https://www.washingtonsun.com/policy Policy en-US Fri, 23 Oct 2026 09:55:00 GMT https://www.washingtonsun.com/campaigns/democratic-voters-lose-trust-mail-in-ballots-usps Natalie Fertig Some voters say they’re worried that Trump might use the USPS to interfere in the election. Fri, 23 Oct 2026 09:55:00 GMT https://www.washingtonsun.com/campaigns/democratic-voters-lose-trust-mail-in-ballots-usps Brian Bronzynski doesn’t usually vote early, but he was the first person in line to do so in his rural Iowa precinct on the day early voting began.

Bronzynski, a registered Democrat and retired special education teacher, said he typically votes by mail or in person closer to Election Day. But this year, he is one of the many Democrats rushing to the ballot box early as trust in the U.S. Postal Service is in steep decline.

“I'm not gonna even give them the chance to screw up my ballot and not get it to me in time that I can get it taken care of and get it sent back in. I'm just going to go up there and do it,” he said. “I was also afraid that if I showed up on Election Day, I was going to walk in there and [they’d] say, ‘Oh, we don't have you registered.’”

Trust in the USPS to deliver mail-in ballots on time, which has been steadily growing less reliable over recent years, dropped precipitously this year after President Donald Trump issued an executive order in March prohibiting the agency from delivering mail-in ballots to voters who were not on preapproved voter lists.

The Supreme Court eventually blocked the order. But the administration has continued to raise alarm over mail-in ballots. In September, a whistleblower said USPS was rushing “untested” technology ahead of the midterms that could “derail” the election.

“It further raised concerns, especially from Democrats, that the Postal Service was no longer a trusted authority, that it didn't have the resources to do what it used to do in terms of delivering mail and that it was increasingly under the control of the Trump administration and might intentionally not deliver ballots in some cases,” said Barry Burden, a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin–Madison who studies voting.

Democrats have staunchly defended broad mail-in ballot use over the last few years as the practice became more politicized. Republicans were once strong supporters of mail-in ballots. But during the pandemic, as mail-in voting increased, Trump and other conservative figures claimed that mail-in ballots were rife with fraud, decreasing trust in the practice among Republican voters.

Concerned Democrats say their worries over mail-in ballots differ sharply from those of Republicans.

“There's no fraud” in mail-in voting, Ohio state Rep. Tristan Rader (D) argued. “It's more that [Republicans are] moving the goalposts. They're making it harder for people to count their votes.”

Burden says the behavior shifts may be seen the most in states where mail-in ballots are growing in use but not yet universal, and states that have a hard Election Day delivery deadline.

Early voting data in some states is already showing that shift. In Ohio, for example, the total number of ballots as of Tuesday was about 30,000 higher than at the same point in the 2022 election, according to the Ohio Secretary of State.

But when and how Ohioans are voting has shifted dramatically: Absentee ballot requests this year have decreased by about 28%, while early in-person voting has increased by about 196% compared to 2022.

Nearly 2,000 people voted on the first day of early voting in Cuyahoga County, one of Ohio’s most populous counties and the home of Cleveland. That’s a 250% increase from previous years.

Ohio’s mail-in ballot law now requires that ballots arrive by Election Day. Previously, they just needed to be postmarked by Election Day.

“The national discourse has had an absolutely huge impact on how people feel about [this], and it's showing up in the numbers,” said Rader, who joined the crowds to vote on opening day.

Rader said the crowd was excited and highly motivated to vote, but he has also heard a lot of fears from Ohioans that USPS may not get their ballot in on time.

“People understand that if you show up, your vote will still be fully counted,” Rader said. “Whereas they're not sure anymore that if they vote by mail, their vote's going to 100% be counted.”

In Michigan, 30% more absentee ballots were returned in 2026 a month out from election day than in 2022, per Secretary of State data.

And in Iowa, Democrats have requested fewer absentee ballots than in 2022 and are currently returning them in much higher numbers to county offices or opting to vote in person at the county office or at satellite polling locations, reported Bleeding Heartland, an independent blog focused on Iowa politics.

“People might not be able to tell you all of the details with Trump's executive order and whatever was going on with the courts, but they know that the Trump administration is trying to do something funny with mail ballots,” said Laura Belin, the primary author of Bleeding Heartland. “Whether that's warranted or not, that is definitely a fear I've heard anecdotally from a lot of Democrats.”

The Democratic ground game in Iowa is not pushing vote-by-mail to the extent they have in the past, Belin said, but voters are still being urged to get their ballot in early.

Whether this is a permanent shift in Democratic voting behavior remains to be seen.

“The real super excellent analysis of this will have to be sort of after the election,” said John Forteir, an expert in voting at the American Enterprise Institute. “I doubt it's a very substantive change.”

