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News >  Government

Inland NW Republicans defend Caribbean boat strikes amid bipartisan scrutiny of potential war crimes

UPDATED: Thu., Dec. 4, 2025

WASHINGTON – Congressional Republicans from the Inland Northwest have largely stood by the Trump administration this week amid bipartisan scrutiny of U.S. military strikes on small boats allegedly carrying drugs in the Caribbean, after the Pentagon acknowledged launching a second missile to kill two survivors of an attack in September.

News >  Federal Government

As Trump pushes to end Ukraine-Russia war, Baumgartner says Russia must return kidnapped Ukrainian children

UPDATED: Tue., Nov. 25, 2025

WASHINGTON – As President Donald Trump on Tuesday touted progress in talks to end the nearly four-year war in Ukraine, an Eastern Washington lawmaker said any peace deal must protect U.S. interests in the region and include the return of Ukrainian children kidnapped by Russia.

News >  Federal Government

Republicans and Democrats agree U.S. health care costs too much. Will they do anything about it?

UPDATED: Sun., Nov. 23, 2025

WASHINGTON – When the Senate Finance Committee met Wednesday for a hearing on the rising cost of health care in the United States, Republicans and Democrats agreed the problem has become a national crisis, but it didn’t take long for the parties to demonstrate why they’ve had such a hard time working together to solve it.

News >  Federal Government

Northwest lawmakers all back release of ‘Epstein files’ in Congress after Trump relents

UPDATED: Tue., Nov. 18, 2025

WASHINGTON – Hours after the House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to direct the Justice Department to release all of its investigative files on the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, senators unanimously sent the measure to the desk of President Donald Trump.

News >  Government

Washington Democrats split as House votes to end longest-ever government shutdown

UPDATED: Wed., Nov. 26, 2025

WASHINGTON – The House of Representatives voted largely along party lines Wednesday night to end the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, with Northwest Republicans voting to fund most of the federal government through January while all but one Democrat from the region opposed the bill because it did not address expiring health insurance subsidies.

News >  Federal Government

Washington Democrats oppose deal to end government shutdown without addressing health care costs

UPDATED: Mon., Nov. 10, 2025

WASHINGTON – After eight members of the Senate Democratic Caucus broke ranks and voted with Republicans to end the government shutdown, Washington state Democrats on Monday criticized the deal for not addressing their party’s demand to extend insurance subsidies whose expiration would raise health care costs for millions of Americans.

News >  Government

Ahead of Veterans Day, VA limits communication with Congress amid longest-ever government shutdown

UPDATED: Thu., Nov. 6, 2025

WASHINGTON – As the government shutdown reached its record-breaking 36th day on Wednesday, most employees at the Department of Veterans Affairs have kept working. But VA policy limits their communication with Congress, making it harder for House and Senate offices to solve problems for former servicemembers.

News >  Government

Dick Cheney in Spokane: What former VP – instrumental in the U.S. War on Terror – said about the conflict while visiting region

UPDATED: Tue., Nov. 4, 2025

Former Vice President Dick Cheney died on Tuesday at the age of 84. A proponent of aggressive U.S. foreign policy, the former Wyoming congressman and defense secretary emphasized military power in three visits to Spokane and Coeur d’Alene.

News >  Federal Government

Tuesday is election day. Here’s a look at the most important race in next year’s election in Washington state

UPDATED: Tue., Nov. 4, 2025

VANCOUVER, Wash. – On a Sunday two weeks before Halloween, people flocked from across southwestern Washington to the pumpkin patch and harvest festival at Bi-Zi Farms, on the outskirts of the biggest city in this largely rural corner of the state.

News >  Government

Judges order Trump administration to keep funding SNAP. When will food benefits reach Washington and Idaho families?

UPDATED: Fri., Oct. 31, 2025

WASHINGTON – Two federal judges on Friday ordered the Trump administration to continue paying for food assistance that was set to end amid the government shutdown, but it was unclear when families in Washington state and Idaho would receive the benefits.

News >  Government

Government shutdown reaches 30-day mark with no end in sight, as NW Republicans and Democrats trade blame

UPDATED: Thu., Oct. 30, 2025

WASHINGTON – The government shutdown reached the 30-day mark on Thursday, as senators left town for the weekend with no clear path to resolving the dispute over health care costs that has kept Congress from funding federal programs.

News >  Government

‘A mistake and a disservice to farmers’: Top USDA official in WA fired with no explanation

UPDATED: Mon., Nov. 3, 2025

WASHINGTON – The top U.S. Department of Agriculture official in Washington state responsible for farm loans, disaster assistance and conservation programs was suddenly fired on Wednesday without explanation, according to multiple farmers who spoke with him.

