Author

Jennifer Shutt

Jennifer Shutt

Jennifer covers the nation’s capital as a senior reporter for States Newsroom. Her coverage areas include congressional policy, politics and legal challenges with a focus on health care, unemployment, housing and aid to families.

Social Security trustees predict benefit cuts in 2033 without congressional action

By: - April 3, 2023

WASHINGTON — Social Security will no longer be able to pay full benefits in 2033, a year earlier than previously expected, according to a report released Friday.  The updated projections, in the annual trustee report, mean that without action to stabilize the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund, Social Security would have enough money to […]

U.S. judge rules insurers don’t have to cover many free preventive health services

By: , and - March 30, 2023

WASHINGTON — Health insurance companies may no longer need to cover a wide swath of preventive health care services that were required by the 2010 Affordable Care Act, under a federal judge’s ruling issued Thursday in Texas. The decision could affect millions of Americans’ access to no-cost preventive health care — including pregnancy-related care, cancer […]

baby formula shortage

Infant formula crisis could recur, former FDA official tells Congress

By: - March 28, 2023

WASHINGTON — U.S. lawmakers on Tuesday debated if enough has changed to prevent a repeat of the infant formula shortage, more than a year after a nationwide crisis began.  The U.S. House Oversight and Accountability Committee’s Subcommittee on Health Care and Financial Services heard from two experts that while the U.S. Food and Drug Administration […]

Moderna plan to hike COVID vaccine price to $130 a dose rebuked at U.S. Senate hearing

By: - March 22, 2023

WASHINGTON — The CEO of Moderna on Wednesday defended the company’s decision to drastically increase the price of its COVID-19 vaccine later this year, arguing that an expected drop in demand, changes to its distribution process and the overall benefit of the vaccine warrant the higher cost.  That decision was met with bipartisan condemnation from […]

Biden administration details potential cuts in education, food aid and more under GOP plan

By: - March 20, 2023

WASHINGTON — Federal departments and agencies say U.S. House Republicans’ plans to cut federal spending would result in reductions to key programs like food aid, education assistance and wildfire management.  The series of letters from across the federal government released Monday detail exactly how plans to cut at least $130 billion in domestic spending during […]

Congress unanimously votes to require declassified information on COVID-19 origins

By: - March 10, 2023

WASHINGTON — The divided 118th Congress approved its first bill Friday, after lawmakers in both the House and Senate voted unanimously to send President Joe Biden legislation that would require declassification of intelligence on the origins of COVID-19. The four-page bill, which the House voted 419-0 to clear, would require the Director of National Intelligence […]

How the judge who could ban the abortion pill won confirmation in the U.S. Senate

By: - February 28, 2023

WASHINGTON — The U.S. District Court judge who could end more than two decades of legal access to medication abortion underwent extensive questioning about LGBTQ equality at his December 2017 confirmation hearing — and very little about his views on abortion. Matthew Joseph Kacsmaryk, appointed by former President Donald Trump earlier in 2017, spent much […]

Bipartisan group predicts U.S. debt default as soon as summer, depending on tax receipts

By: - February 22, 2023

WASHINGTON — A bipartisan think tank expects that the United States will default on its debt in the summer or early fall, if Congress doesn’t take action to address the debt limit before then.  The timeline is similar to one the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office released last week, saying lawmakers have until sometime between July […]

U.S. likely to default on debt between July and September unless Congress acts, CBO says

By: - February 15, 2023

WASHINGTON — Congress has until at least July to broker a bipartisan debt agreement if lawmakers want to avoid a first-ever default, according to the Congressional Budget Office.  The nonpartisan scorekeeper, which typically details how much legislation would cost, released a report Wednesday saying that U.S. lawmakers and the Biden administration have until sometime between […]

Attorneys general from 23 GOP-led states back suit seeking to block abortion pill

By: - February 13, 2023

WASHINGTON — Attorneys general representing nearly two dozen Republican states are backing a lawsuit that would remove the abortion pill from throughout the United States after more than two decades, eliminating the option even in states where abortion access remains legal.   The state of Missouri filed its own brief in the case Friday while Mississippi […]

U.S. House speaker calls for ‘responsible’ debt limit legislation, shares few details

By: - February 7, 2023

WASHINGTON — U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Monday said the greatest threat to the nation’s future is the rising national debt, though he gave few specifics for how he planned to lower deficit spending or avoid a first-ever default on the debt this year.  The California Republican, in a 10-minute address from the U.S. […]

U.S. House agrees on something: Lawmakers condemn ‘the horrors of socialism’

By: - February 6, 2023

WASHINGTON — The U.S. House held a strongly bipartisan vote Thursday, condemning socialism and former socialist leaders, though Democrats rebuked majority Republicans for spending time on a “political stunt” and refusing to allow debate on an amendment that would have clarified Social Security and Medicare are not socialist programs.  Maryland Democratic Rep. Steny Hoyer said […]