Author

Ashley Murray

Ashley Murray

Ashley Murray covers the nation’s capital as a senior reporter for States Newsroom. Her coverage areas include domestic policy and appropriations.

Nurses station in busy hospital

Hospitals plead with Congress to avert $8 billion in cuts in Medicaid funding

By: - September 14, 2023

WASHINGTON — Health care representatives from across the United States are urging Congress to halt cuts to funding that helps hospitals care for uninsured or low-income patients who rely on Medicaid. More than 250 hospitals and health systems appealed to House and Senate leadership in a letter Thursday asking the lawmakers to avert or delay […]

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre answers questions from reporters at a White House briefing on Sept. 13, 2023

White House slams ‘baseless’ House GOP impeachment inquiry as ‘political stunt’

By: - September 13, 2023

WASHINGTON — The White House is lambasting the House GOP’s decision to open an impeachment inquiry into unproven allegations that President Joe Biden profited from his son’s international business scheme during his time as vice president in the Obama administration. Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy announced Tuesday that he directed several of the chamber’s […]

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., speaks during a news conference Sept. 6, 2023, following a closed-door lunch meeting with Senate Democrats at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.

Battles over spending, farm bill, Ukraine and yet more loom over a divided Congress

By: , , and - September 12, 2023

WASHINGTON — The U.S. House and Senate are both back in D.C. on Tuesday following a long summer recess, facing an overwhelming agenda of unfinished work — funding the federal government and reauthorizing major programs set to expire at the end of the month. Congressional leaders and President Joe Biden have only a few weeks […]

Jar for prescription drugs stuffed with hundred dollar bill representing high cost health care

Biden administration chooses first 10 drugs for Medicare price negotiations

By: - August 29, 2023

WASHINGTON — Medicare can now negotiate lower prices for 10 common high-price drugs, cutting out-of-pocket costs for an estimated 9 million seniors and saving taxpayers billions, the Biden administration said Tuesday. Medicare will begin this year to negotiate with the manufacturers of popular medications used to treat blood clots, diabetes, heart disease, rheumatoid arthritis, chronic […]

Judge sets March trial date in Trump federal election interference case

By: - August 28, 2023

  WASHINGTON — The federal trial in the case accusing former President Donald Trump of knowingly lying about the 2020 presidential election results and trying to overturn them will begin in March, a federal judge said Monday. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who waived Trump’s appearance for the first hearing, scheduled jury selection to begin […]

A farmer harvests corn Oct. 17, 2020, near Slater, Iowa

Farm bill timeline in flux as a messy September for Congress nears

By: - August 15, 2023

WASHINGTON — The roundtables, listening sessions and appearances at farm shows have largely wrapped up and lawmakers tasked with reauthorizing the nation’s agriculture and nutrition programs are comparing notes and beginning to draft the massive, multi-year farm bill. The 2018 version expires Sept. 30, just as many urgent priorities compete for floor time in Congress […]

Family members hold up images of late loved ones at an Aug. 10, 2022, ceremony where U.S. President Joe Biden signed the PACT Act in the East Room of the White House in Washington, D.C.

PACT Act in one year aided 340,000 ailing veterans and survivors, Biden says

By: - August 10, 2023

WASHINGTON — One of the “most significant laws ever signed to help veterans” has already assisted over 340,000 former service members and their survivors seeking care for illnesses and cancers now presumed to be connected to open burn pits and other toxins, President Joe Biden said in Utah on Thursday as he marked one year […]

The crowd outside the courthouse where Trump was being arraigned on Aug. 3, 2023. Some chanted "Lock him up."

Trump pleads not guilty to charges he sought to subvert 2020 election

By: and - August 3, 2023

WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump pleaded not guilty Thursday to four felony charges in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., after a federal grand jury handed up an indictment against the former chief executive related to the 2020 election. Trump, the front-runner in the 2024 GOP presidential primary, was released under the conditions that […]

Comedian and activist Jon Stewart hugs Rosie Torres, wife of veteran Le Roy Torres, who suffers from illnesses related to his exposure to burn pits in Iraq, after the Senate passed the PACT Act Aug. 2, 2022, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. Demonstrators from veterans-rights groups stood outside the Capitol Building in protest calling on the U.S. Senate to pass the PACT Act.

Veterans exposed to burn pits, toxins urged to apply for retroactive benefits

By: - August 3, 2023

WASHINGTON — A deadline for a year’s worth of backdated benefits is fast approaching for U.S. veterans suffering illnesses after exposure to open burn pits, Agent Orange and other toxins. Nearly a year ago, President Joe Biden signed the PACT Act, a law supporters describe as the largest expansion of veteran benefits in U.S. history. […]

Former U.S. President Donald Trump waves as he makes a visit to the Cuban restaurant Versailles after he appeared June 13, 2023, in Miami for an arraignment in connection with allegations he kept classified documents after leaving office

‘Fueled by lies,’ Trump charged with seeking to overturn 2020 election

By: , and - August 1, 2023

WASHINGTON — A federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., indicted Donald Trump on Tuesday, alleging that Trump and co-conspirators attempted to subvert the 2020 election to keep the former president in power through a series of illegal actions that culminated in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. The former president faces four […]

Sen. Tommy Tuberville

Military nominees still stalled by Tuberville hold, with U.S. Senate gone until September 

By: - July 29, 2023

WASHINGTON — Despite warnings from Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin that vacant top military positions affect readiness, Congress is heading into August recess with hundreds of defense nominees on hold as Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville continues his protest against the Defense Department’s abortion leave policy. As of Thursday, 301 military nominees had not yet reached […]

U.S. Navy Lt. Kristin Hope, from Ogden, Utah, signals to launch an F/A-18E Super Hornet from Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 195 from the flight deck aboard the Navy’s forward-deployed aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76) during flight operations in the East China Sea, Aug. 22, 2019

Massive defense bill approved by U.S. Senate, but deep partisan divide with House looms

By: - July 28, 2023

WASHINGTON — U.S. senators avoided a heated partisan split as they passed the massive annual defense policy package late Thursday —  in stark contrast to the GOP-led House version, in which far-right members included language to restrict abortion access and transgender care for service members. Senators passed the National Defense Authorization Act, 86-11, but lawmakers […]