Only 32 members of the House voted against the housing affordability bill.
The Senate passed it 85 to 5. In a Congress that can’t agree on lunch, a margin like that shows real pain back home. Washington moved fast, before the midterms, with something to finally point to. Then Trump pulled the plug without a word to his party’s congressional leaders, who found out from a Truth Social post saying he wouldn’t sign until the Senate passes his voter ID bill. They threw a signing party at the Capitol and the guest of honor firebombed it from his phone.
Meanwhile in Des Moines, the city council rezoned land to make room for fifty small homes for people who have nowhere to live. Neither one changes anyone’s living arrangements soon, but both were a start. Good government still exists. Congress tried. Des Moines did.
I’ve emailed 7,955 stories over 510 straight nights, free and without ads. The algorithm can’t show them all to you. Add your email address at govbrief.today and I will.
#GovBriefToday #Resist
🔴148|🔴133|🟡91|🟢55|🟢84
The Supreme Court rules 6-3 that a Rastafarian inmate cannot sue the Louisiana officials who shaved his head despite the religious-rights court order he showed them.
Today’s GovBrief News
France calls for an orderly U.S. military drawdown from Europe, telling Washington to coordinate its troop and weapons pullbacks rather than blindsiding allies as it has repeatedly this year.
Source: Politico
June 24, 2026
Israeli forces kill two Hezbollah fighters and lose a soldier in south Lebanon as the fragile Iran ceasefire frays and Tehran threatens ships crossing Hormuz without its approval.
Source: CBS News
June 24, 2026
The Air Force restores a flu shot rule for recruits after a Texas base outbreak sickened 222, two months after Hegseth ended the vaccine mandate.
Source: The Independent
June 24, 2026
Chemours will pay $450 million to settle a decade of illegal "forever chemical" discharges into three rivers, the first federal PFAS-manufacturer deal, which an affected state calls inadequate.
Source: The Associated Press
June 24, 2026
A divided Sixth Circuit rules the Justice Department cannot force Michigan to hand over unredacted voter files, the latest court to reject the administration's nationwide voter-data demand.
Source: Courthouse News Service
June 24, 2026
A federal judge permanently blocks key parts of Trump's election order, including a proof-of-citizenship requirement to vote, ruling the president has no constitutional power over elections.
Source: UPI
June 24, 2026
The Postmaster General tells the Senate that under a proposed rule, USPS would refuse to deliver mail ballots in states that won't hand the federal government their absentee-voter lists.
Source: PBS
June 24, 2026
An internal Interior Department memo bars National Park Service staff from confirming visitor deaths or injuries, reversing a longtime disclosure policy that rangers say keeps the public safe.
Source: The Washington Post [gift link]
June 24, 2026
Acting intelligence chief Bill Pulte removes about 50 staff from the national intelligence office in his first days, gutting the directorate that coordinates all 18 U.S. spy agencies.
Source: NextGov
June 24, 2026
A federal judge blocks a Justice Department subpoena seeking transgender youth's names and medical records, finding it a likely effort to identify and target them.
Source: AM New York
June 24, 2026
A federal judge throws out the Trump administration's lawsuit against four New Jersey sanctuary cities, ruling it had no standing because state law already bars the cooperation it sought to end.
Source: The New Jersey Monitor
June 24, 2026
Trump cancels the signing of a bipartisan housing bill that cleared both chambers with veto-proof margins, holding it hostage until the Senate passes his stalled voter-restriction act.
Source: The Hill
June 24, 2026
A federal judge orders the Trump administration to explain a tarp covering the Kennedy Center façade where Trump's name was stripped, which a board member calls petty defiance.
Source: USA Today
June 24, 2026
Trump headlines his own Great American State Fair on the National Mall after musical acts quit over the event's partisan tone, declaring a once "dead" America now the world's hottest country.
Source: NBC News
June 24, 2026
Des Moines approves a 20-year lease and zoning permit for a tiny-home village offering 50 chronically homeless residents permanent housing at $300 a month with on-site healthcare.
Source: Good Good Good
June 24, 2026
North Carolina's attorney general reaches a $7 million settlement barring a major landlord from algorithmic rent-setting, the third such deal in a case prosecutors say inflated rents statewide.
Source: GovTech
June 24, 2026