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.

U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy takes questions from reporters on Friday, Sept. 29, 2023, at the U.S. Capitol. (Photo by Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)

Government shutdown nears: U.S. House GOP fails to pass one-month spending plan

By: , , and - September 29, 2023

WASHINGTON — A sweeping government shutdown appeared inevitable on Friday, with the U.S. Senate stuck in a procedural holding pattern on its bipartisan stopgap bill and divided U.S. House Republicans unable to pass their short-term spending bill. Both chambers of Congress must approve and President Joe Biden must sign government funding legislation before midnight on […]

More than 300 signs bearing names, ranks and photos of each military nomination stalled by Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s hold dotted the lawn outside the U.S. Senate on Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2023. Tuberville, an Alabama Republican, is refusing to join a unanimous Senate vote to approve the nominees because he disagrees with a Department of Defense abortion policy. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)

Tuberville opponents plant hundreds of signs outside U.S. Capitol in protest of blockade

By: - September 19, 2023

WASHINGTON — More than 300 signs dotted the lawn outside the U.S. Senate Tuesday, each bearing the name of a military nominee blocked this year by Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama in protest of a Pentagon abortion policy. Multiple Democratic senators delivered comments Tuesday at the sign installation organized by the progressive VoteVets Political […]

A nurses station is seen in an undated image. (Photo by FS Productions/Getty Images)

Hospitals plead with Congress to avert $8 billion in cuts in Medicaid funding

By: - September 14, 2023

WASHINGTON — Health care representatives from across the United States are urging Congress to halt cuts to funding that helps hospitals care for uninsured or low-income patients who rely on Medicaid. More than 250 hospitals and health systems appealed to House and Senate leadership in a letter Thursday asking the lawmakers to avert or delay […]

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., speaks during a news conference following a closed-door lunch meeting with Senate Democrats at the U.S. Capitol on Sept. 6, 2023, in Washington, D.C. At left is U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, a Washington Democrat and chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

Battles over spending, farm bill, Ukraine and yet more loom over a divided Congress 

By: , , and - September 12, 2023

WASHINGTON — The U.S. House and Senate are both back in D.C. on Tuesday following a long summer recess, facing an overwhelming agenda of unfinished work — funding the federal government and reauthorizing major programs set to expire at the end of the month. Congressional leaders and President Joe Biden have only a few weeks […]

Jar for prescription drugs stuffed with hundred dollar bill representing high cost health care

Biden administration chooses first 10 drugs for Medicare price negotiations

By: - August 29, 2023

WASHINGTON — Medicare can now negotiate lower prices for 10 common high-price drugs, cutting out-of-pocket costs for an estimated 9 million seniors and saving taxpayers billions, the Biden administration said Tuesday. Medicare will begin this year to negotiate with the manufacturers of popular medications used to treat blood clots, diabetes, heart disease, rheumatoid arthritis, chronic […]

Former President Donald Trump boards his plane at Reagan National Airport in Arlington, Virginia, following an arraignment in Washington, D.C. federal court on August 3, 2023. Trump pleaded not guilty to four felony criminal charges during his arraignment this afternoon after being indicted for his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Trump pleads not guilty to charges he sought to subvert 2020 election

By: and - August 3, 2023

WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump pleaded not guilty Thursday to four felony charges in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., after a federal grand jury handed up an indictment against the former chief executive related to the 2020 election. Trump, the front-runner in the 2024 GOP presidential primary, was released under the conditions that […]

Comedian and activist Jon Stewart hugs Rosie Torres, wife of veteran Le Roy Torres, who suffers from illnesses related to his exposure to burn pits in Iraq, after the Senate passed the PACT Act at the U.S. Capitol Aug. 2, 2022 in Washington, D.C. Demonstrators from veterans-rights groups stood outside the Capitol Building in protest calling on the U.S. Senate to pass the PACT Act. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Veterans exposed to burn pits, toxins urged to apply for retroactive benefits

By: - August 3, 2023

WASHINGTON — A deadline for a year’s worth of backdated benefits is fast approaching for U.S. veterans suffering illnesses after exposure to open burn pits, Agent Orange and other toxins. Nearly a year ago, President Joe Biden signed the PACT Act, a law supporters describe as the largest expansion of veteran benefits in U.S. history. […]

Former U.S. President Donald Trump waves as he makes a visit to the Cuban restaurant Versailles after he appeared for an arraignment in connection with allegations he kept classified documents after leaving office, June 13, 2023, in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Alon Skuy/Getty Images)

‘Fueled by lies,’ Trump charged with seeking to overturn 2020 election

By: , and - August 1, 2023

WASHINGTON — A federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., indicted Donald Trump on Tuesday, alleging that Trump and co-conspirators attempted to subvert the 2020 election to keep the former president in power through a series of illegal actions that culminated in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. The former president faces four […]

Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) appears during a hearing to examine United States Special Operations Command and United States Cyber Command in review of the Defense Authorization Request for fiscal year 2022 and the Future Years Defense Program, on Capitol Hill on March 25, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Andrew Harnik-Pool/Getty Images)

Military nominees still stalled by Tuberville hold, with U.S. Senate gone until September

By: - July 28, 2023

WASHINGTON — Despite warnings from Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin that vacant top military positions affect readiness, Congress is heading into August recess with hundreds of defense nominees on hold as Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville continues his protest against the Defense Department’s abortion leave policy. As of Thursday, 301 military nominees had not yet reached […]

U.S. Navy Lt. Kristin Hope, from Ogden, Utah, signals to launch an F/A-18E Super Hornet from Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 195 from the flight deck aboard the Navy’s forward-deployed aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76) during flight operations in the East China Sea, Aug. 22, 2019. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Janweb B. Lagazo)

Massive defense bill approved by U.S. Senate, but deep partisan divide with House looms

By: - July 28, 2023

WASHINGTON — U.S. senators avoided a heated partisan split as they passed the massive annual defense policy package late Thursday —  in stark contrast to the GOP-led House version, in which far-right members included language to restrict abortion access and transgender care for service members. Senators passed the National Defense Authorization Act, 86-11, but lawmakers […]

Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) appears during a hearing to examine United States Special Operations Command and United States Cyber Command in review of the Defense Authorization Request for fiscal year 2022 and the Future Years Defense Program, on Capitol Hill on March 25, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Andrew Harnik-Pool/Getty Images)

Tuberville hold on military nominees is ‘not only wrong–it is dangerous,’ Biden says

By: - July 21, 2023

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden directly criticized Sen. Tommy Tuberville Friday in a statement over the Alabama senator’s monthslong blockade of high-ranking military nominees in protest of the administration’s abortion policy for service members. “What Senator Tuberville is doing is not only wrong — it is dangerous,” Biden said in a statement. “In this moment […]

Anne Fogel, of Missoula, Montana, stands on the steps of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, July 13, 2023, between meetings with U.S. senators about securing the release of her brother, Marc Fogel, who has been detained in Russia since August 2021. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)

Family pleads for U.S. teacher imprisoned in Russia: ‘We’re not forgetting my brother’

By: - July 15, 2023

WASHINGTON — Days after meeting with high-level White House officials, the family of an American teacher imprisoned in Russia walked the halls of the U.S. Capitol complex Thursday, pleading with U.S. leaders to remember that Marc Fogel is staring down a 14-year sentence in a penal colony on a marijuana charge. Fogel, 61, an international […]