News >  Government

After Trump and Vance return to TikTok, Cathy McMorris Rodgers expresses cautious optimism

UPDATED: Wed., Oct. 15, 2025

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump returned to TikTok on Monday, posting for the first time since the 2024 election to tout his recent approval of a deal for the app’s Chinese parent company to spin off a U.S. version of the wildly popular video app.

News >  Military

Risch, Simpson defend plan to train Qatari forces at Air Force base in Idaho after it draws backlash from both left and right

UPDATED: Tue., Oct. 14, 2025

WASHINGTON – News that an Air Force base in Idaho will host a training facility for Qatari troops drew criticism from both the left and right over the weekend, with the state’s congressional delegation largely in support of the plan Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on Friday.

News >  Transportation

Spokane International Airport won’t play DHS secretary’s video blaming Democrats for shutdown

UPDATED: Mon., Oct. 13, 2025

WASHINGTON – Spokane International Airport will not display a video in which the Department of Homeland Security chief blames Democrats in Congress for the government shutdown, a spokesman for the airport said in a statement Monday.

News >  Government

Murray puts spotlight on Idaho as shutdown fight over health care drags on

UPDATED: Thu., Oct. 9, 2025

WASHINGTON – With the government shutdown in its ninth day and no sign of serious negotiations between the parties to end it, Democrats are counting on sticker shock putting pressure on Republicans when Americans start seeing rising health insurance costs during this fall’s open enrollment period.

News >  Government

As GOP senators block effort to halt U.S. strikes in Caribbean, Baumgartner says war authorization should go through Congress

UPDATED: Wed., Oct. 8, 2025

WASHINGTON – Senate Republicans on Wednesday blocked an effort by Democrats, joined by two GOP senators, to stop President Donald Trump from launching additional military strikes on boats in the Caribbean Sea suspected of carrying drugs.

News >  Government

Trump administration defunds Northwest hydrogen hub, Spokane grid project, WSU research in cuts targeting ‘the Left’s climate agenda’

UPDATED: Wed., Oct. 15, 2025

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Energy is canceling more than $7.5 billion in grants nationwide, including funding for research at Washington State University, an electrical grid project in Spokane and a billion-dollar effort to turn the Northwest into a hub of the hydrogen energy industry.

News >  Federal Government

Trump and allies claim Democrats demand health care for ‘illegal aliens’ in shutdown fight. Here are the facts.

UPDATED: Thu., Oct. 2, 2025

WASHINGTON – As a government shutdown began on Wednesday, Republicans could make a straightforward argument to blame the other party: Democrats are refusing to pass a bill that would simply keep funding the government at current levels until lawmakers can finish writing bipartisan spending bills.

News >  Federal Government

Northwest Democrats and Republicans dig in for messaging battle as government shutdown begins

UPDATED: Wed., Oct. 1, 2025

WASHINGTON – Congressional Democrats and Republicans from the Northwest blamed each other Tuesday for an imminent government shutdown, as the Senate failed to pass a short-term spending bill amid a fight over health care costs.

News >  Government

With government shutdown imminent, Cantwell highlights Democrats’ key demand: Stopping sharp increase in health insurance costs

UPDATED: Mon., Sept. 29, 2025

WASHINGTON – Congress headed into the weekend with a government shutdown all but certain to begin on Wednesday, as Democrats demand Republican majorities in the House and Senate act to keep health insurance costs from rising while the White House dismissed that condition as “radical left insanity.”

News >  Government

Baumgartner makes rare visit to China as part of bipartisan House delegation

UPDATED: Mon., Sept. 22, 2025

WASHINGTON – A Republican and a Democrat from Washington state met with Premier Li Qiang and other Chinese officials in Beijing on Sunday and Monday, the first delegation of House lawmakers to visit China since 2019.

News >  Government

Government shutdown looms as Senate Democrats reject House GOP bill, Republicans reject Patty Murray’s alternative

UPDATED: Fri., Sept. 19, 2025

WASHINGTON – Congress left town on Friday without passing a bill to fund the government, leaving just two legislative days before a shutdown would begin at the end of the month, after Republicans and Democrats rejected each other’s short-term spending bills.

News >  Government

Cantwell, Northwest business owners denounce import taxes as Supreme Court prepares to consider Trump’s tariff authority

UPDATED: Thu., Sept. 18, 2025

WASHINGTON – Sen. Maria Cantwell and small business owners from the Northwest spoke in front of the Supreme Court on Thursday to highlight how President Donald Trump’s signature trade policy has hurt their companies, as the justices set a date to hear arguments in November on the president’s authority to impose sweeping import taxes.

News >  Government

In Senate hearing, CDC director fired by RFK Jr. tells Murray she is ‘very nervous’ about new vaccine panel

UPDATED: Wed., Sept. 17, 2025

WASHINGTON – The former director and chief medical officer of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told Sen. Patty Murray during a hearing of the Senate Health Committee on Wednesday that they are both concerned about recent actions by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that could make it harder for Americans to get vaccines.