Bronzynski said that once Trump is out of office, he plans to return to his normal practice of voting by mail or showing up in person closer to Election Day.

“As soon as this hellish period passes,” he said. “I think it will go back to normal as it should.”]]> https://www.washingtonsun.com/whitehouse/california-medicaid-payments-freeze Paige Winfield Cunningham Mehmet Oz announced the government is freezing $1.2 billion in federal Medicaid payments to the state. Tue, 20 Oct 2026 20:56:17 GMT https://www.washingtonsun.com/whitehouse/california-medicaid-payments-freeze The Trump administration is freezing $1.2 billion in federal Medicaid payments to California, its largest deferral yet as it targets the state’s in-home care program over fraud allegations.

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz announced the deferral Tuesday during an event with President Donald Trump.

CMS has already withheld an unprecedented sum — around $2.2 billion — from the state over the course of this year. Most of those funds were for California’s In-Home Supportive Services program, which compensates family members and other caregivers for helping patients with tasks like washing, dressing and feeding themselves.

The Trump administration alleges the program is riddled with fraud, pointing in part to the program’s rapid growth in recent years. California has protested the deferrals, saying the federal government hasn’t provided it with sufficient evidence of fraud and that growth is a function of ballooning demand.

“California has been growing that program 24% in the last three years,” Oz said Tuesday. “That is twice the rate of every other state average in the country. Impossible for us to understand how that could be so.”

Oz also repeated a suggestion he’s made several times before: that the state is paying caregivers to provide services that family members would otherwise take care of.

“Many of you would carry groceries upstairs for your mom for free, I would think, but in California they'll pay you a lot of money for it,” Oz said.

Neither CMS nor California state officials immediately responded to a request for comment.

The administration has made fighting fraud a central message ahead of the November midterm elections. Vice President JD Vance and members of his anti-fraud task force have touted actions in Medicaid, the individual health insurance marketplaces and the food stamp program, saying they’re shoring up federal safety programs for the Americans who qualify for them.

The funds deferred to California total around 4% of its annual federal payments for Medicaid, which is a program run by states and partially funded by the federal government.

Besides California, CMS has also deferred Medicaid payments to Minnesota over fraud allegations. The deferred funds are under review by CMS, which could decide to pay them or cancel them entirely. The states would be on the hook to make up any of those payments.]]> https://www.washingtonsun.com/policy/russia-sanctions-trump Ayah Ali-Ahmad The president said it may be time for someone other than Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to negotiate ending the war on Ukraine’s behalf. Mon, 19 Oct 2026 22:43:36 GMT https://www.washingtonsun.com/policy/russia-sanctions-trump President Donald Trump defended his suspension of a set of congressional sanctions against Russia just days before their planned implementation, saying on Monday that imposing the penalties would jeopardize peace negotiations with Ukraine.

Trump said he was “in the midst of negotiating a deal” with Russian President Vladimir Putin on several fronts and framed the waiver as leverage he could reverse at will.

“And of course, we’re negotiating with him on Ukraine. I’m not looking to break up negotiations right in the middle,” he said before departing the White House for Kansas. “And by the way, I have the right to do that at any time, immediately. So if things don’t work out, I can always do it.”

Trump signed the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act into law on Sept. 18, then rendered most of it unenforceable Friday night, two days before the deadline Congress set for putting it in place.

The law sought to cut off oil and gas revenue financing Russia’s war by imposing tariffs of up to 500% on Russian goods and up to 100% on the largest buyers of Russian crude and on countries helping Russia evade oil sanctions.

Trump struck a deal with President Vladimir Putin earlier this month for Russia to supply more than 300,000 tons of diesel immediately, another 500,000 tons in November and 1 million tons "immediately thereafter.” Three million tons would follow, depending on the condition of Russian refineries.

Trump used a waiver provision built into the law to suspend those levies, along with other restrictions. Sanctions imposed under earlier executive orders remain in place. The order says the waivers stand until the president or the secretary of state determines otherwise, but it is unclear when the waiver would expire.

He said Monday that he is negotiating with Russia not only on Ukraine but on hostages, diesel and Iran, adding that Moscow has “been very well behaved on Iran.”

“Russia is doing very little, if anything, to help the Islamic Republic of Iran, compared to what they could be doing, and I want to keep it that way,” he wrote in a Sunday Truth Social post.

Representatives for the White House didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

U.S. intelligence officials have assessed otherwise, however. CNN and The Washington Post reported in March that Russia was providing Iran with intelligence on U.S. military targets. When asked at an April Senate hearing if Russia was aiding Iran’s war effort against U.S. forces, Gen. Dan Caine, the Joint Chiefs chair, said there was “definitely some action there.” NBC News reported in August that Russia had transferred drone components and explosives to Iran across the Caspian Sea as recently as July.

