Reforming the Border Patrol pay system could save taxpayers $1 billion over the next decade, while giving peace of mind to agents whose pay has been threatened by sequestration, said supporters of a bill introduced Wednesday.

Early voting in the 2014 primary begins in nine months, and candidates are already firing up their campaigns.

Congress is letting maintenance backlogs grow in national parks like the Grand Canyon while continuing to add new sites that the National Park Service cannot afford to maintain, a report Tuesday charged.

WASHINGTON (AP) ai??i?? Prospects for comprehensive immigration legislation this year grew murkier on the eve of an all-out push by a coalition of business, religious and law enforcement to convince the House to overhaul the decades-old system.

Arizona has been refunded the money it sent to reopen the Grand Canyon during the partial government shutdown but that wasn't used.

Tucked inside the bill that reopened the federal government late Wednesday night was language guaranteeing that border-security measures, specifically radar surveillance blimps, would continue to be funded into 2014.

Tusayan Mayor Greg Bryan told House lawmakers Wednesday that closing Grand Canyon National Park has devastated his town’s economy, and he criticized federal government officials for not acting sooner to reopen it.

Arizona will have to send more cash to the federal government by late Wednesday if Congress still hasn't passed a budget and the state wants the Grand Canyon National Park to remain open this coming weekend.

The House voted Thursday to fund Department of Homeland Security operations for fiscal 2014, the latest in a string of votes to reopen specific agencies in a strategy that Democrats deride as “cherry-picking” areas of the government.

Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew warned Thursday of a “potentially catastrophic” hit to the economy if the nation reaches the debt limit next week and defaults on its obligations.