President Joe Biden urged lawmakers to allocate funding for the fight against COVID-19, warning that a failure to do so would put the country’s pandemic progress on the line as the federal dollars that provide treatments, PPE, free vaccines and tests are running out. Read more»

The $1.5 trillion omnibus spending bill passed by Congress last week includes $75 million in Help America Vote Act grants — a major reduction compared to years past, and experts say the amount is insufficient to fund local elections and leaves local election offices without resources. Read more»

The City of Tucson and Pima County will host two public hearings regarding how it intends to address housing and community development during the next fiscal year. Read more»

Vulnerable lawmakers from throughout the country are set to rake in federal cash for home-state projects after a major spending bill included the first round of earmarks in more than a decade. Read more»

Congressional leaders pulled more than $15 billion in emergency COVID-19 aid from a government funding bill after infuriated Democrats said their states would get shut out of promised cash from a 2021 pandemic relief package. Read more»

La Oficina de Aduanas y Protección Fronteriza de EE. UU. se está quedando atrás en tecnología actualizada y el personal necesario para asegurar la frontera suroeste de 1,954 millas con México, a pesar de recibir $ 743 millones para tales actualizaciones desde 2017. Read more»

Federal COVID-19 relief dollars for child care providers will continue to flow this year, but advocates warn that the money won’t solve the industry’s fundamental, long-term challenge: how to provide quality services and pay workers a competitive wage while keeping prices affordable. Read more»

Starting this week, communities that think they were undercounted can file challenges with the U.S. Census Bureau - but the so-called Count Question Resolution process only allows cities to challenge mapping mistakes that mistakenly placed people outside of city limits. Read more»

U.S. Customs and Border Protection is lagging in updated technology and staff needed to secure the 1,954-mile Southwest border with Mexico, according to a February inspector general’s audit by the Department of Homeland Security. Read more»

A new runway at Tucson International Airport will be partly paid for with $31 million from the recent federal infrastructure package, along with other safety improvement. Read more»

The $1.2 trillion infrastructure law should provide a huge boost to rural communities struggling to maintain crumbling infrastructure in the face of diminishing resources, but rural leaders worry that they lack the staff and matching dollars to compete with bigger cities for their share. Read more»

A quiet monthslong legal fight between the U.S. National Institutes of Health and drugmaker Moderna over COVID-19 vaccine patents recently burst into public view, pointing to serious problems in the ways U.S. companies bring drugs and vaccines to market. Read more»

A $1.2 billion infusion of federal funding has kept an already fragile Arizona child care sector from failing, giving state leaders a shot at reforming a broken system of their own making, and perhaps bringing hope for the stability that parents and providers have craved for years. Read more»

Affordable housing is crucial to everyone because it provides stability and builds a sense of community, but Arizona needs federal funds to create all types of affordable housing, from emergency shelters to permanent supportive housing for people experiencing homelessness. Read more»

States with small populations say a federal plan to take back unspent emergency rental aid and redistribute it elsewhere is unfair, potentially depriving them and their residents of millions of dollars to address broad affordable housing challenges. Read more»