Eleanor Holmes Norton has been an outspoken advocate for the District of Columbia during her 18 terms as the city's delegate in Congress.

House members' absence during the government shutdown is creating a political dilemma for Republican Speaker Mike Johnson and is testing his leadership.

Democrats are ramping up pressure on Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson to swear in the newest member of Congress.

The Senate has voted to repeal the resolution that authorized the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, following a House vote last month that would return the basic war power to Congress more than two decades later.

Tennessee state Rep. Justin Pearson says he is running for a U.S. House seat representing Memphis, challenging longtime Democratic congressman Steve Cohen to represent the majority-Black city in a contest of youth versus experience.

Here’s a question submitted by an Associated Press reader: Who gets paid during a federal shutdown.

Political leaders in Washington are spending much of their energy these days blaming the other party for what could be a significant government shutdown.

President Donald Trump is using the federal shutdown to push deep spending cuts in states that backed Democrat Kamala Harris in 2024.

A new poll conducted just prior to the current government shutdown showed most Americans wanted Congress to extend tax credits that could expire at the end of the year.

New Mexico legislators moved quickly to prop up funding for food assistance and rural health care services in response to President Donald Trump’s cuts in federal spending on Medicaid and nutrition programs.

A week after her decisive win in an Arizona special election for the U.S. House, Democrat Adelita Grijalva has yet to take office.

The federal and state governments want restrictions on recognizing trans and nonbinary people. Here’s how Texas’ higher education leaders are responding.

The North Carolina legislature has approved a criminal justice package in response to the stabbing death of a Ukrainian refugee on Charlotte's light rail.

North Carolina Republican legislators have introduced criminal justice measures to toughen bail rules and evaluate offenders for mental health issues.

A number of charities have severed ties with Prince Andrew's ex-wife Sarah Ferguson after British newspapers published an email that she reportedly wrote to the late convicted sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein.

A possible federal shutdown is looming at month's end, and the Democratic leaders of Congress are demanding a meeting with President Donald Trump to negotiate.

The House has passed a resolution honoring the late Charlie Kirk over significant Democratic opposition.

The Senate rejected competing measures to fund federal agencies for a few weeks when the new budget year begins on Oct. 1, increasing prospects for a partial government shutdown on that date.

In a story published Sept. 16, 2025, about the House voting on bills on the Washington criminal justice system, The Associated Press erroneously reported that a bill would replace the members of the Judicial Nomination Commission with presidential appointees.

Democratic leaders are lashing out at a stop-gap spending bill to avoid a partial government shutdown at the end of the month.

There’s bipartisan support in Congress for extending tax credits that have made health insurance more affordable for millions of people since the COVID-19 pandemic.

North Carolina's Republican legislative leaders are pushing for stricter pretrial release laws after a Ukrainian refugee was fatally stabbed on a Charlotte train.

President Donald Trump’s emergency order that federalized Washington’s police force is set to expire.

A community workshop in October will be held to tackle the alarming rise in property theft cases that leave families without their rightful homes.

Two teenagers have been arrested on murder charges in the killing of a congressional intern who was struck by stray bullets during a shooting in the nation’s capital.

Texas lawmakers passed two bills that will bring sweeping change to how youth camps are regulated. House Bill 1 and Senate Bill 1 passed late Wednesday and are scheduled to be signed by Gov. Greg Abbott on Friday.

Both legislative chambers adjourned without agreeing on changes to Senate Bill 2, which aimed to create new training and licensing requirements for local officials.

It's an issue uniting the left and the right.

The House refused to back a bill that would apply only to the state’s largest cities.

House Bill 7, which would allow people to sue manufacturers and distributors of the drug, is one vote away from Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk.

Democrats say recent changes to the bill give too much power to the TEA and fall short of meaningfully easing the pressures of standardized testing.

The NCAA is considering a rule requiring incoming Division I athletes to disclose name, image, and likeness (NIL) deals from high school or junior college.

Texas cities and counties have already had their budgets compressed by a variety of factors, including the state’s current property tax limits.