Asked about a possible trilateral meeting with Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping, Trump said he was open to one focused on nuclear weapons and suggested it could be held in China during a scheduled November trip for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. But talks about Ukraine may not be on the agenda with Xi and Putin.

“Russia, frankly, has been fine on Ukraine,” Trump said Monday. “They haven’t been doing much.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said over the weekend that Russia had launched more than 320 drones at Ukraine’s energy grid over a 12-hour span. Zelenskyy has said that twice in as many weeks, Russian attacks came without advanced intelligence warning from its global partners, including the U.S.

The Trump administration has denied it paused sharing intelligence with Ukraine, something Trump reiterated when asked on Monday. He added that the U.S. has given Ukraine “hundreds of billions of dollars” and gotten “nothing” in return.

Pressed on Zelenskyy’s criticism that the sanctions waiver amounts to backing Putin, Trump said the Ukrainian president “is not helping matters much” and questioned whether Zelenskyy wants the war to end.

Told Zelenskyy had said Trump was on the wrong side of history, Trump said Zelenskyy “doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”

“I think it’s time for somebody else to negotiate on behalf of Ukraine,” he said.

The comments add to a strained stretch between the two world leaders. Ukraine lost normal access last week to Starshield, the military version of SpaceX’s satellite network that its large drone operations depend on.

Zelenskyy said Sunday on NBC the Starshield slowdown was “a message from the American government” and that “technically, SpaceX did it.”

Trump denied Friday that he or SpaceX CEO Elon Musk were responsible.

Asked Monday who gave the order, Trump said he didn’t know, but he’d “like to find out.”]]> https://www.washingtonsun.com/policy/doj-recruiting-prosecutors-polls Derek Hawkins The departure from long-standing practice “carries the real risk that election interference and voter intimidation will follow,” a former department official said. Tue, 06 Oct 2026 18:43:12 GMT https://www.washingtonsun.com/policy/doj-recruiting-prosecutors-polls The Justice Department is recruiting criminal prosecutors as part of its expanded election-monitoring effort for the November elections, breaking with a long-standing practice of using only civil attorneys and non-attorney staffers.

While there’s no firm rule against sending prosecutors out to monitor polling places, the DOJ has avoided using them in part over worries their presence could intimidate voters and poll workers, former department officials say.

Several DOJ prosecutors, as well as an FBI agent on a special prosecutorial assignment, have already served as monitors in at least one primary election, visiting polls in Arizona over the summer, according to records shared with The Washington Sun and interviews with local officials.

Justice Department leaders have since called on attorneys and staffers from across the department — including those in its criminal divisions — to work as monitors in November, according to internal emails reviewed by The Sun.

The move is part of a Justice Department effort, announced by Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general who oversees the Civil Rights Division, to send an unprecedented 1,000 monitors to polls across the country on Election Day.

That plan has drawn scrutiny from election administrators, advocates and lawmakers over the department’s push to have monitors examine issues beyond the normal purview of the Civil Rights Division and its Voting Section, which manages the election monitoring program.

Historically, monitors have been deployed to specific election jurisdictions to conduct basic oversight such as checking for bilingual services and wheelchair accessibility at polling places. They may talk discreetly with election officials and interview voters on their way out of polling places, but they are strictly trained not to intervene in the voting process.

Dhillon has said monitors will look for cases of alleged fraud alongside traditional voting rights compliance, and DOJ communications during the primaries indicated that monitors were being deployed to help ensure “ballot security” and “ballot integrity” — matters normally overseen by the department’s criminal sections.

A Justice Department spokesperson confirmed the arrangement in a statement Monday, saying that “department attorneys, including prosecutors, will serve as election monitors, as Department personnel have in many past elections.”

Monitors will not identify themselves as prosecutors and must avoid interfering in the voting process, according to the spokesperson, who added that no FBI personnel are participating in the monitoring program.

“Every monitor has the same role: observe for potential violations of federal law and report concerns to the Department, which the Department will review after Election Day and act where appropriate,” the spokesperson said.

Several former Civil Rights Division officials said DOJ leaders may be recruiting prosecutors because they don’t have enough civil attorneys willing to participate after a barrage of firings and resignations under the Trump administration.

“It’s really possible that this is just about numbers and not some shift in the planned approach,” said one former senior official in the Civil Rights Division who spoke on the condition of anonymity over fear of retaliation. “It’s noteworthy, it’s important, and it’s concerning, but it doesn’t mean that the message to voters is that there’s going to be tons of criminal prosecutors out there monitoring the polls.”

Stacey Young, executive director of the DOJ alumni group Justice Connection and a former longtime attorney with the department, said the purpose of DOJ’s election monitoring was always to “ensure jurisdictions with a history of voting rights violations were following federal civil rights laws.”

