DOD spent record fiscal 2026 funds at breakneck pace in final weeks
In the last two months of the fiscal year that ends Wednesday, the Pentagon spent tens of billions of mandatory dollars from last year’s reconciliation law, intensely accelerating spending from its unusually large overall budget for the year, congressional sources said this week. The Pentagon spends scores of billions of dollars each year, and the Sept. […]
The 10 most vulnerable House members just over a month before Election Day
With less than five weeks to go until the midterm elections, Republicans face historical headwinds as the party in power and must also contend with high gas prices amid the ongoing Iran war. But Republican groups enjoy a clear cash advantage as the party seeks to hold on to the House, and redistricting in several […]
Confessions of a political handicapper
ANALYSIS — What if we got it all wrong? That’s the question that usually goes through my mind at this point in every election cycle. Because 25 years of experience in analyzing elections has made me more humble, rather than more cocky. Political handicapping has a way of knocking people down a couple of notches. […]
Justices allow third-country deportations as case proceeds
The Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration on Tuesday to continue to deport immigrants to countries other than those they came from, known as third-country removals, in an order that also set up a final legal fight over the practice. Tuesday’s order lifted a lower-court order blocking the practice, which the Trump administration has sought […]
Trump’s funding cancellation violates budget law, GAO says
The Government Accountability Office reaffirmed its opinion Tuesday that “pocket rescissions” are illegal, dealing a modest blow to President Donald Trump’s announcement last week of plans to cancel $810 million in spending without the approval of Congress. In a letter to congressional leaders, the GAO — the investigative arm of Congress — doubled down on […]
Lawmakers cry foul over publicly funded Trump TV ads
The White House is using Customs and Border Protection funding to run pro-Trump political advertisements, Democratic appropriators said Tuesday. The funding comes from last year’s massive GOP budget reconciliation law and was intended for CBP, said House Appropriations ranking member Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., and House Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee ranking member Henry Cuellar, D-Texas. The […]
Wildfire bill to ease path for controlled burns passes Senate
The Senate passed legislation that would amend the Clean Air Act to ensure states would not be penalized for conducting prescribed burns intended to prevent larger, uncontrolled wildfires by unanimous consent on Tuesday. Under current law, states are required to meet air quality standards for particulate matter pollution. Controlled burns can increase this pollution, and while […]
Congress continues back-seat role as AI execs feted at White House
Following a meeting at the White House with President Donald Trump and technology moguls, Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., on Tuesday pushed back on calls to impose regulations on artificial intelligence, even as news of worrisome AI models hacking into government databases become increasingly common and the public grows more skeptical of the technology. And while […]
Senate laterals college sports bill to House, but forward progress uncertain
The Senate on Monday approved sweeping bipartisan legislation to create the first federal framework governing college athletics amid an era of transfer chaos, skyrocketing costs and the growth of name, image and likeness. The final tally was 77-22, a rare bipartisan outcome on a major piece of legislation during a time of political division after […]
This week: Senate takes final votes before elections
Senators are plotting their exit for the fall midterm campaign season, but their work on Capitol Hill isn’t quite finished yet. The first vote of what’s expected to be the Senate’s final workweek before the elections will be Monday on passage of a bipartisan bill to set rules of the road for name, image and […]