2020 to today
2020 to today
Section 702 searches, license plate cameras, data center deals, private equity in housing, deaths in ICE custody, and the Epstein files.
Key facts
- The FBI made 278,000 improper searches of Americans' communications under Section 702.
- Cities and counties sign nondisclosure agreements before voting on data centers.
- 269 of the 469 entries on the site fall in this period.
Timeline
35 events in Congress, Elections & Speech, oldest first
- 2020February 13, 2020Congress, Elections & Speech
Senator sells up to $1.7 million in stock after a pandemic briefing
Investigation closed January 19, 2021. No charges.
- December 23, 2020Congress, Elections & Speech
Trump pardons Manafort, Stone, and Charles Kushner
Flynn a month earlier; Bannon a month later.
- 2021October 4, 2021Congress, Elections & Speech
Attorney general sends the FBI to meet about school board meetings
The association whose letter prompted it apologized eighteen days later.
- 2022July 1, 2022Congress, Elections & Speech
Trade Adjustment Assistance stops certifying workers
Not renewed since.
- 2023January 23, 2023Congress, Elections & Speech
FBI Richmond memo proposes sources inside Catholic parishes
Withdrawn in a day; found by the inspector general to have no evidence behind it.
- 2024June 5, 2024Congress, Elections & Speech
The Manhattan district attorney says YouTube changed its firearm rules in response to his office's advocacy
YouTube told reporters the changes were not the result of pressure from officials; the House Judiciary Committee chairman told YouTube's parent company that its records on the change fell under a committee subpoena.
- June 26, 2024Congress, Elections & Speech
Murthy v. Missouri dismissed on standing
The appeals court's finding of coercion left undecided.
- July 30, 2024Congress, Elections & Speech
Interior: 417 boarding schools, at least 973 children dead, 74 burial sites
$23.3 billion spent on the system.
- October 25, 2024Congress, Elections & Speech
First presidential apology for the boarding schools
A sin on our soul.
- December 1, 2024Congress, Elections & Speech
Biden pardons his son for eleven years of anything
After repeated pledges that he would not.
- 2025January 20, 2025Congress, Elections & Speech
Biden pardons Milley, Fauci, the January 6 committee, and five relatives in the morning
No one charged with anything.
- January 20, 2025Congress, Elections & Speech
Trump pardons or commutes about 1,500 January 6 convictions in the afternoon
Fourteen commuted by name; all others pardoned; pending cases dismissed.
- April 2, 2025Congress, Elections & Speech
Emergency declared over the trade deficit; tariffs on nearly every country
Struck down February 20, 2026; the emergency still listed.
- August 29, 2025Congress, Elections & Speech
Texas signs a mid-decade map for five more Republican seats
Requested by the president in July.
- September 17, 2025Congress, Elections & Speech
FCC chairman: the easy way or the hard way
A late night program off the air within hours.
- September 25, 2025Congress, Elections & Speech
NSPM-7 lists anti-capitalism and support for overthrow as indicators of violence
The terrorism task forces, the Treasury, and the IRS assigned to it.
- October 21, 2025Congress, Elections & Speech
Trump pardons the founder of Binance
Blagojevich in February, Milton in March, Santos in October.
- October 30, 2025Congress, Elections & Speech
Senate votes 51 to 47 to end the global tariff emergency
The House, under its own rule, does not vote.
- November 4, 2025Congress, Elections & Speech
California's Proposition 50 passes, 64.4 percent, for five Democratic seats
7,453,339 to 4,116,998.
- December 4, 2025Congress, Elections & Speech
Supreme Court lets the Texas map stand, 6 to 3
The district court had found a racial gerrymander.
- December 11, 2025Congress, Elections & Speech
Indiana Senate rejects a new map, 31 to 19
21 Republicans voted no.
- 2026January 16, 2026Congress, Elections & Speech
Student loan garnishment delayed
More than 5 million in default; the debt remains.
- March 11, 2026Congress, Elections & Speech
The president in Hebron, Kentucky: Massie has got to be voted out of office as soon as possible
Complete and total endorsement of the challenger.
- April 21, 2026Congress, Elections & Speech
Virginia voters approve a redistricting amendment, 51.69 to 48.31
Voided by the state supreme court May 8, 4 to 3.
- April 29, 2026Congress, Elections & Speech
Louisiana v. Callais narrows the Voting Rights Act, 6 to 3
Kagan: a nullity of Section 2.
- May 4, 2026Congress, Elections & Speech
Florida signs a map for up to four more Republican seats
Tennessee follows May 7; Louisiana May 29.
- May 19, 2026Congress, Elections & Speech
Thomas Massie loses his primary, 57,822 to 47,539
The most expensive House primary in the country's history.
- June 4, 2026Congress, Elections & Speech
At least 97 January 6 pardon recipients charged with other crimes
41 violent, by Lawfare's count.
