Author: Samantha-Jo Roth

The acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration detailed downsizing plans and efforts to implement artificial intelligence in a new memo sent to staff Tuesday and acknowledged he made mistakes during his brief time leading the agency. Leland Dudek took over the agency in mid-February after the previous leadership resigned amid clashes with Elon Musk’s…

Nearly 10,000 employees returned to the Food and Drug Administration’s headquarters in Maryland on Monday to what one worker described as a “Hunger Games-type situation” in which employees encountered packed parking lots, overflowing workspaces that lacked basic supplies, and long security lines. The FDA ordered personnel to return to the office on Monday, a requirement…

Chinese state media are commending President Donald Trump’s move to disband Voice of America and other U.S. government-funded news organizations that broadcast to authoritarian regimes.  The state-backed Global Times published an editorial Monday in which it called VOA a “lie factory” with an “appalling track record” when it comes to China-related reporting.  The editorial called…

The Senate on Friday passed a bipartisan fix to prevent an immediate $1.1 billion cut to the Washington, D.C.’s budget, sending the measure to the House to prevent an imminent slashing of programs. Washington’s financial fate was thrust into the center of the political debate after Republicans in the House did not include a standard…

The Senate passed a Republican-backed bill to fund the government, sending the measure to President Donald Trump’s desk ahead of a midnight funding deadline. The bill, which would fund the government through Sept. 30, passed 54-46. Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Angus King (I-ME) voted with the majority of Republicans to pass the bill. Sen.…

Senate Democrats failed to block a GOP spending bill on Friday, all but guaranteeing President Donald Trump a victory in a days-long shutdown fight. The U.S. Senate narrowly voted 62-38 to advance the six-month government funding bill, clearing the way for a final vote later Friday to prevent a shutdown at midnight, when current spending legislation expires.…

Federal agencies submitted their plans on Thursday to the Office of Personnel Management for widespread federal worker layoffs, which will soon provide the clearest picture yet of President Donald Trump’s efforts to shrink the U.S. federal government.   Trump and billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has pursued a sweeping effort to slash the size of…

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said there are not enough votes in his caucus to advance the short-term funding bill that passed in the House on Tuesday, and instead is calling for a vote on a one-month clean continuing resolution, pushing the government closer to a shutdown. “Funding the government should be a bipartisan…

A senior official at the U.S. Agency for International Development ordered the agency’s remaining employees to destroy internal documents at the now-former headquarters in Washington on Tuesday, according to an email sent to staff, setting off a legal challenge on Tuesday. Employees were instructed to destroy items in the agency’s “classified safes and personnel documents”…

The mayors of New York, Denver, Boston, and Chicago fended off a barrage of questions from Republicans who accused them of protecting criminals and jeopardizing the president’s plan to deport millions of undocumented immigrants. In a contentious House Oversight Committee hearing on Wednesday, Chairman James Comer (R-KY) singled out New York City Mayor Eric Adams…