“That’s why the election monitoring program was run by the department’s civil rights attorneys who were trained to only observe, and relied on civil attorneys and non-attorney staff, instead of prosecutors who can charge election officials and voters with crimes,” Young said.

“DOJ's deployment of prosecutors as monitors,” she said, “carries the real risk that election interference and voter intimidation will follow.”

Civil attorneys from the nation’s 94 U.S. attorneys’ offices have served as monitors in previous elections. Paralegals, analysts and other support staffers who work directly with prosecutors have also participated in the program.

But a half-dozen former Voting Section officials interviewed by The Sun said they were unaware of any instance in which the department has sent prosecutors to the polls.

Criminal prosecutors “absolutely have not done election monitoring in the past,” said Anna Baldwin, who was a Civil Rights Division attorney focusing on voting issues from 2010 to 2025. “It’s not a criminal investigation.”

Another former Voting Section official said it was a matter of custom not to use prosecutors. “We never did that, because if you introduce yourself to a voter and say, ‘I’m a prosecutor,’ that’s just more intimidating,” the former official said. “Sending prosecutors out would have been less helpful because other people have more relevant experience.”

Over the summer, the presence of a handful of prosecutors monitoring polling places in Arizona didn’t appear to cause any problems.

At least seven criminal prosecutors worked as election monitors in Arizona during the state’s primary in July, alongside several civil attorneys and staffers, according to public records provided to The Sun by the legal advocacy group Democracy Forward.

The prosecutors appear to have all come from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona, according to the documents. Some went out in Maricopa County, others in Pima County.

One of the prosecutors, Clay Rehrig, is an FBI agent working on a special detail that involves prosecuting violent crimes and hate crimes, according to his LinkedIn profile and news releases from the Justice Department.

Maricopa County’s deputy elections director for communications, Jennifer Liewer, said she was not aware that some of the monitors were prosecutors but emphasized that there was “nothing out of the ordinary” in the way they conducted themselves at polling places.

She said DOJ officials reached out beforehand to let her office know they intended to send monitors, and that once on site they asked for bilingual materials.“They went about it the way they normally do,” Liewer told The Sun. “Maricopa had a very typical experience.”

Things also went smoothly in Pima County, according to Elections Director Constance Hargrove. Monitors there asked poll workers about training and assisting Spanish-speaking voters, she said.

“The visit was no different from any other visits in past elections,” Hargrove said in an email.

A spokesperson for the U.S. attorney’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Several civil attorneys DOJ dispatched as monitors during the primaries have raised alarms among election administrators and voting advocates because of their behavior at polling places or their ties to efforts challenging President Donald Trump’s loss in the 2020 election.

Among them was Joseph Voiland, a new addition to the Civil Rights Division who helped monitor polls in Fairfax County, Virginia, according to public records shared by Democracy Forward. The records were first reported by CNN.

Before joining the department, Voiland served as a lawyer for the Trump campaign in a bid to overturn Wisconsin’s 2020 presidential election results. At least two other civil attorneys who served as monitors previously worked on 2020 election challenges, according to the records.

Across the Civil Rights Division, as The Sun has previously reported, a majority of current attorneys have been hired since Trump took office last year.

Another recent hire to the division, David Levin, pleaded guilty to charges related to his illegal accessing of government election websites in 2016, records show. Levin served as a monitor in Maricopa County, according to the records.

Monitoring during the primaries mostly proceeded without incident, but tensions escalated in Wyoming after officials said monitors there crossed the line.

During the state’s primary in August, Laramie County Clerk Debra Lee said two DOJ monitors asked to examine ballot tabulators and training guides and wanted to know how new voting equipment was acquired.

Those questions “appeared to me to be outside the scope of federal voting rights laws,” Lee told The Sun in a statement in August. Wyoming’s Republican governor asked the state attorney general to look into the monitors’ actions.

According to public records shared by Democracy Forward, the monitors were John Casali and Jake Bachand, civil attorneys who joined the DOJ recently after working at Trump-aligned nonprofits.

“My advice to my fellow county clerks in Wyoming and to election administrators in other ‘red’ states is don’t think this won’t happen to you,” Lee said in her statement. “Know what the law allows monitors to do and what it does not, and what the monitors’ intentions are.”
]]> https://www.washingtonsun.com/whitehouse/trump-medicare-recipient-checks Marissa Martinez The proposal would cost nearly $2 billion and draw from a congressionally allocated Medicare improvement funding pool. Sat, 03 Oct 2026 18:34:36 GMT https://www.washingtonsun.com/whitehouse/trump-medicare-recipient-checks President Donald Trump said his administration would send nearly $100 in checks to more than 20 million adults to pay for their Medicare Part B benefits.

