Author

Ashley Murray

Ashley Murray

Ashley Murray covers the nation’s capital as a senior reporter for States Newsroom. Her coverage areas include domestic policy and appropriations.

Pentagon to halt use of firefighting foam that contains PFAS as cleanup costs mount

By: and - March 17, 2023

WASHINGTON — Battered by years of criticism from U.S. lawmakers and environmental advocates, the Department of Defense will stop purchasing PFAS-containing firefighting foam later this year and phase it out entirely in 2024. The replacement for Aqueous Film Forming Foam has yet to be determined, and advocates are frustrated it’s taken so long to halt […]

Biden says U.S. bank deposits are safe despite tumult over California bank collapse

By: - March 13, 2023

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden reassured Americans early Monday that their money is safe in U.S. banks, after a tumultuous weekend following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and a move by regulators to shut down a second lender. Americans “should feel confident that their deposits will be there, if and when they need them,” […]

GOP bill mandating federal Parents Bill of Rights passed by U.S. House committee

By: - March 10, 2023

WASHINGTON —- A national “Parents Bill of Rights” is headed for a full U.S. House vote after the House Committee on Education and the Workforce early Thursday approved the measure designed to empower parents to inspect books and other teaching materials in schools. Lawmakers on the committee debated the GOP-backed bill that would federally mandate […]

Biden says no evidence yet that unidentified flying objects were tied to China spying

By: - February 17, 2023

In his first address since the U.S. military shot down three unidentified flying objects last weekend, just days after taking down a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon, President Joe Biden on Thursday defended the actions and said the skies above the U.S. will now be more closely scrutinized. Biden, who was under increasing pressure from lawmakers […]

Biden in State of the Union address draws boos and shouts from a combative GOP

By: and - February 8, 2023

President Joe Biden began his State of the Union address Tuesday — his first to a divided Congress — with an appeal to bipartisan priorities, but later criticized parts of the GOP agenda and got a sense of Republicans’ appetite for conflict during one combative stretch. Biden opened the 72-minute speech with an olive branch […]

house relief

U.S. House panel probes extent of fraud in federal COVID-19 relief programs

By: - February 3, 2023

From 2020 to 2022, a group of Minnesotans pretended to be serving meals to low-income children, all the while filing for reimbursement under a federal COVID-19 relief program aimed to buoy child nutrition as schools and childcare centers closed. In all, the schemers defrauded the government of $250 million, the Minnesota Reformer reported. Three defendants pleaded guilty in […]

speaker

U.S. House GOP backs McCarthy as speaker after tense and chaotic late-night session

By: and - January 7, 2023

WASHINGTON — The U.S. House elected Kevin McCarthy speaker early Saturday after most of the chamber’s Republicans finally gathered behind him, ending a four-day stalemate that led to the most rounds of voting for a speaker since before the Civil War. The California Republican was able to clinch the gavel on the 15th ballot by turning many of the 20 conservative […]

speaker

U.S. House stuck for a third day as Republicans struggle to unite around a speaker

By: and - January 6, 2023

WASHINGTON — The U.S. House adjourned Thursday again without a speaker, racking up five more ballots throughout the day before members left the floor shortly after 8 p.m. Eastern, with some decamping to closed-door negotiations and others leaving the Capitol. “I am not a part of any negotiations,” Colorado’s Lauren Boebert, a leading opponent of […]

leadership

Conservative faction in U.S. House tank McCarthy bid to be speaker on multiple ballots

By: and - January 4, 2023

WASHINGTON — Republican control of the U.S. House got off to a rocky start Tuesday when the party was unable to decide who should become speaker amid a sharp disagreement within the party’s more conservative faction. California Rep. Kevin McCarthy didn’t clinch the backing of the 218 lawmakers he needed to become the head of the […]

Zelenskyy pledges a fight for ‘common victory’ against Russian tyranny in visit to U.S.

By: - December 22, 2022

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden declared Wednesday that Ukraine will “never stand alone” as he welcomed President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for an historic U.S. visit — a rare departure from Zelenskyy’s months-long fight to defend his country from deadly Russian shelling and targeting of civilian infrastructure. The wartime Ukrainian leader met Biden at the White House, […]