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.

With time growing short, U.S. Senate talks extend on immigration overhaul

By: - December 8, 2023

WASHINGTON — Members of Congress left the Capitol on Thursday without a deal on sought-after changes to immigration policy that’s tied to aid for Ukraine and Israel — leaving them just one week to resolve the dispute before lawmakers depart for a three-week holiday break. Negotiations among a small group of senators are expected to […]

CNN to host GOP presidential debates ahead of Iowa caucuses, New Hampshire primary

By: - December 7, 2023

WASHINGTON — Republicans hoping to become their party’s presidential nominee will have two more chances to debate next month, following an announcement Thursday that CNN will host one debate in Iowa and another in New Hampshire. The first debate is scheduled for Jan. 10 at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, and the second debate […]

Divided over immigration, U.S. Senate blocks advancing aid for Ukraine, Israel 

By: - December 6, 2023

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate failed to move forward Wednesday with a $111 billion spending package that would have bolstered aid to Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan and the Southern border amid deep disagreement about immigration policy. The 49-51 procedural vote, which needed at least 60 senators to advance the bill toward final passage, represents a significant […]

White House points to defense spending in states in new plea for Ukraine aid

By: - December 4, 2023

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration is warning Congress that without more funding for Ukraine, the United States will no longer be able to provide that country with military assistance — and emphasizing the multiple states from Arkansas to Michigan to Pennsylvania where businesses already have benefited from earlier aid. Cutting off U.S. funding would not […]

New York Republican George Santos expelled by U.S. House in bipartisan vote

By: - December 1, 2023

WASHINGTON — New York Republican George Santos on Friday became the sixth lawmaker in history and the first member of the GOP to be expelled from the U.S. House of Representatives. The 311-114 bipartisan vote, which required two-thirds support, followed months of scandal that culminated in a federal criminal indictment and a damning report from the […]

At U.S. Senate lunch, Rand Paul aids Joni Ernst in choking emergency 

By: - November 30, 2023

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst is doing OK after a fellow senator, Rand Paul of Kentucky, had to perform the Heimlich maneuver on the Iowa Republican when she choked on food during a closed-door GOP lunch Thursday. “Can’t help but choke on the woke policies Dems are forcing down our throats. Thanks, Dr. @RandPaul!,” Ernst wrote on […]

Democrats split on placing conditions on military aid to Israel

By: - November 29, 2023

WASHINGTON — Democrats in Congress are divided on whether to set guardrails on additional military aid to Israel as that country responds to the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks with airstrikes and a ground war in Gaza. It’s not yet clear what those conditions would be or how they would affect congressional support for aid […]

Schumer on U.S. Senate floor condemns ‘rank antisemitism’ amid Israel-Hamas war

By: - November 29, 2023

WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, the nation’s highest-ranking Jewish official, spoke from the chamber on Wednesday about the rise of antisemitism in the United States since the attack by Hamas militants on Israel and that nation’s airstrikes on Gaza. Schumer, speaking to a mostly empty chamber, an unlikely setting for what he described […]

U.S. Senate panel advances former Maryland governor’s nomination to lead Social Security

By: - November 28, 2023

WASHINGTON — Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley moved one step closer Tuesday to becoming the next Social Security commissioner, a role that would become increasingly difficult as the program inches closer to insolvency during the next decade. The U.S. Senate Finance Committee voted 17-10 to send O’Malley’s nomination to the floor, though it’s not clear […]

Three presidential debates, one VP debate scheduled ahead of 2024 election

By: - November 20, 2023

WASHINGTON — The Democratic and Republican nominees for president would debate three times next year if both candidates agree to a schedule released Monday by the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates. “The United States’ general election debates, watched live worldwide, are a model for many other countries: the opportunity to hear and see leading candidates […]

Congress sends stopgap spending bill to Biden’s desk, averting shutdown for now

By: - November 16, 2023

WASHINGTON — U.S. senators voted 87-11 to approve legislation Wednesday that would fund the government into next year, clearing the measure for President Joe Biden’s signature. The stopgap spending bill, sometimes called a continuing resolution or CR, would fund part of the government until mid-January and the rest of the programs within the annual appropriations […]

VA secretary says agency will cooperate with investigation into veterans crisis line

By: - November 15, 2023

WASHINGTON — Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough sought to defend the veterans crisis line Wednesday in a letter to the Kansas senator who has raised concerns with how some veterans are treated after calling it. McDonough wrote in the three-page letter to Republican U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran that the VA “takes any allegations […]