Lindsey McPherson

How lawmakers salvaged the spending process after a record government shutdown

Congress is on track to pass full-year funding for at least 11 of the 12 annual spending bills nearly a third of the way into the fiscal year.

January 19, 2026

House Speaker Mike Johnson says he doesn’t see ‘any necessity’ for war with Iran

House Speaker Mike Johnson does not see the U.S. going to war against Iran, despite President Trump threatening military intervention if Tehran executes protesters.

January 19, 2026

Schmitt proposes bill to make it easier to revoke citizenship of fraudsters after Minnesota scandal

Sen. Eric Schmitt wants to make it easier for the U.S. to revoke the citizenship of individuals who defraud the government in response to the Somali-led organizations in Minnesota that used a pandemic program to steal hundreds of millions in taxpayer money.

January 19, 2026

Trump calls for Rep. Ilhan Omar to be jailed or deported, says she is linked to fraud in Minnesota

President Trump said Rep. Ilhan Omar "knows everything there is to know" about fraud in Minnesota and should be jailed or deported to Somalia.

January 19, 2026

Senate passes three-bill spending package, marking halfway point of delayed appropriations process

The Senate on Thursday cleared a three-bill spending package that passed the House last week, sending the measure to President Trump for his signature.

January 15, 2026

Sen. Moreno says bipartisan health care deal will happen only if Democratic leadership gets on board

Sen. Bernie Moreno, an Ohio Republican leading bipartisan Senate negotiations on a short-term health care plan, said the talks cannot proceed without "affirmative commentary" from Democratic leadership.

January 15, 2026

Trump announces plan for more choice in health care, lower drug prices

President Trump released a health care plan Thursday that calls for delivering government assistance directly to consumers rather than through insurance companies and for lowering prescription drug prices.

January 15, 2026

Senate Republicans flip votes to quash Venezuela war powers resolution

Senate Republicans on Thursday flipped just enough votes to kill Democrats' war powers resolution that sought to block President Trump from further military action against Venezuela without congressional approval.

January 14, 2026

House passes spending bill for foreign aid and financial services

The House on Wednesday passed a two-bill, $77 billion spending package funding foreign aid and financial services agencies.

January 14, 2026

Divided House committee advances bill to restrict congressional stock trading

Accusations of "misdirection" and "disingenuous" pursuit of perfection underscored how a once-bipartisan effort to ban members of Congress from trading stocks has devolved.

January 14, 2026

Sen. Marsha Blackburn floats federal standards for AI rules as Trump prods Congress to act

Sen. Marsha Blackburn has been working for over a decade to establish federal privacy and safety standards for protecting consumers, especially children, in the digital age.

January 13, 2026

Senate unanimously passes bill to allow deepfake victims to sue for damages

The Senate on Tuesday unanimously passed a bill that would allow individuals whose image has been used without their consent to create an "intimate" deepfake to sue the creator of the digital forgery for damages.

January 13, 2026

Trump’s drive to lower credit card rates could hurt, House Speaker Johnson warns

President Trump's push to lower credit card interest rates and swipe fees faces an uphill climb on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers would need to enact legislation to implement the policies.

January 13, 2026

Foreign central bankers back Fed Chair Powell during DOJ controversy

The controversy around Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has gone global.

January 13, 2026

Senate advances spending package as lawmakers tee up another ahead of Jan. 30 deadline

The Senate on Monday advanced a House-passed, three-bill spending package. Lawmakers are readying action on another two appropriations bills as they race to meet a Jan. 30 deadline for funding the government.

January 12, 2026

House Republicans ready bill to limit congressional stock trading

House Republicans have scheduled a committee markup for Wednesday on a bill to restrict congressional stock trading, an issue they've vowed to address this year.

January 12, 2026

House Republicans ready for battle over cost of living in midterm elections

They're not calling it "affordability," but House Republicans admit the 2026 midterms will be a referendum on what their party did or did not do to lower the cost of living.

January 12, 2026

House rebukes GOP leaders with passage of Obamacare subsidies extension

House Democrats on Thursday secured an unlikely win with the passage of a bill to re-up their COVID-era expansion of Obamacare subsidies for three years.

January 8, 2026

House passes three-bill spending package, beginning effort to avoid another shutdown

The House started a January congressional sprint to avoid another government shutdown on Thursday as it passed a three-bill spending package.

January 8, 2026

Trump shames 5 Republicans who want to restrict him from more military action against Venezuela

President Trump blasted the five Republican senators who voted Thursday to advance a war powers resolution that would prevent him from taking further military action against Venezuela without congressional approval.

January 8, 2026