The plan, which would cost nearly $2 billion dollars, follows a slate of recent promises from Trump to send out individual payments to American voters in hopes of sparking voter enthusiasm for his administration ahead of the midterms. It’s unclear what authority the White House would use to go through with these plans without congressional approval.

“You will get your money almost immediately, and everything we do, we’re looking out for America’s people and America’s seniors,” Trump said in a video Saturday morning.

A fact sheet posted Saturday on the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services website says eligible beneficiaries will receive one $90 check or direct deposit “on or around” Oct. 8, followed by correspondence from the president in mid-October. The government’s “rebate” would cover less than half of the standard Part B monthly premium of $202.90 for those who make less than $109,000.

Not all of the estimated 64 million elderly Medicare enrollees qualify, including those on Medicare Advantage plans that route through private insurers.

“The best way to improve Medicare is to put healthcare dollars back where they belong — in the hands of our Medicare beneficiaries — and make coverage more affordable,” the CMS site says.

The president’s post late Friday announcing the plan said the checks would come from the Medicare Improvement Fund. The new fiscal year began Oct. 1, meaning the $2 billion funding pool — which Trump called a “pointless ‘Slush Fund’” — is now available for use, though it is unclear whether the White House can legally use it for rebates.

Trump’s approval ratings have hit record lows in the weeks before the midterms, especially as Americans blame the president for facing bleak economic outlooks. Following his COVID-19 era pandemic checks, Trump has repeatedly tried to revitalize his popularity by pivoting to affordability messaging and promising additional “rebates” or “dividends” — including his unpopular proposal to give $5,000 to American voters should they vote for Republicans in the midterms, a plan that could cost over $1.2 trillion.

The president doubled down on the $5,000 dividends in a two-minute video posted Saturday, saying, “I look forward to signing those checks.”

“If the Democrats win, you will have an economic depression, much like 1929. If the Republicans win, you will each have $5,000 in your pocket,” Trump said.

Trump also posted videos urging Republicans to “vote early, vote by mail or vote in-person on Election Day” to “swamp” Democrats with turnout, as well as a specific push for Pennsylvania voters.
]]> https://www.washingtonsun.com/policy/gao-homelessness-council-report Raymond Fernández “This report makes two things clear: the Trump Administration has no interest in following the law or solving homelessness,” Sen. Jack Reed said. Fri, 02 Oct 2026 21:50:14 GMT https://www.washingtonsun.com/policy/gao-homelessness-council-report The federal agency responsible for coordinating the government’s response to homelessness has been unable to fulfill some of its statutory duties in the aftermath of the Trump administration’s attempted cuts, a Government Accountability Office report found Friday.

The Trump administration sought to downsize the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness last year as part of its broader effort to reduce the federal workforce. But the GAO found that even months after a federal judge ruled those efforts to be unlawful, the council still lacks direction from agency leadership.

“USICH staff said they had not received direction from the Council or the executive director on federal homelessness policies or priorities to guide their work and help perform USICH’s statutory duties and functions, such as updating its national strategic plan to end homelessness,” the GAO report says.

At least eight employees returned from administrative leave in February 2026, but the council has yet to fully resume its work.

Council officials told the watchdog “they could not confirm” who the chair or vice chair of the council were, they could not respond to certain White House reporting requirements due to “uncertainty regarding USICH’s future status,” and that as of January 2026 officials had not held an official meeting in more than a year.

The uncertainty raises questions about what the council has been able to accomplish since the administration's effort to dismantle it began last year.

“This report makes two things clear: the Trump Administration has no interest in following the law or solving homelessness,” Sen. Jack Reed (D- Rhode Island) told The Washington Sun in a statement.

“The Trump Administration should empower USICH to carry out its statutory mission to streamline homeless assistance programs and reduce programmatic waste — something the President has continuously claimed to prioritize,” he added.

The White House and USICH did not immediately respond to The Sun’s request for comment.

Reed and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Washington) had requested that the GAO review the council’s statutory responsibilities and recent changes in staffing. Murray, who serves as the vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, slammed the Trump administration’s attempted cuts.

“The Trump administration has literally been paying people not to do their jobs tackling homelessness, and they have deliberately defied Congress in the process,” Murray said in a statement.

Between 2016 and 2024, the council produced at least three national strategic plans to end homelessness across the country and supported interagency communication between federal agencies, including the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Department of Veteran Affairs.

The council’s responsibilities are set by federal law. They include coordinating the federal response to homelessness, developing a national strategic plan and reporting annually to Congress on progress toward ending homelessness.

The Trump administration has repeatedly proposed eliminating USICH through the federal budget process, while Congress has continued to provide funding for the council's operations.

