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News >  Nation/World

‘We’re getting farther apart’: Murray, Risch weigh in on COVID-19 relief negotiations as deadlines loom

UPDATED: Wed., July 29, 2020

WASHINGTON – With key pieces of the federal government’s COVID-19 response set to expire at the end of July, time is running out for Congress to negotiate another round of pandemic relief spending, and lawmakers remain far apart on what a compromise bill should look like.

News >  Nation

Murray pushes Senate Democrats’ bill seeking to address racial inequity in COVID-19 and beyond

UPDATED: Wed., July 29, 2020

WASHINGTON – COVID-19 has spared no demographic group as it has swept across the United States, but far from the “great equalizer” it was once made out to be, mounting evidence shows that the pandemic has hit communities of color especially hard.

News >  Nation/World

Inland Northwest lawmakers push for House vote on bills to protect Native women

Sun., July 26, 2020

WASHINGTON – Lawmakers from the Inland Northwest are calling on leaders in the House of Representatives to allow votes on two bills to address violence against Native American women and girls, which despite bipartisan support have stalled as COVID-19 has thrown the legislative schedule into disarray.

News >  Washington

Spokane Tribe receives $1.8 million federal grant for roadway improvements

UPDATED: Fri., July 24, 2020

The Spokane Tribe of Indians will receive $1.8 million through a grant from the U.S. Commerce Department’s Economic Development Administration for road infrastructure improvements, the department announced Friday.

Sports >  Outdoors

Landmark conservation bill with big implications for Inland Northwest passes House, heads to president for signature

UPDATED: Wed., July 22, 2020

WASHINGTON – Help is on the way for America’s neglected national parks after the House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a landmark conservation package to address a nearly $20 billion maintenance backlog on public lands and pour $900 million a year into a fund used to maintain and acquire new land for parks.

News

Congress debates controversial amendments to annual defense bill

UPDATED: Tue., July 21, 2020

WASHINGTON – House and Senate lawmakers returned to the Capitol on Monday after a two-week break to debate a military spending package with hundreds of amendments that could include provisions to limit the transfer of military equipment to police, rename bases named after Confederates and restrict the use of federal agents against protesters.

News >  Agriculture

As COVID-19 strains U.S. agriculture, Newhouse says immigration reform more urgent than ever

UPDATED: Mon., July 20, 2020

WASHINGTON – Last December, before COVID-19 upended Americans’ lives, the House of Representatives accomplished something that had long eluded lawmakers, passing an immigration reform bill with significant support from both Democrats and Republicans that could give legal status to hundreds of thousands of unauthorized farm workers.

News >  ID Government

Northwest lawmakers pursue different priorities in new COVID relief package

UPDATED: Sat., July 18, 2020

WASHINGTON – Lawmakers are set to return to the Capitol on Monday after a two-week break, facing a de facto deadline at the end of the month to pass another round of coronavirus relief, but Republicans and Democrats will first need to reconcile dramatically different visions for what the legislation should include.

News >  WA Government

Murray plan would create $50 billion child care fund as part of next COVID-19 relief package

UPDATED: Thu., July 16, 2020

A new bill from Sen. Patty Murray would create a $50 billion fund to support child care, a critical sector of the economy that has been hit hard by COVID-19 and will be essential to efforts for parents to return to work.

News >  Nation/World

Nomination of public lands critic to lead Bureau of Land Management could lead to tight Senate vote

UPDATED: Thu., July 16, 2020

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump’s nomination of a controversial lawyer who has advocated selling off public lands to lead the Bureau of Land Management has drawn the ire of conservationists and put a spotlight on an issue with major implications for the West.

News >  Business

As nationwide coin shortage hits Spokane, business owners say it’s time for change

Wed., July 15, 2020

Ever since he opened the Super Wash in Spokane in 2005, Steve Cada said, he never needed to replace the quarters that cycled between the rows of washers and dryers and the change machine customers feed bills into.

News >  ID Government

Idaho lawmakers’ bill would let tribes, counties collect revenue from timber sales in Forest Service partnerships

UPDATED: Thu., July 16, 2020

New legislation introduced by two Idaho Republicans would expand a controversial federal program that lets states partner with the U.S. Forest Service for forest management projects, allowing tribes and counties to collect revenue from timber sales from public lands.

