Federal Government

Handing control over elections to the federal government would be unthinkable to former Washington Secretary of State Sam Reed.

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump campaigned in 2024 on a promise to crack down on illegal border crossings and conduct a “mass deportation” of unauthorized immigrants unlike anything the United States had seen before.

WASHINGTON – The Senate passed a sweeping government funding package on Friday that includes two provisions that could make up to $70 million available to the Spokane Aerospace Tech Hub, a consortium of nearly 50 companies, agencies and schools working to make the Inland Northwest a global leader in manufacturing advanced composite materials.

Border Patrol officials say they detained a Guatemalan father and daughter in Spokane earlier this month because he missed multiple required immigration check-ins as he sought asylum in the United States.

In the rush to comment about the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Alex Pretti on Saturday in Minneapolis, members of the Trump administration have riled some their own supporters by suggesting that the slain intensive care nurse should not have been carrying a gun to a protest. 

Employees at Spokane’s veterans’ hospital observed a moment of silence on Monday morning, and some affixed photos of Alex Pretti to their own ID badges in a show of solidarity with the VA nurse shot dead by Customs and Border Protection agents while being restrained in Minneapolis two days earlier.

WASHINGTON – Less than a week after Sen. Patty Murray negotiated a bipartisan bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security while reining in its aggressive immigration crackdown, the Washington state Democrat vowed to block that legislation after Saturday’s fatal shooting of a Minneapolis man by the department’s agents.

In the wake of the most recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement shooting Saturday in Minneapolis, Republican House Rep. Michael Baumgartner has called for Congress to investigate the immigration enforcement agency.

WASHINGTON – After being paid not to work for nine months, employees at a federal office in Spokane dedicated to workplace safety were reinstated on Jan. 13, but their research faces challenges and uncertainty after many left during the long layoff period.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) restored about $5 billion in public health grants to states just hours after it sent notices pausing such ‌grants, Bloomberg News reported on Saturday.

WASHINGTON – The Department of Homeland Security’s immigration enforcement agents face new accountability measures and a modest cut to their deportation budget in a bipartisan funding package unveiled Tuesday by Sen. Patty Murray of Washington state and her fellow negotiators in Congress.

Universities in Washington will get a boost from the package of spending bills the U.S. Senate passed on Thursday.

WASHINGTON – Monday is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a federal holiday marking the birth of the civil rights leader who was slain in 1968. But Americans who want to spend the day at one of the country’s 63 national parks will have to pay for the first time in 15 years.

WASHINGTON – In remarks to reporters on Wednesday, Rep. Michael Baumgartner called the Jan. 7 killing of a Minnesota woman by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent “a tragedy” but said the shooting appeared to be justified.

WASHINGTON – At least half of the federal government is on a path to keep operating in the event of a lapse in funding that could take place at the end of the month.

WASHINGTON – After President Donald Trump reiterated his desire to take over Greenland, threatening to use military force against the autonomous Danish territory, Eastern Washington’s congressman said Wednesday he supports buying Greenland from Denmark but opposes a military takeover of land controlled by the U.S. ally.

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump’s plan to “run” Venezuela after capturing the South American nation’s president Jan. 3 came into slightly clearer focus over the past week, but Northwest lawmakers still have questions about his administration’s intentions.

WASHINGTON – Five Republicans voted with Democrats as the Senate on Thursday cleared a path for a vote next week that could block President Donald Trump from using further military force against Venezuela, after he said the United States could “run” the South American country for years.