In a nation divided between red and blue, states increasingly agree on green. Not the much discussed "green jobs" that draw cheers or jeers depending on the audience, but on the greenbacks that are flowing through states from one of the few things that appears to be working in our...

A quick read of the headlines might lead one to think that state governments are headed the way of Lehman Brothers. However, a closer look at the tough decisions being made in state capitals across the country shows that governors and state legislators are confronting a historic state budget crisis...

Since the 17th Amendment severed the direct relationship between state legislatures and the U.S. Senate nearly 100 years ago, the redistricting process has become the single most important lever for states to influence the composition of Congress. With the midterm elections over, and new majorities waiting in the wings in...

The House of Representatives rushed back to Washington this week to send $26 billion in budget relief to beleaguered state capitols by extending stimulus payments for Medicaid and state education programs. The funding arrives at a critical juncture, with the jobs of hundreds of thousands of teachers, police officers, and...

As President Obama welcomed activists from across the country to the White House to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), similar scenes played out in state capitols across the country with governors and state legislative leaders marking this important anniversary. However, for the 54 million...

When President Obama stepped before a packed House chamber on Wednesday night he faced the same quandary known all too well to the 34 governors who have delivered State of the State addresses since the first of the year: how to simultaneously grow jobs while shrinking deficits. However, while the...

As President Obama departs for Copenhagen, the public debate over climate change appears to hinge as much on green jobs as on greenhouse gases. Far away from the negotiations, and the partisan divisions surrounding them, American states have been hard at work implementing an unprecedented series of investments in energy...

With unemployment topping 10.2%, and 50,000 Americans exhausting their unemployment benefits each week, President Obama is expected to sign a bill today to temporarily extend unemployment insurance payments. However the amount which families will be able to put toward the rent or the grocery bill from their unemployment checks depends...

With $150 billion spent to date, the White House estimates that the Recovery Act has saved or created roughly one million jobs. This figure includes 650,000 direct jobs saved or created by state governments and contractors as well as an estimate prepared by the White House's Council of Economic Advisers...

If the 2009 sessions of most state legislatures are any indication, the Recovery Act played a pivotal role in helping states weather the economic storm. Although some states are still floundering in red ink, most have found a way to creatively combine new spending strategies, limited budget cuts, some tax...