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Government

Government news from Live News Chat: federal agencies, Congress, policy and public-sector stories, updated daily.

Overhead view of printed press-release pages on a wooden desk with a paper check laid across them, a fountain pen, a calculator and a cup of coffee

Trump Promises Fraud Tipsters 1% With ‘No Limit’, Not the $30,000 Cap His Own Justice Department Published the Same Day

“I will be the arbitrator of all of these decisions.” That was the president of the United States, in the Oval Office on Tuesday, describing how…

By Mark Masterson · 4d ago · 6 min read

Government
A Federal Judge Found a Strong Showing of Bad Faith in Trump’s East Potomac Golf Course Tree Cutting

5d ago
Government
After 158 Years, the Supreme Court Will Decide Whether Making Whiskey at Home Is a Federal Crime

6d ago
Government
Trump’s Justice Department Tells an Appeals Court the Presidential Records Act Is Unconstitutional, a Law Its Own Lawyers Backed in 1978

Oct 16

More in Government

Kimberly Guilfoyle in a navy blazer and bow blouse stands outside the glass entrance of the U.S. Embassy in Athens with two men in dark suits behind her

The White House Asked ‘Wonderful Asset’ Kimberly Guilfoyle to Resign as Ambassador to Greece

Eleven and a half minutes into her first briefing as White House press secretary…

By Mark Masterson · Oct 13

A hand reaches for one of four small unlabeled glass vials on a kitchen counter beside an opened padded mailer and two capped insulin syringes

The FDA Received Two Death Reports Tied to Bootleg ‘Reta’ After Warning 14 Sellers of the Weight-Loss Drug to Stop

“Provided her the link and sold her vials and provided recommended dosages.” An adverse…

By Mark Masterson · Oct 13

Freshly cut tree stumps and stacked trunks on a flat golf course fairway, with two workers beside a wood chipper and the Washington Monument in the distance

Nearly 400 Taxpayer-Funded Trump Ads Aired After a Judge’s Ban, the Same Weekend 430 Trees Were Cut at a Golf Course He Wants Rebuilt

A federal judge in Manhattan ordered the Trump administration to stop airing its taxpayer-funded…

By Mark Masterson · Oct 13

An empty roller coaster train stopped partway up an orange lift hill on teal supports, with a police SUV and two families walking across a parking lot in the foreground.

Who Investigates the Death of a Rider Who Fell From the Goliath Roller Coaster at Six Flags Over Georgia?

A rider fell from the Goliath roller coaster at Six Flags Over Georgia just…

By Mark Masterson · Oct 12

Two residents fill sandbags from a pile of sand beside a line of pickup trucks under a gray sky on a Gulf Coast road

Hurricane Isaias Heads for the Gulf Coast as a Court Deadline on FEMA’s Staff Cuts Arrives

“I hadn’t heard about a hurricane. The hurricane is going in the vicinity of…

By Mark Masterson · Oct 8

An antique clock and a smartphone on a marble ledge with the US Capitol dome in pre-dawn darkness

After Trump Posted His Cell Number, Tom Cotton Is Still Blocking Permanent Daylight Saving Time

Posting one senator’s phone number does not move a bill whose real gatekeeper is…

By Mark Masterson · Oct 5

A caseworker rubs her forehead at a desk piled with case files while families wait in plastic chairs in a county benefits office

75% of SNAP’s Administrative Costs Shift to the States Thursday, the Same Day Benefits Rise

On Thursday, October 1, SNAP benefits go up and the federal government stops paying…

By Mark Masterson · Sep 29

The United States Senate chamber seen from the visitors gallery during a floor vote, with many desks empty and a small group of senators standing in the well near the clerk

After the House Passed It in July, the Senate Rejected the Iran War Resolution 49 to 50

The Senate voted 49 to 50 on Thursday afternoon against a resolution directing President…

By Mark Masterson · Sep 24

A laptop screen glowing red with a glitched table of personnel records and ID photos, an FBI badge on the desk and the FBI headquarters building outside a rainy window

ShinyHunters, the Hacking Group the FBI Warned About in May, Says It Stole Data on Nearly Every FBI Agent

“Do not send payment or respond to their demands.” The FBI, about ShinyHunters, May…

By Mark Masterson · Sep 23

Donald Trump stands alone at the end of a red carpet on an airfield as an Air China Boeing 747 taxis behind him, with a military honor guard holding US and Chinese flags

Why Is Trump Meeting Xi on the Tarmac When Xi Sent a Deputy to Meet Him in Beijing?

