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Anjali Shastry

Anjali Shastry covers Capitol Hill politics for The Washington Times. Originally from Cupertino, California, Shastry graduated from University of California, Santa Barbara, with a bachelor's degree in English and anthropology, and from University of Maryland, College Park, with a master's degree in journalism. She has previously written for American Journalism Review, Voice of America and the University of Maryland's Capital New Service wire. She can be reached at ashastry@washingtontimes.com.

Articles by Anjali Shastry

John Boehner resigns; Speaker cites desire to avoid ‘prolonged leadership turmoil’

House Speaker John A. Boehner will resign from Congress at the end of October, stunning Capitol Hill with what he said was a snap decision reached Friday morning, and leaving tremendous uncertainty for Republicans just when they face a series of major showdowns with the White House.

September 25, 2015

Pope Francis unlikely to swing Catholic vote to either political party

Catholics find themselves as the ultimate swing voters: more conservative than the nonreligious but more liberal than Protestants.

September 23, 2015

Planned Parenthood funding vote sets up government shutdown showdown

Senate Republicans set up a vote Thursday to withhold some money from Planned Parenthood as part of a deal to keep the government funded beyond the end of this month, cuing an abortion-tinged shutdown showdown just hours after Pope Francis addresses a joint meeting of Congress.

September 22, 2015

Gina McCarthy, Environmental Protection Agency administrator, defends handling of toxic mine spill

EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy on Wednesday defended her agency's handling of the Gold King Mine toxic water spill in Colorado, dismissing charges that it held itself to a much lower standard than it would have a private-sector company and may have been criminally negligent.

September 16, 2015

Larry Hogan to roll back $50 million in Maryland state fees

Hundreds of Maryland state fees will be rolled back or eliminated in an effort to save taxpayers more than $50 million over the next five years, Gov. Larry Hogan announced Thursday.

September 15, 2015

Millennials love guns as shooting sports rapidly gain popularity in high schools

Lindsay Martin first picked up a rifle to go deer hunting with her father, but it was an afternoon she spent with him a year later, shooting clay pigeons in her backyard, that set her passion for shooting sports.

September 14, 2015

Requiring colleges to report all sexual assaults may backfire: activists

Requiring colleges and universities to report all sexual assaults to local police could actually backfire by scaring women away from reporting attacks in the first place, two advocates told Congress Thursday.

September 10, 2015

South Carolina voters say feds should butt out of state marijuana laws: poll

South Carolina voters overwhelmingly say their state's own medical marijuana law should trump federal enforcement, said a new poll being released Thursday.

September 10, 2015

Obama kept key Iran nuclear deal details from Congress, House Republicans allege

House Republicans will attempt a last-ditch effort to derail the Iran nuclear agreement by asserting President Obama has withheld key details of the deal from Congress, meaning the 60-day period for Capitol Hill's review hasn't even begun, GOP lawmakers said Wednesday.

September 9, 2015

VA illegally fired clerk, whistleblower watchdog says

The VA illegally fired a disabled Army vet who'd complained to Congress about the department's bungling treatment of his case, the government's own whistleblower watchdog said in a new report Tuesday that highlights the department's questionable treatment of those who seek to expose its problems.

September 8, 2015

Veterans group wants presidential candidates to address issues through town hall meetings

Pentagon spending cuts. U.S.-led airstrikes against the Islamic State. VA clinics in disarray. A conservative veterans advocacy group is providing presidential candidates an opportunity to address these issues and other hot topics in the 2016 campaign season.

September 7, 2015

Tax cuts, regulatory reforms may spur growth, economists say

Faced with projections of a sluggish economy, three conservative economists said Thursday that a massive package of tax cuts and regulatory reforms could spur growth of greater than 4 percent a year.

September 3, 2015

More than 300K dead vets still on VA’s active health care enrollment list: IG

More than 300,000 dead veterans are still listed in VA computers as actively trying to sign up for health care -- part of a massive 860,000 benefit application backlog that hasn't been cleared up, according to an audit Wednesday that portrayed a department struggling with the basics of tracking benefits.

September 2, 2015

Bob McDonald, VA secretary, slams Congress for playing with funding to score political points

Politicians in Congress are using funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs as a way to score political points, making it a place where "the needs of veterans are secondary to ideology," VA Secretary Robert McDonald said Tuesday at a veterans convention in Baltimore.

September 1, 2015

Ashton Carter on Iran: ‘Deal or no deal, the United States military will remain full speed ahead’

In the face of increasing uncertainty that the Iran deal proposed by the president will pass the Republican-controlled Congress, Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter said Tuesday that his military options "remain real" and that he will push forward on making sure Iran does not present a militaristic threat to the United States.

September 1, 2015

Kathryn Edin, Luke Shaefer say increasing aid to needy families would break jobless cycle

Two sociologists are trying to redefine the image of the poverty-ridden in America, saying that far from being government-dependent, most are desperate to work but red tape, complex family situations and a sluggish economy keep them from getting jobs.

August 31, 2015

David Shulkin touts VA progress in face of reform challenges

Speaking at a veteran convention in Baltimore Saturday, Dr. David Shulkin, the Undersecretary for Health at the Department of Veterans Affairs said problems at the VA had been "building for a long time" and touted the VA's progress in restoring a positive image to the beleaguered agency.

August 29, 2015

Maryland officials hope license-plate readers halt drug flow to Eastern Shore

Facing a heroin epidemic, Maryland officials will spend $120,000 to buy license-plate readers to check the tags of cars coming into Ocean City, believing it can help halt some of the drugs flowing to the Eastern Shore, which has been particularly hard-hit.

August 27, 2015

VA psychiatrist waste adds up to millions of dollars, lost mental health care for veterans

The Department of Veterans Affairs wasted tens of millions of dollars last year on salaries for psychiatrists who weren't seeing patients, the agency's inspector general said in a report Tuesday that detailed continued problems in getting veterans the mental health care they need.

August 25, 2015

Los Angeles VA shredded veterans’ claims instead of processing them, IG report says

The Los Angeles VA shredded veterans' benefit claims without ever processing them, the department's inspector general said in a report Tuesday that suggests the problems exposed last year continue.

August 19, 2015

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