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News >  ID Government

Supreme Court hears case that pits Idaho abortion ban against federal protections for pregnant women

UPDATED: Wed., April 24, 2024

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court on Wednesday considered whether Idaho’s near-total ban on abortion violates a federal law that guarantees necessary treatment in medical emergencies, as the court’s conservative majority deals with the fallout from its 2022 decision that overturned a nationwide right to terminate a pregnancy.

News >  Nation/World

Northwest lawmakers help Congress pass $95 billion package to aid Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan – and force the sale of TikTok

UPDATED: Tue., April 23, 2024

WASHINGTON – The Senate on Tuesday passed a sweeping $95 billion national security bill that includes long-delayed aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, along with humanitarian aid for Palestinians, sanctions on Iran and measures that could lead to a U.S. ban of TikTok if its Chinese parent company doesn’t sell the popular app.

News >  Sci/Tech

Cantwell, McMorris Rodgers strike bipartisan deal on landmark data privacy bill

UPDATED: Sun., April 7, 2024

WASHINGTON – Since the dawn of the internet age, tech companies have developed increasingly sophisticated ways to collect and use vast swaths of Americans' personal data, while Congress has repeatedly failed to regulate the practice. Now, two Washington state lawmakers have a bipartisan plan to break that impasse and set a national standard for data privacy.

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News >  WA Government

How Patty Murray helped craft a compromise to fund the government despite chaos in Congress: ‘Nobody thought we could get this done’

UPDATED: Sat., March 23, 2024

WASHINGTON – The Senate passed a $1.2 trillion spending package early Saturday morning to fund the government through September, narrowly averting a government shutdown, after the legislation cleared the House on Friday.

News >  Nation

Biden nominates Rebecca Pennell to serve as federal district court judge for Eastern Washington

UPDATED: Wed., March 20, 2024

WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden intends to nominate a Washington Court of Appeals judge to serve on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington, the White House said Wednesday.

News >  Agriculture

Washington cherry growers to get federal loans after USDA declares 2023 harvest a disaster

UPDATED: Tue., March 19, 2024

WASHINGTON – Harsh weather made 2023 a bad year for Washington state cherry growers, but help is on the way after the U.S. Department of Agriculture on Tuesday granted Gov. Jay Inslee’s request for a federal disaster declaration.

News >  Nation

Washington’s primary helped unpopular Biden and Trump march toward party nominations. Could parties change paths?

Sun., March 17, 2024

WASHINGTON – If it wasn’t clear enough already, Tuesday’s primaries in Washington and three other states made it official: Joe Biden and Donald Trump have enough delegates to clinch their parties’ nominations for president.

News >  Nation

House passes McMorris Rodgers’ bill that could ban TikTok if Chinese parent company doesn’t sell the app

UPDATED: Wed., March 13, 2024

WASHINGTON – The House passed bipartisan legislation in an overwhelming vote Wednesday that would force the Chinese parent company of TikTok to sell the wildly popular social media platform or face a ban in the United States.

News >  Nation

More than a million Washingtonians can file taxes for free through new pilot program

Tue., March 12, 2024

WASHINGTON – More than 1 million Washington state taxpayers are eligible to file their federal taxes for free through a new pilot program launching Tuesday, the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service announced.

News >  WA Government

Two years after Russian invasion, fate of U.S. aid for Ukraine lies with House Republicans

UPDATED: Mon., Feb. 26, 2024

WASHINGTON – Saturday marked a grim anniversary for the people of Ukraine, two years after Russia’s full-scale invasion of their country and a decade after the Kremlin invaded and eventually annexed the Ukrainian territory of Crimea, kicking off a bloody imperial project founded on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s belief that Ukraine never should have become its own country.

News >  Pacific NW

Northwest tribes, Washington and Oregon sign Columbia River salmon agreement at the White House

UPDATED: Fri., Feb. 23, 2024

WASHINGTON – At the White House on Friday, leaders from four Northwest tribes, along with the governors of Washington and Oregon, signed a major agreement intended to restore salmon runs in the Columbia River Basin.

News >  WA Government

Jacquelin Maycumber enters race to represent Eastern Washington in Congress

UPDATED: Tue., Feb. 20, 2024

The race for Washington’s 5th congressional district came into clearer focus Tuesday, as state Rep. Jacquelin Maycumber announced her candidacy for the seat that will be vacated by her fellow Republican, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers.

News >  Military

A quarter of military families struggle to afford enough food. Northwest lawmakers are trying to help.

Sun., Feb. 18, 2024

Sara Jemo picked up a can of tomato soup from a wagon of groceries, crossed out the bar code with a permanent marker, then placed the can on a shelf. She repeated the process until the cart was empty and the shelf was stocked before she opened the Fairchild Food Pantry on Thursday.

