U.S. Sens. Tammy Duckworth and Dick Durbin were among 17 lawmakers who signed a letter urging the Trump administration to reinstate Environmental Protection Agency employees placed on leave after they signed a statement criticizing the administration for “recklessly undermining the EPA mission.”

While the jobs numbers are often the subject of political spin, economists and Wall Street investors — with millions of dollars at stake — have always accepted U.S. government economic data as free from political manipulation.

Gender-affirming care includes a range of medical and mental health services to support a person’s gender identity. It includes counseling and treatment with medications that block puberty, and hormone therapy to produce physical changes, as well as surgery, which is rare for minors.

“We need our government officials,” said JaShawn Hill, executive director of Chicago Survivors. “We need philanthropic communities and people who believe in our mission to step in and to help leverage us, because if they don’t, we will not be able to provide the quality of care that we have been able to do.”

Construction will begin in September on a $200 million, 90,000-square-foot ballroom, his press secretary announced Thursday, fulfilling a 15-year ambition by the president to construct an event space on the White House grounds.

Davis, 83, will leave Congress as one of the most senior members of the House of Representatives and the ranking member of the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Worker and Family Support.

One of the country’s oldest civil rights organizations is urging people across the U.S. to resist the Trump administration. The National Urban League’s new report accuses the federal government of harming Black and underserved communities with federal spending cuts and diversity rollbacks.

Former Vice President Kamala Harris will not run for California governor next year, leaving open the possibility that she could mount a third run for the White House in 2028.

A letter led by Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts to six of Trump’s cabinet secretaries asks administration officials to explain why they are cutting programs to help Americans pay for high energy costs, while passing a tax cut bill that eliminated incentives for cheaper forms of energy like wind and solar.

Senate Democrats are using an arcane procedural tool to try to force the Department of Justice to release additional files from the Jeffrey Epstein case — the latest gambit to keep the issue front-and-center as lawmakers prepare for their month-long August recess.

Ald. Walter Burnett’s resignation from the City Council will be official on Thursday, according to a letter he sent to Mayor Brandon Johnson on July 17.

“It’s on the table,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said Tuesday at a City Hall news conference. “Everything has to be on the table. Everything has to be on the table.”

Gov. JB Pritzker on Monday signed the two bills into law, which he said will continue Illinois’ efforts to be among the most aggressive states in combating gun violence.

The finger-pointing with more than two months to go in the fiscal year indicates the threat of a stoppage is more serious than usual as a Republican-controlled Congress seeks to make good on its policy priorities, often with no support from the other political party.

The “worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out in the Gaza Strip,” the leading international authority on food crises said in a new alert Tuesday, predicting “widespread death” without immediate action.

Environmental advocates, elected leaders and workers at the Environmental Protection Agency gathered at Federal Plaza downtown Monday to push back against the president’s reported plans to repeal a key federal determination that allows the EPA to help combat climate change.