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.

Associate Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas sits with his wife and conservative activist Virginia Thomas while he waits to speak at the Heritage Foundation on October 21, 2021, in Washington, DC. The U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary and its subcommittees held hearings this year after revelations about Thomas’ luxury travel and real estate transactions with a GOP donor. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Tougher ethics rules for U.S. Supreme Court justices advocated in Senate hearing

By: - June 15, 2023

WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats for the third time this year made their case that U.S. Supreme Court justices must follow stronger ethics rules, including recusing themselves from cases where they have a financial stake or other connection to a case. The series of hearings by the Senate Committee on the Judiciary and its subcommittees came […]

Members of the Proud Boys, a white nationalist hate group, at an anti-transgender rally in Nashville in Sept. 2022. (Photo: John Partipilo)

Hate groups’ political influence growing, watchdog says

By: - June 8, 2023

WASHINGTON — More than 1,200 hate and anti-government extremist groups were active across the United States in 2022, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center’s latest report on the nationwide prevalence of extremists who target people of color, LGBTQ people, Jewish communities and other religious minorities. While the overall number of hate and anti-government groups […]

HIROSHIMA, JAPAN - MAY 21: US President Joe Biden speaks during a news conference following the Group of Seven (G-7) leaders summit on May 21, 2023 in Hiroshima, Japan. (Kiyoshi Ota-Pool/Getty Images)

Progressives try to persuade Biden to use the 14th Amendment to resolve debt crisis 

By: - May 23, 2023

WASHINGTON — Progressives are pushing hard for President Joe Biden to take the unprecedented step of invoking the 14th Amendment as a way to avoid financial calamity if the White House and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy do not strike a deal on the debt ceiling in the coming days. The lawmakers and legal scholars argue […]

U.S. House Financial Services Committee Chair Patrick McHenry, a North Carolina Republican, left, and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy speak to reporters outside the White House following a meeting on the debt limit with President Joe Biden. May 22, 2023. Ashley Murray/States Newsroom.

Biden and McCarthy strike positive tone after debt limit talks, but no deal yet

By: and - May 22, 2023

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy left their closely watched meeting Monday without an agreement on government spending or the debt limit, prolonging a stalemate that could soon disrupt Americans’ everyday lives as well as the global economy. Both struck a positive tone Monday, though neither divulged details about what remains unresolved […]

(Photo: Marissa Demarco, Source NM)

A default on the U.S. debt would be far worse than a government shutdown. Here’s how.

By: , , and - May 22, 2023

WASHINGTON — A U.S. default on its debt would have a significantly broader impact on federal operations, financial markets and the global economy than recent government shutdowns that have left ordinary Americans largely untouched. While the two have been confused frequently during debate over the debt limit, the federal government has had considerable practice with […]

President Joe Biden. Credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images

Biden vows debt ceiling talks will continue while he’s overseas at G7 summit

By: - May 17, 2023

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden will remain in “constant contact” with debt ceiling negotiators and promised to update the nation Sunday upon his return from a shortened trip to Asia for the G7 economic summit. Biden delivered brief remarks Wednesday before departing on a scheduled trip to Japan that will no longer include stops in […]

U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy spoke outside the White House after talks on the debt limit with President Joe Biden and other congressional leaders. May 16, 2023. Ashley Murray/States Newsroom

Some movement reported in debt limit talks as Biden cuts short overseas trip

By: and - May 17, 2023

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden and congressional leaders struggled to find common ground on the debt ceiling during a Tuesday meeting, though lawmakers said afterward there was some progress toward a deal. Biden and U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy will become the two primary negotiators on a bipartisan debt limit bill that could include other […]

(Photo: Getty Images)

U.S. House GOP wants spending cuts — and also $10B in home-state earmarks

By: and - May 10, 2023

WASHINGTON — U.S. House Republicans have requested more than $10 billion in earmarks to be included in next year’s appropriations bills, despite demanding massive spending cuts as a contingent for raising the nation’s debt ceiling. All but a handful of House Republicans barely pushed through a bill that would temporarily raise the U.S. borrowing limit, […]

U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, left, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell outside the White House following a meeting on the debt limit with President Joe Biden and Democratic congressional leaders on May 9, 2023. Ashley Murray/States Newsroom

Biden and congressional leaders fail to reach a debt limit deal, but will meet again Friday

By: and - May 9, 2023

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden and top congressional leaders were unable to reach a bipartisan debt limit agreement during a closed-door meeting Tuesday, leaving the dispute unresolved as the country moves closer to a default predicted as soon as early June.  White House staff and aides to the four congressional leaders, however, will meet throughout […]

Members of the Supreme Court in the Justices’ Conference Room prior to an investiture ceremony. From left : Associate Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Neil M. Gorsuch, Sonia Sotomayor, and Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., and Associate Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson, Samuel A. Alito, Jr., Elena Kagan, and Brett M. Kavanaugh. (Collection of the U.S. Supreme Court)

After revelations of luxury trips, Democrats argue U.S. Supreme Court needs ethics code

By: - May 4, 2023

WASHINGTON — U.S. Supreme Court justices should follow a strict code of ethics when receiving gifts and travel or doing business with political funders and attorneys, argued Democratic senators Tuesday at a hearing that Chief Justice John Roberts declined to attend. After a spate of investigative articles detailing Justice Clarence Thomas’ luxury travel and real […]

U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen (Photo: John Partipilo)

U.S. could default as early as June 1, Yellen warns Congress

By: - May 2, 2023

WASHINGTON — U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned Monday that the U.S. could default in as soon as one month if Congress does not act to raise the nation’s borrowing limit — a prediction that prompted President Joe Biden to call a meeting with congressional leaders next week. In a letter to lawmakers, Yellen wrote […]

Revived push for Equal Rights Amendment blocked by U.S. Senate Republicans

By: - April 28, 2023

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate failed to advance a symbolic measure to enshrine in the Constitution equal protection on the basis of sex, a century after the idea began circulating among lawmakers. Senators on Thursday voted 51-47 to go forward with a bill that would lift Congress’ self-imposed 1982 deadline for three-fourths of states to […]