News >  WA Government

After leading trip to southern border, Central Washington’s Dan Newhouse says immigration reform can’t wait

Sun., Feb. 18, 2024

WASHINGTON – In a video recorded on Feb. 8, Rep. Dan Newhouse stood in front of a 20-foot-tall fence on the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona and gave his assessment of a crisis that is dominating American politics.

News >  Military

House panel questions VA plan to launch long-stalled computer system in Illinois as pharmacy problems persist

UPDATED: Thu., Feb. 15, 2024

WASHINGTON – A House subcommittee on Thursday questioned the Department of Veterans Affairs’ plan to launch a troubled computer system at a hospital near Chicago, after problems in the Inland Northwest prompted the department to stall the system’s rollout for almost two years.

News >  WA Government

Cathy McMorris Rodgers won’t seek re-election in 2024

UPDATED: Thu., Feb. 8, 2024

After two decades in Congress, Spokane's Cathy McMorris Rodgers, who leads the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee, announced Thursday she will not run for re-election.

News >  ID Government

Idaho senators help block compromise bill that links border security measures with aid to Ukraine and Israel

UPDATED: Thu., Feb. 8, 2024

WASHINGTON – Senate Republicans on Wednesday blocked legislation that combined aid to Ukraine, Israel and other U.S. allies with funding and policy changes intended to improve border security, rejecting a compromise bill the parties had spent months negotiating – at the behest of Republicans.

News >  Nation

After House passes bipartisan bill to expand Child Tax Credit and cut business taxes, Idaho’s Mike Crapo largely controls its fate in the Senate

UPDATED: Fri., Feb. 2, 2024

WASHINGTON – In a rare show of bipartisan lawmaking, the House of Representatives on Wednesday overwhelmingly passed a bill that would expand the child tax credit for parents and restore a set of tax breaks for businesses, but its fate in the Senate is uncertain.

News >  Nation

Half a million Washington kids will get summer food aid through new federal program, while Idaho could get help next year

UPDATED: Thu., Feb. 1, 2024

WASHINGTON – Nearly 21 million kids from low-income families across the United States, including more than 500,000 in Washington state alone, will get help buying food this summer through a federal program starting this year, while some Republican governors have turned down the money.

News >  WA Government

McMorris Rodgers brings Snake River dam debate to the Capitol, while Yakama Nation warns of ‘misinformation’

UPDATED: Tue., Jan. 30, 2024

WASHINGTON – The long-running debate over the future of the Lower Snake River dams came to the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, as House Republicans railed against an agreement the Biden administration reached in December with the states of Washington and Oregon and four Northwest tribes aimed at restoring salmon runs.

News >  ID Government

Idaho’s Crapo, Simpson endorse Trump on eve of New Hampshire primary

UPDATED: Mon., Jan. 22, 2024

WASHINGTON – Two Idaho Republicans threw their support behind Donald Trump’s re-election bid on Monday, endorsing the former president on the eve of New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary.

News >  WA Government

McMorris Rodgers, Cantwell request update from Biden administration on aid for Gray, Oregon Road wildfire victims

UPDATED: Mon., Jan. 22, 2024

WASHINGTON – Two of Washington’s congressional delegation sent a letter to President Joe Biden on Monday asking for an update on potential aid for the victims of two wildfires that destroyed hundreds of Spokane County homes in August.

News >  Nation

Risch, Fulcher endorse Donald Trump for president as pressure mounts on Republicans

Sun., Jan. 21, 2024

WASHINGTON – Monday’s caucuses in Iowa marked the start of voting to select the next Republican candidate for president, but a growing number of GOP lawmakers are treating the race like it’s already over.

News >  Nation

Patty Murray pledges to work ‘around the clock’ to fund government after congressional leaders reach $1.6 trillion deal

UPDATED: Mon., Jan. 8, 2024

WASHINGTON – After Democratic and Republican leaders in Congress struck a deal over the weekend to fund the government, the Washington lawmaker who leads the Senate Appropriations Committee pledged to work “around the clock” to pass legislation before two looming deadlines.

News >  World

How Sen. Jim Risch and his Idaho ethos became an unlikely leader on foreign policy as global conflicts rage and his party splits

UPDATED: Sun., Dec. 17, 2023

WASHINGTON – By his own account, Jim Risch arrived in Congress in 2009 as something of an isolationist, less interested in the United States’ role around the world than in the domestic issues on which he had focused in three decades as a local prosecutor, Idaho state senator, lieutenant governor and a brief stint as governor.