congress

August 6, 2020 - After North Carolina businessman and major GOP donor Louis DeJoy was appointed postmaster general in May, he announced an "operational pivot" to control costs that's caused delivery delays. Critics worry that DeJoy — who grew wealthy on USPS contracts and remains invested in USPS competitors — is a political partisan who's operationalizing President Trump's hostility to mail-in voting.

April 10, 2020 - The Southeast Crescent Regional Commission was created in 2008 to provide economic development assistance to Black Belt states but has never received its full appropriation from Congress — even while its counterpart covering whiter, richer Northern states has. With Black Belt communities being ravaged by the pandemic, it's past time for action.

December 6, 2019 - With reform blocked in Washington, voting rights advocates are shifting their attention to the states and are proposing far-reaching, pro-democracy agendas across the South. While the plans face an uphill battle, advocates see their efforts as a chance to be proactive after years of playing legal and political defense.

September 13, 2019 - As the nation prepares for the 2020 election season, voting rights advocates testified before a House Judiciary subcommittee this week about the damaging effects of the Supreme Court's gutting of the Voting Rights Act and how to improve protections for voters of color. 

August 14, 2019 - In 2009, the Department of Homeland Security produced a report that tried to focus the nation's attention on the growing threat of right-wing domestic terrorism. Members of Congress, including several representing Southern states that have suffered domestic terror attacks, worked to bury it.

July 19, 2019 - This week the Democratic-controlled U.S. House passed the Raise the Wage Act to gradually increase the hourly minimum wage to $15. The proposal now awaits action in the Republican-controlled Senate, where the bill sits in a committee chaired by Tennessee's Lamar Alexander, who thinks there should be no minimum wage laws at all.

June 12, 2019 - New evidence from the files of a dead North Carolina gerrymandering expert reveals the Trump administration pushed for the addition of a citizenship question to the 2020 census to benefit the Republican Party. But the question could lead to an undercount, which would diminish the South's electoral power and cheat it of its fair share of federal funds.