However, its funding fell from $4.3 million in fiscal year 2025 to $3 million in 2026, after the Trump administration proposed cutting its funding to $250,000. For fiscal year 2027, the administration is seeking $200,000 to shut down the council, the GAO report notes.

A federal court ruled last year that “reducing USICH personnel to two employees was contrary to law because the reduction made it impossible for the agency to continue to perform its statutory duties.”

The administration appealed the ruling. The case is now before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, which heard arguments in September but has not yet issued a decision.

This story has been updated with comment from Sen. Murray.]]> https://www.washingtonsun.com/congress/funding-crumbling-bridges-expiring-congress Jade Lozada The government has rated more than 41,000 bridges across the U.S. as being in “poor” condition. Wed, 30 Sep 2026 15:16:37 GMT https://www.washingtonsun.com/congress/funding-crumbling-bridges-expiring-congress The Biden administration’s investments in the nation’s crumbling bridges expire Wednesday, leaving thousands of communities across the country in the lurch.

Nearly $37 billion in annual transportation funding expires on Sept. 30, after Congress did not renew the funding alongside the stopgap transportation bills earlier this year. The lapsed programs include the Bridge Formula Program, which received $27.5 billion over five years to help states fund bridge replacements.

Without the promise of that money, states are pumping the brakes on awarding government contracts for long-term infrastructure projects, industry advocates say.

“Every time I raise it in meetings, a lot of heads nod among transportation firms sitting around the room,” said Steve Hall, the executive vice president of the American Council of Engineering Companies, which represents thousands of companies.

More than 41,000 bridges across the U.S. are rated in “poor” condition, according to data released by the Federal Highway Administration in August. States, manufacturers and builders who would otherwise be planning long-term infrastructure projects and investments into material and equipment are no longer certain about their investments.

The lapsed funding goes beyond bridges. Biden-era programs to fund upgrades to the country’s aging rail system and invest in public transit will also be out of funding when this fiscal year runs out. Because these time-limited programs received special funding outside the typical annual appropriations process, they were not extended through the stopgap bills.

State transportation departments currently drafting 5- or 10-year transportation improvement plans won’t account for money they aren’t promised by Congress, said Deniz Mustafa, the senior director of construction advocacy at the Associated General Contractors of America.

“They’re just going to reduce how many different types of projects that they have in their transportation improvement plans… which essentially means less projects to bid on for contractors because the funding source for all of them is not certain,” Mustafa said. “We’ve heard from a variety of different state DOTs that have reduced their lettings or their planned amount that they’re planning to spend or projects let out to bid because of that funding uncertainty.”

Lawmakers on the Hill indicated that renewing funding for the Bridge Formula Program is still on the table post-midterms, though concrete plans haven’t taken shape.

Reps. Rob Bresnahan (R-Pennsylvania) and Salud Carbajal (D-California) led a Problem Solvers Caucus letter in August in part calling for advanced appropriations like the bridge and railway repairs programs to receive funding in the next fiscal year.

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee passed a 5-year surface transportation reauthorization bill in May with overwhelming support. It includes $45 billion over five years for bridges, an increase from the 2021 law.

The bill hasn’t reached the House floor, however, and the Senate doesn’t have a bill of its own yet.

“There’s still conversation. There’s still opportunity. Just a matter of what we can actually get into the end. A lot of other states have a lot of other priorities that we’re trying to push in, so hopefully we’ll be able to come to some agreement,” Sen. Andy Kim (D-New Jersey) said. New Jersey received $1.23 billion from the program, according to the Federal Highway Administration.

Senators leading the effort have blamed their lack of progress on the difficulties of negotiating within each of the four committees it must pass, leaving advocates cautiously optimistic about a breakthrough this year.

“The calendar is tough, and if it doesn’t happen in the lame duck, we’re probably looking at another extension, duration to be determined,” said Susan Howard, the policy director at the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials.

For his part, Kim is already contingency-planning. Last week, he said he is working with New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill to identify New Jersey’s infrastructure vulnerabilities and plan for the funding loss.

States have other means of paying for unexpected infrastructure repairs. The Federal Highway Administration operates an emergency relief program to cover disaster-related expenses, and states still have access to funds already committed for the fiscal year.

That doesn’t do much to relieve advocates’ concerns about losing the total funding for advanced appropriations if Congress excludes them from an eventual fiscal year 2027 transportation spending bill.

“You cannot repair these 40,000 plus bridges without funding them,” said Nick Rhoad, president and CEO of the National Precast Concrete Association, which represents companies that manufacture materials for bridges and highways.