Donald Trump is scheduled to be standing at the bottom of the stairs when…

By Mark Masterson · Sep 23

Overhead view of printed public health report pages with charts, a blank death certificate form, a pen, reading glasses and a mug of coffee on a wooden desk

Pennsylvania Counts Four Measles Deaths, the CDC’s National Tally Counts None

Pennsylvania’s health department has confirmed four measles-associated deaths in the outbreak now running through…

By Mark Masterson · Sep 21

Two air traffic controllers seen from behind at a bank of radar and flight data screens inside a control tower, with runways and a distant tower visible through the windows at dusk

Artificial Intelligence

An $875 Million AI Starts Routing Traffic Over Washington’s Three Airports Today

The Federal Aviation Administration switches on an artificial intelligence system over Reagan National, Dulles…

By Mark Masterson · Sep 21

Archive

Representative Thomas Massie, grey-bearded in an olive tweed jacket and dark red tie, speaks into a microphone at the wooden House of Representatives lectern while holding papers

After a Republican Read Eight Impeachment Articles Aloud, the House Must Vote on Hegseth by Thursday

A pole-mounted automated license plate reader camera stands on the grassy shoulder of a Florida highway at dusk, with car light trails and palms behind it

Florida Ordered Flock Cameras Off State Roads Because That Is Where Its Authority Ends

A wet airport runway ending in grass and a chain-link perimeter fence, with cars and a semi truck on a multi-lane road immediately beyond it at dusk

Miami’s Runway 30 Ends at a Public Road, Not an Arrestor Bed

A low rope on white posts runs from the dune line toward the surf, splitting a wide white-sand beach, with pastel beach houses on the dune ridge and one empty folding chair on the open side

The Law That Closed Walton County’s Beaches Was Repealed Fourteen Months Ago

An emptied government office floor with vacant cubicles, stacked cardboard boxes and a single desk lamp still lit, sunlight striped across the carpet through venetian blinds

The IRS Lost a Third of Its Audit Revenue, and the Money to Rebuild the Staff Ran Out on New Year’s Eve

The United States Capitol lit against a heavy grey sky at blue hour, reflected in a rain-soaked and completely deserted plaza

Congress Sent the Iran War Bill to the Lame Duck, the One Session Voters Cannot Reach

A tall stack of government documents covered in heavy black redaction bars sits under a brass desk lamp in a dim courtroom, an empty judge's bench behind it

Congress Is Writing a Second Epstein Law Because the Attorney General Already Admitted He Is Breaking the First

Empty graded ground marked with surveyor stakes and orange string lines at dawn, a rocket launch gantry silhouetted on the far horizon

The Executive Order Creating a Space Academy Does Not Create a Space Academy

Two pairs of blue-gloved hands sorting stacks of paper ballots on a table beside sealed ballot transfer boxes in an election office

The Chinese Parts in America’s Voting Machines Are Real, Which Is Why Homeland Security Can Get Away With This

Rows of empty wooden school desks dusted with snow arranged on the lawn in front of the domed Minnesota State Capitol under an overcast sky

Minnesota Never Voted on the Gun Bill Annunciation’s Parents Spent a Year Fighting For

National Park Service maintenance crews and a utility vehicle beside the drained Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool at dawn, with orange haze on the horizon

Australia Sent Us an Incident Management Team. Ours Is Cleaning a Reflecting Pool.

A senator with curly greying hair sits alone on the raised dais of a Senate committee room above an empty witness table with a blank nameplate holder

Rand Paul, Not the Democrats, Is Why Trump Still Has No Confirmed ICE Director

A US Navy nuclear aircraft carrier under way alone in open ocean at dawn, its flight deck empty of aircraft

The Navy Has Three Weeks to Get Its Story Straight Before the Lincoln Docks in San Diego

A blonde woman in a red dress holds a thick stack of printed pages in the Oval Office while a seated figure at the Resolute Desk faces away from the camera

The Natalie Harp Letters Describe a Job the White House Never Formally Assigned