- July 1, 2026Congress, Elections & Speech
Grad PLUS ends; a thirty year repayment plan begins
Loans capped at $100,000 and $200,000.
- July 22, 2026Congress, Elections & Speech
House passes a stock trading bill, 232 to 198, with no divestment and a voter ID rider
Not taken up by the Senate.
- July 2026Congress, Elections & Speech
Manufacturing employment 12,611,000
About 19.6 million in 1979.
- August 4, 2026Congress, Elections & Speech
Missouri refuses to certify the referendum on its map
More than 300,000 signatures; the count not disclosed.
- August 12, 2026Congress, Elections & Speech
Young workers in AI exposed jobs 19 percent below trend
Up from 15 percent a year earlier.
- August 26, 2026Congress, Elections & Speech
Emergency declared for the bulk power system
The thirteenth since January 2025; 52 in effect.
- September 3, 2026Congress, Elections & Speech
YouTube rewrites its sponsorship policy and lists weapons and ammunition among what branded content may not feature, for the whole video
YouTube says the rewrite brings no dramatic changes; a report from a program of the Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund, published 13 days later, says the change came while it was being written.
Stories (11)
- 1819 to 2024The Federal Indian Boarding School System (1819–1969): 417 Schools and 973 Documented Child DeathsFrom 1819 to 1969 the federal government ran or paid for 417 boarding schools whose purpose, in its own words, was the complete isolation of the Indian child from his savage antecedents. Children were taken from their families and sent to them, forbidden their languages, put to work, and, the government's own investigation found in 2024, physically, sexually, and emotionally abused. The investigation identified 18,624 children by name and at least 973 who died at the schools, and found 74 marked and unmarked burial sites at 65 of them. The government spent $23.3 billion in today's dollars on the system between 1871 and 1969. On October 25, 2024 a president apologized for it for the first time.Congress, Elections & Speech
- 1974 to 2026Fifty Years of Presidential Pardons for Family Members, Political Allies, and Campaign DonorsThe Constitution gives the president the power to pardon any federal offense, and for fifty years presidents of both parties have used it for the people closest to them. Ford pardoned Nixon for anything he might have done in office. Bush pardoned six Iran-Contra defendants twelve days before his former defense secretary was to go to trial. Clinton pardoned a fugitive whose former wife had given money to his party. Trump pardoned his campaign chairman, his national security adviser, his adviser Roger Stone, his former chief strategist Steve Bannon, and his son-in-law's father. Biden pardoned his son for anything he might have done over eleven years after repeatedly pledging that he would not, and then his brother and three other relatives on his last morning in office. Trump then pardoned or commuted the sentences of about 1,500 people convicted for January 6, 2021, and went on to pardon a governor, a congressman, and a cryptocurrency executive who had all been convicted of fraud or bribery.Congress, Elections & Speech
- 1976 to 202652 Active "National Emergencies": How Presidents Govern by Emergency Decree Under the 1976 ActIn 1976 Congress passed a law to end the practice of governing by emergency. It required the president to declare each emergency in writing, required each house of Congress to meet every six months to consider ending it, and let Congress end one by a vote. Since then presidents have declared 92 national emergencies. As of September 2, 2026, 52 of them are in effect. The oldest was declared against Iran on November 14, 1979. Congress has never ended one through the review it wrote into the law, and when both houses voted to end one in 2019, the president vetoed it. In 2025 and 2026 emergencies were declared for the border, for energy, for the tariffs on most of the world, for Brazil, Cuba, and Venezuela, and for the power grid. A declared emergency unlocks about 150 powers written into other laws.Congress, Elections & Speech
- 2019 to 2026Mid-Decade Gerrymandering (2025–2026): How Both Parties Redrew Congressional Maps to Eliminate Competitive SeatsCongressional districts are drawn after each census. In July 2025 the president asked Texas for five more Republican seats, and Texas drew them. California answered with five Democratic seats, approved by 64.4 percent of its voters. Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Florida, and Tennessee redrew for Republicans; Utah's courts redrew for Democrats; Virginia's voters approved a Democratic map by 3.4 points and its supreme court threw the vote out. On April 29, 2026 the Supreme Court narrowed the Voting Rights Act, 6 to 3, and Louisiana and Alabama redrew again. By one count the number of competitive districts in the country fell from 28 to 13. The Supreme Court had held in 2019 that federal courts may not hear a claim that a map was drawn for party advantage.Congress, Elections & Speech
