congress
Every record this desk has filed under congress, newest first, each with the number of sources it can still show you.
GAO finds 86% of high-risk U.S. properties have no NFIP flood insurance, and says each fix it identifies would need an act of Congress
GAO's October 1 report to Congress finds 86 percent of U.S. properties it classifies as high flood risk carried no National Flood Insurance Program coverage as of April 2026, and estimates about 13 million such properties sit outside the FEMA zones that trigger the mandatory-purchase rule. Price, that narrow rule, and misreadings of what is covered all hold purchases down, GAO reports. It asks Congress, not FEMA, to consider widening the rule, publishing flood-risk data, requiring lender quotes, and raising coverage limits; one of five agencies that received the draft partly disagreed.
Also filed underflood-insurancenfipfemadisaster-recovery
A federal judge called the Justice Department's reason for not reviewing foreign-language Epstein records 'without merit' and set a September 24 deadline to start. The Department appealed a second time, the deadline is on hold, and no filing has yet given a count of those documents.
On September 16, Judge Emmet G. Sullivan ruled in Phang v. Blanche that the Justice Department's reason for not reviewing foreign-language records under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, that first-level review was 'not practicable', is without merit, and ordered the review started, with notice, by September 24. He also rejected the Department's reason for withholding handwritten FBI interview notes and ordered them submitted for private review. The Department appealed a second time (D.C. Circuit No. 26-5334, consolidated with No. 26-5299). On September 21 the judge denied its request for a partial stay but put the foreign-language deadline on hold while the appeals court decides the Department's stay request; the Department's reply there is due Tuesday, September 29 at 4:00 p.m. The Department's January 30 letter counted more than 6 million pages identified as potentially responsive and nearly 3.5 million released, but gave no count of foreign-language pages. Asked on August 13 how many documents were involved, the Department's lawyer said he was not sure he had the number. The same week, the House found Leon Black in contempt of Congress.
Also filed underepsteineftacourtsdojdc-circuittransparency
The Supreme Court says Missouri will elect its eight U.S. House members on November 3 inside the 2022 district lines, not the 2025 map used in the August primary, and tells the lower federal courts not to order otherwise; it is a stay, not a ruling on the merits.
In an unsigned five-page opinion in No. 26A388, People Not Politicians v. Onder, issued September 25, 2026, the Supreme Court stayed a federal district court's September 21 and September 22 injunctions, which in effect required Missouri to use its 2025 congressional map in the November 3 general election, along with the Eighth Circuit's September 21 mandate and September 22 order. On September 3 the Missouri Supreme Court had ruled that the 2025 map 'is not the law and has never been the law' and will not take effect unless voters approve it by referendum, leaving the 2022 map in force. Citing the Purcell principle, the Court said ballots using the 2022 map 'have been printed and mailed' and that absentee, military and overseas voting has begun. It also rejected the Eighth Circuit's view that the state court caused the late change, saying the Missouri Secretary of State 'was well aware' before the August primary that using the 2025 map 'carried significant risks'. The order notes no dissent and does not decide the constitutional question. Missouri's last day to register for the November election is October 7.
Also filed undersupreme-courtmissouriredistrictingelectionsreferendum
There is no October 1 shutdown this year: Public Law 119-103, signed September 2, funds the government at fiscal 2026 rates through December 11, 2026, and puts flood insurance, surface transportation programs and 23 veterans' provisions on the same deadline.
Fiscal 2027 begins October 1 without a funding lapse. H.R. 6500, the Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2027, passed the Senate 90-6 on August 8 and the House 370-48 on September 1, and became Public Law 119-103 on September 2. It continues all twelve fiscal 2026 appropriations acts at their fiscal 2026 rates until December 11, 2026, or until full-year bills are enacted, whichever comes first. The same date now governs the National Flood Insurance Program's authority to write new policies and its higher Treasury borrowing limit, the surface transportation programs (the Highway Trust Fund's spending authority covers expenditures before December 12), 23 of the law's 24 veterans' provisions, and other authorities including the Defense Production Act. Section 157 bars a rule arising from the Office of Management and Budget's May 29 proposal to revise the Uniform Guidance for federal grants from being issued or finalized through December 11. As of this desk's read on September 27, no full-year fiscal 2027 appropriations bill had become law. December 11 is the date to watch.
Also filed underappropriationsgovernment-shutdownflood-insuranceveteransfederal-grantstransportation
Three years after the Coast Guard promised to fix how it handles sexual misconduct, 13 of its 49 reform actions are unfinished, it still cannot measure whether the rest work, and its reports to Congress keep arriving late.
A two-page GAO report published September 18, required by the 2026 defense authorization act, says the Coast Guard reported completing 36 of the 49 actions in its plan to address sexual misconduct as of August 2026. GAO found no updated timelines or next steps for the other 13, no performance plan to tell whether the reforms are working, and annual reports to Congress for 2023, 2024 and 2025 that were late and still missing required information. The plan dates from November 2023, after it emerged that an internal investigation, Operation Fouled Anchor, had found the Coast Guard Academy mishandled more than 100 sexual assault allegations over 16 years and Congress had not been told. The report makes no new recommendations; it tracks ones GAO has already made. It does not include current incident counts.
Also filed undergaocoast-guardsexual-misconductmilitaryoversight
Thirty federal programs can fund Native American housing. GAO told the Senate that the money has not kept pace with construction costs, and that Tribes mostly use it to hold existing housing together rather than build.
GAO testified before the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs on September 17, from ongoing work. Its preliminary observations: 30 federal programs can provide housing support targeted to Native American communities — American Indian, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian — the largest being the Indian Housing Block Grant. Tribes and tribal organizations GAO contacted said they use those programs primarily to maintain existing housing and, to a lesser extent, to construct new, and named limitations including funding that 'had not kept pace with rising construction costs' and certain program restrictions. GAO is also examining homelessness that does not look like homelessness in the federal data — including 'doubling up', temporarily staying with others.
Also filed undergaohousingnative-americanhudtestimony
A record appears here because it carries congress in its own tags. If a record you expected is missing, it was filed under a different subject — the full list is on the topics index.