A Democratic U.S. lawmaker sent a letter to leaders at the more than 350 Division I schools across the country, warning of a two-tier college system with haves and have-nots if a proposed bill to regulate the industry passes without changes.

After the Texas Senate and House passed bills related to disaster preparedness and response at Texas youth camps, another bill seeks to reshape the Texas Youth Camp Advisory Committee.

Dallas businessman Kyle Bass has proposed exporting millions of gallons of water from East Texas to other parts of the state.

Texas is taking a stand against the cruel practice of selling animals on the side of the road.

As speaker, Phelan oversaw passage of numerous conservative priorities, but he gave up the gavel under pressure from the far right over the House’s impeachment of Attorney General Ken Paxton.

Texas Rep. Gene Wu is taking a stand by proposing an amendment to block the state's redistricting plan until the Epstein files are fully released.

A California hearing on Democrats' redistricting effort turned into a shouting match Tuesday.

Now that the Texas House has a quorum following Democrats’ two-week absence, lawmakers are back to debate a wide range of issues, including redrawing congressional maps to benefit Republicans.

Democrats have unveiled a proposal that could give California’s dominant political party an additional five U.S. House seats in a bid to win the fight to control Congress next year.

Crime lab officials told lawmakers Wednesday they are struggling to keep up with deadlier drugs like fentanyl and a THC ban or new regulations would add to the challenge.

The governor and attorney general have asked the court to find that Democratic lawmakers abandoned their seats when they left Texas to delay a new congressional map.

Republicans who are censured by their county party leaders may be blocked from the primary ballot under a new party rule passed last year, that is expected to be tested by the courts.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed a lawsuit against Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke and his organization, Powered by People, alleging unlawful fundraising activities and a potentially misleading financial-influence scheme to support Democratic lawmakers who fled the state to break quorum.

The proposal would put tighter limits on how much property tax revenue cities and counties of a certain size can collect each year.

The Voting Rights Act was signed into law 60 years ago but has been slowly eroding for more than a decade.

The situation is an opportunity for the speaker to bolster his credibility with the right, but he has limited tools to combat a prolonged Democratic absence.

Legal experts say it’s “inconsistent with the Texas Constitution” to argue that leaving the state to halt legislative action qualifies as abandoning an office.

U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene wants George Santos' seven-year prison sentence to be commuted.

Texas Democrats have fled the state in an effort to keep Republicans from approving a new U.S. House map that could boost their slim congressional majority next year.

Democrats are launching a nationwide summer blitz designed to force vulnerable Republicans to defend President Donald Trump’s big tax and spending bill, especially Medicaid cuts.

The Senate’s decision signals another potential standoff with Gov. Greg Abbott, who vetoed a similar ban earlier this year as he called for more regulations instead.

The wave of lawsuits from college athletes seeking another season of eligibility seems to be slowing down.

A key House committee is looking into the investigation of the late Jeffrey Epstein for sex trafficking crimes.

Redistricting usually happens after the once-a-decade population count by the U.S. Census Bureau or in response to a court ruling.

Statehouses across the U.S. are addressing long-standing bathroom disparities for female lawmakers.

The bills would carry a $5,000 fine for a first-time violation and comes as momentum for such restrictions has increased in the state and nationally.

Senate Bill 5 would ban products containing any detectable amount of any cannabinoid, creating criminal offenses for possession of hemp-derived THC.

A House Republican is seeking to censure Democratic Rep. LaMonica McIver of New Jersey over an incident stemming from a congressional oversight visit to a new immigration detention facility in her state.

A House subcommittee has voted to subpoena the Department of Justice for files in the sex trafficking investigation into Jeffrey Epstein.

Texas Republicans are poised to redraw the state’s congressional map during a special session that starts Monday.

The number of people still missing in a Texas county ravaged by deadly flooding over the Fourth of July holiday weekend now stands at three, down from nearly 100.

President Donald Trump has signed the GENIUS Act into law, setting new regulations for stablecoins, a type of cryptocurrency tied to assets like the U.S. dollar.