- 2021 to 2025FBI Investigations of Parents and Parishes, Social Media Censorship, and Terrorism WatchlistsIn 2021 the attorney general directed the FBI to meet with local officials about parents at school board meetings. In 2023 an FBI field office proposed developing sources inside Catholic parishes, and the inspector general found the memo had no evidence behind it. In 2024 a federal appeals court found that the White House and the FBI had coerced social media companies over what users could post, and the Supreme Court dismissed the case without reaching the question. In 2025 the chairman of the FCC told broadcasters they could do this the easy way or the hard way, and a late night program was off the air within hours. On September 25, 2025 the president signed a memorandum that lists anti-capitalism, anti-Christianity, and support for the overthrow of the United States government as indicators of a violent ideology to be investigated by the terrorism task forces, the Treasury, and the IRS.Congress, Elections & Speech
- 2026Economist Steve Keen and Konstantin Kisin on Housing Costs, Debt, and Political InstabilitySteve Keen, who predicted the 2008 crash, and Konstantin Kisin, who grew up in the Soviet Union, disagree on nearly everything. On The Diary of a CEO in 2026 they agreed on this: young people shut out of the housing market have no way to build capital and no reason to support the system, and where economic trouble meets social instability, unrest follows.Congress, Elections & Speech
- March 2025 to May 2026How Rep. Thomas Massie Forced the Epstein Files Vote and Lost a $32 Million PrimaryThomas Massie, a Republican who has represented Kentucky's Fourth District since 2012, filed the petition that forced the House to vote on releasing the Epstein files, over the objection of his party's leadership and the president. The president had called for a primary challenge against him in March 2025 over his budget votes, endorsed a challenger in October before the challenger had entered the race, and flew to Kentucky in March 2026 to say Massie has got to be voted out of office as soon as possible. The primary became the most expensive House primary in American history, with over $32 million in advertising, more than $9 million of it from pro-Israel groups against Massie. On May 19, 2026 he lost, 57,822 votes to 47,539. He leaves office in January 2027.Congress, Elections & Speech
- 1978 to 2026Why $1.65 Trillion in Student Loans Cannot Be Discharged in BankruptcyAmericans owe $1.651 trillion in student loans, and 7.83 percent of it was at least 90 days late in June 2026. A student loan is the one consumer debt Congress has made nearly impossible to discharge in bankruptcy, in laws passed in 1978, 1998, and 2005. In 2025 the government resumed taking the wages, tax refunds, and Social Security checks of the more than 5 million borrowers in default, then paused the garnishment in January 2026 while it built a new system. On July 1, 2026 the graduate loan program that let students borrow the full cost of a degree ended, the old repayment plans closed to new borrowers, and a new plan began that runs for thirty years.Congress, Elections & Speech
- 2012 to 2026Congressional Stock Trading and How Lawmakers Quietly Gutted the 2012 STOCK ActMembers of Congress may own and trade the stocks of the companies they regulate. In 2012, after a television report on their trading, Congress passed the STOCK Act 96 to 3 and 417 to 2 to require disclosure within 45 days. A year later it repealed the searchable database by unanimous consent, with no debate. The penalty for a late filing is $200. In 2020 four senators sold stock after a private briefing on the coming pandemic; the Justice Department closed every investigation without a charge. In 2025 members bought stock in the days around the president's tariff announcements. On July 22, 2026 the House passed a bill, 232 to 198, that bans new purchases but lets members keep what they hold, and attached a voter ID requirement that has stalled it in the Senate. No member of Congress has ever been prosecuted under the act.Congress, Elections & Speech
- 2022 to 2026Entry-Level Jobs and Recent College Graduate Hiring Drop 19% in AI-Exposed FieldsStanford economists tracking payroll records from ADP report that employment of workers aged 22 to 25 in the jobs most exposed to artificial intelligence is now about 19 percent below where it would be if it had kept pace with their peers in less exposed work, a gap that was 15 percent a year earlier. Experienced workers show no comparable gap. The unemployment rate for recent college graduates was 5.6 percent in the second quarter of 2026 against 4.1 percent for everyone, and 42 percent of them were in jobs that did not require the degree. In July 2026 the country lost 23,000 jobs.Congress, Elections & Speech
- September 3 to October 1, 2026YouTube's September 2026 Ban on Firearm Sponsorships Following Gun Control LobbyingOn September 3, 2026 YouTube replaced its policy on paid product placements with a policy on branded content, which it defines as content a creator makes under a brand's influence in exchange for payment, free products, or a sponsorship. The new page lists weapons and ammunition among the things branded content may not feature, says the rule covers the whole video, and says YouTube may remove videos that break it. YouTube told creators the rewrite brought no dramatic changes. In 2024 its spokespeople described its rule on gun sponsorships differently to two news outlets. Thirteen days after the announcement The Smoking Gun, a program of the Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund, published a report on gun channels and their sponsors that said the change came while the report was being written. Gun Owners of America says the change likely came from pressure by gun control groups and officials, as it says the 2024 changes did. The record shows who asked YouTube for changes before, who claimed credit, and what YouTube said about it. It does not show why YouTube made this one.Congress, Elections & Speech