How Government Works

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All Articles on How Government Works

The Postal Service: Agency, Business, or Something Else?

USPS is its own type of federal body, not a cabinet department or private company. See how that shapes prices,…

Receiving Mail With No Permanent Address

No permanent address? Learn how USPS General Delivery, PO Boxes, and shelter programs help you receive mail and stay connected…

A Medicaid Funding Freeze Hits Patients First—Here’s the Legal Protections That Apply

On February 26, Vice President JD Vance and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz announced that the…

DHS Is Partially Shut Down. Here’s Which Services Are Still Running and Which Aren’t.

Ten days in, and the DHS shutdown has stopped being theoretical. The gap between what officials predicted before February 14…

Congress Handed Presidents Tariff Power Decades Ago. The Court Just Took It Back.

Rick Woldenberg paid millions in legal fees to sue the federal government. He described his willingness to put his name…

Federal Workers in Shutdown Limbo: What Happens to Pay and Benefits

Approximately 260,000 Department of Homeland Security workers are either on the job without pay or sitting at home without pay.…

The Legal Architecture That Makes Federal Agencies ‘Independent’

Congress didn't declare federal agencies "independent" and hope for the best. Over more than a century, lawmakers wrote specific rules…

Trump Order Targets Independent Agencies: What the Fed, FEC, and CFPB Could Lose

On February 18, 2025, President Trump signed an order that requires agencies that Congress deliberately set up to operate independently—the…