In Alaska, a public radio station general manager took a moment from a busy day warning her community about a possible tsunami for a special task — sending a text message to Sen. Lisa Murkowski urging her to vote against a measure to strip federal funding of NPR and PBS.

House Republicans are struggling with cryptocurrency legislation that they had expected to pass during what they dubbed “crypto week.”.

The man accused of killing two women at a Kentucky church and wounding a state trooper in separate shootings had been expected in court for a domestic violence hearing the next day.

Dartmouth College and the University of Notre Dame say they're ending their participation in a Chinese scholarship program.

Republicans in Congress have muscled President Donald Trump’s tax and spending bill to passage.

House Republicans strained through a day of starts and stops trying to advance President Donald Trump’s tax and spending cuts package.

The NCAA’s House settlement era has launched, with athletic programs across the country free to start paying millions to their athletes in the biggest change in the history of college athletics.

At some 887 pages, the legislation is a sprawling collection of tax breaks, spending cuts and other Republican priorities, including new money for national defense and deportations.

The package includes $13.5 billion to reimburse states for border spending. It is expected to meet resistance in the House from some Texas Republicans.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune says Republicans “got the job done” in passing President Donald Trump’s big bill of tax breaks and spending cuts.

At some 940-pages, the legislation is a sprawling collection of tax breaks, spending cuts and other Republican priorities, including new money for national defense and deportations.

At some 940-pages, the legislation is a sprawling collection of tax breaks, spending cuts and other Republican priorities, including new money for national defense and deportations.

College sports leaders seeking antitrust and other protections from Congress have a potential bargaining chip: School assurances that they will provide funding for their increasingly imperiled Olympic programs, by far the biggest pipeline of talent for Team USA.

One key issue stalling progress on President Donald Trump’s big bill in Congress is particularly daunting.

President Donald Trump says “NO ONE GOES ON VACATION” until the big, beautiful bill is on his desk by the Fourth of July deadline.

One of the late-night vetoes signed by Gov. Greg Abbott included legislation aimed at cracking down on title theft and deed fraud across Texas.

Texas will require all public school classrooms to display the Ten Commandments under a new state law that will make the state the nation’s largest to attempt to impose such a mandate.

House and Senate Republicans are taking different approaches when it comes to the tax cuts that lawmakers are looking to include in their massive tax bill.

A proposal by Senate Republicans would adjust the pace at which some crucial home energy efficiency and electric vehicle tax credits are phased out in timelines different from what House Republicans proposed in the multitrillion-dollar tax bill they passed last month.

A court hearing on Wednesday will determine whether to proceed with Paxton’s request.

Texas lawmakers approved a sweeping package to overhaul the state’s bail system, a longtime priority of Gov. Greg Abbott’s.

The Senate has passed legislation that would regulate a form of cryptocurrency known as stablecoins.

Threats to members of Congress are on the rise, security officials told senators at an emergency briefing in the wake of the killing of a Minnesota state lawmaker in her home over the weekend.

The House has passed bipartisan legislation aimed at cracking down on fentanyl.

The latest effort by Congress to regulate college sports is generating predictable partisan outrage.

Among other changes is a new law that says homeowner associations can no longer fine Texans for not watering their grass during a drought.

More than 2 million acres of federal lands would be sold to states or other entities under a budget proposal from Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee.

Of the more than 100 bills aimed at LGBTQ+ people in the state, less than 10 were approved by lawmakers this session.

The private school voucher program is now law in Texas.

The Senate has set an ambitious timeline to pass President Donald Trump’s sweeping legislation to cut taxes and spending.

Chiseling away at President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act.

Texas passed sweeping changes to cannabis policy, including expanding the medical marijuana program and banning hemp products, while also boosting psychedelics research.

A package of bills aims to better prepare the state to prevent and fight wildfires.

House and Senate members agreed that judges needed a pay raise. But they spent the final hours of the legislative session debating whether Texas lawmakers should also benefit from the boost.

The Legislature wrapped up without the same drama that defined the end of the last two sessions, with state GOP leaders checking off nearly everything on their to-do lists.