News >  Nation

Inland Northwest tribal leaders, lawyers praise key Supreme Court decision on tribal sovereignty

UPDATED: Thu., July 9, 2020

WASHINGTON – In a decision hailed by Native American leaders in the Inland Northwest as a victory for tribal sovereignty, the Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that a large part of eastern Oklahoma is an Indian reservation, affirming that Congress never officially “disestablished” the Muscogee (Creek) Nation when it divided tribal land into private property at the end of the 19th century.

News >  Nation

Washington lawmakers react to Supreme Court ruling that lets employers opt out of birth control coverage

UPDATED: Wed., July 8, 2020

WASHINGTON – In a ruling issued Wednesday, the Supreme Court upheld a Trump administration policy that lets employers opt out of a requirement under the Affordable Care Act to provide health insurance that includes contraceptive coverage.

News >  WA Government

McMorris Rodgers bill would speed dam licensing, designate hydropower as ‘renewable’

UPDATED: Tue., July 7, 2020

WASHINGTON – A new bill from Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers would speed up the licensing process for hydroelectric dams and let a federal agency waive licensing requirements for small projects, as the Republican from Washington’s 5th district continues her efforts to make hydropower a bigger part of the nation’s evolving energy grid.

News >  Education

Washington leaders oppose visa changes affecting international college students

UPDATED: Wed., July 8, 2020

Washington university administrators, Gov. Jay Inslee and bipartisan members of the state’s congressional delegation on Tuesday denounced new visa restrictions imposed by President Donald Trump’s administration.

News >  WA Government

Newhouse faces five challengers in 4th congressional district primary

UPDATED: Sat., July 4, 2020

Washington’s Aug. 4 primary will see a crowded race for the 4th congressional district, with three-term Republican incumbent Rep. Dan Newhouse facing five challengers for his seat representing Central Washington.

News >  Local Government

‘Very concerned’ Fauci issues plea for personal responsibility to slow COVID-19

UPDATED: Tue., June 30, 2020

WASHINGTON – In a Senate hearing Tuesday, four of the nation’s top public health officials called on all Americans to do their part in slowing the spread of COVID-19 and warned of dire consequences if current trends in nationwide infections continue.

News >  Nation

In tense hearing, lawmakers question use of force to clear path for Trump photo-op

UPDATED: Mon., June 29, 2020

U.S. Park Police and National Guard troops used smoke canisters, chemical irritants, explosives, projectiles, batons and horses to clear protesters from Lafayette Square on June 1.

News >  Local business

Trump administration asks Supreme Court to overturn ‘Obamacare’

UPDATED: Fri., June 26, 2020

WASHINGTON – The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to strike down the Affordable Care Act, escalating a long-running battle over former President Barack Obama’s signature health care law that could cause millions of Americans to lose their health insurance.

News >  Nation/World

Senate Democrats block GOP police bill, accusing Republicans of bad faith

UPDATED: Thu., June 25, 2020

WASHINGTON – Democratic senators blocked a Republican-crafted policing bill from moving forward Wednesday, as both parties accused each other of playing politics amid nationwide calls to reform law enforcement.

News >  Nation

Fauci tells lawmakers he is ‘cautiously optimistic’ for COVID-19 vaccine by end of year

UPDATED: Tue., June 23, 2020

Dr. Anthony Fauci told lawmakers on Capitol Hill Tuesday that he is “cautiously optimistic” that a COVID-19 vaccine will be available by late 2020 or early 2021, but warned of “a disturbing surge of infections” in parts of the country that had so far been less affected by the virus.

News

Senators level blame at WHO, Trump in hearing on COVID-19 response

UPDATED: Thu., June 18, 2020

WASHINGTON – As the numbers of infections and deaths in the U.S. from COVID-19 continue to climb, Senators questioned Trump administration officials Thursday about the government’s response to the crisis and preparedness for future pandemics.

News

Northwest lawmakers react to Supreme Court’s DACA ruling

UPDATED: Thu., June 18, 2020

WASHINGTON – Lawmakers and other elected officials from Washington state expressed relief Thursday after the Supreme Court blocked the Trump administration’s effort to end a program that protects the “Dreamers,” undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children.

News

Senate passes bipartisan conservation bill

Thu., June 18, 2020

WASHINGTON – In a rare show of bipartisanship, the Senate passed a landmark conservation package Wednesday with big implications for the nation’s public lands – and perhaps also for control of the Senate in November’s election.