Author

Jacob Fischler

Jacob Fischler

Jacob covers federal policy as a senior reporter for States Newsroom. Based in Oregon, he focuses on Western issues. His coverage areas include climate, energy development, public lands and infrastructure.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat who will travel with a congressional delegation to Israel to demonstrate his support, speaks with reporters inside the U.S. Capitol on Thursday, Sept. 14, 2023. (Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)

U.S. stresses support for Israel as 1 million residents of North Gaza ordered to evacuate

By: - October 13, 2023

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer will lead a bipartisan congressional delegation to Israel, the New York Democrat’s office said Friday as Israel ordered around 1 million people to leave the northern half of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip amid war with the militant group. The visit by Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish elected official in the […]

Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Thursday, Oct. 12, 2023, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. (U.S. State Department photo)

With violence raging in Israel, U.S. citizens to be flown out on charters

By: - October 12, 2023

As the death toll in Israel rises, the Biden administration will provide charter flights to help U.S. citizens leave the country and continued Thursday to pledge unconditional support for the Middle East ally in the aftermath of an attack by the militant group Hamas. The number of Americans killed in Hamas’ attack that began Saturday […]

President Joe Biden, joined by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, delivers remarks on the Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel in the State Dining Room of the White House on Oct. 10, 2023 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Biden denounces deadly Hamas attack on Israel: ‘There’s no justification for terrorism’

By: and - October 10, 2023

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden wants a returning Congress to take “urgent action” on Israel’s security needs after Hamas militants have injured and killed thousands beginning with Saturday’s brutal attack, including the deaths of 14 Americans. U.S. citizens are also among the hostages taken into Gaza by the armed group, though the administration could not […]

House Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., is pursued by reporters as he returns to the offices of former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., at the U.S. Capitol on Oct. 4, 2023, in Washington, D.C. The process is underway to replace McCarthy, who was ousted from the speakership on Oct. 3 by a group of conservative members of his own Republican Party along with all the Democratic members of the House of Representatives. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

How does a ‘frozen’ U.S. House function without a speaker? Everyone’s got an opinion.

By: and - October 4, 2023

WASHINGTON — The stunning ouster of U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday — the first time a speaker has been removed in Congress’ 234-year history — created a leadership vacuum in the chamber and left multiple questions about how legislative business would proceed. North Carolina Republican Patrick McHenry ascended to the role of speaker pro tempore […]

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 […]

Shown is Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona. Most national park sites would be shuttered if a government shutdown begins this weekend, the Interior Department says. (Photo courtesy National Park Service)

Nearly all national park sites to close during government shutdown

By: - September 29, 2023

Almost all National Park Service sites will be inaccessible during a partial federal government shutdown likely to start this weekend, the U.S. Interior Department said Friday. The agency will bar access to most of the nation’s 425 parks, recreation areas, national historic sites and other units, according to a fact sheet from the Interior Department, […]

A group of bison cross the road in Yellowstone National Park near the Madison River in April 2023. (Photo by Clark Corbin/Idaho Capital Sun)

How a looming government shutdown could hit national parks

By: - September 26, 2023

National parks and nearby communities could forego millions of dollars per day during a partial government shutdown that could start this weekend. Would-be visitors will likely see restrictions on park access, though the extent of those restrictions was still unclear just days before a potential lapse in federal appropriations set to begin Sunday. Parks would […]

A sunrise silhouette of the entrance to the Wounded Knee Massacre memorial in South Dakota. (Getty Images)

U.S. House passes Wounded Knee memorial bill

By: - September 21, 2023

The U.S. House approved by voice vote Wednesday a bill that would help protect land at the site of the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre in South Dakota, where an estimated 350 Lakota were killed by U.S. soldiers. The site is within the Lakota Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. The Oglala Sioux Tribe and the Cheyenne River […]

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 […]

Biden to nominate former FAA deputy to lead aviation agency

By: - September 7, 2023

President Joe Biden chose a new nominee to lead the Federal Aviation Administration on Thursday, months after the U.S. Senate blocked his first choice. Biden intends to nominate Michael G. Whitaker, an executive at Supernal, a company working on an electric air vehicle, and a former deputy FAA administrator during President Barack Obama’s administration, according […]

The flags of tribal nations wave in the breeze in the Oklahoma Tribal Flag Plaza outside the state capital. (Photo by Kyle Phillips/For Oklahoma Voice)

Three years after landmark ruling, Congress silent on tribal jurisdiction in Oklahoma 

By: - August 31, 2023

After a 2020 U.S. Supreme Court ruling defined much of Eastern Oklahoma as a Native American reservation, limiting state jurisdiction over tribal citizens, Congress has taken little interest in addressing the issues the tribes and state officials say the court decision has raised. The 5-4 decision in McGirt v. Oklahoma held that lands the federal […]

A lesser golden plover sits in a section of wetland in June 2006 in Utqiagvik. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

New federal water pollution rule draws mixed reaction

By: - August 30, 2023

A federal rule limiting agencies’ power to regulate water pollution will severely restrict protections for waters and wetlands throughout the country, but could also be subject to challenges from conservative groups that maintain the new rule exerts more federal jurisdiction than the U.S. Supreme Court intended in a May decision. With the rule published Tuesday […]