted,” Frost said during a panel discussion at the Congre...

Rep. Reed Ingram, R-Pike Road (right) speaks with Rep. Alan Baker, R-Brewton on the floor of the Alabama House of Representatives on Feb. 6, 2025 at the Alabama Statehouse in Montgomery, Alabama. Ingram has prefiled a constitutional amendment that would require schools boards to take votes on policies over the PLedge of Allegiance and school prayer or risk losing funding. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector) A pre-filed constitutional amendment would require school boards to set time for the Pledge of Allegiance or lose school funding, and also require votes on whether they would allow employees and students to pray and read religious texts in school. Failure to comply would lead to a loss of school funding. HB 43 , sponsored by Rep. Reed Ingram, R-Pike Road, would have to be approved by voters in a statewide election if it passes the Legislature during the 2026 session, which begins in January. GET THE MORNING HEADLINES. SUBSCRIBE Ingram said in a phone interview on Thursday t...

Ed Gordon, Maxine Waters, Jennifer McClellan, Rev. Shavon Arline-Bradley, and Marc H. Morial speak onstage during the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation annual Legislative Conference National Town Hall at Walter E. Washington Convention Center on Sept. 25, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Leigh Vogel/Getty Images for Congressional Black Caucus Foundation) When Black voters stay home on election day, the results have major consequences, according to Marc H. Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League. Morial implored attendees at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s annual legislative conference Thursday to eschew the myth that their vote does not matter. Black voter turnout was more than 65% in 2008 when Democratic Party nominee Barack Obama became the first African American president. Turnout was similar when Obama won reelection four years later. And Democratic nominee Joe Biden also enjoyed Black voter participation of 64% during his campaign in 2020. Bu...