How interstate compacts let states govern together
A compact is a binding contract between states, approved by Congress, that creates shared agencies for problems no single state can solve — rivers, ports, prisons, and driver records.
Affairs
Affairs covers the machinery of government itself: agency reorganizations, appointments, intergovernmental funding formulas, jurisdictional disputes and the administrative decisions reshaping who delivers what. Reporting stays with documents and on-record statements. Written for civil servants, local officials, researchers and readers following how public institutions are structured.
Agency machinery and intergovernmental relations covered directly: reorganizations, funding formulas, appointments and jurisdictional disputes.
How federal hiring works through USAJobs
Every competitive-service federal job starts with an announcement on USAJobs, a questionnaire that decides your rank among applicants, and a certificate of eligible candidates the hiring manager must work from.
How executive orders work, and where their limits are
An executive order directs federal agencies on how to carry out the law — it cannot create new law, spend money Congress did not appropriate, or survive a court that finds it exceeds the president's authority.
What a government shutdown does, and does not, affect
When funding lapses, Social Security checks keep going out while national park gates close — the difference comes down to which spending is annual and which is permanent law.
How the Senate filibuster works, and when it applies
Sixty votes moves most legislation in the Senate, but not judicial nominees and not reconciliation bills — the filibuster's reach is narrower than the debates about it suggest.
How the federal budget process works, from request to appropriations
The president proposes, Congress disposes: a year-long pipeline of budget requests, allocations, and twelve spending bills that routinely misses its own October 1 deadline.