“This was not an unexpected emergency,” Rhoad added. “(Congress) knew the reauthorization and funding schedule. They knew when it ended, and they still left the work unfinished.”]]> https://www.washingtonsun.com/whitehouse/trump-government-ai-bot-2027-america-gov Natalie Alms, Mara Hoplamazian Some administration officials previously said they hoped America.gov could be a big win ahead of the midterms. Tue, 29 Sep 2026 17:06:56 GMT https://www.washingtonsun.com/whitehouse/trump-government-ai-bot-2027-america-gov America.gov is live. Sort of.

Top Trump officials and leaders from major tech companies gathered in Washington, D.C., Tuesday to unveil an AI-driven government website some in the administration hope could offer Republicans a selling point ahead of the midterms.

Americans will be able to use the website as a clearinghouse to apply for a passport, enroll in Medicare and look at government jobs — eventually. Services like these won’t be functional until 2027. Until then, the website’s main feature is an AI chatbot that looks similar to those offered by Google or Anthropic.

The project, first reported by The Washington Sun, was created by several former members of DOGE, now working at the White House’s National Design Studio. Joe Gebbia, a co-founder of Airbnb and a former member of DOGE — the controversial group that worked to consolidate government data and pushed government workers out of their jobs — leads the team.

President Donald Trump called the release of the website “one of the most revolutionary product launches of all time” on Tuesday in an auditorium filled with top Cabinet officials, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Energy Secretary Chris Wright. Elon Musk, who spearheaded DOGE, and NVIDIA’s Jensen Huang are scheduled to speak later in the day.

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick were also among the top officials in attendance.

“With America.gov, the federal government no longer stands in your way, it stands only at your service,” Trump said.

Gebbia said America.gov is meant to streamline thousands of government websites, giving Americans access to a one-stop AI shop. An FAQ included on the website says that it relies on official government sources, but encourages users to double-check its answers. The website’s terms caution that the information it gives can be “incomplete” or “wrong.”

The chatbot is operating on a “couple” AI systems, Oz told reporters, citing xAI’s Grok and OpenAI. Gebbia told CNBC it was operating on Grok and Gemini.

Gebbia said the chatbot feature would be “private by design,” and would not save conversations.

“There’s a topic that unites everyone, men and women alike, young and old, across the political spectrum: Government websites are a nightmare,” Gebbia said.

Trump administration officials had previously discussed offering tax-filing services through the website, which The Sun reported earlier this month. But ultimately, that feature was left out: Trump’s executive order underpinning the website explicitly ruled out tax filing as a feature, at least for now.

Offering free tax-filing services would’ve been a major policy reversal for the Trump administration, which canceled a Biden-era program that allowed some Americans to file their taxes for free on a government website called Direct File.

The order, however, does require federal agencies to integrate their public-facing federal services with the new website.

Trump characterized the site as part of the administration’s work to “fix” the government — in this case, its “terrible” websites and long forms — and to give Americans back the time they spend navigating them by using AI, which he called “superintelligence.” The president also thanked Musk, calling him “the man who initially envisioned the transformation of government through technology and brought us the talent to get the job done.”

Edward Coristine, a former DOGE employee who goes by the nickname “Big Balls,” worked on the website and joined Trump and Cabinet members onstage when the president signed the executive order.

Some administration officials previously told The Sun that the White House hoped that an end-of-September launch would help Republicans drive home the message that the Trump administration was delivering. However, it’s unclear how much the site will resonate with Americans, given much of its functionality won’t roll out until next year.

Trump also used the launch to press for the passage of the SAVE America Act, saying “with this, nobody can any longer complain about providing proof of citizenship or voter ID,” he said.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the audience that the site would “rebuild” the process of getting a passport “from the ground up,” allowing Americans to fill out the entire application, upload a photo and make a payment on the site after logging into the government’s identity proofing website, called Login.gov. America.gov isn’t currently integrated with Login.gov.

“No drugstore hostage photo,” he quipped. Rubio also revealed the design for a 2028 passport, with a larger eagle and “more gold.”

The new passports, he said, would arrive in a special white box that resembles iPhone packaging.

Update: This story has been updated with Joe Gebbia's comments to CNBC.]]> https://www.washingtonsun.com/policy/ranchers-ice-raids-livestock-industry Tyler Spence “These types of disruptions will lead to higher beef prices for consumers,” groups from three states say. Fri, 25 Sep 2026 18:32:34 GMT https://www.washingtonsun.com/policy/ranchers-ice-raids-livestock-industry Livestock producers from Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas are criticizing Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids that are shutting down or slowing critical meat-processing facilities.

The Kansas Livestock Association, Texas Cattle Feeders Association and the Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association released a statement Friday that the raids are disrupting their workforce and will result in higher prices for consumers.

The raids are primarily centered in the Kansas cities of Garden City, Dodge City and Liberal, but have caused concern across the livestock industry. Ranchers frequently travel hundreds of miles to move cattle to a processing facility.

