Author

Jennifer Shutt

Jennifer Shutt

Jennifer covers the nation’s capital as a senior reporter for States Newsroom. Her coverage areas include congressional policy, politics and legal challenges with a focus on health care, unemployment, housing and aid to families.

President Biden Delivers State Of The Union Address

Biden administration details potential cuts in education, food aid and more under GOP plan

By: - March 20, 2023

WASHINGTON — Federal departments and agencies say U.S. House Republicans’ plans to cut federal spending would result in reductions to key programs like food aid, education assistance and wildfire management. The series of letters from across the federal government released Monday detail exactly how plans to cut at least $130 billion in domestic spending during […]

An Army soldier bows her head in prayer at a welcome home ceremony for troops returning from Iraq

U.S. Senate moves toward repealing authority for military force against Iraq

By: - March 16, 2023

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate took a broadly bipartisan vote Thursday to advance legislation that would end the 32-year-old and the 20-year-old Authorizations for Use of Military Force against Iraq. The 68-27 vote moves the measure past the chamber’s 60-vote legislative filibuster and towards a final passage vote as soon as next week. House Republican […]

COVID-19

Congress unanimously votes to require declassified information on COVID-19 origins

By: - March 10, 2023

WASHINGTON — The divided 118th Congress approved its first bill Friday, after lawmakers in both the House and Senate voted unanimously to send President Joe Biden legislation that would require declassification of intelligence on the origins of COVID-19. The four-page bill, which the House voted 419-0 to clear, would require the Director of National Intelligence […]

President Biden Delivers State Of The Union Address

Biden budget asks for 25% tax on billionaires, boosts in domestic and defense spending

By: - March 9, 2023

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden’s budget request for the upcoming fiscal year asks Congress to boost funding for defense and domestic programs and levy a 25% minimum tax on billionaires, setting up a significant contrast with House Republicans, who hope to cut spending to last year’s levels and overwhelmingly oppose tax increases. The president’s budget […]

Health Care Professionals Work On The Frontlines Of COVID-19 Pandemic In Maryland Hospital

Lawmakers hear theories on COVID-19 origins in U.S. House hearing

By: - March 8, 2023

WASHINGTON — Democrats and Republicans mostly agreed Wednesday that scientists and the intelligence community should fully investigate the origins of COVID-19 without political interference over whether the virus emerged from nature or through a lab leak. Members from both political parties said throughout the U.S. House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic hearing that determining […]

A view of the Treasury Department building in Washington, D.C.

Economist warns that ‘heightened dysfunction’ in Congress raises risk of debt default

By: - March 7, 2023

WASHINGTON — Economists on Tuesday urged Congress to address the debt limit quickly, cautioning that simply because U.S. lawmakers have successfully brokered deals before doesn’t mean they will be able to this year. “There is a temptation to brush off the developing debt limit drama, thinking it will end the same way as the others […]

A glass of water next to pills and the box they came in

How the judge who could ban the abortion pill won confirmation in the U.S. Senate

By: - February 28, 2023

WASHINGTON — The U.S. District Court judge who could end more than two decades of legal access to medication abortion underwent extensive questioning about LGBTQ equality at his December 2017 confirmation hearing — and very little about his views on abortion. Matthew Joseph Kacsmaryk, appointed by former President Donald Trump earlier in 2017, spent much […]

U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds talks to reporters

Bipartisan group predicts U.S. debt default as soon as summer, depending on tax receipts

By: - February 22, 2023

WASHINGTON — A bipartisan think tank expects that the United States will default on its debt in the summer or early fall, if Congress doesn’t take action to address the debt limit before then. The timeline is similar to one the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office released last week, saying lawmakers have until sometime between July and September […]

President Biden Delivers State Of The Union Address

Biden’s annual physical shows he is ‘a healthy, vigorous, 80-year-old male’

By: - February 16, 2023

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden received a mostly positive review of his health from doctors at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Thursday after undergoing his annual physical. The official evaluation of Biden’s health comes as the former vice president and longtime U.S. senator from Delaware weighs whether to run for reelection in 2024. […]

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen

U.S. likely to default on debt between July and September unless Congress acts, CBO says

By: - February 15, 2023

WASHINGTON — Congress has until at least July to broker a bipartisan debt agreement if lawmakers want to avoid a first-ever default, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The nonpartisan scorekeeper, which typically details how much legislation would cost, released a report Wednesday saying that U.S. lawmakers and the Biden administration have until sometime between […]

Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach encouraged lawmakers to pass legislation blocking foreign entities from buying Kansas agricultural land during a Thursday news conference. (Rachel Mipro/Kansas Reflector)

Attorneys general from 23 GOP-led states back suit seeking to block abortion pill

By: - February 10, 2023

WASHINGTON — Attorneys general representing nearly two dozen Republican states are backing a lawsuit that would remove the abortion pill from throughout the United States after more than two decades, eliminating the option even in states where abortion access remains legal. The state of Missouri filed its own brief in the case Friday while Mississippi […]

President Joe Biden stands next to a banner reading "Building a Better America"

Biden meets with governors, urges them to implement laws allocating billions to states

By: - February 10, 2023

WASHINGTON — Governors from throughout the country, including Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, met with President Joe Biden on Friday at the White House to hash out the best way to implement the billions of federal dollars flowing to their states from both bipartisan and Democratic legislation. Biden, who typically meets with the governors when they […]