Scarlett Madinger, vice president of communications of the Kansas Livestock Association, said that ICE’s actions have caused employees to stay home. That has created a backlog of cattle that need to be culled and processed, she said, forcing ranchers to spend extra money transporting the cattle back to their feed yards.

Along with the meat-processing facilities, local businesses across southwest Kansas closed temporarily. Madinger said ICE’s operations have “gotten out of hand” and created mass disruption and fear throughout southwest Kansas.

“These ICE operations are having a massive chilling effect on the legal, documented, skilled workers that put beef on the table and keep the cattle supply chain moving,” the three livestock associations said in the press release. “Additionally, these types of disruptions will lead to higher beef prices for consumers.“

The livestock groups made those comments as several Republican candidates in competitive races are criticizing the Trump administration’s immigration agenda.

The immigration operation has hit an industry already stretched thin. The nation's cattle herd has been shrinking for years, and the number of beef cows is at its lowest point in decades. Ranchers are producing fewer calves each year, and industry analysts expect supplies to stay tight into 2027.

Ground beef hit a record of roughly $7 a pound this summer, with beef prices rising more than twice as fast as overall inflation. The Trump administration has tried to ease the squeeze by opening the door to more beef imports, a move that upset ranchers.

ICE’s actions have upset local leaders and drawn criticism from Kansas’ Republican senators.

“Law enforcement officers were not given advance notice or the level of cooperation we would expect from ICE’s enforcement and removal operations. As a result, there have been mass disruptions to local communities and businesses,” Sen. Roger Marshall said in a statement.

Sen. Jerry Moran said he spoke with the Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and that DHS was only targeting those with criminal warrants. However, representatives from the livestock associations say mass raids have occurred.
]]> https://www.washingtonsun.com/metro/maryland-sphere-national-harbor-labor-union-prince-georges-county Justice Covert A public hearing on the project drew a large group of union members advocating for a labor agreement for workers. Thu, 24 Sep 2026 18:15:20 GMT https://www.washingtonsun.com/metro/maryland-sphere-national-harbor-labor-union-prince-georges-county The Sphere in Las Vegas may have a Maryland relative by 2030 if the Prince George’s County Council approves a $1.4 billion proposal to build the entertainment venue, but local workers want to secure a labor agreement first.

During a public meeting in Largo on Tuesday, council members fielded residents’ concerns over Sphere Entertainment’s plans to construct the 6,000-seat venue, which would have about a third of the capacity of the Las Vegas space, on a 15-acre lot just north of MGM National Harbor.

At the start of the meeting, Paul Macchia, senior vice president of government affairs and social impact for Sphere Entertainment, said the Sphere would generate an estimated $1.3 billion in economic activity to the county and $1.5 billion across the state, based on projections from the Las Vegas Sphere’s performance.

“We think National Harbor is the perfect location for a world-class venue like Sphere,” Macchia said. “In every community where we operate, we strive to be good neighbors.”

The packed crowd was mostly composed of union members who called for a project labor agreement and want a say in employment terms to ensure a fair deal for workers.

Sphere Entertainment’s presentation expressed a “commitment to organized labor” and stated the project would generate more than 12,000 new jobs for construction and supporting businesses and services, with 3,300 of those construction jobs in Prince George’s County.

The presentation also stated that more than 97% of the tradespeople employed during construction of the Las Vegas Sphere were union workers, and 45% of its current staff are union-represented.

“All the companies in the Madison Square Garden family of companies, including Sphere Entertainment, are exceptionally union-friendly,” Macchia said. “We have excellent relations with labor unions in Vegas, New York and Chicago, and we fully expect those relations to continue here in Prince George’s County.”

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Lamar Mutts of the Eastern Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters, who asked his fellow union members to stand before his public comment, said he wasn’t sure local workers have a “seat at the table” regarding a labor agreement.

“Sphere has talked about its strong relationship with unions on its Vegas and New York projects, but when asked about a project labor agreement here in Prince George’s County, we’re told ‘There’s nothing to talk about at this time,’” Mutts said. “That concerns me.”

Prince George’s County Council Chair Krystal Oriadha told WTOP that any public financing must guarantee protected jobs and minority business hiring and that the county is exploring whether the project could help fund a rail connection.

Oriadha and other council members have pressed the Sphere to adopt a project labor agreement, according to The Baltimore Banner. In a meeting of the council's planning, housing and development committee the day before the listening session, Oriadha told a Sphere executive, "There will [be] inclusion of labor. Period," the Banner reported.

The proposal still faces committee reviews and a public hearing ahead of an October vote, she said.

If approved, site work for the project would begin in early 2027, according to Sphere Entertainment’s presentation.]]>